Ok so after 2 months I think the fact that I am actually living in Taiwan is starting to sink in. I remember when I first got here being overwhelmed with all the new stimuli. I now can drive my scooter through downtown traffic, no problem. Now that is not to say that I'm wreckless with my scooter (mom!). But it's just funny, how 2 months ago I thought people who drove scooters in the city were insane, and now I'm of them. I really, really like my situation right now. I'm always busy with something, or someone and I'm loving it. I have great roomates and have met a lot of great people. I feel very comfortable here, and the apartment is great becuase it's kind of an oasis away from the crazy city. The of the matter remains, that I still 10 months left here, and I'm actually really looking forward to it. Teaching is good, but along with every other profession you have your days when you have no patience. I had a day like that this week, and it was of my worst days yet. The more frustrated I got the more crazy the kids got, and out of control my class became. I guess if there is one thing I've learned that when your teaching young kids you can't force anything onto them! I just really have to go with the flow of the class...
Let's see I think writing in my blog will be slightly more boring now. I have a routine schedule now..haha. This weekend I had to work all day Saturday to make up for the days that we had off for the Moon Festival. How crazy is that? These kids never get a break. I have a class every Saturday with older kids, and they went to school all day Saturday and then after that had to come to English class. Needless to say, they didn't want to be there! After my late class me and Kim rushed home for a little party we threw that night..it was Kim's half B-day, we had to celebrate! The night life here is a little on a the late side. I've been out twice and both times I walked out of the 'club' we were in and the sun was rising. So today I GOT TO SLEEP IN...until about noon and then I spent the rest of the day socoerting around Kaohsiung. I lost my cell phone, and it's no where to be found...so I spent half the day searching for that. All in all life here is starting to sink in.
I've been trying to stay updated on everyone. Keep the e-mails up, let me know how life is going! I miss everyone, and often find when I have down time I find myself missing everyone even more. So I think for me, it's best to just stay busy. Again, let me know how you're doing if you find the time! Oh yes one more thing, very exciting, HESS is going to start Chinese classes soon!! So hopefully, this will happen and I'll FINALLY start learning, I can't wait!

Yay..I've officially moved to Kaohsuing! I decided to just move in with my friend Kim and her roomate Ryan. They had an extra bedroom so it all worked out great! Thus far I'm still living in Kim's room...waiting on Ryan to decide if he wants to keep his room or take the other, smaller one. I really don't care, I just want a bedroom and to not live out of a suitcase! But I'm very happy with this apartment, it has a full kitchen a family room and 2 bathrooms! It has a great view of the lake here.

Also, more good news they gave me a kindy class here, so I'm now working about 32 hours a week...which is what I wanted, but my schedule will be a full one. I've taught the kindy class 2 times thus far, and they are a handful but seem really great. It's a class of 20 students, so it's a little on the big side but again I think it'll just take some time! This past weekend was Moon Festival Weekend, so we had Monday and Tuesday off! So a group of us all went camping in a little town called Puli. We went river hiking (that is what the pic is from). That was an adventure...climbing up wet rocks to make it up to the waterfall was a bit terrifying at times..but well worth it! We also went kayaking on Sun Moon Lake, which was beautiful. We were meant to go paragliding but the weather wasn't cooperating so we never got to do that. That night we got to expierence an authentic Moon Festival party at someone's house. They had a pig roast, fireworks...the Taiwanese LOVE their fireworks!! They also, of course, had Karaoke with English songs...that was a hit of course. I think we half of their entertainment..I mean think about it a group of foreigners up there singing "Take me Home Country Roads"!! Now, the actual camping itself...was not so fun to say the least. The tent I was in caved in on us in the middle of the night, due to heavy rain and all of us along with our sleeping bags and everything else got soaked. I was not in such a great mood that whole night and next morning...the part that sucked was that we were stuck...we were camping on top of this mountain...all alone, so there was no where to go for dry sheltar! Ne who...me and Kim decided not to stay the next night..so we just hitched a ride on a stinky bus back to Kaohsuing, this stinky bus happened to be the absolute slowest bus EVER..so we were on this bus for about 6 hours, and the word stinky does not do this bus justice. It smelled like 10 day old cat urin....I almost threw up several times. Lucky Kim was sick...so she couldn't smell any of this. Ne who, all in all things are going great. I'm still adjusting to this new city, but I think I'll really enjoy it. I feel like I've had two different lives in Taiwan, one where I was bored out of my mind and I think this one will be busy, busy, busy!! Ne who, I hope all is well in the west. Remember to stay in touch!

