The Allen's Online Blog

I've been sick for a while with a nagging cough. It started as a fluid low in my lungs that kept me from sleeping at night. So, I went to the doctor and explained that I couldn't sleep because of the need to cough all night. To our surprise, the doctor didn't listen to my lungs, nor did he look at my throat. Instead, he put his stethoscope on my stomach. With great resolve he looked up and said, "You're sick because you eat too much." As this was a bit flabbergasting, we decided to dig deeper. Phillip asked him to listen to my lungs. So, he put his stethoscope on my lungs, listened to me breathe, and then as though he had wasted the last minute of his time he said, "Yes, yes, there is fluid in the lungs, but it is because you eat too much." Seeing that we were still unconvinced, he pulled out a book of diagrams of the body and showed us how the overabundance of food was pushing the extra liquid into my lungs. I have never learned so much in one doctor visit.
We decided to get a second opinion.

Labels: illness, Taiwan

We just got back from Cambodia. It was an amazing experience. We spent most of our time at Angkor Wat, one of the seven wonders of the world. It was all it was cracked up to be. I can't really describe all we saw, but we took over 500 pictures, many of which we're uploading now for you to see.
We ended up spending a lot of money, mostly on things that we didn't need but that were being sold by beautiful children trying to make enough money to go to school. We bought bracelets and T-shirts and whatever they were selling, but we also bought formula for an infant being toted by his begging ten-year-old brother.
Phillip's putting together a video now that should do a better job of summing up our trip.

Labels: vacation

Now you might be wondering who exactly writes these blogs when they are signed "Phillip and Jennifer"? Well that first sentence probably gives it away.... it isn't me Phillip. My job is to inspire and play a role in the blogs that are posted. I say why should the non-english major write when you have someone perfectly capable of not only writing, but writing well. I am a firm believer in placing people where they belong and where their strengths are at. I feel that I have the ability to write well, however the amount of time and effort it would take would consume me. I also do not want to bother those who can not stand all my grammar errors etc. I feel my gift is in speaking and communicating non verbally. For example : or ;?? (I don’t even know what is supposed to go there, a semi colon or a colon, you choose and get back to me). I was in a food shop here in Taiwan and I wanted some food (duh). Since this was like my second month here I did not know the word for chicken. I asked the lady in English for some chicken (thinking the single word might provide me with my desired sustenance), however this did not work. So I, being at a lose for words both n English and in Chinese, clucked like a chicken and flapped my wings (only a little bit and I did do it quietly). After a quick laugh from the cashier and a scolding from my wife I GOT MY CHICKEN! Now I know how to say a lot of basic food items and I don’t have to squak no more (I know that aint good English… guess what I teach English, good thing I have a textbook)! Have a great day!

Labels: Chicken, English, Phillip

There are a lot of things about Taiwan that don't stick out as being so different from what we're used to. Actually, the longer you're here, the more everything seems normal. Just to give you an idea of some of the little differences that start to seem normal, here's a list of Taiwanese things:
1. Family vehicle = scooter, fitting Mom, Dad, up to three kids and a dog
2. Stinky tofu
3. Squid on a stick
4. Corn and peas on every pizza
5. Corn on or in everything you order
6. Traffic lights are taken as suggestions
7. 7-11's on every corner, all of which sell tea eggs
8. KTV, or karaoke, is the thing to do on holidays... or any day
9. Bones even in chicken nuggets
10. Squat toilets
11. ALWAYS at least one hair in any meal when eating out
12. Men chewing and spitting betel nut everywhere you go
13. No tipping at restaurants
14. Night markets
15. Packs of dogs roaming the streets
16. Chasing after garbage trucks playing the ice cream truck song
17. Paying higher prices based on the fact we're white
18. The overwhelming smell of...?
19. Eating out every day is normal, and usually cheaper than cooking at home
20. Spending $3 U.S. a week on gas

Labels: Culture

Imagine the grand finale of the most amazing fireworks you have ever seen. Now, imagine that the finale lasts for hours, filling the night sky with magnificent hues of red, blue, white, and orange. Take your eyes just a bit further, and see the flame-filled red lanterns floating through the heights, adding romance to the festive aura. Come back down to earth, and see the bright lights and colors of fire-breathing dragons parading by, dancing to the rhythm of banging drums and cymbals. Feel the vibration of the music, the rhythm, the fireworks, and the excitement of the crowd. Smell the smoke as it wafts through the tightly packed crowd... smell the shampoo of the guy standing in front of you. I really cannot even begin to describe the lantern festival celebration. All I know is these people really know how to party. We had front row seats to an incredible fireworks display. The only downside being the ball of fire that fell from the sky and hit my leg, burning my pants. You'll never get a seat like that in Lititz!

