Just thought this was a cool picture. A man praying in Longshan Temple one Friday evening. The temple was beautiful and had a great atmosphere with music and lots of incense.

Me, Amy, Tanya and Vickie getting ready to go out on the town. All of the roommates, so you know what they look like when I mention them!

Taipei Factoids...

Yesterday, as I was walking back to work from my lunch break, I noticed that many people were out burning things on the main street. This happens from time to time, but it seemed like everyone was burning stuff. They use wire to make a pit and just make a bonfire on the side of the street in front of their business. This seemed very strange to me. What about fire safety laws? Most of the sidewalks are full of people and they have rooftops over them and the passageways were full of smoke. Also, tables were out full of food and drinks, which I am guessing are offerings of some sort. I have seen that a lot in Asia on certain days. It's mostly a Buddhist thing that they give offerings to Buddha and other Gods. I also noticed that they were throwing little pieces of paper into the fires. I asked my teaching assistant what it was all about and she had no idea. Victoria (She now insists that she be called Victoria, instead of Vickie...It's a turning 30 thing!) came home and told us that they are burning things to keep away the ghosts and the food is for homeless ghosts so they have food and they will not come into the house looking for food. August is 'Ghost Month' in China and Taiwan. It is very superstitious and no one will buy a house or a car or else it will be haunted. So, the streets are full of smoke and we also saw our neighbors making a pit on the roof...We are hoping for no fires in our house because of it or we'll be scaling the windows to get down!

Did you know that when I flew to Taiwan, I was also going into the future. It is the year 2094 here. I thought it was weird that the expiration dates on things said 94-08-16. I thought it expired in 1994 and it was very old. HaHa! They do know that we use a different calendar, but it's still weird when I punch in at work and my time card says 94, instead of 05!

I am also now an illegal worker in this country. I always aspired to be an illegal worker! Yes, my working visa is in the works and I will be receiving it soon, which I am not allowed to work legally until I receive it...But, shhhh! No one needs to know that! I will still be illegal when I do receive my working visa. It's illegal in this country to teach English to kindergarten-aged children. Immigration does raids in schools from time to time. In my school we practice fire drills with the kids and then the teachers practice, 'teacher run and hide drill!' When we hear three short alarms, the foreign teachers have to drop everything, grab their stuff and run up the stairs to the 9th floor and hide in one of the rooms. Immigration will come through and hopefully not find us since we will be automatically deported if they do! I haven't experienced this yet, but I have a feeling it will be exciting! How do I get a working visa if I am working at a kindergarten school you ask? Well, my school and many other schools attach their name to an elementary school, which they call 'Bushibans' here. So, my working visa is for my after-school classes, which I teach 3 days a week for 1 1/2 hours. At least I get a break on taxes since they don't know that I work all day!

I can't think of anymore weird happenings here. Well, there is all kinds of weird stuff, but nothing I can explain. When I do see something weird, I will be sure to write about it.

The Never Ending Garbage Routine

This story is a typical thing that happens when you live in another country...Especially one that doesn't speak English as their first language.

So, four girls moved into an apartment and of course the garbage is piling up throughout the weeks. They know that they can't just put the garbage outside to be collected by the garbage men, like at home. They just don't know where to put it. They are a little lazy and put it off until garbage is falling down the stairs. One night, they all decide to go for a family garbage outing. They were told that they just bring it to the main road at the specified times and they will see lots of people with their garbage ready for the dump trucks to arrive. So, at 9:25pm, they walk the couple of blocks and they do see almost the entire neighborhood standing on the corner, garbage in hand ready for the trucks to arrive. They are the only white faces in the crowd of Asians with their hands full of garbage. Of course every eye is on them wondering about their garbage and they want to scream out,"Yes, we are normal and we do have garbage to throw out also!" Finally, the trucks arrive at 9:30pm and they still stand there wondering what the hell to do with the various bags of garbage and recyclables. There are about 3-4 trucks and everyone is running around with their bags tossing them into different trucks. In the crowd they see another white face. Thankfully he has done this before and helps us a bit. The wise man told them that they need to have special bags that are only bought from 7-11 and there are certain days for each kind of garbage. A Taiwanese man finally comes over and tells them that this is Taipei City and there are rules. You need a special bag!!! After begging the garbage men a bit, the poor girls slowly walk back to their apartment, garbage and all. The garbage is now rotting in their staircase.

The next day, after the electricity was cut for some reason. The neighbor comes and yells at them (in Chinese) for the garbage in the hallway. They assure him (in English) that it will be taken care of. They are still not sure if that conversation got through to any of them. Again, at 9:30pm they gather their garbage, now in the special bags that 7-11 provided. They walk down the street with loads of garbage and start getting very odd looks. It's Wednesday and 9:30pm, time for the garbage trucks to arrive. They look to the corner and no one is standing where the whole neighborhood stood the previous night. They have the right bags and they are ready to finally dispose of the garbage. Wrong...A Taiwanese man on a motorbike drove up the sidewalk and mumbled something about the number 3 and no. They are translating this to mean on the third day of the week, no garbage trucks will come. So, the poor girls again walk back to their apartment with all their garbage in their hands while being laughed at by all the people that were giving strange looks. The garbage again remains in the hallway to be nice and heated up by the daytime heat and the lingering smell increases. They had the right bags this time, but not the right day. When are they ever going to figure this out??? Tomorrow is a new day and also the 4th day of the week, so they are hoping that the garbage will finally be disposed of. This is hard work!

