A new career in a new town

On Monday I started my new career as an English teacher, finally I have found an organisation that is willing to take me under their wing and give me a chance to get started. Many thanks YMCA!

The job consists of teaching 50% kids and 50% adults. I started the kids classes this week, the adults will start next week. I was/am really nervous about teaching the kids, but actually it is working out much better than I thought. My confidence is growing already!

But two days into the classes the we have yet another holiday in Taiwan. It is 60 years since the Chinese took control of Taiwan, and systematically carried out a crackdown on an islanders' uprising against what they saw as an invasion. You can read more about it on BBC here.

As for the English teaching, I have to keep in mind that if I can succeed at it, then I can find work pretty much anywhere in the world. This is a very important motivation for my wife and I, as it is likely that we will not settle permanently back in the UK again.

Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is upon us in Taiwan and the night markets are already bustling and packed with throngs of people, noise, flashing neon and of course food stalls. Taiwan has so much good food to eat!

Actually there is so much to describe that I am not sure where to start, but the most interesting experience so far has been a return visit to the temple in Da Jia.

Visiting the temple to burn incense and to pray for good fortune in the coming year is a fundamental part of the Chinese New Year celebrations and festivities.

The temple in Da Jia is one of the most famous in Taiwan and today it was even more packed than usual and at times it was almost impossible to breath through the clouds of incense smoke.

I knelt down at the alter to Guan Yin next to my wife and let her do the praying this time, as I am sure I made a hash of it last time. As we stepped outside we were confronted with the traditional Lion Dance, the lion being lurid pink, I don't think that is a traditional colour.

We walked around the the local streets absorbing the sights and smells of local snacks being cooked at the side of the road. My wife bought a local delicacy that had enough garlic in it to scare off even the most determined vampire, but she loves to eat it that stuff, so what can I say!

Lots of choice words!

As I have been recently unemployed and consequently much spare time on my hands, I've tried to use my time constructively. Thus I present a new dictionary of essential Taiwanese for foreigners, in no particular order and to be updated as new entries are acquired. Transliterations are only approximations and should not be taken as an accurate tool for pronunciation, please seek a native speaker for added authenticity.

1. Hwanna = uncultured foreign ba*t*rd
2. Kwasasha = what the h*ll are you looking at?
3. Chongsasha = what the h*ll are up to?
4. Adogha = foreigner
5. Kartchun = one's anus
6. Kowyow = what the h*ll are you whining about?
7. Ohbahsan = stuffy old woman
8. Ohjeesan = boring old man
9. Ahdohbai = motor scooter
10. Gan ni nyangh = f**k your mother
11. Soolah = d**khead
12. Yookee lahmay = hot-chick or jail-bait (depending on the age)
13. Goyginnah = monkey boy or odd looking juvenile
14. Tsan gyowah = farmers who made a stash selling their land
15. Gyewkee = something that has shrunk or otherwise distorted
16. Joo Joo = cute sound used as a euphemism for a man's ****

Flickr-Ralph in Asia

I have created a Flickr profile for all to view here

More photos to come later, I'll try to make it as interesting as possible...

A visit to Clear Water Village

When I visited my wife here in Taichung three years ago she took me to her hometown, at least the place she spent her early years. At that time I wasn't really familiar with the environment and geography of the area, so I only remembered the town centre (although vaguely) and the art museum, although I hadn't realised that was actually in her hometown. All lost in the mists of time, I'm afraid, or maybe just another sign of old age!

During her time in the UK, she has described many of her early memories to me and one in particular related to her grandfather's house. You know the Taiwanese have a problem, and that is they spent the last half of the 20th century in catch-up mode and lost sight of how to appreciate some of the more natural things in life, and so consequently urban Taiwan is generally a sprawl of randomly designed, randomly planned high rise and low rise, with the odd park thrown in as a gesture towards a real desire to appreciate things more natural. Even then the park must be manicured to perfection, forgetting that in general little bugs and birds don't like things so perfect.

Anyway, after living in the UK for three years, my wife has learnt to appreciate the peace and tranquility of more natural parks and gardens, and now often reminisces about her grandfather's big walled back garden that she loved to play in as a kid, with its tall bamboo, guava and mango trees, water pump and flowers and butterflies everywhere. Sounds idyllic, right? Sounds like something to preserve and enjoy, right? Wrong! Although my wife enjoyed the garden she was also deeply embarrassed by it, because it was not "smart and modern" like the city.