Labels: Holidays

At the end of the day, I was sending the students home for the weekend when one of my first graders told me he was going to America tomorrow. I was taken aback, and thought maybe he was leaving for good, so I asked when he was coming back. He responded with, "I don't know. I think I'll be back for school on Monday." I told him that it takes that long just to fly to America and back. He wouldn't even have time to get off the plane. He told me, "I know. That's why we're taking the train. It's faster." You would think that I would have given up on reasoning with first graders by this point in the year, but no, I tried to tell him that you can't take a train to America because America is across the ocean and trains drive on land. His best friend saw through my excuse and quickly responded, "Yes they can, if the train can fly!" So, my student is flying in a High Speed Train to America for the weekend.
Actually, because I was concerned at this last minute trip to America, and the boy had no idea why he was going, I thought it must be a funeral or something serious. So, I asked at the office if they knew what was going on. The secretary was surprised too, so she immediately called his parents. Strangely enough, they were surprised too! After reflecting for a moment, his mom told us that they were going to see Disney on Ice. He must have thought they were going to Florida because they were going to Disney. No train to America after all.

Labels: School

Did you forget that it's the New Year? It is, here, you know. The fireworks are incredible, legal, and never-ending. They have literally been going non-stop for well over a week now. It's festive during the day, but frustrating when we're trying to sleep.
We had a week off for the holiday, with which we did very little. We went to the hot springs in Taipei on Monday. I failed to read the sign written in English warning not to stay in one pool for more than 15 minutes. I blacked out. Oops. We spent the day with a couple of our foreigner friends (that's us here) and had a lovely day.
The rest of the week was spent resting, which was needed. We did, however, take a break from our nothingness to put on a grand performance at the city celebration to welcome in the new year. We sang, and Phillip did acrobatics, to "Webtastic," a cheesy song from the children's Christmas musical. Our school is invited every year to join several big name groups, singers, and other entertainers in the important celebration. I think we're the comic relief, or the opportunity to laugh at a bunch of foreigners making fools of themselves. It was a fun time anyway.
We're back at school now, but the holiday will go on for another week. The fireworks continue to go off all day, but I don't think the students are nearly as distracted by them as I am. Today one went off surprisingly close to our outside wall, I pretended I was shot, but the kids are too used to their New Year's celebrations to be fooled.

Labels: Holidays

We attended our first Taiwanese wedding yesterday. Actually, it was a mixed American and Taiwanese wedding -- racially, culturally, and linguistically. Phillip was blessed with the experience of leading worship for the service. The ceremony was in English and Chinese, including the vows of the bride and groom. It was held in a church, and was very similar to a traditional American wedding. The reception, however, was anything but traditional... at least, according to American tradition. The reception was held in a beautiful Chinese restaurant built over waterways and filled with red lanterns. The meal consisted of fourteen courses (including plenty of raw fish and other Chinese dishes that I'm not always the first to eat, but some very tasty dishes as well)and lasted for over three hours. According to Taiwanese tradition, the bride changed three times throughout the reception. Each change was thorough; including coordinating jewelry, hair clips, and shoes. It was an amazing experience.
My mom should be grateful that we're not Taiwanese. She would have had to make me four wedding dresses.

