Exciting news!

So I was at work the other day and was chatting in the break room when someone brought up that he read my blog. That was quite exciting. He also mentioned that I hadn't updated in a while. Well, considering I have loyal viewers out there, here we go!

Life's been pretty regular. Work all week, karate some evenings, hang out with coworkers on Friday nights. I've been enjoying what I've been doing at work, but I need to start getting some studying for tests done before February, which isn't that far away.

Karate has been a lot of fun, and a good release/workout. I started back up with kickboxing. The kickboxing I do here is a lot like what I was doing in Taiwan (cardio-based with full body workout) but instead of a crazy Danish guy yelling at me it's my classmates from karate (and the classes are one hour instead of two...and indoors). I have been helping out with the kids' class on the weekends which is fun and scary. So far my main goal has been to get them to do the moves without them making goofy faces into the mirrors.

I've been meaning to post these for a while...here are some pics of my apartment! (I took these a while ago)

From My apartment

That's my living room. Note the awesome TV and my karate equipment on the couch.

From My apartment

That's how the kitchen table looks. That was probably its cleanest. It seems to accumulate a lot of random stuff. I got the chairs (along with the desk in the last picture) from the same guy on Craigslist for a pretty good deal.

From My apartment

From My apartment

My kitchen, from two angles.

From My apartment

That's my huge fancy bed. I need stuff to put on the walls.

Seeing all those pictures of my place all clean makes me want to clean again. I think I'll get at that. Thanks for checking in!

Money!

Good news: I got paid this weekend. I went from "I wonder if I'll have enough money when I go to Taste of Madison" to "I wonder where I should start furniture shopping" in a matter of hours.

I just finished up with a week of training. It was tough sitting in class for seven hours five days a week (flashbacks of high school! Aaagh!), but I learned a lot. This coming week I'll have some free time, which I'll dedicate to getting closer to taking certification exams and probably goofing around with a couple of servers.

I'm having a quite low-key Labor Day weekend on the social scale. I was mulling going home but due to my previous lack of funds I scratched that idea. Yesterday I had a pretty fun time. In the early afternoon I went for a bike ride with some co-workers of mine through the Arboretum. I borrowed a bike from a friend of mine and had a nice leisurely bike ride. Afterward we met up again to go to the Taste of Madison at Capitol Square. A lot of restaurants from Madison (some big chains too) have small entrees for $4 or less. I had polish sausage, paad thai, french fries, and an ice cream float. It was delicious. I had a lot of fun showing off to my co-workers (two from Illinois and one from Minnesota) my familiarity with Wisconsin.

Today I did quite a bit. I hit up Craigslist and bought a set of chairs and a desk from a guy about to move to Canada. I saw the chairs about 20 minutes after they went up, called him and checked them out. I bought them and he asked if I wanted anything else at his place. He had a nice looking desk for a decent price so I jumped on that. He even disassembled it for me so I could fit it into my car. I just assembled the desk and am now sitting at it.

I still have quite a bit to do. I'm not sure I want my desk where I have it. I was originally planning on putting it in a more open part of my living room but I decided to put it next to where my cable modem and router are. (Loyal reader: "Well, Ted, we all have no idea what your place looks like!" Me: "Okay, I'll clean up my place relatively soon and take some sweet pictures.")

I also need to furniture shop again tomorrow. I went and scouted out different furniture stores for mattress and bed prices. There wasn't one store that popped out at me as THE store to get my furniture, but at least I know a price range so I can plan it out and attack tomorrow. Here's all of what I need:

• Bed (frame, preferably wood)


• Mattress with box spring


• Dresser


• Coffee table

Steinhafel's is having a pretty good sale and American will throw in a LCD TV if I spend enough money, so I'll check those places out. I'm also considering a place over on East side that a friend recommended. Big day tomorrow!

Re-Connected

Okay, so I finally got the Internet again. Charter (the Internet company) took a while getting here (I guess it didn't help that I was only available weekends) but they got everything set up.

The first two weeks at Epic (hello, all my co-workers reading this) have been pretty good. I've been meeting a lot of new people and doing a lot of orientation and training. I did get an opportunity to do some semi-hands-on stuff this past week and I really liked it. I'm really looking forward to finishing up training.

My new apartment is pretty nice. I'll try to clean it up here pretty soon and take some pictures for all to see. It's on the west side of Madison about 2 1/2 miles away from the office I'll be spending most of my time at. It's spacious, the management is nice and it has a pool (which I haven't tried out yet). I still need to put some effort into furnishing, however: while I do have a couch, TV, kitchen table and Xbox, I still need to get a bed (I've been sleeping on a portable mattress), a dresser, chairs and some more living room furniture. Once the money starts coming in it shouldn't be long.

This afternoon I'm probably going to be going to a sweet corn festival in Sun Prairie with some co-workers. I love sweet corn. As for this week, I'll be doing some more training and some more tinkering around with and getting used to things at work. Should be fun!

Back from the dead

Okay, I know I'm done with vacation and everything and I'm back in the States. That doesn't mean my life is boring now, does it?

One of the reasons I called this blog "The Adventures of Ted" and not "Ted Overseas" or something like that was because I planned on keeping up with it after I got done with my voyages. I know I've been neglectful for a good month, but let's just try to make this a step in the right direction.

I got back from Saudi Arabia all fine. Being home is good, but not having anything to do with the lion's share of your time wears on you after a while. I've seen my friends and relatives, got a lot of people caught up on me, and caught up on a lot of goings on.

Good news, though: I have a job lined up. I will be starting work with Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin on August 4th. I'll be doing computer setups for hospitals. It's somewhat of a bummer I won't be doing anything with my Chinese right away, but I think I can keep up with it as long as I don't get lazy about it. Madison has quite a few Chinese speakers and I know where I can go to practice.

