Just a few bar pictures. The scene here in 新竹 is mostly 20ish Taiwanese girls and 30-60 year old (creepy) foreigners. And various couples and Taiwanese guys. I've found a pretty fun group of people and bars, but the people I hang out with are not the norm here. I imagine 台北 is a little more my speed and age group, but going there is expensive and daunting. I would certainly go with friends, but alone, that's a bit much.







These two were taken at the request of the guy in the middle. They are of him and the bar staff at one of the smaller dive bars:




I'm in both the next two but can only really be seen in the second one. The guy on the left is from Arkansas and is hilarious and sports a deep, backwoods Southern accent. Yeah...:




And a wall of Heineken:


As it turns out, the unmarked black cabs are nighttime-only businesses that cater to the bar crowd. I've ridden in them a few times and they are completely legitimate and actually a good deal cheaper than your standard yellow cab. So there!

Long Time Coming

Welp, I blame it on the PS3 and general business of my day-to-day life, but here, at last, are the rest of the pictures from that one field trip I went on ages ago. These were all taken around dusk on the 18km bike trail that runs along Xinzhu's coast.











I forgot to bring my camera with me last weekend when I went to Taipei, but I will be bringing it with me this weekend to photograph some of Xinzhu's nightlife. Prepare for mediocrity.

More Field Trip Pictures

Sorry! It's been a hectic week (or however long it's been since I last updated). No time to talk now--I have to get to bed--but here are some of the better pictures I took before, during and after the walk. The next update I'll include a few pictures from my end-of-the-day bike ride along the coast of Taiwan. But for now, please to enjoy the following, compiled in chronological order.





























Yes, those are two separate temples. We didn't go full-circle or anything.

CNN and Facebook Made Me Care

Good thing Obama won. I'd say I followed this election more than any other and believed, like most, that America's future hinged on the outcome. It's undoubtedly wishful thinking--the president should not play that big of a role--but at least symbolically that is how I have felt. Thank God I was vindicated. In light of some people's opinions I have copied something I posted on my Facebook here. I think these quotes need to be seen by as large an audience as possible to really drive home just how clueless some people really are.

Please to forgive the language.

Some quality dipshit statuses re: presidential election:
"I am disheartened with the youth of today."
"I am spreading the wealth, so those who want a knuckle sandwich for voting for President Hussein please come forth, and I will share."
"Everyone move your money into offshore accounts ASAP."
"I am now a sad panda."

I will update this list should more of my Facebook Friends decide to come forth as intellectual lightweights who believed--and probably still believe--an old, decrepit man who ran a campaign overflowing with smear tactics and chose a fundie whackjob for a running mate represented an agent of change and the best choice for America; and as they expess only the most infantile of notions regarding Obama's tax plan and probably still believe trickle-down economics is a viable economic system/strategy. When we are in a recession, when our infrastructure requires a great deal of maintenance, when a large percentage of citizens lack decent health care, when unemployment continues to rise, when our education system is bunk, when we continue to support a war in Iraq and Afghanistan, when our place at the forefront of scientific research has been marginalized, when America needs money more than ever, these select few supported the guy who would decrease government revenue. Period. Not the one who would cut them (the majority of America) a break and increase government revenue (hmm, maybe revenue is the wrong word...) by increasing taxes only among the upper 5% of Americans. And they continue to support him, using their status to symbolize how very wrong they were, are, and will continue to be.

And if they think tax hikes for rich people will affect said rich people's businesses and business ventures, they need to really, truly and completely shove off.

This election was nothing but a farce, and those who honestly support(ed) McCain-Palin after every stupid decision, ill-conceived plan, moronic strategy and cringe-worthy interview these two and their party gave are the poop-stained smudge on what is otherwise a bright, shining beacon of (potential) change and fresh air.

In short, fuck the haters.

Morning in the Garden

Sorry all. I have been quite sick lately and done little more than go to school and come home and sleep. So here's part 2 of the 10/25 school field trip. I'm not going to try to explain the layout of the place because I don't have a good progression of shots and it would be too time-consuming, so just please to enjoy a medley of pictures.

Walking to the gardens I turned around and snapped a shot of a part of our group


A shot of one of two ponds. This one had a winding stone path you could walk on.


Two of my coworkers standing next to one of the many buildings. The one on the left is from California and the one on the right is from New Zealand. Both teach English NOT Chinese.


A shot of one of the main garden areas with a decent mountain backdrop and some people wandering about. Nothing special.


Action shot! This is an American ex-pat photographing a South African ex-pat with our Principal.


The other pond. This one is much more open and is set against a beautiful backdrop. Some more of my group are walking along the edge. This pond is actually the entrance to the garden. I am taking this shot as we are leaving so I am standing at the entrance/exit looking back.


A shot of the entrance/exit as we leave. Off to the left is the pond from the last shot.


Finally, a shot of the mountainside. I think this shot one came out particularly well.


Next up, the walk!