brah brah brah...instead of blah blah blah

Ok..ok..so I've been slacking on the blog, I think it's just because my life is in so much limbo right now, I don't even know what to write. Let's see where to begin...well first of all I may now be moving to Taipei. I called Hess main office the other day in tears because I had FINALLY just received my first paycheck...and guess how much it was for?! $450 (US)....yea. My rent here is $250 which gave me the grand total of $200 to live on for one month. I was absolutely furious, I had been promised that I would be paid for the hours that I signed my contract for, even if I hadn't worked the hours. So I finally broke down and called the main office, this was on Saturday. Yes, I called our head HR guy on a Saturday morning, on his cell phone...absolutely hysterical. He was great though and managed to calm me down, and told me that he had discussed my situation with someone else (some boss), and they wanted to transfer me. Which at first pissed me off, I mean I'm just getting settled here! But the more I thought and think about it the more attractive the idea sounds. I asked him if they would pay for all my losses, like my deposit on this apt and getting a new one, and the cost of actually moving. He told me yes, so this Tuesday I'm on my way Taipei to discuss things in person, and to finally get my point across about all the crap the Lou Dong branch has put me through (maybe they'll compensate me for the emotional damage..haha). I feel much better now that I feel that my case has been finally recognized. I wrote a long e-mail to the main office describing in detail all the lies and hardships this branch has said/done. So I think at this point right now, I need to decide as to whether or I want to stay in Lou Dong and work for the other school (the private one) or move and stay with Hess. I was told there was a contract C in Taipei (with Hess), which would be a 9-4 job working only with kindegarten and no weekends. If I stay in Lou Dong and work for the private school I would work the evening shift again (4-9). I don't know...I'm very torn. I like Lou Dong and all..but it is quite boring. NO night life...i mean the occasional drink here and there. I mean Taipei would be the exact opposite of Lou Dong...blah. So I don't know. The other thing is that if I stay here I'd have to scooter to and from between Ilan and Lou Dong. It's only like a 20 min scooter ride. BUT the other night I witnessed a horrible scooter accident...and since I have been terrified of my scooter. And the thought of making that trip everday, and with the rainy season coming up..it does terrify me a bit.

Today I discovered one of the BEST things Taiwan has to offer, a hair washing!!! hahaha...no seriously, it's great! For one hour I got a back massage and my hair washed, and scalp massaged for only $6 US dollars!! Oh yes, I also have now expierenced every natural disaster Taiwan has to offer (I hope). The other night I was up and typing away at my computer when all of the sudden my bed started shaking, and I heard a low rumbling. On instinct I jumped off my bed, and stood there for a second...and felt the floor beneath me shake back and forth. Not a good feeling...not at all. So I ran outside..into my apt hallway, and looked around panicked. No one was out there, just me. I just kept thinking MAKE IT STOP, and it did. It was a 6.6 on the richter scale..but not much damage. Just some cracks and water line bursts. So yes..this can just add to my previous point..that Taiwan doesn't like me! Wow..long post...I guess I did have things to say. Ne way I hope everyone is doing great. Miss you all.

Oh yes, these pics are from the hike I did today...it was absolutley beautiful up there, the pics don't do it justice.

Taiwan doesn't like me.

So I have now officially decided that I do like Taiwan, but Taiwan doesn't like me. On Thursday I got to expierence the Taiwanese hospital. I found out just how much power, Nigel ,(the name of my scooter) has. I accelerated a little too much, and instead of breaking I chose to grip the accelerator and speed up even more. Unfortunately there happened to be the post office wall in front of me and I slammed into it. I managed to stay on the moped, but my leg got caught somewhere and got the brunt of the impact. I looked over my body and spotted my leg and immediatly got woozy...I thought I was going to pass out. Poor sarah was trying to figure out what to do with the packages she was going to send, and keep me puking our lunch everywhere. So we hopped on her scooter and made it to the hospital. That was interesting. I walked in, as Sarah was parking. I showed them my wound, but couldn't seem to get anyone to do anything. I was about to scream, "HELLO...IS THIS A HOSPITAL?!!" Then a nurse came up and took me, I tried to tell her what happened...trying my best motions for crashing a scooter..but she didn't seem to care. A man came back to me...tbe doctor..I assumed. He looked at my leg and started throwing some acid skin burning substance on my leg...I almost punched him. So he asks for my health insurance and guess what?! I don't have it...HESS has yet to give me my card. So I was given the option of either getting stiches and paying up the rear for it, or just getting it bandaged. So I took the second choice. First, I'm a baby and wasn't about ready to get stitches. Second, I figured he wouldn't be giving me this choice if the stiches were NEEDED.

I had to drive Nigel home...luckily my little basket on the front of my scooter took most of the beating. My main issue now is changing my gauze and not run screaming. Everything was healing fine. But today I went to the beach with a few people. I was stripping down to my suit, running to the beach when Johan yelled out "OWWW"..he was stung by a jellyfish. That stopped me dead in my tracks. Aaaaaaa...one of my biggest fears. I hate those things...they're so creepy and mean. So I sadly walked back to my mini towel and sat there glumly...letting my fear get the best of me. So everyone else swam and I got bored and began to explore the beach some more. So I walked down the rocky beach...up and down. I ended up running into some guys who were snorkeling, and they kept trying to get me in the water. I refused....but finally realized..THIS IS STUPID...everyone is swimming and only one person has been stung, and he was still out swimming. So I triumphed my fear and threw on the snorkeling gear, jumped into the water and started to kick..then...my arm began to sting..then my stomach...then my legs!! I jumped out of the water as fast as I could, unfortunatly I still had the flippers on, and fell flat on my face, on a big old rock...yea. So needless to say..i now have whip lash like stripes up and down my arm and legs. Thus the title of this post..Taiwan hates me. No, but things have been looking up. Despite the fact that I'm still uncertain about my job, I've been having a great time on the weekends. The cloud is lifting over Taiwan and the past couple of days have been sunny and beautiful. Everyday I'm amazed at the scenerey that is only 5 kilometers from me. I really am in a great spot...when it's not raining. Anyway, that's it. My wake up phone call was quite entertaining this morning. Thanks for the laughs..Aunt Karen, Aunt Barb, Mom, Dad. Miss you.