random thoughts and observations from the first few days
-when you wake up on an overnight flight to someone speaking to you in chinese, asking you what you want to drink, you feel like they’re messing with you… until you come to your senses and realize they’re not
-allison looks so cute standing in the middle of a hundred foreigners at sfo
-when it gets really humid, your sandals stick to your feet when you walk
-after walking out of customs at the airport in taipei, we (well, i) almost turned around and walked back on the plane when i didn’t see someone with our name on a poster. fortunately, allison slapped some sense into me and said we should just keep looking and not give up so soon. sunny showed up a minute later
-all the new teachers here have amazing stories about other countries they’ve taught at. we don’t, but we will
-i miss my mom and dad, but will see them in december!
-allison is doing amazing and seems to be adapting even better than i am
-chinese characters look nothing like english (duh), but it is fun pretending like some of them look similar at the grocery store, until you realize that you’re telling someone that the character for soy milk looks like the same character for motor oil. wrong.
-greeting someone with “ni hao” (hello) in chinese, isn’t always the best thing to do because they assume you know a little chinese, which we don’t. but that doesn’t stop me from doing it!
-having a $100 dollar taiwanese bill in your hands isn’t as fun when it only equals $3 in the US
-sweating non stop all day + not being able to read anything at the grocery store = weight loss
-one of the teachers here was an extra in chasing amy. oops, asked him about 75 too many questions about the movie once i found that out.
-we’re excited for our moms to send us comfort packages, but we’re not going to ask them to. (and yes, we know they read this blog)
-i could see allison’s “i’m a little overwhelmed” feeling go away after she bought some cheerios, cleaning supplies, and matching cute bowls, plates, and glass (it’ll go away even more once we get that fridge)
-we have two extra rooms and are hoping for visitors (anytime!)
-our school is actually in the jungle.
-taiwanese scooter drivers have balls of steel. no, titanium
-the fact they have a costco here wasn’t comforting. it was kind of sad.
-i need to learn to speak chinese, and how
-our doorbell sounds like a bird chirping
-i can’t wait to see peter again
-you can’t flush any paper down the toilet. see-ick.
-allison is quickly learning the importance of looking both ways
-allison just said “jermeiah is quickly learning that scooters go really fast and needs to tell her to run, not walk” when 20 of them are barreling down on us”
-starbucks and mcdonalds have internet, but it isn’t free. learned that the hard way after walking ten minutes to starbucks and another ten minutes to mcdonalds. was still fun though.
-it is fun having three people try to help you at mcdonalds just because you’re american
-not having a fridge isn’t half bad when you eat out a lot. and by eat out, i don’t mean fast food, i mean, rice, fresh veggies, and amazing tofu for every meal
-they have guinness and it is the dark export stuff
-charades is even more fun when it is cross cultural
-it was nice talking to my mom, dad, brother, and sister on the phone. actually, it was very nice
-is it college football season yet?
-we love it when people comment on our blog because it lets us know you’re out there
-i didn’t need to bring ten pairs of a pants
-i love having allison here with me, even if she is sitting next to me practicing her chinese lessons and confusing the hell out of me
bye. have a great day!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
my new friend peter (and little brian too)
(pre-ps sorry, this is a long story. i don’t think they’ll all be this long.)
walked into our apartment today and we were greeted with two things. the first, we were expecting, which was a hot and humid room, close to 85 degrees (f, obviously). the second little treat for us was a gecko… at least we think it was a gecko. i don’t think i’ve ever seen a gecko in real life and the only one i’ve ever seen is in the geico commercials. we didn’t hear our little buddy talk with a british accent, so we’re not sure if he is a gecko or not, but we’re calling him one for now. i can’t blame him for hanging out in our main room though. it is a clean, empty, and has the perfect jungle climate,. when we turned on the light, he decided to play frozen. since i was the one who saw him first, i pointed him out to allison, and she decided to play frozen too. so there i was with a frozen gecko and a frozen wife. eventually, allison thawed out and made me get as close as i could to him with the camera so we could prove he was there. we both decided it would be best if i went downstairs and tattled on our gecko for being in our room. at the time, this sounded like a great idea, so i ran out the door with our camera, and headed down to talk to someone that spoke no english and sucked at charades.