So, my wife decided, with her new vigour for appreciating things natural, to visit the place where her grandfather lived to see if the garden had survived the ravages of Taiwanese mindless urban development. We walked from the town square, with its large traditional temple, out towards the railway line (as she can remember the sounds of the trains going by whilst playing in the garden). We walked through small lanes lined with now largely decrepit traditional bungalow style houses and the odd secret temple, down the hill towards the main road. She remembered the old factory building, which we found. She said that she can remember looking up at the factory through the trees in the garden, so suddenly we knew we were in the right place.

But, she said that she couldn't exactly recognise anything. We found an old house on the edge of what is a new road heading back up the hill towards the town centre, a kind of tumble down wooden build with a remnant of garden left to go wild. Was that her old grandfather's house? She thought that maybe it was, but not convinced about it. We wandered around for a while looking at the row of ugly concrete buildings that lined the road and searching around for clues. We found ourselves down a small alley, where we came across a very old guy standing out in his small garden. My wife, reluctantly at first, asked him in her now dodgy Taiwanese, if he knew of her old grandfather's house. The old guy was kind and friendly and proceeded to try and help us find it. We walked together back through the network of small lanes and alleyways to the place opposite the factory, where now stood the blocks of concrete with windows. He was sure that was the spot where the romantic garden was, but now all was gone! We thanked him for helping us, and felt saddened that the garden was no longer there, but at least some her relatives have some old photos that we can take a look at.

The old factory opposite has been out of action for more than 30 years, but is still standing today , empty and unused, which to me is kind of symbolic of the randomness of the "town planning" in Taiwan! The Taiwanese developers are more than happy to build a road and concrete blocks over what we would perceive as a lovely garden, and yet leave an old factory standing and rotting for so long, just a few metres away! There are many, many similar examples of this type of development all over Taichung and it makes me wonder how many decades it will take to tidy the place up again and go some way to revert it back to the beautiful place it must have once been.

Cute little fella!

This morning when I went to the kitchen to make some breakfast, I moved a plate standing on the drainer and low and behold their was a cute little fella sitting on the back of a plate, much like the one in the photo. In Taiwan these little House Geckos are known as Bihu 壁虎 or Wall Tiger, presumably because they like to hunt down bugs that live in the house.

But, I decided to move it quickly before my wife got up, because I know that she would start panicking and making a fuss about it. So I picked up the plate and carried it out to the balcony, me staring at it and it staring back at me as if to say, shit am I gonna get eaten here or something.

I placed it outside on the wall and it sat there for a while trying to blend in with the tiled surface as best it could.

When I lived in Xiamen China, the people there simply let them live in the house, because they know that the Wall Tigers will hunt down all the undesirable bugs and eat them for lunch. If I had the choice I would do the same, but you know who's boss in this house don't you?

Anyway, if another appears I will quietly place it outside out of harms way, ha!

Tiger Roaring Central Village

That is the literal translation of the name of the new community that we have joined. We moved house this week and have rented a rather nice apartment, although in a slightly dodgy area ("dodgy" in Taiwan means that it is a fairly run of the mill area, but a bit quiet and without streets lined with bars and restaurants).

Tiger Roaring Central Village is a fine example of Taiwan's "affordable housing", which means that the local government has built a few big blocks or small housing estates across the city, that are made available cheaply by means of a lottery or application. Actually, they are nothing like the so called affordable housing that we have in the UK, where you can buy a percentage of a "rabbit hutch" and end up paying your mini-mortgage, rent and service charges together (which are not really affordable at all and works out just as expensive as buying your own place if only you could raise the mortgage). The affordable housing apartments that I have seen here are "BIG", big rooms, big balconies, big buildings and big gardens, and cheap to buy or rent!

But, big also means cold, and Taiwan's winters are cold, much colder than I imagined! The cold air must be blown down from the mountains or something, because the air is damp and gets right into your bones. Apartments do not have central heating either, which is a bit of a bind. So we have two choices I suppose, buy a heater or keep moving around to keep warm.

At least with this place we have all the furniture and household stuff included in the rental cost, which is a big help.

We are looking forward to warmer days, hope they come soon!

Photos coming soon, once we get our new PC.