One little secret is that before they found out about the rules for garbage disposal, they left a bag and some boxes in front of a shop to be picked up last week. Little did they know that was not the correct spot for garbage. They wonder what ever became of their misplaced garbage....

Let's just hope their neighbor will forgive them for not getting rid of the garbage tonight. Oh, and the electricity went back on finally!

Amy posing in our dining room/room that we rarely eat in. The apartment is coming along and hopefully we'll have some things to decorate it with soon!

Tanya and Jeremy enjoying some relaxation time in the living room watching TV. We have spent lots of time on those couches!

Here is Vickie modeling our little kitchen. The stairs to the left lead to "The Penthouse" and "The Chill Out Room" as well as the balcony and roof-top. No cockroaches are pictured!

The view of Taipei from our balcony...That's our little street we walk down everyday! There is a really good fruit market at the end that we try to buy food from to be healthy!

I actually did make it to Taiwan for any of you that thought I would stay at home and not venture off to another destination for my need to travel. I made it here July 19th and have settled in...Sorta! It's hard going from a life of traveling for 8 months to having to get a "real" job and be an adult. Well, adult is stretching it, but still I wish I could just travel all the time and not have to take time off to work! I need to win the lottery! It was a rough and fast-moving couple of weeks getting sorted here. I met the girls, Vickie, Tanya and Amy and we all stayed in a tiny room in a hostel for over a week. It was very crammed and hot and we needed to get out, ASAP! We were all on the hunt for the perfect job and apartment. I thought I found a great job on my 4th interview. I substituted for the school for a week until they screwed me over and did not hire me full time. Not really sure on their reasons, but thankfully they did not hire me! In the week that I worked there, both Vickie and Tanya signed a contract with the school.

I found a job the next week at a great school. It's called Idear and I have a 5 year old kindergarten class from 8:30am-4:30pm, with a 2 hour break for lunch! I love my little class. I only have 6 kids at the moment and secretly I am hoping no more kids join the class. They are so nice and pretty easy to teach. They can be a bit naughty sometimes, but they're 5 so I am pretty easy on them. Their names are Betty, Cindy, Ting-ting, Nicholas (He calls himself Nico), Chester and Boye. No, I did not give the children their names, but they're pretty funny, hey? They are sweet and lots of fun. Today I got to show my singing abilities by singing, "If You're Happy and You Know It" while dancing away. My voice sounds lovely echoing through the hallways! I'm such a twat when I teach! I still can't believe I'm a kindergarten teacher...Who would have ever thought!? I had a puker and a pee-er yesterday in the matter of 15 minutes. Oh, how I love my job! I am also starting to teach an elementary class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for some extra pay. Only 1 1/2 hours more, so not bad.

We also found a great apartment in Central Taipei. It's very close to the subway and buses. We are in a cute little neighborhood with few foreigners so we get the curious glances while walking around. It's 2 floors with 4 bedrooms, a balcony and a roof-top. It's great and we love it. We do have a little cockroach problem, but they only come out at night and they don't bite! Ha! We are becoming homebodies now that we have a place to call home. We haven't really left the apartment except for work and occasional shopping. The luxury of sitting on the couch and watching TV is all too new for us. It is also nice to unpack and not think about repacking for another year. We have all been living out of suitcases for months now and it's great to have a closet and drawers. My room was picked out for me by my roommates. They said it's made for me. Maybe because it is a children's room! I have not one, but two beds. One of which is a bunk-bed and I can hide things/people in the cubby hole underneath. I can make forts, hence my room is called "Fort Cind." Vickie has the suite and is called, "The Retro Round Room" because she has a round bed! Amy's room was named "The Tiny Room" for a couple of reasons. One, because it's a bit small (but no smaller than mine) and two, because her nickname is Tynee! Tanya lives upstairs in "The Penthouse" with the rooftop off of her room. We love our apartment!

Taipei is a strange city and very familiar in the Asian sort of way. It's different than Seoul, but still a big city in Asia. Lots of motorbikes around and the chance of getting hit by one is lots greater...They are everywhere! We still haven't done much in the area of sightseeing. We are hoping to get out soon and see some stuff, but we've been so busy working or doing nothing! Once the novelty of our apartment wears off a bit, we will most likely get out and explore. We are talking about trips we want to take around the island. The island looks gorgeous from the books and can't wait to see it all! We went to the 101 building, the tallest (by a few inches!) in the world. We didn't actually go up because we were too busy shopping, but our visiting friends from Korea did and they said it was nice. Will have to go up there one day...I guess I have time!

P.S...A huge congratulations to the happy couple on their engagement. Natalie and Jay I wish you all the best and it's about time you popped the question Jay! And such a good story to tell the kids! I'm so happy for you!