Days like today, I am 100% in love with Taiwan. I love walking home from my second day of the job and being cheerfully waved at by the girl from the neighbourhood tea shop. I love taking the elevator up to my 18th floor apartment, confident that no cockroaches will be lurking in the hallway. I love meeting my squeeze, a.k.a. Teacher Brett outside the 24-hourCarrefour after we get off work to buy some late-night groceries. I love hearing adorable little Taiwanese children call me “Teacher Amanda” and giggle nervously when I ask their names.
“Laoshi” is Mandarin for “teacher”, and when an old man called me that as I was purchasing a boat load of school supplies the other night, I felt so happy. So far, the job is pretty stressful, but the rewards are huge. I don’t even mind the 6-year-old kid who told me I’m a poo because I gave him his first-ever homework assignment. Lesson planning has been extremely time-consuming, but I get the feeling it’s going to be a lot easier each week, especially as we get to know the kids we’re teaching.
In addition to getting used to our new work routines (since this is Boje’s first time back to work since August, 2010!) we’ve also been growing more comfortable with our area in Taichung. We live in a nice, relatively new neighbourhood with broad streets and sidewalks as well as plenty of lovely tea shops and restaurants. There’s a jade market just a few blocks away, and I’ve been told by one of my colleagues that “Little Europe” is pretty close to our building as well! We’re hoping to make a quick trip to Kaohsiung this weekend to pick up the stuff we left behind and see our friends if possible, but the next few weekends after this will hopefully be spent exploring Taichung and learning as much as we can about our new city!
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