PLAY BALL!!!

It's that time of year again all across the world --- baseball season has begun! Here in Taiwan it's no different. Taiwan has it's own major league of 4 teams, which used to be much bigger but had to shut down and restart under a new name and management after years of corruption and match-fixing (much like the Canadian Soccer League http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/exclusive-canadian-soccer-an-easy-target-for-match-fixing-1.1212414)

 Here is a picture of the stadium. It was busy but not insanely 

busy like other sporting venues we've visited.

Unlike the CSL however, this is Taiwan's sport. You could argue that basketball could rival it, being that most kids either follow the NBA or play it (I actually met a teenager who said that Chris Bosh is his favourite player. What made this funny was that he said "not just because of the Heat, he liked him before when he was on the Raptors". I was stunned). However, with the significant Japanese influence in Taiwan's history, baseball has much deeper roots and well...... LETS PLAY BALL!

Elephant Clappers. No balls came our direction unfortunately...

It felt very much felt like we were at a soccer game. The stands were separated with the home team (Taipei Brother Elephants) on the left and the away team (Lamigo Monkeys) on the right.* There were chants, drums, a horn section, and a guy with a big microphone. It was as chaotic and lively as I've ever seen a sporting event. Check out the sites and sounds here:

https://youtu.be/pldA_Z7Ec6s

*Note: The other two teams in the league are the EDA Rhinos and the Unified 7-Eleven Lions. If I weren't such a homer I'd be cheering for the 7-Eleven Lions.

As with baseball games, there's always other ways one must amuse themselves for 9 innings. Cassie for example made a friend today :)

She asked him to be friends, he said he'd have to mullet over

 The Elephants won 10-6! Our team is now 2nd in league points which is amazing! We are however in 3rd last place...

...Sharon and Cassie bought clappers which will be great souvenirs as we look back on today. Byron bought a hat to match his jersey from last year and I purchased a sweet new jersey. Although you can't really see it in this picture it looks like Byron's.

Elephant is the new yellow 

Around the 6th inning, Sharon lost her sunglasses under the bleachers. The stadium staff was very kind about it and let us find them after the game. This may have been the best part of the experience because we got to enjoy the sights and sounds of post game baseball. We ended up cruising around so long that we had to get escorted out of the building. They were all very friendly about it but I respect their wanting us outta there.

All in all it was a great experience. I can't say that it was MLB quality play or speed but that's not even necessary --- the atmosphere and experience was a definite grand slam! 


-RS = T

Raj and Benji

A hoy hoy,

It's been a very fun and busy two weeks. On top of officially starting our new jobs, we had our friends Raj and Benji coming through on separate trips. Needless to say it's been a busy few weeks of dining, entertaining, playing music, laughing, and exploring. It's great having people visit you to remind you to get out an explore, especially as you begin to settle into a lifestyle. 

Here are some pics of one night in particular with Benji, Sharon, Byron, Cassie, and myself. Benji's visit was only for a week and it was sad to see him go so soon.

The arcade down the road has a gun range for $4. We decided to take our American friend somewhere were he felt like home...

Amazing banana shirt...

Amazing strange shirt... (we could only take two pictures before we got yelled at, but this was a pretty hilarious place to browse)

Inside Longshan Temple, all decorated for Chinese New Year...

...Next we have Raj, who was amazing to hang out with over his stay here in Taiwan. Like Benji, it would be great to have him stay here for longer, but we had some great times while he was here. These are pics of a place called E7, which, for $12 gets you into a bowling alley, pool hall, and general random arcade for 3 hours. It might be my favourite place in Taipei.

Sharon, myself, Raj, and Byron bowling...

Byron and Raj playing a strange scooter game...

this is not just an ass pic 

Sharon playing pingpong...

Some delicious dumplings after all the fun...

 mmmmmmmm!!!!!

It's now Monday morning, and both of our friends have gone their separate ways. Raj to Canada and Benji to journey across Asia. It's been a great two weeks and now we are off to work!

