2010年7月18日日曜日
It's Good to Have a Hobby
Now that I live in Taiwan, have a job, and actually have some disposable income, my interest in video gaming has a hobby has flourished. In Japan they have lots of 'retro' video game shops where you can buy all your old favourite games from days gone by. From popular old Nintendo games to obscure titles for systems everyone's forgotten about (remember the WonderSwan? Neither do I!), they have it. But in Japan I was always too poor to think about picking up any of these old treasures.
Here in Taiwan, retro shops aren't quite as plentiful but they still have a few good ones. So every Saturday I've been going down to just browse and do a bit of shopping. I've also set up a YouTube channel, where typically I feature one old game from the past and talk about it. You can see the channel here: www.youtube.com/expgamerinasiaretro
Right now I'm just getting the hang of recording and editing, but I hope that eventually I can use the channel to give a more Asian perspective, which would help distinguish my channel from many similar channels out there.
Car Crash
About a month ago, I was in a fairly serious car crash involving a few friends. Thankfully none of us were seriously injured. It was 100% the other driver's fault (not my friend's fault). He was pulling a U-turn too quickly and slammed into my friend's vehicle. Of course I found all this out after the fact.
I had just spent a great day out with my Chinese teacher's friends at a park northeast of Taipei. Her friend Mark has this cottage out there and he's a chef by profession. So he hosted this huge all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbecue out at the park, and it was really, really fun. Everyone was very friendly and although I can't speak Chinese well, there were quite a few English and Japanese speakers there, so that combined with my feeble Chinese skills enabled me to have some pretty good conversations. The food was fantastic, and I had more than my fair share of Taiwan beer.
On the way home, we went up and down a mountain which involved the car twisting and turning this way and that way which to be honest wasn't very good for my stomach. But I managed to fall asleep eventually. Then suddenly BANG!!!
I awoke and right away I knew my head had hit something. I couldn't see well - everything looked like it had a smoky blue filter over it. I've been hit by a car before so I know what it feels like to be in shock, and I knew that's what was happening at that moment - I was in shock. I turned and saw my friend Jack was passed out and had some blood trickling down his forehead. I thought, that's not good! I thought I needed to get him some help. I also thought, you know because I'm in shock, I have no idea if anything is broken or not. Last time I got hit by a car, I didn't realize until quite a while after the crash that my collarbone was broken. So I decided I should leave the car a) to get help for Jack and b) to make sure my legs, arms etc. are still working.
When I got out of the car, everything on my body seemed to be OK - I could walk, move my arms around, etc. I could see several people outside so I thought OK, someone should be able to help Jack. But to my relief, he had come to and left the car on his own.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, talking to police, etc. We all went to the hospital to get checked out. By this time my vision had come back 100%. I got x-rayed and CT scanned, and they said there was no obvious damage but they were still a bit concerned about my brain. By this time it was after midnight so I cabbed it home.
The next week I was so sore! The day after it even hurt to eat and talk because it hurt to move my jaw. I was limping around slowly and had no energy to teach my classes. Even as late as three weeks after the accident, I had back pain when sleeping and thus couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time.
But now I seem to be 100% better. Tomorrow my friends and I are supposed to talk to the offending driver's insurance company to negotiate with them. Apparently in Taiwan NT$1K-$2K per day of pain/suffering is the norm, so we'll see what they have to say.
I had just spent a great day out with my Chinese teacher's friends at a park northeast of Taipei. Her friend Mark has this cottage out there and he's a chef by profession. So he hosted this huge all-you-can-eat-and-drink barbecue out at the park, and it was really, really fun. Everyone was very friendly and although I can't speak Chinese well, there were quite a few English and Japanese speakers there, so that combined with my feeble Chinese skills enabled me to have some pretty good conversations. The food was fantastic, and I had more than my fair share of Taiwan beer.
On the way home, we went up and down a mountain which involved the car twisting and turning this way and that way which to be honest wasn't very good for my stomach. But I managed to fall asleep eventually. Then suddenly BANG!!!
I awoke and right away I knew my head had hit something. I couldn't see well - everything looked like it had a smoky blue filter over it. I've been hit by a car before so I know what it feels like to be in shock, and I knew that's what was happening at that moment - I was in shock. I turned and saw my friend Jack was passed out and had some blood trickling down his forehead. I thought, that's not good! I thought I needed to get him some help. I also thought, you know because I'm in shock, I have no idea if anything is broken or not. Last time I got hit by a car, I didn't realize until quite a while after the crash that my collarbone was broken. So I decided I should leave the car a) to get help for Jack and b) to make sure my legs, arms etc. are still working.
