Fun in the Taiwan Sun

Hey, family and friends, and welcome back! As promised, with this post I'm going to talk about what I've been up to for fun this past month in Taiwan.

I have to admit that the during the first couple weeks here, the culture shock definitely hit me. It really is a humbling experience to be dropped into a country where you know nobody, and somehow have to forge new friendships and a social life out of nothing. 

My first week here, I was living in a "hostel" that was really more of a big apartment in which the landlord rented out the other rooms. It was difficult to meet people and my fun consisted of exploring the nearby neighborhoods by myself (not that it was all bad...it's actually quite a bit of fun just wandering and taking in the sights, smells, and sounds). 

Moving into an apartment with a few other ex-pat roommates was my way of meeting some new people and hopefully getting a bit more of a social life. Fortunately, it couldn't have worked out better, and I've had a few good adventures because of it. 

Let's jump right into it.

Taipei Nightlife

Judging from the handful of nights out that I've had in the past month, I'd say that Taipei has just about any type of establishment to satisfy one's desires. I've been to one of the biggest clubs, a couple bars/pubs, and places that are somewhere in between. 

The clubbing scene here seems pretty solid, albeit expensive. Only been to one true "club" so far, so it's probably a bit early to pass too much judgement. Definitely was a lot of fun, but for me, most nights out at the club are a bit predictable. Loud music, beautiful women, lots of dancing, and a cab ride home circa 4am (not that there's anything wrong with any of that!). Chances are, clubbing will be an every now and again treat rather than a weekly occurrence for me.

As much fun as a night at the club can be, I'll always be one that prefers to belly-up to a bar with a pint of beer, and some good conversation. Unfortunately there really aren't any areas around the city with a high concentration of bars that would work well for a bar hopping night. There's a decent bar called "Revolver" that's about a 15 min walk away from our flat. Been there with the roomies a few times. The place has an interesting mix of modern art on the walls, plays what I'd call underground rock music, and has pretty reasonable prices. Wouldn't say the place is outstanding, but it's always been fun. 

The crown jewel of the bar scene so far has been a place called "On Tap". To me, it feels like a pub that would fit right in if it were located in Chicago, New York, London, or any other western city. The lighting is dark, the interior is brick and dark wood, and there are TVs playing sports (at the time I was there it was the English Premier League). After a month in Asia, it was great to get a taste of home. To top it off, the bleu cheese burger and fries that I had was outstanding. Coming from Wisconsin, I'd say that I know a thing or two about a great burger, and I'd put this one up against any other that I've had in the past (granted, I was eating it after a day of drinking at a pool party. Perhaps my judgment was a bit clouded. May have to go and give it a second try just to be sure. What a damn shame...). 

One other place I'll mention is 1001 Nights. The overall theme of the place is like an Arabic Shisha lounge, but there's a great liquor selection at the bar, and a dance floor with a DJ blasting out latin vibes. Can't even explain how eclectic the mix of everything is, but it's been fun the couple times I've been there. 

Wai'ao Beach

A few weekends back, I had my first day at the beach here in Taiwan. The whole thing was kind of a spur of the moment decision and I ended up going with a couple of my roommates and one of my roommate's friends. After a little over an hour of travel on a bus and a then a train, we made it to a beach called Wai'ao on the east coast. For me, nothing is more relaxing than a day on the beach. Can't say it's the most beautiful or most exciting beach I've ever been to, but it beats the hell out of chilling in the city on a weekend. A picture speaks a thousand words, right?

I'll for sure be heading back to this beach again. Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Havana Pool Party

One of the many reasons I chose to go through my recruiter, Reach to Teach, to line up a job here in Taiwan is the fact that they put on monthly socials for teachers to get to know each other. This month, the social happened to be a Havana Pool Party here in Taipei at the Taipei Water Park. The pool parties are a weekly occurrence throughout the summer in Taipei, complete with a DJ, bar, and plenty of good looking people.

