A Few Insanities

Chris mentioned in the last blog post that he missed Beijing.  Let me just say, he stands alone in that.  Even though the starry-eyed newness of Taipei is wearing off, I don't look back.

Here are a few insights into life:

-I am becoming an expert cockroach killer.  Good thing Chris has such huge shoes, is all I have to say.  I haven't started killing them with my hands yet (one of my coworkers does), but I'm sure the time will come.

-We have made our 3rd trip to Ikea and finally feel like our house is where we want it to be!

-During my training, we were told that we had 6 sick days and 4 leave days.  Wrong.  I had to clearly ask: "so, we are given these days but we shouldn't really take them?"  That is correct.  They are given simply as a formality.

-I leave the school at 7 pm (!!) sometimes and people are still working.  There's this mentality that you have to stay later than your boss, so if your boss hasn't left, you don't leave.  Some of my fellow foreign coworkers are embarrassed to leave early, and so sneak out the back door.

-We got a phone for Chris after my many visits and arguments to get a phone for myself a few weeks ago.  Even this time they started putting up a fuss about the wrong dates on my Taiwan ID (ARC).  When they realized I already had a contract, they had a long and serious discussion between themselves.  "Ok," they finally told us, "we give you another phone on this contract, but you can't go tell everybody."  Can I just ask... who is Everybody?!?!
(it's on the internet now anyways... :)  

I'm sure there are many more oddities, but this is a good start.  Both Chris and I are making head-way with our students -- getting to know and understand them.  Grading periods are ending soon, which makes for extra stress...  It's 9:30 pm and Chris is just getting home.  

Until next time.

The grass is always greener, right?

Two weeks of teaching done. It has been insanity.

No computer until the third day of classes. Repeatedly being told, “Oh, you need to be doing this and this, oh, and that,” after we’ve already fail to do this, this and that because no one told us ahead of time that we needed to. Building multiple curriculums from the ground up while having to teach them; like building a car while in the process of driving it down the road. And so many more things.

It’s been a bit of a shock for us. I left Beijing thinking that teaching in Taiwan would only make school more organized and predictable, and have since discovered just the opposite. A fellow teacher who’s been at my school for a number of years asked me last night what I thought of teaching in Taipei. “It’s like Beijing, but on steroids. No, wait, like speed, like Beijing on speed.”

It seems to be more intense for the students too. In Beijing, students arrived at school around 7:30 am and worked until 8:30 pm; a long, long day, granted, but they still were given many breaks throughout the day, some as long as a full hour. At my school in Taipei, students also arrive around 7:30 am, but their day is very different. Ten classes a day, only a five-minute break in between classes with one 15-minute break in the morning. School ends at 6:00 pm, but then most students head off to what are known as “cram schools,” where they do even more studying. Only after that do they actually start working on homework. Some of my 7th grade students don’t get to bed until midnight. It’s a system that puts a lot of expectation and pressure on teachers and students alike.

In the midst of this, it’s easy to think back to Beijing with a little bit of longing. Longing for those shorter teaching days, for a familiar curriculum, for a less pressure-filled work environment. But I also need to be careful to remember how difficult life was in Beijing also. Despite the stress of work, I feel as though we’re already developing healthier lives here in Taipei. We’re surrounded by green trees, the air is fresh, we’re making friends, we have a place of our own to call home. And nostalgia for our old school quickly faded this week when we heard from a friend back in Beijing that the principal was just fired and my former supervisor is leaving China. It's a reminder that, though things are tough here, things are not necessarily better elsewhere.

To an extent, you make the best with what you have and where you are. I don’t regret our decision to move, though I miss my students and our friends in Beijing. This year is going to be really, really challenging for us professionally, but I know that we are capable of rising to the challenge and we’ll be better teachers in the end because of it.

It’s Saturday afternoon now. This feels like a hard-earned weekend and we are making good use of it. Went out to breakfast this morning and had eggs and sausage and waffles. Walked back home through a morning market and bought fresh fruit (giant yellow mango, pears, star fruit) and vegetables. Grace is napping. I’m drinking coffee and typing on the couch. It’s rainy today, and the coolest it’s been since we got here over a month ago (80F). Maybe later this afternoon we’ll jump on the scooter and vroom over to the flower market or one of the colorful Buddhist temples. Or maybe not. It’s nice to do nothing.

School Has Started

We've been in classes for about 4 days now.  We have some war stories, especially Chris.  My school has some level of disorganization that comes with cross cultural work places, etc. but my school puts Chris' school to shame.  He found out 2 days into the school year that he is teaching in a starter program -- again -- similar to last year in China.  One of the reasons we wanted to get out of that situation!  The Chinese homeroom teacher, in his 7th grade classroom, has been taking advantage of Chris' time by tactically disappearing when needed, or acting lost and confused so that Chris would take the lead with the students.  When confronted, her "surprise" at the "news" clearly gave Chris the impression she knew more than was letting on.  Hum...

We've finally gotten at least one phone with a contract, which turns out to be cheaper that pay as you go.  So now I have a Smartphone.  It was a fight getting it, but I think the phone office was so tired of seeing me and arguing with me (I'm getting good at that...) that they caved.  Just kidding, I had a translator friend to help me and all the silly required paperwork.

My latest adventure has consisted of hunting down free bikes.  I saw an ad online, emailed the guy, he responded letting me know he'd moved but the bikes were left outside the apartment complex, unchained.  My first thoughts were "Free bikes!" plus "I'm sure they're still there!"  Well, I took the subway, tried as best as I could to follow his directions and 5 blisters and 2 hours later, I floundered my way with my poor Chinese back to the subway empty handed.  

One of the reasons I want a bike is to ride by Chris as he has started training for a marathon!  I have to say, there are times it feels like we are hitting our heads against a wall and yelling: "why is this so hard here?!?" but we're, for the most part, having fun doing it.  Not the head banging part.  Mostly just life.  I get to walk everywhere, which I love.  Chris is going to get a scooter soon.  Our walls aren't completely white anymore.  This feels more like living again.  It is good.