the old guy behind the counter (ogbc) was sitting there and didn’t look too excited to see me. when i pulled out the camera, he got a little more interested. i asked him if he spoke english, and he smiled, which i’ve come to realize, means “no.” i zoomed in on the little gecko and pointed at it, pointed straight up, and then said, “my room!” he smiled again. dammit, no help. i did the same thing again, he started to get it, and our game of charades began. i kind of tried to tell him that i thought i had three options. i shrugged my shoulders telling him i wasn’t exactly sure what i should do. first, i pretended to smash the gecko in my camera (my way of asking if i should kill it, which I really didn’t want to do at all), then i pretended to pick it up with my hands and hopped over to the door (my way of asking if I should catch and release it), and finally, i pretended to just look at it and then smiled and waved at it as i walked away (my way of ignoring it). turns out i suck at charades, not him. i’m sure that if someone was watching me, like the ten year old big boned boy on the other side of the lobby was, they would have thought I was crazy. the ogbc, was really confused and all of a sudden he started telling me that i owed him pent. next drew me a picture of a clock with two arrows going up and down, with the words “SEE” on it. whoa, back up. what? turns out he is terrible at pictionary, not charades. next thing I know, he is up on the chair, showing me how the minute hand of the clock can move counterclockwise. i’m lost, he’s on a chair, and the big boy in the corner is staring at us with his mouth on the floor. fortunately, this is where my knight in shining armor shows up and saves the day.
i felt a hand on my shoulder and a 60 year old man named peter from NE china is smiling at me with crooked teeth, and saying “hello,” (in english!) he proceeds to translate what the ogbc was trying to tell me. first, he was telling me that we owe him “pent,” which i soon found out means “rent.” when he was standing on the chair, spinning the clock, he was trying to tell me that our garage door stays open for “35 hours” when we press the button, which ended up actually being “35 seconds,” once peter realized he was getting his hours and seconds confused. i showed peter the picture of our little friend and he told me we couldn’t catch it, and it was my “little pet.” i told him i was going to name it brian, which made him laugh really hard, and he said brian was a good name and but he would go away soon. all problems solved now. i don’t owe pent, our pet brian is going to hang out and eat our bugs (so says mom) for a while, and our garage door stays open for 35 seconds if we press the button. but, best of all, I have a new friend! peter lived in LA for 13 years and has been back in taiwan for 2 years. he told me to call him from the front desk if we ever need anything translated and he would see me a lot, which made me excited all over. when I told him my wife would be excited to meet him too, he asked what part of taiwan she was from, and was pretty surprised to hear she wasn’t from taiwan. he walked me through the rain to my elevator door and held his umbrella up for me the whole time while shuffling along with a cane, we said goodbye (best buds already, right?), and i headed upstairs to tell Allison about my 15 minute adventure. whew. be back tomorrow with shorter stories and hopefully not as many spelling and grammatical errors.
thanks to allison for making this cool picture!
(drinking a guinness foreign extra and listening to blind pilot. check them out.)
g’night.
walked into our apartment today and we were greeted with two things. the first, we were expecting, which was a hot and humid room, close to 85 degrees (f, obviously). the second little treat for us was a gecko… at least we think it was a gecko. i don’t think i’ve ever seen a gecko in real life and the only one i’ve ever seen is in the geico commercials. we didn’t hear our little buddy talk with a british accent, so we’re not sure if he is a gecko or not, but we’re calling him one for now. i can’t blame him for hanging out in our main room though. it is a clean, empty, and has the perfect jungle climate,. when we turned on the light, he decided to play frozen. since i was the one who saw him first, i pointed him out to allison, and she decided to play frozen too. so there i was with a frozen gecko and a frozen wife. eventually, allison thawed out and made me get as close as i could to him with the camera so we could prove he was there. we both decided it would be best if i went downstairs and tattled on our gecko for being in our room. at the time, this sounded like a great idea, so i ran out the door with our camera, and headed down to talk to someone that spoke no english and sucked at charades.
