Can I have some familiar food please!

We watched Treasure Island yesterday and Orlando Bloom's character, Ben is stranded on the island for three years. He has an unnatural desire for cheese! "Cheese is like a piece of heaven!" That's how we feel right now! I want some decent cheese with my omelette, and some real cream in my coffee and what about something fresh and raw?! Don't get me wrong Taiwanese food is fantastic and it IS fresh, but it's not raw. It's not that crispy cool salad with nuts and peppers and crunchy carrots. It's all cooked! 

So what? Make yourself a salad then! Well we don't have a fridge at the moment which means most of the ingredients to make a decent salad will go off! Did I mention double cream greek yoghurt?! So we can't make a salad! 

We tried a Korean restaurant the other day, and I ordered a "salad." It consisted of, onions, spring onions and sweet corn! Renalda had a bibimbap, which was actually pretty awesome, it comes in a thick steel bowl and is still sizzling when they place it in front of you. The rice at the bottom congeals and gets fried into a crispy delicious crust which is a little crunchy and a little chewy, but fabulously tasty. I had serious order envy! I had a few bites ;)

We also had a Korean hotpot at our downstairs food vendor, and tried a 1000 year old egg. The hot pot was something like a moerby stew, with everything under the sun in it. We ordered one with beef, but found pieces of fish, shellfish and other unidentified morsels in it. The egg varied in colour from translucent turquoise to black and grey. It's consistency was a little chewy, runny in places and powdery in others and it tasted like strong blue cheese mixed with stinky egg and is something I won't do again. 

We found out last night that all "barbecue" places aren't barbecues! We quite enjoy the Taiwanese barbecue shops. You get a little basket and choose some meat and veg which is then chopped up and fried or just mixed with some spices. We were walking around town last night when we saw what we thought was a barbecue. The options were the same, the baskets were the same, we just failed to notice the cardboard bowls that everything was served in. We made our selection, and were then asked what kind of noodles we wanted. We selected some, and then were handed a huge bowl of soup and a bag of cooked noodles. All quite delicious, but cooked, and now we know some barbecues are soup places, which is great, because we quite like soup! 

Unfortunately no food photos this time. Tuesday is payday and we have decided we will buy a little piece of heaven to satisfy at least one craving. Matsusei, the expensive, Japanese supermarket in DaJia, does have decent cheese, at a decent price. However we are still living on savings, so we haven't bought any. That will change soon. Cream? Not so much, and definitely no decent yoghurt, if I could find a cheap source of milk I'd make my own for sure, but it seems like dairy is not very important here.

Some sickly rest 27 March 2014

Sometimes getting sick has it's upsides. After school on Monday night I was pretty exhausted and I had a scratchy throat. By Tuesday morning I was feeling significantly worse, sore body, more runny nose than usual, mild headache. I decided to go to work anyway, but did manage an hour nap around 12. By the end of my second lesson I was toast! Seriously toast! I knew I was running a fever. All I wanted to do was lie down on a bed. Selena was talking to Renalda when she saw me and suggested she take my temperature. She did and it registered 38.8, which I think is relatively high.

She insisted that she take me to the doctor, immediately. It was 20m away, literally on the next corner. When I told them about the cardiac medication I take (quickly translated by Google), they bumped me closer to the front of the queue. They gave me a face mask as soon as they took my temperature. Finally they took a nasal swab and did a lateral flow test (think pregnancy test) for flu. They found that I had type A or B flu both of which can be quite serious. I got put off work for 5 days (3 days + weekend :( ) and was handed a mountain of medication. The medication includes a 5 day course of Tamiflu, and 12 individual packages with 5 tablets in each package, 3 per day for day time and one for night time to help me sleep! Then there's also a bottle of cough syrup. It cost me NT$1680 (~R580) in South Africa I suspect I would have paid closer to R1680!! And that's not the end of it. When I get my medical card it will be much much less! I think the consultation fee is NT$200 and the rest is free!

So ultimately this is allowing me to get some much needed rest. Unfortunately not the same for Renalda :( And to catch up on my blog, which is now as up to date as it's been in a while. See, getting sick has it's upsides ;)

Another week bites the dust - 23 Feb 2014

Wow, time flies! We have almost been working here for a month!! There have been ups and downs but we are both getting better at it. Renalda took some pics of one of her science class projects. They looked really great!

The solar system

I think the best part about being in Taiwan at the moment is the food! We are certainly giving everything a try. Below is some blood curd soup we tried, and below that is some beef soup, something of a staple for us at the moment.

Blood curd soup - not as bad as it sounds, quite yummy

Beef Soup - definitely yummy

The lady at the place where we got the aforementioned dishes was somewhat upset that we hadn't ordered her oyster omelettes. We gestured that we would order one next time... we had had oyster omelettes before and were somewhat underwhelmed. She was however not to be deterred and minutes later an oyster omelette was on our table, gratis! It was indeed for us, the best oyster omelette in Taiwan as she was trying to tell us. She is Indonesian and speaks a little bit of English. 