When I got out of the car, everything on my body seemed to be OK - I could walk, move my arms around, etc. I could see several people outside so I thought OK, someone should be able to help Jack. But to my relief, he had come to and left the car on his own.
After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, talking to police, etc. We all went to the hospital to get checked out. By this time my vision had come back 100%. I got x-rayed and CT scanned, and they said there was no obvious damage but they were still a bit concerned about my brain. By this time it was after midnight so I cabbed it home.
The next week I was so sore! The day after it even hurt to eat and talk because it hurt to move my jaw. I was limping around slowly and had no energy to teach my classes. Even as late as three weeks after the accident, I had back pain when sleeping and thus couldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time.
But now I seem to be 100% better. Tomorrow my friends and I are supposed to talk to the offending driver's insurance company to negotiate with them. Apparently in Taiwan NT$1K-$2K per day of pain/suffering is the norm, so we'll see what they have to say.
2010年6月25日金曜日
Learning To Blog Better
Well, I may be a little bit slow to learn about these things, but if you're reading this, it means I've finally learned how to blog directly from my iPhone by just e-mailing it in.
I recently downloaded the new iOS 4 for my iPhone, which supports Bluetooth (wireless) keyboards. And I bought an Apple wireless keyboard for my phone.
So what does this all mean? It means blogging should be easier for me and that will hopefully mean more updates!
Sent from my iPhone
2010年6月8日火曜日
The Other Side of the Tunnel
OK so I haven't updated my blog in ages. Why is that? Well, my work got incredibly busy there for a while, to the point that some of the senior managers were legitimately concerned about my health.
Then things got better, but you know the longer you wait before you update one of these things, the more difficult it seems to do. But I enjoy this blog and I enjoy speaking frankly about my life here in Taiwan, so I am forcing myself to continue with it.
Recently my life here improved greatly. There are several reasons for this. First, I recently acquired two beautiful cats from two coworkers who were going back to USA. Their names are Chou Chou 臭臭 and Mei Mei 美美. Both of them were rescued kittens that were abandoned. Chou is ten months old now, and Mei Mei is nine weeks. When I first got Mei Mei, she was only three weeks old, so I had to feed her kitten formula and help her go to the litter box. She seemed so fragile and helpless back then, but she grew up quickly! At three weeks she weighed only 375g, but now she weighs 1.1 kilos!
Anyway, I can’t describe how much more ‘full’ my life feels simply with the addition of these two cats. They love to sit on me, talk to me, get cuddled by me, and play with me. They also love to play with each other which I find endlessly entertaining. But there have been other changes in my life as well.
My workload at work has gone down dramatically. I still teach the same number of hours, but the amount of work I need to do outside of just teaching is not nearly as much as it used to be just a month or so ago. They made some minor changes to the way things are at work that drastically cut down on the amount of time I need to spend working on extra things outside of class time. Fortunately my pay has stayed the same, so I get the best of both worlds.
There’s also been a bit of a changing of the guard at work, as previous teachers have returned to America and new teachers have been hired. Before there was a lot of friction between myself and the other English teachers, and I think part of that was because they knew me as ‘one of the guys’ before my promotion, so they found it difficult to accept me as a manager. But these new teachers haven’t known me as anything but a manager, so I tend to get along much better with them. In fact, several of them came back to my place on Saturday to drink beer/eat pizza/play video games, which was fun.
I’m also making new friends outside of work, including some Japanese friends. This is great, because not only does it give me a chance to practice my Japanese, but also it keeps me in touch with my ‘Japanese’ personality. I don’t know if I can explain it well, but I find that when I speak Japanese, my whole personality and mannerisms change slightly. I feel more entertaining, more engaging, and more charismatic when I speak Japanese. And people seem far more interested in what I have to say when I speak Japanese as well, so it’s great to have these new friends.
I’ll try and update the blog more often from this point onward, but for now I’ll leave it here, and just let everyone know that life is good!
Then things got better, but you know the longer you wait before you update one of these things, the more difficult it seems to do. But I enjoy this blog and I enjoy speaking frankly about my life here in Taiwan, so I am forcing myself to continue with it.