the old guy behind the counter (ogbc) was sitting there and didn’t look too excited to see me. when i pulled out the camera, he got a little more interested. i asked him if he spoke english, and he smiled, which i’ve come to realize, means “no.” i zoomed in on the little gecko and pointed at it, pointed straight up, and then said, “my room!” he smiled again. dammit, no help. i did the same thing again, he started to get it, and our game of charades began. i kind of tried to tell him that i thought i had three options. i shrugged my shoulders telling him i wasn’t exactly sure what i should do. first, i pretended to smash the gecko in my camera (my way of asking if i should kill it, which I really didn’t want to do at all), then i pretended to pick it up with my hands and hopped over to the door (my way of asking if I should catch and release it), and finally, i pretended to just look at it and then smiled and waved at it as i walked away (my way of ignoring it). turns out i suck at charades, not him. i’m sure that if someone was watching me, like the ten year old big boned boy on the other side of the lobby was, they would have thought I was crazy. the ogbc, was really confused and all of a sudden he started telling me that i owed him pent. next drew me a picture of a clock with two arrows going up and down, with the words “SEE” on it. whoa, back up. what? turns out he is terrible at pictionary, not charades. next thing I know, he is up on the chair, showing me how the minute hand of the clock can move counterclockwise. i’m lost, he’s on a chair, and the big boy in the corner is staring at us with his mouth on the floor. fortunately, this is where my knight in shining armor shows up and saves the day.
i felt a hand on my shoulder and a 60 year old man named peter from NE china is smiling at me with crooked teeth, and saying “hello,” (in english!) he proceeds to translate what the ogbc was trying to tell me. first, he was telling me that we owe him “pent,” which i soon found out means “rent.” when he was standing on the chair, spinning the clock, he was trying to tell me that our garage door stays open for “35 hours” when we press the button, which ended up actually being “35 seconds,” once peter realized he was getting his hours and seconds confused. i showed peter the picture of our little friend and he told me we couldn’t catch it, and it was my “little pet.” i told him i was going to name it brian, which made him laugh really hard, and he said brian was a good name and but he would go away soon. all problems solved now. i don’t owe pent, our pet brian is going to hang out and eat our bugs (so says mom) for a while, and our garage door stays open for 35 seconds if we press the button. but, best of all, I have a new friend! peter lived in LA for 13 years and has been back in taiwan for 2 years. he told me to call him from the front desk if we ever need anything translated and he would see me a lot, which made me excited all over. when I told him my wife would be excited to meet him too, he asked what part of taiwan she was from, and was pretty surprised to hear she wasn’t from taiwan. he walked me through the rain to my elevator door and held his umbrella up for me the whole time while shuffling along with a cane, we said goodbye (best buds already, right?), and i headed upstairs to tell Allison about my 15 minute adventure. whew. be back tomorrow with shorter stories and hopefully not as many spelling and grammatical errors.
thanks to allison for making this cool picture!
(drinking a guinness foreign extra and listening to blind pilot. check them out.)
g’night.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
We're here!!!!
We made it! The flight went smoothly. When I walked off the plane I felt like we were walking into the Oregon Aquarium, the air felt heavy. Then it hit me – it’s the humidity. A staff member was waiting for us when we made it through customs and after the other new teachers arrived we went to our apartments to drop off our bags.
Our apartment is almost totally empty. There is a bed, a big wardrobe, and TV stand. We have nice air conditioners though. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen and a good sized living space. There is no refrigerator so that is our first priority when we go shopping. We have a parking spot in an underground parking lot. Security seems pretty tight in our building, we have a garage door opener, there is a doorman and we have to use a swipe key twice to get to our apartment.
