Ready for my vacation paradise

I leave tomorrow for my 2 week trip and it's been pretty rough these past couple of days. A lot has to do with the fact that I have a lot of grading and prepping to do. I have so many classes to grade and so I have to get everything done before I leave. I'm so tired but it's good to keep my mind off from my trip but I'm definitely ready to leave. I just teach tomorrow morning and my flight leaves tomorrow evening.

Here is my trip's agenda/itinerary:

I will stay in Hong Kong for 3 days with my roommate. We are meeting up with my friend who is flying from America. We three will then go to Macao. Then my roommate is going back to Taipei while my friend and I will go to Thailand. We are staying in Bangkok for a couple of days then flying to Phuket. We will take a ferry to Krabi island and stay there for a couple of days. Then we will go back to Phuket and stay one night. Then we will fly from Phuket to Taipei. My friend and I will then go to Taroko Gorge in Taiwan for one night. She will stay in Taiwan for a couple of days and then go back to Hong Kong/America.

We've been planning this trip since Oct. and today I finally finalized everything since I got our train tickets and our cab driver to take us to Taroko Gorge in Taiwan. It's been pretty crazy to get everything booked but it's so worth it! I'm VERY EXCITED!

My friend leaves Taiwan June 16th so I will be able to blog until then. I'm signing off and will write again in 3 weeks :D

-Chihchat

"Is Teacher Daniel coming back?"

This morning my coworker and I had a mini-American Idol party. They showed the live finale this morning in Taipei and yes, we got up early (the show started at 8am). It was a great performance and I'm happy that Scotty won although Lauren is a great singer. We got pretty obsessed this season and my coworker goes, "Now I have nothing to look forward to" lol

I've been blogging what my students say right after I tell them that I'm leaving to go back to America because 1) it's surprising what they say and 2) their reaction makes me a little anxious. Everyone reacts differently and although I've only been teaching for 11 months, I've made good relationships with most of my students and I will be definitely sad leaving them. Now to them is a completely different story.

My crazy, young old Mon. night class now switched to Thurs. nights have been getting better. I finally am at peace with them and maybe it has more to do with the fact that I'm leaving. Anyway I told them tonight that I was going on vacation and they wanted to know who the sub was going to be.

Then I told them that I'm leaving and the boys in the class (they're only 7 students in my class) asked about Teacher Daniel who was the teacher that I replaced when I came to the school. They thought he was coming back and I said no he's in America. The girls were sad though so at least someone cared (sniff sniff) lol

When I was signing their bye-bye books, one of the students asked again about Teacher Daniel. I told him again he's in America and he wanted to know what he was doing. I told him he wanted to be a lawyer but Cody didn't understand what "lawyer" meant. (Mind you, he's only 8 years old). Then he asked if he was coming back and I said "No, he's in America and he's not coming back because he's done at this school." Cody all of a sudden asks with surprise, "Is Teacher Daniel DIED?" (Yes, bad grammar) lol He confused "done" with "die/dead". I quickly said no but it was really funny to see his expression. Oh little kids. Oh well..I'm glad they will be okay when I'm gone :)

-Chihchat

"I'm so ANGRY!"

I've really started to like my K8 class tonight more and more. They were really naughty and slow before and a lot of them are still like that but they are getting better. I told them tonight that I will be gone and that I will be leaving to go back to America. One of my students who is known to be super talkative and be "different" yelled "Oh I'm so ANGRY!". He jumped out of his seat too lol It's been pretty crazy this week but only because I will be gone for 2 weeks and I need to prep and grade a lot.

Definitely counting down..only 3 more days left!

-Chihchat

"Teacher Lilly, we died"

This week I've been telling my students that I'm leaving for vacation for a couple of weeks. Not only that but that I'm leaving at the end of June for America. Tonight I taught my second favorite class and I really like them. They are super smart and they are just really polie kids, well for the most part. One of the students is pretty crazy, Wawa. Wawa is the Chinese name for "doll." But she doesn't really act like a doll perse because she's very talkative but she's not too bad.

