The start of my life in Taiwan

Taipei 101

Well, I've made it half way through training for my new job.  So far, so good.  I have experienced the expected level of stress.  It hasn't been nearly as stressful as when I took the CELTA course but, as in all new jobs, you have some performance anxiety.  Or at least I do.

The trainers have been pretty decent so far.  The method of teaching is far more technical then anything I did in Japan.  Games everywhere though, so hopefully I can fit those into my lessons without to much trouble.  I had a pretty bad game when I was doing storybook time for one demo.  I'm not very inventive when it comes to thinking up games.  But the observer said it was all good (I think he was just being nice.)

Most of my fellow trainee's are pretty cool.  Its a group of 33 people from lots of different places. I've met more South Africans in the past week then I have ever seen in the past.  I guess Taiwan is a popular place to go from there.  Lots of UK people and many Auzzies.  A bunch of Americans and I think one or two other Canadians.  A pretty diverse group I would say.  I think it's a little funny that they don't recruit more from North American since that is the English that they are trying to teach.  Of the 4 or 5 trainers we have only one of them is from NA.

We had a Mandarin lesson at the end of training on Thursday.  I think I will struggle with it even more then I did with Japanese, but it was at least a fun lesson and the lady who taught the lesson was kinda hot.  Makes it a little difficult to pay attention to what she was saying.

I haven't done much sight seeing yet and I doubt I will be doing any before I leave for my placement.  The training is pretty intense.  I will be going to Hsinchu city next Thursday.  When I get there I will be going apartment hunting immediately.  This has been the biggest problem I've had with this company so far.  I have to shell out between $1000 and $1500 just to get a place to live.  They said nothing about that kind of cost in the lead up to coming.  It has put a bit of a damper on my excitement to be here.  Oh well, what large company is ever completely honest with their new recruits?

I have a pretty sweet schedule.  I will work Mon-Fri 4:30 to 9:00.  Only problem with this is I get paid hourly so it doesn't translate into much money.  I think I will be looking for private tutoring.  At least I will have lots of time to do it.

I am staying in a pretty run down hotel for this training and I have a roommate with me.  He's a pretty nice guy.  I think we have a lot in common so its been pretty easy living with him.  However the internet in this hotel is probably worse then dial-up ever was.  On many occasions we can't even connect so there is no checking FB or emails.  I did get a prepaid card for my cell phone.  The way I understood it was that it is unlimited internet and a bunch of minutes of calls.  Don't need the calls so I should be good to go with that.  Only problem is I don't even get cell phone reception in the room.  All I can say is, at least I don't have to pay for the hotel while I am in training.  I think I would have changed if I had to pay.  The best thing about this room is that there are 5 movie channels on the TV.

Well, that's enough for now.

Bye bye. (I would say it in Mandarin but I already forgot how.  doh)

Leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again. See ya Japan

So, I made a decision to leave Japan many months ago.  It finally culminated in my leaving to try my luck in Taiwan.  I've heard many good things about Taiwan and almost none bad.  After applying to many companies and only getting a few returns, I scored a job with a national company that teaches children.  Kind of the same job as I was doing in Japan so hopefully there won't be the same amount of new job stress I suffered when I first came to Japan.  Here's to hoping.

After jumping through the usual hoops to get the confirmation of the job I was able to book my flight.  Yee Haw!!!  Get to finally leave the high stress environment of having a shitty boss and far to much commuting for my liking.  I booked with Peach.  It's a fairly new low cost carrier flying out of Kansai airport in Osaka.

Now, when you go to Taiwan you have to book a flight out of the country or they won't let you in.  So I booked a return flight at the end of October.  Made the mistake of booking 2 bags on the return flight and then found out not only could I not get my money back for the flight (I get peach points towards my next flight) I forfeit the baggage fees completely.  Not to impressed, but whatever.  While booking I got to choose where I want to sit.  So I choose a seat with extra foot space (not the emergency aisle though).  When I got to my seat I was happy about choosing the extra space because I couldn't imagine what the regular seat space gave you.  Here's a pic of what I had.

Not much space as you can see. 

Despite the lack of space it was an uneventful flight.  Because I choose the window seat I got to see the tops of the clouds.  They're pretty cool.

One easy landing later and I am on the ground in Taoyuan international airport.  Got off the plane and advanced to immigration.  The lady behind the booth who took my picture didn't seem to impressed that I was coming to teach English, but she let me pass with no trouble.  I am always nervous about customs and immigration for some reason.

After leaving this area I moved on to baggage claim.  Surprisingly enough my bags didn't take long to arrive and I was off to customs.  Man, I wish customs was like this in Canada.  Everyone just strolled through.  They didn't check any luggage.  Not mine, not anyone's.  Go figure!

The company that I have hired with said they would have a driver just outside customs and there he was.  With a little bit of bad English we were on our way.  Took about 45mins to get to the hotel.  

Here's where things get a little dicey.  This hotel is a dive.  Brings me back to when I was insulating attics and had to stay in motels in the middle of nowhere. 

Its a two room room.  Tomorrow there will be another future HESS employee staying with me.  I imagine we will be bunking together all through training.  The thing I really didn't like was that I had to pay for all the days leading up to training and the new guy would pay me for his half.  Nice way to start trouble.  Hopefully there won't be any problems.  I'll have to keep you posted.

That's what has happened so far on my newest odyssey.  Now I gotta go see if I can find an air freshener somewhere cuz this room smells bad.