The school took us out for lunch at a little restaurant that is two doors down from the entrance to our apartment were we can get veggies and rice for very cheap. It was so good and easy that Jeremiah went and got us take out for dinner too.
Once on our own we decided to take a walk to Carrefour (like Walmart) that we kind of remembered how to get to. We did eventually find it, though we were dripping sweat by the time we got there, not because of the distance but the heat and humidity. I’ve embraced it, but it is pretty overwhelming compared to home. The highlight for me during this trip was a short asian man looking up at Jeremiah’s hair and saying “whoa”. We’ve seen very few other caucasian people.
When I was on the plane I had a few moments of fear and anxiety, more than I have had leading up to actually leaving, but after being here only a day I can see us having a lot of fun here and really enjoying it.
Our apartment is almost totally empty. There is a bed, a big wardrobe, and TV stand. We have nice air conditioners though. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a small kitchen and a good sized living space. There is no refrigerator so that is our first priority when we go shopping. We have a parking spot in an underground parking lot. Security seems pretty tight in our building, we have a garage door opener, there is a doorman and we have to use a swipe key twice to get to our apartment.
The school took us out for lunch at a little restaurant that is two doors down from the entrance to our apartment were we can get veggies and rice for very cheap. It was so good and easy that Jeremiah went and got us take out for dinner too.
Once on our own we decided to take a walk to Carrefour (like Walmart) that we kind of remembered how to get to. We did eventually find it, though we were dripping sweat by the time we got there, not because of the distance but the heat and humidity. I’ve embraced it, but it is pretty overwhelming compared to home. The highlight for me during this trip was a short asian man looking up at Jeremiah’s hair and saying “whoa”. We’ve seen very few other caucasian people.
When I was on the plane I had a few moments of fear and anxiety, more than I have had leading up to actually leaving, but after being here only a day I can see us having a lot of fun here and really enjoying it.
Travel Day
We’re sitting at SFO right now waiting for our flight. Today has been long and we are tired. We started with a knock on our door at 4am so Jeremiah could take his parents to the airport. With some last minute errands and packing to do, we were busy right up until we left for the airport around 4pm.
We checked our bags with no problems in Portland, nothing was overweight! However, when we got to San Francisco we learned EVA airlines has different carry-on requirements so we ended up having to check 2 more bags, though it only ended up costing us another $60 - a small price to pay for all the weight we had in them
We had some hard good-byes today; I think I took them harder than Jeremiah. He keeps reminding me, and everyone else, we will be back in December. I am thankful we have access to the technology that we do so the distance won't seem quite so far and just like in the States, if I need to call my mom I can still do that (though I may wake her up in the middle of the night to do it... somehow I don't think she'll mind!)
We checked our bags with no problems in Portland, nothing was overweight! However, when we got to San Francisco we learned EVA airlines has different carry-on requirements so we ended up having to check 2 more bags, though it only ended up costing us another $60 - a small price to pay for all the weight we had in them
We had some hard good-byes today; I think I took them harder than Jeremiah. He keeps reminding me, and everyone else, we will be back in December. I am thankful we have access to the technology that we do so the distance won't seem quite so far and just like in the States, if I need to call my mom I can still do that (though I may wake her up in the middle of the night to do it... somehow I don't think she'll mind!)
Friday, July 31, 2009
The final countdown
In less than 24 hours we will be on the plane! Like a good blogger I have documented the part of this that has been causing me the most stress - packing. We're taking only clothes and shoes; the rest we will get there, attempting to embrace a more minimalist lifestyle. Here is our step by step progress:
Jeremiah's bags sat for a few days with only the aerobie in it (you can see where his priorities are) while I proceeded to pack, decide I still had too much, upack and pack again. The bottom picture shows that my things have started to sneak their way into Jeremiah's luggage. We're getting close to being done - my big bag weighs in at 49 lbs (we are allowed 50) so I guess I need to be very close to being done!