So in this coming week I'm getting ready for moving down to Madison. I have to arrange temporary housing, get my stuff organized (which I've started!), find an apartment to rent, and get generally situated. I haven't zeroed in on a moving day but it will be sometime within the next seven days. Until then!

Good times in Saudi Arabia

In three hours I'm taking a cab to Bahrain, where I'll be heading on a plane (via London and Chicago) back to Minnesota. It will have been 10 months and 9 days (or 314 days) since I have been home.

I've been having a fabulous time in Saudi Arabia. Greg and Amy have been fantastic hosts and my cousins have been a load of fun. Their pets are pretty fun too, especially their dog Morrie (who enjoys chasing geckos).

I've been here since Friday, and the week in Saudi Arabia goes from Saturday until Wednesday so most of my time here has been during their week. While they've been at work (my uncle is an HR rep and my aunt is a reading teacher) and school I've been relaxing around the house, going to the beach, and working a little bit on my impending job search. I also got a chance to meet Clements, my aunt and uncle's assistant around the house. He's from India and a very nice guy.

In the evenings I'd do fun stuff with the family. Twice we went into Rahima, the non-gated town about a 5 minute drive away. We got dinner there twice, which was absolutely delicious (I'm a big fan of the Shawarma, which is basically an Arabian burrito). On Sunday night I also got the chance to see Emily and Gus in concert, singing and playing a few select songs.

All in all I've had a fantastic time here. The weather has been quite hot but it's also pretty windy. Because of the wind I've been in a "Shmal" (kinda like a sandstorm), but their idea of horribly sandy air looks a lot like a major city like Bangkok or Taipei to me.

Although I've been able to get on the Internet, I can't seem to access webpages on my personal computer. As a result, I can't post pictures until I'm back home, but I've got quite a few good ones.

Buuuut before I get home I've got a lot of flying to do. Later!

In Bahrain with family

Between the last time I've posted and now, I went to the beach again in Phuket, flew from Phuket to Bangkok, picked up a suit in Bangkok, flew from Bangkok to Dubai, flew from Dubai to Bahrain, went through customs in Bahrain (which took an hour of waiting in line), got to the hotel in Bahrain, waited, and met up with my uncle Greg and cousins Ben and Gus.

My plane arrived at 8:30 AM and my uncle couldn't make it until 3:30, so I took some pictures around the hotel I'm staying at.


Downtown Bahrain.



The hotel has its own little ocean swimming area.


That's me, Gus, and Ben, giving thumbs up at a the hotel we ate at and that we're going to stay tomorrow night.


Me and my uncle.


We played some pool at Sherlock Holmes, an English pub. Gus wiped the floor with me.


In the cab on the way home.

So yesterday was great. Today we're going to see the Grand Mosque and maybe see a bit of the real Bahrain.

It's good to see some family.

I may have a new favorite place in the world

Let me tell you something about Phuket: It is WONDERFUL. Today I had an absolutely magnificent day on this island. Let me tell you about it.

Yesterday, I took a plane from Bangkok to Phuket and took the bus then walked to my hostel, the Backpacker's Hostel. It's a really nice place in the largest town in Phuket, aptly named Phuket. After settling in and grabbing some eats around the area, I suggested to some fellow guests at the hostel that we rent scooters and cruise around the island. One guy, John (an Australian carpenter) was willing.

This morning I rented a scooter (200 baht, about $6 US). We decided first to head over to Patong beach, the most popular beach on the island.





The way they do paragliding in Phuket: You run off on the shore and a Thai guy grabs onto the parachute as you're taking off. He sits up with you during your trip. When the time comes, he steers you down on the shore where two other Thai fellows grab on.

After a brief run-in with the law (not me being naughty, John got a ticket for not carrying his Australian license with him), we went to Kamala beach.



We did not heed the "No Swimming" sign and swam. It was magnificent. After that we headed towards a national park.



We saw some elephants on the side of the road. They had elephant rides available but I passed. I had a perfectly fine mode of transportation as it was.

We got to the national park, which (according to our map) has a waterfall. However, there was an admission fee for the park and John had spent all his money on his unexpected ticket, so we decided to head back to our hostel in Phuket. We took a thirty minute break, did a 7-11 run, got some gas, and headed towards the southern half of the island. On the way there, John and I got separated: he was speeding ahead of me and took a turn which I didn't see him take. So I finished my touring of the island by myself.



I forget the name of this beach but it was beautiful.



This is at the Karon Viewpoint, where I buckled down and asked someone to take a picture of me. Now I have proof that I was actually in Phuket (unless you think there's some photoshop conspiracy).



This is Promthep Cape, which is advertised as the best place to see the sunset on the island. I got there about 4:30 and the sun didn't set until 6:41, so I grabbed some eats at nearby foodstands, did some souvenir shopping, took a few pictures, and hopped back on the scooter.



This was taken from the Promthep Cape Alternate Power Station, which is about a 5 minute drive away. They have a couple wind power stations there.



Here's the pic I got of the sunset. Clouds were blocking the horizon, but still got a decent snap.

(I have a few more pictures on my Facebook album, take a look.)

So here I am back at the hostel, a little sunburnt, tired, and satisfied after a full day. I was thinking about going to Phi Phi Island tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look very promising. I might just have a laid back day around here, which would also be pretty fun. (I could put up my other Bangkok photos too!) On Tuesday I'm heading back to Bangkok and then flying to Dubai then Bahrain. I'll keep y'all up to date!