Recently my life here improved greatly. There are several reasons for this. First, I recently acquired two beautiful cats from two coworkers who were going back to USA. Their names are Chou Chou 臭臭 and Mei Mei 美美. Both of them were rescued kittens that were abandoned. Chou is ten months old now, and Mei Mei is nine weeks. When I first got Mei Mei, she was only three weeks old, so I had to feed her kitten formula and help her go to the litter box. She seemed so fragile and helpless back then, but she grew up quickly! At three weeks she weighed only 375g, but now she weighs 1.1 kilos!
Anyway, I can’t describe how much more ‘full’ my life feels simply with the addition of these two cats. They love to sit on me, talk to me, get cuddled by me, and play with me. They also love to play with each other which I find endlessly entertaining. But there have been other changes in my life as well.
My workload at work has gone down dramatically. I still teach the same number of hours, but the amount of work I need to do outside of just teaching is not nearly as much as it used to be just a month or so ago. They made some minor changes to the way things are at work that drastically cut down on the amount of time I need to spend working on extra things outside of class time. Fortunately my pay has stayed the same, so I get the best of both worlds.
There’s also been a bit of a changing of the guard at work, as previous teachers have returned to America and new teachers have been hired. Before there was a lot of friction between myself and the other English teachers, and I think part of that was because they knew me as ‘one of the guys’ before my promotion, so they found it difficult to accept me as a manager. But these new teachers haven’t known me as anything but a manager, so I tend to get along much better with them. In fact, several of them came back to my place on Saturday to drink beer/eat pizza/play video games, which was fun.
I’m also making new friends outside of work, including some Japanese friends. This is great, because not only does it give me a chance to practice my Japanese, but also it keeps me in touch with my ‘Japanese’ personality. I don’t know if I can explain it well, but I find that when I speak Japanese, my whole personality and mannerisms change slightly. I feel more entertaining, more engaging, and more charismatic when I speak Japanese. And people seem far more interested in what I have to say when I speak Japanese as well, so it’s great to have these new friends.
I’ll try and update the blog more often from this point onward, but for now I’ll leave it here, and just let everyone know that life is good!
2010年1月10日日曜日
Welcome to 2010
It's hard to believe a new year has come again, let alone a new decade. But at this time of the year I like to take a look back at the year that just past, then think about my current situation, as well as my life moving forward.
I started 2010 on shaky ground. Facing the fact that, at that time at least, if was unlikely for me to stay in Japan long-term, I was carefully weighing in on my other options. Although I knew success in Japan was far from a sure thing, I bet heavily on it. Now I was running out of time and money. So I had devised a plan to get my TESL certificate in Canada, then go to Taiwan (where I knew I could get a work visa), and try my luck there. This was pretty much an “all-in” bet.
And I can say, with all honesty, that it was the best decision I could have made at that time. I've had many lucky breaks since arriving in Taiwan. Within one week of arriving, I had found a job at an American school that met my criteria (inside Taipei County, full-time day shift hours, no weekends). After 1 month of living in Shi Da, I found a great apartment in downtown Sanxia, just a 20 minute walk from my school, for only $NT5,000 per month.
After about five months of working there and trying to understand how to do my job effectively (they gave me a week of training but even that plus my TESL couldn't exactly prepare me for the stress and challenge of running a classroom. I think it has to be really experienced to be fully understood), I was offered (and I took) a newly-created position of Head Foreign Teacher (which has since been renamed to Coordinator of Academic Dept.)
Now, as we move into 2010, although I have to work very hard (in addition to my managerial duties, I still teach 25 hours a week, which is considered a full-time schedule), I also enjoy a higher standard of living, and can save more money per month than I could in Toronto. Plus the experience I'm earning will give me the option of obtaining a work visa in Japan, come spring 2012. That may seem far away, but honestly the last 10 months since I arrived here in Taiwan have just gone by in a blur.
While there are many good things in my life right now, there are many things I'd like to improve. As I predicted would happen earlier in this blog, my managerial position has resulted in some distance between myself and the other foreign teachers at work. Perhaps I'll talk more about this in a future blog, but suffice to say that I rarely hang out with any of them anymore outside work. I used to be invited to go out with them to various places to do different things, but now those invitations have stopped. In fact, I often hear them making plans with each other while I'm at the school, but they don't extend the offer to me. But this is to be expected – they don't see me as one of their group anymore. They are young. They see the workplace as an “us vs. them” situation. When I was in my 20's, I felt the same way.