We chatted for some time and decided to go back the next night to order some omelettes proper. Mistake. She took this as the queue to regale us with stories we didn't understand about her family and the Mazu God's whereabouts. We tried in vane to go home as by this time it was after 11pm, but she wouldn't let us go politely. We have had to avoid the place since then, hoping not to damage our guanxi. 

Rita making oyster omelettes

One of my new colleagues, Derek asked us to join him and some of his friends in Taichung for dinner on Saturday night. We went to the Little Tibet Restaurant which served both Indian and Tibetan dishes. It was in Taichung so we took a train and a bus. It took us 2 hours to get there!! We definitely need to get a scooter asap.

Most of us decided to opt for the Tibetan food as no one had had any before. It was super yummy, in true Indian style we shared all the dishes we ordered and split the bill equally. And some of us ate with our hands. The only Indian food we had to have was the garlic naan, I struggle to resist naan bread.

From bottom anticlockwise: Garlic naan, Tibetan deep fried bread x 2, Tibetan stir fried beef, butter chicken (I think), vegetables in blue cheese sauce (YUM)

Left to Right: Emily, Ping su, Renalda, Me and Derek (Colleague)

After dinner we went to the nightmarket literally down the next street, where they were selling the usual allotment of goodies, except it looked more upmarket that the other night markets we had been to. The lighting was brighter, the signage newer. Even the people seemed to be different, I can't quite describe how, but they were. We heard that the last train for DaJia would leave at 10:30 so we'd better move. We got on another bus, which was painfully slow and headed back to the Taichung Main Train station. Derek seemed to think we were super late and started running. Turns out we had a good few minutes to spare, so we stood on the platform catching our breath. Renalda bought some water from a vending machine, which turned out to be tea...they had used an empty tea bottle and filled it with water. Of course everyone who buys anything from a vending machine can read Chinese!

On Sunday we had planned to go to the Dakeng Scenic Area, a nature reserve of sorts where you can hike and cycle, but it was close to where we went the night before and we didn't really feel like travelling for 2 hours again before getting to our destination. We decided to give the mountains a rain check and we headed for the sea. 

I hadn't read the map very well so we got off at a random stop pretty far from the ocean and we had to wind our way through rice paddies to get to the sea. And wind we did! I'm not sure how they decide to cut up land for rice paddies, I guess it must be to do with the contours but they do seem quite random. Rice paddies are clearly hard work and there were a number of people in their paddies on Sunday morning. 

Triple story building...rice paddy. 

DaJia is known to produce the finest taro in Taiwan. Taro is a sweet potato like plant. We get a version of it in South African called the madumbi. Taiwanese taro is purple where madumbi is white. There are tons of sweet dishes made from taro around. The plant has an elephant ear leaf, which I realised was identical to the madumbi leaf I planted in Pretoria. So below is a field of taro.

A field of flooded taro - big brother of the African Potato

Symmetry among chaos

The symmetry of the rice paddies was quite striking. The paddies themselves were quite disorderly, but the actual rice was planted about 10cm apart in a row and the rows were seperated by about 20cm. I've seen it in vineyards and fruit orchards, but never on this small a scale.

Random cyclist sculpture

Factory farmed geese :(

We finally got to the ocean, but there wasn't much to see. Just a large expanse of brown sand and some small breakers further out, so we decided not to take pics. But there were tons of windmills. Taiwan appears to take renewables very seriously! And they really want everyone to recycle.

Renalda trying to slow down the turbine

Me trying just to touch it ;)

The scale of these things is unbelievable. I went to stand on one. The wind was blowing quite strongly but they were only doing 20-30rpm.

Where's Mark?....on the stairs at the bottom of the pillar!

We then looked for some food before getting a bus home. We couldn't communicate so we just settled for a bag of nuts and some beef jerky (not very yummy). The bus ride home was surprisingly quick, it would have been much quicker for us to have ridden down, but it was still a good day out.

We got home and took some laundry to the laundromat. Once that was done we went looking for a nearby highschool where we could do some exercise. The DaJia highschool has a tartan track and pullup bars, what else do you need ;) While walking around the track we noticed a group of kids playing volleyball, but the teams were 3 - 2 so we asked if we could join. They didn't seem too upset, so we got a half hour's worth of volleyball in too!! A really good day for the body.

We then bought some supper and went home to do some more cleaning. The floors needed to be vacuumed and washed. Just before bed, we both realised that we had made an elementary mistake, neither of us had sunhats or sunscreen on for the whole day in the tropical sun! My face looked like a lobster, Renalda looked a slightly lighter shade of pink ;)

We woke up the next morning and it was a little better, and no one gave us a hard time at work. No harm no foul.

A day out in Taichung - March 16, 2014

So we actually took a well deserved rest today and decided to go to Taichung (pronounced Taijung) for  the day. We thought the museum of fine art would be a good place to go, but finding it was a little challenging. Taipei was super tourist friendly with MRT and bus maps in English. Taichung? Not so much! Google maps is pretty good at telling you which buses to take, but not so good with what time the bus will arrive or how long it will take.

