Week #7: Wulai, Yingge and Sanxia

In the past couple of weeks I continued my usual routine of teaching and acting. Prior to last weekend I finally managed to set up a bank account here in Taipei (with the much needed assistance of a translator, provided by my acting employer).  I feel like a real Taipei resident now.

I had a busy weekend sightseeing around Taipei.
On friday, before work I was up early and on the Metro and bus on my way to the nearby aboriginal town of Wulai.

Wulai is famed for it's hotspring's in addition to it's aboriginal culture. While only about one hour on public transport from my apartment, Wulai feels a world away from Taipei. Surrounded by lush, green, tropical forests, flanking either side of a large river, Wulai town is a tourist's delight. The main street sells mostly aboriginal tourist kitsch but also serves up a great selection of local delicacies such as the delicious hot-spring eggs, bamboo steamed rice and local varieties of sausage.

Across the river from the main street was a small tourist train, originally used for logging, now for bringing the many visitors up a small mountain to get a view of Wulai PuBu (waterfall). The pubu was pretty impressive and after catching the view it was a nice walk back into town for a visit to the famous hot-springs.

While Wulai is known for it's hot springs so are a multitude of other small towns and districts in the Taipei area. In fact, taiwan has the second highest concentration of hot springs in the world, being edged out only by Japan.

I hired my own private hot-spring room at one of the many spas that lined the "hot-spring steet".
My room included a hot bath, a cold bath and a cable TV with over 100 channels. For about $6 one could lounge around it the spring water all day but after just 1 hour I was as relaxed as I was going to get and ready to leave.

Tasty goat soup for lunch

After another quick bite to eat I was back on the bus en-route to teaching in the late afternoon.
The following day I went to two other nearby tourist towns of Yingge and Sanxia.

Ceramic pottery is Yingge's claim to fame. Tourist's come from all over to buy or make their own ceramic pieces many also pay visit to the Ceramic Museum. Ceramics aren't really my cup of tea, so to say, but the real highlight of Yingge was a renowned sushi shop selling budget pre-made sushi. It was really good and super cheap.




After some confusion finding the right bus-stop I was aboard the bus to Sanxia.
Sanxia has a popular walking street that features Japanese architecture from the nearly 50 years that Taiwan was a Japanese colony. The old storefront facades were a invited change from the typical architecture seen around Taipei.

Sanxia also has a famous Taoist temple with incredibly intricate carvings throughout it's interior. The carvings were done by a renowned  Taiwanese artist.  Sanxia's temple was the most beautiful religious site I have seen in Taiwan as of yet.  

Praying for more work

As with seemingly every tourist hotspot in Taiwan, Sanxia is not without it's own regional delicacy. "Bullhorn croissants"; a sweet croissant in the shape of it's namesake, are the snack of choice. I had one halved, hollowed-out and used as a tasty ice-cream cone.

The week that has followed my busy weekend has been uneventful.  My acting work was cancelled this week due to a lack of available performers.  That mean another hit to the wallet but I've got my fingers crossed for the receipt lottery draw this Friday.

I signed up with a modelling agency this week and went in to get some photos taken Yesterday (free of charge) so hopefully the sock modelling work will start flowing in. 

A delicious fried fish soup at a nightmarket.

International Sock Model and Trip to Tamsui

Over the past two weeks my life has become pretty normalized and everything has started to fall into place.  I'm working regularly (though still not enough) and I've begun to develop a daily routine.  

When you last heard from me I mentioned that I would be modeling socks on the coming weekend; well, last Sunday I practiced my model poses  and "blue steel" expressions before making my way to the meeting place for the model shoot.   After meeting the man in charge I was driven to a park where I would spend the next three hours putting on and taking off pairs of socks and doing my best impression of a model.   I felt awkward most of the time but I'd happily do it again as it was good and easy money.  To my disappointed they did not offer to let me keep any of the pairs of socks. They did however send me some of the pictures for my "portfolio.

Professionally Good Looking

The week that followed my model shoot was pretty standard.  I did my acting work on Tuesday and Thursday and taught everyday.  I guess my profession is now Model/Actor/Teacher (triple threat).  I'm still actively searching for more work but things are still pretty good right now.

