Yesterday was Saturday and my first day here. I luckily slept through the night since I chose not to sleep much on the plane. I think I was able to bypass the jetlag for the most part. In the morning a woman from the school, Victoria, brought us bagels and cream cheese. They were amazing, just like Big Apple Bagel! After breakfast we stopped at the school. It is about a five minute walk from the apartment and seems really nice. I even got to see my classroom. It seems like I will have all the supplies I will need and the room was really cute. I have the whale class. They are the youngest in the whole school. 3-4 years old. I will be there first foreign teacher. It is exciting to think that I will finally have my own class for an entire year. It is even more exciting to think that it is in another country!

After stopping at the school we went shopping for groceries and a handle for the kitchen sink. First we went to a place called B and Q for the handle, it was basically a cross between Menards and Bed Bath and Beyond. After that we went to the grocery store which was really a combination of stores, the grocery store was on the first level and the bottom level was like Wal-Mart, it had pillows, bikes, small appliances, clothes, etc. There was also a pet shop and pharmacy nearby. The pet shop seemed really clean compared to the ones in China. They had rabbits, turtles, hamsters, iguanas, and a snake. I was happy to see that all of the animals were well taken care of. I know what everyone who knows me is thinking and no…I did not buy anything, but I am thinking about a turtle :)

The grocery store had everything you could want including peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, pasta, Oreo cookies, milk, cheese, and yogurt. They even had a selection of Kraft salad dressing as well as mayo, Hunt’s ketchup, and barbecue sauce. There isn’t much I won’t be able to buy here. There were also a lot of people standing around with samples. I suppose it is a good way find out what you like. There was even a girl handing out Heineken Beer. It was sort of bizarre. After the sample of beer, I tried tomato juice, which was okay but needed salt, and yogurt, which was really good. We also bought fresh fruit smoothies and I bought a stick of three already cooked fish balls, which were not good at all.

After all the shopping, we went home and had dinner across the street and a really beautiful vegetarian restaurant. It had kind of a Door County charm and they played soft classical music. It was nice and fairly inexpensive. A great way to end the evening.

I am finally here in Taiwan. The entire trip took 20 some hours (I lost track after twenty). I had a layover in Detroit and another in Osaka, Japan. The flight from Detroit to Osaka was the longest. As soon as I got on that flight I started to realize exactly what I had gotten myself into. There were literally only 4 white people on the whole 747 (it probably held about 300 people), everyone else was Asian. I am not exaggerating either. I counted. One man, two girls who looked about 14, and me. Four white people! Needless to say I was a minority. I sat next to a girl about my age named Patty from Taipei who goes to medical school in Canada. She was really nice and taught me some Chinese. She also gave me some great tips and told me all about Taiwan. It was cool because she was from Taiwan but she seemed more Canadian than anything. No one sat in the seat between us so we also had some extra room. That was nice. They showed failure to launch, eight below, and curious george on the plane. I slept through curious george. We landed in Japan and had a short layover before we got back on the same plane and flew to Taiwan. Everything went smoothly.

When I got to Taipei, I went right through customs, exchanged a little money, and got my luggage. Luckily, the cart was free. I really needed it because my bags were HUGE and heavy. After I said goodbye to Patty and we exchanged emails, I went to look for the driver that the school had sent. I was relived to find a man waiting right outside holding a sign with my name on it. He barely spoke any English but told me to wait by the street and then disappeared. I couldn't tell where he had gone and after a few minutes I got a little worried. I kept trying to think of reasons why he would have left me standing on the curb. At first I thought he needed to use the bathroom or make a phone call but after about 5 minutes I figured it out. He had probably gone to get the car. Sure enough he pulled up moments later, waving and smiling.

It took about two and a half hours to get to Chiayi. We stopped once at a rest stop that had bathrooms and a small shop with everything from fried chicken to sushi. I bought chocolate milk and gum labeled WAKE UP. It was like eating vicks vapor rub but it sure cleaned out my sinuses and woke me up. The milk tasted fine but seemed really thin. Almost like the milk from a coconut. Weird but okay. Well, I finally got to Cathy's (the woman from the school I am staying with) apartment at about 12:45am. She is really nice and had a great little bed set up for me. Her apartment is just one room with a small patio turned into a kitchen and a bathroom. It is really cute. Newly remodeled and everything. I got really lucky because it turns out she is leaving for Oman (a country in the middle east) in three weeks. She unexpectedly got a really great job at a university there. I am really going to miss her but the whole apartment thing works out well, I am just going to finish out her lease. So in three weeks, I will have my own place. The rent is about $215 US dollars with utilities and everything and it is only a few blocks from the school. It will work out beautifully.

This is a map of Taiwan (the small pink dot is Chiayi).

Hello Everyone,

I have yet to leave for Taiwan but I am already busy packing. I already have a bag packed full of food, books, classroom materials, and bedding. I even packed an air mattress at the suggestion of Stori, another teacher in Taiwan. She said that the beds are extremely hard. I remember how hard they were in China and I think that an air mattress is a pretty good idea. My next step will be packing clothes. I am going to go a little lighter with this since I know that I will have no trouble finding cheap clothes in Taiwan. I also don’t want to risk ruining any of my nice clothes. My closet at home will basically be staying the same, minus a few older items.

I am lucky to be in contact with some people who are already in Taiwan. They have given me a lot of great advice. Stori is a girl that I worked with at Lochearn who just arrived in Taiwan about a month ago. I knew she was considering going but we never really talked about our plans until I read in an email to everyone at camp saying that she was preparing to go. I emailed her back to let her know that I had also signed a contract. It turns out that we are only about an hour away from each other. Small world! Cathy is another teacher from Noble American School whom I am staying with during my first few days in Chiayi. She has been very nice, we have talked a lot over emails. I am so thankful to be staying with a teacher who can show me around. Plus, I will be able to save some of my precious money by avoiding a hotel.

I will be leaving Chicago next Thursday at 12:08pm. I have a short layover in Detroit and then it will be a direct flight to Taipei. The whole trip will be about 20 hours but with time differences, I will arrive in Taipei around 9:30pm on Friday. From there it will be about a 3-4 hour drive to Chaiyi. The school is sending someone to pick me up, but I was told that he does not speak any English. I have numbers for the director of the school, the dean, and Cathy. So I can call if there is any trouble. I am not too worried, they have done this many times before. My first weekend will be spent staying a Cathy’s and getting to know the town. I am also going to need some time to recover from jetlag. My contract doesn’t start until Tuesday but I will most likely spend Monday at the school getting acquainted with things. I will also need to do a health check so that they can file my papers for a work permit and ARC (Alien Resident Card). My ARC will get me government health insurance, which is standard for everyone in Taiwan. I have heard that it is actually quite good. It will also serve as my identification. I will need it to do everything from opening a bank account to getting a driver’s license (if I decide to get a scooter).

Well, wish me luck. It will be a hard week saying goodbye to family, friends, and Adam. I am going to miss everyone so much! I will make another post when I arrive in Taiwan. Hopefully that one will have some pictures.

~Lisa