Ticking away, the moments that make up a dull day.?

I don't know how many times I have sung this in the last 5 days, but it's a lot. A whole hell of a lot. More than one man can fathom. More than 2 men, but maybe not more than 3 men. Seriously, I have been so bored for the past 5 days. Why? You might ask. Well, let me tell you.

As I mentioned on my weblog a typhoon hit Taiwan on Saturday night/Sunday. A typhoon is exactly the same as a hurricane. I had no idea how bad it would be but I didn't imagine what would happen. The last one that hit was pretty bad. 200 people died and the devastation was immense. Not as many people died this time but the damage to farm crops is about 23 million dollars Canadian. And the gov't has allocated 170 million CDN to help repair damage caused by the typhoon. Only 79 people died this time, which I guess is lucky but the way they died is horrible. The water that flooded the streets and businesses and houses was like creamy coffee the dirt was so thick and people drowned in it. They could see anything and they had no way of getting to safety. It must have been horrible. In fact the typhoon was so bad that it actually kept NYC from enetering my mind for almost 4 days. The fact that we didn't have TV for most of the time helped since I was unable to see news reports about NYC. But we also couldn't find out what was happening in Taiwan and that sucked. The flooding by my apartment wasn't too bad. On Tuesday Adrian and I walked to the 7-11 for food and there was nothing on the shelves. The water in the streets was only up above my ankles in other places. In some it was only as high as the top of my feet. So not bad when you see streets where the water is up to people�s waists in some places.

The streets of Jong-Li are mind-blowing. There is dirt everywhere and garbage. The stench is overpowering in some places. As I walked to work today it was almost unbearable in some places. I have to applaud the people who are cleaning it up. I would not be able to get that close to the smell without vomiting.
The storm was so bad that they closed schools on Monday and Tuesday. Which meant no work for me and Adrian, but because of the flooded roads it also meant that we couldn't really go anywhere. So we were basically house bound. On Wednesday my boss from the kids school called to tell me that my classes were cancelled that day but Adrian�s were still on. Today (Thursday) I went down there to find out when I might be able to go back to work. Monday, hopefully, is what I was told. The school has two class rooms in the basement and therefore they don't have enough classes for everyone so they cancelled both of mine for the week. You can imagine my joy. NOT! (wow I haven't used that expression for years). That means that this week instead of working 23 hours I am working a huge 7. My next paycheck is going to be tiny.

But it's not too bad, this is honestly the first in my life (as far as I can remember anyway) time I have ever been adversely affected by a natural disaster. And since I still have my health, and all of my possessions I can't complain too loudly.

So what did I do all that time? How did I kill hours and hours in an apartment without snapping and killing Adrian? I honestly don't know. I read a lot. I finally started to get into Gravity's Rainbow?which I have tried to do 9 unsuccessful times over the past 4 years, but I have once again given up on it in lieu of Harry Potter 4. My New Year's resolution for 2001 was to finish Gravity's Rainbow?and I still plan to do it, but maybe not for a week or so from now.

I also practiced my house of cards building skills. I almost got one to 4 floors, but it collapsed. One day I will do it, oh yes you just wait on day! MUWAHAHAHAW!
And I played a HUGE amount of Minesweaper. A seriously huge amount! I have never been able to complete the expert level on that game, but by God, yesterday the gods smiled on my sorry ass and I did it. I finally did it. You don't understand how many times I would get it down to 4 or 5 bombs and I would lose. It was painful, seriously painful. No one could ever truly know my pain

But enough about cabin fever! What's Taiwan like? Like Scott pointed out to me (by the way Scott, thank you so much for the letter.) no one will ever truly grasp what the hell I am talking about when I describe life over here, but I am going to anyways.

Life here is really strange. No one ever seems to really do anything. There are always people just walking around. ALWAYS! I know, because I am one of them. I walk around downtown all the time just killing time and the place is always packed all of the time. But it's kinda neat to be in a city that doesn't shut down at 9 o'clock on a Sunday. No matter what time or what day you can always get what you need here.