Seeing Bangkok's fancy things

Good news and bad news. Good news is that last night I found out there was a wireless network I could leech off of so I was able to upload some pictures for yesterday. Bad news is that I couldn't leech off of it today, so I can't put up any pictures of today yet.

Anyways, pretty much all I did today was go on a bus ride to the various sights of Bangkok. I went to three temples that housed Buddha statues and the National Palace, which also housed a Buddha. (They like the guy quite a bit here.) I took 100 or so pictures so I'll go through those soon and post some of the good ones.

In Thailand! Whoa!

So after last post, I fell asleep for about 2 hours, got woken up by a call from Cynthia, got a ride from her friend, checked in at the airport, said goodbye to Cynthia, waited for my plane (at the Hello Kitty gate, which was ridiculous) and headed to Thailand.


Ridiculous.

The flight went quickly; I was asleep for the first half of it and they had built-in TVs on all the seats so I caught various movies for the remainder of the flight.

After customs and all that jazz, I took a bus to Bangkok. I knew which Skyrail (light rail) stop my hostel was closest to, so I took the bus there and figured I'd be able to ask for directions since I'd written down the address and all. Unfortunately, everyone was pretty clueless to its location. After wandering around fruitlessly for 1/2 hour or so I asked a tuktuk driver (basically a three-wheeled scooter that's a cab) and he seemed to know. So I loaded all my luggage in and went for the ride. The scooter died twice on the way and it took him 5 minutes each time to get it started. The cabbie (tuktukie?) is chatting with me in Thai the entire time. It sucks not knowing the language. After driving for about 20 minutes, we come to a clothing store. They help me with the directions and say I have to come in and look at some suit styles. I do for 5 minutes or so when I realize I left my passport in the tuktuk that was waiting for me, so I made an excuse and went back to the tuktuk. The tuktuk takes me to the aforementioned Skyrail station.

Back where I started.

I try to talk to a guy who looks like a security guard and he tries to call the hostel. No answer. I go into a hotel and luckily there's a clerk who can speak Chinese (I'm having a hard time finding people good with English here). She points me in the right direction and I find the Hostel. I get my room ready, convert some money, and take a nap.

After my nap, I start planning out the rest of my stay in Thailand. They have a bus trip to Phuket, an island area with a lot of beaches, but after signing up for it I find out it's only one way. I decide to search online for a plane trip and I find one that costs about twice as much as the bus but takes about one tenth of the travel time (and I'll end up at the Bangkok airport Tuesday evening which is where I'll need to be anyway to catch my plane to Dubai). I also signed up for an organized tour tomorrow to the various sights around Bangkok.

After the logistics-type stuff I started wandering around the city. I grabbed a meal at a fancy-type looking restaurant. Paad Thai. Delicious. Afterwards I hopped on the Skytrain near my place. The light rail system here is pretty convenient, but when you switch lines (from above ground to underground) you have to pay twice. First I went to Chinatown. They have a lot of sharkfin soup and bird's nest restaurants. Not really piquing my interest.


I leave Taiwan and the first place I think of going in Bangkok is Chinatown.

I then headed over to the Lumphini night bazaar. I looked around, realized I didn't want to buy anything, and a guy offered beer at his little outdoor patio food stand, so I had a beer and some more paad thai. He gave me a big bottle and I wasn't able to finish it before the paad thai, so I also ordered some chicken tom yam soup, which is hot, sour, and delicious. Then it started raining. Hard. Luckily I had a canopy over my head. I finished my beer soon after it started raining, and if that isn't the perfect excuse to have another one, I don't know what is.


The beer they have in Thailand is pretty strong.


I like Paad Thai.


Chicken Tom Yam Soup. Very, very good.


I had some companionship for dinner.


Glad I wasn't out in that.


Quite the feast!

After the rain died down I went and wandered around some more. They had a lot of people offering for massages. I kept refusing, but then I realized that it was about $3 US for 15 minutes, so...why not? It felt goood.

I took a few pictures, but right now I'm at a public computer and I don't think it has a SD card slot, so...you guys can wait. I think I'll go to my room, listen to the song "One Night In Bangkok" by Falco, and fall asleep. Yesss.

...And that's a wrap

My plane out of Taipei leaves in 6 hours and change. 5 things I won't miss about Taiwan:

5. Excessive amounts of rain and the horrible quality umbrellas to ward you from it
4. Beer's too expensive
3. The White Guy Treatment (People assume that I don't know any Chinese which can cause frustration and derision)
2. Annoying noises (Family Mart doorbell, garbage trucks, and RT Marts, in particular...I guess fireworks fall in this category too, don't they?)
1. Stinky Tofu! EWWWW!!!

5 things I'll miss really bad:

5. The ability to practice Chinese every day with pretty much anyone
4. A public transportation system that is convenient and works
3. The White Guy Treatment (People find a white guy who speaks Chinese fascinating so I get a rock-star treatment occaisionally)
2. All the assorted foodstuffs: onion pancakes, hot pot, pork dumplings, various seafood snacks...YUM
1. All the ridiculously awesome people I've met along the way. Kickboxers, volleyballers, classmates, friends of classmates, language exchange buddies, random run-ins on the MRT, and anywhere else.

Alright, now for a couple of hours of sleep before a day of traveling...

OH MY GOODNESS TAIWAN IS ALMOST OVER

So it finally set in tonight that I'm going to be off this island in...well, five days now. I got a text message from the guy who is moving into my room (Jordan) saying that he wants to move in on Sunday. That's at the end of this weekend. I haven't packed at all yet. Crap.