We've been spending lots of time with family and friends lately - we met up with my dad at Timberline Lodge, Courtney and Mike stayed the night and we played games, Mrs. Church and Badger came up and had lunch with me, had a few lunches with the Kilpatricks, got pedicures and dinner with a group of girls and, (oxford comma added by me! jeremiah that is. that was the only thing i contributed to this blog post... i'm actually editing it right now while allison is in bed. off to sleep, bye!!!) we had breakfast with Leslie and B. Saying goodbyes has been easier when I think that we will be back in December for winter break.
We got a detailed itinerary from our school about what we will be doing the first week; it sounds like they will help us get settled. We won't get internet at our apartment for a couple weeks, so if you don't hear from us in awhile just stay patient, we'll be back to the online world soon!
Off to do some more packing and maybe get a little sleep tonight!
Jeremiah's bags sat for a few days with only the aerobie in it (you can see where his priorities are) while I proceeded to pack, decide I still had too much, upack and pack again. The bottom picture shows that my things have started to sneak their way into Jeremiah's luggage. We're getting close to being done - my big bag weighs in at 49 lbs (we are allowed 50) so I guess I need to be very close to being done!
We've been spending lots of time with family and friends lately - we met up with my dad at Timberline Lodge, Courtney and Mike stayed the night and we played games, Mrs. Church and Badger came up and had lunch with me, had a few lunches with the Kilpatricks, got pedicures and dinner with a group of girls and, (oxford comma added by me! jeremiah that is. that was the only thing i contributed to this blog post... i'm actually editing it right now while allison is in bed. off to sleep, bye!!!) we had breakfast with Leslie and B. Saying goodbyes has been easier when I think that we will be back in December for winter break.
We got a detailed itinerary from our school about what we will be doing the first week; it sounds like they will help us get settled. We won't get internet at our apartment for a couple weeks, so if you don't hear from us in awhile just stay patient, we'll be back to the online world soon!
Off to do some more packing and maybe get a little sleep tonight!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Party!
We had a fun going away party this weekend; it was nice to see everyone and get a chance to say good bye (and I only cried twice!). Here are some of our pictures (care of Lisa):
Apparently my picture was taken quite often, but Jeremiah's not so much!
Apparently my picture was taken quite often, but Jeremiah's not so much!Thanks to everyone who came out and a special thanks to our friends Heather and Aaron for letting us use their house and backyard - it looked great!
We have a full week ahead visiting friends and family, and of course packing and dealing with last minute details. 5 days to go....
We have a full week ahead visiting friends and family, and of course packing and dealing with last minute details. 5 days to go....
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Insomnia: difficulty falling and/or staying asleep
Those that know my sleeping habits understand that I am not a night person. I like to be in bed by 11, and sometimes during the school year Jeremiah would find me under the covers closer to 9. Check on me at 1:00am though and you may find me on the couch desperately hoping I can find something on PBS to watch. Most nights I sleep okay, however, occasionally I wake up around midnight and am awake an hour or two. Wikipedia says this is called "Middle-of-the-Night Insomnia"; not a whole lot of creativity or originality in that name is there? Of course these times come when I need sleep the most - when I am anxious, overwhelmed or stressed - along with other more indiscriminate times. Some nights I watch tv, sometimes I write work emails (only to need some harsh editing in the morning), sometimes I have a literal midnight snack, and sometimes I just lay there hoping sleep will come. Basically, I rarely get anything productive accomplished.
Last night at about this time (it is 1:35am) my brain seemed to hear the day flipping from Thursday to Friday and knew I needed to be worrying about something because it was then only 7 days until we leave. And here I am again, 6 days away, listening to the sounds of the Sullivan house hoping that soon I will be asleep.
Last night at about this time (it is 1:35am) my brain seemed to hear the day flipping from Thursday to Friday and knew I needed to be worrying about something because it was then only 7 days until we leave. And here I am again, 6 days away, listening to the sounds of the Sullivan house hoping that soon I will be asleep.
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