voix de mathieu

exhaustion.

2008-10-01T02:03:00.001-07:00

Have you ever been so tired that you can hardly move? We feel like that 80% of the time. This week I have to work 2 double-doubles, essentially 13 hour shifts 2 days in a row. How beautiful. I am so poor and I have $4 left t my name and was looking forward to the $2000 coming my say on Saturday . As luck would have it, we won't be getting that until Monday now. There goes my chance of having any kind of weekend.

It seems as though life here is always a few cents short. As soon as you catch up with one thing, another challenge comes along. And it piles up on you. Rosanna and I were trying to sum up how we've felt lately. We've determined that it's undefinable. We're never quite sure what we want. I don't feel like I've settled in quite yet.

The typhoon this weekend was more annoying than anything. It just rains for 3 days and the wind blows. Waiting for busses in the rain is my new favorite thing to do. And while you're waiting your umbrella breaks and blows away.

Well I'm going to go do the one thing that keeps me going– watching pirated american television on my computer.

I'll update again when I'm not a debbie downer.

month

2008-09-22T08:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates! I just got internet in my apartment.

We've been in Taiwan for 59 days. We've been teaching for 42 days. We teach 30 hours a week plus one hour of prep time. It has it's ups and it has it's downs. You have good days and you have horrible days. I teach kindergarten Mon – Fri 9 to 11:30, Elementary English Mon, Wed, Fri from 2 to 4 and night clases Tuesday 7 to 9, Thursday 5 to 9, Friday 7 to 9 and Saturday 10:30 to 12:30. The classes are made up from 7 to 30 Taiwanese children. Some are incredibly well behaved and some are beyond control. Every class has a chinese assistant. They teach every other day. We have become quite close with our co-teachers and fellow Native Speaking Teachers (NSTs). We have 2 fellow NSTs at our school: Daniel from America and Catherine from Scotland/UK. They are incredibly helpful. We've gone out drinking and to dinner with them already. They are a blast.

Sometimes I miss home so bad that I cry and sometimes I don't have time to miss it. More often it's the later. I miss eating things I can pronounce. I miss my dog. I miss reading. I miss having a car. I miss my friends. I miss English television. I miss pasta. The Taiwanese can cook some mean hibachi but they sure as hell can't cook Italian or Mexican. Western food is available but it's very very pricey compared to local food. I can get 10 dumplings and a rice drink for 65 NT ($2.00) but a burrito and a margarita will cost you 500 NT ($15.50). That's a big difference. Sometimes though you think you will go mad if you eat one more dumpling so the $15 burrito doesn't look so bad. The bus and MRT (subway) get old fast. But I have since lost 20lbs. Real chinese food is a bit more of a challenge to eat let alone obtain. I have begun to pick up chinese. Slowly but surely.

I can understand when my kids ask me to use the bathroom. At first it sounded like "meow meow", but now I know "niao niao" means "pee-pee". I know that "wei goren" means "FOREIGNER" because I am the ONLY white person in a 10 mile radius and people let me know. Getting on the bus makes you feel like a freak of nature. Everyone stares. Culturally it's not rude to stare. And stare. And then stare some more when they think you don't notice. Also Taiwanese people aren't afraid to be honest. I'm culturally still fat. Like really fat. They call their own fat too. One girl in kindergarten is drinking weight loss shakes, via her mother. It's quite sad to think what kind of body image these girls and even boys have.

My chinese has improved thanks to P. We've been seeing each other since August 23. I don't know what to call us. We just refer to ourselves as language exchange partners. Ha ha. He's a sweet boy. And yes everyone, he's Taiwanese. I know I always said before I left that I wouldn't date anyone here. It happened after just one night at the movies in Taipei. We've seen each other every weekend since. He drives a scooter and a motorcycle. I love to ride his scooter. I'd like to get one myself. He's a college student studying English. I teach him slang from the states such as "Hot Tranny Mess" and "Double Fisting"– all very useful in a professional environment.

Well everyone it's approaching my bedtime. I will update more often now. I miss you all.

internet.

2008-08-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

For those of you that check this blog religiously or just occasionally I wanted to tell you all that I'm still without internet. It's incredibly difficult to sign up because it's all in Chinese– the forms, addresses, phone call etc. Even the smallest task such as riding the bus, getting dinner or signing up for the internet has proved incredibly challenging. I'm stealing internet from a neighbor through wireless but it frequently gives out. I also work– a lot. Monday through Saturday 8am until either the afternoon or the late evening. I'm doing great everyone, a bit stressed, but great. As soon as I get the internet there will be pictures, videos, phonecalls and updates galore. Know that I am alive and I still think about all of you back in the states.