We had a lazy morning and got out of DaJia on the 10:30 154 bus, which took about an hour to get to Taichung. This was a huge improvement in the 168 which we took last Thursday to do some syllabus specific training. That bus took around 2 hours to get there! On the way there we saw some Christmas decorations!! What the...!! Apparently Christmas never dies in Taiwan!  I asked a kid in class last week what the big winter holiday was in Taiwan, expecting "Chinese New Year" as the answer. I got Christmas!

Christmas in March...really?!

We then had to find the bus stop for the 56 bus which would take us to the museum, except it was a few blocks down from the train station. So we walked down the road past a market and eventually saw some buses at a stop. But there was no 56 on the signs so we decided we were at the wrong stop and facing the wrong direction. We crossed the road and went to another stop just in time to catch the correct bus. 

There was a mother with two young kids who got on at the same stop. We smiled at the kids and said hello. The little girl was super shy and wouldn't look away from her mom's jersey. Random comment to make, you say? Perhaps. Google had told me that it would take us 7 stops to get to the museum... it lied. At about stop 10, we got off the bus to get our bearings. We had gotten a tourist map at the train station which we whipped it out only to find that we were about 5 blocks away from the museum! We started to walk. It seems like you get the best feel for a city that way. Taichung is another big city. But seems to have wider spaces than Taipei. That is my impression from my first few hours in the city, perhaps it will change.

It took us 20 minutes or so to find the cultural centre which was adjacent to the museum. We asked some directions and got pointed to the museum. The photos below are from the gardens surrounding the museum, which seems to double as a park for families to come and have a fun Sunday afternoon. As we walked toward the museum entrance, guess who we saw! The lady with the shy little girl! We had gotten off the bus a few stops early. Oh well, we are certainly getting our exercise.

Some cool looking calligraphy...translations anyone?

Renalda next to a voluptuous sculpture 

Write and Draw in the Fine Arts Museum

The rose cafe - beautiful roses hanging from the ceiling

The museum itself was quite nice. Entrance was free and there were a lot of pictures and art works, although many of the galleries were empty. There was some very nice senior high school art depicting Chinese New Year. Saying farewell to the Dragon and welcoming in the Year of the Horse. 

Mostly it feels like the art on display was quite peaceful. Although one piece I remember, which was a critique of the USA, was entitled something like "The good and the bad." It had images of the Apolo re-entry vehicle and doctors performing surgery with a mushroom cloud in the background and war ravaged landscapes all around. Very thoughtful.

Another piece which took me back home looked like a landscape out of the little Karoo. It looked like a sunset, with a mountain in the foreground which was dark blue and the last sunlight shining on another range  in the background painting it bright pink. Renalda and I both stopped and said "Wow!"

There was a paid exhibit, but at the moment we are still living on saved money so we will rather keep the more expensive outings for when we have a salary.

Lunch at the musuem - lamb curry combo about R70 to share yummy

Finally we looked for a late lunch and found the museum restaurant. We shared a lamb curry combo meal, which was super tasty with the ever present "quing tsai."

We then headed home slowly and took a 168 which we have now vowed never to do again as it is SOOO slow. We will do the train from now on. It feels like Taichung is actually very far away, when it is probably only 30km, but getting there by public transport takes forever.

And now after a rest we are ready for week 3 at Hess. Let's hope it will be an easier one!

In the tropics and freezing! 16 March 2014

What's with the weather here! I checked on a map that we are 100km north of the tropics and its been really cold! If it's not raining it's around 10 degrees and cloudy. We've been missing the sun terribly! So much for sunny DaJia!!

We just completed week 2 of our year here at Hess in DaJia and what a hectic 2 weeks it has been!

In fact we got here Thursday 27th Feb by train from Taipei and spent the first two nights in a somewhat dingy DaJia hotel...on a round bed nogal! We got introduced to the branch staff on Thursday and were then treated to a vegetarian lunch. To say I no longer tolerate lots of carbs is an understatement! The lunch options were either rice or noodles, and not wanting to appear as fussy as I really can be, I opted for noodles, which were very tasty...I didn't say I don's like carbs.

We then had our very brief "branch training" in which I could barely keep my eyes open (carbs)! Not a problem I usually have after lunch any more. We then went to see 4 places the branch staff had picked out as possible apartments for us. Taiwan has a "clean after you move in" culture, which is quite strange to us. All but one of the places we saw were a mess. The first place was the right size but in a serious state of disrepair, the second place, in the same building was huge and would just have been too much for us to maintain, and furnish. The third place we saw was smaller, was relatively clean and was very conveniently located. The last place we saw was a 3 story house which was once again way too big for us, but it was immaculately clean. Someone pointed out that, had we taken it, we could possibly have rented out the top floor to someone in future. 

We settled for the third place, on the seventh (ground + 6) floor, near the train station. It is 10 mins walk from work and conveniently situated. The local fresh food market in 3 mins walk away, there is a 7-eleven, a supermarket and numerous pharmacy/toiletry stores, similar to Clicks or Boots downstairs.