Anyways, I've been having a fantastic last month here in Taiwan. The rest of my time with Will was a lot of fun; we got to see a lot of stuff around Taipei and had some good times. After Will left I got back into the rhythm with school and my friends around the school and such. Cynthia, my language exchange partner for the past two months or so, has been a lot of fun hanging out with. I've been getting to know a lot of different people around Shida, which is kinda a downer since I'll be leaving them so soon.

I probably mentioned here a while ago that I'm taking a Guzheng class (Chinese classical instrument). On Wednesday we gave a performance where I was acting as host. Here are some pictures of the performance.

Even though Taiwan's almost done, my adventures aren't over yet.

I've finalized my plans for my trip home. Next Wednesday I leave Taiwan (at 8:00 in the morning...too early) for Thailand, where I will be spending a week. As for my time in Thailand, I haven't decided much, but I do have a list of a few things I want to do (get a suit, Muay Thai class, go see a beach). Then, the following Wednesday I take a plane to Bahrain, where I will meet my uncle and cousins, and then stay with them in Saudi Arabia for a bit. The following Wednesday I take another flight, this time through London, Chicago, and finally ending up in good ol' MSP.

Oh, and I bit the bullet and bought a digital camera. The grainy little images I get from my cellphone are pretty lame and since I'll be getting rid of the phone when I leave Taiwan most likely and will be touring for part of it by myself, I figured a camera of my own was in order. The camera is a Canon Powershot SD750 for you technophiles out there. Here are a few of the pictures I've taken so far.

Anyways, sorry about the long time between updates. Probably once I'm on the road I'll try to drop updates frequently since everything will be new and different. Toodles!

Will and Ted's Excellent Adventure part 1

My good friend from high school, Will Cottrell, is visiting me right now in Taipei. I've been having a great time showing him around and I think he's having a good time as well.

On Thursday I picked him up at the airport in the late evening. Since he got in pretty late, we didn't do much that night (other than a brief crash course on how Taipei works) and just caught up on our respective lives. Friday I took the day off of school and showed Will the area around my school and where I usually hang out. We ate some lunch (soup noodles, very Taiwanese) and played some volleyball with my classmates in the afternoon. Afterwards we headed back home and got ready for a night out. We went to Taiwan Beer Factory (a place I have mentioned a few times) for my friend Alex's going away party. Will got to meet a lot of my friends and we gave Alex a pretty good send-off.

The next day we spent the afternoon seeing Taipei 101 and Sun Yat Sen memorial hall. Afterwards we met two of my friends Cynthia and Rui and we took the high speed rail to Kaohsiung. In Kaohsiung we met one of Cynthia's friends who took us the rest of the way to Kenting. In Kenting we tried finding a hotel room but most of the places there were booked so we ended up renting a tent and camping out. After setting that up we took a midnight trip to Frog Rock. We were looking for a beach party that we heard about but ended up getting lost and on a rocky area of shore. We decided, "This is alright" and hung out there for the evening.

The next morning we rented scooters and went to Baishawan. Baishawan is a beach about 20 minutes away by scooter from the main city and is much quieter than the beaches near the city. The beach was beautiful and there were some good-sized waves. We had a great time swimming around and relaxing on the beach. That evening Rui had to head back to Taipei (she had a test on Tuesday) so Cynthia, Will, and I rented a hotel room for the night and hung out around Kenting for a while before going to bed rather early.

The next day we woke up early to catch a bus to Liaocheng, where we caught a train to Taidong then transferred to Hualien. In Hualien we were able to rent a car (Cynthia has a driver's license) and we drove to Taroko Gorge. We spent the rest of Monday and Tuesday morning checking out the various hiking trails around the Gorge. Taroko is amazingly gorgeous, and we got to see some great sights, including waterfalls, various insects, and giant marble rocks. Tuesday afternoon we headed back to Taipei.

Right now I'm showing Will around Taipei. There's a lot to see and we've barely tipped the iceberg so far. We're going to see Shilin night market tonight and probably going on a hike this weekend. More fun times ahead!

Lax on the updates

I figure a quick update is better than no update whatsoever. I have some time right now. I'm waiting until 7 when I'm going to start my journey to the airport to meet my friend Will, who's coming from Minnesota for almost two weeks.

My last semester at Shida is reminding me a lot of my senior year of high school. I'm making a lot of friendships with my classmates and making more of an effort to enjoy the time I have here.

I've done a few pretty fun things in the past few weeks. One was a volleyball tournament for the Mandarin Training Center students. I cobbled together a team with a couple of people I knew and we practiced pretty hard. I think all in all we had about ten practices. We improved a lot; our lesson for our first practice was "Don't catch the ball" and by the time the competition rolled around we were able to set up spikes and keep some long volleys in play. In the end, we got third place (the only team we lost to ended up winning the tournament). That came with a 2000 NT (about $60 US) which we brought to the bars. Quite the fun time.

This past Sunday Shida organized a trip to Turtle Island. Turtle Island is a small island not far offest coast of Taiwan. Up until 2000 it was exclusively a military base, so there are still bunkers and tunnels on the island. It was a gloomier day and we didn't see too much wildlife, but it was fun getting out on the ocean. Afterwards we went to Longdongwan (stop giggling, it means "Dragon Cave Bay") and saw some of the impressive geological formations of Taiwan. Not too crazy or off the wall, but a fun little trip nonetheless.

I recently had to make a really tough decision. A week ago Friday I got news that my grandmother had passed away. I was asked whether or not I was coming home, but in the end I decided that it wouldn't be possible. There were many factors that went into my decision, but in the end I decided that it would have created some complicated issues with my visa and my scholarship that would have possibly resulted in me losing a lot of money. Being in a society in Taiwan that places a high emphasis on family and respect for your elders put a lot of weight on my perspective, and I've had many friends over here able to offer me support. I'm going to miss my Grandma and I'm really anxious to see my friends and family again when I return home.

