The Allen's Online Blog

As some of you have heard, we've survived our first earthquake. It was actually pretty big. The neighbor was terrified and ended up with a crack in his apartment wall. We slept through the whole thing. Other news, we still don't have a scooter, so I have to ride my bike six miles to work every Mon, Wed, and Fri. I thought I was going to die on my first trip. It didn't help that I got dreadfully lost and doubled the journey. Phillip found a grocery store and bought some cooking supplies... it's so nice to experience his cooking again! I've survived my first Taiwanese illness. It was just a cold, but it was pretty rotten. Classes are still going well. We went to a party for Moon Festival on Saturday, but don't worry, we didn't participate in any worship of the moon :)
Church on Sunday was awesome. It was so good to be able to worship God with other people who are in love with Jesus. It really seems so different to go to church in a country where hardly anyone knows Christ. I don't know if it's a church we would have chosen in the States, but here if you find Christians, you take them! We were talking to a professor at a restaurant the other night, I think he wanted to practice his English. We told him we were Christians and he was very surprised. He said, "Oh. Are there Christians in Taiwan?" Apparently we're a novelty!
On a funny note, the English radio station here is a riot. Popular songs include "Gangtser's Paradise," "Girlfriend," and other outdated or overplayed songs. We were in a 7-11 the other day (yes, they have them. In fact, they're on just about every corner) and we heard the words begin... "I've been livin with a shadow overhead. I've been sleeping with a cloud over my bed..." For those of you that might not recognize these words, it's from "Music and Lyrics." It's the song they were writing together. It's not even a real song!! Then, when we were at Chili's we heard another song from the same movie. This time, it was the kinky pop-star's "big hit." I don't remember the lyrics, I just remember it being a mockery of people like Brittney Spears. I don't know who selects the music for the radio station, but I think they should be replaced.
This weekend was Moon Festival, so I had off of work for Monday and Tuesday. Originally, we were going to go to Sun Moon Lake with some friends from training. Unfortunately, things fell through last minute. I hated the idea of being stuck in our city all weekend, but we lacked money and direction. So, we packed a couple outfits and a blanket to sleep on outside if necessary, and headed to the train station to see if we could afford tickets to go somewhere... anywhere. When we arrived at the train station, we pulled out the map to try and determine a good location. While we were pointing at a place called Keelung, a man came up behind us and said, "Keelung! Right this way!" and rushed us off to the right bus stop. So, we went to Keelung! (It was only about $3.50 American per person for the tickets.) From there, after getting lost for a spell, we caught a bus up the long and winding trail to Fulong, a beautiful beach on the northeast shore. We had planned on sleeping on the sand, since we are extremely low on funds, however, on the way there it started to rain quite hard. By the time we arrived, the rain had slowed, but the sand was wet and we were no longer thrilled about sleeping under the stars. We walked the street to find a hotel, but because of the holiday all the hotels were full. We were told we had to go to the resort because they were the only place around that might still have some rooms. We walked to the resort - it was very nice. They, too, were out of rooms, but they did have some private structures available. Because it was already past 11pm, they gave us %30 off, which was good because they were definitely outside of our budget. The room/cabin was amazing!! There are really no words, but we will upload the video we made as soon as we have a chance to use REAL internet. Anyways, the beach was amazing. Aside from getting burnt to a crisp, we had an incredible time! After spending the day at the beach, we went to Taipei to see the tallest building in the world. Unfortunately, because it's so tall, it's location is rather deceptive. I saw the top of the building from the train station and told Phillip, "I can see it! It has to be close!" We ended up walking at least five miles to get to it! After having already spent the majority of the day walking, we were quite tired by the time we arrived. We didn't stay long before heading to Chili's for an amazing dinner.

Labels: vacation

Today was my first day teaching. We finished training on Saturday and had a lovely little party in the President's house. He wasn't actually there to congratulate us, but we were content to drink his wine and eat his cheese. :)
The real party didn't begin until 9"30, but Phillip and I decided to take a nap at 7:30 and accidentally slept through the meeting time... by a lot!
Sunday, we took the bus to Hsinchu; our new home. Unfortunately, as the bus driver didn't speak English and we were left with little direction, we got off at the wrong stop. After a plethora of phone calls, however, we were eventually found. Keith, our head NST, and Hariet, one of the Chinese teachers, picked us up, took us to lunch, helped us find an apartment, and took us shopping for all of the essentials to set up our new home. All that done and we were moved in by 7:00 pm.
The apartment is very nice, especially for what we're paying (it comes to about $300 a month before utilities). The shower is one with the bathroom, but there's a drain in the floor. We'll post pictures as soon as we have internet at home.
The All English Experimental School seems fun so far, and the kids are beautiful. Beautiful, but rambinxious. Thankfully, the AE school is within walking distance from our apartment (about 3/4 a mile??). I start teaching at the public school tomorrow. This will be much firther and could present an issue until we can get our hands on a scooter.

Labels: late posts