Anyway I first told them I was leaving for vacation. They were like okay see you soon. But then I told them that I'm actually leaving for America. Then they were like okay. I then said but I won't come back. They were really quiet and all of a sudden Wawa said, "No! Teacher Lilly we died!" lol I was like aww it's going to be okay but a lot of them were sad.

It's crazy how I'm leaving Taipei just a couple of weeks after I come back from my trip. Time goes by way too quickly!

-Chihchat

Last booking

I only have a couple of days left until my vacation. I leave for 2 weeks and I wanted to get all my booking done so the plane tickets wouldn't be as expensive and I can just get everything finalized. I'm staying at my friend's house in Cali and finally I got the dates set. I booked my ticket tonight and I'm leaving Los Angeles July 18th and arriving at Omaha in the afternoon. I leave Taipei on July 14th, land in Los Angeles on the 14th. I'm going to stay in LA for a couple of days to revisit my old high school and to see Stefano Langone live in concert. I haven't been having too much sleep lately since I've been super excited about everything.

In less than 2 months I will be back home in Iowa!! I can't believe it!

-Chihchat

Natural selection

This morning I went to choose my glamour pictures to put in my book and cd. Last week I decided to take glamour pictures and with the phots my pics are organized in a book, complied on a cd, and I will get one poster of one of my shots. I first looked at all of the pictures and they turned out surprisingly well! I figured it would be okay but I thought I wouldn't like a lot of them. Then I deleted the ones that I really didn't like and I thought I would have enough since I could only choose 30. I had 4 outfits to choose from and I still had 80 pictures left!

I had no idea it would be this hard. I then kept deleting and then finally choosing pictures from different outfits and deleting ones that looked similar. Ironically, I really like the pictures from the natural pose I was forced to take. I had 4 outfits and there were 4 different themes. The one theme that I really didn't want to do was a natural shot where I'm wearing simple makeup and wearing not so much clothing to make myself look "sexy." I'm still covering everything but for my outfit I wore a big button up white shirt. Surprisingly the pictures turned out nice and they weren't so bad as I thought.

It took me an hour to choose only 30 pictures but I'm really excited to see the end result. Since I'm going on vacation, I have to wait until I come back to see the setup of my pictures in my book and then 4 days later I will get everything. It's a long process but it's worth it :)

-Chihchat

End of the World?

I'm known as a scaredy cat and although nothing happened on May 13th which a Taiwanese "scientist" claimed that Taiwan would have a huge earthquake right smack in the middle of Taiwan, I wasn't that nervous about today. I read many articles about "judgment day" and I wasn't really scared. I worked all day though and of course we're one day ahead of the U.S. but nothing has happened. It's crazy how so many people have claimed that the world is going to end. I guess this is prepping me up for 2012 so I won't be scared on the day..although I think I will stay at my house on New Year's Eve lol

-Chihchat

Free scooter rides

My roommate bought a scooter a couple of weeks ago and it's been nice to be chauffeured around the city. I do get nervous because he doesn't have a lot of driving experience but I love riding scooters. Taipei traffic is busy and it is really dangerous but there are so many scooters on the road and it's an exhilarating experience to say the least. It's definitely nice not to walk to the MRT subway.

Today was a pretty good day. I had my Chinese lesson and I think I'm going to stop the lessons because pretty soon I'm going on vacation and then after vacation I'm going to be super busy with wrapping everything up in Taipei. I finally finished reading this Jay Zhou Chinese article so I'm happy with that lol

I'm mostly anxious and super excited for my trip next weekend. I leave next Sat. and I'm really counting down the days. I'm going to Hong Kong and Thailand for two weeks with my friend from Univ. of Iowa. My roommate will also go with us to Hong Kong but not Thailand. I'm trying not to think about it but it's super hard because after the trip, everything is going to happen fast like having my last days of work, getting everything settled to leave Taipei, and leaving Taipei to go home. I can't wait until next week is over! lol

-Chihchat

Reader game

Besides teaching a lesson per class, I also teach a page of a book called a reader. It's just supplementary materials for the lesson. It's just to practice reading and some of my classes like reader and some don't. My Thurs. night class that is now growing on me and I don't mind teaching anymore, really enjoy being in class and it's not AS bad. They are still naughty but I learned to accept their craziness. Also, some of the students left the class because they failed so that also has helped.

