Now in Taiwan

I finally arrived in Taiwan. I actually got here a couple of days ago, but I haven’t updated my blog or uploaded any photos… until now!

The flight was really long but I had about the best seat you could expect. I had an isle seat somewhere in the back but then traded with a guy because he wanted to sit next to his girlfriend. I ended up right behind the bulkhead that separates the business class from economy. There were only two seats there when there normally is three. I also had a bit more leg room. The only down side was that I like to stretch my legs under the seat in front of me, but I couldn’t do that.

Once we arrived in Taipei, we had to go through immigration, find our luggage, and then buy bus passes. Luckily there were some people who spoke English and could help us out. We had to ride one bus for a bout 30 minutes to a central bus terminal, and then transfer to another bus which took us to Fengyuan. The total ride was about 2 hours.

I live on the 4th floor of the school. Since I am the only male teacher working here right now, I get my own room. The rooms are huge. We were also assigned bikes and have ridden around the town trying to explore and figure out where things are. Because of the time differences (14 hours ahead of Utah) we are all waking up around 5:00 am so we go out for early morning bike rides around town

This morning we went to the hospital for medical examinations in order to get our work permits. We had blood drawn, chest x-ray, vision test, blood pressure, height, weight, and temperature. Speaking of temperature, when we came into the airport they had a quarantine desk setup with thermal cameras and they scanned everyone as they walked by to see if they have a fever.

This afternoon I got my class schedule. My first class doesn’t start until 1:30 in the afternoon and I go until 8:50 at night most nights. I am teaching mostly older advanced kids. The youngest class I have are 7 to 8 year olds. I teach two writing classes as well. I am teaching for 29 hours a week right now, but that that will drop to 26 at the end of the summer. I might have to pick up some extra tutoring or something then though. I am happy with the schedule. I prefer to teach older kids and working in the evenings frees up my entire mornings for whatever.

Right now I am going to the famous night markets. I have uploaded pictures from the week so far to the Week 1 album. As the week continues I will be adding more pictures to that album.