You should see the roads here. Honestly unless you've been here or India you will never appreciate how organized Calgary truly is. People just drive here. It's a red light, who cares just drive! If you're on a scooter in a traffic back up, who cares just drive around it and through the cars on the other side of the street. So if you are walking down the side of the road you have to be really careful. One friend of Adrian's is really funny she always thinks I walk too close to traffic when I am a good two feet away from the cars. She should see it when I walk home and the big truck misses me by inches and I don't even flinch. The truck and bus drivers here have to some of the best I have ever seen. They take huge, absolutely huge, buses down streets and around corners that shouldn't be physically possible. It's actually really thrilling to ride the bus and watch as the bus driver, with his half closed eyes turns 90 degrees to the right in a very narrow street without hesitation.

The people here are great. They stare at me because I am a foreigner, but it's hilarious to say hello in Chinese and watch their eyes pop. They also find it amazing that I know how to use chopsticks. I haven's used a fork but once since I got here. Everytime we go out to eat with someone new they just look and exclaim: You know how to use chopsticks??It's funny.

So I think that I am over that whole depression stage for now. I am starting to see the good things here and I am beginning to enjoy the lifestyle over here.

Ok, I know I owe this page a huge update, but I don't have time or energy right now. i will write something later this week. I just wanted to let everyone know that despite half of Taiwan being flooded because of the typhoon I am safe. The power is still on and I have food in the apartment. So there is no need to worry about me.

I do have one question though. Who are jay & silent Bob from my guestbook. Drop me an e.mail to let me know. Talk to everyone later.

Saturday was a good day. I had two adult classes. They weren't too bad, the first was a business class and I taught them about writing letters to get information from a company. Stuff I have no idea about, but I can fake it well. My second class was with a girl named Fenny. She is 13 and her English is better than mine. She uses words like reliquary. I had no idea what it meant but she did. I teach her writing. It has to be the hardest thing to teach someone, because the only way to get better is through practice and the way I write is just natural because I have been doing it all of my life. So it is hard as hell to tell someone what to do when you don't really know why you do it that way.

After that class I could either take the scooter (which I don't know how to drive) home or walk for 40-45 minutes. I chose to walk. It wasn't until I got to my building that I realized that the key was back at the school. I just stood in the middle of an intersection and yelled fuck at the top of my lungs. I felt like the biggest retard in the world. So I turned around and walked all of the way back to David's. It was not fun, but I guess it was good excercise. When I got back to David's Adrian was on the phone. It turns out that he had called home like three times and was kinda worried about me. because I wasn't there to answer the phone. He and Stephanie came and picked me up and we went back to the night market. It was better than the last time because their were more stalls and the CDs were there. They have CDs for 2.50 canadian. I bought the new Robbie Williams because it had the new song Eternity on it. It's a great song.

After the night market we went to a little coffe house and sat talking until 2:30 in the morning. It was really nice, but I was so tired by the end that I couldn't focus and had a hard time following the conversation. I was actually so tired that on the way home I almost fell asleep on Adrian's scooter.

When I got home I didn't seem to be tired so Adrian and I talked for a while. It turns out that I have hit the brick wall of culture shock. Friday I stayed up in bed trying to figure what the hell I am doing here. The honeymoon period is over in a big way. I am disillusioned by this place now. I guess it finaly hit home that this isn't a temporary thing. I am here for a year, good or bad. It's not like I can just up and quit. Well I can, but I would hate myself for giving up so quickly. Plus I have to be here until at least January so I can go to India with my friend Alex. The weirdest thing is that this hit me after one of my better days here. Odd.

Sunday had to be the worst day yet. Adrian, Stella and I went to a mall and walked around. It's not that I hate going to malls. I just hate it when I am tired and have no money to buy things. So basically we just walked around and did nothing all afternoon. And my tummy acted up while we were there. I hate using public washrooms, and I hate it even more when I am sick. It was not fun, but luckily it was a western toilet. I should be very thankfull for that.