I always play lots of games with them because they are really young but I didn't have enough time to do a reader game. Sometimes the bell rings really early and we would have our readers out to play a game but usually there isn't enough time. You know, usually my students are like ok I want to go home but surprisingly a lot of them were booing and complaining tonight. They really wanted to play a reader game. I told them, "Don't you want to go home?" lol It's nice though because they finally are liking the class and they do the work. They really want to play and they will write the voc. and sents. so it's a nice refreshing change from the students who are sick and tired of doing the activities and don't want to be there. Every time in class now they surprise me and I never thought I would see the day that I would like this class. It has taken about 10 months but I will actually miss them when I leave! lol

-Chihchat

After dinner scare

Tonight I had dinner with a couple of my coworkers and we ate at this really good risotto place at the Shilin night market. We stayed there for a bit to chit chat. My Taiwanese coworker is a journalism major and she really liked talking about things that I don't like to discuss such as: rapes, murders, human trafficking, and executions. We were just talking about all kinds of things (especially in detail) but I definitely wasn't interested in these topics especially since it was getting late and I still needed to walk home alone. Taipei is super safe though; the crime rate is very low here. I mean, it's good to talk about these issues but I do get really bad nightmares and just thinking or talking about all these bad things don't really help when it was almost midnight lol Oh well..I'm so tired from today and it's getting really late that I think I will sleep fine tonight!

-Chihchat

Need directions

I was on my way to the gym this morning. I was standing on a corner waiting for the red light when this lady on a scooter rode up to me. She asked me where one of the universities were at. I was telling that my Chinese isn't that good and she looked at me with a huge surprise. Her mouth dropped open literally and she really was speechless. I told her to keep going straight and turn left but that she might want to ask someone else since she might not be able to understand what I'm saying. She was like ok and rode off. It was hilarious because she was really in shock.

I really felt like I was an alien or something. I knew I have a strong American accent but dang haha Nah, I'm just kidding. I know she was expecting I was Taiwanese but I really do feel like I look more western than anything else. Oh well!

After my run on the treadmill, I was pretty tired since I haven't ran for awhile. I went to this restaurant on the sidestreets of the Shilin night market. I ordered food and actually just ate there. It was pretty nice though and I felt like I was really in Taiwan since I ordered everything in Chinese and ate Chinese food, also the radio was on and playing traditional music. Today was one of those days which I kept thinking about how much I liked it here and that I would really miss Taipei when I leave.

-Chihchat

-Chihchat

Finally putting my foot down

My recent bad class (K10) is my Mon. night that I just picked up a couple of months ago. I've been teaching them for awhile now but they are all pretty naughty. They are almost to an advanced level however they don't do the corrections and some of them don't even do their homework. They don't really do that with my Chinese teacher though and it makes me angry and today I got a huge headache because I saw how badly they did on their homework. They are so lazy and finally I got angry.

I had my Chinese teacher call one of the parents to make one of my students stay after class to finish his homework. He had to stay an extra hour because he didn't do a lesson. I was just mad at him for not doing the work and writing short answers like yes and no.

I was tired and in a bad mood and I think the students could tell since my tone of voice was low and intense. I wanted to yell and freak out but I didn't want to do that since I don't think yelling is the best key and I know when I get mad, I speak a mile of minute (yes, I know speak fast :)), and with these students they wouldn't understand a word I would be saying. So I just told them calmly that if they don't do the correction, then I will make them do voc x 5 and I will doc off 10 points off their homework. Today I had to review so much and I didn't even have enough time to finish the book.

Partially the main reasons why I get frustrated with this class is because my other 2 K10 classes are smart and they can mostly do the homework. I also just got done teaching another K10 and they did a fantastic job so I know this class is capable of it. I just hope they listen and try to do better on their homework and I'm glad I finally showed that I'm not a pushover and I can be strict!

-Chihchat

I can't be a model

Today I took my glamour pictures and the photo shoot was really long as I met at 9:30 am and ended at 5pm. It was tiring to say the least! I was really nervous on a lot of things. Mainly because I don't understand Chinese that well so it was hard for me to follow the photographer's and make-up/hair stylist's instructions. The make-up lady was really nice though and she made sure that my hair and make-up looked perfect at all times which was nice, but the photographer was extremely intimidating. I don't know, she kept asking me if I was having fun but it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be.