Labels: Culture

Wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since we've blogged! Since our last post, we've been to two countries, seen the year pass, and even been to Disneyland. We spent Christmas in Boracay, Philippines. It was beautiful beyond description. It's the only place we've ever been that actually looked better than the post-cards. We stayed for a week, and then planned to return to a responsible week of cleaning and lesson planning, but instead we went to Hong Kong and spent my birthday in Disney. It was a delightful vacation. We returned to a full load of work, as my partner first grade teacher did not return from vacation and it was report card season. (Phillip even had a chance to teach first grade!) Things are beginning to slow down now. Tonight we'll have visitors for the first time since our move.
We've begun the job hunt for the fall. Please keep us in prayer as we seek God's direction for our future. Can't wait to see what He has for us next!

So, from all of the bouncing around on our semi-violent scooter, I ended up with an injured back. Through a connection at school, I found an English speaking chiropractor and made an appointment for the following evening. Unfortunately, this connection was a bit lacking in the directions area and sent me off with "Go under the bridge. Take the road until it ends, then go right. Go to the light and take a left. Then turn right, then left, and his is the third house on the left." Those were the actual directions. No road names. No landmarks. I should have never left the house, but of course, I did.
I left a good bit of time, assuming that I would get lost. After wandering for about 30 minutes, I called to say I was lost, and to ask for directions. The woman who answered the phone responded by saying, "Ok. Just call when you get here!" Hmmm... So, I continued down the poorly paved road weaving through fields. I never actually reached a stop light to turn left at. In fact, I didn't reach anything for quite some time. After about an hour and a half of nothingness, the bumpy trail dumped me onto a road with a lone structure: a gas station. From this gas station, I could see the distant lights of a city, my city. I pulled in and called the chiropractor again to see if he could help me find my way. I had to hand the cell phone off to the attendant so that he could explain where I was. The gas station attendant talked to my chiropractor for quite some time, until my phone died. Being a very kind man, the attendant used his own cell phone to call the chiropractor back. Eventually he handed the phone back so the chiropractor could inform me that I had left the city and crossed a mountain and was too far away to bother coming back, so I should just try to go home. Go figure. So, I started up my scooter... wait. Let's try again. I started up my scooter... No. The scooter wouldn't start. In fact, I was completely out of gas, but had been to caught up in finding my way to notice. So, there I was, in the dark, lost on a mountain with no cell phone, no gas, and no English speakers. Praise God the scooter died at a gas station and not on those back mountain roads! After fueling up, I tried to get directions home, but no one spoke English, so I just headed back the way I came. Amazingly enough, I made it back to my apartment that same night.
I rescheduled my appointment for the next morning, but this time I took Phillip with me. Naturally, we got lost again, but we did stay on this side of the island. The chiropractor ended up coming to pick us up. Did I say "chiropractor?" Turns out he actually specializes in acupuncture. So, he took us to his home, I laid on a sofa in his living room, he put long needles into my back and then lit them on fire to send healing herbal heat into my muscles. I apparently have a slipped disc, and if the acupuncture doesn't help, he's sending me to a chiropractor. He says if I was in the States they would have recommended surgery, but such things aren't necessary here. Imagine that.

Labels: Adventures

My Grandmother is always telling me that I should hold on to the cute things my students say, because I'll appreciate the stories as time goes by. So, here's something cute.
Phillip started working as an ESL tutor for the same school where I am the first grade teacher. The kids really make a big deal about me being married. They whisper and giggle whenever Phillip visits the classroom. Some of them are appalled and say they hate married people, some of them think it's funny that a boy and girl can like each other, some of them think it's romantic, and some of them are just baffled that we can be married and not have children. One of the girls tries to make me jealous by hugging Phillip or holding his hand, and then reporting to me later that she was touching my husband.
At lunch the other day, the girls were being dramatic about me talking to Phillip. One of the girls asked me, "Why does Mr. Allen always want to sit with you?" I leaned in and whispered, "I think he likes me!" They all squealed and giggled and covered their mouths in shock. Then, another girl leaned over and whispered in my ear, "I think he loves you!" and then screamed at the horror of her own statement. This started the table talking about how crazy married people can be. The girl who had whispered in my ear got the table's attention with something that seemed like it must be big news. "Do you want to know something so crazy?!?" she asked. "My mom likes my dad's bum-bum!" This time, I had to laugh too.

