KAOHSIUNG, TAIWAN

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KAOHSIUNG

It was good to say goodbye to Taipei and was even better to say Hello to Kaohsiung, our new home. Within the first day, we were already renting a place. It is in a complex with a swimming pool at the foot of our building. In our same building, we have a billiards room, ping pong room, fitness gym and a basketball court outside.

Soon after arriving, we met Paul, one of our closest buds. Through him, we were invited to a huge BBQ party in a penthouse rented by 3 other Canadians. We climbed up a ladder on top of the roof to the tallest point in almost all of Kaohsiung. It was unbelievable as you could enjoy a 360 degree view of the city, mountains and lake while listening to people play the mandolin and two acoustic guitars.

The next day, we went with Paul and his wife down to the national park Kenting. We spent the day doing two dives. I had never scuba dived before and I fully regret that. It was breath-taking being over 50 feet under the water, swimming with Nemo, observing a pack of over 200 Baracudas, seeing Lionfish and so many other varieties of fish, not to mention the coral reef.

Next on the list was purchasing scooters. We bought the first one - a small single-seat 50cc. Keith and I got horribly lost one night. It was pouring sheets of rain, we were driving through over a foot of water. I was driving - wearing a bicycle helmet and Keith was on the back of this tiny scooter with no helmet. We had no raincoats, no map and no idea where we were. It was worse than Dumb and Dumber and probably looked very similar to it.

A few days later, when we had both scooters, we decided to "Pimp our rides". We spray-painted them and made them look pretty cool. A few hours later, some dick cut us off while it was raining and it ruined my new paint job. I started sliding and flew through the air, then slid across the pavement. I looked back to see Keith take a spill off his because he was following so close. His back tire went sideways and ended up smashing me in the back of the head. Haha! I wonder how ridiculous this looked from the perspective of an Asian sitting and having tea on the sidewalk.

Last item on the list was to get jobs. Keith took a job for a cram school. I was going to as well, until I got a call from an International school. It's pretty dope. I teach Grade 1 English, Grade 7 English, Grade 1 Math and Grade 3 Math.

They gave me a laptop and a nice cubicle. The school is tucked away at the top of a mountain. It has a huge campus and owns a University that is beside our school. The students are great. Its a little different getting used to managing grade ones and threes that can't understand most of what you are saying to them. But, everyday, I get tons of "Hi Teacher Jeff!", high fives from the boys and this adorable little girl comes up to me everyday and holds my hand.

That's Life right now. It's great! If you want to see pictures of almost everything I just discussed, check out facebook.

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