Taiwanese Adventures: August 25, 2011

It’s Ashley’s birthdayyyyy :( with I could be there to celebrate. Somehow, I still have not had an alcoholic beverage. How? Why? This morning I had a minor meltdown. Sam was supposed to pick me up at 8:45 am because he was going to sign a contract with me and my landlord and then take me to orientation at 9am. He didn’t show up until 10am. He called the landlord at 9:30 to tell me he was going to be late. This is the 3^rd orientation I’ll be attending and the 3^rd I’ve managed to show up late...not because I wasn’t ready, but because Sam would get me late. He didn’t even apologize and when I asked why he was so late, he said he got “caught up in some stuff.” I was LIVID when he picked me up..like on the verge of tears. I of course took the passive aggressive route most of the way there and didn’t say one word..and finally I just told him how frustrated I was because things aren’t going the way I’d hope they’d be. I have no mode of communication, he’s showed up late every single time to pick me up, I’ve asked him numerous times to teach me the bus systems and I’ll get places on my own, and the reason I’m out here is to teach so if I’m late every day for orientation, its rude and it looks horrible as a professional. I’m so bad at confrontation so I of course started to cry. Since we were so late I had zero breakfast by the time I got to the orientation at 10:20am and was up since 7 and went to bed at 2am. It was going to be another one of those irritated moods I guess. He apologized and I apologized for getting upset and said I appreciate all he’s doing for me but I just want my internet to work, my address for my family, and how to use the bus routes, and I want to know where my school is so I’m not late on the first day. When I showed up to orientation, it was fine, they just go about their business and smile and say hi. Today, there was a new guy in class that I’ve never seen. His names Ian and he’s from England. I sit next to Karen and Jeff at the orientations. They’re a married couple that just picked up and left Portland to live in Taiwan. They are so quirky. It’s the one word that describes them. He’s got this real goofy laugh and is constantly smiling and she’s making funny sarcastic remarks under her breath during the classes. Somehow she could tell I was upset even though I walked in there like nothing happened. I gave her brief idea of why I was upset and she seemed to understand my frustration. Then, Sam sent in a drink and sandwich for me for breakfast and Karen said it was probably an apology sandwich. It was a really nice gesture but the sandwich was so strange..it had egg, mayo, lettuce, I think meat, and some sort of red and orange sauce. It was wrapped in a package that said “Delicious Sandwich” (False advertisement right there.) I took a few bites and hid it in my bag pretending I ate it.

Some of my breakfast? Black tea with milk.

this picture doesn't show what really was in the "Delicious Sandwich"

The presentation was good today but there’s this one guy who drives Karen and I nuts. He’s apparently been teaching in Taiwan for 11 years but he is the biggest know it all ever and he interrupts each speaker after every breath they take. It’s the rudest thing. When anyone is talking, he’ll just blatantly interrupt them and keep talking for 5 minutes straight. The speakers are so nice and have broken English and every time they mispronounce a word, he corrects them out loud, and they’re words that you don’t even notice they’re mispronouncing because you just listen to the context of their presentations. At one point, he started speaking to me from across the big long table about god knows what in the middle of someone talking! I was like..”oh ok..um ya maybe we can discuss that after orientation?” For such an educated teacher of 11 years, he has zero tact or common sense..and I know its mean to think but he reminds me of this really creepy actor who’s name I can’t remember...he definitely plays a bad guy though..kind of like the clown from IT..but that’s Tim Curry, well ya Tim Curry’s creepy. Whatever, I’m rambling. This has nothing to do with Taiwan.

Today’s presentation was about Asian holidays and their backgrounds and it was from this really fun Taiwanese man who had a ton of energy and a cowboy hat with a pirate skull on it?? Too funny. The history of their holidays was really interesting. All of the stories reminded me of Greek Mythology stories. Our second presenter was this Asian lady, don’t know where she works exactly, but she had a lot of materials on classroom management and lesson plans. It was longer and bit more boring class, but it was good to brush up on that stuff. This orientation ended at 4pm. When I got out, Sam had a sheet of paper with a map of where I live and the bus route to the school and on the bottom of the paper he wrote my address. He also set up a time to meet with the school tomorrow. I guess my little melt down got things done. Again, I of course expressed how thankful I am for what he’s doing. I realize he’s a little overwhelmed. He’s helping out all of the teachers because Andrew is not back from his business trip.

Lien and I went to the bus stop because we were going to Mode Mall to get dinner with 3 of her friends. This high pitched song which sounds like an ice cream truck on volume 80, drives around every day at a certain time, and people just walk up to it and put their trash into it. So weird!! Lien seems like a great person and has offered to show me around and take me places and hang out with me on the weekends (I feel like such a loser.) She’s 24 and from Arizona and has 3 brothers. She was teaching last year in Taiwan so she knows the city and country fairly well. Our bus took forever to get to us but we rode it to the train station because the mall is right by there. I have a bus pass now and if you ride under 8 kilometers I think, you ride for free. It’s cool because everything I’ll need to go to is under 8 kilometers, I have no idea what that means in miles..and if I had the internet I’d google it, I’m going to guess 3 miles? The mall that Sam said is close to my apartment isn’t close, but it’s the most beautiful mall ever. It’s 9 levels of clothing, shoes, cosmetics, restaurants, and furniture. There’s this really cute furniture place that reminds me of a Bed Bath and Beyond and I wish I knew about it before I purchased all of my stuff! I’m sure when “winter” rolls around I’ll get really nice comforter. Lien’s 3 friends met up with us. One was this guy, Devon, who’s from Utah but travels everywhere, and the other two were these Taiwanese women that Lien and Devon used to work with last year. They spoke little English. We ate dinner at Mode Mall and I just told one of Lien’s friends that I like spicy food and I like Chicken or Beef and she told me to order Beef Noodle. I did, and it was good! It was a giant bowl of noodle soup with chunks of beef in it. It had a “tea egg” in it and I didn’t eat that.