Quarter of a year in Taiwan

I've been in Asia for almost 5 months now and about 3 of those months in Taiwan. I liked it here since the very beginning even though my first little while in Taiwan I was dealing with a recovering burn wound on my right leg from less than stellar alcohol induced decision of jumping through a flaming ring and skipping rope (see earlier post for info on that)

I remember liking the weather here right away, it was nice and warm with lots of sun everyday. Little did I know that I was not the typical weather in Taiwan and in the week after I arrived
and ever since its been raining quite regularly and heavily. As I've learned, the rain in Taiwan is famous for coming in from all direction making an umbrella nearly useless, if you protect the top it'll come from the side, if you protect the side it'll just find a way to come from the bottom bouncing of the street. However, I will still take the regular 24-34 degree temperatures over the cold any day. In fact the only thing that I really liked about winter is the opportunity to do outdoor recreational activities like skiing and tubing and I had the opportunity to participate in those activities several times before I left.

Back to Taiwan now. So what is it like? Taiwan feels like a mid ground between a developed country and a 3rd world, so perhaps: a developed 3rd world country, or a developing first world country? The road construction here is very good, you will almost never see large potholes or cracks in the road. There road construction is actually extremely streamlined and efficient unlike some places I know… cough… Montreal. I recall one incident when I saw them repaving a stretch of street almost 1/2 Km long along my daily path to training (more on that later) and I was convinced it would be a daily nuisance for the rest of my time there. Later that evening on the way back, to my great surprise the work was complete, the road was completely repaved and all the construction equipment was gone and the only trace left was a darker stretch of asphalt and newly painted lanes. I am convinced that the same amount of work would have taken weeks in Montreal.
At the same time however the road condition are quite different here than anywhere else I've seen in the world. There are infinitely more scooters in Taiwan than in North American and even significantly more than I've seen in other Asian countries. In order to deal with this situation all the roads here have been built with scooters and bikes in mind. There was special stopping boxes for scooters at the lights and even an extremely 2 step left turn process for scooters (see pix.)


I bought a scooter here about a 3 weeks after I moved to Taichung, so that was mid June. Now finally I got my Taiwanese scooter license yesterday so I can officially ride it :) It’s a very special system they have here Taiwan , where the police would rather turn a blind eye to infractions if it means they don’t have to do extra work. This is apparent when the cops send out dummy patrol cars with the lights glaring to warn people and then you get the regular cops that come around and check for wrong doings. Furthermore, most people come in to do their driving test on their own scooters and even if they fail, they just get back on the scooters they drove in on, and wait one week before they can try again. That's fairly apparent when you look at the abysmal way that people drive in Taiwan, the land where road signs and lights are just suggestions. Although you would not believe it if you were here, but people are not supposed to turn right, left or go straight through a red light, luckily the last is where cops do sometimes step in if they see the infraction. Other highly unusual driving techniques are (usually) tolerated, such as driving down a one way street in the wrong direction, driving in the oncoming traffic lane to bypass traffic and make a left turn and finally parking on sidewalks. Although in fairness my favorite parking spot is on a sidewalk as well just in front of my apartment.




View Taichung in a larger map

You can read up on the beginning of my training in the earlier post (see earlier post for info on that) but fast for today and I can say that I have explored much more of Taichung and its surrounding areas but there is till much to see and do. I visited friends in the big city, Taipei and even went to the little township of Dajia to visit another NST. I have to say I don't intend on going back to Dajia anytime soon (no offence Grant.) I've also had the chance to explore some of the nice hiking around Taiwan, namely Dakeng Scenic Area, which is composed of 8 hiking trails ranging in difficulty. I had the chance to do one of the average difficulty trails but I intend on doing most of the other when I get the time.



Made a few new friends over here with the other people that work for HESS and I went out them a few times to restaurants and clubs. One of my favourite clubs in Taichung is Xaga, it could hold its own to any club in Montreal as far as atmosphere goes, and the music is pretty good as well although there are some awkward song choices from time to time, there are more than enough women to make up for it though, which makes for an almost certain good time. A little bit more about the drinking scene in Taichung: Every Wednesday is ladies nigh at several places in the city, where the guys need to pay a cover ranging from 400-1000NT (CAN$13-33) cover for an open bar or several drink coupons...

Finally, one of my goals here in Taiwan was to learn a bit of Mandarin (it was also one of my objectives in Hong Kong, but I can barely say that was a success) and I'm happy to say I found a Chinese program that fits my needs quite well, and as an added bonus it’s a a Uni only 5 minutes away from my place. Looking forward to starting my studies there in September since the schools are all on summer break now. I'll keep you updated on how my language skills are evolving, or not. Although one thing is for sure work at HESS has become much easier now since I've started becoming familiar with the material. I have significantly more free time than before so I need to start doing something productive with it before I fall into the same sleeping patterns as some of the other teachers here that only work in the evenings and therefore wake up in the afternoon. Although I've never been a big fan of sleep I have noticed that I've been waking up between 9-10am recently, in contrast to waking up between 8-9am in weeks past. A wake up call?

Anyway, that’s all I really have to say for now, so until next time
Layyyyyy,
Kash