My First Four Months In Taiwan

I woke up, sprawled out on our living room couch, in the same clothes I wore last night to poker.  I had that wonderful crusty hungover feeling from drinking too much Jack Daniels.  I looked at the weather and decided that no, I am not going camping this weekend, and that I am too dizzy to ride on the back of a scooter for two hours anyway.  I looked at the calendar on my computer and realized that I left for Taiwan four months ago today and decided to start my blog.

So here I am writing my first and probably what will be my longest blog because I have four months to cover, but you are here cause you're semi-interested so read on if you dare...

I remember sitting at LAX and looking at the 777 I was about to climb aboard to take my voyage across the Pacific.  The excitement was almost too much to bear.  Excited and joyous, all I could think about was what was I going to do when I actually set foot in Taiwan.  Avoiding lectures from worried family members and friends I told everyone that I had a job and a place to stay, the truth is I had no plan at all.  I didn't even know where I was going when I first arrived.  People don't usually tend to understand my often wreckless behaviors, so to avoid being lectured from everyone from friends to my father I lied my ass off.  Anyway on the plane over on EVA airlines they show a video about Taiwan with the main theme being; Fall in Love with Taiwan.  I kind of laughed at it at first, I thought it was a dumb country pride type thing, but it's actually happening.  Oh and Taiwan has a right to be proud, they have come so far in the last twenty years that they should have a little bit of "look at me" swagger in their personality.  Okay so I arrived in Taipei the following morning exhausted from being too excited to sleep on the plane.  I had my backpack, my golfclubs, and my computer (The only things I own aside from some books that are at my cousin's house in California).  I went outside grabbed the bus to actually get into Taipei and sat in awe at my new surroundings.  After getting off the bus at Taipei's main station I dragged myself to a reasonably priced hotel put down my bags and crashed for eight hours.  I woke up in the evening and watched some movies while I tried to decide what to do.  Stay in Taipei and look for a job or go to another city.

After some discussion with friends that were already working in northern Taiwan I decided to head down to southern Taiwan in the morning.  At the train station the following morning I flipped a coin for Tainan or Kaohsiung and Kaohsiung won.  So I boarded the train and took a slow seven hour trip down to Kaohsiung.

building I really liked on the train ride down to Kaohsiung

After arriving I took a taxi to the hostel which would be my home for the next month.  I stayed in a dorm with two guys; Blake from Australia and Ali from Canada.  We are all pretty easy-going so when it got to the point that we couldn't take staying at the hostel anymore we all moved to an apartment with one other guy, Aaron, who was also staying at the hostel in the room next to ours.  So those are my roomates even though Ali moved out a month ago and went back to Canada.

roomates Ali, Aaron, and Blake, friend Sarah, Beetle Nut guy, and me

hanging out at beerfest

big sexy's excited he received a lanyard for buying a beer

I took the first couple of days in Kaohsiung to just figure out where I was and how to get around the city.  A couple of days later the job hunt began.  It was even easier then I thought it would be.  I would walk into schools and they would see that I was a white, young, female and boom I would have a job offer before even handing over my resume.  After searching for about two days I decided to take a job at one of the nicer looking English institutes.  I had some training but wouldn't actually begin working until the beginning of August so I would basically have to wait a month before working.  Since I'm habitually poor, I was okay scrimping for a month and Taiwan is cheap anyway so I was okay waiting.  In the meantime, I just explored Kaohsiung and took a weekend trip down to Kenting National Park, which is absolutely beautiful.

School started in August and I hated the school I worked for from the get go, so I was happy when in the beginning of September I got fired after my back injury flared up on me making me immobile for a couple of days.  Discrimination Yes, did I care, No, I was happy to be getting the hell out of there...they didn't want the kids to have to see what would happen if I had one of my attacks from the nerve getting pinched so they fired me, but oh well I'm on to much greener pastures.  I secured a job at the English Villages here and I start next week.  I can't wait.

At the beginning of October I was in a scooter accident while learning how to operate one of the damn things.  I went face first into a parked car and lacerated and shattered my nose.  I had some other minor injuries too, but I'm alright now.  I had to have surgery to put my nose back together and I also had seven stitches after the initial blow.  Had I been looking down and not up I'd probably be dead.  A little scratch on the nose to remind me to always wear a helmet and that scooters are not toys, might be what I needed to tame the daredevil inside me. 

Aaron is making me laugh and it hurts

I was a bloody mess.  Lucky as hell though.

And that's where I am now, just chillin' in Taiwan, working when I get called, making friends, waiting to start my job so that I can really explore this country and the rest of South East Asia and the world.  Okay I'm outta here.