The language barrier was a big issue but some other things bothered me too. They didn't have a big dress selection and since I chose 4 outfits, they wanted me to do certain themes: nature/natural, elegant/artsy, traditional/Asian, and cutsy/girlie. I didn't really want to do a natural shot since it was mostly "sexy" poses but I just said okay since I didn't really know what other outfit I would wear. It wasn't bad and I'm sure they turned out okay but it's just not me lol The elegant picture was okay although I didn't really like my hair/make-up too much and I couldn't fit the dress! Luckily she attached some extra fabric so she pinned it on my back. It's interesting how the make-up in Taipei is really light. They don't put too much on the skin since they want you to be lighter and they focus on making your eyes bigger so I had tape on my eyes to serve as a double eyelid. I was happy about this shot though because I was able to use a piano in the pictures.

The photographer was easily frustrated with me because not only did I have trouble following directions as to where to put my left arm, right leg, etc., I also didn't know how to make my hands more "delicate." In most of my poses, he wanted my hand to be rolled up or poised in an artistic, gentle way. I couldn't do it at all and it was definitely uncomfortable. It's hard being a model! There are so many things to do like keeping your head straight, keeping your body in a right position, but then also looking at an angle while trying to smile. I love taking pictures and doing poses but definitely modeling is a hard business! lol

The traditional/Asian pose really bummed me out at first because I originally wanted to wear a chipao dress that is a traditional Chinese dress. Once again I couldn't fit into some of the dresses and I didn't want to waste time so I ended up wearing a Japanese style dress. It was fine since I really liked my hair and make-up but I really wanted to wear a chipao. The last dress had to be cutsy and I was dreading this one but it's funny because I looked very, very Taiwanese. I had to do very silly, girly poses but oh well.

I get to see my proofs next Sat. and they put the photos on a CD, poster, and book. I'm excited to get them (I will get them when I get back from vacation), but the whole picture taking process thing wasn't the best. It's okay. I'm just glad I got it done and I can say that I could take pictures with a Taiwanese photographer lol

-Chihchat

Professional photos

I wanted to blog yesterday but this website was unavailable so I couldn't post anything. What happened yesterday was I decided to make an appoint. to do professional pictures. I heard from many people that it's really nice here and although it's pricey, it's worth it since the pictures turn out really good. Fri. afternoon there was a photo studio right across my work place. I first went to check out the prices but since my coworker already went there, and this other Australian girl showed me her photos (she went to pick up her photos), I was easily persuaded. I made my appoint. for this Sun.

Basically they are glamour shots and besides giving me a nice book, poster, and cd, they will do my hair and makeup for free. I also get to choose 4 costumes and it's crazy since it will take all day, 9:30-4:00. They are expensive since it's around $400 but in the end it's worth it for me since I won't have a chance to take these photos. I could take them in the US but it's not the same since I want them done in Taiwan since it's something special and unique. Also I think Taipei is known for glamour photos. I heard good things about the studios in Taipei so I'm excited.

Tonight after work, my coworkers and I ate a really good pasta restaurant. The picture above is my pasta topped with smoked almonds. It was pretty delicious. Also, it's my 11th month mark that I've been in Taipei. I can't believe next month will be a full year!! WOW! I'm actualy leaving exactly 1 year and 1 month from when I first came on the date. Interesting huh? lol

-Chihchat

Umbrella confusion

For tonight's kickboxing class, we had a sub for our instructor since our regular instructor took the day off. The class was fine but it wasn't as intense and it just wasn't the same lol I really like my kickboxing instructor but he will come back next week haha

After kickboxng my coworker and I went to eat dinner at the small restaurant that sells seafood at the Shilin night market. I went there multiple times but they are pretty mean. They were rude like always but whatever. It was pouring outside and when we were about to leave, they tied the umbrellas up and put them on the table. I got confused as to which one was mine since mine was purple and there were 2 that looked the same plus there were other purple umbrellas. The guy with a table of 6 told me that those were their umbrellas but then I couldn't find mine. I just told the worker forget about it and I was about to leave but the worker told me stop in English and he was trying to figure out which was mine.

