Finally! an antique mall.

I had heard rumors of this place: first from my skeezy hairdresser who had amazing vintage pieces in his salon, and then from my Chinese teacher's mom. Finally my pal Molly took me to check it out: Treasure Hunt, apparently Taipei's biggest antique mall. I was in heaven. Here's some of the fun stuff I found:

Yes, this is a real horse head. ick.

The ultimate find. Only $2,000!

1 year on.

So Devin and I got here a year ago today.
Sure I've had some ups and some downs, but now I'm quite content. Life is pretty good...
At first it was a struggle to adjust to the Business English teacher's life here (odd hours, like this month I literally have one day off but only work an average of 3 hours per day; major fluctuations in salary; traveling all over the damn city; relearning English grammar well enough to describe it to someone else, etc.), and it was tough to find a group of people we could relate to. To be honest, a lot of foreigners here HATE their lives and I really don't understand why they're here if all they do is complain about how terrible they think Taiwan is. But eventually we started to find more positive minded people and have some pretty cool people around us right now.
We just got a swanky (in the old, 1970s kind of way) new place in the middle of the city, which makes our lives MUCH easier. For one, our average commute just got cut down by at least 30 minutes and a lot less transfers and motion sickness from the creaky old buses that I swear have square, concrete tires. Oh, have I mentioned that our apartment has an electric organ?! That's pretty cool too...

I've come to terms with my ridiculous boss and have decided that I can take it for one more year, as long as I can minimize my interaction with him. Now that they're desperate for teachers, I got bumped up in status a bit. Plus I'm actually kinda good at this teaching thing now.
I do miss my old job a lot and hope to get back to trade and logistics one of these days, but for now with such a volatile market I think I should just stay put and appreciate the stability that I have, at least until those credit cards are paid off...
Future plans? who knows. Both Devin and I have a few options so we'll figure it out when we know that it's time to move on from here. For now, Taipei can have me for at least one more year, especially if people keep pumping out those hilarious t-shirts.

Things I love about Taiwan

Not a complete list, but lately I've been thinking of the things I love about this place:

• Damn it’s beautiful here.
• The abundance of fresh tropical fruit, fruits I have never seen or heard of before, which leads to a lot of fresh, made-to-order fruit juice for very cheap.
• The tomato is in its rightful place as a fruit.
• In many public toilets, there is toilet seat sanitizer for your convenience. Beats the hell out of a paper seat cover.
• The bus and trains are unbelievably convenient and affordable. And they usually don't smell!
• Japanese and Korean food anywhere, anytime (Taiwanese food ain't bad either).
  
• Jungle air every time I come home.
• People don't stare all that much, at least in Taipei.
• People love cycling. Oh god do they love cycling here.
• The pork butcher down the street who has half a pig lying on his truck bed every morning.
  
• The open air karaoke that the neighborhood drunks frequent.
• The abandoned buildings behind tall brick walls that I want to break into.
• Hot Lix. The bbq skewers in my little night market.
• Tong Hua Night market.
• Fireworks in my 'hood 24/7/365 (actually I hate that but I'm sure I'll laugh about it someday)
• The bird outside my window with the craziest song I have ever heard who likes to get started at about 2 am. (another thing I'll laugh about someday)
  
• Being able to drink beer when you're walking down the street.
• All of the hilarious things I see here every day, usually in the form of terrible English on a t-shirt.
  

Tokyo

Devin and I just got back from a week in lovely Tokyo. The place is amazing. I've never seen a better train system in my life, or as many damn people. It's a huge, crowded city with something for everyone. We had a great time visiting old friends and colleagues and just taking in what the city has to offer. Oh and the food is unbelievable.
Here are a few of my favorite shots:





I took tons of photos, so check out my photo page for more...

A sensory trip like no other

So before we begin, I should tell you that I'll be talking about pee a lot in this post. It's not pleasant but it's damn funny...
Also you should know that the buses here DON'T SMELL. Usually.

