Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2009
Edit Blog Post
We get a cat
I'm not an enormous fan of cats. I used to really like them, well, English cats at any rate. Then I met Melissa's cat Nica. In Korea I had a smallish flat which did me just fine. Then when Melissa moved in her cat came as part of the package. No problem I thought, cat's appreciate personal space as much as I do. We'll get along fine. Sadly this wasn't the case. Within a couple of weeks Nica's behaviour was ranking me out. She'd lie in wait for me to go for a pee in the middle of the night and then attack my feet as I walked, bleary eyed past her hiding place. Her fur would get everywhere and she'd quite often just relieve herself in the middle of the living room floor. She also had no manners and would climb onto desks, tables and counter tops. Pretty much anywhere you wouldn't want a cat to go. Initially she was allowed in the bedroom but I put a stop to this when I woke up one night to find her biting and scratching my shoulder. Note to all pet owners. When your pet does
something offensive like bite somebody, don't pull out the "She's only playing" line. It just makes things worse. So Nica was banned from the bedroom and then proceeded to spend the next 6 months scratching on the door and whining loudly every time we went to bed.
So you can imagine that when I find out Melissa has agreed for us to look after someone's cat for a week I'm over the moon. She knows an American guy here called Ron who has his own tutoring business. He's going on holiday with his wife for a week and she's going to take his classes for him. And look after the cat. Not a nice well-mannered English cat, an American cat. Now in my book, cat-sitting is where the cat owner gives you the keys to their flat and you pop in every other day to make sure the thing has food and water. Minimal effort. American cat-sitting is a completely different ball game. Lulu will be staying with us.
And you know what, she is a very cute cat. It's so hot here that she;s been clipped and she looks a mini lion. She's really shy and quiet at first and all seems to be going well until we go to bed that night and the noise starts. She just will not shut up. We try shutting her out the bedroom, letting her in the bedroom but she just marauds around the flat screaming. I'm worried about the neighbours. Come back Nica, all is forgiven. Have a great vacation Ron, I bet you need it after living with your mental cat.
Misery
Friday arrives. Today is the day that I'm going to get not one but two jobs. The anticipation builds. I sit in the apartment waiting, trying to keep myself busy. I reckon the call will come mid-late afternoon so I fanny about whiling away the minutes. 15:00 comes and goes. Then 16:00. Pretty soon it's 17:00 and still nothing. Now i'm worried. My Uncle Jason experience has shown me that in Taiwan just because you've been for an interview, you shouldn't necessarily expect a response. What if i don't get either job? Then i'm back to square one. As the time approaches 20:00 I resign myself to the fact that no one is going to call me. I'm indescribably miserable and can barely peel myself of the sofa. For the first time since I've been in Taipei I start to question whether the whole project is going to work out. The job market is dead. My brochure dropping antics produced a solitary phone call offering a pitiful $450 NT/hour for 14 hours a week. My savings are dwindling, realistically i'm not sure how much longer I can last.
Another kick in the teeth but then my luck changes
I bag another interview. This time it's in the Da'an area which is a really smart and cool part of town to the south east. I take the MRT to Taipei Main Station, change to the blue line and go four stops East to Zhonxiao Dunhua station. Then it's a ten minute walk up Anhe road to Lin Hong Education institute. I know the format by now. A short interview and then a quick demo. All goes well and I sit down with the lady, Jennifer, afterwards for a quick chat. She says she really liked my demo (nothing new here) and that I'm the best candidate she's seen. This is all going swimmingly. Then she says that she wishes she'd seen me first as she actually offered the job to someone else yesterday. He initially turned it down so she called me in for an interview. Now he's changed his mind but if he decides not to take it then the job is mine. I feel like throwing a chair at her. Sorry but I do. How dare this woman interview me for a job that she's offered to someone else. What a waste of my time. I'm furious and can feel the steam coming out my ears. I try and conceal it though. There's still a minute chance. She says she'll call me Friday. Screw that, I call her Thursday instead. I've done enough waiting around. Sure enough the guy has decided to take the job. He's clearly come to the same conclusion as me. That there are so few jobs around you can't be picky. One crumb of comfort I get out of the whole experience is that there are at least a dozen
buxibans in this area. I feel a brochure drop coming on.
I head to Family Mart on Friday morning to use their photocopier. I knock up 20 brochures before heading over to Daan. I go a little more casual this time. Jeans and a short sleeved shirt. The formal attire hasn't worked for me so I try a little change. And it goes well. The schools seem happy that I've dropped in. Some say that they'll use me as a substitute even though they don't have any permanent stuff. I drop off around fifteen brochures. On my walk back to the MRT station my phone rings. It's Chris from the business English company. They want me to work for them. Melissa too. He's sorry it's taken them so long to call back. They'll give me training and unbelievably he offers to sponsor my visa for me. They won't have work straight away but the fact that they'll sort out my ARC for me means I can apply for many of the part time positions that I've not been able to go near until now. As far as teaching English abroad goes this is about as good an opportunity as there is, with real potential to make a career out of it. I'm actually quite choked especially about the ARC. I know that his company doesn't normally do this for people and it's a huge weight off my mind. It's fantastic to have some good news after so many setbacks and I get the feeling things are going to be alright.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.072s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0388s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
annie
non-member comment
Ugly
Big head and tiny body