Taiwan: Settling In

First impressions: As my plane landed at the airport in Taoyuan TPE , I was excited to excited the possibilities that awaited me here in Taiwan. I was received outside the arrivals pick-up pre-arranged , and to my surprise, he drives a black sedan , a current model Camry if I remember correctly . I was a little surprised that I did not expect to larger cars to be popular, and most cars in the pickup section were in the same class. The journey from the airport to my hotel was about an hour and at that time I was very happy that I got a lift rather than having to understand the transport immediately . However, this could not be further from reality. I was not able to communicate to the driver , who spoke only Chinese , I had actually changed my reservation at The Cats Pajamas ( cool name is not it? ) For the first few nights that my original hostel Taiwanmex was full . Fortunetly , I chose two locations due to their proximity to MRT stations and I was able to navigate to my destination relatively easy given the circustances . ***

The Cats Pyjamas was located in a trendy neighborhood next to a night market . I liked the place that useful servant , LCD TV, kick ass showers and a communal kitchen. The next place I went was Taiwanmex , I discovered because the owner was a Mexican who had moved here ten years ago and opened a store with his Taiwanese wife. The location of this hotel was ideal as it was understood right Zhongshang MRT and busy streets around it.

In my first weeks in Taiwan, I could see the National Palace Museum . It is considered the best museum of Chinese history in the world, because it was the former Chinese Nationalist Party ( KMT) , led by Mr. Chiang Kai-shek was the greatest treasure exported to the Republic of China (Taiwan ) when the Communist party was gaining momentum in the continent. I also went to a couple of night markets , there was a lot of local food, including my fair share of typical Taiwanese lunch boxes usually contain 3 servings of veges and meat 1 . Given the iconic Taipai 101 and started my training with Hess.

Hess is the language cram school I signed a contract to teach English for one year in Taiwan. I got the job online and they are one of the few companies in Taiwan that will guarantee a contract even before you land . The initial training I had with the company was Taipai and only 15 minutes walk from my hostel . Hess paid the hotel during training , so I left Taiwanmex and moved into the first hotel located on Nanjing Road. It was a mid-level hotel , but a notch above many hostels I have stayed in for the last 2 months, and it was free so there was no way that I turned downwardly . Initial training ( HITT ) lasted about two weeks during which I learned a lot about how Hess education , their curriculum and met a dozen other teachers who would do the same thing as me for next year . Trainig days were really long , but that's about all I care to mention about training. After HITT , we all moved to our respective branches, in my case , it was the Sun Min branch in Taichung.

Taichung is a city located in the center of Taiwan , about 200 km south of Taipai . Although I took the bus to Taichung , there is a high speed train connecting all parts of Taiwan and the journey of my Taipai Taichung HSR is only 45 minutes going about 300 km an hour. I intend to use next time to go to Kaoshung all the way in the south ( also 45 minutes) or at the back of Taipai . The hotel we were put in place ( there were three of us , Heather , Miles and myself) was Huang He or something. It was a lovely quite and I had my own large living room with TV , fridge, large bathroom , queen size bed , writing table and not to mention and great views from the large windows. The branch manager Frances took another new teacher Micheal and I for dinner with two other people in the industry on our first day in Little Italy , which is a restaurant here , not a neighborhood. It was a nice place with all the Italian stereotypes you can imagine come to life . After lunch, she took me home to watch the next day and I moved to a place that the former teacher ( Wesley ) I replaced was about to leave . I'll share 3 bedroom apartment with him this month and another teacher at my service already expressed interest in moving out as soon as Wesley . This is a very nice place , lots of windows , air conditioning in all bedrooms, large bathroom and kitchen. Although there is no television, cable or Internet really sucks (and this is the reason why I 'm in an internet cafe at the moment. 's Located on the other side between a market day and night market which means theres always an amazing selection of food located just a few minutes walk and Internet cafes in Taiwan are really really cheap about an hour 15NT ( 50c/hour ) when you pay for a block of 3 - 5 hours .

The people I met at the store are so far and I went out with them a few times in places I did not really RECAL not specifically other than Ala ( music group ) , bar the elementary school ( a karaoke bar with towers ) and freedom ( a popular foreign bar / club that plays a selection of pop and hip hop. )


Poor judgment *** Two days before my departure from Thailand, my own alcohol and adrenaline induced led me to participate in the fire show on the beaches of Koh Phangnan . My enemy fire rings suspended . It is difficult to judge the main reason for my failure , whether my dulled reflexes or the lack of stability of the ring, which was suspended by two Thais on elevated platforms . The first jump was successful for what it's worth , which inspired the second representation least Steller highlighted by packing my right leg around the rope for what was to be about 4-5 seconds. It was just enough for the flames leave black marks on charred along the back of my knee , calf and ankle and just above my right elbow. Although he did no harm at this point in time, which led to a lot of pain and discomfort in the coming weeks.
1 : The first remedy for this burn was to jump in the ocean and " disinfect " it ... Well, he helped the combustion anyway. About an hour after the incident the pain started to get unbearable, so I had to leave the game and return to the guest house. On the way home I collapsed in a pharmacy and picked up some 1% povidone-iodine in the little orange bottle and paracetamol. I disinfected the wound with iodine and called it a night , the amount of alcohol I had in my system I was able to sleep through the night . The next day, I tried to rough and walk it off, but it turned out to be easier said than done.
2nd: Later that evening , I went to a clinic and got advice from a nurse and simply linked a cotton wrap around the wound and tried to keep it dry . As a side note , she said that I just attach the envelope to the end rather than using tape or a clip and I rather liked this little tid ingenuity. I did a little more research on injuries and burns my own diagnosis is that it was a second degree burn as it affected the skin tissue , muscle tendons and ligaments caused discoloration , but not through to the bone or deep into muscle. There was no standard protocol for treating this type of burning or healing time provided material I could understand online, however , I was able to find a general guideline which declared void from 4 weeks to 2 years ... it was not assured that I wanted.
3: When I returned to Bangkok the next day I went to the pharmacy (at 7-11 :)) to buy more cotton envelopes and presence informed that I use cream instead of iodine liquid and clean wound with an alcohol disinfectant first, I took his advice to the cream, but not alcohol as I read an article the other day discouraging .
4: The Watsons at the airport in BKK suggested that I apply small samples adherent , highly absorbent on the wound before applying the film and I gladly accepted the advice, I felt ripped off skin that j ' I removed the envelopes per day .
5: When I went to restore I'm in bandages Taipai now Cosmed and the clerk suggested an antibiotic cream in addition to iodine I was already using , although I hesitated on the use of antibiotics on it early I really did not want to run the risk of getting infected wound if I gave started to apply that on my next dressing . After using the cream for two days and jump in too many paracetamols (which were almost 10X the price I usually pay for themselves in Thailand vs 15Baht 120NT per band) I decided to see a doctor the next day.
6: I went to NTU hospital because he was more comfortable with its own MRT station . Medical service is extremely cheap in Taiwan as I discovered. Consultation and prescription of 2 tubes of silver sulfadiazine that cost about 660NT or about $ 25 . The doctor also advised against antibiotic cream indicated in the 5th remedy. He did not give me painkillers though. This was the last remedy that I really need . I kept it for about 2 weeks and almost all wounds had healed to the point where my body is actually a natural hedge or skin was starting to heal.
Overall, it took about three weeks for the wound to "heal" enough that it requires no extra care of me. Although there is still discoloration and marks on my leg and arm , no further action required . Lets see how long it takes to heal completely.