ot very pleasant.
So I've signed a contract and after my police check I will be officially hired by Morrison Academy - Bethany Campus from July 1, 2007 - July 1, 2008. It's really quite a beautiful facility and through the hiring process both Ray & I have been thoroughly impressed with their thoroughness in hiring and their professionalism as a school. Everything from their recruiting video, their website, their Taiwan handbook for those just landing, and their understanding of Visas has been very thorough and informative. (Here's a glimpse if you're interested: http://www.mca.org.tw/index.cfm?id=244). I was actually interviewed 3 times before I was hired. Once by the recruiting officer for my character and faith, once with the principal for more curriculum and classroom focus, and once with the superintendent for the final approval.
I've been busily doing house chores and putting things away.
magnets that I purchased from a local grocery store. They're in really funky colours, and although they're really small they can hold up an awful lot. When garbage day finally comes we can empty out our new stainless steel garbage cans, slip off my new fuzzy brown slippers, and greet our local garbage men again! Hee hee...it's kinda been weird having all these new things in the apartment. Ray and I keep joking that the things we have in Taiwan are nicer than in Toronto. Just a couple more rounds at Costco, RT Mart (Taiwanese Walmart) and IKEA and I think we're set to go!
One of the lines I come to often is from Hudson Taylor's biography. Are we still in this period where we still have much to learn these next two years, or are we actually supposed to be doing more in Taiwan? Or maybe it's just a little bit of both. I'm not sure...but I guess so far the instructions we've received is to come to`But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked.
`Why, she, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, `Prizes! Prizes!'
`But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse.
`Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. `What else have you got in your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice.
`Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly.
`Hand it over here,' said the Dodo.
Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying `We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.
Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.
I haven't blogged in quite a while but lots of things have happened. D and Ray have updated some things but one of the main sentiments I've been sensing lately has been the strangeness
Many say, that when you experience culture shock you go through the W-curve. You may miss some of the steps but these are the main elements of the curve. The first hump relates to your entering the foreign location, whereas the second hump is for those who return home after adjusting to the foreign location. Well, for me I can say that my honeymoon phase of Taiwan has quickly lost it's peak and I'm descending into the crisis period. I am definitely not in crisis, but there are moments when I get quite frustrated with how things work.
The most frustrating thing about Taiwan has been their administrative processes. I've been trying to get my residen
Number 2 hitting my "Annoying things in Taiwan" list has been their garbage. Although a very good system in theory (they recycle everything from styrofoam, paper, clothing, compost, tetraboxes, etc.), in practice it is very tedious! Each day you are required to throw out something different. So for example, on
Monday - we can throw out Paper items, clothing, clean plastic bags/wrapping (rinse before throwing)
Tuesday - Clean styrofoam, bottles (plastic/glass), metal cans, smal electric appliances, battery, tetra boxes, and light bulbs
The difficult part is that each item needs to be bagged separately before you bring it down for disposal! Oh, and the best part of it is that the disposal trucks (yes, there are more than one to facilitate the different materials) arrive at our street corner exactly between 9-9pm. Therefore, if you miss the disposal for that day, you miss it until the next day (or you can drop it off at some disposal site). And of course, if you have paper items on Tuesday you cannot dispose of that until Friday (that's when it is next on the schedule). Smelly compost items are everyday except for Wednesday and Sunday. When Ray and I went to throw out the garbage for the first time it really was quite the event! The entire neighbourhood comes out! They of course know exactly what to do and do it with such ease and finesse that Ray and I look like total duds. Yesterday when trying to figure out how to separate my styrofoam from my plastic bottle, the garbage man got so annoyed with my "pokeyness" that he just said "Hiiiiy!" and grabbed the whole bag from me and did it himself. "I was trying...really I was trying!"
Another "interesting" thing about this whole garbage thing is that most of the neighbours just do their business and then go home with their plastic bins (that held their green compost - needless to say Ray and I have been trying to figure out the best system of holding all the different garbage at home). The maids however, many of them from the Philippines, make it a, in the words of our landlord, "garbage party" and hang out downstairs for another 20 minutes or so before heading back home. They chat, rummage through other people's garbage, watch other neighbours and laugh. I actually have no idea what they're talking about.
Here are some pictures of my Adventures in Garbageland.
The exciting event of garbage collection. (Ray always says to me "Don't be so excited!" People look rather bored though)
Here is a view of 2 of the trucks. There were 3 present at the time though but hidden on the left side. (I was surely wishing for a panoramic function at this point!)
If you look carefully mid-right between the truck and the SUV, behind the pizza hut delivery man, you can see the garbage party happening.