I got out of my class tonight and had to make the difficult decision of getting on the 'slow' bus back home or perhaps waiting indefinitely for the fast one. At 9:45 pm you have to take what you can get, so I boarded said slow bus which turned out to be a huge mistake.
The whole bus smelled as if were doused in urine (think most Trimet buses). And there was no epicenter that I was able to detect. It smelled like someone had dumped a bucket of pee on every single seat.
Now, I got on this bus at the beginning of the route, and got off near the end, so I was able to witness several different coping methods.
In the beginning, it was just the odd cracked window, including mine. Didn't help much.
We got short-term relief from someone who brought some fast food onto the bus, but they got off after a few stops, leaving us once again to suffer. (can you believe that the fast food actually smelled good to me?!)
Then someone busted out the air freshener, which worked for a few minutes, but the pee would not let up.
The award for best effort, however, goes to the person who finally gave up and lit a stick of incense, which I'm sure is against all kinds of rules.
I know, I know, I got all weak and spoiled after being away from the Portland metro buses for this long, but man it was bad. It brings me back...

Taipei Freemason's Temple

The Mason's Temple is tucked away in central Taipei, right off of one of the train lines. I kept catching glimpses of it from the train, and one day I finally tracked it down, only to find that it was as glorious as I had imagined. My guess on the construction date is late 60s, early 70s. Pretty run down. I'm sure years of acid rain and pollution didn't help much, but the result is a mysterious and groovy building, shrouded in mystery. At least for me.
More photos here.

Temporary

I'm trying my best to document this unique(?) and rather wasteful practice that I've been made aware of in Taipei's real estate industry: Once someone is ready to build an apartment building on their land they naturally want to sell some of the units first. So before they build it, they construct an extremely modern-looking, but extremely cheap temporary structure in which they try to impress potential buyers.
The first one Devin and I became aware of was called Opus 1. For months we thought that it was some swank club where rich people went. That is, until Devin walked by and the place was completely torn down. Then, as I was passing a really ugly one with a friend one day, she told me that they stay up for about a year, then are torn down to make way for the real structure. And the final confirmation came to me a couple of months ago, when one started to go up down the street from my home. It has been interesting to see the process, and to see the fact that it is almost entirely made of plywood. There is no foundation (which may be a bad idea, since this particular one is on a steep, muddy hillside).
Here are a couple of examples of the buildings.

This one looked really nice at night, but a closer look during the day showed some shoddy workmanship. Note the ripples in what I assume is tin in the second photo:




This one is down the street from us. It looks super nice from the front, but the back reveals a tin roof and lotsa plywood.


This one is in a line of about 3 in the rapidly growing neighborhood of Nangang in east Taipei. Looks super nice, but is connected to some crappy little shack on the back end.


This will be an ongoing hunt. For more, check my photo page.

Amazed

So, Taiwan is pretty damn cool, actually. Even if there are typhoons and millions and millions of scooters everywhere that spit out pollution and give me a sore throat. I can get over the counter oral contraceptives, I can take the bus for 50 cents, I can ride on the world's most efficient subway system for 50 cents to a dollar per ride, I can have cell phone service for US $12 a month, I can eat a decent meal for less than a dollar, and a great meal for $5, I can get almost every amenity that I enjoyed at home (sometimes at a price). Also, Taipei has some pretty cool little areas. I love wandering down alleys and side streets, where the noise of the traffic is blocked by the tall buildings and there are concrete walls and fences for me to imagine the other side of. There are some surprisingly peaceful spots just a block off of the main thoroughfares in this city. It's pretty great.
Lately I've been doing research on some other cities for a project at work, which has inspired me to get out more...
The first one was Kaohsiung, which is one of the southernmost cities. It's famous for its port, and industry, but it's trying to revamp and become an eco-city (sustainability is HUGE here). They also have a Container Arts Festival, where artists are given a shipping container with which they can do what they wish:



Thought that was pretty cool, but then again, I'm a trade geek so of course it's cool.

And then I started looking at Taichung (Central Taiwan) and discovered that they're building the coolest opera house EVER:



Scheduled completion is 2oo9. I can't wait. Yay for modernism!

Update

I thought I should post something, since it's been a while, although there's not too much to report. Devin and I have been working hard. Working and commuting seem to occupy most of our time. I even have a class on Saturday mornings, and he's got one Sundays. We're pining to get out of Taipei, but we never seem to have the time. We're also cat-sitting, so going away for a weekend is out of the question until the kitty is gone.

I've had a lot of ups and downs lately. I lost confidence in myself and my job for a good while. I feel that my company doesn't trust me as a teacher yet. Although I know I have a lot to learn and they're trying to help me, I feel that it's not being done in a constructive way (they have a pretty skewed ideas on constructive criticism and professionalism in general). But I have to remember that most of my students really like me and feel that they've learned a lot from me. I just had a couple of bad experiences, which I suppose is normal for most new teachers.

