There’ve been a number of monumental changes in my life over the past two weeks. I went from having no job, no Chinese class, and no means of transportation to having all of the above. I was hired at a cram school (in Chinese they pronounce it boo-she-ban) as an English teacher. I have three different level classes from the “baby” 5 year old class to 12 year old kids. You can’t imagine entertainment that a classroom full of 5 year old kids can bring when they only understand half of what you say (on a good day). My other classes are pretty good too although I’ve got some tuff shells to crack with the older kids.
I’m also into my second week of Chinese lessons and it feels good to be learning again. I have to admit that I really miss the classroom environment. Every morning I am joined by an American-Pakistani man named John for two hours of Chinese with teachers Fong and Xu. I’ve reached the monumental point where I can successfully order an iced coffee or green tea and the shopkeepers actually understand what I say. Every time that happens I give myself a mental “pat on the back” for a job well done. After the lesson my classmate and I go to a coffee shop for our daily caffeine pick-me-up and life discussion. Through him I’ve learned about Muslims and yesterday he even read my hands. Turns out I’m not good at saving money and overall, I’m complicated person to read... Tell me something I don’t know.
My last and possibly most exciting piece of news is that I am the proud owner of a beautiful scooter! It’s tried and true (for over 10 years), and has improved my life immensely. It’s actually quite easy to drive and I love exploring the streets on my new wheels, especially at night when the streets are all lit up like only Asian streets can be. When I’m waiting at a red light in the middle of a hundred scooters, I like to pretend I’m either in a big race and waiting for the start gun or that we’re all a huge biker gang. Both are equally entertaining at 7:30 in the morning when I’m on my way to class. My favorite biker-gang members are the families of 4 that somehow fit on a single scooter and the Buddhist monks in their long flowing robes.
It takes me about 30 min. to drive to work and I have no idea how I actually wind up there. The first time, I wrote extremely vague directions on my hand that I followed half way until I couldn’t find a rode I was supposed to turn on. From that point on, I just drove in the same direction until I got to a dead end, then turned and rode for a while and turned again down some random street. I hadn’t seen a familiar road name for a while and was just about to turn around at the next intersection but luckily I read the street name first. Somehow I had wound up on the same street and just a few blocks from my school. I have always been absolutely terrible at directions, even when they’re on a computer screen in front of my face and a little voice is saying “turn left now”. (Amy- I think if you were here we’d still get lost and somehow wind up in Newark) How I found anything on the winding roads of Taiwan with directions that had smeared off my sweaty hands remains a complete mystery.
Two nights ago when I was driving home from work I found myself in the middle of a big festival. I remember walking through one and thinking ' I would never be caught dead driving through this chaos'- turns out they're completely unavoidable. I guess I was a little lost in my thoughts because I just thought the traffic was normal friday night traffic until I pulled up to a stop light and there was a person in a huge Buddha costume dancing in the street right in front of me. Nothing weird about that- just make sure you aren't next to a bus or taxi when you swerve around the dancing buddha. About a block down the road I got caught up behind a huge gong/ drumb combo that were a little bit harder to maneuver around but luckily I got away right before they started setting off fireworks in the street. Just another Friday night in Taiwan
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