Category Archives: fun fact

Penthouse View

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We wandered down to Taipei 101 today. It’s a ten-minute walk to the subway station closest to it, and then you can take a free shuttle from the subway station to 101. It looks so much bigger close up. And the stores in the bottom of 101 are ridiculous. Cartier, Tiffany’s, De Beers, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or any other name-brand clothes and accessories that costs the amount of a small house or a really nice car you can definitely find there. We overheard a stat that 90% of the visitors are tourists and only 10% actually go there to buy things.

And since we were there, we had to go to the very top. It cost $400NT ($12USD) per person, and there was an elevator that took us from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in 37 seconds. Here’s proof from the elevator panel:


And when we got up there…

Buildings as far as the eye can see, in all four directions. They weren’t kidding when they said that there’s a lot of people in Taipei. I’m surprised the island hasn’t started sinking with all the weight.

Here’s the damper ball that keeps the building up. It’s 660 metric tons and very pretty.


We went walking around afterwards, and there’s a massive bookstore a few blocks away, as well as sad mall called New York, New York where the most interesting thing was the fake Statue of Liberty in front of it.


I’ll put the rest of my pictures up on Facebook, but I think I should open a Flickr account or something. I’ll leave you with the night time view from the front of our apartment.


Fun Fact: They change the lights on 101 every day according to the day of the week and the colors of the rainbow, ROY G BIV. Today is Sunday, so the lights are purple, if you can tell from the picture.

Because I Said So

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There’s too much rain and wind. Umbrellas are useless, as they are flimsy compared to the forces of nature. Tonight, my first junior high class was canceled due to the typhoon. Saturday classes are canceled as well, and if this continues, then we might have Monday off too. These “typhoon days” really are just as exciting as snow days used to be in Nashville, as rare and far between as they were. Now I’m pretty sure that all my teachers definitely used to sit in front of the television praying that Bill Hall and the Snowbird will announce that schools will be closed in Davidson County.

My 5th graders had Phonics homework with -oo words, i.e. book, pool, school, etc. One of the exercises told them to take the word hook and change the first letter and last letter accordingly to make up different words. They don’t ever read the directions carefully, so John ended up writing “poop” for one of his answers (instead of “coop”) and handed it in. I don’t think he knew what that word even meant.

On another note, we have to do communication books for our students every week, which is basically a book where we rate their comprehension, spelling, participation skills, etc., and the highest score is a 1 and the lowest is a 5. A 4 means “needs work” and is perceived to be very bad, and I have to include a comment if I give a 4. The average is a 3, so I’m supposed to give everyone a 3, unless they’re better than the others, then I give them a 2. Now, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing for most of my students, except a few 5th graders who have received 4′s because they talk way too much in class and it drives me crazy. And James, my 2nd grader who spaces out in class, and then his mom underlined my comment and added a note that said that if James continued to do so, please notify her. (Yikes, kinda reminds me of my mom.) So I felt kind of bad about that, but he seriously zones out and doesn’t pay attention.

Today, Ann, who is easily the best student in my 2nd grade class, said that she always got 1′s before me, and why do I only give 3′s and some 2′s? (Because that was what I was told to do!) I told her that maybe I have higher expectations than her other teachers, and the whole class went, “Awwwww Teeeeeeacher!” Then Stacy pipes up and goes, “My dad says that Teacher is very…”

Amused, I asked, “Very what, Stacy?”

Stacy ummed and ahhed for a bit, so I tried to help. “Hard? Mean? Bad? Come on, Stacy, what did he say?”

Then she replied that she only knew it in Chinese and didn’t know the English word, so I told her to tell me after class in Chinese. For the last 30 minutes of class, I couldn’t help but try to think of what Stacy’s dad could have said. Dumb? Inadequate? A terrible teacher?

After class, I had to stop Stacy before she ran out the door, and she threw two Chinese words at me.

which translates to strict in English.

Really? Teacher Tina is strict? I’m strict??

Uh oh, it really is in the genes. Am I turning into a strict Asian mom already?

Fun Fact: “Because I said so.” are the best four words in the English language.

“Awwww Teeeeeaacher, why do we do so many pages?”

“Because I said so.” =)

Home Sweet Home

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We are officially moved into our new apartment, and after some cleaning, it is sparkling and beautiful. We also have cable and fast internet, so all we need is a TV.. Once we get a little bit more furniture, I’ll take some pictures and share them with you. We also just discovered an adorable little wonton restaurant right next door to us, and it’s delicious. Guess who’s going to be regulars soon?

We live about a 10-minute walk from the closest subway stop, and about a 20-minute walk from Taipei 101. You can actually see 101 pretty well from the front of our building, so when New Year’s rolls around, and everyone is trying to get there to see the fireworks, we can set up camp right on the sidewalk or just walk there and not have to deal with the transportation madness.

I got to write in communication books today about my students to send home to the parents. I also had to write a letter introducing myself as a new teacher and explaining that I am “really excited!” to be teaching their children. Who would’ve thought that the little girl who got “talks too much in class” in her kindergarten communication book would one day get to rate her students and write their parents letters?

Fun Fact: McDonald’s delivers here! We’re so hitting that up. It really is a good thing we walk a lot here, or else I would be paying some serious overweight fees on the flight home.

(I finally have a facebook album up of some random pictures from the past few weeks.)

I Think I’ve Died..

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I have found my slice of heaven here in Taipei. It’s called SOGO shopping mall and has everything from Hermès to Christian Dior to Shu Uemura to Kate Spade. It’s like Sephora, Green Hills Mall, and 5th Avenue all compacted in two separate buildings with about ten floors each and they’re all filled with pretty and expensive things. It even has a bookstore consisting mostly of English books. I think I’ve bought more English books and magazines than anything else since I’ve been here, especially purses or shoes. You should be proud of me.

Fun Fact for the Day: Did you know that they don’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches here? It’s either a peanut butter sandwich or a jelly sandwich, but never together. I let my cousin take a bite, and she freaked out. Strange.

There is now air conditioning at my Uncle’s place. They just had it installed yesterday. I kind of had hoped that it wasn’t because Jennifer and I were staying there, and they thought we wouldn’t be used to the heat. We were coping just fine. However, it seems like they’ve been talking about it for awhile, and we just sped up the process.

I have a job offer! It’s from my favorite place out of all the places that I interviewed at last week. It’s in Neihu, which is about 20 minutes outside of downtown Taipei (and 20 minutes from SOGO). Even though it’s only part time in the afternoons, I think I’m going to take it and then find another part time morning at another place close by. And I never know, it might turn into full time. I’ll make a decision tomorrow. In the meantime, I technically have a job!