I've also gained weight. Taiwan life has been good to me, and in Taiwan cooking food at home is not very cost-effective since restaurants are so inexpensive. Also, although I do a lot of standing and walking around when teaching classes, other than that I don't get much in the way of exercise. It's disheartening because (as noted here) in Japan I had lost a significant amount of weight due to the small Japanese portions, as well my traveling around from one station to another to meet my students. My belly has swelled up and my shirt is tight around the middle. Although I haven't weighed myself, I think I'm heavier now than I've been in my entire life.
My Chinese language acquisition has stalled. I had been making excellent progress with my teacher, but after getting promoted, I simply wasn't able to make it to her classes due to my work schedule. Instead of doing one textbook chapter every two weeks like before, I was still on the same chapter after two months!
I've also much in the line of romantic success since arriving in Taiwan. In Toronto, and also Tokyo, I found it very easy to meet women and there were often beautiful women walking in and out of my life, some on a romantic level and some on a platonic level. But so far in Taiwan it hasn't been nearly the same in this regard, especially since being promoted.
Another thing that has bothered me more and more as I live out in Sanxia, is the lack of a truly urban atmosphere. Although I live right out in the downtown Sanxia area, it still feels very rural to me and I miss the excitement and atmosphere of a big city.
But nothing ever stays the same, and there are some things I plan to do, as well as things I've already started doing, to improve my situation. The single most important thing, I believe, is to get out more. Working long hours during the week, I often feel tired and out of energy come the weekend. But staying at home and watching TV or playing video games isn't going to help anything. So, I've made a commitment to myself that, assuming I have no other plans, I'll come into Taipei at least once on Saturday or Sunday. In fact, I've been writing this blog at various locations in Ximending (which is in downtown Taipei).
Going out more means more exercise, more opportunity to meet new people, more city excitement and more opportunity to practice Chinese. I've also found a great new Chinese teacher that I meet here in Ximending every Monday and Tuesday evening. And when I'm out here on the weekend, I study Chinese at restaurants and coffee shops.
I've also tried to curb the portion sizes of the food I eat. Here in Taiwan the portions are generally quite a bit larger than in Japan, but there are also many 'serve yourself' kind of restaurants and I think it is at these places where I have a tendency to overeat the most. The food just tastes so good I don't want to stop ^_^ But over the last month or so I've been eating about half of what I normally would at the same restaurant. I think for my next phase I will try (once again) to limit the calories I drink. For several years, my main beverages were (black) coffee, tea, and water. I hope to get back to that and stay away from the Coke and sugared coffee. I've also started exercising - 20 minutes of brisk walking to raise my heart rate, and then stair climbing afterwards to build muscle. Right now I'm only going up about 3-4 flights, but I hope to increase that to all 17 floors of my building.
I'm still not sure exactly what I will decide in 2012. Will I move back to Tokyo? Or stay here in Taipei? A lot of it will depend on how I feel about Taipei at that time. But I don't want to dwell on the future, my life is happening right now. And right now, life is good.
2009年10月13日火曜日
So, I Got The iPhone.
There are countless blogs written about the iPhone so I don't want to duplicate what's been said in many other places on the internet, but I felt I should talk a bit about the iPhone and why it's especially good for me.
#1 - It's the phone I know. In Taiwan it's hard to find good information in English about the different companies, what phones they offer, and what features each one has.
I've been an iPod touch user for the last year and a half. For those who don't know, an iPod touch is basically an iPhone will all the phone and cellular network cabilities stripped out of it. It will play your music, show photos and videos, store your contacts/calendars etc. and it even has e-mail and web features. But it has one crippling limitation - with no access to the celluar network, you need to be within the range of a wi-fi hotspot to be able to connect to the internet. For a long time I've always thought that the device would be so much more useful if only it had constant internet access. With the iPhone, I get such capability as well as many other things.
#2 - International inputs - I can change my iPod to English, Chinese, Japanese or countless other languages just by clicking a few buttons. I have mine set to English, but I have four virtual keyboards installed: English, Chinese (pinyin), Chinese (bo po mo fo), and Japanese. I can swap between any of these keyboards on the fly, so it's easy to write e-mails or text messages in any language (or multi-lingual e-mails).
#3 - Camera and Video - I love taking pics to put on Facebook and videos for YouTube, but the process of shooting, then loading on the computer, then editing, then uploading is a time-consuming pain. With the iPhone, I can do all this right from the phone while I'm waiting for other things to happen (waiting in line, waiting for the bus, waiting on the toilet, whatever). I'm hoping that I can capture my travels more frequently with this added convenience.
