There is so much going on here, and so much that I could write about that every time I think about posting I get overwhelmed and put it off. Maybe once I get settled in I’ll be better able to convey some of my impressions of this mad city but until then, I’ll just give an overview of what I’ve been doing for the last week and hope I get across some of what it’s like to be here.

I went into my school for the first time last week, and I’ve been training ever since. Mostly this means I sit and observe classes. This was interesting at first, but as time goes on I’ve found myself picking up all my habits from lecture classes: doodling in the margins of my notes and writing cryptic messages to myself in IPA. I’m going to be teaching kids ranging from about 7 to about 14 and I’ve had to observe all the levels, but all the classes have basically the same structure and after a while it gets really boring. It’s not that this isn’t important. I’m grateful for the training I’m getting, and watching the different teaching styles is actually very interesting, but the repetitive activities which are so important for language learners are really boring to watch. That said, I’m still a bit terrified of the actual teaching bit. I’m pretty sure that there is only so much I can learn from watching, and I’m not going to have any Idea of how I am at this until I’m stuck in a room with a pack of critical ten year olds.

Fortunately, everything outside of school is going really smoothly. I’ve found an apartment: A tiny studio in a new building about a 10 minute walk from my school. Sadly, I don’t get to move in until the first, so I’m stuck in the temporary housing just south of downtown and have to commute to work. My school and apartment are not in Taipei proper, but in Danshui, a town on the coast to the North of Taipei, but the commute is incredibly easy thanks to the Metro here. Danshui seems to be a cross between a college town and a tourist trap. The water front is lined with shops and stands selling snacks. If it weren’t for some of the stranger snacks, it’d be your classic overcrowded water front complete with arcade games. Further up the coast there are supposed to be nice and coming into Danshui, along the River, there’s a nice boardwalk trail through marsh land with lots of birds and little one clawed crabs. I’ll do more exploring once I move.

Exploring Taipei is proving more than a little daunting. Even just sticking to the metro lines, there is so much to see. I went to the zoo at the end of one of the metro, lines and saw a baby Formosan brown bear among lots and lots of other things. But according to my guide book from the Taipei Zoo metro stop, I could have caught a gondola up into the hills of Maokong which is a tea growing area south of Taipei. I went to the botanical garden where I saw the most amazing water lilies, but I completely missed the National History Museum which is right next to it. I can get to hiking trails, museums, temples and even hot springs without leaving the city’s metro system. It’s amazing, and I’m looking forward to discovering all of it.

Note: I wrote this about a week ago, and then my apartment opened up and I had to go a few days without the Internet. Then my training started getting intense, or possibly I just got lazy. I do have photos now. They are posted in my facebook: Pictures At some point I'll try to get labels on things, until then you can enjoy the jumble which is, after all, my first impression of Taiwan.