That night we went back home and got pizza and set up the stereo that Adrian bought. It is so nice to finally have music in the house. I hate having a quiet house so it is nice to have music in the background.

So it has been 7 days exactly since I last wrote and alot has happened. I don't know where to begin but I guess I'll start where my last one left off. The crappy thing is that I can't remember what happened on Tuesday . . . Oh yeah!

Adrian and I were both told that we had classes Monday Tuesday and Thursday at 1:10. So we had a lazy morning and then we went to Walton's to teach at 1:10. We both sat around until 20/25 after and then I went and asked Jeff where the kids were. Turns out that our schedules aren't what we were told. MY classes are monday wednesday friday at 1:10 and Adrian's are monday wednesday and thursday at 1:00. That would have been nice to know before we wasted an entire morning and part of an afternoon. Oh well I guess it could have been worse. My other class (the older kids) is everyday 4:40 to 6:10 so we had to habg around the area until our classes.

After class I walked home while Adrian went to teach at David's. It wasn't too bad of a walk only about 30 minutes. One of the other foreign teachers from Walton's saw me and gave me a ride so it was even shorter than the 30 minutes. I didn't do anything too exciting that night once I was home. I just vegged in front of the TV and then went to bed.

Wednesday was basically the same as Monday at Walton's. MY kids were acting up so I had to hit their desks and yell to get them to pay attention. I now know that if I embarass one student the rest will behave. The classes went by without incident after that.

At David's that night I had my demo in Adrian's class. I got to meet them on the Monday night so it wasn't too bad. I had a few moments of silence where I had no idea what to do, but otherwise it went OK. After the boss left the class relaxed and talked alot more. It would have been nice if they had been more talkative while Anne was in there, but I got the job so I can't complain. The funny thing is that I had 3 private students assigned to me even before I did the demo. So I guess I didn't need to worry.

After class some students and Adrian and I went to Jong Yuan and had dinner. It was really good food and a nice place to eat. One of the girls asked if I could explain what a galaxy was. I hope I told her the right thing. I don't really know much about that stuff, but she doesn't need to know that. They teased me because I acted like a teacher and drew a diagram and everything. But it's not like I could have explained well without the drawing.

Thursday I walked to work at Walton's. It was a nice walk but it was hot as hell out and since I am not used to the heat and sweat easily it wasn't a very pleasant walk. My class was OK. They are learning fast and get bored very easily, so sometimes they look at me like I'm an idiot cause I didn't prepare to go past a certain subject. But as long as I try to hide it they probably think I am a great teacher.

That night I sat in on Adrian's class. I had met alot of them my first night here when had all gone out for dinner. We were supposed to go to the night market after with the students, but some of them couldn't make it so Adrian, a teacher named Gary and I went anyways. The night market is pretty cool. It is basically just a bunch of people selling junk and food in stalls along a street. It got boring fairly quickly though. Just because after a while all of the stalls started to look the same.

Friday was both of my classes, and after that day I hated both of them. They mis-behaved alot and didn't listen to me at all. If I knew I could get a better job elsewhere I would quit in a second. It's not anything specific, just a bunch of little things that make teaching the little rats a total pain in the ass. After class I walked home while Adrian went to David's. I NEED A SCOOTER BADLY!!!!!!!!!

The shitty thing is that Friday night was a big religious festival where they slaughter pigs and stuff. I wanted to go, but it totally slipped my mind, and I just spent the night in front of the TV.

My saga will continue later . . .

Well my second class went a little better. At first it sucked ASS! I didn't think that the kids would not have English names. I had nine students and 4 of them did not have English names. They just sat there and did nothing while I tried and tried to get them to talk. I eventually found out that I am supposed to give them English names. How cool is that. I could have named them anything that I wanted. But I stayed plain and boring and named them Scott, Lisa, Joe and Ken. Now I am thinking that I should have given them better names, no offence to people with these names, but seriously I could have said anything and these are what I came up with. The class was so painful until I found out that I am supposed to name them myself.

