Well 2008 is quickly coming to an end here in Taipei. The comfortable weather that has been a constant blessing for the last month has also come to an end. This is the third day straight of rain, and as such I'm curious if they'll be able to launch the fireworks at Taipei 101 at midnight. The building management are letting us up onto the roof at 11:45 til 12:15 to watch the fireworks. They normally close it down at 10 for safety reasons. I may head up or just watch the fireworks on TV since Felicity is working tonight.
I guess I need to come up with some New Years resolutions, as that is the thing to do this time of the year. I can think of a few things that I want to do in 2009 that I didn't do in 2008.
First is to work out a minimum of 3 days a week. I have been doing well last week and this week on that goal. The next is to study at least one hour a day of Chinese. I have found that when I sit down to study, I use up an hour pretty quickly. The catch is finding that hour every day and forcing myself to do nothing but study.
The next goal is to get a job in Taipei. This one seems to be pretty easy to solve, but it has proved to be the most difficult. The job market in Taipei is shrinking and the requirement list seems to be lengthening.
The last that I can think of is to give up drinking soda. I've recently read some reports on the artificial colors in processed foods and links to several different medical conditions. The oddest thing though is that the artificial colors are petroleum products.
The only other resolution I can think of is to update my blog more regularly!
Have a happy New Years! Welcome 2009!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Xinjiang mummy Exhibit
Yesterday (12/13) Felicity and I met around 4 pm to head to the National Taiwan History Museum. It didn't start out well because I was about 5 minutes late. The real problem was she got there 15 minutes early and so had to sit for 20 something minutes before I got there. Oops!
We walked from the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall station over to the museum. She and I both wanted to see the exhibit, which is a really rare event since out interests are so different, so we agreed to head over.
The exhibit is called the "Legends of the Silk Road" and is fantastic. I've included the link at the end of the post. They have some pretty amazing stuff from a wide variety of historical periods. The centerpiece is the "beauty" herself. She was between 40 to 45 years old when she died around 3800 years ago. It was remarkable to see her still have eyelashes after so long. There was one very odd thing though. She's not Chinese.
Her features, and the artistic representation of her face, has her looking like a European. They call her Indo-European but I swear she looks French. Either way she was a long way from home.
The mummy was interesting, but I found some of the other stuff far more interesting. They had clothing that was over 2000 years old. Felicity and I were both really surprised because the clothing was huge. I stood next to it and the shirt went from my shoulders down to my knees. The guy who wore it must have been huge. We are talking 200 years ago but this man (it was a male's shirt/jacket) had to be well over 6 foot. That was a rare height for most Chinese men before the last 40 years.
There was also some calligraphy from around 220 AD. Felicity could read and understand it pretty clearly, and I could guess my way through the meaning. I could read Chinese that was written 1800 years ago (about a loan on a winery) but have difficulty reading Shakespeare due to the language change.
I wanted to take pictures but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't purchase anything from the gift shop but I'll have to go back again. They had a book with pictures from all of the exhibits. The exhibit ends on 3/15 so I have some time but not all that much.
In other news, I'm almost done with Anthony's book. I'll finish the Braille this week and then I just need to proof it and format it for printing. I'll be so happy to get it done before Christmas. I'm also flying to Hong Kong to extend my visa for the last 60 days before this one expires. After that I'll have to get a new visa right after Chinese New Year.
I also found out how wonderful Ender's Game is. It's a sci-fi book that has me so hooked I haven't been sleeping. I stayed up well past 2 am the last couple nights just to read a few more pages.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/06/2003430422
We walked from the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall station over to the museum. She and I both wanted to see the exhibit, which is a really rare event since out interests are so different, so we agreed to head over.
The exhibit is called the "Legends of the Silk Road" and is fantastic. I've included the link at the end of the post. They have some pretty amazing stuff from a wide variety of historical periods. The centerpiece is the "beauty" herself. She was between 40 to 45 years old when she died around 3800 years ago. It was remarkable to see her still have eyelashes after so long. There was one very odd thing though. She's not Chinese.
Her features, and the artistic representation of her face, has her looking like a European. They call her Indo-European but I swear she looks French. Either way she was a long way from home.
The mummy was interesting, but I found some of the other stuff far more interesting. They had clothing that was over 2000 years old. Felicity and I were both really surprised because the clothing was huge. I stood next to it and the shirt went from my shoulders down to my knees. The guy who wore it must have been huge. We are talking 200 years ago but this man (it was a male's shirt/jacket) had to be well over 6 foot. That was a rare height for most Chinese men before the last 40 years.
There was also some calligraphy from around 220 AD. Felicity could read and understand it pretty clearly, and I could guess my way through the meaning. I could read Chinese that was written 1800 years ago (about a loan on a winery) but have difficulty reading Shakespeare due to the language change.
I wanted to take pictures but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't purchase anything from the gift shop but I'll have to go back again. They had a book with pictures from all of the exhibits. The exhibit ends on 3/15 so I have some time but not all that much.
