Day One

Long day...saw my school, met co teachers...took some pictures...taught a class of pre-k, did as well as can be expected...By the way their children read better than ours IN ENGLISH, in kindergarten. These five year old kids already know basic English. I had to teach in my socks because you can't wear shoes inside. The school is clean and modern and everyone is very nice...class sizes are like 12 and there is a TA to grade papers...curriculum and lesson plans provided.

A fun thing happened after I got back to the hostel. I went out to buy some body wash and had like a full conversation with this Chinese girl in which she spoke almost NO English and I spoke almost NO Chinese...but somehow she was able to show me where the body wash was and we were able to agree to teach each other home languages...I got lost on the way back...literally like 3 blocks away

Note to self: never leave hostel without map or phone...too many good pictures to take!

More fun facts about Taiwan:

-People wear these masks like a surgeon wears in surgery...apparently one because of the SARS outbreak a while back and two because of the pollution...but quite a few people wear them...I got one pic of a guy but I'm going to plan to get more.


-There are abundant bathrooms in the Subway...clean too, in fact the whole subway is clean and people are extremely orderly...lining up at each entry point to wait for the train...

-Had physical today...the hospital is like a factory...they just pump people through the stations.

- They have a 24 hour foot massage place...you can get a full body for like 10 dollars.