Finished training and the first couple of days in my new city

This past week has been a pretty decent week.  A little stressful at the start with having an assessed demo to do during training.  That was on Monday.  Breezed through it with flying colors.  The rest of training was fairly easy.  Just had to sit through a couple more lectures and write a final test.  I think I got a couple wrong but that's OK.  Training was completed on Wednesday with a short graduation ceremony and a few awards given out.  Went to karaoke for the after party.  I really don't like karaoke but I figured I should go for awhile as it was the final time I would see most of the other trainee's for the foreseeable future.

Thursday was the trek out to my new city.  I am currently living in Hsinchu City, alternate spelling is Xinchu City.  After a 50min train ride I was met by a co-worker at the train station in Hsinchu city and she took me to the Area branch office to drop off my luggage.  I really don't like hauling that stuff around.  Next to the office is an Italian restaurant and since it was going to be an hour or so until the real estate agent could meet us we went for lunch.  Good eats.  My boss met us there and paid for it all.  I was surprised but happy.

Next we met the agent and she took us to a nice enough 3 bedroom apartment.  It was actually a very nice place, just a little out of my price range.  The next place was totally perfect for what I wanted.  2 bedroom, newly renovated.  It even had a dishwasher in the kitchen.  But, once again, it was out of my price range.  I think I could have swung it but it would have made saving money almost impossible until I could get a roommate.  It was supper quiet and not that far from work, only a 15-20min walk.  The next place was a studio apt on the 8th floor of another building.  I was expecting something along the lines of what I was living in in Japan.  Not even close!  Fully furnished with a double size bed and a flat screen TV.  Cable, Internet and water included in the rent for the low price of around $400.00CAD.  I was happy and took it. 

 Later when I was at the office signing the contract I was told that I had rented my apt faster then anyone else.  Not sure if this shows that I am decisive or just impatient.  

Not much of a view but the air flows through nicely

My co-worker then took me shopping so I could get some things for the apartment, like bedding, a pillow and cleaning supplies.  It is a newly renovated apt and I still need to clean but I am just to lazy to do it.

Day 2 consisted of my trying to find the Mexican restaurant that is near the offices, unfortunately I couldn't find it so I had to settle for some restaurant nearby.  It had a zebra drawing on the door.  The food was really good, though a bit expensive.  I showed up at the office way to early, I think I was around 2.5hrs early and all I was doing was observing 2 lessons.  Oh well, gotta try to make a good impression.  After watching others teach for 4hrs I am feeling pretty good about this job.  Hopefully I can perform as well as I expect myself to.  I found the Mexican restaurant on the way home so I stopped for supper.  The food there was very good to.

Saturday was a day off so I decided to do some laundry before heading out to see what is around my new home.  I couldn't get the stupid machine to start up.  I tried everything, pressing all the buttons in many different combinations.  Nothing worked.  I decided to give up for awhile.  On the way out I saw my neighbor and asked him for some help.  Stupid machine decided to work for him even though I did exactly what he did.  Not all technology likes me I guess.

I found a really nice gym in the mall near my place so I decided to join up. 

 It costs about $55.00CAD per month.  Not to bad, every commercial gym in Japan was around $100.00.  I did some walking around after signing up and found a KFC, Pizza Hut and a Mcdonalds not to far away. When I need a fix of western food I will be good here.  I think I have everything here to be very happy, now I just need to find a few friends and I will be good to go for a couple of years.

Life is good.  Now to start making some money.