Class.

2008-08-11T21:15:00.003-07:00

I finished my first 2 days of Kindergarten. I'm so shaken by it. These kids can hardly walk on their own and are expected to listen to me and repeat every word I say. They can't even stand in line yet. I have full lesson plans and have to skip most of it until the kids calm down. Once you get 2 to sit, 3 more get up and run. I have 3 Chinese Teachers helping me too! They basically told me to leave at 11:30 today, and everyday. I think I was disturbing their routine. I just thought maybe I should help.

They said it would happen at training and now I know. I feel like a failure as a teacher. I did manage to get a child to warm up to me today and listen to me, but no he and another student fight over who will walk in front and hold my hand. I still need to give myself time to adjust to the kids and them to adjust to me.

I have 2 evening classes beginning at 5 and going until 9. These students are older and may listen a bit more.

Last night was Rosanna's Birthday and we celebrated by going out to dinner. But we couldn't find any restaurants open at 10pm. We walked for what seemed forever and stumbled upon a japanese barbecue. They set red hot coals on your table with a grill on top. No one spoke any (understandable) english so everyone as quite confused. They brought out their entire selection of meats and veggies for us to sample. This included: steak, pork, chicken, chicken butts, chicken cartilidge, green peppers, prawns, clams, fish, fish jaw, intestines, livers, mushrooms, sesame paste, and sausage. It was actually quite good. It cam to only $29 US for the entire meal!

I still don't have my own internet so more pictures will have to wait. Wish me luck with my first week of teaching.

alive.

2008-08-10T05:39:00.000-07:00

I know there has been some speculation as to my whereabouts and such. I assure you all that I'm alive. But just barely. Training kicked all our asses. It was a grueling schedule. 10 days staright and no days off. 9am to 7pm everyday and homework every few days. The very next day after training at the main office in Taipei, my boss, Elbert, whisked us away for 4 more days of training at on of our local schools. We had to observe 8 classes and keep track of where we were headed to next.

We did sign a lease for an apartment. It's a gorgeous building in the village of Taishan. It's a european style building with marble floors and a foyer. We use remote controls to enter the building and activate the elevator. We have a security guard that I have still to give a nick name, but we will call him Bill for now.

This town is a lot smaller than Taipei. It's much more rare for a caucasian to be walking down the street, let alone residing in the town. A lot of people just stare, but I was told just to wave hello and they promptly go back to their business. There isn't much immediately around and since we do not have a car, we must walk. We've been spending a fortune on Taxis. They are only $5 US to get back and forth some times, but if we do that 4 times a day it adds up.

We visited the worlds largest IKEA twice already. It enormous. We pile all our purchases into a taxi when we're done. We're waiting for our first paychecks to get more furniture. We had to buy beds when we first got here, but they weren't ready until the next day. Therefore the first night we camped out on the tile floors using kids sleeping bags from the school. Not fun. And it's getting quite annoying to live out of a suitcase.

What else... oh everyone has a scooter. You look down at the street and its a sea of scooters. The government places high taxes on cars just encourage people not to get them. There just isn't enough room for everyone to have a car. The taiwanese are crazy drivers as well. Green means go, yellow means go faster and red is optional. They run red lights all the time.

Well tomorrow is the first day of class. I observed my kindergarten class on friday. They are soooo cute, but the majority can't even say their own names in english let alone chinese. I guess I have a long road ahead with them. Besides kindergarten I teach about 7 more classes in the afternoon or evenings. It's a 6 day work week, so I also teach on Saturdays. I never had weekends off at home, so nothings new.

Wish me luck with my classes and lesson planning. I'll write more often as soon as internet is installed.

typhoon.

2008-07-27T17:09:00.000-07:00

There is a typhoon heading through the middle of the island today. The government determines whether it is dangerous enough to shut down the island. Well it's a level 2 or 3 out of 5 typhoon. So all the businesses are closed for the day. We have the day off from school. They call it a Typhoon Day, kind of like Snow Days in the "States."

Everyone here calls the US the "States." We've even begun calling it that. We've met some really great people already. They are from Canada, South Africa, U.K., Scotland, Flordia, Chicago, LA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. We were a bit weary about meeting our colleagues but after yesterday we're a bit more comfortable.