For those of you who are interested in this garbage regiment (I know there are many of you out there), here are some articles about it.
http://english.taipei.gov.tw/TCG/index.jsp?recordid=2971
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/04/10/201513
http://163.29.36.51/dep/index.jsp?categid=2494&newsid=2234
http://163.29.36.51/dep/index.jsp?categid=2494&newsid=2235
But... in the end, as Alice would say, "Oh dear, this is getting curiouser and curiouser." I like how Alice handles her stress of being in an unfamiliar land, she goes with the flow and at times she's very real with her emotions and would just break down and cry, but most of the time she has a goal (finding the white rabbit, what can be a nobler goal?!) and she enjoys her time in Wonderland.
Here's DKF's amateur home video of our new place. If you right click and do "show all" I think you can view full screen? Here's a link to the video if you can't get it to work.:
This is the guest bathroom.
First day in apartment after work. Ray reflecting on Luke 12:48.
Our first guest in our DaAn apartment as we share about our dreams and pray over our new place (yes, that is a bottle of Chardonnay to celebrate!)
This is the view from the "nice" side of the apartment looking over the little park area.
This is the back side where our laundry balcony is located - very close to the other building!
I wake and moonbeams play around my bed
Glittering like hoarfroast to my wondering eyes
Upwards the glorious moon I raise my head
Then lay me down and thoughts of home arise
D arrived in Taipei last night. It was really good to see her. We were waiting anxiously for her arrival all week and when the time came I think I ended up having verbal diarrhea about everything that has been happening here in Taipei. Poor D. She very graciously listened to all of our experiences and laughed along even though I'm sure she was very very tired from her plane ride. I think it was that little taste of home that was really comforting.
This morning I opened my mailbox and found 2 more e-mails from my co-workers. I received 2 yesterday too! It really made me miss them so much more. I've been trying hard not to "imagine" what they're doing, and what my students are doing, and what's going on a JPS but it's hard. I miss them a lot. Luckily days here are busy and full of events. It's more in the evenings, when I know that in Canada everybody is just waking up and starting their day that I start to think of home.
I never really got the Li Bai poem up above. I would just recite it in Chinese school because I had to, but I think I get it now. It's like that "American Tail" song "Somewhere Out There". When it comes down to it, there are really only a couple of things that you look at that would be the same everywhere. The surrounding is usually different (e.g. buildings, people, smells, foods, flora, fauna). The sun is the same but I never hear any poems where somebody is just staring at the sun. And stars are the same, but the night sky is different all around the world. Unless you're a stargazer, you'll never be able to keep track of the stars! But the moon...ahh the moon...that's a big, easily identifiable object that just begs you to stare ...no gaze...no ponder....at it. Not that I've really done any moon gazing in Taipei, but I can understand and place myself with the poet now. Night time is quiet. You tend to reflect...and as I check my e-mail, and read e-mails at night...
I think of home.
And I miss it.
As you know from Sandra's last post, we've been spending most of our time in Taipei looking at housing. It's been a tiring, but very educational experience. We've talked to about ten different agents and seen over 20 apartments in the last few days. In Taiwan, the agents specialize within a relatively small geographic area. So, in addition to our English speaking agent, we've basically been roaming up and down the streets of the neighbourhoods we're interested in to speak to local agents and security guards of buildings with postings. We joke about how if we don't meet anybody else in Taiwan, at least we'll know all the real estate agents! We've already bumped into a few in our travels!
Taipei is quite an expensive city compared to most Asian cities and certainly compared to the rest of Taiwan. Public transportation is quite good here with a network of MRT (trains) and buses. Like most markets, the Taipei real estate rental prices are driven by various factors like – location, size, condition of apartment, demand, etc. There are a few more unique characteristics like elevator in building or floor of the apartment (higher floors are actually generally cheaper in Taipei, not more expensive, due to the potential for power outages).
We decided that we wanted to live in Taipei city proper. There are a lot of decent choices in Taipei county (basically the surrounding area outside Taipei city), but we feel that quieter, suburban living is not the experience that we are looking for. Living in the city results in about rent that is almost double of what it would cost for the equivalent outside of the city. Many people cannot afford to live in the city, or choose to live outside of the city and have a car.
It's difficult signing a one year lease without really knowing what our live will be like. All we have to go on are our dreams and prayers. Here’s the key objectives in the apartment:
Location is always key in real estate and the key driver of price. This was or prime criteria and why we picked DaAn area – close to MRT, short bus ride to Ray's office, lots of local markets and food places. Other location reasons:
Other key factors:
Size of apartment – we do hope to invite coworkers or friends over to build relationships. We wanted a place that had a decent size common area. We will also have visitors (including parents), so we wanted a comfortable place for them to stay and experience life here.
