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Published: September 14th 2013
Kaohsiung American School
This school was built in the 70's, it is now being torn down as soon as the new building is completed in January, 2015Monday, August 12, 2013, we are up early, and Linda leaves for her first day of school with students. The students and their parents are expected at 7:45 and they don't disappoint. Amid the chaos in the halls, the students find their appropriate class and settle in. Class starts at 8AM in Kaohsiung, and the school day ends at 3PM. Then there are the mandatory meetings to attend and preparations for the next days lessons. Maurice picks Linda up we return sometime between 5:30 and 6 to the apartment. We visit for a bit and finally stroll about 3 blocks to a Chinese buffet that offers a wide selection of various foods. We find that we can enjoy all we want to eat for between $6 and $8 for the both of us, and that it is quicker, easier and cheaper than buying groceries and cooking for ourselves. We usually eat there 3 or 4 times a week, although it is still nice to stay home and prepare a western meal on occasion. And maybe we should mention it is still hot! 33 to 35 degrees during the day, and dropping only to about 28 or 29 at night. It also
Grade 4, Class of 15
Ms Cheng splits her time between Linda's class and the other gr 4 room. They each have 15 students rains frequently, however, it is a very warm rain and we become a little wet despite umbrellas, but definitely not cool.
Then on Thursday, we finally received our ARC's. This is the official permanent work visa for Taiwan, and that provides Linda with a Chinese name, Be Lee Ling. The ARC allows us to legally purchase a scooter, and we have been waiting anxiously. Dr Tom Farrell, the superintendent of the school, had told us in January that he would be selling one of his scooters, so we informed him then that we would purchase it. On Thursday, we initiated the paperwork, and Friday, we left the school at the end of the day by scooter instead of by cab. We now have freedom, and can start spreading our wings around Kaohsiung.
From the school, an American couple who live in our area took us under their wing. Linda got a ride with Annie, and Maurice followed Chris with the scooter. First we had to fill up with gas, and then it was on the streets and over to Chris and Annie's. After only a couple of beer, we rode the few blocks to our place and parked
Scooterville
Everywhere you go, there are scooters and scooters. the scooter. We weren't quite prepared to take the scooter all the way to where other teachers were meeting for supper, besides, we don't know the city well enough for nighttime driving. We joined a dozen other teachers for supper at the Bayou Restaurant, and enjoyed good company for the evening.
Saturday, Linda did more homework, and later we went out, parked the scooter at the metro station and took the metro to Central Park, located in the heart of the city. When we emerged from the metro station, we were greeted by brightly colored huge buildings housing all the big brand name stores like Gucci, Prada, and others. We walked around the park and finally located the Brickyard Bar where Cory Toner was serving sausages. Whose Cory Toner? A good friend of Marty's, the fellow who lives in our home in Saskatoon. Cory was from Landis, Saskatchewan, near Biggar and has been living in Kaohsiung for the last 13 years. He is married to a Taiwanese lady and makes his living making and selling sausage and as well as working in a "bushiban", a Taiwanese English cram school. We tasted a couple of his delicious sausages and spent
Mosaic on ther Sidewalk by the Park
We went for a walk around the Fine Arts Museum and Park and found this mosaic just by the parking lot. the evening visiting.
On Sunday, we were ready for a road trip. Maurice found an American fellow who had been living in the area for 5 years and was moving back to Texas. He was selling all of his household stuff and there were some things we were interested in. So off we went with the help of Google Maps, heading north of the city about 18 kilometers. About an hour later, and a few phone calls to Joshua, we managed to find each other. If there would have been a bunch of stuff we wanted, Linda would have taken a taxi back, however, we figured we could handle all our purchases on the scooter. It was a little trickier getting back home, what with an ironing board and iron, a welcome door mat, a teflon pan, a rice cooker, 2 cans of WD40, and a fishing tackle box full of tools and screwdrivers as well as both of us on the scooter. We managed to get back in one piece and still had plenty of time to head to the local market and pick up fresh fruits and vegetables.
We have discovered a daily market a short
It is SO Hot!
Look how some of the locals dress. They hate the sun and keep completely covered up. scooter ride away, and it will be handy to buy groceries there rather than the grocery chains further from our apartment. The market has flowers, fruits and vegetables, pork, chicken, duck of course, fish, salmon, and many other ugly sea creatures, clothes, eating places, bakeries and various other stalls and booths. It runs from 3 to 6PM every day. We'll often shop there as everything is so fresh and convenient for us. Also, because it is so hot and humid here, the fruits in particular don't keep very long, so we can only buy a couple days worth otherwise they go bad on us.
Taiwan notes of interest:
A plant in the house is good luck, our landlady left us one, Aw! We have everything we need to function well in our apartment. They left us dishes in sets of 3 or 5, 4 is the number of death so they avoid using anything in groups of 4. We do have 3 full sets of sheets and bedding. We have 5 chairs.
