Quirky, zany days: #1

The ubiquitous face masks of Taiwan... I have to admit I was a bit surprised when I saw these — and in such incredible numbers! :D As many of you from back home probably know I am not only USED to the idea of wearing masks, but often do it when I am sick or cleaning (dust allergies - urgh!). The ones I wear are more like this however:

Seeing these around Japan was very common, especially during hay fever season! I'm used to it, and in fact I find this second type of mask very useful. However, the massive cloth masks that pretty much EVERYONE in Taiwan wears are usually used by a certain type of people in Japan. When I see these masks I think of high school delinquents or yankees in Japan with their rough language, brazen rebel attitude, and for the girls — their incongruous habit of wearing hello kitty house slippers... Don't ask. haha. Anyway, when I first started seeing these masks in Taiwan, I'll admit it through me for a lip because it has that connotation in Japan. I remember thinking, "Huh, weird."

But live here for a few days and you'll soon figure out that there is a REALLY good reason EVERYONE wears these masks. They aren't to protect other people from your germs like the surgical masks — which people here will still wear if they are sick. No, they happen to be to protect THEM from the fumes of scooters, cars, and trucks while they are zooming around on their bikes and scooters. The number of scooters here is so mind blowing that there seem to literally be armies of them — I'll talk about that later! :D But the fumes can be really bad if you find yourself stuck behind an old scooter that is blowing out an obnoxious amount of smoke...

How often does THAT happen, you ask?

Pretty darn often! Haha. I was choking on fumes on my way to work yesterday, no joke. So the odd face masks in Taiwan are a complete necessity if you don't want to have a coughing fit behind some old beater huffing and puffing down the street. So, you can bet I'll be wearing my own once I get on my new scooter. :P Call me a dork if you want, but at least I'll be able to breathe easy, mwahahahaha.

The Happy List: #1

I love how people actually SMILE here. Not all the time, mind you. People don't walk around like Cheshire cats grinning like maniacs. But, the wonderful thing here is that people will smile and they usually won't GLARE at you for smiling while you walk to work.

You make eye contact with someone, they may actually smile shyly at you. If you smile, then they may smile at you. If any of you remember when I was living in between Tokyo and Chiba, my first week of orientation I almost cried one day because as an Iowan I have the habit of smiling at people when I make eye contact. I mean for crying out loud, I come from a place where I lot of people will WAVE or at least wave their fingers at the people driving past, wave at the tractor that's gotten over so we can pass, or stop in the middle of a sleepy road to talk to your friend (because you live somewhere so small you can recognize your friends by their cars). Let's just say that the habit is a bit... ingrained.

So in Japan when I would smile, most people would look shocked, embarrassed, disturbed, even angry — that, or they would quickly ignore me by looking off to the side. There it's not normal to smile like that. I had to learn that and I got used to it, and it's fine really, but it was an adjustment. Here though, I don't feel like people feel uncomfortable when I smile at them. I was walking to work the other day and a young guy working at a little restaurant saw me through the window and smiled at me — for no other reason than our eyes had met.

As a smiley, happy person, I LOVE that I can smile freely and sometimes get a reciprocal reaction. It makes my day every time! :D

10 Things I Like So Far About Taiwan....

So, I rather like the idea of listing ten things about life in Taiwan. So here I think I will start to compile a list of likes, quirky things, and maybe even some things that I find difficult, tricky, or downright frustrating (I know I'll have those days, so I'll just admit it up front!) This way I am hoping I don't forget the things that made me smile, laugh, and even growl in frustration while I am here. It's all part of the experience and I'd like to remember it! So without further ado, from today I will try compiling a list of these things (List 1: Likes, List 2: Quirky things, List 3: Diffies).. I know I'll discover more than ten things for each list, so let's just call them "The Happy List: Part 1," "Quirky, Zany Days: Part 1," and "Growly Bear Steam: Part 1."

Attack of the Alarms.... (O.o) fml...

So yesterday after my first day of kindy (and dealing with kids who are going through the "terrible two's," extreme separation anxiety, or have a habit of going off into adorable dazes as they stare off at the light in the ceiling - for three hours) I thought to myself, "I am going to take a one hour power nap so I'll be ready for my evening class at 7."

Frankly, after what happened yesterday I think I will be too terrified to take a nap for a good two weeks... We'll see, my body may, uh, veto my terror over an afternoon nap before that. But still. Horrifying. That's what describes the calamity that was last night...

I have 3 alarms on my cell. They always work. Yesterday morning I set two - one to wake up for kindy and another to let me know that it was almost time to head downstairs to meet the others. They both worked. Yesterday I laid down at 3:30 and set the 2nd alarm for "4:30 p.m. daily" with the volume set at the absolute highest possible. I fell fast asleep.

And woke up in the dark and found myself extremely disoriented. "Oh it's nighttime," I thought, "But wait, I don't remember my second class...Wasn't I supposed to have a second class today?" *BING* Horrified, I realize that it's LATE and I reach for my phone with my heart about to beat out of my chest and see the time glowing in the dark, "6:42 pm". My class starts at 7. I'm supposed to clock in by 6:40. I have never got dressed and out the door so fast in my life. I called Dellie frantically whilst running down the street dodging vehicles of various sizes as I tried to nab a cab. The first cab I found, I thought was empty but when I yanked the door open there was a women inside. The next cab, no one (I checked) but he waved me away - apparently he was waiting for someone. So I run, scrambling down the sidewalk with my backpack slamming into me, tripping on the uneven, pitted concrete and finally manage to hail an empty/available taxi and gasp out a "To HESS! Please hurry!" in Chinese.