- RS = T

Pingxi Lantern Festival

Greetings! Or GREETINGS as I would say if you were standing farther away.

The mountain town of Pingxi

Today Sharon and I went to the Pingxi Lantern Festival, which, if you look at the "Top 10 things to do in Taiwan" is high on that list. The festival takes place in a small mountain town called Pingxi, which is an hour east of Taipei in the mountains. Here's the story:

The Lantern Festival is a super old tradition (many thousands of years and I don't know the number.. between 2 and 100) that the Chinese use to celebrate the end of winter months, and the beginning of the new year. People write their wishes for the new year on their lanterns and like a hot air balloon send them into the sky. This is us with our lantern...

Sharon wrote "Go Leafs Go" on the opposite side

We hope this reaches Canada by 2034

Different colours are meant for different wishes. We didn't realize until afterwards that yellow was for money. The others? (orange = good luck, green = health, blue = friendship, purple = happiness, pink = love, white = future, and red = all wishes come true). We just picked the one closest to us. Here's what it looks like right in the action...

 

After we sent ours off we walked through the old street in town and watched some lanterns get sent off, check it out here:

http://youtu.be/Tnd0l3glS0o

*note: The music playing? That'd be the garbage truck. All garbage trucks play music in Taiwan. The ones in Taipei play Beethoven.

...and here are some shots from a distance.

It was getting a little cold so we hopped into a small tea place and enjoyed some saxophone played by the owner while watching others send off their lanterns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GARBs5BK-XQ&feature=youtu.be

Until next time,

- RS=T

Taipei Outdoors!

There are lots of fun places to explore in urban Taipei, but that doesn't do the whole city justice. There are kilometres of great biking and hiking trails that we have taken advantage of. Here are some pics:

One nice day this week Sharon, our good friend Cassie, and I went on an epic bike ride around Taipei. The city of Taipei is circled by a river system to the North, South, and West with a mountain range closing it off on the East. There is an interconnected bike path system all around the rivers in the city, which you can hop on and off at your leisure. We decided to take a two hour trip from one area of town back to our place.  Along this bike ride we saw a bunch of baseball diamonds, badminton courts, and stray dogs (not necessarily in that order).

These guys were awfully friendly

This is Sharon on a U Bike. 

 zoooooooooooom!

This is the public bike system in Taipei that connects with the subway system. The first 30 minutes of the bike ride are free then it's $0.40 (CAD) for every 30 minutes afterwards. Our whole bike trip cost us $1.20.

Here is a video of the ride. I'll let it explain everything.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4wIwJfnmpU&feature=youtu.be

---------

A few days later Sharon and I went to the mountains East of the city. There are four mountains to explore, but because of a call for rain, we decided to just check out one: Elephant Mountain.

We have been learning a LITTLE Chinese. Beneath the words "Taipei" on this sign

 are the symbols 象 (elephant) and 山 (mountain). Once you recognize a few symbols, 

you can get by in every day life. We are not at that stage yet.

Elephant mountain is a 10 minute walk from the MRT (which makes it the most popular) and can take you on hours of trail through some pretty breathtaking scenery. It also gives you a great and inexpensive view of the city:

I guess we should have picked a nicer day for this...

It was a rainy day, so we didn't get a great view, but you still get a pretty good feel from the city up there. Straight ahead is Taipei 101, Taipei's "Empire State Building"/"CN Tower". We'll have to go back and get a better shot on a nicer day.

Back to the hike, there are a few good shots that we took and would like to share with you. Enjoy!

If only I knew what these meant. They look really cool though.

Once we were off the mountain and walking back, we saw this amazing looking temple embedded in the mountains. On a nicer day, we plan to go back and explore it (and I'm overdue for sharing my experiences with temples here).

Until then, keep your feet dry and your hands warm.

- RS=T

School's in Session

Well here we go! This past week and half have been crazy busy as you'll read in this post, so our apologies for not posting! But we both have jobs and are very busy! Here's how it all worked out...



