Well, it's been two years since I last did an update on my life in Taiwan, so I figure its high time for another one. My blog petered out after I was here for a while, as many blogs do. The shine of being here wears off a bit and the stuff that used to wow you on a daily basis gets pretty normal, pretty mundane.
Although I doubt I'll ever get accustomed to the driving here as most days the word "lawless" comes to mind. A good day is usually when the number of people that seem hell bent on making me into a pancake numbers less than five.
So, I'm still in Taichung and I'm still teaching for Hess. Learning the ins and outs of teaching was more than enough to keep me occupied for my first two years and I worked hard at it, gobbling up every opportunity to sub classes or do story houses that I could find. I guess that got noticed and in a moment of severe indiscretion my boss promoted me and I got the big desk at Dong Chu branch and became HNST. That stands for Head Native Speaking Teacher and officially created my first footprint onto the mangerial landscape.
That, overall, has been an excellent experience. It can be a bumpy ride acting as a liason between the foreign and the Taiwanese staff but most of the time I really quite enjoy it. Particularly when I get to go meet the new teachers when they come to Taichung. I doubt I'll ever forget that moment when I stepped off the bus in Taichung four years ago and first met Shaun and Betty, both of whom have been fantastic mentors over the last four years. I like that I'm on the other end of that now. Now, when people first come to Taichung they meet me. Pretty cool.
After my first year I really enjoyed being a veteran teacher and being able to show the newbies the ropes and share my experiences so that they could learn from them. Now, as HNST, I get to do branch trainings on the finer points of being a teacher in Taiwan. I'm a mentor, of sorts. Moreso for some than others as frequently the people I train go to other branches. But, some of them go on to one of my three branches and I get to work with them a great deal more.
Outside of work I'm staying busy writing and I've also learned to brew; which has been awesome. There are few things I enjoy more than coming home from a particularly long day at work and being able to crack a homebrewed beer. I've mentioned this to a lot of people but I'll mention it again, the beer situation in Taiwan is pretty dire most of the time. Having the option of something other than commercial lager and that something being homebrewed by yours truly is fairly kick-ass. I've also gotten into making wine and from what my critics tell me I'm doing a pretty sweet job at that too (pun?). But, I'll leave my tales of brewing to my brewing page which is here.
And there's also Sue.
She's my girlfriend. She's fucking awesome. I worked with her when I first got here, for about a year and a half and then she went back to NYC. But, as fate would have it, she became single and I duped her into thinking I was worth dating and I have since kept her doped to the eyeballs with magic spells and ether, so she hasn't gotten wise yet.
We've been dating for a year and a half and as of yet we have not spent any time together back home in the U.S. We have, however, gone to Japan and Singapore and I would definitely recommend both places if you haven't been. Though, you should think about getting to Singapore during the "winter" as the summers there are unbearably hot!
Anyway, I won't get all mushy and doe eyed on here, not my style. But suffice to say that she is great.
Also, she has a kick-ass website which you can see here.
Aside from that stuff things are still great here. Kind of weird now to think that I spent most of my twenties in a foreign country and I won't get to do that again anywhere else. Get busy livin', they say.
Cheers.