Taipei City

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What up gang?!

Sorry I haven't blogged in so long. Been busy here in Taipei getting set up, which is taking a bit longer than expected. After interviewing with several schools around town and one down south in Taichung, I took a full-time position teaching English to grade-school kids for 24 hours a week (anything over 16 hours is full-time). I've had the kids for a couple of classes now and I really dig 'em. They're so energetic and full of life and curiosity and it's good for me. Classes are in the evening and the kids have a long day so keeping them focused can be a bit of a challenge at times.

Looking for an apartment near work. Found the perfect apartment the other day. Friendly Taiwanese lady with a dog and literally a three minute walk to the MRT (light rail) and near lots of street food stalls and a convenience store. She called to say that I got the place and I was all excited because that meant that I would get to move out of the hostel where I share a room with seven other guys when it's busy but then she called back a few minutes later to tell me that I couldn't have the place because her landlord doesn't want her to sublet to a guy. Man I was so bummed. The place really was perfect. In a good neighborhood too. She felt really bad for not checking with her landlord sooner and offered to help me look for a place and tomorrow I'm going to look at another place that her landlord has for rent and she's going to take time out of her weekend to come translate for us! Really cool of her to do that for me.

Taipei is a big city and like all big cities the people here can be a little cold. Or maybe not cold so much as busy because when I do stop people on the street and ask for help (usually with directions) they will go out of their way to help me get where I'm going. Met a guy straight off of the airplane who helped me find the bus into Taipei and took me to the MRT and told me where to get off to find a cheap room. By the way, Taipei really isn't that cheap. My hostel room with 8 beds in it costs $15 a night. For $15 a night in Cambodia I could get a huge room with air-con and a big screen tv and cable and a huge bed and all kinds of stuff. But not here. Fifteen bucks gets you into a room with a bunch of smelly, sweaty young guys who really aren't into hygeine yet and snore all night long and turn the light on at odd hours of the night. But I've adjusted. I sleep with an eye muffle (sleeping mask) and earplugs. Not so bad but I'm used to sleeping on my side and the earplugs put a lot of pressure on my ears when I do that.

I've become quite friendly with the staff who work at the hostel. They've helped me to take care of some of the things I needed to do get my job, e.g. scanning my diplomas and letter of recommendation from Henry. Made a few friends there too. Went out with a couple of girls from Canada and met some new people who are teaching here too. Reminded me a lot of my friends in the bay area. They all know each other really well and talk about each other's lives and what's new. But I wasn't really into meeting new people that night and didn't make good conversation the way that I should have. Had trouble filtering the noise and I heard everyone's conversation at the same time and it's very distracting when that happens. Requires a lot of energy to focus on the voice of the person sitting next to me. Forget about focusing on a voice across the table. Think I've got some hearing loss or maybe I just don't like loud environments with that many voices. Too many loud concerts. Haven't been to a decent show in who knows how long. Think the last really good show I went to was Bloc Party whenever that was. Like in October or something. That can't be right. I must've been to a good show since then. Saw that Phil Lesh and Friends are playing The Greek in Berkeley in a couple of days. Man do I wish I could be there. Phil plays with solid rock musicians and they play together so much that the band all play really tight. Had a dream about waiting for a show to start last night and the energy of the crowd and how excited they all were about whether or not a song they wanted to hear would be played and what song the band would open with and all of that. I love it when I think about a show and what song is going to be played first and then I'm right. Doesn't happen too often but when it does it really gets me going. Like picking a winning lottery number or something!

Anyway. Wanted to give you guys an update on where I'm at and what I'm doing here. I dig Taipei and I'll dig it more when I've got the time to really explore the city after I'm settled and can start making proper connections with people and places. Rains a ton here. Average annual rainfall is 2000 mm. I think that's 2 liters. It's rained probably 14 of the 21 days I've been here. A lot.

Lots of love,
Vlasic

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Comments

[deleted_54712]

question about taipei
I'm coming to Taipei next month to find a english teaching job. I was wondering how long did it take you from the time you got off the plane to finding a job at taipei?