Friday 28 was peace day in Taiwan, commemorating the 228 incident in which KMT forces massacred hundreds of local Taiwanese. We spent the day walking around DaJia buying supplies we would need when we signed the lease the next day. 

We could only move in late on the 1st as the landlord wasn't available on the holiday. We spent the day buying a bed, a plastic wardrobe and some other odds and ends. We arranged for our bed to be delivered after 8pm!

Signing the lease was quite frustrating. The landlord spoke no English, so we had to work through Selena, one of the branch staff. I would ask her to ask something and they would speak for 10 minutes. I would get a short answer, ask another question and get another answer 10 minutes later! I need to learn the language!!

That Sunday we realised that there were a number of things we missed on Saturday so we went and did more shopping. We definitely needed a table and 2 chairs as working at a bed just wouldn't work. We got the stuff delivered after some more translation by Selena on the phone. I found that we hadn't been charge for the chairs so I asked Selena to help. Turns out that the store owner's child is at the school, so no problem!!

Teaching Week 1

Then our first week started. I think to say we were thrown into the deep end is a major understatement!   We are replacing staff members who are leaving and the head English teacher went on holiday for a week so we had a full schedule from Monday! Four teaching hours a day, with observations (2 hours each) three days that week. Considering we spent about 2 hours planning a 2 hour lesson, as we are completely unfamiliar with the material, we were exhausted! 

I had an early Saturday morning class, and after doing some laundry, the rest of my weekend was spent planning! I had three lessons in a row on Monday, which I think I mostly did justice to. The rest of this week was pretty much heads down, exhausting hard work. It's sad because at the moment I'm not really enjoying it, there are moments of pleasure when some kids look up at you and nod or smile or laugh, but mostly it feels like I'm not quite doing it right. 

Renalda and I made a realisation last night or this morning though. We need to plan the lessons we find easier first. Just like exam technique... the harder work takes longer and puts pressure on you to do the easy work in a shorter amount of time. This week we will get the easy wins done first, it will make us feel more confident and give us more time.

We're still loving the food here, it's great! I'm a whole animal person...if you are going to do an animal the injustice of killing it, give it the honour if eating it all. Taiwan does this! If you go look at the fish meat store it is all there and you can buy everything from liver to tripe at many restaurants.

Renalda and I make breakfast every morning and it is usually eggs with some freshly bought vegetables and kimchi. The market, as I said earlier, is 3 mins walk away so most mornings I roll out of bed and stroll or jog to the veggy lady to buy some "tshing tsai" (green leafy veggies sold everywhere). I'll  post a picture of a breakfast one day when I remember, but I think we are eating quite healthy...

I hope I didn't bore you with my long update, but nothing particularly exciting has happened for some time!

Into the great wide open - February 27, 2014

Up where the sky's so blue 😉 That is both a reference to a song and to the fact that our new home in DaJia will be a LOT more sunny than Taipei.

Wow, what a busy week! I haven't had a chance to post! I'll try to give a quick run down of how things went so we can remember when we look back. 

We had Saturday off, that was when we had had the massive ice cream/shaved ice. Sunday it was right back to training and we went through one of the curriculums for the older kids. We had to prepare  this for our final assessed demo on Monday morning. I was exhausted by Sunday night. Renalda, "Yorkshire" Dan and I sat in our room and prepared our lesson plans. 

By 12 I was finished typing mine up and I ran down to the...guess what...7 eleven, to print my lesson plans out!! You can do ANYTHING at a 7 Eleven here! 

Just a quick aside, so far we have seen 3 different convenience store brands, 7 Eleven, Family Mart and OK Mart. Taiwan has the most convenience stores per capita in the world. There is something ridiculous like 1 convenience store for every 1500 people here, which is insane. In Taipei, there is literally one on every corner.

Anyway, so I printed my lesson plans after midnight at the 7 Eleven across the street, showered and went to bed, I was exhausted, and starting to feel a little bit of a cold creeping up on me again. Renalda, bless her, stayed up for another hour and a half prepping her lessons and doing other stuff. I woke up in the morning and all the relevant pages in the books I needed to use were marked with sticky notes! 

We had had to prepare for 2 lessons, for Monday and were to teach only half a lesson as a demo. I think everyone was quite nervous to get the older curriculum, Renalda and I certainly were. We got to work early and this time got a good heads-up on what sections we needed to teach for our demo. I "lucked out" as the Americans say. You would think this meant I got bad luck, but apparently it means my luck was good, I got the younger kids lesson. Renalda on the other hand got the exact section she didn't want to get and was not very happy about it. 

We were both pretty nervous, I think Renalda more than me. She put on a brave face, stole my notes for that section 😉 and delivered a good lesson. I hit all my steps and was quite happy with my delivery. Most importantly it was over and we weren't fired ☺. They "treated" us to pizza, I groaned. We have been eating the "local" food 100% of the time and have been loving it. Almost everything is served with rice, which I generally have a little bit of, but it's easy to avoid wheat and carbs in general. The lunches so far had been "lunch boxes" which included some rice, some vegetables and some meat. Pizza however gives you no option to avoid anything. Both Renalda and I had the first stomach aches since we had arrived in Taiwan after eating Western food...oh the irony. 

