LETTERS FROM TAIWAN
A NEW YEAR OF LETTERS Christmas 2004 12/27/2004 Back From Vacation 9/29/2004 Chinese New Year 2/9/04I'm official now. I got my Alien Residence Card about a month ago, so now I don't have to renew my visa every two months by flying to Hong Kong or taking a boat to international waters. My job is going well. It's fun and healthy and often exciting. The weather is starting to get cold and rainy, so the next few months won't be so nice. Xmas is not celebrated too much here. Chinese new year is a more popular holiday, which helps me to avoid the commercialism a little. Mostly everything is the same as in the last letter. I have a pretty regular routine now. My weekends are free, Wednesdays I try to get to soccer pick up games, Thursdays we often have overnights at the mountain, and Mondays and Tuesdays I try to go and do things with friends. Taipei has lots of good markets, and museums, restaurants and coffee shops, and a lot of places to go in the evenings. I'm learning a lot cool stuff about Taiwan and Taiwanese from my Taiwanese friends at work, from the students at the school, and from my friend Michelle. I feel more integrated since moving, and starting my new job, and finally knowing a bit of Chinese. I'm on a waiting list for a reality check flight to LA on the 16th of January until the 6 of February. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get back in the US of A, see what's new with friends, and recall life in the US, but if not, then I may travel around Taiwan to see what life's like on the other side of the island. I'm gonna try to write about details of more fun and interesting things I do, day to day here. I don't write much now because even strange things seem normal.
Since June 9/27/03 TOP
SARS has been gone for a long time now. No one wears surgical masks in
the street anymore. Many foreigners have returned to the hostel and things
are normal. I spent the summer teaching mostly private classes to adults
older students and some kids. There was lots of work this summer due to a
lack of teachers, so I was able to work as much as I wanted, and the jobs I got
were pretty good.
I'm now working a full time job in the mountains above Taipei. A private
school has an outdoor program for their K-12th grade students and me and 3 other
foreigners run the physical training program. The program rotates the
different grade levels, taking a group up to our school for the day. They
learn about nature stuff like plants and animals. Our part of the program
is designed to teach them teamwork, to use their English in a practical
situation, and to involve them physically. So we take them hiking, play
team games and activities, and take them through a ropes course. The
activities vary for each group and range from exposing kindergarteners to the
forest to rope bridges and rappelling down cliffs with older students. I
like my work.
I moved from the hostel near the beginning of September. I now live in an apartment in Shin Peitou. My address is something like 1Fl No. 5, Shin Dong Liu, Shin Peitou. I'll try to post the address in Chinese Characters for sending mail. I live with a Canadian guy from work in a two bedroom apartment in a town about 20 minutes north of Taipei. This town is more like Taichung than Taipei. It's a pretty large apartment, and the landlord gave us some furniture, but we still need to get essentials like a TV, curtains, a phone, and a fridge. Many apartments don't come with stuff like a fridge or even a kitchen sometimes. Neither me nor my roommate speak Chinese so getting stuff done is a little difficult at times.
I haven't had much luck with the Ched here. No manufacturers are seriously interested, and I haven't been able to find someone to make a good prototype yet. I spoke to a couple of manufacturers who make parts from plastic and stainless steel, but that was a waste of time because they just wanted to make parts using their techniques while they were supposed to be people to help with designing for manufacturing. I'm looking into the LA company I began talking to a long time ago, to see if they're interested. I'll see what happens. Here, a lot of people just like to tell me what I already know over and over again.
A Taiwanese guy at work is learning to surf, and he likes to camp at the beach on weekends. I met him there last weekend. It looks like I'll be going there quite often so I need to get a board. In the summer the surfing beach here is like a little California. They all bring shade covers and barbecues and surf and swim and play volleyball in the rocky black sand. They don't bring chairs though. The surf is okay, and the pace is much slower than Taipei City life. There were 75 surfers in the water 3 weeks ago, but only about 10 could surf well. The waves were small.
I have a 3 week break at the end of January so let me know what's going on then with you. Before then there's no real break, so I'll try to visit home at that time. I'll send pictures of the stuff I wrote about here soon (two weeks or so) so check again for the pictures. Tsai Chien.
