Balling

Well it seems as though basketball is a pretty big sport here in Taiwan. There are courts all over the streets and there are always kids playing. I think the talent level is pretty low but everybody seems to love it. I was walking through the local park in Jhonghe the other day and stopped by the court to scout out some of the local ballers.


Check out those two philly's on the left watching the fellas play.

Jhonghe is finally starting to feel like home. The maintenance level here is off the charts. I have to say, at first I thought ohh man what am I going to do here. Everywhere you go something stinks, and it is always a smell that you have never smelt before. Think of the worst smell you have ever smelled and multiply that by about 10 and you will start to enter the realm of some of the smells I have encountered. I wish I could post some kind of device on this blog that when you push a button the smell I want you to smell comes wafting out of your microphone and you can catch a whif of what I am talking about here, serious odours. Anyway other then that people go to the park, sit around, drink coffee and Taiwan beer, and generally just maintain. There are always people on the steets and the vibe is generally quite pleasant. Also, being a minority is not as bad as it seems. I mean sometimes I feel kind of weird, and think that some people think this (watch the vid), but in general everything is pretty good.

Supermarkets

So my celebrity status is ever increasing at the local supermarket. I almost know everyone in there by name and they all know me even if I don't know them by name. Last week I rolled in there around noon and Jessie the girl behind the meat counter handed me a some folded paper.I paused for moment before opening the letter and then proceeded to take a peek. It was quite hard to understand, but just so you get the gist of it, I will let you in on a few sentences.

"Because my English is not good. Must therefore probably depend on the computer to turn meaning which English expressed me to need to say. I thought that you very brave person comes to Taiwan to work. My work hours are 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. I team up work hours am 2:00 pm to 10:00 pm. If before you must come to ask me to chat 2:00 pm. Because she goes to work we not to be able to chat again. Understands my meaning? (not really) I believed that you are best. Knows you very happily. Wish you have a nice day."

So there you have it, I was stuck in the middle of the supermarket with about 5 people watching me as I read this note. I wasn't entirely sure what it meant so I didn't draw any conclusions until later she told me that if I move back to Canada and forget about her she will be heartbroken. I don't want to paint a bad picture of Jessie here, she is very sweet, and I am pretty sure shes not mental or anything. But this was a little much. I need to find a way of telling her that I am cool with us being just friends or else I am going to have to switch supermarkets. If you have any suggestions toss them my way. On a side note I finally found some milk that I like. I have been having this problem where the milk is just to creamy. I think I might have been drinking whole milk or something and didn't know. I started buying small cartons of milk to sample, and I think I have pinpointed my favorite one, its the little one next to the big one.

Double Tenth Thanksgiving

So sorry for the lack of posts over the past weekend. I was busy working out a few details on the status of all my permits. It turns out I don't have the HIV and I am aloud to stay in the country for 1 year, wooooooooooo. Ok, so Friday was a holiday for us over here. The day is called Double Tenth Day and it is Taiwan's birthday. There were flags all over the streets and I heard that many parades were suppose to be happening, but I don't think I saw any. I think I might have seen what looked to be something resembling a parade but I wasn't fully sure. There were some rickity floats, some costumes, and a guy barfing in the corner, all signs pointed to parade but I couldn't be sure. Anyway here is a Big Up to Thanksgiving home style.


Liz


Photos courtesy of F. Loek - Mississauga News.

Billy B.

I just picked up a new pair of runners on the weekend so I could go to the local track and just jog out a few laps. I reviewed all of the different shoes that I thought I would be able to find and picked a few pairs so I would know what to look for when I got to the store. I ended up going with the Nike Bill Bowerman Series Air Span + 5. All of my life I have steered clear of Nike in any of my shoe purchases for some reason, but this time I just decided to go for it. Partially due to default and also partially due the box saying just do it on it, I decided to try them out. All in all I feel it was a solid choice. Every time I run on the track and start feeling bagged, I get this image of Billy B. in my mind telling me to lift my knees higher and I start running with the high knee lift until I can no longer take it. In case you are unfamiliar with Billy Bowerman, he was one of the founders of Nike with his original waffle iron shoe sole design. He was the coach at The University of Oregon and coached the likes of Steve Prefontaine who reigned supreme on the track on the University and International stage until his untimely death.

Here are a few pics of Billy in action.



This is where I reign supreme. Banciao Stadium.
C'est un stad.


With this guy. He likes the high leg lift.


