Week 1, in the books.

Alien.
Ha! That’s what I totally feel like after my first week. Ive stepped into a world where I cant read signs, I can barely communicate with locals, and I have no idea what I'm eating half the time (I even took the point to order approach recently, pointing to a random item on the menu at a drink place and getting something that turned out to be pretty damn delicious). Its all good though. After spending the weekend with the old crew in Taipei, I hopped on a train Sunday morning and rode south for 3 hours. I finally made it to my new digs. Although the original living arrangements fell through (I was supposed to be living in a family’s home), the place I have isn’t bad at all. It’s a flat-style apartment in a new, hopefully earthquake proof, building strategically placed on the outskirts of the downtown chaos.
After a quick reality check of the situation, unpacking, and running around to a few stores, I finally got settled into the apartment comfortably. Adelaide, who is my boss and the owner of the school I am now teaching at, picked me up and took me to dinner with her family and possibly the only other English speaking couple in town (a couple from Minnesota, who is leaving in June). It was delicious.
Monday I went to work right away. I sat in on a few classes, as will be the case for the next two weeks as well, and observed how everything goes down at this countryside bushi-ban. That familiar feeling of being on display as if I were a new species in a zoo began to settle in. When the kids see me for the first time there are various reactions; uncontrollable giggling, hiding behind pillars trying to sneak a peak without being caught, double takes, gathering around my desk pointing staring and giggling simultaneously in little Taiwanese wolf packs, and the occasional student introduction (“HelLO, what-is-your-name?”). One kid even walked in the classroom and quickly said, “Who-is-that-man?” Ha! Punk ass kid… I got to introduce myself and meet the teenage kids I’ll be teaching, which was very cool. These kids speak English very well and had a spectrum of questions to ask me. The curiosity of the kids in this culture is hilarious. Questions about high school life, college, house parties, what our houses are made of, what kind of movies, music, and books we get into, what pets we have, sports, Kobe vs. Lebron…I can tell already the conversations I’m going to have with these kids will be entertaining.
I haven’t really seen too much of my town, as I’ve yet to have a full day off to explore. However, after work I usually go for a roundabout the streets and get myself lost for a little bit. Just like in school, I get various looks from local folk. Shock, double takes, stare downs, and curiosity partnered with random shout outs of “hello!!” (this being the extent of the English language down here). The people here are definitely not used to seeing foreign faces in this town. Trying to order food is an obstacle I’ve yet to face. Its not that I don’t know how to, ill order the hell out of some beef noodles and fried rice on the spot, but its that I don’t know if any of these joints sell the food I know how to order…I cant read anything!!! Luckily the school I teach at and the home of the family who owns it, happens to be the same big building. This is pretty awesome because the mom is an amazing cook and they offer lunch/dinner to me all the time. Delicious. Recently on one of my routine walkabouts I got caught up in a celebration, bitches. Apparently one of the gods had a birthday. And it was full on party time in this town. Ha! The fireworks display for this celebration would’ve put Lakewood’s 4th of July fireworks show to shame. The Chinese and fireworks are no joke. It was nuts. People throwing fireworks everywhere, debris and sparks raining down, giant gods parading around, dance music and spotlights, a random girl pole-dancing on the back of a truck…and this was just in front of the little temple outside of my apartment…then the party marched on to the main temple in the middle of town. Naturally I had to follow the madness. Dancing dragons throwing candy, more explosions and noise, bright lights, loud music, drums, horns, more fireworks, acrobatics…Oh da babiez! This was no doubt the cultural experience I was lookin for while being here. im buying a scooter and ive got the weekend off to explore the city, so ill be back with more stories and pictures soon… This has been the first week. I’ve got a long journey ahead of me...