I basically stood there and looked like an idiot. An absolute idiot. At least this time there wasn't a parent watching me. In my first class this parent sat in the entire time. Everytime I screwed up I could picture him making a mental note to tell my boss. Once I gave the students names things went by really fast. They all picked up on what we were doing (What's your name?) really fast. This class was only 1 1/2 hours long and when I had 30 minutes left everyone but one had it perfect. The kid I had named Ken had no clue what was going on. I felt bad cause I ignored him for a while, but then we played tic-tac-toe and he almost had it. So with 10 minutes left I kept asking him over and over again "what's your name?" By the end of class with a little prodding he was ablt to say, "my name is Ken."

I feel kinda sorry for my students because when they ask to go to the bathroom they all ask at once and I can't tell whether or not they are going for fun or if they really have to go. So I make them wait until they pee themsleves and then make them cry and go out of the room. Just kidding (: I make them go one at a time, but trying to explain that is pretty hard.

The weird thing about the kids is that at some times they understand me perfeclty, and at others they act like they have never heard a word of English. And both times I am saying the same thing.

Remember all those times we watched movies and the protagonist points at themselves and says "Me Mike" They then point at the Alien/Beast/Foreigner and they point at themselves and say "Me Mike."? Well that happened at least ten times to day. So I say no I am Mike, You are Rob. Rob then repeats, I am Mike You are Rob. Amazingly by the end of the class they alll knew their names and each others' names. It was cool I could call there name and say I am mike, and they would say I am Tina or whatever. It shows I am actually doing something. And it makes me feel good to see them actually learning. It's that little light in their eyes that flashes when they get it that's make it so fun. i know that sounds so lame and cheesy, but it's true.

I went to the adult class tonight to talk to the boss (anne) and she said that I will do my demo on Wednesday night. Depending on how I do on my demo will determine if I get a job or not. The only shitty thing is that the owners cut the budget so I may just be teaching private students for now. Which isn't too bad, at least if I sign a contract with David's (the adult school) I can get my Alien Resident Card and I can stay here for a year.

Well, I am going to go now. I am going to expolre Jong-Li on my own. adrian's in a class right now so I have to kill a half an hour in a mysterious city . . . (start eery music)

So I have been in Taiwan for four days now and man is it interesting here. I have seen a little bit of the city that I live in. It is nice here. It is crowded and the streets are busy, but compared to Taipei Jong-Li is a small country town.

In the past few days I have been shown some safe and good places to eat. The area around the adult school I hope to start teaching at is cool. It's just a bunch of shops everywhere. You can buy pretty much everything you need in this area. For snack food I go to Carrefour (sp?). It is basically a Zellers or Walmart with a produce section.

On Saturday we went to Taipei. That place is really cool. It is a huge city packed full of people. But so many of the buildings look so nice.

On Friday I got my first job. Adrian introduced me to his boss and in 30 seconds I had a job teaching elementary school. Today was my first class (I now have two) and man was it a gong show. I had no idea where to start and how to do it, but somehow I got through it ok. There are a couple of kids in the class who get everything right off of the bat. But then I have a couple who still cannot say Hello my name is _______. And of the kids who can say it, I think about one third of them have no clue what they are saying. They just repeat after me and smile. But I'm getting paid so who cares, right? No I do care I want them to learn, but man is it going to be tough. I have another class at 4:40 today, so that one should go a little smoother, since I sort of know what I am getting into. I am starting to wish that in all my time at Indigo I had looked at one of those ESL books. The parents of one of my students introduced themselve sto me just before class and when I told them that I had only been here for 4 days they looked really scared.

Speaking of classes I want you all to know that I got a B+ in both of my religious studies classes. Which means my GPA is high enough to get into education.

Gotta run to work. Talk more later.