Good feedback

Yesterday I had one of the best pieces of advice given to me about my book. (This was after my friend had read a few of the raunchier excerpts.)

"The content seemed more 'Sex and the City' while the tone was very 'Mother May I'".

Verrrry interesting and exactly what I needed to hear. Now off to make the tone and content match (as well as figuring out the main character's voice... and all that jazz).

A short reminiscence

I found out recently that one of my friends from college is moving to Taiwan. It's making me reminisce like crazy. I'm missing my favorite bar (The Brass Monkey), my favorite club (Roxy 99), my old roommate (Magda), my little students (who I'm sure aren't so little anymore - 6 years later), the awesome Teppenyaki restaurant down the street from my apartment (where the food was healthy AND cheap - take that America!) and the list goes on and on...

The best way for me to relive those days is by writing my novel about a girl named Carla, who lived in Taiwan. Hmmm, sound familiar? A slow but fun process. I'm currently at about 50,000 words and counting. :)

Chaos in my classroom one morning

I suppose I should have corralled the kids and had them put away their coats and bags... but this was just too darn funny. Most days I had a Chinese co-teacher in the classroom 'Teacher Fanny', but she was gone this day. She was the one to do emergency translations since the English teachers were instructed to never speak Chinese. I broke this rule occasionally if she wasn't in the room and something unexpected happened, like when Kin wet his pants.

Three of the little student's I taught in Taiwan: Pearlie, Wish and Kin. Taiwanese children will often times adopt an English name that their friends and teachers call them at the English schools. Most of the students I taught did not even know the Chinese names of their friends.

Some English names my 4 and 5 year olds had:

Evonne
Angudy (You may be wondering why this is an English name - I am also wondering this.)
Agnes
Doris
Grace
Pearlie
Scott
Tiger
Della
Leo
Wish
Ben
Chelsea
Jenny
Austin
Kin
Danny
Alex
Wilson

As you can see, there is a mix of normal English names and old time names (with a few totally weird ones or misspelled ones, too).

Scooters in Taiwan

Taiwan, and many other Asian countries, are over run by scooters. At rush hour, it's typical to see 50-100 (maybe more) scooter crushing down the street. Taiwan has different rules of the road for scooters - they get to wait for red lights in front of all the cars in a special 'scooter box', they can't make left turns and some other interesting ones. Foreigners are supposed to hold a valid drivers license (either Taiwanese or international). I didn't. I never got pulled over, but if I had, it could have been a pretty serious offense. I rented my tiny 50cc scooter from an Australian guy and paid him a monthly fee. I don't think he rents scooters anymore, but it was much more convenient than having to buy one and sell it before leaving the country. I had to take it in once a month for a tune up. No big deal.

Driving in Taiwan made me a little anxious - weaving throughout lanes upon lanes of cars took some getting used to. It was unhealthy, too. As I mentioned above, scooters all park in a box in front of the cars while waiting at a red light. They are crushed together with very little space. Clouds of exhaust from the surrounding scooters made it impossible to breathe. Many people wore the face masks that became popular during the SARS outbreak in order to filter some of the pollutants in the air. I came back to the US wheezing - Singulair for 6 months cleared it up.

Teaching English Abroad? Almost everything you need to know... kind of.

If you're thinking of teaching English overseas, there are a zillion and one details to consider.(I'll discuss those details in posts to come!) My hope is that by reading this blog you gain information from my experience. Of course I'm no expert on every aspect of this monstrous topic, but I can at least offer some guidance. Questions? Please ask! I'll do my best.

Six months after graduating from college (November of 2004), I flew to Taiwan by myself. Oh, I tried to get friends to go with me, but it's funny how convincing people to drop their lives and jet across the world just isn't that easy! For the next year and a half, I taught English, sang with the Taipei Philharmonic Choir, traveled throughout Asia, and studied Mandarin.

I'm currently writing an 'almost-truthful' novel about my experiences abroad. If I ever finish it, you can read a more in depth personal account of what it's like.