29 September 2013

Goodbyes, Manhood, and Teachers' College

We have been back from Hong Kong for about a week now and we got right back into the swing of things! This week I am planning on writing the blogs about Hong Kong. We did SO much while we were there, that I feel like it was for more than 4 days so let's see how long these blogs take me to write.

In the past couple days, we have had to say goodbye to some good friends leaving Taiwan. Saying goodbye is kind of surreal but really sad. And the goodbyes are nowhere near finished. Still have more friends leaving in the next couple weeks and it will be really hard to say goodbye.

In other news, we have booked Atlas' surgery to have his manhood removed. Our vet speaks a little English so we went in to book the appointment. Getting your pet spayed or neutered isn't that popular in Taiwan, a lot of people think it is pointless and they don't have it done. But the government here is really trying to promote it because of the massive stray dog problem that Taiwan has. So it is really cheap to get done here. In comparison to the $400 CAD it would cost us in Canada, it will cost us $62 CAD in Taiwan. So we are going for it.

The funny thing is when we went in to the vet, we kept saying to her we want to get him neutered. And she didn't understand the word. So we keep gesturing and nothing. I have an app on my phone that does translations for me so I search it and show her the Chinese character for what we want and she goes, OHHH. And then proceeds to write down "castration," on the calendar. Which I thought was interesting because even though I know that is what they do to him, I've never heard it called that before in reference to a dog. And then I realized we probably call it neutering in Canada/America so that pet owners don't feel bad about what they are doing to their dog. Regardless, the date has been set. October 5th. Atlas will go from a boy to a man to a boy. He doesn't seem aware of his fate.

Next piece of news is that I have officially applied to Teacher's College! Said goodbye to $423 (I cried..), and I have applied to three schools; Brock, York, and Western. Brock being my first choice, obviously seeing as I would love for my mother to continue making my meals when I return. York is my second choice as Toronto is super convenient for people from Niagara to come see me and easy for me to make my way home. Western is my third choice because I love the city of London and a lot of people there. The easy part of applying is done, they have taken my money. However each school has another form I have to fill out. I will basically be writing the same essay three times about why I want to be a teacher and how my experiences will help me. Anyone want to do some editing for me? I am already 75% finished the Western supplementary form, just one part to go. Western is nice enough to make their form available online ahead of time. I have to wait until mid-October for Brock's and York is supposed to make it available to me once they have received confirmation that I have applied.

Other than that, nothing is new here. Keep an eye out for what we did in Hong Kong, that will be up soon! And just wanted to say Congratulations to my cousin Chris and his amazing wife Chelsea! They got married today and I wish them the best! Sad that I couldn't be there but I was thinking of them all day today!

18 September 2013

In Loving Memory of George Pitul

This morning, I called my mom for our regular every day morning Skype date. She was on Skype but no answer, odd but I thought nothing of it. She often falls asleep on the couch. I call the house, no answer. Then I went to breakfast this morning with two of my friends to a waffle restaurant. My day started out normal, had to wait a half hour for my lazy friends to get out of bed. But finally I was able to enjoy my chocolate banana waffle and caramel macchiato. I return home and continue planning for Hong Kong, trying to figure out the bus to get to the airport. This is when I realize I have a message from both my father and brother telling me to call home, "anytime." The words anytime begin to scare me. My family goes to bed at 11PM, they don't stay up late. I knew from that word, it was going to be bad news. 

I call them at 12:30AM (their time), and my dad is wide awake. He tells me to wait a second, he will turn on skype. I ask if something is wrong, he says, "I'll talk to you on Skype in a second." I knew something was wrong. 

My grandfather passed away tonight. He has a form of dementia that is worsened every time he has a stroke. When I left for Taiwan, I said goodbye to my Grandpa. At the time, he wasn't doing so good and I was convinced that that would be the last time I would see him. However lately he has been doing good, a lot better than usual the past few weeks and I was starting to believe that he would still be around when I returned home. I was wrong. They believe he had another stroke. He passed away peacefully with his family around him. I know it was for the best but that doesn't make it any less sad. While my grandpa has changed in recent years, I still remember him as the man who used to give me the biggest hugs in the world, as well as the scruffiest kisses. I remember the man who used to always encourage me to go for that second candy in their candy jar (which was somehow always full..). I remember the man who could be louder than anyone, without even trying. I remember the man who was always excited to see me, no matter what. I remember the man who dressed up as Santa every year for myself and my brother. On Christmas Eve, my parents would have both sets of my grandparents over for dinner. For some reason, my grandpa was unable to show up until after Santa came. He would come to our house as Santa and we would get to open a present early. I remember how lucky I thought we were, that Santa would come to OUR house, one night early just to say hi. I always felt so sad that my Grandpa missed Santa's visit each year. Then I grew up and realized who was really coming to the house. But there were still a few Christmases where I pretended I didn't know who was really under that beard. I knew just how much enjoyment he got out of pretending to be Santa Claus for his grandchildren. I remember the man who was so loyal to my Nanny, he was always willing to stand up for her in whatever she wanted to do. I remember the man who was willing to go anywhere and do anything with his wife. And I know just how much my Nanny appreciated that. She did everything she could before having to put him in a home. She tried so hard to take care of him all by herself but it was too much. Even though she didn't drive, she found a way to his nursing home every single day. Their love lasted a lifetime and I hope she has the strength to remember that. I will always remember my Grandpa as the man who loved me and wasn't afraid to show it with a gigantic kiss. 

This would be hard enough if I were in Canada but the fact remains that I am living in Taiwan. I was told not to come home but it makes me really sad that I won't be there for this, for my nanny. For my family.

