January 9th

Jan 9th: Well, our first day of training has ended-and what a day it has been!
I (Jeff) have been unable to sleep non-stop for more than 5 or 6 hours at night. Although both last night and tonight I have fallen asleep watching tv, I crawl into our bed fully clothed, (because it’s so damn cold at night) and I am fully awake by 4 or 5 am!!! I really hope this doesn’t continue, maybe it’s a part of jetlag—but I really didn’t feel I suffered any jetlag so I’m not sure.
Since arriving here I’ve already enjoyed…or eaten chicken hearts, squid, delicious fruit, veggie noodles dishes, and our roommate Leor made us an amazing seafood & Chinese pork sausage stirfry, it may not sound so good to you- but it truly was delicious.
We’ve enjoyed going to the markets, shopping, eating out at this great fancy Italian (Chinese) restaurant, being showed around by Robyn & Leor—who have been great to us. They are the ones who we are replacing, they finish teaching tomorrow, then head to Thailand to do some traveling and then back to Toronto, Canada. Weird little bit of knowledge…in Taiwan tomatoes are a dessert.
Clothing, food, internet, (which will finally be hooked up on Wednesday afternoon), and most things are very affordable considered to prices back home. My throat has been bothering me a lot from all the industrial pollution in the air, aka scooter fumes—so today like many of the natives here in Tiawan I bought a mask to wear when on the streets. Yep, I look like a dork, but I feel better.
Michelle and I have been living in an area where there is construction on 3 sides of our house, add that noise to all the scooters driving by honking, and the children next door stomping and yelling and it makes for a lot of action. Apparently however, our living conditions, (house size) is unusually large. I am quite happy with that. The set up is quite strange though. The front of our house is 3 large panes of glass looking right onto the street…like two feet away from where all the construction is happening, and where all the scooters are driving by, and parking right in front of our door..no kidding. At night time and when we are away we have a remote that sends a large ugly industrial garage door sliding down to stop and unwanted intruders. Apparently it is the norm here in Taiwan, but man it looks awful. So our entrance, living room/tv room, and kitchen is all on the main floor looking on to the street, then currently our bedroom is on the first floor..we will be taking over the third floor bedroom once Robyn and Leor have left which will be Wednesday/ Thursday this week. On the second floor to the right is a spare room which is locked, and to the left is our temporary room. It’s a fairly decent size, with our own bathroom. Ok- now then- the bathroom’s out here are hilarious. They are tiny, especially considering that in a little room maybe 3 feet by 5 feet is our toilet, sink, and shower. SO yeah- the shower sprays everywhere…on you, the sink, and the toilet, so hide the toilet paper. The shower is barely tall enough for me to stand under, and I already whacked my head on the door frame exiting the bathroom today.
The third floor has two joining rooms which we will be taking over, and then on the fourth floor our other roommate, and teacher we work with, Mark has his bedroom there, then we also have access to the roof, where we will enjoy bbq’s this summer and drying our clothes. There is a clothes washer (machine), but very few houses in Tiawan have a dryer…or a heater which makes for very cool nights.
Another thing we have yet to experience are the cockroaches and huge centipedes. There are cockroach traps all over our house, but apparently it’s to cold even for them. The centipedes are known to crawl up sinks and drains, but so far so good. There is also a sewer opening right outside our front door, such a lovely smell in the morning as we head off to work. At least our school is a very close walk from our house, which saves us a lot of time and bus/scooter money. However we are contemplating the purchase of a scooter as there is not much to do in our town, but we have bicycles and the next city isn’t too far off.
I can’t wait to make our future bedroom truly ours and settle in. Although my descriptions of Tiawan may not sound inviting to you all, I really am enjoying it !!! The training today at the school was great. The two people running the school Susan & Giant (yes his name is Giant) are wonderful. They truly care about the students and teachers, and are doing their best to make us have a great time. We had 2 hours of orientation today, and then I sat through 3 classes, taking it all in, and seeing what teaching English is all about. The students are fascinated by my beard, they continually come up to me petting my head and rubbing my beard, smiling and giggling to their friends. They are sooooo cute. You show them just a little bit of attention and you’ve already made a friend for life. Teaching here will be very rewarding, I am very excited.
It is now 11:11pm here on Monday Jan 9th, I believe I have now exhausted myself, hopefully tonight I will finally be able to have a good and full night sleep. Take care all, we’ll be in touch soon. Hope you are all well.
All our love Jeff, and Michelle who is curled up next to me already passed out.
Bye.