To add to my frustration (or maybe as a result of it), I became really homesick. I am sad that I missed my old roommates Jereme and Amy get hitched, and I may miss my dear friend Carisa's wedding in October (although I'm looking at ticket prices taking donations).  At the same time as I started to get frustrated with my job and got terribly homesick, I happened to come across an amazing job opportunity in Portland at a company that I've been drooling over for years. They seemed really interested in me and my experience, and I corresponded with the HR person for about to weeks. In the end, the company decided to hold off on hiring for a few months. So I'm not moving home quite yet, but talking to this company (which deals in import/apparel production/all the things I like), made me realize that the apparel trade world is really where I want to be. It will be harder than I previously thought to pursue that avenue here, so if I want to carry on with that, I'll have to move back to the States. But I'll be saving that for later.

So for now, I want to see this whole teaching thing through. I signed a year contract, and I want to reach the end of it. I have turned my attitude around and am improving my teaching skills by leaps and bounds. I am once again happy to be doing this and appreciate the experience. I also have a lot more to see here in East Asia. I haven't been to Southern Taiwan yet! or Japan! or Korea! or the million other places that are just a short plane or boat ride away.

PS: Check my photo page for new additions.....

Engrish names

So, most people here, for the convenience of foreigners, choose an English name. I have to admit, it helps a lot in class, seeing as I have something like 42 different students now. There are various methods used for choosing a name. Some hear a name that they like and use it as their own, while others choose to honor a hero (usually an athlete or celebrity), and a few people take their Chinese name and choose the closest sounding Anglo name. All can have interesting results.
Some of them are what you'd call run-of-the-mill (in an old fashioned way): Esther, Joyce, Eileen, Carol...
Others are a little more more modern: Aliyah, Katrina, Jessica.
And then there are the unforgettable ones: Moss, Kia, Apple, Cherry...
But for me, one stands out above the rest. I have a student who has hands-down one of the best self-given names I've heard so far: Champion. Champion Chu. Could it be one of the best names ever?

Jingmei Girl's High School

So I did it. I hopped off the bus in front of the old high school I'm obsessed with and worked up the guts (and an excuse as to why I was there) to walk onto the grounds. I don't know what I was worried about, because the "security guard" didn't even look up when I walked by. The place was awesome. I didn't venture past the front of the huge grounds, because I got nervous that someone would stop me and ask what the hell I was doing there, but I took a stroll around the perimeter and got a glimpse of some of the other buildings on the campus.
Here are the main structures that I see from the street every day:







Click here for more... Oh I also added a photo album of retro window cages, gates, tiles, etc that I keep seeing around town. You can see it here.
Next photo adventure topic: It's always Christmas in Taiwan.

retro cool

So I'm constantly on the hunt for a hint of retro in Taipei. It's not easy. The buildings here are not striking, and if fact they're usually kind of drab. The exterior is often just concrete, brick or tile (oh, they looove the tile here) and I'd say that 60% of the windows in this city have a cage on them. Most of them, like the exterior of the buildings are drab, but as I've traveled from one end of the city to the other, I've noticed some very groovy cages.

It all started with this one in northern Taipei:

Whoa! This one's craaazy.

A discarded one in our favorite neighborhood:

As far as retro buildings, I have my eye on one place in particular: It's an all girl's high school near our place. There are several buildings that are all super cool. They have a slight Saarinen feel but they're definitely knock offs. When I get brave enough to sneak onto the premises, I will certainly post the photos....

Sad!

So, from our balcony, we don't have the most spectacular views of our beautiful town. But if you do happen to take a look, you can see a pretty rad temple and and old-school neighborhood. I have grown attached to the old, pieced-together buildings, with their illegal rooftop structures. There is (was) one place in particular that I enjoyed peeping out at: a rooftop apartment where a man housed dozens of doves and other birds in cages. I've seen him outside, tending to his birds, showing them off to friends, etc. But tonight his apartment caught on fire and the whole neighborhood watched it burn. It took the fire department about a half hour to respond, but the streets were so narrow that they couldn't bring their trucks close by. So the response time was delayed even further, as they tried to figure out how to get to the place. The firemen did contain the fire, but only after it had spread to two other apartments. So now the guy (who we realized escaped from the fire in nothing but his boxers) lost his apartment and probably all of his beautiful birds.
On that note, before I fell asleep last night, I was flooded with memories of Frank Strong. For those of you who don't know, he's a friend who passed away earlier this year. I have had many vivid memories of him since he left us, but this time it was different. It was all so positive. Dozens of images of him flooded my consciousness all at once. Images of how I remember him. Happy, always smiling and radiant. It made me smile, as it's one of the first times that I haven't felt pain and sadness in his memory. It was almost like he was coming to say hi.
By the way, this town is apparently known for the ghosts who like to hang around. Coincidence?

