SesameStreetSchool

 The apartment is comfortable,, there is plenty of food nearby and we're excited to begin our next phase. Larry came by in a car and took us to meet Nancy at the school.  It is quite a distance from Tainan so it doesn't appear we will be living in the apartment. It's in a suburb called Hunei-definately a smaller town than Tainan. More like a village, a farming village where the main business is fish farming.  

When we arrived, Nancy informed Barbara that she must give a demonstration lesson.  This seems to be the norm.  It is also the norm to not tell you ahead of time.  Arin was also invited to demo and decided to do it.  The demos were an hour long. I think this is rude and abusive. The schools are basically getting free teaching.  After the demos, we were fed, then reminded about the group dinner tomorrow night.  There was no feedback on the lesson and are we hired or not?????. So here we are left in the dark.  The Asian cultures seem to have no urgency.  Since we aren't paying rent, we are just going with the flow.  I mean, we are staying at Nancy's house so eventually she needs to make a move.  There appear to be no other Westerners working at the school and maybe not even in the town of Hunei,  The Taiwanese staff are very nice, unlike the former Vietnamese staff at ILA, and I think they get fed dinner every night.  Lots of schools do that.  After our demo, Nany fed us lunch. You will never guess what it was. Here is a hint. What is the most iconic Western restaurant? Did you guess it? Fast food! And not just any fast food, McDonalds fast food. You should have seen the school staff. They were so proud to be able to give American food to Americans. They were beaming. It reminded me of the times in Bien Hoa when a local person would score a Budwiser beer and offer it to us as American delicacy. So here we are, finally in the midst of Taiwanese culture looking forward to real Chinese food only to discover that McDonalds is on the menu!  Not only that, but Arin is a vegetarian. Later, Nancy asked what we wanted for dinner. Our request was fried rice for dinner. They couldn't believe it.  

The school is 20 minutes to the beach by motorbike.  We do not really want to live in this town, but it is probably the best bet for Arin to get a job without a diploma, and it pays $65,000 TD per month which is $2000 USD.  Arin could go to college on that amount.  Also, we feel obligated now.