The rest of Monday and the whole of Tuesday we went through the final curriculums and generally just got early nights. Yesterday (Wednesday), we went through all the policy and contract related things and generally wrapped up the training. We signed contracts with our branches and had a bit of a cocktail party and then it was time for us to pack our bags before going to KTV. KTV is basically a karaoke club and the tradition for Hess NST graduation is to go out to KTV and sing. 

Put westerners in front of a mike after a couple of drinks and things go pear shaped! It was pretty funny and I also had a few beers and ended up with a hoarse voice singing cheesy songs as loudly as possible. We managed to get ourselves home before 12 for our early morning and the train ride south to DaJia, where our branch is.

Interestingly the branch management has decided that we should be at the same branch. We had originally thought they would put us at different branches so that we can take leave together. They seem to think that won't be a problem anymore, so we will just have to apply for our leave well in advance.

I'm nervous and excited about the imminent learning curve. I think because we are at the same branch we will have preschool kids, which I thought we may not have had, but we chose the contract option which included them. I'm really looking forward to getting going and learning some new skills. I have no doubt that it will be a lot of hard work, but I'm also sure that this will most likely be one of the most rewarding things I've done yet.

Fifth day of training

More than half way through! Awesome. We did our second assessed demo yesterday, 21st Feb, and I felt completely lost. I got through it alive though and we were let off early for a well deserved rest and a day off on Saturday.

The younger people in the group went off and had a bit of a party, but Renalda and I decided to rather take in another night market and some exotic food. We went south on the Zhonghe Orange line, and got off at the Yongan Market station, looking for the Yongan Market, but were disappointed to realise we were too early. But we did find a fruit shop who had the tiny citrus fruit I'd been looking for ever since my tangerine tea and the Chaing Kai Shek memorial! Yummy tea awaits!! 

We just walked around the vicinity and took in the sights, sounds and smells of the place. Something you hear at the traffic lights all over taipei and no doubt taiwan as a whole is what sounds like the start of a huge scooter race when the traffic lights turn green. Suddenly there is the loud buzzing of fifty scooters all racing hell-for-leather down the street and the crazy weaving of the jockeys jostling for first place. Very comical!

Something else I noticed was that the petrol stations are setup to serve scooters better. There are pumps that are in positions which a car could never get to, obviously a large proportion of their business comes from scooters.

We then got back on the MRT and headed for Nanshijiao station and to the Xingnan market, which we were sure would be happening at that time, we weren't disappointed! The smell of stinky tofu was in the air, we had arrived! We had gone out looking for duck, it wasn't something we had tried here yet. We found a place selling what looked like mildly smoked duck and asked for some. I also spotted some tripe. We also got some of that. Unfortunately the duck was not to either of our tastes, the first thing I can think of that we didn't want to finish. We also saw some intriguing tomato "toffee apples" which we tried, the sweet and sourness worked very well together, and the crunchiness of the sugar were all delightful. Toffee apples are definitely not my thing, but I might have one of these again in the future!

Toffee tomatoes!

We wandered around looking at the various clothing, food and trinket shops, nearly getting run over by insane scooter drivers on more than one occasion. Every now and then we were loudly invited into a shop to try this or that. We have a few extra things that will not fit into our bags on Thursday when we move to our branches so we had to buy an extra bag. We went into a store and "chatted" to a guy, who managed to convey to Renalda that his son had live in South Africa, NanFei, for a few years, where he learnt English. Very friendly people on the whole.

I have to have veggies with my meat so we went looking for a place selling a variety of deep fried veg, but Renalda wanted some chicken hearts and "pope's noses," who am I to argue with a woman who wants to eat more meat?! The couple selling the food seemed a little unfriendly but we thought nothing of it and were all smiles. When they were about to hand us our food we motioned to ask if we could take a picture of their stand, for which we got an emphatic "NO!" which we found a bit surprising. Perhaps they were having a bad day. 

We walked up and down some more until we found a shaved ice store!! It's ice cream, with a twist. They freeze a block of sugared water or coconut milk (we think), and then put it on what looks like a vertical lathe. They then use a blade to shave off the ice and put all sorts of sweet goodies with it. We had strawberries in syrup. Renalda had asked about the pineapple, but that was apparently not for the ice cream, so we couldn't get it on ours. However a few minutes later a little bowl arrived with some pineapple in syrup on the house! 

Renalda sampling some shaved ice, looking very pleased

It really was a mountain of numminess!!

I used my phone to translate "that was very good" as the sales people didn't speak any English. We then just came back to the hotel for a good night's rest, so that I don't have to wear the mask of shame next week ;) 

Mask of shame

Then last night I was awoken by the bed shaking back and forth and Renalda telling me nervously that it was an earthquake. It was indeed our first noticeable earthquake...and we are on the ninth floor. We have been assured that there is nothing to worry about, they don't even do drills with the kids here as the earthquakes just aren't that violent. Apparently Taiwan has about than 3000 earthquakes a year of which only a few hundred are noticeable. I guess if the tension is being relieved regularly the chances of a large earthquake are smaller.