On Saturday evening we met up with Jos and Frances, some friends we met online prior to our arrival. They had been here for a few days before us so they showed us to a pub. The pub was right next to Taipei 101, the worlds tallest building. It was a western style bar with beer and wings. It was full of Australians watching a soccer match. We ordered some drinks and a quesedilla of all things. It was nothing like it's mexican-american counterpart.

After finishing up we hit up the mall under Taipei 101. This mall was amazing. It was filled with everything from Louis Vuttion to Christian Dior. We of course didn't buy a thing but the window shopping was amazing. And for all my Coach girls at home, I stopped in and the new stuff is so cute! But their customer service was poor, even though we were all rocking their bags. Bitches.

The food is always fresh. We stopped at a smoothie stand and they peeled fresh guava to put in my drink. It was delicious. Our friends then demanded that we needed to see Chinese style condoms. She just marched up the closest employee and asked for CONDOMS. Loud and in English. It was quite an embarrassing ordeal. Get this, their main brand is called STONKER DONKERS. They were available in jean color too!

The jet lag has begun to set in at this point. Rosanna and I were exhausted. We headed back to our hotel but not before stopping at the 7-11. They are on every corner. They are like the Stewarts of Taipei. It's easy to buy things since when they scan items the price in Taiwan New Dollar comes up on the screen. A bottle of water is 25NT but that is about 85 cents in US dollars. Food is incredibly cheap.

But like I said the jet lag is messing up our sleeping patterns. The last 2 days I've been waking up at 5:30am. I can't sleep any longer than that. I'm just wide awake. We've decided this is for the better since we want to get into the habit of getting up early.

Yesterday we also went on a city tour on a bus. Thank god it was air conditioned. We had to wear business casual clothes. What a huge mistake. I was in a button down, khakis and loafers in 90 degree heat with extreme humidity. My hair turned into a curly fro. I think i may need to cut it, sadly. We visited the Chiang Kai Shek memorial. He was the sort of the man that separated Taiwan from mainland China. The views on Taiwan and China are varied. As a foreigner it's wise to stay neutral or even better oblivious.

There was a huge Koi pond at the memorial too and I hand fed some of them. They were gigantic!

That night a group of us met at the lobby to find somewhere to eat. We were given a basic mandarin leson before we left school that day so that we could eat at an actual restaurant. Wo Yao Chi means I want to eat. We learned out to say rice (fun) and dumplings (shui jiao). We walked a could blocks with about 12 people and found a seafood restaurant. The way it works is that you pick your fish out front and they barbecue or steam it in the back. Thank God our friends Clint and Leif know some more mandarin than we do and they took care of ordering everything. We were sat in a back room with large tables with a giant lazy susan in the middle. They put the food and drinks on there and you spin it to the next person. We got 2 large whole fish with rice, steamed spinach, shrimp tempura, salad, beef and pepper steak, beer and green tea. These aren't small plates either, they are huge! They are meant to be shared among your table. The fish were served whole, eyballs and all... kinda gross but once you try it, it's actually quite good. The fish was so fresh it still had the hook in it's mouth. The whole meal ended up costing around 1700NT, which is around $56 US! We each paid around $6.50 a piece for this enormous dinner.

On the way home we stopped at another 7-Eleven. They sell hard liquor, wine and beer 24 hours a day. It's quite weird but convenient. Since we were all rained in, we decided to have a hotel room party. It was nice to get know my colleagues in a casual atmosphere, I'm really glad I get along with them so well. They are quite fun.

The way that one presents themselves is how they are perceived. Like, what you see is what you get. So when Rosanna and I showed up for breakfast in our hoodies and sweats, we stuck out like sore thumbs. We're never going out in public unkept ever again. Ever.

Well thats quite a novel for now. I'm adjusting pretty well, but it's been forewarned that I will experience culture shock. Take care everyone and I'll update after some more training and let you all know how that goes. Zai jian!

arrive.

2008-07-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

After 19 hours of flying, screaming, crying, bitching, arguing, meeting new people we've finally arrived. I'm sitting in the golden china hotel right now. I needed a shower badly after nearly 24 hours of sweltering in airplanes. Right now we're going to find shampoo and grub. Updates this evening.

stranded.