I'll probably be back in Xindian with Will sometime before midnight tonight. Depending on how his jet lag I might show him a little bit around my area or we might just have a relaxing night here. Tomorrow I'll show him some of my familiar haunts and how life in Taipei usually is for me. Saturday we're headed on a trip to Kenting (the beach town I went to earlier in the month) and Taroko Gorge (from what I've heard one of the most beautiful spots to visit in Taiwan). We should have a fun time!

Seeing the rest of Taiwan!

One of the only things I have been lacking since arriving in Taiwan is seeing the island outside of the confines of Taipei and its surrounding area. These past two weekends I have made some strides in correcting that.

The weekend before this one I went with my kickboxing friends to Fulong Beach. It's not too far from Taipei (about 1.5 hours on train) on the northeastern coast of Taiwan. We hung out at the beach and camped at a campground not too far away. The weather on Saturday was just about perfect for a day at the beach (the sun went away during part of it).



Us at the beach, having a relaxing time. Technically we couldn't go swimming (I guess by Taiwanese standards the waves were too big), but we'd go swim in ten minute stints while the guy with the whistle wasn't around.



That night after setting up the tents and eating dinner we walked down to the beach to have a campfire. On the way there was a wedding party. They invited us to come along and dance. They played "It's my life" so I started singing along to it.



Us at the campfire. I am talking to someone behind Anders. Note that Anders, yet again, has a guitar in his hands.

The next morning it started raining. We were originally planning on going to the beach to hang out for a little bit but those plans got scratched and we just went back to Taipei.

The next week was pretty busy for me, but luckily it was only a three-day week (I got Thursday and Friday off for Tomb Sweeping Day). On Thursday I headed down to Kaohsiung with Kyle, Jennie, and Stephan (all students at Shida with me). On Thursday night we stayed at Kyle's aunt's extra place (her aunt bought a place for her mother but she hasn't wanted to move in, so that's where we stayed). That night we met some British classmates of ours at the Love River, one of the main tourist attractions of Kaohsiung.



That's the bar we drank at. I approve of the colors, but I disapprove of the lack of Packers-related memorabilia.

The next day Kyle and I went to see what touristy stuff Kaohsiung had to offer. We went to the British consulate and Kyle snapped some photos.



More proof that I am not Asian-sized.



Coast near Sun Yat-Sen University.

Afterwards we hopped a bus to Kenting. It was an especially busy weekend in Kenting because there were at least three separate music festivals going on. We hung out a lot by the beach and ended up meeting up with a lot of friends in the city. It would be nice to go down to Kenting for a little bit more relaxing weekend when it isn't as crowded, but I still had a great time. Most of the hotels there were booked, but there was a small campground that we stayed at when we were there (about 15 minute walk from Kenting called Stonybrook farm (石牛溪農場)), which ended up working out really well.



The second day we were there (Saturday) we spent 5-6 hours at the beach. Kyle and I rented a jetski and got to hit some of the waves. We met up with some more friends, threw around the frisbee, went swimming, and all in all had a great time. I only got a little sunburned.



That night a group of us went to one of the music festivals in Kenting, Spring Scream. Although it had a wide variety of music, it was more rock-based (other festivals were more hip-hop or more electronic). There were a lot of Taiwanese bands and a few bands composed of foreigners from Taiwan or Hong Kong. The music was good and we had a fun time.

After the concert I hung out with some other friends who went to a different concert (apparently, Fat Joe was supposed to be at the hip-hop concert they went to but he canceled at the last minute). My friends had all left the campsite already, so I finished packing up and took the overnight bus from Kenting to Kaohsiung then the morning bus from Kaohsiung to Taipei.

I did get the opportunity to catch some shut-eye on the bus, but it apparently wasn't enough: I ended up falling asleep at 7 PM and waking up at 2 AM the next morning (hence the odd time for the journal post). I think I'll use this time I have right now to do my laundry for the weekend and do all the homework I was supposed to do.

As for comings-up, I do foresee some more traveling in my future. While I recently lost the tent I've been using (a hole got burnt in it), I have a trip to Yilan (surfing) in the planning and some more trips (probably Kenting again and Hualien/Taroko Gorge) when Will comes at the end of April. Stay tuned!

Election!

Taiwan had an election today for president. The campaigning for it has been pretty fierce for the past couple weeks. The most recent week I've seen many cars driving around playing drums and waving flags for certain candidates.

For those of you unfamiliar with Taiwanese politics, there were two candidates up for election: Ma Ying-jeou (for the Kuomintang) and Frank Hsieh (for the Democratic Progressive Party). Ma ended up winning the election by a 15 point margin. Here's an article that outlines the situation in a little more detail.

It was nice having a ground-level look at what people thought about the election. It was hard to get some people to speak; politics here can be even more impassioned than American elections. I was able to coax a few opinions out of some friends and cab drivers. Supporters of Ma were most admiring of his anti-corruption credentials (a problem that has plagued Taiwan in recent years) while Hsieh supporters point to his harsher stance towards Beijing.

Seeing this election definitely made me glad that I chose to come to Taiwan. All the fanfare and passion of the election was something that I wouldn't be able to see first hand if I went to the Mainland. I think many Taiwanese people are glad that Chen's time as president are over (marred by economic troubles, corruption, and strained Cross-Strait relations) and to get a new face to represent them for years to come.