The only other noteworthy thing I did over the past two weeks was a day-trip to the nearby seaside tourist town of Tamsui. When travelling I often forget how much miss the ocean until I see it again.  While Taiwan is a pretty small island and you can never be very far from the ocean, Taipei is inland and I had not seen the ocean since I left home almost 2 months ago.

A-Gei (阿給) : deep fried tofu that has been stuffed with glass noodles and sealed with fish paste (surimi) served with a spicy sauce and Tamsui fish balls (淡水魚丸)

Tamsui is a stop on the Taipei metro rail system making it very easy ad convenient to get to.   The nearby fisherman's wharf was pretty neat and it was a nice short ferry-ride from Tamsui. Tamsui is also known as the home a famous Canadian missionary who established several schools and churches in the area. It also has an old fort that has been used by various colonial power throughout it's history.  Tamsui has a lot of historical buildings to see and lots of local delicacies to sample and I had a great time just being near the ocean for a day.

I'll have to make more trips out of Taipei in the future because as much as I love the city it is nice to escape it for a few hours.  I'm still having a wonderful time here and time has really flown by. The weather has gotten a lot nicer as of late and it has rained a far less and I hope that continues.  I hope I can find some more work in the coming weeks; glove modeling perhaps?

Part of the old Portuguese fort cum British Consulate known locally as "Red Hair Castle"

View from the Fort

On the ferry to fisherman's wharf

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.

Three Weeks in Taipei

More than 3 weeks down in my new life in Taiwan.  Since you last heard from me I have stayed very busy.

After substitute teaching on Monday and Tuesday of last week I was ready to take on another interview and teaching demo come Wednesday.  I was also feeling ready to tackle an audition I had lined up.
My teaching interview went quite well and the location of the school was very convenient for me.  I left the interview with the assumption that I would be hired and to my enjoyment I received an email that evening  asking me to come in for a trail day on the coming Monday.

Before I had gotten the good news about the job I had to rush off directly to my audition.  This was to be my first audition since I was 8 years old and I had low expectations for the outcome but though it would be fun none-the-less.  They filmed me reading a few lines and by the time I left I had an acting job lined up for the upcoming Tuesday.

On that very hectic Wednesday I had one last interview to narrowly make it to. My last interview was actually a meeting with the school at which I would be substitute teaching at for the following 2 days, simply to meet me and go over the lesson plan for the days to come.

The school I was subbing at was a kindergarten that is less than 5 minutes walk from where I live.  I taught (if you can call it that) a class of about 12 five-year-olds.  I probably sounds like hard work but really it was surprisingly easy.  Thursday began with nearly an hour of “indoor park time” which was followed by a snack, bathroom break, and “breaktime”.  We played kickball in the afternoon so between all the playtime, scheduled bathroom and water breaks, I probably had to teach for about 20 minutes.  The following day was just as easy and I was set with some cash for the weekend.

At The Nightmarket near my apartment.

 One of my roommates had some friends from Nova Scotia who came to visit for just 2 nights.  Being as we had to show the visitors a good time (and I wanted to celebrate my recent flood of employment)  I was pretty much obligated to have a couple of nights out on the town.

Cash is needed for any weekend in Taipei.  Night-clubs can be very expensive here, at least relative to the general costs of living.  Entry fee alone to a club on a weekend can easily amount to 10% of my monthly rent.  That said, the nightlife is great here and predrinking in front of convenience stores is a fun way to save money.

After the weekend festivities I had just one more interview on Monday morning before starting my trial day of teaching for the new job.  The interview went alright but the trial day was better and in the end I got the job so I am now officially employed in Taiwan.

This morning (Tuesday) I began the day by walking over to my acting job.  I received the script by email night  and found that I would have just 7 simple lines.  The filming was as easy as I expected and only took 1 hour to complete. The agreement is that I get paid a minimum of 3 hours at a rate of $20 an hour so I actually got paid $60 CAD for just 1 hour of work.  The filming was for an English language learning website and magazine that also produces short video clips to assist learning.  I will be filming again on Thursday an assuming all goes well I will continue to film with this company for weeks, if not months to come.

I also had my official first day at my job today which went as well as any other day of teaching I've had so far.

I've started putting quite a bit of time into studying Chinese and I feel like I'm learning a lot.

Everything is still going exceptionally well and I'm having an amazing time here.

More interesting things about Taiwan:

• Every receipt from every store has a lottery number at the top.  There is a draw every 3 months with prize amounts as high as 1,000,000 Taiwan Dollars ($33,333 CAD).  Saving receipts is a pain in the ass.

