Monday, August 11, 2014

The Adventure Begins

Thanks for dropping by family, friends and everyone else that stumbles across this blog. To be honest with all of you, I wasn't really sure how to get started with this blog or what I want it to focus on. I remember a professor once telling me that if you don't know how to start a paper, a quote usually works well as an intro. Let's start with that.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page" - St. Augustine of Hippo

So here I am in Taipei to teach English, attempting to read a few more pages of this incredible book. I don't really want to drone on about my daily routines here, so I'm thinking with this first post we'll run down a few different things:
  • Who am I?
  • What the hell does peripatetic mean and why is this the name of my blog?
  • Why I decided to come to Asia to teach English
  • My initial impressions of Taipei
  • My initial impressions of the school I'll be teaching at
  • What's to come from Peripatetic Brett
Sound good?

Good. Here it goes.

Who am I?

The name's Brett, I'm 23, and I'm from the wonderful state of Wisconsin. Grew up in a small-ish city called Fond du Lac and spent 4 & 1/2 outrageous years at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. 

Likes: Trying new things, warm weather, cold beer, long walks on the beach, a nice pair of slacks
Dislikes: Rude people, Reality TV, Bill O'Reilly, and cockroaches joining me in the shower (yes, that happened here)


What the Hell is Peripatetic?

Peripatetic- adjective - traveling from place to place; in particular, working or based in various places for relatively short periods of time

Seems pretty applicable to my situation, right? 

The word peripatetic also has roots in education, going all the way back to Ancient Greece and Aristotle. Aristotle and his colleagues were known to go on walks with their students as they gave their lectures (ie: traveling from place to place), and therefore gave rise to the term peripatetic school. Ok...end of history lesson for this week.

So how do I know this word? I have to give a shout out to my former roommates at the Broom Haus in Madison. A couple years ago we started a word wall on our giant whiteboard in the living room. We'd all post obscure words we'd learn in class or in our daily routines to better the Haus' collective vernacular. Never thought I would actually get to use peripatetic in an appropriate context.

But I digress....Moving on!

 How I Ended up Teaching English in Taiwan

For those of you that don't know me that well, I don't have a degree in education or Asian studies or anything of the sort. I was a business major who upon graduation, realized I wasn't quite ready to go into the corporate business world.

I figured teaching English is a way for me to make a tangible difference in my daily work, while getting an opportunity to experience a new culture, meet new people, and hopefully save up a bit of money in the process. It probably sounds cliche, but after returning from studying abroad in Singapore a couple years back, all I could think about was planning my next travel adventure. For me, it was like opening Pandora's box, taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit, or *insert other cheesy metaphor here*.

Choosing Taiwan was a bit of a shot in the dark. I've never traveled here before, don't know the language, and didn't know anybody living here before coming. After doing some research on the English teaching industry, I settled on Taiwan for a few reasons. First off, the pay is relatively good, and the cost of living is relatively low. Gotta consider paying off those student loans! Taiwan is also a growing economy with a great business reputation, so there's potential for doing a bit of networking and finding an opportunity to use that business degree down the road. Then there's the fact that it's a sub-tropical island with awesome scenery and beaches just a short distance outside the city (What's not to love about that?!). Finally, it's an opportunity to learn to speak some Mandarin. Can't think of a more relevant language to learn in today's day and age. 

So, now that we've settled that, let's get to the good stuff.

Initial Impressions of Taipei

  • Damn, is it hot here! Walking through the exit of the airport felt like stepping into a sauna. For you readers back in Wisco, imagine the hottest day of the summer and then add an extra 50% humidity. It's been like that every day so far, but in the winters the temp falls to around a cool 60 degrees, albeit with a lot of rain. I'll take that over mountains of snow any day. Thankfully, most buildings around the city have Air Con and use it pretty liberally.
  • The landscape here is incredible. Taipei is nestled in between seemingly endless mountains that are covered with sub-tropical forests. My first weekend here, I decided to do a bit of exploring on my own. About 30 minutes on the MRT (subway) and a 10 minute walk through the streets got me to the base of a mountain hiking trail. The path was pretty mild, and in many places had wooden walkways and stairs. Within a half hour I made it to a look-out point with this view of the city. Not too shabby, eh?
     
              Can't wait to get out, venture a bit more off the beaten path and do some more hiking one of these weekends.