Third and Fourth days of training

On Tuesday, we went through most of the kindergarten syllabus. It was a large volume of work to remember, but there were clearly defined steps and teacher's guides. Some of it was really difficult as I  had taken some "non drowsy" flu medication. Some of the time I was nauseated some of the time I was dizzy making it pretty hard to concentrate on the work. I found myself drifting off at times, while being taught by experienced preschool teachers who's job it is to maintain attention!

At the end of the day we were asked to prepare a preschool lesson, there was a clear teacher's guide for the lesson and we were told that in our teams of 4 we would have to present quarters of the lesson. There were sections on vocab and grammar, the alphabet, phonics and then songs and stories. But we each had to be prepared for the whole lesson as we wouldn't know who would do which section.

I had expected our group to realise it would be quicker and easier to do it together, but they all wanted to do theirs on their own! Which meant we each had to prepare the whole lesson. Renalda's group seemed to think exactly the same thing. In the end Renalda and I did our lesson together in our hotel room. We got to bed around 1am when we both felt we had enough...and we're about to crash.

We woke up at 5 with me feeling terrible and still somewhat nauseated. I had very little for breakfast and we got some fresh air walking to work. We got there early to get some practice in our assigned classrooms. Which at least allowed me to calm my nerves and think about how I would present my lessons. One thing I realised was that I should sit on a kiddies chair for definite!

We were then assigned our evaluator, our guy was a South African from the free state who had been working in Taiwan for the past 12 years! Big Afrikaans guy with a bit of a boep. He stated flat out that he absolutely loved teaching kindergarten!! What a contrast!

I got to go last and cringe through some of my classmates' nervous mistakes. You have to behave like a 'class' but I found myself trying to give them tips. I'm not sure if that put them off or helped them. I got the section presenting a song and a story book.

The most helpful thing I found myself doing was jumping up and down with the class shaking hands and feet to up the energy in the class and to get rid of some of my own nervous energy. So of course we did that at the beginning of my song. I thought the song went well and I got a good reaction out of the 'class'. 

I thought the story also went well, I sat down in front of the class and tried to craft a bit of a different environment by switching off the lights. I could also have gotten the class to sit on the floor, but I forgot. I got a pretty good review I thought. We had interesting feedback from our evaluator.

We then went back to the lecture theatre to finish the kindergarten syllabus and move on. The highlight of the day was when they brought a class of 4 year olds to sing to us and introduce themselves to us. They were so cute and innocent and keen. We were allowed to go talk to (swamp) the kids and give them some candy. I had to wait my turn, but got a little high five and fist touch in at the end. Sooo cute!

The rest of the day was mostly unremarkable, just more of the same and a Chinese lesson. After which we went to get some supper and headed to the hotel for an early night and some well deserved rest. And to hopefully feel a bit better tomorrow.

I'm reserving some of the photos of our more recent meals for a compilation. 

Second day of training

Yesterday, 18 Feb was pretty intense, but I suspect it will get even more intense. We were split into groups of four and were awarded points for participation throughout the day. We went through things like Mazlow's hierarchy and Human development. We also were introduced to the Hess teaching methods and the Hess curriculum, both of which are very comprehensive. We had a lot of fun with a gangsta wrap competition and some songs and story time. It's amazing how much fun adults can have when you tell them they are allowed to behave like children again. There was a hug-a-thon, where you were expected to hug as many people as possible.

Finally we had to present a song to some of our peers who were to behave like the students in our class. This was quite fun and acted as our first demo. We seemed to have done pretty well, and I was lucky enough to be in the same class as Renalda's group. She also did very well.

How do I feel? Excited, overwhelmed, terrified, interested and certainly challenged. I'm way out of my comfort zone, which is exactly where I want to be! My only problem is that the annoying little post nasal  drip that I've experienced over the past few days has turned into a full blown cold, stuffy nose, chesty cough etc. Not ideal, but I have stuff that will see me through. I did my TEFL under similar conditions, I will survive.

Taipei day 7 - First day of training

Today was the first day of training, and admittedly it was quite light. We were led to the Hess Main building by some of the Hr team. The first session was an introduction to Hess and dealt with things like housekeeping,professional expectations etc.

We then had to leave our "cool hats" behind and play some fun games. Four of the training team produced an impressive feat of memory. They managed to remember the details of 13 people, their home town, field of study, why they came to Taiwan and something quirky about each of them. And they mostly remembered them all! Wow!

We then played some high energy games outside in a communal area. Some to do with names, some to just get people having fun!

Before lunch all the South Africans were taken aside and asked about their visa and documents experience. It was hilarious to hear how inconsistent our government is with regards these things. Lunch was a "lunch box" which consists of rice meat and veggies, although I took the vegetarian option, Renalda and I shared her chicken and my extra veggies.

