I moved to Taiwan!

Strawberries are in season now, so as I write this I'm eating freshly-sliced fresh strawberries with a bowl and chopsticks. Very very delicious!

So I moved to Taiwan. And I got a job. It's at Uncle Sam American School in Sanxia, Taipei County. I started training on Monday, and so far the new job seems like a lot of overwhelming information and I really doubt that I'll remember it all.. but I guess I can always ask someone later when I forget something. I think once I've got a few classes under my belt then I'll feel better. Teaching English in private one-on-one lessons to adults and teaching to classes full of young kids is somewhat different. I hope that whatever Taiwanese teacher I'm paired up with realizes I'll be depending on her to help get me through the first week.

I like this job because it's in Taipei county, so I can easily get to Taipei (1 bus ride to the MRT subway), and I don't have to work weekends or evenings (unless I have to do prep work for a class), so it's easy for me to visit and socialize with my friends. The market is not so good right now (or at least as good as it has been) for English teachers so I worried I would have to work far from Taipei and/or work a schedule that makes it difficult to visit my friends. When you live abroad, friends are what enable you to stave off homesickness (homesickness is actually a form of loneliness - you miss the support and sense of belonging that you get from your friends and family back home).

With a job I'll get a steady paycheck, and also a work visa. But payday is on the 10th of the month, so that means I won't actually see any money until that time, which means I've got to somehow ration out my existing cash to put me through. Right now I'm staying in rented room in a shared apartment in downtown Taipei, so I guess I'll stay here until I get my tax money later this month, then I can move into an apartment close to the school (as in like 10 min walking distance).

Speaking of apartments, holy crap one of the teachers from Uncle Sam took me to look at a couple rooms in this building (I guess most of their foreign teachers live in the same building), and WOW. Beautiful brand new high-rise building, with a 24-hour live security guard, swimming pool, gym facilities, kids' playground, and underground parking... and the apartment itself is 850 square feet! Remember my room in Tokyo was about 75 square feet, so this place is HUGE! It's fully furnished, has en-suite laundry (no dryer, but this is the norm in Taiwan), kitchen with stove, oven, big refrigerator.. living room with long L-shaped couch, 32" LCD HDTV.. two bedrooms, one with a huge closet that would easily hold my entire wardrobe several times over... air conditioner in each room, full unlimited internet... and all for NT$12,000 per month, which is about ￥3600 or about CDN$450. That's a little more than I had planned to spend on rent (I was thinking more around NT$10,000), but then again I wasn't thinking of a place this huge. I'm not sure yet but I might seek out a roommate, or I might just use the other room for guests since I'm hoping many friends from Japan will visit me while I'm here.

Today I went to the hospital for my 'health check', which is required by the government to get a work visa. I read stories of some foreigners that have to strip naked for the x-ray or take a stool sample, but actually mine was very painless. The hardest part was just figuring out where to go for everything. But thankfully there was a young, very cute nurse on the B1 floor that took pity on me and, despite her obvious lack of confidence with English, managed to help me fill out all the forms and get me to the right people. So the school should get my health check on March 21st, then they can apply for the visa on my behalf.

Tomorrow I have to 'demo' a few lessons as practice for next week (when I actually start teaching). Hopefully everything will run smoothly!