Ed
I moved to Taipei again. I'm staying at the same place I stayed last time. The place is nearly empty. There's only about 20 people staying here. Few new people have arrived because of SARS. Still no one has SARS and it seems to be going away rather than getting worse. There was a quarantine for traveling for many countries and people are very paranoid here. SARS has been both good and bad. No new foreigners are coming here, which means that it's easier to get work, however, schools are closing early and not hiring teachers and adults are not going to class, so it's harder to get work. So, it's actually about the same as before. It's summer now and it's hotter. It's supposed to get really hot soon. I have a few classes and am looking for more good work, but am probably being too patient. More about plans soon. I don't have much to write about, which is why I haven't been writing much.
Ed
Even my room mate noticed that I haven't been writing much on the computer lately. That's mostly because what's been happening hasn't been very exciting, so I haven't been inspired to write about it, but there have been some new things happening. Since the bad stuff in the last letter I have been in Taichung looking for work. I found some jobs subbing for kindergarten and I did some sort of private adult classes, but I haven't been able to get steady work, so I haven't been able to make much money. There doesn't seem to be much work available here so I decided to move back to Taipei. I went to Taipei about two weeks ago for a sporting goods convention, and interviewed for three jobs on accident. At the convention I met a chair guy who was interested in the chair, but I haven't heard much from him since. It will probably pop up in stores somewhere here before I can be involved with it. The patent issued on April 15. You can go see it at www.uspto.gov patent search for No. 6547322. It's hot here now. A hurricane almost hit, and I found a good picture of it on a website. See it here Hurricane Kujira . It pushed a bunch of hot air our way, but it amazingly broke up and turned north about 100 miles from us. We didn't even get rain from it. They showed surfing on TV on the south east part of the island. It looked pretty good (not huge), but I didn't get a chance to go. SARS is starting to get worse here. In Taipei they had to quarantine a hospital where some cases were discovered. I got a cold from a kid in my class last week, so I tell everyone that I have it and cough on them. It's fun. I've noticed some other people have colds now too. This seems to be the first round of colds that have hit since SARS was known. The colds going around aren't SARS, because there are no reported cases of SARS in Taichung. So none of the cold cases are SARS, but people look nervous around others who have a cold. It concerns me, and I think it will get much worse, but I don't think there is much that can be done about it. It's a good time to teach hygiene to the little disease carrying grommets in kindergarten classes. I'll try to write more frequently.
Ed
So traveling isn't always as glamorous as it seems when you're not doing it. This letter should explain some of the less fun things I am doing and problems which are not typically emphasized when planning to go live and work in a strange place. After spending two years in Kenya and going through the ups and downs of that experience I am a bit better prepared for these setbacks, but when they all come together at the same time like they did a couple of weeks ago my experience fails to prepare me for them. It does help to realize that things will turn out ok. Which they have since then.
Since my last letter I got a job. A pretty good full time job. It wasn't good pay, but it was good steady work, and I made enough to save money and live comfortably. It was also fun, because I got to chat with Taiwanese adults about pretty much whatever I wanted to talk about. I also had good cheap place to live with some roommates. And, a chair manufacturer was interested in my chair. I never succumbed to optimism. One roommate left for Australia, and the year lease was up on the apartment. The owner wants to sell the place, and the other roommate was considering leaving. He also wanted more money for deposit and rent. This happened to occur at the same time I had to spend the remainder of the money I came with on language classes and trips to Hong Kong to get my visa extended. So I'm broke as usual, waiting for a paycheck that won't come until the 10th, and looking at a week vacation with no work or pay for that time. Next, my new boss tells me that they don't want to renew my contract at the end of the month long trial period, and gives me some reasons vague enough for me to not really know what I did wrong. Then, when I finally get in contact with the Taiwanese chair manufacturer he tells me that the buyers in LA think my chair design is interesting and that they are interested in licensing chair patent rights except that it costs too much to sell into unproven product if they need to pay me a royalty fee. After asking him questions for 10 minutes I find out that what he means is that he doesn't want to license the patent. So I have no house, no job, and no good reason for being in Taichung.
They actually should seem like stupid whiney problems to me since I never had a job, house, or reason for being in San Diego either. However, with the change occurring in the span of about a week I did have some somber mood swings, especially at work. Fortunately, I didn't resort to binge drinking. Mostly because the Taiwanese are not a real drinking crowd and alcohol is a bit expensive here. Oh, and also because hangovers suck. So for a couple of weeks I was worrying about possibly not having a place to live, not having a job, running out of money, and being stuck in a town which I am not particularly fond of and currently not having any particular reason for being in. Yes just like San Diego, except that I like San Diego. So I had to reconsider my options. Should I stay here, go home, move to Taipei, move to another city in Taiwan, or find something else to do?
