Seth and I went up to Michigan this past week to see my little sister graduate from her fancy-schmancy high school. It was a good trip, although trying at times (as often is the case when traveling with family), but everyone (me, Seth, Mom, Dad, Grandma Pat [Dad’s mom], Grandaddy [Mom’s dad], his girlfriend Nancy [is it appropriate to call her his girlfriend? Is lady friend more appropriate?], Aunt Roberta [Mom’s oldest sister], and her husband Mike) had a good time, really. The graduation festivities lasted a while, as the school has what they call Festival the two days leading up to the graduation ceremony on Saturday morning. You can go see dancers, listen to lots and lots of music of all classical and jazzy sorts, see art, hear some great writing, and probably more that I’m forgetting. All good stuff. Also, you can take the time to just wander the campus, which inspires a little jealousy in me. I mean, don’t get me wrong - I’m incredibly happy for Annalise that she was able to go, but sheesh. The place is across the street from a national park, and the summer camp the school has puts all the campers in cabins, so trust me when I say the place is gorgous. Or, go look at some of the pictures we took and see for yourself.
Anyway, she got herself all graduated on Saturday morning, and I still can’t quite believe my little sister is so very almost all grown up. Weird.
I can’t be bothered to look up the posts since I can’t recall which blog I posted it to, but I’ve announced to those of you who’ve read me that Gilda Radner’s Endangered Feces bit is inarguably one of the funniest jokes ever. Poop is funny. This was a correct answer in a Fiction Writing class once, no kidding.
Dr. De Grave to one of my classmates: You need to find another word to use here. This is a serious passage, “poop” doesn’t work.
Classmate: Why not?
Dr. De Grave to class at large: What is poop?
Me: Funny.
Dr. De Grave: Exactly.
Yesterday I learned that poop can require a bit of aging to become humorous. While Lisbeth and I have been working on the house and traveling to Michigan, I’ve let the back yard get somewhat out of control. Our lawnmower is one of the human-powered variety, and must be used every 5-7 days to be effective. After about three weeks of disuse, I had to leave it in the garage and use the weed eater over the entirety of the back yard. Sometimes big, wet piles of Labrador leavings nestle cozily in the high tufts of grass, entirely concealed from view. Sometimes, when said leavings are contacted by quickly moving weed eater string, they cease to be stationary. Less frequently, they do slightly more than simply lose their quality of stillness. Once in a great while, they become chunks large enough to land with an audible splat, and simultaneously discover a trajectory whose apex would, but for my presence, have been slightly behind and above where my head in fact was. Fortunately my blink reflex works well, and my sense of humor, now given some 20 hours of rest, has made more or less a full recovery. It’s still not that funny though.
Jeez O’Pete, I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard in my entire life. I was a manual laborer at one point in time for a concrete construction company, but we got two days a week off then.
Seriously though, getting the house ready is a big job. Fortunately, some of the pressure is off. We’re not selling, a friend of a friend is renting from us. Renting as opposed to selling has its downsides, but it has the major up of giving us until the day we vacate to finish all of the work the house requires.
More time is great, because next weekend we’re going to Michigan, and the week after that I’ll be in Wichita for the KSO Summer Games. Shortly thereafter we’ll be on a plane, where I’ll think about sleeping, but will instead probably be finally finishing Snatcher, then we’ll be at a hotel, our temporary home until we get an apartment, and I’ll sleep for 12 consecutive hours if at all possible. Then begins the culture shock.
So, by popular request, I’m going to talk about our new jobs. Not that I really know much yet. But still, here are the details, thanks to Lindsay’s thoughtfully specific questions. She writes:
I want to hear about your new job in Taiwan! Tell me all the info! You have to be there on the 28th? Where will you live? What will you do? What will you eat?
So, we’re going to be working at the Chi Du branch of the Hess Schools, near Keelung City. Where’s that? Turns out it’s about 40 minutes away from Taipei. In the map to the right, I’ve put a yellow arrow pointing to it. It’s spelled differently there (Chilung instead of Keelung), which has to do with the system of romanization of the language used. In addition to being about 40 minutes from Taipei, it’s also about 40 minutes away from the northern coast. Apparently, that coast has some of the best surfing beaches on the north half of the Island. Who knew?