night market fun

Last night we decided to hit up the Jingmei night market for dinner. These markets are a great place to get really cheap local food and cheap knock off goods. We had been there once before and had the best fried rice ever at one particular food cart, so we decided to have it again. It was a slow night, since it was Monday and rainy, and the lady running the place had more time to talk to us. By 'us' I mean Devin, as the ol' Mandarin is still new to me. The woman was the sweetest lady I've met here so far. She praised Devin for his Chinese proficiency and told him that she cared for us and felt that she had to take care of us because we had come from so far away. So she gave us some free soup alongside our rice, which we couldn't have turned down. It was obviously a small gesture, but it was one of the kindest things that anyone has done for us here. It also made up for the fact that a rat ran practically under my feet during the meal...

Rain

The rainy season has started. This means incredible storms every afternoon. Today the lightning was right above our building, which was kind of terrifying. I'm not used to seeing the flash of light and hearing the deafening crash of thunder at the same time. It's a little disorienting. Devin and I both learned really quickly that we can't go anywhere without umbrellas. We have both been caught in downpours and have had to walk home in flashflood rains.
Otherwise, we've both been in a bit of a funk. Not that we're sad at all, but we still don't know that many people, and we've both quickly realized that our work contracts are not all we imagined them to be, which has been pretty frustrating. I'm considered a 'full time' teacher, but have only been given 7 working hours per week. Because I'm full time, it may be problematic to add a second job, as I'm contractually obligated to prioritize our first, visa-sponsoring employer. Boy I wish I would have known that before signing. I have a second offer, and I could start teaching the day after tomorrow, so I hope that I'm not punished when I break the news....
We did go to a tango night over the weekend, which was put on by my friend Che. Neither of us danced, but we had the opportunity to meet some more locals, who all happened to be awesome. But we're still short on the friends, which makes our weekends pretty uneventful. We're working on it, but it seems to be a slow process.

finally... some apartment photos

We have enough furniture to no longer be sitting on the floor all of the time, plus we took the time to tidy up, so check out my photo page for some pics of the place. Now all we need is some art for the walls....

For the record

There is a vegetarian restaurant down the street from us, that happens to be some of the best food I've eaten here so far. We've only been there twice, and I had the same thing both times, but Devin got different dishes, which I happily tried and loved. I was going to be adventurous the second time we went, but what I had the first time was a cure-all for anything, and I was feeling a little under the weather. It was a noodle soup with a sesame oil broth that had like 1/2 lb. of ginger in it, plus tons of vegetables and exotic mushrooms, and the best darn fake meat I've ever eaten. Vegetarians don't really eat onions or garlic here, which is kind of a downer, but the food is wonderful regardless.
*Bonus: No Guts Guaranteed!*

Also, we both finished our first week of teaching, and it went really well. I am currently teaching 4 classes. Some are really easy to work with, others are a challenge, but it's been really fun so far.

More later....

More photos

I've added to my album for the amusement park. Devin and I had been seeing these empty structures from the street that we wanted to locate, and we discovered yesterday that they were all most likely part of the amusement park at one point. There are 2 that stand out for me, some old temple-looking thing, and what may have been a refreshment stand/viewing tower. Both are gutted and have banyan trees gobbling them up.
It was a great day for exploring. Not only did we locate the mystery structures, but we found a swimming hole and some new amazing Taiwanese friends. Can't say it too many times: I really love this neighborhood!

awesomeness

So we'd heard about this abandoned amusement park in our neighborhood, but hadn't made any effort to go find it. Yesterday's wanderings, however, brought us right to it. There is very little left, and it seems as if the land is just being used by the locals as a garden space. It also offered some amazing views of the surrounding areas. It was pretty sweet.... Click here for more.

Nice New Photos

We live in a pretty awesome area. Here are some neat things we've seen or that we see every day:

A nice door somewhere

Our pool. Yessss!

Paddleboat graveyard down by the river.

The temple on the way to our grocery store.