In other news, I'm almost done with Anthony's book. I'll finish the Braille this week and then I just need to proof it and format it for printing. I'll be so happy to get it done before Christmas. I'm also flying to Hong Kong to extend my visa for the last 60 days before this one expires. After that I'll have to get a new visa right after Chinese New Year.
I also found out how wonderful Ender's Game is. It's a sci-fi book that has me so hooked I haven't been sleeping. I stayed up well past 2 am the last couple nights just to read a few more pages.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/06/2003430422
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Its finally comfortable in Taipei
Well it's December in Taipei and as the title states, I am finally comfortable. The skies are clear, the winds blow and generally its cold and crisp. I love this weather. It's not cold enough to have to wear jackets yet but soon I will be able to. Lately the Taiwanese in my neighborhood are dressed as if they are living in the arctic, wearing large North Fleece jackets, beanies and scarves.
It feels like it has been a lot longer than two weeks since I updated my blog. So much has happened since then. Work is the same. Every day I get up, get my coffee and start typing. I've taken to listening to podcasts while I type, but my mornings are typing or editing and drinking coffee. I get lunch, or eat veggies that I bought from the store, and then work in the afternoon. Workout with Ryan and then get a small dinner and go home. Sometimes hang out with Felicity, sometimes not.
This last weekend Ryan finally went home. Natalie left the week before Thanksgiving and Ryan the week after. Now I'm here by myself in Taipei with Felicity. As luck would have it, last Sunday Felicity and I were shopping at the Eslite bookstore near Taipei 101 when I ran into an old classmate of mine from three years ago. Kevin has been working and studying here and so his Chinese has become almost fluent. We exchanged numbers and so now I should have someone else to hang out with, but I'll need to start making more new friends and acquaintances here.
I went for a job interview this week at a chain of afternoon English cram schools. The location is great, less than 10 minutes by bus north of me, and the hours looked good too. No working on Saturday, afternoon and evening work, and they provide a curriculum. When I arrived they had me fill out a form with all my information on it, which took 15 minutes. I was a little peeved at that, given that they could have emailed it to me and I would have shown up with it printed. Then came the "interview"
I was expecting an actual interview. They were expecting a teaching demonstration. I was given 5 minutes to prepare and then explain how I would teach the students a section on new vocabulary and grammar. I did fine on the vocabulary, but not the grammar. I didn't prepare to do a demo, just what kind of questions they would ask me about my resume. They didn't even ask if I had a degree, just if I had teaching experience or not. I told them I didn't and they looked surprised. They thought I was responding because I had experience, but I responded to an ad for "1st time teachers wanted!".
I'm still looking for work that is in Taipei, not horrendously far from my apartment, and provides a work visa to stay. As I am unlikely to finish that process in the next two weeks, it looks like I will have to fly somewhere. flights to Manila seemed to be the cheapest route, but they only have one flight per day. I would have to stay the night there. Given that Manila has so many attractions, I want to have a bit more time to see things than one day. To renew my visa, I'll just fly to Macau and back and plan to go to Manila in a few months.
It feels like it has been a lot longer than two weeks since I updated my blog. So much has happened since then. Work is the same. Every day I get up, get my coffee and start typing. I've taken to listening to podcasts while I type, but my mornings are typing or editing and drinking coffee. I get lunch, or eat veggies that I bought from the store, and then work in the afternoon. Workout with Ryan and then get a small dinner and go home. Sometimes hang out with Felicity, sometimes not.
This last weekend Ryan finally went home. Natalie left the week before Thanksgiving and Ryan the week after. Now I'm here by myself in Taipei with Felicity. As luck would have it, last Sunday Felicity and I were shopping at the Eslite bookstore near Taipei 101 when I ran into an old classmate of mine from three years ago. Kevin has been working and studying here and so his Chinese has become almost fluent. We exchanged numbers and so now I should have someone else to hang out with, but I'll need to start making more new friends and acquaintances here.
I went for a job interview this week at a chain of afternoon English cram schools. The location is great, less than 10 minutes by bus north of me, and the hours looked good too. No working on Saturday, afternoon and evening work, and they provide a curriculum. When I arrived they had me fill out a form with all my information on it, which took 15 minutes. I was a little peeved at that, given that they could have emailed it to me and I would have shown up with it printed. Then came the "interview"
I was expecting an actual interview. They were expecting a teaching demonstration. I was given 5 minutes to prepare and then explain how I would teach the students a section on new vocabulary and grammar. I did fine on the vocabulary, but not the grammar. I didn't prepare to do a demo, just what kind of questions they would ask me about my resume. They didn't even ask if I had a degree, just if I had teaching experience or not. I told them I didn't and they looked surprised. They thought I was responding because I had experience, but I responded to an ad for "1st time teachers wanted!".
I'm still looking for work that is in Taipei, not horrendously far from my apartment, and provides a work visa to stay. As I am unlikely to finish that process in the next two weeks, it looks like I will have to fly somewhere. flights to Manila seemed to be the cheapest route, but they only have one flight per day. I would have to stay the night there. Given that Manila has so many attractions, I want to have a bit more time to see things than one day. To renew my visa, I'll just fly to Macau and back and plan to go to Manila in a few months.
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