Already 1 Month?

My Neighbourhood

Already, 1 month has flown by since I arrived in Taipei. From what I hear from others whom I've met along the way, I've fared pretty well in my month here. The fact that I have accommodation, income and a sizable social circle is no small feat and I guess I've been pretty lucky.

Since the last post I have been up to much of the same as before. I worked as an actor again last Thursday which when equally as well as my previous experience and I completed my first week at my new teaching job.

It has become clear that working 1.5-2.5 hours probably wont be enough to be putting any thing away into savings; however, surprisingly (I've done the math) it will be enough to more than cover my monthly expenses given that I don’t make any extravagant purchases. That said I would like to have more expendable income and have been searching for more work hours. I have an interview on Wednesday for another teaching job that could fill my evening hours. I would rather get a job that has hours earlier in the day but i guess I'll take what I can get at this point.

Nothing much else is new really. I went to see the Avengers on Sunday night in what may have been the largest movie theatre I've ever been in. I also went to a museum and the botanical gardens which were...well, pretty much as one would expect.

One of the interesting things I have yet to mention about Taiwan is the Jeremy Lin obsession. For anyone who has not turned on a TV in the last 6 months, Jeremy Lin is an American born basketball player whose parents happen to be from Taiwan. People here are obsessed with him and I see at least 10 people wearing some form Lin memorabilia every day, it's “Lin-sane”. Nowhere is the Linsanity more evident than in my classroom where the students all have some type of Lin school supplies and go on to no ends about him. I've noticed that the “Lin” surname is one of the most common names here so that may have a little bit of an influence on the popularity of t-shirts sporting the name and number 17 on the back.

Another thing that is noteworthy about Taipei is how safe it is here. There is nowhere in Taipei that you could be in the middle of night that you would feel even slightly threatened. It's not at all uncommon for people to use a phone or a laptop to save their seat in a coffee shop while they buy another coffee or use the washroom.

I have my first modelling job this Sunday modelling socks for a catalouge.  I hope I can get some free socks out of it.  

 Below are some pictures of a big apartment fire in Central Taipei.