So, to the present. The easy stuff was the apartment. It pretty much took care of itself with no effort on my part. My roommate decided to renew the lease, and he found a third roommate which took care of the needed deposit money and increased rent. As far as work goes, there are a few things around teaching kids which pay twice as much as the other place, but with fewer hours. My visa should be good and extendable through business stuff for as long as I'd like to stay. The chair manufacturer is almost invisible, but I still have the LA manufacturer to talk to when the patent issues. I also, met a guy in the adult classes who may have contacts with engineers, and model makers, who can produce prototypes for much cheaper than in the US. And, there are apparently some other chair manufacturers in town. So, as you probably guessed by now, I will try to stay here in Taichung for while and make things happen better. Don't bother correcting my grammar in that last sentence because I English teacher.
Good news next letter.
I got here the night before last and my jet lag is going away fast. After a 14 hour flight where I watched the sun set for more than four hours, I arrived at Taipei Hostel in Taipei without much difficulties. The signs at the airport were in English and it was well organized and easy to get transportation and information. I got a bed in a cheap hostel after spending the first night in a hotel due to the hostel being full. The city seems to be really safe and the people are friendly and helpful. The scooter population is insanely busy and kind of annoying. There is a huge amount of scooters buzzing between all the traffic around corners, up alleys, and often on sidewalks. The city looks just like a Chinese movie with all the Chinese signs hanging in the streets, and food carts and small shops lining the street. I describe it more here because I didn't take any photos yet.
If you think the English in that last sentence was bad wait until you see the English in future letters. My English is bound to go bad, since the English of the Taiwanese is much worse than I had expected, and a lot of the signs are not translated into English. My Chinese should get better though, because I'll probably have to learn quite a bit to function well here. Right now everything is different and difficult, and I'm having trouble figuring things out. It's not like I didn't expect this, and that's what I keep telling myself. This is also what makes it exciting.
It's a good thing their English is bad because that makes more work for me and pretty much all of the international group of people staying in this Hostel. There seems to be lots of opportunity for work, though I just began looking. As far as chair stuff goes, I already met a guy who markets for sporting goods companies between here and Germany and is very interested in my chair. I'm going to meet a sporting goods manufacturer on Tuesday.
Now I have to go buy a towel. I didn't find any stores that sell towels yet and the hostel people recommended checking out the night market tonight. The supermarket will probably turn out to be the better option since I doubt that anyone at the market will speak enough English to sell me something.
Coastal Town 12/14/02 TOP
I spent five hours yesterday on a bus mostly in traffic, going to interviews for teaching jobs. It sucked. But at least there are opportunities to work here. I'm sure I'll find pretty good work within a week. Today I spent four hours on a bus, however, I was much happier than yesterday. I went to the coast to check it out and ended up in a small town on the northern coastline. There was not much development on the coast and the town had a nice laid back feeling to it. I haven't look up the name on the map yet and still don't know what town I was in. The bus I was on went north when it got to the coastline and I stayed on until it stopped. I'll find a place to surf the next time. It's only about an hour to the pacific coast from the center of Taipei. It was nice to get out of the city for a little while and see some of the rest of the area. The mountains are steep and filled with thick tropical vegetation, and the atmosphere seems more tolerable and interesting than in the city.
If you've seen the latest photos you'll find a temple that is typical of many of the Buddhist temples scattered about in Taiwan. This one happened to be located in the small town on the coast, but there are many in many places including the city. The other pictures are of ChangKaiShek monument. The same place as in the last pictures, except this time I went with some visitors from Singapore who were staying at the hostel. I bought my jacket last weekend in another town I was visiting. It started to rain and the weather was cold for the first time, so I had to buy this jacket. It turns out to be very sporty and even matches the monument.
See ya later. Ed. TOP
I've been here about a month and it's a pretty sane city. It's the least different atmosphere I have encountered when compared to other places I've traveled. I started writing longer captions on my pictures so I haven't written many letters, however, some things just can't be photographed. I've experienced a lot of unique and strange things here the same as any place foreign place, and I haven't written much about them so this letter is an attempt at explaining some of them. One thing photos can't yet capture is the smells of the city. Just as Tiajuana has it's own unique smell, the smell of stinky tofu occasionally wafts among the streets of Taipei. That's right, stinky tofu. That's what they call it. The first time I smelled it I was walking by the food vendors at a night market with a semi-Taiwanese Texan who explained to me that the horrible smell we were walking toward was not caused by the waste from the snake gut soup or (a more accurately described smell) from a sewage break in the street, but was from a street vendor selling the stuff from his cart. Unfortunately, I smell it quite often when I walk around the places that sell food.