I love you so much, Grandpa.
You will be missed everyday.
xox

15 September 2013

Countdowns!

I almost forgot!

HONG KONG: 4 days!

THAILAND: 50 days!

Any one have any recommendations for us for our time there?

Baishawan Beach and Elementary School

Last Sunday we headed to Baishawan beach with a bunch of other foreign teachers. I was hesitant to go because a good friend of mine had told me it is a really big hassle to go there and not worth the time it takes. We did have a really good day but I definitely won't be going back to Baishawan beach. It was a hassle to get there! First, we had to take a bus to Taipei (30-45 minutes). Then we had to take the MRT to the end of one line (30-45 minutes). THEN we had to take a bus from the MRT stop to the beach (45 minutes). It was exhausting and we weren't even at the beach yet. Once we got there, we did have a lot of fun! I am really glad we went. It was nice to spend time with some of our friends. Especially since a few of them are leaving pretty soon. 

Another negative to Baishawan is you are not allowed to swim in the water unless you have rented a boogie board. The Taiwanese are really nervous and odd about water, which is super weird to me considering they are an ISLAND. Surrounded by WATER. A lot of my co-teachers don't know how to swim, as well as the students. So they have a roped off area that you can freely swim in. By freely swim, I mean there are 100+ people in this roped off area. Or the open sea where you can also freely swim.. with a boogie board attached to you. I am really making it sound like we had a horrible day but totally not the case! It was a lot of fun, Atlas got to swim and relax on the beach. It was his first time in sand which was super cute. I brought my camera but beaches always make me nervous about taking pictures, I know I am a child. My friend, Emily, took a lot of pictures and as soon as she posts them, I will add them here!

The day after Baishawan, Rick and I were starting our new job at the elementary school. We weren't really sure what to expect but it definitely went a lot better than either of us thought it would. Forty minutes per class goes by really fast. I had hoped to learn all of their names and that definitely isn't happening. It is such a different environment compared to our cram school. No co teacher and 25-30 students in every class. By the time we had our lunch break (an hour after three forty minute classes), we were exhausted. We're lucky to live a two minute drive from the school so we went home to see Atlas and we just sat in silence. So so tired. Hopefully tomorrow we are better suited to the hours.

Today is Sunday, our day off! And we have a lot planned. There is a restaurant across the street from our building called Hot Dog Man. We kind of love it. The lady there speaks really good English and she is super nice, we really want them to succeed. Every time we have gone, we are the only people in there. They are having a promo day today with free hot dogs so we are going to that. After that, we are going swimming at Bobo's apartment (our amazing Chinese teacher). Then she invited us to the Performing Arts Theater. They are having a free festival there, not really sure what is going on but will update later.

HOT DOG MAN


Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends back home! Miss you all lots!

4 September 2013

New Classes and Amazing Food

Not a lot has been going on lately. I have just been waiting for the teacher's college application to become available, which is SO frustrating. I just want to do it now. The thing that sucks is that there is the online application which is pretty straightforward but which isn't available yet. BUT each school I want to apply to also has an extra profile that I have to fill out and Brock, York and UOIT all have yet to release it. A big thank you to whomever works at Western and decided to be nice and let everyone see it early. Hopefully they are all pretty similar and I can just tweak each of my answers a little to fit the specific questions each school asks.

Anyway, Rick and I were both given new classes! Starting next Monday, we will both work from 9AM-3PM at a local elementary school. We are really only teaching for 3.5 hours (we teach 5 classes for 40 minutes each and get an hour lunch break), BUT we get paid for 4.5 hours of teaching so it is a pretty good gig. Plus the school is super close to our apartment. I am actually really excited for this because working at an actual elementary school will look really good (hopefully) on my teacher's college applications. Better than just working at the cram school that I work at. Rick is less excited about more work but the prospect of more money definitely excites him haha. For those of you who don't know, Rick is pretty stingy. So making money makes him really happy!

In other news, we went to Taipei for the day last Sunday. It was pouring rain literally all day long but we really didn't want to waste our one day off. We were originally planning on going to Yehliu where they have these beautiful natural rock formations but that will have to be saved for a sunny day. We went to Taipei just to eat some good food. Taoyuan has okay food but Taipei has AMAZING food.

Our first stop was Macho Tacos. We have both been hearing about this place for a long time and we were really excited. We love Mexican food and we were nowhere near disappointed. It was like being back home because I got to eat my favourite (soft shell tacos) and Rick got his favourite (hard shell tacos). We each tried chicken, taco meat, and pork and each one was so good. 

Our whole meal cost us $410 NT, so just about $13 CAD. We had three tacos each, a drink, and churros for dessert. Which were amazing. Definitely can't beat those prices compared to eating out in Canada. Rick and I are both fully aware about how cheap we are going to be when we come home, considering how we are so used to spending no money here.

Our next stop was 12 Cupcakes. Rick had been the week before without me and knowing full well how much I LOVE cupcakes, he didn't bring me one home. But he did promise to take me here and he came through on his promise. The cupcake shop itself was so cute and the cupcakes were definitely amazing. But the prices were ridiculous. It was really nice to go but we definitely won't be back anytime soon. We each got two cupcakes and I got a coffee and it cost us $410 NT, so about $13 CAD. THE SAME PRICE AS OUR ENTIRE MEAL AT MACHO TACOS. Insanity. The kinds we bought were red velvet with creme cheese icing, peanut butter and chocolate, and chocolate and salted caramel. Yummy, but expensive.



Even Atlas wanted a bite!