P.S.
I'm now playing Santa Claus for in the school musical. :D

Labels: work

Is it hard to believe it's been a year? If you had asked me a year ago where I saw us in the future, I would have been totally off. It's amazing how many challenges, changes, joys, blessings, adventures, and struggles we've gone through in our first year of marriage. It seems like so long ago that we were celebrating our marriage. In a sense, it feels like we've been married forever. Not in a bad way, it's just hard to imagine life before/without Phillip. And now, here we are in Taiwan, still at the beginning, still trying to figure out our future.
We took the weekend to get away to Sun Moon Lake, a scenic spot in the mountains. Surprisingly, we survived with very little adventure. Our only challenge was the usual communication barrier, and a bank card that wouldn't work. So, we spent very little money and accepted a free ride from strangers. It was a beautiful place, and it's always nice to breathe the air outside of the city. You'll have to check out some of the pictures from the weekend, it's definitely different from where we're living.

Labels: vacation

Today was my first Saturday not working since I've been in Taiwan. We were excited for the time off and for the time together. So, we decided to spend the day in the mountains. (The mountains of Hsinchu are supposedly some of the most beautiful in Taiwan.) We packed a picnic lunch and scooted off around 11 a.m. After driving a good 40 minutes longer than we expected, we finally arrived at a mountain spot filled with extravagant worship for the oven god. There were beautiful temples, a market place, dancers, musicians, and lots of Taoists pilgrims. We followed the road to its end, where there was a hiking "trail" for those who wished to continue to the peak. This trail was about six inches wide, and looked like it had not been hiked in a very long time, or at least not very often. Any other foreigner probably would have taken the hint and turned back, but not us. We accepted the challenge and charged into the woods full of excitement to reach the peak. After a few minutes, we wondered if we were really on a trail at all, but we hadn't seen anything else that could've been the trail, so we carried on. It wasn't long before we were scaling mud and stone walls and sliding down small cliffs to follow this "trail." After about two hours, any hint of a trail was gone, and we were lost. We tried to call our friends, who we were having dinner with later that evening, to tell them we were lost, and might be late, but the cell phone battery was dead. So, we were somewhere on the top of a mountain with no phone and no direction and nothing but sharp cliffs to follow. We decided to try and find our way back the way we had come, always a good idea, but having lost the trail, it was a bit difficult to know exactly where we had come from. There's no way to describe the peril we were in without making some sort of action film. We were literally holding on to the side of the mountain as we trekked along the edge of a cliff, wandering in the hopes of making it off the mountain before dark. There were several times were the trail would give way under our feet and we were only saved by grabbing onto some tree branch or other sturdy plant as we were plummeting off the edge. One time, there was a landslide under my feet, but I had already been holding onto a tree branch with both hands for support. What a frightening thing it must have been for Phillip to hear the land collapse beneath my feet and turn to see me literally swinging from a tree branch with nothing underneath me. There were several times when I thought Phillip was going to take the quick way down the mountain as well. It was a bit disconcerting at the time, but now I wish we would've taken more pictures... maybe even a brief film.
Eventually, we did find our way back to some sort of trail, but we weren't entirely sure where it would lead. It lead us to a man who lived in a cave. We're guessing he was Hakka, because he couldn't understand anything we said in Chinese (then again, it could've been our horrible accent). After some vivid attempts at communication, he threw all of his belongings into a bag and led us down the mountain. Apparently, it was so easy even a cave man could do it. ;)

I was waiting in line in the cafeteria when the fourth grade teacher approached me and asked if I danced. I told her that I had taken lessons when I was little. She then asked if I would choreograph the Christmas musical. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. I reiterated the fact that I hadn't danced in a long time, but she responded with the fact that she's never taken dance lessons and she's been doing the school choreography for the last few years. Finally, I acquiesced to her request. "I knew you looked like a dancer," was her satisfied response.
Apparently, Taiwan can make you a lot of things you're not: a choreographer, a biker chic, a first grade teacher. I feel like I'm living in a world of make-believe where every step is not my own. This attitude, however, does make me feel more confident. After all, if something goes wrong, it's just a glitch with the role. I really think I would be willing to try just about anything, at least, while I'm living in a foreign country.