I am sure that the people in those first two taxis were wondering why in the world a rabid, panting foreigner was running around grabbing madly at taxi doors.... *O.o shaaaaaaaaame~

I made it through the door by 6:54.

I was so horrified and upset that my alarm hadn't worked. I am unbelievably grateful (and amazed really) that I even WOKE up! I was so tired when I woke up I almost rolled over thinking it was nighttime and that I needed to go back to sleep. Thank goodness my little brain started running as soon as my eyes opened. Fortunately everything turned out ok and everyone was very nice about it. I was so upset/worried about though, that I left the branch after work and immediately went out and bought, not one, but TWO loud, bedside table alarm clocks.

Needless to say, all THREE alarm clocks got set for this morning! Ha!

I also set the 2nd alarm on my cell again for this morning, and again, it never went off. So. Epic fail Mr. Cellphone. Epic fail!

This morning though, I went to meet Laurel and Dellie to go to kindy on the scooters when we got a call from Dellie 5 minutes after the arranged meeting time.

Her alarm hadn't worked.
Laurel then laughinly told me that her alarm hadn't worked either and she'd woked up at 7:30 and had to rush around to get downstairs by 7:45.

So the moral of the story? The alarms are on strike so watch out — you could be next! :D

4 Days In....

So I began a post over a week ago on my iPad but have lost access to it as I have yet to get wireless for my apartment. Rather than waiting to post until I get my hands on it again, or even attempting to recall what I had written and go at it a second time — because I am generally lazy in nature when it comes to things like journals, diaries, etc. — I am simply going to start from now.

Today will officially be my fourth day of teaching. Training was intense, but I met a ton of wonderful people along the way and got to have my share of fun and craziness along the way. I have a beautiful single apartment in the heart of downtown Zhongli City, located in Taoyuan county — a little bit north and west of Taipei. My "bachelorette pad" as I like to call it has a tub that's big enough to swim in, massive windows, and a great view of the city and the mountains in the distance. Rent is dirt cheap by my standards and the internet was already set up! To say I am enthused about living in this building would be a serious understatement.

The people I work with are all lovely and incredibly helpful. The children are — amazing, really. I'm teaching all different levels so their ages range greatly but they've all been very sweet. I had a rough class last night but afterwords as I was gathering up my heavy pile of books and materials one of the boys brought me one of his oreos to eat. <3 And on my first day a little girl brought me a little paper decorated popsicle stick that she'd written, "To: Alyce" on — and there I was about to give her an oral exam! At her age I would have been so terrified, the last thing I'd have thought of was giving the new teacher a gift. Haha. My schedule is going to get more and more hectic and crazy, but I know that if I give myself a few months, the time it will take to do the extra stuff should drastically shrink. People that have been doing it for a year take very little time to do prep or homework/grading stuff.

Last night a bunch of beautiful fireworks - they kind you see at shows - were shot off in view of my living room window only about 3 or 4 blocks away. I rushed to get my new camera to video tape it, but sadly, since it was first attempt at using the camera for video I didn't push the button enough times so I missed taping the WHOLE thing! When I pushed the button again to stop the recording it started to RECORD. Epic fail on my part, haha. I also got myself a very hard-core protective bike helmet - I'll only be driving a scooter and it looks like something a person going 90 on a crotchrocket would wear but honestly, when you are going about 50 miles an hour on the roads in between Zhongli and Long tan? You don't want a pudding bowl, you want a REAL helmet. So now, I am officially READY to ride out! haha.

I've been to the night market nearby twice. Loads of fun there. Got some "kindy pants", a.k.a. a pair of BAGGY bibbers with bloomer-style legs that I can totally get grubby and roll around in with no problems, haha. 15 bucks! Got a really cute double t-shirt set for about 6 or 7 bucks, too.

A little temple between my apartment and the nearby Carre Four...

about a 6-7 minute walk to get here...

There is a stray cat that's come by twice at night now. I fed him again last night, but got caught multiple times by other tenets while feeding him... I don't know how they felt about me feeding a stray by their opulent residence, so I have to admit, I felt a bit awkward riding up the elevator with some of them after I ran out of sausage for the little yellow cat that I've dubbed Rasiya (which is basically like 'scoundrel' in Hindi, haha, but I LOVE that word!). Strays are more of an issue here, and no one seems to bat an eye, but I have a very hard time not wanting to reach out to them and do something. So I guess if that means I have a couple awkward run-ins with the other tenants, so be it? Anyway, I like little Rasiya. He's very sweet, but so skinny... Hopefully someone, somewhere else, gives him treats, too!

Well, the whole city is covered in cloud covered and it's sprinkling. I can see a Taiwan flag on top of a building several blocks away whipping wildly so I won't be surprised if we get a bit of a downpour in a bit.

I will try to be more regular with my writings, there are lots of fun/hilarious things that have happened since I arrived in Formosa that I'd like to write about, but for now, I know if I don't just dive in and start from the present, the pile of "stuff I want to talk about" will only bury me alive! So here we are, my first blog post, in all its unrivaled blandness. To everyone back home, here in Taiwan, or any passersby, sweet dreams!