  • The Taiwanese people have been great. While I was sitting up on the mountain, I had a few people come up and start a conversation with me. An older gentleman tried speaking to me in Mandarin, and I used what little of the language that I know to tell him I didn't understand. Seeing our dilema, another local guy that was sitting a few feet away jumped in to translate. The three of us ended up talking for close to half an hour. Shortly thereafter, a little old Taiwanese lady came up and started talking to me in pretty fluent English. We talked about each others' travel adventures, and each others' home countries. After a while she told me that she was a Christian and invited me to come to her church. I'm not exactly the religious type and won't be taking her up on her offer, but it goes to show how quickly the people here are willing to welcome and befriend you. Like any place, there are going to be friendly people, and there are going to be rude people. So far, my encounters with the people here have been mostly good. At times, the language barrier has been an issue (especially when ordering food), but I've found that a big smile, a bewildered look in your eyes, and some creative hand gestures are enough to work most situations out. 
  • Speaking of food, I've gotta say that I've had a few pretty delicious meals here so far. 
    • Upon lofty recommendations from my sister, Aly, who spent some time in China last summer, one of the first things I had to try was Beef Noodles. Basically, it's Chinese noodles, braised beef, and green, leafy vegetables simmered together in a savory beef broth. Pretty simple when you break it down, but, man, is it good. 
    • Another favorite so far is the Scallion Pancake, or Cong You Bing. Picture this: Soft and flaky flatbread with scallions folded into the dough, then fried in oil on a griddle. Add a scrambled egg omelet on one side of the flatbread, then top with fresh basil leaves and a spicy chili sauce. (Side note: I'm thinking the scallion pancake could be a perfect hangover helper when the situation arises. I'll do some field research and get back to you in a future post.) I've also tried something similar to the scallion pancake, minus the scallions, and instead of egg it's stuffed with meat (chicken or pork), cabbage, ginger, other veggies, and then the standard chili sauce. Couldn't tell you what it's called in Chinese, but I can tell you that it tastes great. Best part about these different types of "pancakes" is that they're available from street vendors for less than $2. 
    • Finally, I have to mention the pork dumplings, aka pot stickers. I must admit that I've become a bit of a dumpling fiend in my two weeks here in Taipei, and by my estimates, have eaten them close to 50% of the days I've been here. Steamed, Grilled, or Fried, these little dough-y envelopes of tender, juicy, ground pork and crispy cabbage have stolen my heart and enlightened my taste buds. Slather those delicious morsels with some sweet soy sauce and a spicy chili sauce, and you have a perfect snack or meal. I could go on about food all night...I'm thinking some future posts may be focused solely on my culinary adventures here in Taiwan and my quest for the perfect pork dumpling. Tune-in next time.
 ^Scallion Pancake...not the best picture but you get the idea
^Fried and Steamed Dumplings.
  • The streets are wild. Six-lanes of cars. Scooters whizzing in and out of traffic, and even up onto the sidewalks. Pedestrians everywhere. Street vendors hugging the curb. Alleys and one-lane roads weaving their way in between the larger ones. Best way to describe it is an urban jungle. And yet, I haven't seen a single accident or serious problem on the streets. I've actually been on the back of a scooter once so far driving through downtown. While doing apartment hunting, the owner of my hostel took me around to see some flats that she owns and rents out. Ended up finding a room elsewhere, but I got a nice little cruise out of it!
^Main Avenue a block away from my new apartment
  • While I'm talking about apartments, I was able to find a flat downtown last week with three other ex-pat roommates. Nothing too fancy, but the location is good, it's clean, fairly spacious, and the roommates have been great so far. Currently the roommates are a Brazilian girl, a Mexican girl, and an Italian guy. Soon to be a South African guy that is subletting the next month from the Brazilian girl. Our kitchen is a bit dated and small, but with street food being so cheap I don't think I'll do all that much cooking anyway. One major difference from what I'm used to in the states is the bathroom. There's no shower stall, just a removable shower head hanging from the wall and drains on the tile floor. This is pretty commonplace in Taiwan, and I'm not really concerned. It actually reminds me of a lot of the bathrooms in hostels that I saw while traveling around SE Asia. I'll adapt.



First Impressions of My School

While I haven't started actually teaching yet, I've been going into my school just about every day for observation and training. The name of the school is Hess American School, and there are close to 200 branches scattered throughout the island. Like most other cram schools, or buxibans, my classes will run from around 4 til 9pm. I'll also be teaching a couple classes on Saturday morning/afternoons. All total, I'll be in front of a class for about 20-25 hours per week. At this point it's just a waiting game for my work visa to go through so I can begin teaching legally. I'll hopefully be getting in front of a class early next week. Here are my first impressions of my new workplace:
  • Kids here are just like the kids back home. In every class I've observed, it's been easy to see that the same archetypes that we all grew up with in school are just as present in the classes here. There are the shy students, the trouble makers, the smart ones, the lazy ones, the ones that are eager to please, and the ones that look like they would rather be anywhere else on earth than the classroom.
  • Class sizes are small. It looks like all of my classes will be about 10-15 students. This should give me a great opportunity to get to know the students and hopefully provide better, more individualized education for them.
  • The curriculum is pretty rigid. Working for a big chain school like Hess has its perks and obstacles. The upside is that it seems like most of the curriculum will be already organized and provided for me, which hopefully will limit the amount of time I have to spend on lesson planning. The flip side of that is I won't have a whole lot of room for creativity and run the risk of giving monotonous lessons and boring the students. Gonna do my best to find a balance between meeting the school's expectations and trying to add a bit of energy to the lessons.
  • My co-workers seem to be good so far. Haven't gotten many opportunities to get to know them outside of the school yet, but everyone has been welcoming and willing to answer my questions. There are quite a few Taiwanese teachers and other employees at the school, and then 3 native English speakers including myself. The two other English teachers are from Scotland and Philly. (Side note: the school's driver who picked me up at the airport is named Sam. It's common to refer to your elders in Chinese culture as "Auntie" or "Uncle", and with Sam, this is no different. So, yes, one of my co-workers is Uncle Sam.)

^My new workplace. This picture was taken on a Sunday so the place looks a bit shut-up. I'll have better pictures of the classrooms in future posts.


What's to come in this blog?

First off, I promise not to be as long-winded in future posts. Had a lot of stuff to cover in this one. Like I said earlier, though, I'd rather not make this a "dear diary" style blog about me and my day-to-day routines. That's going to get boring for you to read, and quite frankly, boring for me to write.

I'm thinking from here on out, each post will cover a specific topic, and be relatively short. These could range from my (mis)adventures in front of the classroom, a specific aspect or attraction of Taipei/Taiwan, my culinary exploration of the city (possibly including my quest for the perfect pork dumpling), to random thoughts and observations from my time here. I'd love to hear your feedback and any suggestions about what you guys and gals want to hear more about in the future.

Until next time!