Labels: work

I started my new job on Monday. Most of you are probably wondering, "What new job?" Well, that's what happens when you live around the world with no international calling plan! While I was enjoying my job teaching English at the Hess language school, it wasn't going to cut it financially. We could've gotten by ok, but there would be no way of saving enough money to fly back home. An international school in the area was desperate to find a first grade teacher, and they found me. So, now I am teaching at Hsinchu International School. The children are from all over the world, but all of their classes are in English. It's pretty much the same as if I were teaching first grade in the States... which I would never do.
So, I started Monday with a bad cold, no energy, no voice, 17 energetic first graders, and two full time jobs (each afternoon, when the kids went home, I went to Hess to continue teaching until 9pm). It was an interesting beginning. The first day, I appointed "line leaders" for lunch and recess. The kids thought it was a reward, in reality I had no idea where the cafeteria and the playground were. I don't think they believed me that I didn't have a voice either, they thought it was some sort of whispering/listening game. Oh, well. I think I'd rather their parents get this translation anyway.
Phillip and I got up early Saturday morning so we could decorate the classroom before I had to go to work. I'm working on a fun Dr. Seuss theme. Phillip has been really helpful in assuring my survival through all the craziness. Now, the worst part is over. Saturday was my last day at Hess, so starting tomorrow I'll be a normal teacher with only one full time job. Overall, things are looking up. I'm excited about the new job, and we've been finding some more food options that make life a little more comfortable. With my MUCH improved salary, we're even going to be able to travel a bit. We booked a vacation for Boracay, an island in the Philippines, for Christmas vacation. (I would not have had any Christmas vacation with the old job, but now I have two weeks, paid.) I can't wait!
Actually, I'm hoping to spend some time reading on the beach while I'm there, but I've already finished all the books I brought, and it's hard to find good literature in English here (although, I can get the Harry Potter series in Mandarin ridiculously cheap). Has anyone read anything good lately that you'd want to mail to Taiwan? :) I'll return it!

Labels: work

No I am not talking about Jennifer... well she has some of the above.... nevermind. Ok so we STINK at posting. A lot has happened since our last post.... I have been asked to Blog about the latest addition to our family. A nice, ok not so nice, scooter.
Scooters are all the rage here. They are really the best way to get around. But since they are soo popular they are all over the place. So it is a bit hard to drive, worse then NY but with scooters and cars mixed together. Our little scooter was actually an opportunity for a local missionary to get to know someone better. We met him through one of our contacts here and he knew a guy who sold scooters. So we went and looked at scooters. A few days later since we really needed a scooter (jennifer was driving 12 miles a day to work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), we bought one. We found one in our price range and with a big enough engine to get us around (it is hard for smaller engined scooters to get up the mountains nearby). But like most cars we own, it was a clunker. It smokes a lot and it is a sight that causes sore eyes but it gets around. We paid around 13,000 for it. That is New Taiwanese Dollars where 1 US dollar equals 32 NTD. We will try to post some pictures of it later!

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

We spent Saturday walking the streets to get a feel for the city. Unfortunately, most places were closed for the weekend, but the few that were open made our experience worthwhile! We saw a beautifully ornate temple filled with worshipers bowing, burning incense, and throwing red crescents on the floor in order to interpret their future. I wish we had pictures, but it seemed disrespectful to be snapping photos in the temple.
Our major cultural experience was lunch. We lost ourselves on a small backstreet and experienced a thing called "Shabu Shabu." The restaurant workers only spoke Mandarin, but God blessed us with an English speaking patron. The English speaker told us how to order by first choosing a meat. Then, two platters of food, one with our chosen meat and the other with mixed vegetables and loads of unknown items, were brought to our table. Everything was raw and we were given a pot of boiling water to cook our meal. We also made our own sauces from a bunch of unlabeled spices and sauces. It was incredible! Sunday, we took a group back to the "Shabu Shabu," but I was too sick to eat :(
Other random interests, we met a Canadian and a Chicagoian at breakfast
Monday started training, what a day!! We worked hard from 8 in the morning until about 7 at night. Then, after an authentic (and cheap!) dinner, we socialized with some new friends on the hotel roof. We had to be back in our rooms by 9:00 to await phone calls from our branch heads.
My phone call brought many surprises! First of all, this week of training is to prepare us for English language classes, but I just discovered that I won't even be teaching English! I'll be teaching math and scenic in an "English Only" school. Also, whereas the English classes have a strict curriculum to follow, I'll be writing my own curriculum. Housing, location, career, schedule, and transportation are all different from what I was expecting, but I'm still just as excited, if not more!

