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!