Blog Check-In 2006.09.19

It’s Tuesday already here in Taiwan, and I am at work already since about 7 AM. I’m sorry for the lack of updates, but we had a few problems over the weekend. Read on for more!

The second week of class has just started, and I am getting into my groove. The kindergarten classes are a nice contrast to the rowdy behavior of 401 and 402. To those of you who don’t know, I recently moved to teach English to Taiwan. My wife and I are teaching at a bilingual school, in Hsin Chu City, about an hour northwest of Taipei.

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I like how the kids clean the classrooms and the school. It’s nice. They take it seriously. I’ve had some trouble getting homework assignments back, but it’s working out. I learned that 401 and 402 are the most rowdy classes in the school. I teach them 16 hours a week. It figures.

At the kindergarten, I have discovered the playrooms, from a ballroom (A playpen filled with balls) to other rooms, there are a lot of play activities available for the kiddies. Yesterday before leaving, I saw the kindergarten kids rollerblade. It was so cute, they were just trying their best. And when one fell, the other one fell as well.

Other than that, things at school are quite comfortable. It is a lot different from my previous job in finance, but I enjoy it a lot more. I like how when I finished a task, it’s over and done for. I have nothing else to do on it.

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We had an appointment last Wednesday and things got somewhat worrying. When we came back, I stopped at the Family Mart to get some food. I then realized that I couldn’t find my wallet. I looked everywhere. Good thing that I had taken my driver’s card. The manager called him but they couldn’t find the wallet. Stupid thing was, that all my cards and IDs, except my passport.

I was totally freaking out. With such a tough departure and arrival, we thought that things would calm down in Taiwan. No such luck. After a harrowing half an hour, we made our way back to our appartment. All my Taiwanese money was in that wallet. I felt quite stupid.

Then…

The security guard gestured and told me that they had found something.

My wallet.

I went to the reception and they had my wallet.

That was a close one.

Now if we could figure out how to access our bank accounts, that would be great.

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We are definitely going to be getting a scooter in a month or so. The two month security deposit on our place kind of drained our finances until we get paid. Cars will not work here, there isn’t enough parking space downtown. There was actually a line to park the cars downtown this weekend.

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We finally made our way downtown Hsin Chu on Sunday. It’s a 150 NTD cabride. We got this information from the Lakeshore Hotel, which is the 5 star hotel right next to our appartment complex. The day manager also managed to find us a photo shop, where we could get passport photos taken. The driver had betel nut stained teeth. We got to the shop and got our photos made. We still had over an hour to kill, so we started walking around.

We visited the train station. And then we got into the Sogo building, a 13 floor department shopping store. We mostly checked out the prices. They are between 30-65% less than in Canada. For example, my Nike Air Max 360s were about 4180NTD. I paid C300$ Canadian for them, which is about 9000NTD. I will definitely have to get some short sleeved shirts. I have none. And some sandals.

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A stray dog followed us to work today. It made me think of Spike, my French Bulldog stuck in Vancouver. I find it hard to talk about him. He has been my constant companion for almost 2 years. I am Spike-less right now. Unlike my wife, I don’t like talking about it. I just hope that he is fine and that everything will work out at some point later on this year.

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While wallet-gate was going on at the Family Mart, a stray beagle who looked quite well fed, kept coming in and out of the Family Mart. The staff were too distracted by our problems to notice. Everytime he came in, there was a musical ring. I think that the dog isn’t a stray, just somebody’s dog who can go out by himself. But he didn’t have a collar though.

We left Spike’s collar and leash in Montreal.

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I have caught up on all the shows. I have written about them too. I’ll publish a few posts today and this week.

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Featured Photographers in this post

fito fuente.