Once upon a tim in taiwan...

Hey everybody

Sorry to not send news sooner, but we have been running around like headless chicken trying to get all the admin done asap, and take in all the new experiences. We arrived on the 23 August and it took a few days for the jetlag to wear off. We met our friend Robyn at the airport (she landed 2 hours after us, and has been teaching in Taiwan for a while already) and we went with her to Hsinchu to stay in her house for a few nights. Part of the transport there, was via the THSR (Taiwan high speed rail AKA bullet train) which goes over 300km per hour, so that was pretty swift.

Robyn gave us a tour of the nearest RT Mart, which is like a massive Hypermarket with tons of new and exciting products, food, and random stuff. Then we had our first taiwan dinner - Tim tried some beef fried rice, and I had some pork dumplings. Since then we have tried some delicious and not-so delicious delicacies, from congealed pigs blood to bubble milk tea (a traditional taiwan drink of cold milky tea with tons of black slimy tapioca balls in it, that you suck up through the straw)

Teas are very popular, and generally served cold here, because this country is boiling! The temps have generally been 30 - 35C, and humidity like I have never experienced before. We are always sticky and the 2 cold showers a day hardly cool you down. Aircon in shops does the trick but is only temporary until you hit the wall of heat outside. Apparently it gets cold enough to use heaters, and water bottles in winter, but that is pretty unbelievable at this point in late summer.

The garbage truck here plays a tune similar to the ice-cream truck. The tune is to tell you that the truck is coming, so that you can run downstairs quickly and throw your rubbish in the truck (because there are no garbage men to do it.) (See video below at bottom of page)

Otherwise job hunting is going ok. We already turned down 2 job offers with an agancy in hsinchu, because we wanted to compare the market, check out Taichung city, and possibly get a job with more hours or higher pay. I actually substituted for 2 hours at a kindergarten school the other day, and it went pretty well. We have been in Taichung in for the last 2 days looking for jobs. We went for a demo/interview at a school today, which involved doing a lesson in the class, so they could watch us work our magic.

We haven't done much sight-seeing, as we have been focusing on getting a job first, and we can see the sights later, but we did come across a pretty feng shui park last evening while strolling around Taichung. We went for physical at the hospital in hsinchu a couple of days ago (in order to attain our ARC Alien Residency Card, and it was cheap (roughly R310.00) and the hospital was impressively efficient and clean.

Last night, we had a delicious chicken curry type dish at a restaurant. We ordered it by pointing to the picture, but I decided to try get the taiwanese name of the meal so that I could ask for it in future restaurants. The cooks didn’t understand a thing I was saying so they asked other younger guys in the restaurant if they could speak english and understand what I was saying... until the all 7 or 8 people in the restaurant where talking and trying to get my point. The youngers guys phoned their friend who could speak some english, and he ended up telling me his name over the phone, instead of the name of the meal. Chaos ensued, and eventually I think the name of the meal was “kaarie fun” after the whole big scene... at least Tim was entertained.

yes, you are not dreaming!, that is indeed winnie the pooh on my toast

Push cliff push!

tim and cliff saw the light

good old happiness in a can

war monument (with guns included)

The video below is of the "garbage" ice cream truck".

Sorry if you cannot view it, but it may only play in certain formats (like quicktime)