Community / neighbourhood – this is the softer “feel” of the local area / apartment. Many of the places we have seen are either very old or converted offices. It's not uncommon to have residential apartments in the same building as commercial offices (sometimes this can result in higher rent for the landlord). We wanted a place where we could connect with people – e.g. local shops, vendors, neighbours, etc.
Comfort – this is the selfish criteria. Both of us have never really been into luxury or needed high end stuff. However, we did want to have a decent, clean place to live. This is a both for our visitors (local and overseas) as well as for ourselves. Many of the missionaries have counseled us to find a place that we can call home. When things get tough, it's our sanctuary and comfort. It's odd to think of things in this perspective, but I do agree that its important (within reason).
So... I think we were reasonable clear in what we were looking for. Even though there are people with LOTS of money in Taipei and lots of apartments in price ranges that we would not want to pay, we still questioned whether the price range was what we should be looking at. I had a chat with N today over google talk. I told him that it wasn't so much a matter of affordability (we’re talking a relatively modest amount), but what else I could do with this money. I think like back home, we have to consider this an “investment” in the community that we choose to set-up roots in.
Sandra is off doing final negotiations with a place that we both really like. Perhaps I should wait for the final decision before posting this, but I'm just talking outloud anyway right?
We found a place that is probably about $150 Cdn more than what we were hoping to spend. We hoped to negotiate this amount down, but the landlord wouldn't really move on the price.
This place is in a five story building, all owned by the same family – husband and wife and one year old twins (a sign?). 1st floor – Pizza Hut! 2nd floor – family and grandfather residence. 3rd floor – grandfather's private office during the day. 4th floor apartment for rent. 5th floor – empty for occasional family use.
We like the idea of this building being all one family. Each floor has its own self-contained unit. Sandra really connected with the wife on her very first visit. We may have too many high hopes, but we’re hoping that we can develop a relationship with this family. They seem very high – both speak a bit of English, the husband can also speak Cantonese.
The apartment is just down the street from xinyi lu, which is one of the busiest streets in Taipei and also a five minute walk from DaAn station and a ten minute walk from Sogo area. The nice thing about this alley is that in the evening hours from about 6pm to maybe 11pm, its bustling with local food vendors. There's no concern about needing an affordable bowl of noodles here! It's that nice balance of local street vendors and the commercial offices and residences of xinyi lu. It's how we pictured being in Asia.
The apartment itself is mostly furnished and semi-newly renovated (the landlord would argue fully renovated). Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, living room, pantry, etc. It's about 45 pings! (ping is measure of real estate in Taiwan. This would equate to 1200 or so sq feet). It’s larger than what we were looking for, but its got a great living room that would be good for entertaining. In the end, our rationale is that for the same price as some smaller (newer) places, we can do a lot more with the apartment. For example, we saw a nice two bedroom loft type place for exact same price – 350 sq feet!
So there it is... this is the apartment that we're most attached to. The biggest mistake in negotiations was made – we got emotionally attached. We left the apartment yesterday leaving the landlord the impression we didn't want it for that price... but both Sandra and I felt that this was a place we could call home and this was a place that we could use to invest in people.
I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to work out the details with the landlord, but even if not, I think this adventure has helped us clarify what we're looking for in a home, even for two years. We'll see what happens!
We'll post an update and, hopefully, pictures of this place soon.
"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!" - Dr. Seuss
We've landed and arrived safely in Taiwan. Thank you for all of your prayers.
We're currently staying at the Howard Green Suite Hotel in Chang Chun Road and we have our own kitchen, living room and internet access! Hooray!
Ray left for Malaysia really early this morning so I was left to fend for myself today. It was surprisingly quiet. After being around people for so many days (as a teacher, at home with visitors, on the plane) it was all of a sudden very strange to be wandering the city all quiet. I wouldn't say that I felt lonely...not yet,but it was definitely quieter. Lots of time to think and reflect.
I decided to walk around the hotel area, explore the MRT system, visit the Taiwan Normal University, inquire a little about apartment rentals, AND do a little grocery shopping. It was actually quite a full day but it felt quite leisurely because I was taking my time. People in Taiwan are very friendly and actually quite casual. Though there are still those who quite trendy in their dress, there are many who wear ripped jeans, khakis, and even jogging pants (although this was a school uniform)!
I am excited about the newness of everything, and some familiarity in the fact that things are in Chinese, but as weird as it sounds I'm a little culture shocked to see so many Chinese people. It's so different to not be a visible minority anymore. You don't really realize how much being a minority affects your perspective in life. It's late right now but I leave you with a couple of pictures from my travels today.