• People chew betel nut here.  Betel nut is the same stimulant leaf and nut that everyone chews in India and spits all over the streets.  At least here nobody spits on the street and instead spitts discretely into a can or cup.  

• I had one of the best  hot-dog like products I've ever had here.   It consisted of a Chinese sausage (sweet and greasy) inside a halved rice-filled-sausage that acts as a bun.   Its amazing and greasy.

• My toothpaste is  “Whitemen” brand.

2 Weeks In

I'm back in Asia again...

Tuk-tuks in BKK

I started my trip in Bangkok with the intention of travelling south in Thailand before crossing into Malaysia.  That plan didn't really pan out.  I ended up spending the whole week in Bangkok.  I don't have a lot more to say about the thai capital ontop of what I've said in emails from my last trip.  I love the city and I'll probably go back there again this year.  The Thai food is a major part of the draw for me and I wish there was more, and cheaper thai restaurants here in Taipei.

After more than a week in Thailand I flew to Kuala lumpur to visit some friends who live in a very shitty yet fun guesthouse that I've stayed at several times before.  Once again didn't do anything all that interesting in KL but I had a good time and I was happy to be there.

China-town in KL

I arrived in Taipei on a monday afternoon and went directly to the same hostel I stayed at during my last visit.  I chose to stay there again because it was a very social hostel last time and I knew the staff there would be very helpful with assisting me in getting organized.  There were several other people at the hostel who were also job-hunting and had been doind so for weeks.  I was a bit discouraged to hear that but it seems to be that one of them is just really lazy and another has a thick scottish accent which makes it a wee bit hard to find a teaching job.

I started looking for both jobs and apartments as soon as I arrived. I managed to find a furnished 3 bedroom apartment shared with 2 Canadian english teachers for only $ 265 per month but had to wait a week to move in.

My first job in Taiwan came via the staff at the hostel.  One of the girls who works there knew of a movie shoot that was looking for a young foreign man for a few hours work.

Being a "young foreign man," I was perfectly suited for the role and ready to make my debut in the Taiwanese movie industry.  The movie was about a Taiwanese aboriginal dancer who makes it big at the end by being recruited by an American dance company.  My role was that of one of the recruiters for the dance school and they had me dress up in a tight pink t-shirt and a women's sweater.   The director said I need to look artsy but I'm pretty sure he meant gay...

I didn't have any lines in the movie but I had to make facial expressions ranging from "friendly smile" to "shock and awe". The movie is supposed to be on Taiwanese TV at some point this year and I was paid about $65 cad for 3 hours of sitting and making faces.  It was pretty awesome.

Not long after my acting debut I began to recieve calls from English schools wanting me to come in for interviews.  At my first interview I had to give a 20 minute teaching demo by playing flashcard games with 3-5 year olds.  I was pretty nervous but I thought I did ok.  Just after I had finished that interview I recieved a call from another school that wanted me to substitute teach the following day for 3 days in a row.  I jumped at the opportunity to get some experience teaching.

The day of my interview was also the day I moved out of the hostel and into my apartment. The apartment is in a great student area of Taipei and I lucked out with my roomates as they are great to hang out with and both are teachers here so are full of useful info to help me get set-up.   Both my roomates are Canadian guys,, one from Nova Scotia and the other from Saskatchewan.

My Room

I had my first day teaching last Wednesday and I was expectedly nervous.  Everything went pretty smoothly and I had local chinese-speaking co-teachers in each class to assist me.  Over the next two days the teaching only got easier and getting paid in cash on Friday felt pretty good.

I guess I did alright as a teacher because the principal called me again on Saturday and asked if I could work Monday and Tuesday as well.  So now I have 5 days teaching experience and I have another substitute job for this thursday and Friday teaching 4-5 year olds.  I also have an audition this week for an English learning video and an interview with another school tomorrow.

So to sum it up, life is good here and everything has been really easy thus far.

Some random things I've noticed in Taipei:

-Free wifi everywhere: on buses, in metro stations and some random streets
-Garbage trucks here sound like icecream trucks in North America but the song signals people to bring their garbage out to the truck. I have met Chinese people with ridicules names: ie. White, Swallow, Pinky and one of my female co-teachers... Chubby.