There were 7 umbrellas and there were only 6 people on the table. He gave me a purple one and said are you sure this is yours? I was embarrassed but I didn't even remember what mine looked like. I told him I don't remember the color but he just gave it to me and said in English "Remember your color." It was pretty embarrassing but the people on the table were rude. I tried to get their attention and they didn't even want to answer. Oh well...I guess now I know I really have to pay attention to what my umbrella looks like. I think I won't go back there for awhile lol

-Chihchat

Going to see Stefano Langone!

Last night I was checking out the unofficial website of Stefano Langone, yes I'm becoming a huge fan, and I saw that the tour dates and cities were listed for the American Idol Live Tour this summer. I was just curious and I saw that they will be hosting a concert on July 15th at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. I was in shock since I'm flying into Los Angeles on the 14th! What perfect timing! I contacted my friend from high school since she only lives 15-20 mins away from the airport. I was only going to plan to stay in LA for a day or so to see some of my old high school friends when I thought, hey I can go to this concert, too!

After my friend told me that she was able to go with me and I could stay at her house, I checked to see when I could book the concert tickets. The Internet presale started at 10am PDT (Pacific Daylights Time) which means 1:00am here Thurs. morning. Although I waited for an hour or so and now it's almost 2am, I bought the tickets and I got good main floor seats! I wasn't really thinking too much when I heard that they were going on tour since I knew I wouldn't be in an area where they would be performing but then this awesome opportunity came up. Things definitely happen for a reason!

On an eerie note, a Taiwanese (doctor/scientist?) claimed that on May 11th, today, around 3pm, there was going to be a huge earthquake that would split Taiwan in half. Even my student told me about it last week. Now, I know that seems weird and strange but I am a scaredy cat and I will be at home on Dec. 31st, 2011 with my family because yes, I'm afraid the world will end in 2012 lol Luckily nothing bad happened but it's interesting about all these "claims" and "theories" and sometimes it's hard not to believe at least one of them!

-Chihchat

Trick Art

This morning my coworkers and I went to a "Trick Art" exhibition. Basically all the art was 3D and you can take a picture with the paintings. It was pretty sweet and luckily the lines weren't too long. My coworkers went on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago and it was packed. It wasn't busy at all since we didn't have to wait in line for a long time. We did some pretty funny poses and I did a headstand in one of the pictures lol My coworker has the picture on her camera though so I can't upload it on my blog yet. It was pretty fun trying to think of creative poses and the exhibition was definitely unique!

One of my favorite poses is the last picture of me taking a picture with my coworker headless haha Can you figure out the illusion?

So it has gotten a lot hotter these past couple of days. A lot has to do with the fact that a typhoon just passed us. It didn't hit us luckily but we're dealing with the wrath of the heat. I don't know how I survived last year haha

-Chihchat

Sticky rice temptation

They opened up another kickboxing class on Mon. night and I was excited since I'm now able to kickbox twice a week. But then this weekend I found out that one of my students can't make it to the class and so now I'm tutoring him on Mon. nights. It's only an hour and luckily I can still make it to kickboxing but I would be about ten mins. late.

So when I got done with my tutoring and I was going to leave, my coworker had some sticky rice she received from her relatives. It was too tempting and I ended up just eating and staying at the office lol I asked my coworker if I should go kickboxing but she said I should just stay haha I really wanted to go kickboxing but yes, the sticky rice was too tempting and I ended up staying at work. Oh food haha

-Chihchat

Happy Mother's Day

This morning I tutored my two students but it felt weird since I haven't seen them for 2 weeks. I don't know how long I will keep tutoring them since now we only meet on Suns., school is ending for them, and I'm leaving. It was nice pay for awhile but I'm glad that I don't meet them as much since before I would meet them 4x a week! It was really tiring to say the least.

It's been a lazy day but tonight I'm going to skype with my mom and sister which I'm happy about since today is Mother's Day! I don't know why I was a little surprised about this but Taiwan celebrates this holiday. This past week at school the students made mother's day cards for their mothers. It will be morning in Iowa when I skype my time tonight so it's perfect timing to wish my mom happy mother's day!