2008-07-24T05:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Albany Intl Airport around 3:30 pm yesterday. Everything was going well. (Sans Rosanna's speeding down the northway) But I knew there was goig to be issues once I reached the ticket counter. I couldn't sign in using my credit card or ticket number. I waited for a United Airlines assistant. Those damn automated check-in machines are the bane of my existence. Well it turns out our flight to Chicago wasn't cancelled but we would be stuck in Chicago over night had we chosen to take it.

After that revaluation, there was a domino effect. I apologize to Zachary, my mom & dad and Ronnie and Tai for being short with them. I then found out that both my suitcases were 54lbs, with 50lbs being the limit. After distributing all the excess weight to one suitcase, they charged me $50 for one overweight luggage. Then the attendant gave us 2 options: either take the flight to Chicago and be stranded there because of the severe thunderstorms or take a chance and take the flight to washington, dulles and see if we could connect to LAX before the storms hit. We did it. We thought we were well on our way.

We then both said goodbye to our parents. My mother DID end up coming after all. I thought she as doing well, until we reached security. She couldn't stop the tears. She hugged me 3 times and she almost got me. Almost.

When I reached security, I was "randomly selected" for extensive screening. Awesome. I had to stand in a tube style screening booth. Air blew from holes everywhere and I had to wait for a green light. I then stepped through a metal detector. I beeped, of course. I stepped back through and was fine. Then they dumped out my entire carry on. My poor tote was molested. But I ended up getting through the line even before Rosanna.

After sitting down a moment and playing DS, Rosanna egin to tell me her luggage was only 37lbs! Wait you mean I could have just put my extra 8lbs in your suitcase?! Yep. Rosanna and her parents tried to tell me but I was a little too frazzled to listen since we were on opposite ends of the room trying to yell back and forth while I was repacking again. So I basically I just ripped up $50 cash and made it confetti for United.

By this point we though we were just going to wait out the flight. Then it was delayed. 1 hour, 2 hours then 3 hours. We were sitting right next to the gate counter and heard the radio. There was lightning on the runway and they couldn't let us on the plane. Fantastic.

We opted to reschedule our flights the next day. 2:23 departure for Dulles and arrive in LAX at 7:10. Fine. We stayed over at Rosanna's sisters house. Thank god she lives 10 mins from the airport. Our flight from LAX to Taipei was still up in the air and it was in the back of our minds that the flight was possibly filled. The offices were closed that late at night and Orbitz was useless as usual. They couldn't do anything for us tonight.

Malaysia airlines does not open until 6am on the west coast so we eagerly watched the clock until it hit 9am. Rosanna and I held hands while the woman on the line searched for seating on tonights red-eye flight. Meanwhile, our training begins on Saturday and we wouldn't be arriving in Taipei until Saturday morning at 6:30am. Cool.

Malaysia said that there were no more economy flights available tonight. Business and Fisrt Class only. Great! It's just that they want an extra $350 to upgrade. What. The. F*ck. We tried to negotiate a better rate with a supervisor, but since it's 6am in LA there was no one available to speak to. I've scraped and saved for months and I'm not letting go of that money easily. We're going to call back when we get to the airport. I'm also getting a refund for the ridiculous $50 I spent on excess baggage. We repacked and our 4 suitcases are all at 49lbs on the dot.

I'll update after I land in LA. Wish me luck!

the night before.

2008-07-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished packing. For the second time. I had to take 1/2 of my clothes out and repack so both suitcases were at 50 lbs. It's strange that my whole life fit in 3 bags. Maybe I won't miss the things I leave behind, but it's doubtful...

My mother had consistently had a stiff upper lip about this whole trip or until this week that is. This whole move became more and more real as the days fell off the calendar. We're not even sure if she'll come to the airport, but as a wise man told me tonight "everyone deals with things in their own way."

Everyone keeps telling Rosanna to take care of me while I'm gone. Who's going to take care of her?! I wonder if I really come off as that vulnerable? I wouldn't have jumped into this knowing I was ready. I knew I wasn't ready and that's why it's so important for me to go. It's time for me to take more accountability for myself.

I'm slightly embarrassed that this job was pushed back so many times. I feel as though people began to doubt my commitment. There's no way that it's stopping now... this is real and I'm really gone tomorrow.

I want to thank everyone for their well wishes, generous gifts and encouragement. I'll miss you while I'm gone.

this is the legendary blog.

2008-07-12T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here it is. This blog is meant for everyone to keep track of my life 7,600 miles away. Enjoy, comment, live vicariously and miss me.