On a funny note, I had several embarrassing moments during our first day of training. On one occasion, one of the teachers was showing us motions for a song. He said "show me singing," meaning for us to come up with a hand motion. I burst out singing a nice, loud "la!" oops :)

For the sake of those who do not want to have to log in or an account with myspace, we will be using Flikr to share our pictures with you! The address is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenabroad/

Labels: pictures

Besides e-mail (if you dont have our e-mail please get it from one of our friends or family members) you can call us for free using Skype. Go to www.skype.com download the free program and set it up. Then call us our skype ID is allenabroad GET SKYPED

Labels: Contact

Greetings from Taiwan ~The Allens

Our Travels:

Our trip so far has been non-stop adventure! We left our apartment at 4:30 am to arrive early for our 7:04am flight out to San Francisco. We loaded up the car and departed (after a few 4 am adventures). We arrived at the airport and ran in to some problems with the fact that we had no return flight home booked. Apparently, there is a rule to fly internationally now, you must have a return flight booked before you can leave the USA. After we purchased a ticket for a date that we know we are not returning on (you can't just say to book it next year because it doesn't work that way!), we were allowed to go through security.

Picture this: Arrive at the airport at 4:45am for a 7am flight. Wait in a line that cant take care of you because you have no return flight book. Wait in another line to fix the problem. Then you are told that to fly out you need to book a return flight. Then wait in another line to pay for a ticket you might not get refunded and know you are not going to use. KEEP IN MIND WE NEED FLY OUT @ 7:04am. Purchase tickets for a large amount of money (980 per person, one way). Then are told that you can change them or cancel them for a fee. Rush to security to go through a special line because we leave in 1 hour. Get through security then arrive right when they are boarding the first passengers. Take a 6 hour flight across the US (ahhh a time change) to San Francisco, (Phillip has never been to CA). Arrive in San Fran around 10 am local time, 1 pm east coast time. Eat lunch because our bodies are confused, then anticipate a 13 hour flight. Board our humungo 777 with United.

Our flights were filled with movies, TV shows, plenty of trips to the bathroom, reading and talking. Jennifer had the pleasure to sleeping, however, I did not (Bad back does not help for sleeping semi-sitting up). We arrived at the airport around Friday 4:30pm local time and 4:30am east coast time. Met our driver (who did not speak English), after passing with ease through customs and immigration. Drove north to Taipei where we are currently staying in a hotel called the Golden China hotel.

The hotel is very nice, we have free internet!! We are here all week. Our first night was good as we arrived at night so even though we were exhausted we walked around for about an hour just so when we went to sleep we would sleep through the night. However sleeping for me was not that easy because in the past week I have averaged 3-6hours a night because we have been so busy. We went to sleep around 8:30pm and of course Jennifer was out like a light and then I went to sleep. I woke up around midnight thinking about the fact that it was 12 in the afternoon in the states so that kinda messed with my brain a bit! Then both Jennifer and I woke up off and on after midnight until both of us got up around 4:30am here (4:30pm in the states). I took a bath as my back is hurting pretty bad and Jennifer journaled. Then we got ready a bit and went to breakfast. Breakfast was a mix of American foods with Taiwanese food. There was ham that had no taste to speak of (was rather interesting), fried oysters, sausage, eggs, breads, cereal, salad bar, rice, and sushi. There were a lot of other items but I have no idea of what to call them.

Well I am signing off, we will be updating this regularly in our first week but as time goes we'll update it weekly. Today we will take some pictures and walk around Taipei. We start training on Monday. There is sooo much more to say but we will say some more later!! To view more pics you must have myspace.... get it and check us out at myspace.com/allenabroad

Find me on MySpace and be my friend!