#4 - Reading/YouTube - Whenever I eat, I like to either read something like a newspaper or magazine, or watch TV. But the selection of English material here in Taiwan leaves much to be desired, and I don't have a TV on the go. With my iPhone, I can browse all my favorite blogs and news sites wherever I am, or watch my favorite YouTube videos.
#5 - Internet Tethering - I just found out about this feature a week before I got the device, and this is a pretty sweet feature! I have two computers, a MacBook and a NetPC (Acer Aspire One). While I enjoy the portability of each machine, they both suffer from the same problem as the iPod Touch - it's frustrating to find a wi-fi hotspot when you're out on the move. But with the iPhone, you can very easily set it up so that if you plug it into a computer, that computer will be able to get it's internet from the iPhone. Although I've only had the iPhone for about 48 hours, I've already used this feature a couple times and it's fantastic.
#6 - Google Maps and GPS - The iPhone model I got (3GS) has a GPS inside it to instantly show me where I am on Google Maps (or Google Earth). It also has a compass, so that I can have the map automatically rotate as I walk around, so I know exactly which way I'm going. This feature is invaluable when you're walking around a foreign city in a neighborhood you're not familiar with. I still hope to get a scooter at some point, so this would be fantastic if I ever got lost on the road.
#7 - Voice notes - So many times I think of a question I should ask my Chinese teacher, about how to say a specific thing, but then I forget - because I don't have a pen/paper handy to write it down. But with the iPhone it's easy to take voice notes and label them for later use. So if I have a Chinese question - or an idea for this blog, I can make a note of it so I don't forget. A simple feature but very useful!
Of course, it still does all the great things my iPod touch did, like play my MP3s, show my pics and videos, keep my contacts/calendar etc. Oh, and I forgot to mention - it's a phone! I can make and receive phone calls on it ^_^
Of course, not every feature of the iPhone is something I really need. Here are some other features on the iPhone that I don't really care about:
#1 - Added speed. Every review I've read on the iPhone 3GS raves about the speed difference. And as a former iPod touch (1st generation) user, I can say that yes the speed difference is noticeable, but honestly I never had a problem with the iPod touch being too slow. So the speed boost isn't a big deal for me.
#2 - 3D graphics. I'm told that the graphics chip in the 3GS is more advanced than the PSP. But honestly I don't really care. I have a PSP and a DS and both of them display amazing graphics in my view, and the iPhone really can't compare to either machine when it comes to playing video games.
#3 - Voice Control - it's neat to be able to use voice commands to control the iPhone, but honestly is it that hard to just touch the screen or the included remote?
All-in-all, I'm very happy with the iPhone (as I knew I would be). It was expensive to buy it though. In Taiwan the contracts work differently - you have to pay a large sum up front, and then the amount you paid is used to discount your monthly fee. So I had to pay NT$28,800 for the phone in total, but roughly NT$21,000 of that will come back to me in monthly fee discounts and returned deposit, so the actual phone itself will cost me $7,800 in the end (about $250 Canadian dollars). I've been told that Taiwan is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy an iPhone, if you look at it from a total cost of ownership perspective (phone + monthly service fee), but still - dropping that big a sum all at once made me wince!
I hope that this device enables me to keep in contact more often, both here on the blog and also on Facebook.
#1 - It's the phone I know. In Taiwan it's hard to find good information in English about the different companies, what phones they offer, and what features each one has.
I've been an iPod touch user for the last year and a half. For those who don't know, an iPod touch is basically an iPhone will all the phone and cellular network cabilities stripped out of it. It will play your music, show photos and videos, store your contacts/calendars etc. and it even has e-mail and web features. But it has one crippling limitation - with no access to the celluar network, you need to be within the range of a wi-fi hotspot to be able to connect to the internet. For a long time I've always thought that the device would be so much more useful if only it had constant internet access. With the iPhone, I get such capability as well as many other things.
#2 - International inputs - I can change my iPod to English, Chinese, Japanese or countless other languages just by clicking a few buttons. I have mine set to English, but I have four virtual keyboards installed: English, Chinese (pinyin), Chinese (bo po mo fo), and Japanese. I can swap between any of these keyboards on the fly, so it's easy to write e-mails or text messages in any language (or multi-lingual e-mails).
