Taipei Life

It’s been an extremely difficult week as the weather has continued in an energy sapping vein, making the walk from home to school and back an enervating test of resolve. We’ve eschewed the temptation of the scooter to get back in our walking routine, but it hasn’t been easy! Days tend to be spent inside at school or at home in the air-conditioning, and of course the evenings are also spent with our air conditioner going non-stop. Guilty thoughts of carbon footprints are not quite strong enough to overcome this dripping cloying heat, although we have peeled away at the shoulders of the season till only the very oppressive weeks see us using the air conditioning. A far cry from when we first arrived: I think we spent a third of the year escaping the heat!

School revved right up towards the end of the week as the 3 day merry-go-round of meetings and preparations made way for the entry of wide eyed kiddies to enjoy another year at the font of learning (!). Cass had her hands full disseminating information about her subject as well as running a house meeting, one of the little pleasures of her role as team leader. Her classes were typically subdued as they always are these first couple of days: it takes just a little longer before the true colours of some students are hoisted high for all to see. She is delighted to have slotted back into her familiar team and luxuriating in the fact that no one is different this year, a rarity that needs to be enjoyed. Kristin, her teaching partner seems mildly relieved to be back at work after a rather trying holiday with little kids in unfamiliar or unsuitable spaces…I’ll leave you to figure that one out yourselves.

I’ve been very busy initiating my three new teachers into the ways of everything ESL at school. We didn’t have people leave, we just constantly seem to need more teachers these days with a growing second language population, and finally the board and admin are backing us up with more staff. They’re all working out well, but I suspect that my rather casual approach to matters is of some slight concern to a couple of them: the words, “structured” and “anal” do leap to mind! Anyway, it will make for interesting times, and one of my jobs will be to weave some rather opposing personalities into a harmonious unit for the year, it should be a challenge, hopefully not too great.

The heat has basically kept us in this weekend, although Cass did brave the elements to go out to do some shopping yesterday and also to take some garbage, while I couldn’t tear myself away from the air conditioner! We did go out for a late lunch of Alleycats pizza then checked out a few trendy furniture shops in Shilin, such as Piin, before scampering back to our cool apartment.

As you know, the Beijing Olympics are in full swing, but the Taiwanese penchant for badminton, volleyball and especially baseball (yawn) has seen me desperately searching for alternative ways to view some other sports. The internet has been largely unsuccessful as the IOC seems to have a ruthless and rather skillful team of cyber police who shut down every dodgy feed almost as soon as I can find them! Luckily, the Chinese have had lots of representation in the pool, and we have seen some swimming, even the finals today, albeit with Chinese commentary and the local director’s strange cutting to ads mid-race! We’ve certainly seen more than Athens already and it is only half way through so that’s a bonus.

We were stoked to get a set of newspaper clippings from Mum through the week, which enabled us to slip straight back into our usual weekend zone, thanks Mum! After some viewing of the swimming finals (a couple of hours earlier here), I decided to seek out the famous 1000 steps for a walk. Shocking heat and all, I scootered up to the top of section 7 and began the ascent of these very steep, occasionally uneven steps. They say there are a 1000, but I don’t really know. One thing I do know is that the steep incline goes for 1.2 km without a break! By the time I got to the top I was a lather of sweat and my heart was pumping hard. I used the pleasant stroll to the next set of steps to recuperate then launched into the next section. The forest walk was very pleasant, the signs of the wild monkeys amusing, yet the free range chooks milling around the path at one point seemed blissfully unaware of their fate just metres away: their photo even features on the menu of the little café! At the top, I was way behind the cultural college, so headed back down and took some slight solace in seeing many others struggling far worse than I had on the mean hill. Photos are all of the 1000 step walk.