My new class and other things

So I'm currently a little more than a week into my third (and final) semester or class at Shida. The course I'm taking is E-Commerce Digest. On the plus side, it's challenging, and on the minus side, it's hard. The teacher assigns a lot of homework as well; it's taking a bit of getting used-to going from writing 8-10 sentences/week to 40 or so including a weekly 5 minute speech. I was stressing out a lot about the class after the first two or three days but I think I'm starting to get used to the teacher more and learning a lot of the basic business vocab that I didn't know before going into the class. I'm pretty confident that I'll be able to keep on top of things...for now, anyway.

I tried out that martial arts class and ended up going again this week. I think it's pretty cool; the teacher (Fox, an American) is very knowledgeable and good at presenting the material. The style has a very different focus than the school I went to in the States, so I think if I keep going for the rest of my time here I'll still learn quite a bit. (I'm not turning my back on SKK though!)

One of our roommates moved out so I'm helping her find a place. Two people stopped by today. Both of them were pretty alright, but I found out in the ad she posted that she didn't put up the utility fee (which is rather high). Thus both people who came were somewhat in a shock. I've gotten calls from four different people in the past two days about the place. So, I've been busy with that recently.

Anyways, kickboxing tonight and who-knows-what-else the rest of the week. Talk atcha later!

Quick!

My long weekend off from school was a good one. I didn't end up going anywhere but I spent a lot of quality time with my Taipei friends. Friday night I stayed in. Saturday night I had a rather crazy night, starting at the Beer Factory and continuing to a club. (Note to self: That's not something you should do every weekend, Ted.) Sunday night I hung out at my friend Jon's apartment, where we played some video games (he as a Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl) and ate.

Today I had a productive day on campus. I ate lunch, posted some kickboxing flyers, found which room my class was in, bought my book, and worked out. This evening I went to a Bagua practice. Bagua is a martial arts based on Taoist trigrams. It's a lot different from the martial arts I studied at home, and it isn't easy going from being a black belt in one form to being a neophyte in another, but I had fun. They've got a good group going there. I think I'll check it out next week as well.

Tomorrow I start my new semester. The class I'm taking is E-Commerce Digest, so we'll be reading newspaper-style articles on E-Commerce. It's at a lot higher level than my previous class was (level 5 to level 8), but I've studied newspaper articles in the US and I'm familiar with how the language works; I just need to get my character count up, and I think it will be advantageous doing such in a field I'm interested in.

I'll tell you guys how the class goes. That's all for now. Cya!

Oh, Taipei.

Yesterday was the last day of the winter quarter. We finished up class by watching a movie, The Postmodern Life of my Aunt. It was funny at the beginning and got really depressing towards the end. Chow Yun-Fat was in it, really stole the show, and had an admirable mustache. This coming semester I won't have class with any of my current classmates, so that will be a little different. I'll miss them, but I didn't really hang out with them much at all outside of class so I might have a chance to meet some new people.

Yesterday evening I went out to eat at a Japanese restaurant with my friends Kyle and Albert. I had eel and squid, both of which were very good. While we were eating, Kyle gets a phone call from a guy he had met on the bus. Kyle was supposed to meet him for a "cooking class" that night, but forgot about it. As fate would have it, we were about a 10 minute walk away from where the cooking class was. So, after dinner, us three went to check it out.

We go into a small room and take a seat. The guy in front is speaking Chinese pretty quickly and I can pick up quite a bit of it. Every once in a while the audience all says, "you" (yeah) or "dui" (right) at the same time. I'm asked to come up to the front of the class. They have me say a few things (I get a lot of "wow, your Chinese is very good!"s) They have a series of pots on the table and they take one of them and put it on the ground vertically. Then they ask me to stand on it.

I think after I get done standing on it, I realize: They're trying to sell us this cookware set.

They cook all the food while going through a chart of how all other materials are inferior to their pot. We eat the food and then get assaulted with a barrage of business cards and requests for my MSN name so they can chat. They also invited me to karaoke on Sunday but I don't think I'll go out of fear they'll try to sell me something again.



The clams were really good.



Kyle is on the left, and the guy who invited Kyle (I think his English name is Greg?) on the right.

Afterwards we went to 45, a bar near my school. Kyle went home first (he lives nearby) and when he came he said that one of our kickboxing friends, Michael Toy, was coming later. Toy got attacked by a machete-wielding man in November (story here) and took the last semester off to go back to the US and recuperate. Despite getting three of his muscles damaged he should be back in prime shape in no time (which in this case is prime, the kid's a beast in the weightroom). It was really good seeing him.

I was planning on a quiet evening of cleaning, but I got invited to dinner in the fancy area of Taipei tonight, so I'm heading over to do that. Later!

A spot of good news!

I went to the Immigration office in Banqiao today and I extended my visa for 90 days. That means I have until May 30th before I turn into a pumpkin.

Oh, and so you know, May and I broke up. I'll spare you the gory details, but that means I'm single. Back on the prowl!

A fun week in Taiwan and the future

Hey folks. I had a pretty exciting week, filled with lots of Taiwanese/Chinese culture events! I even snapped a few pics!

First, on Wednesday night I went with some classmates of mine to the Lantern Festival at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. I talked about a sky lantern festival last week, but this is less of a "lantern" festival than it is a demonstration of floats. Except unlike in parades where the floats drive past you, you walk past the floats.



Diana, a friend of mine pretending to be Elvis next to Elvis-mouse. (You'll see many mouse reference since it's now the Year of the Rat.)





The next day in lieu of going to class our teacher took us to the Zhang Daqian Memorial House. Zhang Daqian was one of the most important modern Chinese artists (or so I'm told). We weren't supposed to take pictures inside, so I didn't. He has a pretty cool garden area though.