Ghost month has just ended, there was a great deal of sacrificial money burnt in huge cylindrical fire vats like washing machine tubs, 8 feet
Building and Building
We see high-rise construction all over the city high and 5 feet across. The money was burnt for the ghosts of the relatives past. The money was burnt in their honor so that the ghost would remain content in its' after life and not return to the human world.
Ice cream truck music is really the garbage truck doing their daily pick-up, ours is around 9 PM at night.
Tops of buildings are unique in structure during the day (like huge lady bugs crawling up the sides of buildings) and display decorative lighting at night, (Gotham City tops, purple lights reflecting against the walls, crowns or multiple ledges with lighting) make them unique. It is beautiful to be on a scooter at night as the views of these buildings are impressive.
People are out walking and slapping themselves early, before sun up everyday. They take their fitness seriously here. Since we live across from a beautiful park with lots of scooter parking we see the people arrive early for their walking workout.
People are covered with jackets on backwards (while on their scooters) and they have a face mask on. They hate the sun and the dust thrown up by other scooters. They also
Our Scooter
It is impossible to get around without one, and much handier than a car! want to stay as fair-skinned as possible so most people are covered from head to foot with clothing in this 30 something degree heat. How they can be so covered up is beyond me!
Generally the Taiwanese follow the rules, except when it comes to driving. Red lights are optional here as well as in Mexico. Scooters make a right hand turn by driving through an intersection and stopping in a painted white box on the far right side of the intersection. Then 3 seconds before the light changes to green the scooters rev up and begin to creep forward to be sure that they are the first vehicles through the light. That's sort of important when there are 50 or 60 scooters wanting to move forward as well. Maurice drives like a local now.
It is hot, muggy and sweaty so it makes no difference if you are in the rain or not. Hair is a bit of a challenge at times. Now that we have scooter helmet head, it really is unusual to have a good hair day.
No need to lock doors, nobody steals here. You can drop a coin and if someone attempts
Central Park by Night
This intersection is in the heart of the city, and is one of the busiest! to pick it up they instantly look around for the owner. In Linda's classroom kids bring money and they can leave it lying around or drop it, the caretaker picks it up and puts it on your desk. A scooter helmet can be left for hours on the seat of your scooter and when you return it will still be there.
AC works well but it is better with fan on to move the air around more effectively. There is an AC in every room except kitchens and bathrooms. Did we mention it is hot and sticky???
Frogs and toads are very loud here and at school when it rains. If there is no rain, there is no sound. Very large snails are out and about when it rains. Small snails cover the grassed area when there is a heavy rain. (soaked out of their holes?)
The Taiwan people are friendly and helpful people and like to use their 3 words of English like I use my 3 words of Chinese.
Hello Kitty is an inter-generational thing here and has been forever. It will be here forever.
You get ice cream and black bean sauce
Lights and Colourful Buildings
It was amazing to watch the colors change on this magnificent Central Park building rather than chocolate sauce at McDonald's. It was tasty, though unusual. The MacDonalds are beautiful high end establishments, much fancier than in North America. Price for a Bib Mac Meal....$4
Most any financial transaction can be made/done at a your local 7-11 store such as power, water and cell phone bills. There are many of them around and they get used as landmarks. For example the 7-11 by Tom's house, the 7-11 near the buffet, the 7-11 by your acupuncture place, the 7-11 by the school. You can get almost anything you need at the 7-11.
Candy here is unique. It can be individually wrapped (for school purposes) tuna flavoured, or squid flavoured or any number of fish flavours you didn't know existed. You know those hotdogs or corn dogs we get in Canada, well, here it might be squid or octopus or fish balls or any kind of minced fish made into a ball, AND it tastes good!
Living walls cover the corrugated steal sheets that enclose a construction site. They are rows of plants in pots arranged along the plant holder cage. They change the plants from time to time to be sure that it
On Our Way to Central Park
This helmet was on the sidewalk when we parked, and still there 3 hours later. It is very safe here! is pleasant looking.
Tofu, now that is a problem. We can eat it but can not be around it when they are cooking it. The locals say, "watch out for the stinky tofu" and they are right. The smell catches you by surprise and almost suffocates a person. Then we can't eat it!
After driving for over a month, we now know that there are 3 different traffic red lights. If you are in a car, a red light means STOP, on a scooter, it means Stop for busy intersections, slow if it is a T intersection, or proceed slowly if there is no traffic, and if you are on a bicycle proceed if safe to do so! Don't panic if someone is coming towards you on a scooter the wrong direction, they do it all the time. There are fewer accidents than at home, we think its because they don't really expect people to follow the rules and therefore pay more attention. They are much more tolerant than we are at home.
Did we mention that it is hot and muggy....still. Now mid September, day time temperature 30-32, night time 28-29. Hot and muggy all the
Heading out of Town
On our way to Dashe, 18k away, to buy stuff for the apartment. We found these online in Kaohsiung Living - like kijiji time. Raindrops sting a bit on your face at 50kph
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Ouch
Glad the injuries were not any worse.