First Week in Taiwan

In case you are wondering.....there will be a post about the wedding as soon as we get somepictures from the photographer. I want you to see the really nice ones.

So now we are in Taiwan. So cool right? Probably not the best choice of words because really it is hot with 100% humidity. Fortunately our office at school is air conditioned and so is our tiny apartment.

So we are teaching at a private school in a place called Hsin Fong. It is a city just outside of Hsin Zhu. It is a military school and it known for its strictness. However, unlike many private in America, Private schools in Taiwan are not really for the wealthy. Private schools are known to be better and more efficient. The students whose test scores were not high enough to make it into public school have to attend the private school. So their parents end up paying more for a lesser education. However, this school has been working to change that reputation and many students have actually been recruited here. Some classes each have their own iPods or iPads or little lap top computers. This is prevalent in the ESL department. This is where Alan and I work mostly. However, we also teach english for classes in other departments as well. We will teach up to six hours in one day, but that may only be 3 classes. I have one class that is actually three hours long. I am excited though. I really like to prepare lessons and I do enjoy teaching. There are around 5,000 students in the school from junior high to high school. Most live around the school some up to 1 hour away driving.

Around 300 live on campus in the dorms.

Our apartment is really close to the campus. In fact it is in a tiny complex right outside the wall. ( If you look in the picture above you can see the corner of the yellow building which is our apartment.) Our apartment is about a 6 minute walk from the nearest 7-11 and about a 12 minute walk to the nearest laundry facility, a 15 minute walk from the main street where we buy dinner. It is not so bad, except that it is so hot and humid! But once we are walking for a bit, it is not so bad. There are also a lot of mosquitoes. So Alan and I put together a bug killing kit. We have our chinese Anti-itch cream. Our chinese mosquito repellant and our chinese mosquito killing electronic racket. Please refer to the video below. One night when we were

walking to 7-11 for some food, we saw this guy zapping bugs left and right with his racquet. It was amazing! So now we have our own. Awesome.

Here is our office where we work. Pretty small little cubical like area that we share with so many people. It is nice that Alan's desk and mine are right next to each other.

I think one of the most shocking things I saw on our first day of school was these lines of red and black back packs as the students filed of the bus in gender segregated lines. It is strange that they there isn't segregation in the classes, but coming off the bus they must walk in separate lines through the school. Also note their uniforms.

What is surprised us is that there was so much jungle and garden areas so close to the metropolitan area. I am glad though. It is so beautiful.

One of the first things we noticed in Taiwan is that there is a 7-11 on almost every corner. It is very convenient and Alan is happy he has a place he can buy American Hot Dogs.

This is our main street were we get food. It is really cool. There are lots of places to go shopping and buy pretty much anything you want all for a pretty good price.

this is the outside of our apartment. 

 Our outside front door. Not we don't use a key to open this, but we have a thing attached to our key chain that we hold up to the box and it unlocks the door for us. So futuristic right? Wait  till you get inside our apartment!

That is the door to our apartment! yeah apartment door!

Notice that our bathroom is all together in one room. So when we shower everything gets wet!!! So taking a shower is annoying. We can't even leave our towels in the bathroom when we shower because they will get wet.

This is our bed. Which is actually two twin beds pushed together.

This is our kitchen. There is no sink, or dishwasher or stove or oven. Just a refrigerator and microwave.

This is our "office" Which includes a desk and chair.

Ok and that is our Apartment. I will post more pictures as they come.