After lunch was a hilarious exercise to illustrate the implications of ending up in a culture that you don't understand. Directly after which there was a lecture on culture shock which was quite enlightening. We will see how we both do in this completely new situation.

Then we had a Mandarin lesson, Hess style, full of energy and movement and games. All the things that we love, although I did struggle to remember the Chinese for Rock Paper Scissors. 

The next lecture was about the documents process. There are 5 different items to get from government departments. First a medical check, then a work permit, residence visa, then an ARC and finally the medical card...I think! We can expect to have our work permits sorted before we get to our branches. The rest of the items may take a while longer, but these guys clearly have done this before and know what they are doing.

Then we got a brief intro to housing in Taiwan and what to expect. All will be good I'm sure.

Finally they discussed how placements were made and that the decisions were final. We were pretty sure that we were going to Taichung and this was confirmed, although, I'm still somewhat intrigued as to why we seemed to be the only couple who had a predetermined spot. Perhaps they wanted a 'mature' couple at these schools, or perhaps we were just very flexible. Most people seemed quite happy with their placements.

We then had to get 10 photo's for the HR process!!!!! Apparently the Taiwanese need a photo on every single submitted document!!

Finally we found a vegetarian buffet for supper with great food. We just knew none of the names of any of the items! And the soup was free!! While walking home, Renalda noticed that a huge hole and large construction site that had been there yesterday was suddenly gone, it's insane how quickly these people do things! Yesterday it was a huge hole, last night we smelled asphalt and saw a tip truck and today there is a whole new lane open in the road. Unbelievable

All veggies from a buffet

We now have a call from our branch manager after which, bed time!!

Taipei day 6 - last day of holiday

Today, 16 Feb, was the last day before training starts and we decided not to do too much. We had a ton of laundry to do so we went to the coin operated laundromat. It was quite interesting as pertains to the trust everyone had regarding their stuff. People had clearly put washing in and weren't planning on returning until much later. They counted on the next person to remove their washing and leave it there until they returned to put it in the dryer. Other people live life differently.

Renalda did most of the work, while I caught up on yesterday's post. I feel like it's important to keep writing this blog, both for the people who are reading it and for myself to look back on. I would write a journal, but this allows me to include pictures, and is a lot more fun.

We also decided that if we were to be here for two more weeks we should probably unpack a bit better, so we went looking for a supermarket to buy some essentials, like extra hangers and water. We also bought some sushi takeaway for lunch, which was ridiculously cheap. We headed back to the hotel to unpack our bags properly for the hectic 2 weeks which lay ahead.

We'd heard of a jade market under the elevated freeway a few blocks away so we decided to walk. We sure are getting enough exercise! We saw another thing that I will love about this place. Cape Town is only just catching on to this, it's the outdoor gym. We walked passed a park with equipment painted in playground colours. I'll have to find one of those close to home when we move to our branches.

We found the Jade Marker under the Jianguo elevated freeway. It smelled like incense and was
packed with people. Hundreds of stalls selling everything from rings to statues to blank chops (name
stamps). And of course the ever present zodiac symbols and statues. We settled on getting Renalda a small pair of jade earrings. 

Next along was the flower market, which was more like a massive nursery and flower shop. Think 500m of pots, seeds, tools, plants, bonsai trees, fully grown trees, garden ornaments and fountains, sold by hundreds of proprietress, supported by thousands of people.

Why did the tortoise cross the road? It didn't, it was made of stone!

There were massive carvings of all sorts of materials, stone, wood, amber.

Renalda and the Giant Pear... the sequel.

You could break a tooth on these litchis!

Grapes, litchis and what looked like a carrot. I wasn't entirely sure but it looked like there was another carving at another stall of a steak! It was made of red and white stone, so it had a strip of fat and marbling in the middle!! Amazing!

The final market was the handicrafts market where handicapped people sell their crafts to make a living. All sorts of paintings and other goodies on sale. We found a hairpin for Renalda made from cow's horn. When the proprietor asked where we were from we said Nanfei (South Africa) only to be told that the horn comes from...you guessed it! South Africa!!

A cow horn hair pin

It was actually the first sunny day we have had and we were able to get into shorts and t-shirts, if you hadn't noticed. And we got a great view of the 101. We will definitely need to take a trip up there one day soon.

Taipei 101 in sunlight!!!

Let's not forget the all important supper! While walking home we came across another market, and saw a vendor selling fish. We shared this wonderful looking specimen. Renalda just refused to eat the eyes. I can understand why. I didn't particularly enjoy the one I tried.

Whole fish of some sort

But the rest was tasty.

We ate it all!!

We stopped at another place to get a few veggies, we picked broccoli, green beans, radish (I think) and mushrooms. These were fried up with some garlic and spices and as usual were very tasty. As we neared the hotel we came across a Taipei Buffet restaurant, which looked great. We will definitely have to try it sometime soon! Now? To bed.

