Food

So in my family I am known as the pickiest of eaters. They joke that I don't eat anything. So Taiwan has been semi rough on me to actually find food that I will eat. Basically I eat at the same three places, or I find dumplings cause those are usually safe. But I just want my family to know how good I have been about being an adventurous eater lately. On Tuesday my boss took us all out to dinner and our two appetizers were pickled radishes which were ok and pig ear. Which I want them to know I did try. At dinner we also had huge shrimp still with legs and eyes (I did not eat) and a huge flounder fish that kept looking at me because it still had its eyes (I did not eat that either). The rest of the food was ok. Then on Friday one of our students, Kitty, her parents took us to this amazing restaurant. We each got to pick an appetizer, antipasta, salad, soup, palette cleanser (it came in a shot glass), a main dish, a drink (most of us got a mango shake), and a desert!!! The appetizer was shrimp and aspargus in an amazing sauce, and I did eat one shrimp. I also had the cheese and beef antipasta, a salad, pumpkin mushroom soup, steak, mango shake, and ice cream with a chocolate bag!! This was probably the most amazing meal of my life. Now today... Today three of my students Edward, Trevor (twins), and Vincent invited me and teacher Hanna to their house for a chinese new year dinner. 90% of the dinner was fish. I had a shrimp that still had the legs on it, Trevor peeled it for me. I ate the fish, which I tried to sneak only a little, but the mother gave me more. A meatball made with shrimp, and some soup that had octopus and squid, I did however avoid the meat in that one.  So I want my family to know that I am embracing the great food around here. And I wanted to tell my dad that yes, they do eat dog around here, its just hard to find and usually the stray dogs around here will mess with you after you eat dog, because they can sense that you ate one of them. I have a personal source on that one. 

What Should I Do?

So here I am in Taiwan with plenty of things to do and see, but we are sitting here 2 days before Chinese New Year and we have no set plans. I think it is because there is too much to do and see, we can't make up our minds. We were invited to go east, some friends are headed to Taipei, we hear the islands off the west coast are great. So what should we do? Right now we are looking at going to Taipei, but rumor has it the a lot of people leave during Chinese New Year and less markets are open. How lame would that be if we went and the town was shut down. The only thing I care about seeing is the Pingsi Lantern Festival. Its where they light hundreds of lanterns that people have written wishes on for the new year and then they are released into the air and they float. It looks so neat. It starts on the 26th and goes for about 9 days. So I hope I get to see it. I will keep you informed on the plans. 

Two Weeks

So I have been here for about two weeks now and I have written nothing. Sorry about that. The first week I did not have Internet so it was not my fault. Anyway let me catch you up on what has been going on. I started work a week ago Monday and for some reason my boss made me head teacher. I have no idea why, so basically I can tell the other four teachers to do whatever I want them to. J/K But I do have more work, which includes observations, evaluations, testing new students, organizing home visits, making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be, covering for them when they are sick, plus my own classes that I have to teach. And the extra bonus of not getting paid any extra. But it has not been too bad everyone here is great about picking up their own slack and having great ideas. 

I love the kids here (most of the time) sometimes I want to kick them out of class. I have found that bribery works really well. Or threaten them with beatings. Whatever I am in the mood for. Not really we usually threaten them with sending them to Sherry (my boss) and that usually does the trick. 

The town I live in is fun. Everyone is way friendly and really want to practice their English with us. Or they will speak in Chinese even though we shake our heads and say we don't understand. Its a good time. We still have a lot to explore, and luckily I have 6 months to do that. Until next time...