-Chihchat

Kung Pao Chicken

There is a restaurant near my workplace that makes really good kung pao chicken and Drew and I usually go after our long day of work on Sats. Tonight we went with 3 of our other coworkers and it was funny since we each ordered our own plate of kung pao chicken. It's typical where you order many dishes and have everyone share but we each wanted our own separate dish. These plates of kung pao chicken are huge too so it was just funny that we had 5 plates of it! It's however definitely a nice treat after a long day of work. Picture above is our dishes at the restaurant lol

Today was super exhausting for me since usually I teach 10-12, 2-4,4-6, and 6-7. Since I had to sub 2 extra classes, I taught a total of 9 hours from 9-10, 10-12, 1-2, 2-4, 4-6, and 6-7. It was pretty insane since I taught 6 classes with only having an hour break and I'm so glad I survived!

-Chihchat

Scheduling my last day of class

My ARC expires on June 29th which also means that would be my last day of teaching although technically I started working on July 1st. My favorite class is on Fridays, A-12, from 6:30-8:30. I love teaching them and they never give me any trouble. Anyway June 29th is a Thurs. but I want my last day to be on Fri., July 1st so my A-12 can be my last class at Kojen. Luckily my half-day class will also end before then so I don't think I have to teach them either. I have my crazy, chaotic class on Thurs. night and I definitely don't want them to be my last day of work since as much as I've learned to control them, I don't want them to my last class.

This A-12 class will make it extremely hard for me to leave since they have been amazing and I've learned so much from them. I can't believe that almost a year has passed by. I don't know if they even will continue since they have one more level to finish the children's dept. but I think they will as long as they aren't busy and they love to learn English. My boss made a joke that the immigration office will close by 5pm so they won't catch me if I teach this Fri. night class lol I'm really glad though that I can end my ESL teaching career in Taipei with my favorite class :)

-Chihchat

Gym Class Lesson 101

Each week my coworker and I go to a kickboxing class every Thurs. night. It's usually crowded and there's not enough to room kick or do the moves. The instructor opened up a new class on Mons. so tonight it wasn't as crowded. It was really nice because there was actually enough room to kick and what not but still, people were being spatially retarded.

I was standing next to my coworker and all of a sudden this old lady stands right behind me. I look back so she got the idea to move back. I know she didn't know where to stand but she was really standing really close to me and my friend. I didn't have enough room to do the moves and it was really irritating. Then this girl was on the other side of my coworker and she doesn't know how to control where she kicks. She will kick but she will jump all over the place. She kept getting close to her, making her move back.

While we had a min. break, the same girl that was jumping all over the place stood right in front of her again! This time it was really close and we just looked at her. We were like, really? OMG lol I don't get it. I mean, it's just common courtesy to not stand so close. There was a lot of room but yet people would stand just a foot away. I don't think they understand the whole "this is my bubble" area lol Next time we are going to stand in the front of the class so we can always move up if people are too close to us.

-Chihchat

P.S. This marks my 300th post!!! :D

Pig Dance

My Wed. night class is crazy in the fact that they love playing games and they get super excited and like to play competitively. I was playing the game pig/horse where the first person shoots the ball anywhere and the next person has to shoot the ball exactly where the first person shoots. They were going balistic! They kept laughing and screaming. It was getting pretty crazy and then we had enough time to do a reader game.

I was trying to think of a punishment game and my co-teacher/Chinese teacher played this game where they have certain punishments they need to do. They were all pretty crazy but one of them was the pig dance. The first team messed up reading and then the second team gets to choose their punishment. They chose the pig dance and it was hilarious because when I told them their punishment they all started to make faces and went down on the floor and started crawling and grunting like pigs. I just lost it and started laughing. It was way too funny and I wasn't expecting it at all!

-Chihchat

Boyfriend tutor

Last night I had to switch the date of my airplane ticket and so today I had everything ready to go to the immigration office to get my extension. I had to get up early and stop by at work since my boss was nice and helped me print off my airplane ticket. I then went to the immigration office by taking a taxi. I told the taxi driver where to go and I even wrote it out just in case he didn't understand where I wanted to go.