#3 - Camera and Video - I love taking pics to put on Facebook and videos for YouTube, but the process of shooting, then loading on the computer, then editing, then uploading is a time-consuming pain. With the iPhone, I can do all this right from the phone while I'm waiting for other things to happen (waiting in line, waiting for the bus, waiting on the toilet, whatever). I'm hoping that I can capture my travels more frequently with this added convenience.
#4 - Reading/YouTube - Whenever I eat, I like to either read something like a newspaper or magazine, or watch TV. But the selection of English material here in Taiwan leaves much to be desired, and I don't have a TV on the go. With my iPhone, I can browse all my favorite blogs and news sites wherever I am, or watch my favorite YouTube videos.
#5 - Internet Tethering - I just found out about this feature a week before I got the device, and this is a pretty sweet feature! I have two computers, a MacBook and a NetPC (Acer Aspire One). While I enjoy the portability of each machine, they both suffer from the same problem as the iPod Touch - it's frustrating to find a wi-fi hotspot when you're out on the move. But with the iPhone, you can very easily set it up so that if you plug it into a computer, that computer will be able to get it's internet from the iPhone. Although I've only had the iPhone for about 48 hours, I've already used this feature a couple times and it's fantastic.
#6 - Google Maps and GPS - The iPhone model I got (3GS) has a GPS inside it to instantly show me where I am on Google Maps (or Google Earth). It also has a compass, so that I can have the map automatically rotate as I walk around, so I know exactly which way I'm going. This feature is invaluable when you're walking around a foreign city in a neighborhood you're not familiar with. I still hope to get a scooter at some point, so this would be fantastic if I ever got lost on the road.
#7 - Voice notes - So many times I think of a question I should ask my Chinese teacher, about how to say a specific thing, but then I forget - because I don't have a pen/paper handy to write it down. But with the iPhone it's easy to take voice notes and label them for later use. So if I have a Chinese question - or an idea for this blog, I can make a note of it so I don't forget. A simple feature but very useful!
Of course, it still does all the great things my iPod touch did, like play my MP3s, show my pics and videos, keep my contacts/calendar etc. Oh, and I forgot to mention - it's a phone! I can make and receive phone calls on it ^_^
Of course, not every feature of the iPhone is something I really need. Here are some other features on the iPhone that I don't really care about:
#1 - Added speed. Every review I've read on the iPhone 3GS raves about the speed difference. And as a former iPod touch (1st generation) user, I can say that yes the speed difference is noticeable, but honestly I never had a problem with the iPod touch being too slow. So the speed boost isn't a big deal for me.
#2 - 3D graphics. I'm told that the graphics chip in the 3GS is more advanced than the PSP. But honestly I don't really care. I have a PSP and a DS and both of them display amazing graphics in my view, and the iPhone really can't compare to either machine when it comes to playing video games.
#3 - Voice Control - it's neat to be able to use voice commands to control the iPhone, but honestly is it that hard to just touch the screen or the included remote?
All-in-all, I'm very happy with the iPhone (as I knew I would be). It was expensive to buy it though. In Taiwan the contracts work differently - you have to pay a large sum up front, and then the amount you paid is used to discount your monthly fee. So I had to pay NT$28,800 for the phone in total, but roughly NT$21,000 of that will come back to me in monthly fee discounts and returned deposit, so the actual phone itself will cost me $7,800 in the end (about $250 Canadian dollars). I've been told that Taiwan is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy an iPhone, if you look at it from a total cost of ownership perspective (phone + monthly service fee), but still - dropping that big a sum all at once made me wince!
I hope that this device enables me to keep in contact more often, both here on the blog and also on Facebook.
2009年9月17日木曜日
Life In The New Position
Now it's September! I notice it's not quite as hot as it was last month, but I'm still using the A/C quite liberally. But sometimes outside the heat is actually tolerable (but only sometimes). Maybe next month will be better.
I'm now about 2 weeks into the new position, about six months into my stay in Taiwan (has it been that long already?) and about 1 1/2 years into my time abroad. So how is life now?
Well, the hours are long. While I don't exactly have any shackles to my desk, and no one has explicitly told me that I should stay late, enough of the Japanese work ethic has rubbed off on me that I feel bad when my coworkers (the other two main supervisors) are still there and I'm heading off early. So whenever possible I stay and work with them. Sometimes that means working 14 hours in one day. The good news is that I can still go to my Chinese class (which I do twice per week). So on those days I don't stay late and they just schedule around me.
