More Random Information about Taiwan

Clearly, there is a lot to learn when you first move to a new country on the other side of the world. I have learned a ton of random information in such a short period of time. So here are some more things I have learned in the last two days.

Every official receipt in Taiwan has a lottery number printed on it. Every two months, they post the lottery numbers and you can win anything from like, 20 bucks to a bigger grand prize. It is really kind of exciting. The Taiwanese government did this in order to increase tax coverage in the country. Here is an example of what one of the receipts looks like:

Something I forgot to mention in my first blog post is that it is SO hot here right now. I am in a constant state of sweaty grossness. So far its been about 87-90 degrees Fahrenheit while I've been here, but it feels a million degrees hotter. None of the Taiwanese people seem to be bothered by the heat, so I'm hoping I can get used to it!

One thing that has annoyed me so far is the light switches. They are in the most inconvenient places ever in pretty much every building. For example, my bathroom light is outside the bathroom by the front door, and my bedroom light is as far away from the bedroom door as possible. In the school, it is the same way. The light switches are no where near where I would think they should be. I keep flipping wrong switches to wrong things and it is frustrating. 

Squatty Potties. I had never heard of them, but they're pretty common here I guess. Basically, its a urinal laid down in the ground. I haven't had to use one yet because I have a "Western" toilet in my apartment, but I'm a little bit afraid. Here is what one looks like (its not a picture I took, but I found on the internet): 

http://threechannels.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/squatty1.jpg

Something I have enjoyed here so far are the commercials. They are all in Chinese, so I've made a game out of it. I try to guess what the commercial is selling, and I am usually wrong. And other times, the product is just really odd or the commercial is just funny. One of my favorites is for skin whitening lotion. The commercial featured two girls who had tan lines and were EXTREMELY overly upset about it, then they rubbed this lotion on them, became 20 shades paler, and were way too happy about it. Another commercial I saw had dancing kiwis everywhere and I still have no idea what they were selling, but it wasn't kiwis. 

If anyone ever visits Taiwan, I've got you covered on all the random, little things.

First Day in Taiwan

I have created this blog in order to keep up with my time in Taiwan, and so after my time here is over I can look back and see how much I've progressed. I have come to Taiwan to teach English, experience a new culture, and hopefully learn some Chinese. Plus, it'll look great on my resume!

So far I've only been in Taiwan for like, 28 hours, but it has been a busy time already. As soon as I got here, I moved my two suitcases into my apartment and I slept for a good 11 hours because it took a lot to finally arrive here. I had a 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, a 20 hour layover in the Shanghai Pudong airport, then an hour and a half flight to Taipei Taoyuan airport, and a two hour car ride to the city of Changhua. The road I live on is called Min Tsu Road, and it is a very busy street.

Min Tsu Road

After I got some rest, I started my day early by touring around the city with the head of the school that hired me. We visited the Big Buddha of Baguashan. It is something Changua is very famous for, and it was beautiful. There were a lot of temples and koi ponds around it, and the statue is HUGE.

Big Buddha of Baguashan

I spent part of the day running a bunch of errands navigating my way around the packed Min Tsu road. It's pretty difficult to navigate because everything is in Chinese. All the signs, all the menus,... it was intense. A lot of people here ride scooters, and they have no fear. It is terrifying to me. Everyone parks illegally everywhere and it is pure chaos. I'm going to start out small with a bicycle.

I also did my first sit ins on some of the ESL classes today. That was really great. They students are all very friendly, as well as the staff.

Here are some things I've learned in my first day here that I want to remember later:
-the garbage trucks play a song that sounds like an ice cream truck. The purpose of this is so that when people here that sound at 5pm, they know it is time to take their trash out and throw it in the truck. So do not be fooled into thinking there is ice cream right around the corner, because it is really trash. Here is the song if you're curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0C6W_CCI0U

-There is a weird nut here called the betel nut that is found in the mountains of Taiwan. These nuts are sold on the side of the mountain by girls in bikinis called "Betel Nut Beauties" (and I have no idea why). It keeps you awake and makes your chest feel all warm. Its the number one case of mouth cancer here because the nuts are really not good for you at all.

-Do NOT write people's names in red ink because it reminds the Taiwanese of death. You can use a red pen for anything else, though.

-Lastly, Taiwanese people do not know their age usually. A lot of people count the 9 months a baby is in the womb as how old the baby is when its born. Some people consider the Chinese New Year as like a second birthday. So if you were born three months before the Chinese New Year, the day after the new year you would already be 2 years old, whereas in America you would just be 3 months old. Also, the number 4 is closely related to death so sometimes people skip birthdays that involve a 4. People are so superstitious about the number that it has been banned from being used on license plates.

I would say for my first day here, I accomplished quite a bit!