After the Memorial House I went to the Palace Museum with a few of my classmates since we were about a ten-minute walk away. After World War II, the Nationalists (Kuomintang, KMT) and the Communists had a civil war. When it was pretty clear the Nationalists had lost, Chaing Kai-shek (the leader of the KMT) and his buddies headed over to Taiwan. They brought along 600,000 important Chinese cultural artifacts. Thus, the Palace Museum (which is semi-modeled after the Forbidden City in China) was built to display them all. Unfortunately, they also had a no-camera rule so I didn't snap much of anything there.

Friday night I went to the Taiwan Beer Factory with my kickboxing friends. It was NT$550 (about $16-17) for a gallon jug of beer. That's pretty close to Wisconsin prices for beer! Everyone had a good time.



They had a live band. It was too loud for some of the time but it added a lot of fun to the atmosphere. They even played some songs in English!



This sausage was really good. And it wasn't like "I had a few beers so anything I eat is really delicious." Wait, that's exactly how it was.

I later danced on stage and some friends of mine sang. We had quite the merry time.

Anyways, down to brass tacks. I've decided on what the rest of my stay in Taiwan is going to look like. It's not completely my decision, though.

Most of it is a visa issue. I recently tried to apply for a Resident Visa (which is what all the foreigners who work here have), but at the office, the clerk helping me said that I had a few parts in my application that would probably lead to rejection of my ARC. However, she did tell me that since I left the country and returned in December (my Singapore/Malaysia trip) that I could renew my visa one more time. The only issue is that I have to renew it this week and I'll get another 90 days. That's just barely enough time to stay in Taiwan until the end of my next quarter of school.

So in short, I'll be leaving Taiwan in the end of May.

You may be thinking, "Hey Ted, didn't you want to find a job in Taiwan so you can stay there longer?" I did, but in the process of applying for a job I noticed two things:

1. I may have trouble applying for a Resident Visa (there's a requirement that a college graduate must have two year's work experience after graduation in his home country to apply, which I don't have). I don't think this is a real problem (since I know many English teachers who don't fulfill said requirement) but I was turned down for a job interview here for that very reason.


2. Taiwanese salaries are very low. Starting salaries are around NT$50,000/month, which comes out to around $20K/year. I know cost of living is lower here, but I would be able to bank more money if I work in the US or elsewhere.

So that's what's on the horizon for me. I love Taiwan and I'm having a lot of fun here, but I need to make some of my own money and get my career on a good path.

However, I still have three solid months of fun left to have in Taiwan. I guess I'll have to go all out!

I keep truckin' along

Since I've last updated, I've had a week of school, took a break for Chinese New Year, and had another week of school. Here's what happened in quick summary:

School both before break and after break has been going really well. I like my class and my teacher and I've been hanging out with a lot of people outside of class. I think my Chinese is currently at a level where I'm on the brink of being functionally literate and fluent in Chinese. If I kick up my efforts another notch (I'm planning on taking a more challenging course next semester), hopefully I will be at a good level by the time I'm done at Shida.

During break I didn't end up going anywhere. It was pretty boring, but it was also relaxing. Traveling over Chinese New Year's is comparatively expensive, so I also saved some money. I did do some cleaning around the apartment and fixing around with my computer, though, so it wasn't completely unproductive.

Some more fame: before New Year's I was interviewed by a woman from Taipei Times to get a look into foreign student life in Taipei. This past week they put out this article. My blurb is about 3/4 the way down. I hope this doesn't count against my 15 minutes of fame.

I've also all but given up my job search here in Taiwan. There are basically two reasons behind this: the first being that the salary is about 40-50% of what I'd make in the US and the second being that I might not be able to legally find a job here unless I work in the US for two years. (I'm not sure of the truth behind the latter, but I applied for a job and the lady who I was in contact with said so. I think she's misinformed.) So, unless a magnificent job offer falls into my lap, I'm set on heading back to the US in June.

I also have a few pictures of the Pingxi lantern festival. Yesterday I went with my Shida classmates to Pingxi (a town south of Taipei) where they set off thousands of sky lanterns after Chinese New Year. The lanterns basically act like miniature hot air balloons. On the outside of the lantern you write your wish and if your lantern flies high it will come true!





So that's what's happening with me. I'm not sure what I'm doing over the semester break the week after next. Earlier I was planning on going to Green Island with my friend but we decided to scratch that due to costs and the fact that the weather has been pretty crummy for the past month and it probably won't be much fun in bad weather. We haven't decided yet but we may go down to Kenting, where they have beaches. I'll keep you guys up to date!

I'm pretty huge in Taiwan

I'm pretty huge in Taiwan. Not just from a height perspective (I find myself frequently ducking in stairways and I can't find clothes that fit me), but I guess I'm shooting up on the popularity scale too. I was sitting in my room doing my usual evening thing when I decided to Google my Chinese name (葛思遠). I got 49 hits, and most of them are referring to me! I was interviewed quite a few times for the Chinese Speech Contest I talked about last post, so it seems they wrote an article or two about me. Here's the articles with some English summaries for you laowais out there (with some tasty tidbits from my speech):

Article #1

Quote: "『如果發生衝突的時候，我用一種又快又正確的解決方法，剪刀石頭布，用這個遊戲，解決委員的衝突，不但能讓立法院很和諧，而且不會浪費時間打架。』來自美國的葛思遠，對於如果能成為台灣總統，第一想解決的是立法院「藍綠對立」問題，當然除了國內政治，對於台灣拓展外交，也有自己一套獨特的想法。葛思遠：『他們雖然要為了吃臭豆腐，而用鼻夾把鼻子夾住，但是會發現，天下最客氣，最友好的是台灣人，他們肯定會再度光臨。』"

Translation: "'If I get into a fight, I use a quick and definite method: paper rock scissors. Using this game to solve legislator's fights not only will pacify the legislature but also won't waste time fighting." American Ted Glomski, speaking on if he became Taiwan's President, the first thing he'd want to solve is the legislature's "blue/green fighting" [blue and green refer to the opposing political parties] problem; of course other than domestic policies, speaking on improving foreign relations, he also has a unique idea. Ted: "Although they'll have to use a clothespin on their nose to eat Stinky Tofu, (foreign leaders) will realize that the world's most polite and friendly people are Taiwanese. They will surely come again.'"