After I hit the track for a few laps I usually like to stop off at the supermarket in the Global Mall on the way home for a bev. Every time I go there I get something for free, one of the ladies that works behind the meat counter points at my face and says "you" "you", "sooo handsome", and then proceeds to give me a sample of some meat. Well sometimes its meat, once she gave me a banana, and today she bought me a bottle of Orange Fanta. She speaks almost no English and is probs about 50 but is by far the nicest person probably in the world.

Fixed Maintenance

Oh hi there. I came home from work yesterday to Ted going completely ape in his tank. He was ripping up the plants and pushing his snail shell all over the place. I yelled out woooaaahhhh Ted whats the problem man, and then he paused and looked at me, pushed his snail shell one lest time and resorted back to his usual state of maintenance. I wondered what the problem might be and the only thing I could think of was that perhaps he is hungry, so I fed him again and that seemed to do the trick. This weekend was pretty good, Saturday I mostly maintained all day by myself but on Sunday I met up with these cats from this shop called Nabiis that all ride fixeds. I met them at this placed called Ximen and we just kicked it until about 11 p. First we went to the shop, they have this layer designed just for maintaining above the shop. It was just an open room with a couch some chairs and a table with a few desks and computers in the back. Behind the computers there was a door which led to a room of bike frames and parts, it was siiiick. I showed them pictures of the Peug and they nearly all creamed their jeans. After, we went to this restaurant to get some Chinese food, there was a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table and they just ordered all kinds of different stuff, I have to say it was the most succulent dinner I have had since I have been here. When dinner was over we got the bikes and went over to this park and just rode and maintained for a few hours before packing it in for the night.



This is Hawk, he really whales on his bike. I think he can do almost every single trick in the book. He is the same age as me and is in the army. If I was Taiwanese I would also be in the army right now. Luckily you only have to stay in there for one year.


This is Ad Word, solid guy. He is only 18, but he is a photographer and is just finishing up high school. He will also have to go to the army in the next 4 or 5 years.


This little tyke was getting in on the action as well.

Local Wildlife

It has become official that I am now a recognized face when I walk down the streets of Jhonghe. Just yesterday I was walking out of the supermarket with a new jar of peanut butter and some bbq Pringles chips when all of a sudden I hear Teacher Jon, Teacher Jon. I look up and there is Kiki with her mom. Naturally I sent out my greetings and salutations and then continued on my way. Later I decided to go to McDonalds for some lunch, and the same thing happened. I was standing in line and some kid walks by and says "Hi Teacher Jon", I didn't even recognize this one. Anyways, at McDonalds I had a spicy chicken combo but I was feeling pretty hungry and I didn't think just the combo alone would fill the void. So I decided to top of the meal with an apple pie. I totally had forgotten about the McDonalds apple pie until yesterday, and man am I happy I rediscovered it. It is so delicious, next time you are in McDonalds I would suggest picking one up and rediscovering the goodness. I also made a discovery when I was sitting eating my lunch. I looked over at the table next to me and there was a guy reading the newspaper, and I realized that Chinese people read right to left. As soon as I saw this I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Jewish people and Chinese people. They both read from right to left. Weird discovery eh. Throughout my stay here I have noticed many types of wildlife in and around the streets of Jhonghe.


These two creatures were both together in cages along side of the road. I guess someone was trying to sell them, but as far as I could see they were just sitting there by themselves.

No matter where you go here, you will always run into some kind of a dog. Usually the dog will just be maintaining like any other person would, no collar, no leash, just walking around enjoying the day, or night. As you can see above, dogs even ride scooters.

I was down at the day market buying some vegetables the other day before class when I heard many sounds resembling the sounds of a barn yard. I curiously followed the noises until I stumbled upon this giant cage of roosters. You can pick which rooster you want while it is alive, and they will kill right there and then prepare it for you. The whole operation looked fairly dotty.

Finally, last but not least this is Ted. Ted is my new roomate, his tank sits right beside the couch. So far he has been pretty solid. There is this fish store right beside my building, so I went in there the other day and came out with this. When I first got in there I was trying to talk with the clerk, but he didn't speak any English, so I was speaking English and he was speaking Chinese, so we didn't make it very far. I was trying to ask him about some of the different fish when all of a sudden this other guy pops out of nowhere and starts speaking to me in English. So I was like alright tell me about these fish. He knew everything there was to know about these fish. His name was David and he got me fully set up. He even came over after when I had it all set up to put some drops of something in my tank. I gave him a brew and we watched a little baseball.