When we first arrive, we’ll be in Taipei for training for about 10 days. After that, we’ll go to Chi Du, where our manager will help us find an apartment. They’ve told us that Chi Du is one of the cheaper places to live, so we’re excited about that. I’m pretty sure some of that cheaper living will be due in part to living in a teeny apartment, but that’s okay. Seth and I managed to not kill each other during our first few months of marriage while living in a 400 sq. ft. one bedroom apartment, and we’re not bringing along nearly as much stuff as we tried to cram into that place.
We have to be there for training on July 28th, which is a Saturday, so we’ll probably be leaving on the 26th. The flight is a looooooong one. I’m not so sure I’m looking forward to that (although I’ll have my shiny new nano filled up with audiobooks and music to help me get through it), but it does appear to be a necessary evil. I’m sure Seth will also fill up his laptop with games and movies, so between the two of us, I think we’ll be fine.
We don’t actually know exactly what our teaching schedules will be like until we get there, but we’ve both asked to be assigned to teach a combination of kindergarten and language school. Essentially, kindergarten is more like what we think of as preschool, 2- and 3- and 4-year olds. The classes are in English in the morning and Chinese in the afternoon, so we’d be there in the morning if either of us get that assignment. The language school is an after-school program for kids in primary and middle grades, so it’s like a supplement for them. Kind of like Sylvan, but I think much, much more prevalent among students of all abilities.
What will we eat? That’s a very, very good questions. I was pretty apprehensive about learning to eat in a completely different culture, especially since you all know that calling me a picky eater is an understatement. The running joke Lindsay started is that my favorite food groups are white, mushy, and cheese. Admittedly, this does cover quite a few of my favorites - macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, fettuccine alfredo - but to be fair, I do like some green things too. Like pesto. And pistachio ice cream.
Erm, sorry, I went on a rabbit chase there. Anyhoo. I’m sure we’ll eat plenty of noodles and rice while we’re getting settled. That seems to be a pretty universal cheap option for people everywhere, right? And then, we’ll begin to explore our options - I’ve read that street food is consistently very good and very cheap. Dumplings sound promising (I mean, it seems to be a pasta-ish pocket of savory goodness - that’s a lot like ravioli, right?), and I’m trying really hard to head into this with an open mind. Of course, that’s easier said here and now. My track record on eating unfamiliar foods is spotty at best. I guess I’ll just have to deal with it as it comes.
So, that’s enough for today. If you, like Lindsay, have questions of your own, leave them for us in the comments. We love comments! We’ll answer your questions! And, I promise, one or both of us will write again soon!
- New jobs. For both of us. On the other side of the world.
- My weight loss.
- Our quest to get rid of all of our superfluous stuff.
- Our quest to get our house ready to sell.
- Our upcoming trip to Michigan.
- My improving running abilites.
- My recent iPod Nano purchase.
- How all of the above is freaking me out and causing me to grind my teeth at night, leading my dentist to suggest I might need to get myself a mouth guard to wear at night, in order to prevent the aforementioned grinding.
So, what do you want to hear about first?
It’s for real now. We’re going to Taiwan.
No matter how many times I say it, it doesn’t seem entirely real. I know we have jobs there, and that we’ll be on the ground in a couple of months, but the statement “we’re moving to Taiwan” carries about the same weight for me right now as “I just bought a bridge.” It’s very exciting, don’t get me wrong, and a little bit scary as well, but I’m having a hard time grasping the reality of it.
We’re supposed to be there no later than July 28th. The rain is preventing us so far from getting our house painted or having a garage sale, and the heating stove is more than a little in the way of my sanding the floor, but we’re making progress, and hopefully someone will want to buy our cute little two bedroom home. For sale, cheap!
Our contract is for one year, with the option of additional contracts at higher pay rates at the conclusion of that service. Whether we stay longer depends on how well the school determines we’ve done, and how well we like what we’re doing and where we are.
Where we are, incidentally, will be Chi Du, about 40 minutes by train from Taipei, and I believe we were told 20 minutes from a beach.
So here we go! If anyone needs anything they’ve seen in our possession, give a holler, more than likely if we haven’t earmarked it for someone or sold it, you can have it, at least for the time we’re gone.
Incidentally, since I haven’t done the three minutes’ research it would require, does anyone know if Taiwan uses the NTSC television standard?