...Sharon, being a great teacher and human being, managed to find work right off the plane. The conversation at customs went something like this:



Sharon: "Hello, I am so excited to come to your country!"

Customs: "Hello, you're all clear and here is full time work."

Mine however went like this...

Russ: "Hello, I have nothing to declare."

Customs: "Neither do we."



Being a man and getting work is a little harder than it is being a woman. It's not sexist or anything, its just that there are a lot more younger kids to be taught, so generally they want the motherly type. Apparently, I lack that character type.

With a little persistence however, I managed to land not one job but three! One was for a two week stint before Chinese New Year, but the other two are ongoing until the summer (one is for adults, one is for children). It's been great teaching so far, so here is what we've learned about learning and we will teach you about teaching:

1) ESL is a completely different beast than public school teaching in Canada. It's not about expanding ideas and reaching beyond the nuts and bolts.. this IS the nuts and bolts. You can't have a conversation about the government, art, or even weekend activities if the students don't know how to express themselves. You really have to take it slow and drill into their heads "It is an eraser", "Wednesday is when we do our spelling test", and "I can't go to the movies because Johnny Depp is now officially creepy".

2) These kids work hard. This is a typical schedule for a Taiwanese child (grade 1).

         - 8:30 go to Chinese school
         - 12:00 eat lunch
         - 12:30 continue Chinese school
         - 1:30 take a nap at their desks at school (they bring a pillow, blanket, and toothbrush)
         - 2:00 English teacher like us come in and teach for 3 hours
         - 5:30 continue Chinese school
         - 7:00 go home. repeat.

It's amazing how they do it. But here, that's the norm and is always how it's been.

3) Small class sizes = the ability to connect with each child, even if it's only for two weeks.

4) Russ is a very foreign name. Russell is absolutely alien. So are beards.

5) Children are children wherever you go. Just because they have this crazy schedule, doesn't mean they are thoughtless robots. They are funny, silly, fidgety, just like every kid. Since parents pay to go to these schools, there is an expectation that students not only behave, but excel. They get that message at a young age, but still act like silly little kids.


All in all, teaching has been great so far. We have learned a lot of new skills already in this short time here in Taiwan and will probably pick up a whole bucket load more by the time we return. I already know I'm going to miss everything out here - the city, the life style, the teaching. We both try our best to not think about that because if we do, we're going to miss all the great things around us every day.

Speaking of great things around us every day, here's what's keeping the streets safe during mid day construction downtown Taipei today:

- RS=T

Weird Stuff...

The best part of this trip for me is being thrilled by the seemingly mundane/ordinary...

...like this lamp

...or this extremely delicious tiny banana that was given to us from the mountains

...or these things

Um.. wut? 

 Why yes, of course

"piggy brain soup"

awesome shirt

it might be the year of the sheep, but I'm gonna have the year of the pork

...the best thing for me by far has to be these two amazing 1980s cardboard adverts for a photography store....

- RS=T

Yuhliu Geopark

Greetings!

Although the city has offered us some great sights, there is a great handful of natural sights to be seen here as well. With our trusty tour guides, Byron and Cassie, we ventured 1.5 hours east of Taipei to visit the coast of the island to a place known as…

…Yehliu Geopark

Yehliu Geopark is a pretty neat place. It’s off a peninsula off the Northeast coast of Taiwan. Here are a few maps to get a sense of where it is located:

This park is famous for it’s limestone marine erosion, washed away in layers by ocean waves over thousands of years, making it look almost Mars-like. I can’t really describe it in its fullest detail, so here’s what it looks like:

This all at one point used to be under water but has risen to make these natural “mushroom” like shapes. Here are a few pics up close:

 Heroes in a halfshell

This is me spying on that hut over there

This one was my favourite:

 I think its a leopard...

...or a lion

The main attraction here is what's knows as the "Queen's Head" and unless you want to stand in line all day, it's impossible to get a clear shot of her... this is what happened...

Gotcha!

After all that fun and excitement we decided to walk all the way to the end of the peninsula and looked out onto the sea.

...oh how sweet it is!

- RS=T