We have become social butterflies once again. Last weekend we enjoyed a laid back weekend in Hsinchu. Our friend from New Zealand (who also dropped out of our free Chinese classes) introduced us to one of his favorite vegetarian restaurants for lunch. After lunch he showed us some quiet running trails at the Hsinchu Botanical Gardens. We met up with another friend from Vancouver for dinner to introduce her to our favorite restaurant. She is actually more obsessed with the fruit here than we are! We have made plans to have a mango tasting party together one day soon. We'll buy all the different types of mangoes here at once so we can decide which one we like the best.
On Saturday James surprised me by bringing home a used iPhone 4! He found a Hsinchu college student who started an used phone "store" through facebook called the Panda Store. What a sweet husband! Being the great salesman he is, James made a good deal with him. I am officially a proud owner of an Apple product now :) We use a pre-paid minutes and texting service with our phones to avoid the monthly bill (plus how many people are we going to chat with that live in Taiwan on the phone?). Also, we have wi-fi in our apartment and wi-fi is available in many places around Taiwan (like James' school, restaurants, etc) so we are able to use the data function regularly. The main reasons we use the iPhone here is for the map that show your current location and the camera. We also downloaded audio for learning Chinese. We've learned more from listening to lesson 1 about three times while walking, running, hanging laundry to dry, etc than we did in our six hours of Chinese classes!
On Sunday, we set out to explore a trail about an hour and a half drive outside of Hsinchu. However, when we stopped for gas about 40 minutes in I told James I really was tired of the sitting on scooter (and no patience this particular morning). For the first time in our explorations in Taiwan, we just followed brown road signs (usually indicates a park, trail or temple) written only in Chinese. We had a pleasant surprise and discovered a whole new trail that is a loop (not just an out and back)! We liked it so much we returned on Tuesday morning for a trail run.
I would like to live in one of those houses!
A typical map at parks that we somehow manage to figure out where to go on the trail...or someone who speaks some English will come ask us if we need help!
Sunday ended with a potluck after church where we contributed daily eaten items in the Rockwell apartment - cut fruit and frozen veggies. I am very thankful we found this church. It's a good place with good people :)
Teaching is fine. I am not writing about James' teaching experience because he keeps promising to write a blog posting... I had two favorite parts of this week. I have been giving a 7-year old boy from my beginner class private lessons (so he can catch up with the rest of the class). He is so polite and focuses so well! I really wish I could communicate more with him but he would need a lot of more private classes to get to that level! Anyways, James' grandmother, Gammy, sent us some Care Bear stickers in the mail to give to our students. I pulled out a sheet of the stickers to give him at the end of our lesson. I intended to tell him to pick out a couple of the stickers. He got so excited that he grabbed the whole sheet and said "Thank you Teacher!" I decided it was best to let him keep the whole sheet, plus he deserves all the stickers he wants! Also, my Friday evening ended on a good note. One of my students offered me a bite of his snack (which was dried ramen noodles so I kindly accepted a small bite). Then, as I was walking out the door, he was in the car with his mother. He started yelling "Goodbye Teacher!!!!!!" I went over and gave him a high five. I like feeling loved by my students much more than feeling that I make their life miserable from learning English! By the way, even living 8,000 miles away from Atlanta, my favorite part of every weekday is still coming home to hang out with my husband, eat dinner, and exchange stories from the day ;)
A few other things of note:
1. I received my official Alien Residence Card! I am a legal teacher in Taiwan.
2. James and I have been keeping track of our expenses monthly for quite some time. We have cut our expenses by more than 70% from living in Atlanta. The reasons are rent, gas for the cars, car insurance, cell phone bills, and James' business expenses. Living simple has its advantages.... James spent a grand total of $30USD last month in gas for the scooter. Awesome.
3. We had to give our hiking buddy some information so he could apply for hiking permits for a specific trail we would like to hike soon. We realized we had no one to list as our emergency contact. That has never happened to me before! We used my school manager's information and I know she would come rescue us if anything happened. She loves her English teachers!
4. Unfortunately, I had to go to the doctor's office this week. I have a nasty sinus infection from who even knows what from living here - pollution in the air, the humidity, something in our AC, swimming in pools, cold springs or the ocean. Anyway, I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor. The whole process was incredibly efficient. My school manager took me since I had to fill out some info in Chinese for the first visit. I was assigned a waiting number. Within five minutes, I was called to the back. The doctor saw me immediately. I walked to the front counter. The receptionist handed me a slip of paper with my prescription. We walked to the pharmacy next door where the prescription was filled in about 3 minutes. With the National Taiwanese Health Insurance, the doctor's visit cost $5 USD and the prescription cost $0.66 USD. Unfortunately, I had to return again (they are really funny about giving you medicine for more than 3 days at a time which is not cool if you need some serious antibiotics...). The doctor told me a needed an x-ray of my sinuses. I walked upstairs, immediately had an x-ray, walked back downstairs, and immediately saw the doctor who had my x-rays on his computer. Apparently most of the doctors in Taiwan speak English pretty well which is a plus! One of the other English teachers at my school sees a Chinese herbal doctor when he is sick which is also covered under the National Taiwanese Health Insurance. Maybe I will try that one some other time....
I told James we should start a nightly tradition of telling each other one thing that was awesome about our days. I have decided to list a few reasons why living in Taiwan is awesome to fight through the homesickness that comes when you are not feeling your best:
1. We don't have to deal with the stress and expense of owning a car.
2. We have not been stuck in traffic since we arrived in Taiwan.
3. We eat at restaurants and buy pre-cut food for 75% of our diet. It is quite convenient. It's incredible and odd that we pay less to eat out than to cook our own food.
4. The non-existent crime is very nice. One of our buddies accidentally left his scooter keys in the scooter while parked at the train station for over a week and it did not get stolen. Where else could that happen at a busy train station?
5. Our work schedule is actually great for us now since we are more used to it. The ability to be relaxed and take your time in the morning is great, especially for us morning exercise fanatics.
6. We stand most of the day at work except when lesson planning. When I used to sit all day at work, I thought I had a hamstring injury because they would get so tight.
7. It's easy to get around the country without a car. The bus and train systems are great. It would help if we knew a bit more Chinese though...
8. Exploration leads to beautiful scenery 100% of the time in Taiwan.
9. The AC is never freezing anywhere here except the RT Mart. Although the heat is brutal, not having to bring a coat for the arctic to work everyday and to walk in every store and restaurant during the summer is nice.
10. The best tasting fruit in the WORLD!!!!!
For a final note, I have been enjoying this song recently by one of my favorite Christian artists, Steven Curtis Chapman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEwbHPjrs
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