Wish I had a good picture to post of the place, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time.  Google "Havana pool party Taipei" if you want a taste. I'm sure you'll get the idea.

Only weird thing was that one side of the water park (nearest the DJ) was a bunch of 20-somethings that were drinking, dancing, and generally "actin'-a-fool", while the other side of the pool was families that were trying to have a normal day at the water-park. Seemed like everyone on both sides was having a good time, though... I know I was! 

First Holiday! -- Camping at Sun Moon Lake

After just a month of teaching, I got to experience my first long weekend thanks to the Moon Festival, aka the Mid-Autumn Festival (took place on Monday the 8th). In short, the festival celebrates the moon at it's fullest and brightest stage of the year, and is similar to "harvest festivals" that western countries may have. It all goes back to a legend from about 600 AD in China. I'm not going to go through the intricacies of the holiday in my blog. If you want more info, there's always Google. Anyhow, the holiday gave me an extra day off to leave the city and do a bit of traveling, and I ended up going on a camping excursion to Sun Moon Lake.

The idea to check out Sun Moon Lake was originally from my roommate, Mayra. As the day came closer, our group of travelers grew to 10, and we were able to reserve a campsite for all of us. Ended up being 5 guys and 5 girls. It took us about 1 hour on the high speed railway and another 2 hours by bus to reach the lake. Here's what the place looked like.

Wasn't anything luxurious, but it was more than adequate.

Before I start spewing a bunch of pictures of the lake, I'll just say that it's one of the prime tourist locations around Taiwan...and with good reason. Even tourists from mainland China frequently make the trip to Sun Moon Lake. 

When we arrived, we decided to rent some bikes for the day. Here are a few photos I snapped while cruising around.

Also had some awesome food around the lake. For dinner, I had some stir-fried deer. Apparently, deer is a pretty common food among the local aboriginal tribes. Couldn't tell you if what I ate was actually venison, but it sure as hell tasted great. For a snack in the afternoon, I had a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich with peanuts, fried vegetables, and cilantro. Too Good. Check it:

I should also show a picture of one of the beers I found in the local Family Mart.

BUSCH! Tastes just as shitty in Asia as it does in the US! (Could be a new marketing slogan right there....sign me up, Anheuser Busch!)

By the end of the night, most of us were sitting on the nearest pier drinking cheap Chinese vodka, shooting the shit, and contemplating everything from philosophy, to politics, to the most trivial things imaginable. Couldn't have scripted a better way to spend a night. 

The following day, a few people went home early, but a few of us stuck around for the day. The 5 of us that decided to stay later went on a boat cruise around the lake. I snapped a few more pictures.

We left the lake by mid-afternoon, and soon enough it was back to reality in Taipei.

To be honest with you, it seems like just a couple days ago that I was leaving my comfortable life back in the states to begin this adventure in Taiwan. Writing this post has given me a chance to do a bit of introspection and realize just how lucky I am to be here having all the experiences that I am. Plenty more adventures to come. 

Hope you enjoyed, and I'll talk to you soon.

Cheers!

School Days

Alright everyone, I apologize for not getting around to posting again for a while. I've kept on putting it off, and now we're here three weeks later. With this one, lets talk about my new job as a teacher. Gonna be a lot of text in this one, as I haven't brought a camera into classes yet (Not sure what the policy is on taking pictures with students). Promise there will be more pictures in the post next week. (Sneak Preview: We'll be talking about what I've done for fun in Taiwan, including a beach, a pool party, the nightlife, and a camping trip)

Just a quick breakdown of how my classes usually work:

Most classes I'll have between 1.5 - 2 hours (depending on the skill level and the type of class). The 2 hour classes are either a bit more advanced and focus more on reading, or in some cases, I have the extra time to teach science and math as well (Not sure if my grades in high school chemistry qualify me to teach anybody science...). Also should note that my name around school isn't "Mr. Cleveland" or even "Mr. C", but rather "Teacher Brett". Found that a bit funny when I first got here. 

My Students and Classes

So far, I've taught just about every age student at my school, and dealt with quite a variance in the English skill levels between all my classes. Even within classes, there's always a few kids that English seems to come naturally to, and others who really struggle. Finding a balance to keep everyone in the class engaged is a bit of a challenge.

The youngest class I've taught so far has been 4-5 year old kids that have little to no experience with English. Like any kids their age, keeping their attention for more than a few minutes at a time is a challenge, and there are a couple trouble makers. The communication barrier makes it feel like I'm talking to a wall at times. But, the feeling I get when I see a kid having fun with learning English or when "the light-bulb goes on" for a new concept makes it all worthwhile. Classes consist of teaching letters and their sounds, numbers, reading time, play time, and even some singing and dancing. Everyone got a good picture of me singing and dancing in front of class? Ok....moving on. 

Age isn't even necessarily an indicator of a students English level. I've had a class with students that are about 8 or 9 years old and they have a better grasp than some of my classes that are years older. Best part is that these kids are getting to an age where they are quite witty when using their English. Perfect example: last week, during a creative writing assignment about a typhoon, I had one student finish his paper with "My house was fine, but Teacher Brett flew away". Definitely had a good laugh with the kid as I was reading it. This is also one of the classes where I'm teaching Science and Math, so it's fun to see how each student is more excited / more proficient during different subjects in class. 

Then there are my classes that are maybe a bit less advanced for their age. With these classes I only teach for 1.5 hours and then a Chinese teacher takes them through the rest of the class. Within these classes, I'd say that the skill gap between students is pretty tangible compared to some of my other classes. However, there are some really enjoyable students. I can really notice the ones that are trying hard to learn and improve, and the few that seem disinterested or just scared to be speaking another language. 

Finally, I have a couple middle school classes that I'd say are fairly advanced for their ages. Again with these classes, the best part is that the students are quite witty when using their English. There's an opportunity to have higher level conversations and interactions with the kids, and also to joke around a bit. 

With one of these classes, there's already a running joke with the kids about my sub-par drawing skills. Any time I get out my marker and go to the whiteboard to illustrate something, the giggles soon follow. In the same class, we did a creative writing assignment yesterday about "art". I was hoping to get the students talking about what they like about art/famous artists and art/is it important/etc., and many students did quite well with the prompt. I had two students--two boys--who insisted that basketball is an art, and wrote their paper making their case. As completely off topic as it was, I thought it was cool to see the creativity and ability to make connections. 

In the other middle school class, the kids are even a bit more advanced, and focus heavily on reading and writing. This class is held on Saturday mornings, so at times, getting the students to engage is like pulling teeth. However when we hit a topic they find interesting or break into a group activity, you can really see that they're sharp kids with a good sense of humor. On a selfish note, I find a lot of the material we cover in this class to be interesting so it's fun to teach. So far we've covered stuff like Machu Picchu and the Inca, endangered languages, and animals that inspire technology innovation. 

Other Thoughts

Truth is, being a teacher is a lot of work, and I'm not even full time. Between lesson planning and correcting homework/quizzes/tests, there is always something more that I could be working on. Managing a classroom of diverse personalities is still a skill I'm working on and trying to improve. On the flip side of that, I do see the rewards of being a teacher. It truly is a great feeling when a student grasps a new idea that you've been teaching. Like anything, you've gotta take the good with the bad. 

One last thing that I'll say about teaching. I know in recent years back in the states there's been quite a bit of debate about the merits of teachers and how easy/difficult the job is. One month on the job in no way qualifies me to say this, but anyone that thinks teaching is easy and doesn't appreciate their community's teachers is--pardon my french--full of shit. Gotta give a big shout out to my Mom and my Aunt Susan because I know both of you are great teachers, and have a lot more stressful of a job than I ever will here in Taiwan. And to any other teacher that may be out there reading this, thank you! 

That's it for this edition of Peripatetic Brett. Tune-in next week for some fun in the Taiwan sun.

Cheers, all!