Taipei day 5 - a trip to the sea

Today, 15 Feb, there was an organised trip to Tamsui for anyone of the, lets call us Hess interns. About 20 people took up the offer. We had two of the Hess HR staff take us there. It was a bit like a school outing all over again. We walked together to the station and there was an explanation of how to use the MRT for those who hadn't yet used it.

The Tamsui is a big river that flows through Taipei. We were to visit it's estuary and an old Spanish for there and of course to eat some more interesting food. It was another rather miserable day and I must say I am currently missing the sun. It's been cloudy and rainy since we arrived. We got off the train to no sea smell at all, but there was definitely the smell of stinky tofu, probably the one thing so far which I'm not so happy to try. It's like a mix between the smell of sweet and sour sauce and ammonia.

We did see some giant ice cream which we had to try. We weren't sure of the flavours, it was pink and green. The green was tea flavoured, I think, but what I really like about it was it wasn't too sweet! Renalda was in seventh heaven!

Renalda and Amy with a giant ice cream cone

We then strolled up to the old Spanish fort, Fort Santo Domingo, later renamed Fort Antonio by the Dutch. Seems it was actually the Dutch that started all this renaming nonsense 😉

Fort Santo Domingo

I always wanted to be in the artillery

Who can resist lighting a cannon!? Of course Renalda couldn't resist a boat cruise...in a clog!? What the...? I also managed to add to my growing collection of stamps in my "Taiwan passport"

Renalda and the Giant Clog...good name for a kiddies book?

We went into the old British consulate building inside the fort. Old English (Victorian?) furniture isn't particularly interesting to me as we seem to see so much of it at home. However there was an exhibition of work and poetry by William Morris, a most influential designer of the late 19th and early 20th century. It seems he invented wall paper. I really liked this quotation, food for thought...

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful - William Morris

And then there was this beatiful Tiffany Lamp which reminded us of Renalda's brother Waldo, who made his own!

A Tiffany lamp

Tamsui/Danshui estuary

View of the Tamsui/Danshui estuary looking out to sea.

On the way back we got, what we thought was our first taste of Chingrish, what do you think a Doggy Poo Poo Bank is? 

Doggy Poo Poo Bank????

I can't confirm it, but I believe it may be that the Taiwan government pay their citizens to pick up after their pets and deposit it in a bank, where they are either rewarded with lottery tickets or treats for their dog! What a novel idea!!

Next stop the ubiquitous food street, where we had squid balls with wasabi, I think they are called yuwan, only one left when I remembered to take a pic,

Wasabi squid balls , Yuwan?

And battered deep fried squid, yummy!

All sorts of wonderful goodies...and I SWEAR I'm losing weight!!

The picture doesn't do it justice

Renalda, not looking so sure, but she had her fair share!!

After surprisingly little to eat...even with the great food, I swear our stomachs are shrinking...we returned to the train with the Hess interns, but we had a plan. We had been eyeing the Beitou warm baths for a few days and had packed our swimming costumes, so we hopped off at Beitou station and went looking for the baths, got completely lost and had to ask a policeman for directions. We eventually did find the baths which were scorching hot, but fantastic! The etiquette was a little difficult at first. Renalda's hair had to be tied up and when I wanted to stand up, because it was getting too hot, the life guard said, please no "just dipping the feet". The baths seemed very acidic, and I had shaved earlier in the morning, so we didn't stay too long, but it was very good. We headed home and got our first definite taste of Chingrish.

I'm not sure if a pretty girl would want to be called eye candle??!!

That's a real piece of eye candle there!! We also saw the premises of the local Rotary club, so I took a pic for Tom and Donna, unfortunately it's little blurred.

Just for Tom and Donna

There was talk of going to a pub for some drinks and some dancing. Renalda and I can never say no to a dance floor, so we decided to go that evening. There was also a suggestion that all the best places are in the alleys, so we walked down some alleys toward the pub, looking for somewhere to get some supper. Unfortunately we didn't take a camera. We walked into a place that looked friendly and were welcomed by the owner who rushed off to find English menus, we immediately felt obliged to eat there, and we are happy we did.

When the waitress came to take our order, we made a selection of meat and vegetables with a wrap. She seemed unhappy with our selection and called the friendly manager over, who then made some strong suggestions as to what we should order. When the food came we attempted to make our wraps. This was clearly not to the managers satisfaction, because while I was making my second he bustled over noisily, took my chopsticks and spoon and deftly wrapped the most perfect spring roll you have ever seen. He did the same for Renalda! By then, because of our sloppy wrapping, we had a stack off filling left and no wraps, so there was a noisy altercation between the chef and the manager, and soon there were more wraps on the table, and the manager was making our spring rolls once more. This guy clearly wanted us to enjoy our meal, and he made sure we did. After the second demonstration to each of us he was finally happy that we should do it ourselves, which we both did, quite successfully! We will definitely go back! Pity I have no idea what the place is called, just a map and a business card.

The rest of the evening was something of a disappointment and we will have to wait a little longer to get our dancing fix. The pub with the dance floor was only open for sport that evening. We had a drink or two and went walking around town looking for a pool bar with a few other guys, got fed up, then went home to bed. 

Full day!!