The Staff

Monday turned out to be a typhoon day and school was canceled. This was unreal for me because I needed to have another day to recover from the rhea. I tell you it still isn't fully gone but today has been much better. Also, I think I got a line on picking up a fixed over here, it looks like they have Friday night riding events called Frider Days, if you want to check it out look at this www.fixedgeartaiwan.com. There is a guy that lives in Taichung which is about 2 hours by bus from here and he builds custom bike frames, I got his number from a guy on the internet and I might pay him a visit in a couple of weeks. Currently I am representing in the back office at Gram, I don't have a class for another 45 mins so I thought I would take this time and introduce everybody to the staff at Gram. Each one of these peeps is quite solid in their own way.

VIVI

This is Vivi, she works up at the front. I guess you could say she is the secretary. She doesn't speak English very well but she does know how to call out on the intercom in English for kids to get ready when their parents come. For example if Jimmy's dad is here to pick him up she will pick up the phone and push intercom and say "Jimmy, Jimmy, please get reeaaaaddyyyy". It is classic. Oh ya she is also in charge of ordering the food, so when it comes to this I have to make sure she understands what I want. I usually get the dumplings, they are succulent. Once and I while I get the Neo row minh, which is beef noodle soup. Its ok but I think I got turned off of it because I ate that the day I got the rhea.

FANNY

The infamous. Seeing as I gave Fanny her name and everything we are pretty tight, so I got her to pose by the board here. Fanny works side by side with Vivi and another girl named Liv. They kind of do the same job, all of them take care of all the secretarial duties. Liv is the best at English, Fanny the second best, and Vivi is the worst. Fanny drives a scooter and from time to time I see her wizzing by on the streets.

LIV


Liv, another front face taking care of administrative duties. She lives in Banciao(where the subway station is) and also rides a scooter. I think she studies English at university and is really into computer games. Whenever I ask Liv how she is, it is rarely good, she always gets frazzled and blurts out some kind of an answer that indicates she is not good.

TOBEY


You should all know Tobey by now, but here he is just taking care of business. Tobey is serious about success, he likes his Jhonghe branch to be a tightly run ship, and is constantly giving the secretarial staff shite. He drives a Ford Focus and also has a Yamaha scooter, I have ridden in/ on both. He also loves baseball, and doesn't eat beef. However, he really likes soda and baked goods.

TEACHER KATRINA


I just finished a class with Katrina, it went pretty well. I was teaching past and present tenses. For example "Every day, Susan travels to Taipei" and "Yesterday, she didn't travel to Taipei". Sometimes she gives me tips on games to play with the class and also helps me with the photocopier because it is all in Chinese. She doesn't drive a scooter because she is scared, so instead she rides the bus from her house somewhere near the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Jhonghe. In fact it is the same bus I use to get to the subway station except in the opposite direction.

TEACHER QUEENIE


This is Queenie, she is the "Queen of the classroom". She is solid with helping out with my lesson plans. She teaches the little kids so sometimes it is tough to keep them under control. She lives just around the corner and rides a scooter. Her house is about a 5 min walk and she still drives it almost everyday. I give her shite about that on the regular and tell her that she should walk. As you can see she is a hard worker and is always flipping through some kind of book. Her boyfriend lives in Taichung where he is a doctor.

TEACHER MEILING


Ahhhhh, Teacher Mieling. Thats what I like to say every time I see Meiling roll through the doors, I say it like Mr Miyagi says Ahhhhhh Daniel Son in the Karate Kid. Yesterday I was chatting with Meiling about her class because I am going to be teaching it later this week. After we finished with our business discussions I asked her what she got up to on the typhoon day, and I couldn't believe what she told me. She told me that her nephew was in a baby race and she went to watch. Immediately I was puzzled by this so called baby race, so I continued to probe at the subject. She told me that there are crawling races for babies and that her nephew was in one. I immediately pictured this sort of mini dirt track in some underground night club at 3:00am with all kinds of people standing around smoking and placing bets on the babies. $10 bucks on Little Jimmy Lee, $20 bucks on Big Alfred Wang, $100 on Charlie "the bullet" Tsai. I guess I think like this because of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer got the rooster and named it Little Jerry Seinfeld and starts entering it in underground cock fights. Anyway, the whole idea seems crazy to me and I was dying laughing when she told me about it. So in the end I asked her how the baby did, and she said "terrible", she said when he got on the track he froze and didn't go.