School Field Trip to Miaoli and Nanliao

Yesterday was quite the event. We went to a number of different places, starting the day in a beautiful garden in Miaoli County and ending it at a restaurant in Nanliao. There must have been something like 50 people on the trip, including the Chairman and his wife. The Chairman owns the school I work for, the hospital in my city, and a whole lot of real estate. Basically he's loaded. So we all ate and enjoyed ourselves on his dime. Tea at our first stop, the garden was great; lunch was kind of lackluster (although the scenery was amazing); and dinner was a literal feast. I'd say there were 8 or 9 foreign teachers. Which means the majority of the field trippers were Taiwanese. It was nice to talk and meet some Kindergarten teachers and others I had never met. Anyway, enough talking. Picture time!

PS: I'm going to try and stagger the picture uploading in order to make it less tedious. I am thinking of 4 sections: bus ride, garden, walk and harbor.

First up, then: The bus ride from Zhubei to Miaoli County

My View and My School

More pictures (and words) incoming! These are shots of the early morning view from my apartment, my walk to school (all 100 feet), some areas in the school and two of the four classes I teach, my homeroom of 2nd graders and a group of 7th graders. By the way, uploading pictures is tedious, tedious business. So Graeme, just know that I do it all for you.

To start off with, a picture looking through the my nap area's window. That is Xinzhu off in the distance and my school in the bottom left.


Here I have tilted my view slightly to the right and placed my camera outside the window.


Same picture zoomed in. You can see the highway better and make out all the buildings in Xinzhu.


Now we have the view slightly to the left.


If I look to the left a bit more I see my school in all its glory.


And here's a shot of the view from the other side of the apartment. This was taken at a window next to the elevator. I think I lucked out and got a much better slice of the high-rise view pie.


A ground level view of part of the facade of my school as I walk to the entrance.


After taking the last picture I walked a bit more, turned around and snapped a picture of my apartment in all its glory.


Now for the school pictures. The first are of my homeroom. I guess my co-teacher, Tina, was waiting for me to come in with a camera because the second I took mine out, she grabbed hers from her purse, we moved all the desks out of the way and took class photos. Here are some of pictures that ended up on my camera (I tried to get the time delay on each to go off in unison but her's just wasn't as sensitive). I should add that there is one girl missing and that I quickly grew bored of regular peace signs. Also, my homeroom's size of 13 is tiny in this school. Most homerooms are 25-28. However, while I have an ideal number of kids, their English is anything but ideal--these are the lowest level English speakers in Grade 2.

Standard classroom picture.


"Ghost" faces. I tried to imitate the kids.


Here's the girls-only picture. I would post the boys as well, but my head was chopped off it. I think we were standing too close to the cameras. The late girl is in this one. (Bonus points if you spot her.)


The next two are just shots of the interior of the school.




I stepped outside one of the classrooms I teach in and snapped this picture of another class walking by. The kids waving are some of the 3rd graders I teach Phonics and Science to in my 3-5th grade ESL class. I'm not sure if I've explained the school's structure before or not, but here's a quick rundown either way. There are 8 grades worth of homerooms that are grouped solely by age, with 1st and 2nd being slightly more complicated on account of their size. There are 6 1st grade classes and 5 2nd, compared to 1 7th and two 3rd. With few exceptions, these homerooms take the same Chinese classes together. English classes, meanwhile, are an entirely different animal. Based on some test they get put in different ESL groups in grade 3 and up or different homerooms in grades 1 and 2. So 201-205 is a descending scale that measures English ability. But again, the kids all take the same Chinese classes. It gets really confusing in upper elementary and middle school because the kids bounce around from classroom-to-classroom. So, to recap, the 1st and 2nd graders have Chinese and English classes in the same Homeroom while the 3-5th graders are split into different ESL groups and the 6-8th are likewise. But they have their Chinese classes in their homerooms. All the kids' days are split in half (roughly). Either Morning is Chinese and afternoon is English or vice versa.


Here are a few shots inside the abovementioned classroom. This is my 7th grade class who are all lucky enough to be taking Phonics and Language Activities with me. Just like 205 is the lowest second grade English-speaking class, this group, F Group, is the lowest middle school English-speaking class. F Group is also where I have the most issues. These two boys just will not stop, sit down or shutup. Ever. And they are constantly picking on each other, hitting each other or running up to the blackboard to try and draw some lewd picture of the other one.

This is just a shot of (most of) the class.


This is one of the boys, Brian. He's sweet and everything out of class, but he just will not cooperate when I teach. It certainly doesn't help that he has ADHD and his English is non-existent. Also, he hates his hair.


And this is Brian with the other boy, Dennis. If anyone is wondering, Dennis is probably closer to the average size of these Taiwanese middle schoolers. There are some 6-foot 8th graders. Tiny Asians don't seem to exist in this generation.


To wrap things up, here are a few pictures taken in the cafeteria during snacktime.






NO MORE PICTURES KTHXBAI: Or, the face of exhaustion contrived into a smile (and what's up with my right hand I don't know)


Phew, now to go tutor some kids for two hours before passing out.