This brings me to another uniquely Taiwanese trait. The place is really well organized. It's sometimes difficult to find a bank, or a restaurant, or a clothes shop, but when you do you'll find all the banks and all the restaurants and all the clothes shops you'd ever wish to find. This is because all the shops are grouped together, so you have to find the area of the market or street or corner which they're on and then you'll find all of them. There's a really good subway system, and many parts of the city are very new. The people are courteous and friendly and often smile and laugh. They line up to catch the bus way before the bus is near, and its a straight orderly line. Very different from the keg line mentality of a Kenyan bank. When 7 million people are put into this small of an area some cooperation is appreciated. The street lights show how many seconds are left when crossing the street and a little man walking when the light turns green. I walk downstairs a lot. The subway MRT has escalators at the stations, but only in the up direction. You are to stand in a line on the right side and walk in the space on the left side. This means that even if you walk up on the left side you are still only walking up one third of the distance you have to walk down with no escalator.
I'll probably lose a lot of weight during the first couple of months here. The food is healthy and cheap, and I usually get a healthy portion of meat and vegetables for around $3 US, but I have to eat it with chop sticks. Until I get better at chop stick using skills I won't be much very quickly. Most of the signs for traveling around the city are written in English, so it's easy to get around and take the subway and buses, but the food places often don't have the dishes in English or anyone working there that speaks English. I end up usually going to places where the food is laid out buffet style and point to the stuff I want. Once I ended up with an octopus leg dish which I thought was beef. The first morning I went to a small local place to eat breakfast. With an open mind I pointed and mimed until I was given some food. The food turned out to be soup with lots of stuff in it. I later heard it was a traditional Chinese breakfast. One of the things of stuff I ate was a red jello-like substance with white snow flakes floating inside the jelly membrane. It had a distant flavor of liver, and it kept me full all day. Powerful stuff. I asked around and no one I met had ever heard of the stuff. One Taiwanese girl said it might have been pork, but I think she didn't know. I found a couple of places that serve egg sandwiches and omelet type dishes, and I don't have to be as adventurous anymore. That should keep you busy with toilet reading for a while so I'll go now and find something to complain about.
I just moved to Taichung. It's almost the same as Taipei, but a little smaller and it has no subway. I came here because most of the chair manufacturers are supposed to be here, and I had to make a decision to stay in Taipei or move here before the school year starts in February. Wherever I am in February I'll probably stay for a while. I stayed in a hotel for a week and met few westerners. Well actually I first stayed in a shitty hotel and met no westerners. I only stayed there the first night because it was the first cheap place I found. I figured that I better leave before I fall through the hole opening up in the floor hallway. The next day I discovered you can barter for room rates and I found a nice but run down place with a small courtyard pond, cable TV, and attached bath for a reasonable price. I liked it there so I stayed for a few days. I visited the new town central to look for jobs and found the westerners. There's lots of them here, and most of them seem like they've been here for a long time. They know some Chinese and they don't say hi when they pass you on the street. There's really not that many westerners here so if they don't see you in the street then it's because they are acting as if they don't see you and not because they actually don't see you. I think that's weird. They don't have to stop and have tea, but they should do a subtle courtesy smile or at least nod if they're grumpy. I'll probably act the same way after I've been here too long too. I don't have a job yet, but I found a place to stay. One of the people I met needed a roommate to share a 3 bedroom apartment near the new town center. I moved in today and am optimistic that this place will work out for a while. Rent is about $150-200 a month, I don't need a car, food costs less than $3 a meal, and I'm looking for a job that pays about $15-20 an hour. So I should be able to settle in a bit and save some money once I pick a job. It's a pretty attractive place for working and living for a while and that's what the main attraction is for westerners. The down side is that its a crowded not very clean city, and without knowing Chinese, small tasks can be frustrating. Going places on a bus is difficult. It's easy to get lost, and taxis are a little expensive. And even though the Taiwanese are friendly and treat foreigners well, we don't really fit in all that well with the Taiwanese. That's all for now. I'll post some new pics soon, and give out a phone and address when I know it.