The taxi driver started talking to me and he was curious as to why I was going to the immigration office since he thought I was Taiwanese. It was nice to practice my Chinese but I was really tired. But we talked for a bit. The funniest thing though was when he mentioned his son. I guess his son is 23, getting his masters, and can speak some English. He took classes at Kojen when he was little. He said that I could do a language exchange and his son can teach me Chinese while I teach him English. He kept saying that his son was tall lol He asked me if I had a boyfriend and I'm like nope. He asked me if I was looking for a boyfrend and I'm like nope since I'm leaving the country.

I was kidding around, and being a little serious, and said the only reason why I would want a Taiwanese boyfriend is to show me all the good places to eat haha

I finally got to the immigration office and waited 40 mins to only realize that I can only extend my ARC a month before the expiration date. I came too early since I have to extend it after May 29th!! Ahh! But at least I know that I can get my extension and now for sure I'm leaving Taipei July 14th. I'm still really sad about leaving early though because I'm leaving sooner than I thought and I'm not ready to say goodbye to everyone, including my students. I didn't think it would be this hard but it's going to be for me.

I casually mentioned to my second favorite class tonight how I'm not staying in Taipei forever and I will leave to go back to America since the voc. word is "stay". They were quiet though so I don't know if they understood what I meant or if they were actually sad lol

-Chihchat

Getting kicked out

Today I went to the immigration office to apply for a month extension on my visa since I was planning to leave on Aug. 2nd because I need to stay at least 183 days to not pay extra taxes and get my tax refund. I went to the office this morning but I can only stay 15 days after my ARC expiration date (June 29th) which is July 14th. It's normally a 15 day extension and not a month. That made me really sad because that meant that now I have to leave in July and also I have to change the day of my flight since I already booked it for Aug. 2nd.

Then my Taiwanese coworker went with me to apply for being my beneficiary for my taxes since I needed a Taiwanese person, over 20 years, and has a job be accountable so if I'm not around, she can receive my money and send it to me later. That didn't take too long and I will receive my check around June so I will still be around. I will just apply for my 2011 taxes 10 days before I leave Taiwan. So the stressful thing was figuring out when exactly I have to leave the country.

I tried to get a hold of my boss this morning but she didn't pick up. I called her in the afternoon and when I went to work, we went over the details. For 2011, I have to stay at least 183 days and it would be fine except that I'm going on vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand at the end of May, beginning of June. With my extension, luckily I will be here exactly 183 days on the dot! I just saved myself from paying back 13% of my taxes. I shouldn't be celebrating yet since I haven't spoken to the tax office but it should be okay since they will see that I have stayed in Taiwan for enough days. My only other solution was to leave at the end of June to Hong Kong really quick and then come back to get a regular 30 day pass. I was thinking about doing that so I can stay longer in Taiwan but it would cost money to book my ticket and I would still have to leave by July 28th and my ticket is booked for Aug. 2nd.

Tomorrow I need to go back to the immigration office to apply for my 15 day extension. I need a copy of my plane ticket so tonight I had to change the date. I bought my ticket through cheapoair.com and customer service took forever. I waited about 45 mins on the phone and finally got my ticket time switched to July 14th but unfortunately I had to pay an extra fee since I changed the day. Oh well..I have no choice. Hopefully they will send me the confirmation email and then I can go tomorrow to the immigration office and get it all sorted it. Who knew this would be super complicated?

-Chihchat

Hot Spring May Day

Happy May Day everyone!

Today my coworkers and I took an hour bus ride to Jinshan (near Yangmingshan) and went to its hot springs. It was beautiful as it was outside and it took a small hike to get there. It wasn't too hot outside and it was actually rainy a little bit but after awhile it got pretty hot. It was fun to play in the water and just relax. We also took a small hike to see the source of the hot springs although I only saw smoke coming out of a mountain.

Pictures above are from this afternoon's trip to the hot springs.

Then we ate at a nice hot pot place near my apartment. Drew and I ate there before and we recommended the place since it wasn't so crowded and it had good food. It was fun and definitely nice to get out and enjoy more of beautiful Taipei!

-Chihchat