Article #2

Quote: "也有美國參賽者葛思遠說：「我希望成為台灣的柯林頓，但是我答應，絕不發生外遇。」"

Translation: "Also [in the speech contest] is the contestant from America Ted Glomski, who said, 'I hope to become Taiwan's [Bill] Clinton, but I promise I won't have any affairs.'"

I'm in some other articles posted online, but most of them seem copy-pasted from the first one. I guess other than the experience and Chinese practice I got from practicing the speech, I also got a taste of glory to momentarily sate my ever-thirsting desire for fame.

Or something like that.

Hey there

Hey everyone. It's Friday night and I'm probably not going to do anything exciting. This time I have a good reason though, I swear!

Anyways, here's what I've been up to over the past two weeks:

SPEECH CONTEST:

The Sunday before last was the preliminary round for the speech contest. I came on low sleep and while running late but despite that I ended up qualifying for the final round.

I worked really hard for the final round and told a lot of my friends to come and cheer me on (the speech was at 9:00 in the morning so I told a lot of people in hopes that two or three would come). Surprisingly, eleven people total came to cheer me on. I think I did very well on my speech, despite not winning the giant cash prize. The two people who got first and second had fantastic Mandarin and the third place prize wasn't really "third place" per se; there were three separate categories and since my speech was pretty middle-of-the-road I didn't win any of those. No big; I think overall it was a good experience and was a help to my Chinese.

TUTORING JOB:

I think the phrase "too good to be true" applies here: After going to my third time tutoring, the mother of the kid I'm tutoring said that they'd like to reschedule the time since the kid is "really tired after school". She said she'd give me a call soon to reschedule the time. I still haven't received that call. I think that was pretty much a polite firing. To this I say, whatever. Sure, the lady has questionable tactics but I don't think it'll be easy for her to find a tutor who can bring to the table what I can bring.

Well, since all that's wrapped up, I've been looking to other things to keep myself busy. I've been focusing extra attention on my school work and recently got a membership to the Shida gym, so I can lift weights there after class.

I also have some trips coming up in the near future. Tomorrow I was planning on going to Xinzhu (Hsinchu or 新竹) with May and some of her friends, but that got kiboshed because of weather. (I was staying in because I had to get up early for that. Darn!) That has been rescheduled for a later date. Chinese New Year is coming up, and while I'm not leaving the country, I'm planning on going to Sun Moon Lake near the tail end of it and I might be going to Zhunan (May's hometown) somewhere in there too. At the end of February my friend Kyle wants to go to Green Island to SCUBA dive and I just may tag along. And in late April or early May I'll have a friend from home coming and we'll be hopping around the island.

So, that's what's going on. Class and kickboxing are going very well, too. Thanks for checking in.

A lot of stuff!

Yeah, I haven't updated in a while. Suddenly, things got a lot busier then they have been! For example:

NEW YEARS:

Ooh. Aah.

I saw the Taipei 101 fireworks from about 2 city blocks away. It was ridiculously crowded (人山人海). It only lasted 5 minutes, but considering that fireworks shot off 8 different places on all 4 sides of Taipei 101, it was a spectacular show.

After the fireworks we started flooding out of the place. I got upset that no one sang Auld Lang Syne so I took out my harmonica and played it. I was with a bunch of kickboxing friends at the time; they didn't know the lyrics but they were loaded so they hummed along.

We found our way out and decided on a club rather far away. It was near impossible to find a cab; it ended up taking until 2:30 and we had to share with a guy. We ended up at a club and they wanted $1000 NT (about $32 US) for the door, and seeing as I hadn't had much to drink yet and I needed to think about cab fare as well, I decided not to go in. Luckily I checked down in an MRT station and the trains run 24 hours on New Year's, so that saved me a bit of money!

SPEECH CONTEST:

I decided to participate in a speech contest. The speech must be 3 minutes long and on the topic "If I was president of Taiwan...". The first prize is $50,000 NT (about $1600 US), so I want to win. Instead of trying to talk about real things I'm just going for a really lighthearted "I love Taiwan" style speech. I might have to perform this Sunday (if there are enough performers), and the finals are the following Sunday. Wish me luck!

Also, a friend of mine is having issues with the people running the speech contest. While I by no means condone what they're doing, I am still going to do the contest and if I win I'll dedicate my victory to Kyle.

TUTORING JOB:

I picked up a tutoring gig. My kickboxing teacher gave me a call, saying he got offered a tutoring job but he didn't have the time for it. He gave them my number and called me on Tuesday. Wednesday I met with them and had my first tutoring session. I am tutoring a 17 year old high school student in mathematics. He's a smart kid but has a few issues that I think I should be able to iron out with him. The family used to live in Canada and the kid goes to a Christian school so the entire family speaks fluent English, which makes things a bit easier. It pays well, too.

Being truly busy has been a little strange for me, since I've been coasting by with ten hours of class a week since I got here. It's taken me a few days to adjust, but I think I should be in good shape. Catch you guys later!