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.

A house in Tainan

As promised, out BnB friends helped us find a job.  The AirBnb has new people booked for tonight se we need to get a job and relocate to a new place. Yesterday our hosts introduced us to a guy from Colombian named Sabastian.  He has been in Taiwan for 6 years and is quite the entrepreneur.  Among his many endeavors, today he is wearing the hat of English teacher recruiter.  He is trying to fix us up with a job at The Sesame Street School located in a nearby village. Today he arrived on his motorbike and informs us that even before meeting with our prospective employers, an employer sponsored group dinner is scheduled for next Saturday.  So what does that mean?  Is Barbara hired before even meeting the employer???  As usual, cultural differences abound. 

Sebastian carried us on his motorbike to a restaurant where we met Larry whose family owns The Sesame Street School. Nothing was finalized at the meeting, except that when Larry informed his mother, Nancy, that we had no place to stay, Nancy offered us her apartment in Tainan.  So now we have a woman whom we have never met, inviting us to live in her home, on the recommendation of Sebastian whom we just met, who vetted us on the word of our Airbnb hosts who have known us for 3 days. Larry gave us a  key and we now have the house all to ourselves. Neither Nancy nor her son are even staying here with us. There is cash everywhere, what looks like important papers, and all sorts of personal belongings lying about. I guess living on an island provides its own security  They figure we can not get off the island undetected so what is our potential harm?  Anyway, the 5th floor apartment with no elevator is ok and we are able to pirate off a neighbor's internet.  As usual, Barbara and Arin have only one key between them so are virtually attached at the hip.

Larry came by tonight and took us to the school where Arin and Barbara both gave a demonstration lesson.  We have no idea if Nancy liked our lesson as there was no feedeback.  There appear to be no other Westerners working at the school and maybe not even in the town, which is off the beaten path.  The staff are very nice and I think we get dinner every night.  Today they offered McDonalds and fried rice.  The school is actually in a town called Hunei.  It is 20 minutes to the beach.  That is the important part..

Tainan, Taiwan

We visited many schools and no one was hiring.  We visited the beach in Tainan and it was not impressive. The motorbikes are out of control. We are probably not going to move to Tainan.

Last night in Taipei

We spent our last night in a new BnB.  This one better reflects the city-clean, spacious, airy.  The last one was a bit musty and dark which was a good transition from Vietnam.  We went to our first night market, the Raohe, which is literally right around the corner.  Tomorrow we go to the railroad which is literally right across the street. We depart to Tainan, a smaller city where Barbara hopes to find a job.  We will stay in a BnB run by a couple of teachers who promise to help Barbara find a job.

AirBnB

Our first AirBnB placement is in the SongShan district.  Even though it is in the center of town, it is incredibly quiet.  Our host, Yogee is as helpful as can be, even letting us arrive early.  He rents out two rooms and our first roommate was a Korean man in the next room.. After that, a German fellow joined our household.  It is so comfortable that we feel part of the family.  Barbara has been all over town looking for jobs.  Even though there is an excellent underground train, she still spends about 2 hours trying to locate the schools.  She had two interviews.  One of them seems very casual, but the other is just the opposite and she is not interested.  Apparently she had a bad experience with some school in Vietnam to which I heard her referring as she walked down the street after non casual school interview.

Taipei, Taiwan

Culture shock!!!!  I was made in Vietnam so I am in shock to see that other places in the world are so clean! I had no idea!  Taipei is modern, clean, and best of all, pedestrians have the right of way. Wow,  I am speechless.  Give me a couple of days before I can  post again.

Note from Barbara:  If you remember from the first post, The Water Bottle Chronicles was founded on the premise that I had not personally purchased a water bottle since Nov 2015.  Now, due to airline regulations, I was forced to leave my last water bottle behind in Khoa's car.  Since coming to Taiwan I have not had the same luck, therefore, I am calling an end to The Water Bottle Chronicles.  If you wish to continue following my adventures, you may tune in to my next blog.

Red Eye to Taiwan

Hello, Barbara bought me on the plane.  My name is LaVie.  I heard through the LaVie grapevine that I am the first water bottle that Barbara has had to purchase since leaving Sacramento in November 2015.  Not only that, but she had to pay another $1 sky tax which is something the airline added to the normal fee.  I am probably the most expensive water bottle that will ever be purchased in Asia.  Anyway, as you know, Barbara came from Vietnam and is taking the red eye on VietJet.  She used her usual trick as the last person entering the plane so she could see which aisles were empty and get a whole row to herself.  It was a nice flight that left Ho Chi Minh City at 1:30 am arrived in Taiwan at 5:55am.  The only glitch was having to purchase a return ticket in order to get the USA free 90 day visitor Visa.  Taiwan, like many other countries, will not let you enter the country if you do not have an exit ticket.  Thankfully, a nice lady at the ticket counter let us use her computer to purchase a ticket with a 24 hour free cancellation.  She say she has helped many people this way.  I wonder if she can fathom the depths of her good deed. This simple act by a person working at a obscure job in an obscure airport in the middle of Southeast Asia has probably saved people thousands of dollars, not to mention, mountains of stress and everything that goes along with that.

Barbara: Alright, it's been a lot of fun writing in the third person, but since the budget airline didn't give me a free water bottle,
I'm in a new, less attractive phase now, the phase where every trip to the airport is filled with trepidation. The phase where something goes wrong every time.....