On the positive side, the work is exciting! I still do regular teaching every day, and there are some more remedial 'duties' I perform as manager (for example, I spend a lot of time correcting English documents written by the Taiwanese staff), but I also use any idle time to think of ideas and initiate my own special projects. I like having a job where I can take initiative instead of just waiting and being told what to do all the time.
There are some tough parts of the job. For example, twice this past week I've had to sit in on a meeting where an English teacher's class is not going well, and the school wants to have a meeting with the teacher to suggest some corrective course of action. Without going into a lot of detail, these meetings are difficult for me because I have to explain management's side to the teacher, yet the teacher is someone I also consider a friend. This creates an awkward situation on both sides and causes stress.
Many people have wondered how much I'm getting paid in this new position. Well, it's a modest increase in salary but it's one that I'm happy with. Before I met with the school owner I had sat down with a couple of Taiwanese friends and discussed the position I had left, and the position I was moving to, and what kind of duties, etc. I would have. We came up with a number that we thought was far and not overreaching. Later, when I met with the school owner, I was a bit nervous about it. Because I worried he would give me a number that was way lower than the one I had come up with. But actually, he gave me a number which was almost exactly the same, in fact it was slightly higher! So I'm happy that, even on this subject, we were on the same page.
So what's next? Well, in the short-term, starting next month I think I'll be doing my Christmas shopping. This Christmas will be the first time in my entire life (35 years) that I am not with my family for Christmas. But I still want to send gifts to them, so it's best to start early.
I also want to get a new cellphone. The one I have is a very cheap pre-paid phone that lacks anything but very basic functions. The iPhone 3GS has been released in Taiwan but supplies are still very short. Hopefully by next paycheck (Oct 10th) the phone will be in measurable supply. An iPhone would enable me to really connect with people in Toronto and Tokyo, as I'd be able to take pictures, video, etc. and upload them instantly. I may even be able to write my blog more frequently ^_^
I'm now about 2 weeks into the new position, about six months into my stay in Taiwan (has it been that long already?) and about 1 1/2 years into my time abroad. So how is life now?
Well, the hours are long. While I don't exactly have any shackles to my desk, and no one has explicitly told me that I should stay late, enough of the Japanese work ethic has rubbed off on me that I feel bad when my coworkers (the other two main supervisors) are still there and I'm heading off early. So whenever possible I stay and work with them. Sometimes that means working 14 hours in one day. The good news is that I can still go to my Chinese class (which I do twice per week). So on those days I don't stay late and they just schedule around me.
On the positive side, the work is exciting! I still do regular teaching every day, and there are some more remedial 'duties' I perform as manager (for example, I spend a lot of time correcting English documents written by the Taiwanese staff), but I also use any idle time to think of ideas and initiate my own special projects. I like having a job where I can take initiative instead of just waiting and being told what to do all the time.
There are some tough parts of the job. For example, twice this past week I've had to sit in on a meeting where an English teacher's class is not going well, and the school wants to have a meeting with the teacher to suggest some corrective course of action. Without going into a lot of detail, these meetings are difficult for me because I have to explain management's side to the teacher, yet the teacher is someone I also consider a friend. This creates an awkward situation on both sides and causes stress.
Many people have wondered how much I'm getting paid in this new position. Well, it's a modest increase in salary but it's one that I'm happy with. Before I met with the school owner I had sat down with a couple of Taiwanese friends and discussed the position I had left, and the position I was moving to, and what kind of duties, etc. I would have. We came up with a number that we thought was far and not overreaching. Later, when I met with the school owner, I was a bit nervous about it. Because I worried he would give me a number that was way lower than the one I had come up with. But actually, he gave me a number which was almost exactly the same, in fact it was slightly higher! So I'm happy that, even on this subject, we were on the same page.
So what's next? Well, in the short-term, starting next month I think I'll be doing my Christmas shopping. This Christmas will be the first time in my entire life (35 years) that I am not with my family for Christmas. But I still want to send gifts to them, so it's best to start early.
I also want to get a new cellphone. The one I have is a very cheap pre-paid phone that lacks anything but very basic functions. The iPhone 3GS has been released in Taiwan but supplies are still very short. Hopefully by next paycheck (Oct 10th) the phone will be in measurable supply. An iPhone would enable me to really connect with people in Toronto and Tokyo, as I'd be able to take pictures, video, etc. and upload them instantly. I may even be able to write my blog more frequently ^_^
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