Arriving in My New Home

On Friday October 12, 2007 - I arrived in what would become my new home for the next while. It is a diffirent experience getting off the plane and knowing that this is your new home, and yet you have no idea what to expect once you leave the airport! I passed through security, collected my bags and wondered into the unkown. The principle at my school, Ellen, came to pick me up. It was really nice to have a local person who could speak English walk me through the steps. The first stop we made was to meet the English director at the school, Gareth - a guy from Ottawa who has been in Taiwan for 8 years now. From there we went to Walton school, the school I will be teaching at and I took a tour. It is a really nice place - very modern and clean. After I finished my tour, Ellen informed me that an agent was coming to let me look at some apartments with him and that hopefully I would have an apartment by the end of the day so that I wouldnt need to find a hotel! So, in the span of about 2 hours, I had a new city to call home, a new place of employment and was soon to have a new apartment - talk about moving fast! So after looking at about 4 different places, all of which were old and run down, I stumbled accross one in an old run down building that was clean and newly renovated. The furniture was new and I could not find a bug anywhere! Being my fathers son, I didnt want to make a decision too quickly so I said I would hold off on it, even though it had been the best one so far. The land lord realizing I was new in the country and a little unsure offered to let me stay there for the night to test it out, if I liked it I could stay, if not I could just give her a little bit of money and move on. Well, again being my fathers son, I did not want to make any decisions too quick so I asked her to let me stay the entire weekend while I exlpored the city and looked at some more places. She agreed but hers was the best and I will be signing the lease very soon!

The next morning ( that being saturday) I met gareth and he fixed me up with a cell phone and a scooter! I was told I could not survive in the city without one because it is really big and the transit system is obsolete ( although a brand new one will be completed in one year). The scooter was exciting and scary. I have to admit that it was really fun, however, given the fact that the traffic here is insane, it was, and still is, very scary! I spent the rest of the day on saturday on my scooter exploring the city on my new scooter.

Sunday was more aparment hunting and a little relaxation. I found a starbucks about 2 blocks away from the apartment I was staying in(which helped me decide to stay there!). In a time when I was experiencing so many unfamiliar things, starbucks gave me the familiar I needed! It also provided wireless internet which was nice!

Then on sunday night, I went to church. It was not my type of church persay, but the poeple were freindly and they spoke english. I got some phone numbers of some poeple who would be willing to help me if I ever got into trouble which made me feel much, much better.

Then on monday I started my journey into educating young children....which is another blog post altogether!

All in all, Kaohsiung is an intersting city. It is mostly old and run down buildings with new, modern ones popping up and an ever increasing rate. The city that used be characterised as an over polluted, industrial city with little to offer has become a city that is still really polluted, but offers rich culture and some interesting sights. I am looking forward to exploring it, and the entire Island further.