A Quarter of a Year in Taipei

Rain has been the ongoing theme of the past month. Locals and expats tell me it gets better but I was beginning to get sick of the consistently bad weather.

Preparing for the typhoon

We had a Typhoon warning 2 weeks ago and, to be honest, I was a bit excited about my first Taiwan typhoon experience. Disappointingly, the typhoon did not live up to the hype and we received little more than a few light showers here in Taipei.

We had a break in the rain that conveniently landed on the weekend, dragon boat festival weekend as it would turn out. I went to watch the races which themselves were somewhat boring but the atmosphere around the event made up for it. There were lots of interesting foods to sample and it was nice to be out in the sun.

Aboriginal rice. Cooked in bamboo.

When I'd seen my fill of the races I rented a bike for a relaxing ride along the river through several of Taipei's numerous riverside parks. The bike rental was very cheap and the ride was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.

One evening I embraced my Canadianess and went ice skating at Taipei Arena. It has been 2 years since I last skated and the rental skates were painful but I managed to skate for close to an hour without a single wipeout. 

I've been working on lining up some work for the summer which was starting to become a slight concern come the final week of June. Luckily for me my boss found me a new job for summer at a different branch of the franchise school I have been working for.

I have been on the midst of administering and marking end-of-semester exams. Luckily for me, I had only 6 students, making the task fairly easy. I finished up the last day at that school on Friday and if I choose to continue to teach there, classes won't begin until September.

Writing their final exam.

The weather has been excellent for the past week and it managed to stay-so for the weekend. On Saturday, I went to the Taipei Zoo! I couldn't believe how cheap a ticket to the zoo is here, only $2 cad ($1 with my counterfeit student card). Even at such a cheap price point the zoo is world class with lions, tigers, pandas, penguins, gorillas and many more.

Right next to the zoo is the main entrance to Taipei's tourist gondola that lifts revelers high up into the hills for cool refreshing air and a sprawling view of Tea plantations, the city skyline and everything in-between.  The gondola even had a glass floor which added to the experience.

This Sunday was, of course, Canada day and as a Canadian living abroad I'm obliged to clebrate and exhibit my national pride. Fortunately, Taipei holds a fairly sizable event to mark the occasion. Molson beer, Canadian club whiskey, and poutine made with McCain french fries were the featured Canadian delicacies of the day and the center stage hosted bands playing, somewhat questionable, covers of Canadian songs. I had a few beers as part of my patriotic duty on what was a nice and relaxing Canada Day.

Today I started my new job. Unlike my previous job, I will now teach in the mornings which means ill have to give-up sleeping in in exchange for freeing up my afternoons to take short trips around the region. My new class has only 5 students, 4 of whom are girls meaning their behavior is much easier to manage than my prior class full of boys.

Weird tea with thick salty cream

The newest magazines.

In summary, things are still going great after three months of living here and I look forward an exciting summer.

Ps.  Here's a sample of my lack of acting skills: