Word by Word if not Side by Side

I used a random number generator and an old copy of the Word by Word picture dictionary.  If you're doing free writing in your English class, Word by Word can be a good way of generating more interesting responses.

June 12

1. Can you act?

Nowadays?  I have no idea.  I studied acting in college, and I was seriously considering becoming an actor in my early 20s.  People told me I was good at it, but then again when you're doing that kind of thing and you're desperately looking for approval friends tend to provide it.

Anyone who knows me now is going to have an incredibly difficult time imagining this, but the height of my acting career was playing a gay man dying of AIDS in a play I can't even remember the name of.  This event would have occurred in the early 90s, a year or so after I graduated high school.

I was hanging out with a lot of actors at the time, and I suppose that led me to the idea that maybe, just maybe I could act for a living.  Then, after a few months passed, I realized I was developing a penchant for exhibitionism, and it seemed to me that putting myself up on stage wasn't exactly nourishing the healthiest parts of my character.  Besides, I had other things I wanted to do, and other ways in which I wanted to develop (or be developed) as a person.  For this reason acting, and dreams of acting, quickly fell by the wayside.

Do I regret not pursuing acting as a career?  Not at all.  I'm thankful to my drama classes for helping me overcome my shyness, but being the center of attention in that way seemed to feed something less wholesome in myself, and at the time I had a very strong feeling that acting was not a good thing for me to do.

2. What's your occupation?

I teach English at a public elementary school in Taitung, Taiwan.  I have been so employed for two decades, though I've switched schools, regions and even countries several times.  I've taught at two elementary schools and one junior high in Taitung, three elementary schools and one junior high in Pingtung, and several elementary schools in the Seattle area, though teaching positions I held in Seattle were a lot more marginal.

3. Where's the clock? (and) Where's the dictionary?

The only clock in this room is in the supply closet behind the classroom.  I put it there on purpose.  There may be teachers who can use a clock effectively, but I've never found that a clock displayed in any classroom is a good thing.  The Windows clock that students can see on the smart TV is bad enough.

The Word by Word picture dictionaries, which I took all of the questions in this entry from, are on two sets of shelves along the wall to my immediate left.  There are over twenty copies of this book here.  There used to be a set of Chinese-English dictionaries in this room as well, but I banished those to the school library last semester.  I regard those things as just about useless in 2026.

4. May I take your order? (and) And what kind of salad would you like? (and) And for the main course? (and) What side dish would you like with that? (and) Would you like some dessert?

Yes, you may.  I'd like blue cheese dressing, and if you don't have that some kind of vinaigrette.  For the main course I'll have the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich with the jalapeno bacon, or the hickory smoked bacon if you don't have jalapeno.  Dill rye bread.  For the side I think I'll go with the French fries.  I won't be needing desert.

5. Where are you going? (and) How do you want to send it? (and) Do you want me to mail this letter?

At the moment I'm going nowhere, and no, that's not a philosophical statement.  I have class in five minutes so I'm unable to leave.

I want you to send it to Port Angeles, Washington.  I'll be joining it there shortly.  The letter?  No, I shan't be mailing that today.

6. Oh, no!  I think I lost my ring! (and) Oh, no!  I think I lost my earrings!

I lost my wedding ring in the ocean once.  The salt water made it too slippery.  The thing just slid right off and disappeared.  Up in Dulan, I think.  Or maybe Nanwan.  It was a while ago.

My older daughter loves earrings.  Anytime we're in a new, touristy place earrings are the first thing she looks for.

7. Please seat the customers. (and) Would you like a booth? (and) Do you have any job openings? (and) This restaurant has a wonderful salad bar.

Why am I seating the customers?  I don't even work here!

I would generally prefer a booth.  Booths are nice.

I don't employ anyone at present.  My cats, however, are in the market for a box cleaner and general feeder.  If you have experience cleaning cat boxes and feeding cats you are welcome to apply.  The pay is a pat on the back every few hours... if I remember to pat you on the back.  I probably won't.

I haven't been to a salad bar in ages.  The last salad bar I can remember visiting was in the Noble Family Steak House located in Sanxia, New Taipei City, during one of the excruciating multi-day seminars we used to have up there.  I remember being very disappointed with the food.

8. What did you do yesterday morning/afternoon/evening? (and) What did you do last night? (and) What are you going to do tomorrow morning/afternoon/evening/night? (and) What did you do last week? (and) What are your plans for next week? (and) How many times a week do you have English class/go to the supermarket/exercise? (and) What's your favorite season?  Why?

Yesterday morning I woke up, turned off my alarm, fed the cats, cleaned the cat box, poured myself a glass of water, used the bathroom, read part of a novel, drove my car to work and then (probably) logged into this website.

Yesterday afternoon I was very bored.  I only had one class, and little to do besides that.  I remember watching YouTube videos for a while: Rick Beato's interview with Anika Nilles, Rush's new drummer, and other classic rock-type stuff.

Yesterday evening we went to Qilipo 七里坡 because I wanted fried chicken, but the server there was rude to my wife and we ended up walking out.  We had beef noodles at Chen Family 陳家 Beef Noodles instead.

Last night I watched The Forty Year Old Virgin for the thousandth time because I had a headache and I didn't want to think about anything.  That movie has held up pretty well, though I think in 2026 it works better as a drama than as an outright comedy.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to go swimming in the Flowing Lake if it's not pouring down rain.  After that I'll buy a latte at 7-11 and breakfast somewhere else.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll likely be watching Disclosure Day at the local theater.  I also saw Backrooms recently and I feel the need to say that Backrooms is awesome - best movie I've seen in a long time.  I doubt I'll like Disclosure Day as much as Backrooms, but I feel confident that it will also be good.  Spielberg has an excellent track record when it comes to science fiction.

Tomorrow evening I'll be either drinking beers with friends or sitting in my living room, watching movies and drinking beers with my wife.  It depends on whether I go out tonight or not.

Tomorrow night I'll be in bed, sleeping.  Don't call or text after 10 pm, because I usually forget to set my phone to airplane mode before bed.

Last week I did the same things I did this week, the only difference being that my younger daughter came to visit.  We spent Sunday driving up the East Rift Valley, mostly because it had been a while since she'd visited that part of Taitung.  On the way to Chrshang we stopped at Luye, where my wife and daughter bought too many crackers, and at Guanshan, where we discovered that the stinky tofu place was closed that day.  The lunch we had in Chrshang was not good.

Next week is the Dragon Boat Festival weekend.  On Friday we'll drive our cats over to Kaohsiung, where our daughters will watch them until the end of August.  My only plan for that weekend is visiting Shanhua in Tainan.  I want to take pictures of that area.

Technically speaking I have 20 English classes a week, though I'm not responsible for (directly) teaching all of those classes.  For a few of those classes I'm the backup guy, and I'm fine with that.

I go to (Big) PX Mart or Carrefour once or twice a week.  If it's twice a week it's because my wife and I decided to have sushi at the (Big) PX Mart after work.  That branch of Zhongxian is the most convenient place to eat near her school, and this option becomes even more attractive during the hotter parts of the year.

I try to exercise four times a week, but sometimes things come up and I miss a day.  Yesterday, for example, I planned to go running but later began to feel a little sick and decided to stay home.  (I'm fine now, by the way.)  All things being equal, I go running on Tuesday and Thursday, and swimming on Saturday and Sunday.  For a while I was trying to bicycle back and forth to work on Thursdays as well, but the recent weather has made this activity less feasible.

My favorite season in Taitung is definitely spring, more specifically the weeks between the end of March and the beginning of April.  It's not cold then, but also not as hot as it is later in the year.  It's a good time for getting out of doors.

9. Are you planning to travel soon? (and) How did you arrange your trip?

Yes, I'll be going to the States from July 13 to August 9.  I'll be spending the majority of that time in Port Angeles, Washington, where my parents live.  I might also venture down to Las Vegas, where my sister's family lives.

I find that a lot of those travel websites don't work well now.  I bought my tickets directly from the EVA website, and I bought bus tickets from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Port Angeles directly from the Greyhound website.

I don't want to plan a trip to Vegas now because I want to see how energetic I feel in Port Angeles first.  If my wife and I feel up to it I'll probably buy tickets for Vegas on the Alaska Airlines site.

10. I'd like a ______, please.

We'd all like a ______ now and then, but be advised that a _____ is illegal in some countries.  Please _____ responsibly.

June 14

11. I'd like a ______, please.

Well that's very naughty.  Where would you like it?

12. I think we need a new refrigerator.

As it happens I do actually need a new refrigerator.  Our old one still works but it's starting to make odd, unrefrigeratorlike noises.  We've been to Carrefour, (Big) PX Mart and 全國電子 (does that place even have an English name?) to look at new ones, but we can't make up our minds.  For that matter we also need a new washing machine.  Our old washing machine is making even odder noises than the refrigerator.

13. Where are you? (and) What are you doing?

At the moment I'm in my apartment typing this.  To my left is a set of sliding glass doors, and beyond these sliding glass doors I can see the western half of Taitung City stretching east to meet Liyu Mountain, which is just visible behind the hotel that sits on Ss Wei Road.  It's not yet hot and the sky is full of clouds.

June 15

14. What's the weather like today?

It's rainy and very, very moist.  I swear, when the typhoons start coming through here (whenever that is), it's going to be BAD.  Like, disaster level bad.

Yesterday was a little better.  The weather was hot and windy, which is my least favorite kind of weather, but at least I was able to get outside for a bit.  I went swimming in the morning, had lunch at a coffee shop, and I met a friend at Burger King for dinner.

15. Excuse me, I'm a new employee.  Where's/Where are the _____? (and) Where's Tony?

Are you S****?  I heard you (finally) got hired for that English school bus thing.  You seem a little confused about the difference between that program (in which you work for the County Government) and my program (in which I work, however distantly, for the Ministry of Education), but I think the differences will become obvious in time.

The weird thing is that your former coworker, the friend I met at Burger King, was talking about you yesterday and then, almost immediately after that conversation, I ran into the guy you're replacing at the Carrefour.

I don't know that much about the English school bus, but it seems like it could be a good gig.  I've known the guy you work with, A*****, for years, and he seems like a reliable person.  The office hours at Tunghai Junior High School are probably going to suck, so hopefully there will be less of them as time goes on.

I don't know where the _____ is.  Perhaps you left it in the _____.

Tony?  I don't know anyone named Tony.  I knew an Anthony back in the day, but I think he went back to South Africa.

16. May I help you? (and) How do you like this _____ tie/shirt/skirt? (and) What size are you looking for?

Yes, you may help me.  I should probably fill out/file U.S. tax returns soon, but I'm lazy to do it.

I like those ties, shirts and skirts just fine.  But why are you dressed as a schoolgirl?  I've never had that fantasy, and your being dressed in that manner while I sit in a public elementary school is very alarming.

I usually wear size XL T-shirts.  I've never worn a skirt, but my waist is a 32 or 33 so maybe that helps.

17. Could you get me that/those ______? (and) Watch out for that _____. (and) Do we have enough _____?

No, I couldn't.  I have to go find some fifth graders soon.  They need to finish their workbooks.

I will definitely watch out for the _____.  Someone should call animal control.

Do we ever have enough?  Maybe enough for now, but in the long term?  Most of us are so driven by our perceived needs, which are usually only wants anyway.  Does happiness lie in fulfilling a need or want, or in reducing and/or overcoming those same needs and wants?

June 16

18. I'm going to the supermarket to get some milk.  Do we need anything else?

What kind of beer do they have?  I'm a little tired of Taiwan beer, the cheaper American brands and the usual Japanese labels.  If they have anything more exotic I'd like a few.

Oh, and Absolut vodka if they have it.  The Kahlua I bought doesn't mix well with the Polish vodka I bought in Hengchun.  I need something more neutral.

19. What's your favorite color?

Most of the time it's green, but if I'm buying a vehicle I always choose red.  I still think about getting a red and black road bike sometimes.  My Cannondale has served me well, but I'm not a big fan of its color.

20. Can I help you?

Naw, I'm good.  I have an easy schedule today, and the only difficult part of my day is not drinking coffee.  I'm trying to cut down on my caffeine intake, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are slightly more difficult to get through for this reason.

Related Entries:

So Far, So Good... So What?

Pros and Cons: The Taitung County Government

What Name Which Someone Finds

Winter Plans

So Far, So Good... So What?

1. Prehistory: Seattle Up to 1999

I graduated from the University of Washington with a B.A. in International Studies in The Year of Our Lord 1999.  Aside from my B.A. I had an extremely questionable TEFL certificate from a sketchy "institution" in Montreal, Canada.  A few weeks after acquiring both my B.A. and my TEFL certificate I was on a plane to Taiwan, a country I had never visited before.

Why Taiwan?  To be honest, it's hard to remember.  At the time I'd been accepted into the JET Program, but my Japanese girlfriend broke up with me shortly thereafter, and as a result I changed my mind about going to Japan.  Besides the JET Program I'd also been accepted into the Peace Corps, but teaching in Turkmenistan didn't appeal to me at all.  Back then China and South Korea were also big markets for those who wanted to teach English overseas and make money, but neither of those countries did much for me.  China looked crowded, and South Korea's weather was too much like Seattle's.

I can remember coming across a Taiwan tourism video put out by the Ministry of Tourism in my university's library.  After watching it I thought, "Yeah, I could live there," and the rest is history.

2. Taichung 1: 1999 - 2002

My first job in Taiwan was at a private kindergarten on Anhe Road, south of Tunghai University.  For whatever reason the words "tunghai" (東海) have figured into my life several times.

My first day at work, embarked upon with ZERO teaching experience, was an unmitigated disaster.  Oh, the crying - it still haunts me in my dreams.  My second week was a little better, and my second month was better still.  It took me a while to get the hang of teaching kids, but then again I was pretty much thrown into the deep end of the teaching profession, with almost no preparation beforehand.  It was sink or swim from the very beginning.

Taichung at the time was very different from what it is now.  For one thing Taiwan Boulevard was known as Taichunggang (台中港) Road, and for another thing many of the areas I knew as "rural" are now buried under newer residential areas, shopping arcades, parks, factories and even an airport.  Most of the restaurants and bars I used to frequent are now long extinct, and if given a weekend in Taichung I'd probably have a hard time figuring out what to do there.  I still have a couple friends in that city, but I haven't seen these friends in a long time.

For me, as with many other foreign guys living in a big Taiwanese city, it was the usual round of dating followed by marriage and a kid soon after.  I was both married and a father in less than a year after my arrival.

A decade later I'd meet another expat living in Taitung who moved to Taichung around the same time I did.  From his perspective Taichung was a real shithole, enmired in a foreign social scene which resembled nothing more than a retarded version of high school.  I can't say that I got the same impression from my time in Taichung, but individual experiences will vary.

To be fair, I've met more "artistic" expats in Taichung than anywhere else.  I'm talking about the kind of people who style themselves actors, poets, musicians or all three.  Taichung seems better able to sustain those types of people.  Why this is I cannot say.

3. A Year in Hsinchu: 2004 - 2005

I moved to Hsinchu after completing a Masters in Teaching degree and receiving a Washington State teaching certificate at Seattle University.  I spent my time in graduate school certain that I would return to Taiwan, and I can remember thinking that I should find a more "impressive" job upon my return.

After a cursory job search I wound up at Canadian-American English School, a rather shifty institution run by two hardcore alcoholics who eventually tried to cheat me out of my pay.  It was a weird chapter in my life.

At that time we lived behind the Hsinchu Train Station.  A lot of that year is a blur to me now, but I remember riding the bus or train on visits to strange mountain towns between Hsinchu and Taoyuan, going to a night market underneath an overpass, and several pub crawls with a friend who I later learned was doing heroin.  I was teaching a class of five small children who got sick often, I was probably drinking too much after work, and I was secretly unhappy about turning 30 whilst doing a job that seemed to have no future.

Wind City 風城 Department Store.  I saw Sin City there.  It was also a place I passed through during one of my more drunken episodes, a day in which I drank an entire bottle of Absolut Vodka and blacked out in a KTV.  I was truly out of control that day, and even now I can't fully explain why.

4. Taichung 2: 2005 - 2006

Hsinchu having proven itself a debacle, we moved back to Taichung, where I worked at the same private kindergarten on Anhe Road.  Have you ever returned to your parents' home after a long absence, put on some of the clothes you left there years before, and wondered at the person you used to be, the person who wore those outfits?  That's exactly what going back to work at that kindergarten felt like.  There wasn't anything wrong with it exactly - it wasn't any worse or any better - but I was different, and thus less satisfied with the job.

My second daughter was born during that fourth of four years in Taichung.  We knew she was coming toward the end of our stint in Hsinchu, but thankfully she waited until I was settled into a new/old job in Taichung to arrive.

I remember almost nothing from that year except a strange British-German coworker who had an affinity for the Nazis.  He had plans to move to Germany after his year was up, and he may be educating Germans on the tenets of national socialism even now.  My wife wound up being his co-teacher, and it was a real nightmare.

5. Taitung 1: 2006 - 2008

After searching for a while I came across a public school job posting in far off Taitung.  Keep in mind that in 2006 the internet wasn't what it is now, the then-FET Program was still in its infancy, and getting any information about any job was a lot more work.  Nowadays one can apply on their website, but in 2006 it was a lot more difficult.

My job interview at Tunghai Junior High (there's that "tunghai" again) was one of the most stressful job interviews I've ever taken part in.  It wasn't that there was a lot of competition for jobs in Taitung in 2006, it was just that the hiring process was a lot less streamlined than it is now.

I flew to Taitung City from Taichung.  Afterward I was taken to the school, where I faced an interview with all of the school's administrators and English teachers.  It was a BIG room.  Almost none of this interview was conducted in English, and it went on for almost an hour.  After this interview I was led to a class of eighth graders which I was then told to teach - for a full 50 minutes - without any warning or prep time beforehand.  Seriously.  I'd just gotten off the plane and that was what they asked me to do.  

In a way it was good, however.  If I'd known too much beforehand I probably would have overthought the whole thing.  As it was I  had no choice but to answer questions honestly and lean upon my teaching experience.  It went well, and I was offered a job on the same day.

And that was 20 years ago now.  Time flies, doesn't it?

My two years at Tunghai JHS were... OK.  I'd give myself and the school passing grades.  Teaching junior high was an adjustment for sure, but during most days it wasn't all that different from teaching elementary classes.  More rudeness, more attitude, more angst, but overall not that different.

Trouble was that I started to have another kind of problem toward the end of my second year in Taitung: I started to hate Taiwan.  Call it "Grass is Greener Syndrome" if you will, but it got to a point where I was extremely dissatisfied with my life here.  Maybe it was the trash I saw on the roads, or maybe it was the way certain people looked at me.  Maybe it was the tone of voice someone used, or the way they negotiated traffic.  Whatever the reasons, I grew desperately unhappy during my last semester at Tunghai JHS, and that unhappiness led me back to Seattle.

6. Taitung 2: 2009 - 2020

2009 is the year I started writing this blog.  Visit the Blog Archive 1 for details.

After a disillusioning year in the States we moved back to Taitung City, where I got a job at Tunghai (!) Elementary School.  I didn't know that I'd be spending the next 11 years of my life at Tunghai ES, but all lights were green and I felt very good about the new placement.

I look on the previous year in America (2007-2008) as something I just had to get out of my system.  I got an actual job as an actual teacher (not student teaching), my wife went back to the hotel work she'd done when I was in graduate school, and we put our older daughter into daycare thinking that we were in America long term.  As it turned out, however, my heart wasn't in it, but it took a year in the States for me to realize that.

My work at Tunghai Elementary turned out to be a lot more pleasant than what I'd endured at Tunghai Junior High.  It also put me in an advantageous position in that I was sitting next to the coordinator of the local FET program in one of the city's largest schools.  I can remember encountering obstacles in my first few years there; I can even remember thinking about quitting, but after year three or so I was very comfortable at work and very much in my element.

By 2009 my older daughter was nine years old and my younger daughter was four.  Their ages at the time made us more concerned about the stability of our lifestyle, and moving to other areas became less desirable.  We didn't want to move them around so much when they were little, and this contributed to my staying at that school so long.

I've had many good times in my life and I'm thankful for all of them.  I'm thankful for the friends I've had, the people I've loved and the people who've loved me.  No matter how shitty a job, living situation or place of residence was, I can always remember good times in the midst of whatever issues I was having.  This said, my late 30s and early 40s were spent in Taitung, and many of those years seem to have a particular glow about them.  Maybe it was my attitude toward things back then, or maybe it's just nostalgia, but whatever the reason those years are foundational for me, in that they've contributed a lot toward making me the person I am today.

...and in terms of work I genuinely miss what the foreign teachers of Taitung County had back then.  It was a good run, even if it wasn't meant to last forever.

7. Pingtung: Fangliao: 2020 - 2022

During my last year at Tunghai Elementary I began to seriously consider leaving Taitung County.  I wanted to see if what I did at Tunghai Elementary would work somewhere else, and I was a little burned out on some of the personal relationships I had going on at the time.  It was also the perfect time to make such a move, given that both of my daughters were moving over to Kaohsiung to study.

I entertained the idea of transferring to Hualien for a while, but they wanted me in Hualien City and I've never really liked that area - too rainy.  I knew a person who knew a person in Pingtung, so I opted for that instead.  This person placed me in Fangliao Township, about halfway between Pingtung City and Kenting.

My wife and I weren't that enthused about Fangliao at first.  I can remember the two of us driving there from Taitung and thinking: "What?  This is it?," but after meeting the two principals of the schools where I'd be working I felt a lot better about the place, and we began looking for houses in and around Central Fangliao.

As it turned out renting a house (and we insisted it be a house) in the vicinity of Fangliao was a real pain.  We looked at rentals between Jiadong Township and Central Fangshan, and every place we saw was not awesome.  A real estate agent in Fangliao also tried to scam us on a house, but (thankfully) gave herself away before we signed any papers or gave her any money.

Eventually we went to one of the villages this realtor had shown us, sat down at the local store, and bought a couple drinks.  After I'd had a couple beers one of the locals walked up and asked us what we were doing there.  One thing led to another, and after indicating which house we thought was the nicest this person got in touch with its owner.  This owner was glad to rent us the house, a three-story structure with a yard and a parking space located near the halfway point between the schools where I'd be working.

My first year at Fangliao Elementary School was my best year in the FET Program, a program renamed the TFETP Program that year.  I had my principals' support, I got along well with the Local English Teacher, and the students at both schools were easy to teach.  

I also felt validated.  I'd proven myself in another county, I was getting a much better sense of South Taiwan as separate from East Taiwan, and I knew that after 40 you can start over.  True, many aspects of my life in Taiwan remained the same, but I felt that I'd changed my way of living enough to say that yes, I could make it anywhere in Taiwan if I wanted to.

All of the above said, life in a place like Fangliao can be lonely.  I appreciated that interactions with locals were less burdened by impressions carried over from previous exchanges with other foreigners, but the number of expat friends actively in my life dwindled, and daily life, for the most part, shrunk to the size of whatever my wife and I wanted to do that weekend.  We drove to nearby Chaozhou, Pingtung City and Kaohsiung often, and when we weren't doing that we rode our scooter aimlessly between Donggang, Linbian, Chaozhou and Fangshan to the south.

When we got REALLY bored, and if the sun had gone down, we'd walk, bike or drive over to a pineapple field overlooking the Pingnan Industrial Area.  We'd bring chairs and drinks, and sit there gazing at the lights from the top of the hill.

As good as that first year in Fangliao was, all good things come to an end, and toward the end of my first year in Fangliao COVID happened.  Classes went online, people got paranoid, and the world shut down intermittently for an extended period of time.  

I have a funny memory of my wife, my daughters and myself eating Pizza Hut pizza inside our car, on a secondary road in Chaozhou, in the midst of COVID.  We were scared people would see us eating in the car, so we pulled up all the sun visors and tried to remain inconspicuous while we shoved oily pizza into our mouths.  

In the wake of COVID my Fangliao "dream team" fell apart at the end of that first year.  This kind of thing often happens in rural schools.  My principal was reassigned, the English teacher wasn't rehired for my second year, and the two schools where I worked became estranged for various reasons that had nothing to do with me.  By the end of my second year Fangliao had partnered up with Pingtung's Tunghai Elementary School (yep, there's "tunghai" again), and my school was asking me if I'd stay on and work at Tunghai Elementary instead of Yuguang, where I'd been teaching up to that point.

The Pingtung version of Tunghai Elementary was, to put it less than kindly, rather infamous at that time.  I decided to pass on their offer, and instead requested a transfer south to Hengchun, where I knew another FET who was leaving her position at both Hengchun Junior High and Hengchun Elementary.

8. Pingtung: Hengchun: 2022 - 2024

Hengchun Junior High was the worst job I've ever had in the (T)FET(P) Program.  It was stressful, it was a less than friendly place to work in, and I hated my job for most of the time I was there.  The school seemed to like me well enough, but the sense of ambivalence pervading that place was a palpable thing.

Hengchun Elementary, on the other hand, was a good gig.  Hengchun Elementary was a lot more like Tunghai Elementary in Taitung City, and I felt very comfortable there.  The trouble was that I only had six classes a week in that school, and the remainder of my 19-class schedule was spent at the junior high.

During that year I thought about quitting many, many times.  The only thing that kept me going was the thought that if I quit it was the same as admitting defeat, and that if I could just hold on for a year I'd be leaving on my own terms, not theirs.  Throughout my second year I also thought about quitting from time to time, but my wife wanted to go back to Taitung, and quitting before my contract was up would have made a transfer back to Taitung more difficult.

When I wasn't at work, however, Hengchun was a good place to live.  The house we rented was garbage, but the location was convenient and getting away on the weekends was easy - traffic was always going in the opposite direction.  I miss having places like Nanwan and Baisha minutes away from home.  I miss The Button Factory and Houbihu.  I'll be going back to Hengchun for the first time in almost two years at the end of this week, and I'm looking forward to the trip.

9. Taitung 3: 2024 - present

In the beginning coming back to Taitung seemed both too easy and too good to be true.  Within days of applying for a transfer I was informed that I was being assigned to Hot Spring Elementary School, in the Zhiben Hot Spring Area.

The first thing my wife and I did was drive up to Zhiben from Hengchun, where we learned that the principal of Hot Spring was a guy I'd already worked with for a couple years at Tunghai Elementary in Taitung City.  Taitung is small in its way, and things like that happen.

It was very weird how the whole thing fell together.  I'd originally assumed that the TFETP would offer me a tiny school in a less convenient location.  Instead I got a school 25 minutes from my apartment, with a student population already eager to learn English.  Hot Spring, it should be said, was once the location of the Taitung County English Teaching Resource Center, so the students in my new school already had a history of participation in county English programs and competitions.

I'm 3/4 of the way through my second year at Hot Spring, aside from a few ups and downs it's been a surprisingly easy transition.  I get along well with all of my coworkers, and I've never found the job particularly stressful.  I hate our county FET meetings, but that's my only big objection to working in Taitung so far.

Being in Taitung again?  I don't have much to complain about.  We still own an apartment near Baosang Elementary School, so we didn't need to scramble for housing.  My best friends in Taitung are for the most part still around, though a few did move away during my stint in Pingtung.  I still like living here, and my day-to-day life is relatively unchanged.

For the time being I've decided to stay on for a third year at Hot Spring.  After that third year who knows?  For my wife and I Kaohsiung is always on the table, but I doubt we'll be moving there anytime soon.  We own another apartment in Kaohsiung, and I'm to be found there for most of every winter and summer vacation, but an actual move to that city seems somewhat unnecessary.

10. Parting Thoughts

I've written about all of the events described above in this blog before, but sometimes it's good to stop and take stock of things.  It helps me make personal decisions.  It also makes me a happier, calmer person, and serves to adjust my attitude where and when such adjustment is necessary.

I don't know how many printed pages this blog entry would equal, but I'm guessing it would be a lot.  While writing and editing this massive (bloated?) thing, I couldn't help but think about all the years that have gone by, and all the changes I've seen on this island since 1999.  When I first got here Lee Tung-hui was President, and since that time I've seen the KMT diminish in stature while the administrations of Chen Shui-bian, Ma Ying-jeou and Tsai Ying-wen have come and gone.  I'm now on Lai Ching-te, my fifth Taiwanese President, and who knows what the rollercoaster that is Taiwanese politics holds for us in the future.

Aside from Presidents there are other changes to consider.  When I first got here people didn't think about TSMC half as much, even though that company's fortunes have been steadily rising for decades.  When I first got here there was only one freeway down the west coast, no high speed rail, and Taitung, where I now live, was less a tourist spot than a backwater few thought about visiting.  I can remember when the Taipei 101 first opened, I can remember when the Kaohsiung MRT first began operation, and I can remember when toll booths disappeared from the freeway.  Anyone else remember how hard it used to be to get to Kenting?  Or how remote some parts of New Taipei City (i.e. "Taipei County") were in the early 2000s?  Or even life before Taiwan had Family Marts, 7-11s and Starbucks everywhere?

Reading back over this entry, I can also see patterns in my life and how I've lived it.  There's definitely an ebb and flow at work in my attitude toward various jobs, and points of frustration and/or boredom between working in one place or another.  I can see a desire to be "useful" or "effective" in much of what I did before, and also worries over money, worries over my age, and worries over my family.  In much of the above I can also feel my wife's influence on me, her presence calming me down when I might have otherwise lost my temper or resorted to something drastic.  A lot of what is recorded above is her story as well, though of course she's in possession of extra chapters involving matters which it's no business of mine to discuss here.

One aspect of my life that's become clearer to me is how often I've tried to find some kind of nemesis in my life, someone who I thought - rightly or wrongly - was working against me.  I can remember several such scenarios in the context of almost all of the jobs discussed above, and I think this is an aspect of my own psychology that I really ought to look at.  Needing to measure yourself against someone else, or needing to exceed them in some way, seems like a very obvious flaw in my character, and something I need to reflect on more in the future.  This, and many of the "adversaries" I've imagined having often prove themselves straw men, whose interests actually aligned with my own.

I'm also thinking, having considered all of the above, how I might live my life better in the future, how I might be a better person, and how I might help others to do the same.  It's not the type of self-analysis that bears easy fruit, but I do think I'm on the way to some deeper knowledge of myself, perhaps the kind of realizations that lead to real, measurable change.

I'll let you know if I reach any moments of enlightenment in the near future.  If no words of wisdom are forthcoming, just know that I'm doing OK and I'm always trying to do better.

Related Entries:

Pros and Cons: The Taitung County Government

What Name Which Someone Finds

Winter Plans

Neighbors, Some Neighborly and Others Otherwise

What Name Which Someone Finds

1. What you might find in the desert.

Which desert?  The desert I visited most recently was outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.  I remember hollows between the mountains where trees grew.  The indigenous peoples who once lived in that area inhabited these hollows, and didn't often leave them during the hotter parts of the day.  That summer the temperature was well above forty degrees Celsius, and we had to cut our trip short because my brother-in-law's car lacked the kind of air conditioning that could cope with that kind of heat.

2. The USA, England, France, Australia - which one is different?  Why?

I would say France is different because their national language is French.  I could pick the USA for obvious, rather political reasons but that seems like low-hanging fruit.  There's also Australia, which is the only country in the southern hemisphere, and England, because it still has a royal family (even though Australia's still part of the Commonwealth).

3. What someone does in a movie theater.

I suppose they watch movies, unless they have romantic reasons for being there.  I eat popcorn at every other movie I attend.  I get tired of it and have to take breaks.  Sometimes I drink cola and other times I drink beer.  If I haven't eaten enough before the movie I'll buy a corn dog on the way in.

I wonder if there are any adult movie theaters left in the world.  You'd think they would all be sitting in the dustbin of history by now, but one never knows.

4. Name three places you'd like to go someday.  Why?

Right now I'd like to go home.  I'm off work in about forty minutes, and even though today was super chill I'd like to go home and watch the rest of a movie I was watching the previous evening.  Something from the 90s with Michael Keaton.  I can't remember the name.

I'd like to go visit my parents in the States next summer.  Hopefully the USA can avoid implosion for that length of time.  The news out of that country, especially for one who doesn't live there anymore, is extremely worrying.  Americans... are you OK?

In terms of non-familial travel I'd like to visit South Korea and Japan again.  I'd like to spend a week in Busan and then another week in Hiroshima.  I doubt such a trip will happen anytime soon, but you never know.

5. What do I know about Brazil?

I have a friend who lived in Brazil for a while.  He says that the women there are achingly beautiful.  Beyond that most of my knowledge comes from the James Bond franchise, which often features Brazil as a location.  I believe that in one of the Roger Moore films he and Jaws fight it out on the cable car/gondola which goes up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.  Was Barbara Bach the Bond girl in that particular installment?  I can't remember.

6. What you might find in the USA.

Oh man.  Again, low-hanging fruit.  Let me turn instead to things I like, which are: my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, the Taco Bell grilled stuffed burrito, brands of beer I could only obtain in Taiwan with great difficulty, national parks, hiking trails, waterfalls, delicious pizza, hamburgers which are truly spicy, Mexican food that really tastes like Mexican food, tribal casinos, bookstores with an overabundance of books I'm willing to read, bridges shrouded in fog and overpriced concerts that I'd be genuinely excited to attend.

7. Wedding day, holiday, birthday, weekend - which one is different?  Why?

I would say weekend, because it happens every week and is thus less special than the other three.  You could also say wedding day because (ideally) your wedding day only happens once in your life, or holiday because holidays are specific to each country, or even birthday because that is a special day specific to you as a person.

8. What someone does at the beach.

If I'm at the beach I'm probably swimming.  Swimming is one of my favorite activities.  Back when we lived in Hengchun I went to Nanwan (South Bay) quite often, and my wife and I had a little schedule worked out for that activity.  This schedule consisted of (a) renting a beach umbrella, (b) changing into our swimsuits, (c) going swimming, (d) eating at Cowboys Bar & Grill and then (e) getting slightly drunk at either Cowboys or one of the other restaurants.

If my wife stayed home and I was visiting Nanwan with a friend we usually skipped directly to (e).

9. Name three good pieces of advice for a son or daughter just before they get married.

Will my daughters ever get married?  I find that possibility hard to contemplate.  Are they dating people now?  I have no idea.  I'm somewhat afraid to ask them.

But this question came up during an adult English class I taught not long ago, and I remember what my answer was.  It went something like: 1) if a man ever hits you, leave him, 2) be careful with your money, and 3) don't forget that you have a mom and dad who are always ready to help you in times of need.

10. What do I know about flowers?

Not much.  I'm really not interested in flowers.  If I remember correctly they grow a lot of flowers around the middle of Pingtung County, in places like Zhutian and Linluo.  Many of these flowers are sold in the large flower market in Taipei, and many are also exported to other countries.

11. What you might find in the ocean.

You'd find fish.  When I think about it I haven't had good fish and chips in a long time.  I remember being in a coffee shop across from the Neiwei Arts Center LRT stop and thinking their fish and chips smelled very good.  If that place is still open I should give it a try.

12. Wood, metal, plastic, stone - which one is different?  Why?

I'm going to say plastic, because as a petroleum product it's the only material not found in nature.

13. What someone does on vacation.

What will I do on vacation?  I already talked about that in the Winter Plans entry a few weeks (?) ago.  In the most general sense I tend to sleep more, wake up later, consume more alcohol and eat more Western foods.  I also spend more time with my cats.

14. Name three talents or skills you'd like to have (but don't).  Why?

I'd like to be able to speak other languages, especially Japanese or Korean, but I've never really gotten that ball rolling.  For a while I was messing with a melodion and an accordion in our school music room, but I haven't made much headway on those instruments either.  I sometimes think that I should delve more deeply into some of the apps and websites I use at work, but I later forget about it and the cycle, I'm afraid to say, continues.

15. What do I know about baseball?

I know the Mariners did very well last season, but the gold ring eluded them.  Who were the last two teams?  The Dodgers and the Blue Jays?  I remember a couple friends discussing the World Series during a poker game, but I don't follow that sport with any regularity.  (American) football is more my thing.  Go Seahawks!

16. What you might find in the jungle.

I'm typing this within scooter/bicycle distance of the Zhiben Forest Recreation Area, a site which is for all intents and purposes a jungle.  In that place you might find poisonous butterflies and moths, venomous and non-venomous snakes, muntjacs, deer, birds and if you're extremely lucky a Formosan black bear.  Whether or not it's possible to find a clouded leopard in the Zhiben Forest Recreation Area or any other part of Taiwan is a matter for debate.  One thing you'd definitely find is mosquitoes.  That place has a lot of them.

17. Tea, coffee, milk, fruit juice - which one is different?  Why?

Let's say milk, because it's an animal product, notwithstanding that type of coffee bean excreted by... ferrets?  Mongoos(es)?  Mongeese?  What's the plural of "mongoose," anyway?

18. What someone does in a car.

I think the number of local people who have sex in cars is much higher than is generally assumed.  When I ride my bike or run I see many cars parked along out of the way avenues, and it's hard not to imagine people having sex in those vehicles.

When I go to work every morning the first thing I do is buckle my seat belt.  After that I begin driving, and during my journey I'll talk to myself, shout nonsense or sing along with whatever music is emanating from my cell phone.  I'll also have conversations with my wife, though we don't commute together every day.

19. Name three of the best things about your country.

Again, low-hanging fruit.  Let me instead dig deeper, and say a commitment in certain sectors to constitutional democracy, the rule of law and the separation of church and state.  Now of course I'll say this and someone will respond with something like, "Hey dude, haven't you read the news lately?", but keep in mind that I said "certain sectors" above.  Can Nixon's "silent majority" be taken as a kind of ironic truth?  I sure hope it can.

20. What do I know about coffee?

I know that I'm drinking it right now.  7-11.  Latte.  Large.  Hot.  Yesterday I had the same thing and a Coffee Plaza besides.  In case you're less familiar with Taiwan, Coffee Plaza 咖啡廣場 is a cold coffee drink sold in most Taiwanese convenience stores.  It's a terribly unhealthy beverage to consume on a regular basis, but I like it sometimes.

Related Entries:

Winter Plans

Neighbors, Some Neighborly and Others Otherwise

Field Trips In and Around Taitung

(Im)Permanence

Winter Plans

What are you up to this Chinese New Year?  Do you have plans?  Is there anything you're looking forward to?  Anywhere you want to go?

In the public schools our fall semester ends on January 23rd, and my winter vacation begins on the 24th.  The calendar is a little weird this year, due to the fact that the first three days of next semester are actually the last three days of this semester.  This means that during January 21, 22 and 23 I'll be teaching next semester's English.  Are the students going to remember anything from those last three days?  I highly doubt it.

On January 19th I'm teaching part of an English winter camp.  "Camp" in this context means "class" since there's absolutely no camping involved in our camp.  Someone in the Education Bureau will select 50 elementary school students and 50 junior high school students for the camp, and these 100 students will be split between one winter camp in Chenggong and another in Taitung City.

There are at present (and to the best of my knowledge) 20 Foreign English Teachers (FETs) in Taitung County, and these 20 FETs will teach the winter camp in four groups of five teachers.  Each group will teach their own version of the winter camp to a class of 25 students at one of the two locations for a single day.  I was originally part of a group going to Chenggong, but I, being the gentleman that I am, switched with another FET so that she could go up there instead.

What are we teaching at this winter camp?  English of course, but beyond that there's a vaguely defined curriculum centered around four parts of Taitung County, these being: [the] South-Link [area], Taitung City, [the] north coast and the East Rift Valley.  The completist in me wishes there was a fifth part for Green and Orchid islands, but oh well.

So yeah, once the camp's over I'll have another week of [marginal] classes and then I'll have a long break.  Honestly, I feel like I could use it.  This school year has been better for me overall, but there have been some ups and downs for sure.

On the evening of January 23rd we'll be packing our three cats into the car and heading to Kaohsiung for the last week of January and most of February.  I'm still not sure how long I'll be in Kaohsiung this winter vacation.  I might come back to Taitung earlier, but as of right now I'm thinking close to a month.  We'll see.

I have no real plans for our time in Kaohsiung.  There was talk of going to Japan or South Korea during the break, but I'm not sure if this will happen.  I suppose that if the tickets were super cheap I'd consider it, but I was in South Korea not long ago and I'm not that keen to go back.  Japan is always a good time, but then again there are the hordes of Mainland Chinese tourists to consider.  They can make even the most fascinating tourist site less interesting if there are enough of them crowding into a small enough area.

There are also pictures to take and places in Taiwan to explore.  I'll be roving around Daliao, Fengshan and Niaosong districts at some point, as well as Nanhua, Nanxi and East District in Tainan.  In the course of photographing Nanhua and Nanxi I'll probably spend the night in Yujing District.  It's not the most enthralling part of Taiwan but I like it.

Aside from that I'll just be hanging out.  I'm fine with Kaohsiung, and I feel like Kaohsiung is fine with me.  The LRT and MRT go near almost everything I like in that city, and where those two fail there's always the train.

Here's wishing you a happy 2026 and a Happy Year of the Horse ahead of time.  It's not long now!

Related Entries:

Neighbors, Some Neighborly and Others Otherwise

Field Trips In and Around Taitung

(Im)Permanence

This Blog in 6 Maps

Neighbors, Some Neighborly and Others Otherwise

I live on the seventh floor of an apartment building.  If I had to guess, I'd say there are 84 units in my apartment building, assuming that the first and second floors have the same number of units as floors three through seven.

There are many people in my building that I don't know and never will know.  Some of them live here so briefly that I don't even have time to see them, much less time get to know them.  I know more people in my half of the building of course, there being so few opportunities to interact with those on the other side of the building.

I know the people on my half of the seventh floor best of all.  This isn't to say that I speak with all them, or even know all of their names, but for those I don't know by name there's the building gossip to rely upon.

At the end of the hall there's the mentally disabled guy.  I believe he's older than myself.  He lives with a still older mother who takes care of him, and the two of them haven't been renting their apartment for very long.  The most exciting thing in the mentally disabled guy's life seems to be the arrival of the garbage truck each evening.  As he waits for the garbage truck he likes to yell at the building's security guard to "get ready," though what "getting ready" means no one can say with any certainty.

I see him pedaling his bike around town a lot, and sometimes he'll even wear his helmet outside when he's not bicycling.  He owns a pair of bright orange board shorts when he's at home "chilling," and when he goes out he wears a well-worn pair of jeans.  Occasionally I'll feel sorry for his mom.  He's exhausting to be around.

Between the mentally disabled guy and our apartment live a couple with a dog.  The female half of this couple works at the Social Services Building on Boai Road, across from the Athletic Stadium.  I'm not sure what her husband (boyfriend?) does for a living, though I suspect it's something outdoors.  Their dog is an extremely timid animal, and I often forget they have one.

On the other side of the elevator from us is a retired professor.  What he was a professor of I have no idea.  He's an extremely reserved person, but also exceedingly polite.  He's often away from home and has family in Taipei.

Next to the professor is "Weird Guy," an over 80 year old man who sometimes works on construction sites, sometimes serves as a taxi driver.  I've had many issues with Weird Guy over the years, but not as many as some other people in the building.  

My wife is known in the building as "the Weird Guy whisperer."  Whenever someone has a problem with Weird Guy they'll usually tell my wife first, and then she'll pass on their message to him.

I used to nurture a strong dislike for Weird Guy, but now I just feel sorry for him.  He's really not able to take care of himself, and it seems that no one else wants the job.  When he cooks it stinks up the entire floor, his apartment smells bad even when he's not cooking, and he's recently started wetting himself on the elevator ride down to the first floor.  At first we couldn't figure out why his garbage bags kept leaking in the elevator, and then we realized that he was using these leaks as a way of covering up the pee he'd left behind him.

At the other end of the hall, on the other side of Weird Guy, is my favorite neighbor.  I forget where she's working now, but she's a very kind person who's also been a good friend for many years.  On summer vacations past she's helped us watch our cats, and I definitely trust her more than any of my other neighbors.

With regard to the rest of my building I'm less informed of other people's doings, though a few neighbors stand out against the background of people I see in the elevator once and never again.  There's the lady who thinks she needs to "call the elevator up," (press up to go down), there's the building association manager, a devout Christian who uses her position in very gangster-y ways, and also the woman on the first floor, a very lonely person who's invested in the building gossip to an unhealthy degree.  I could share a lot of stories about these people, but sharing some of these stories would probably get me into trouble.

So many people, coming and going all the time.  Some of them we call friends, others we tolerate, and still others we don't have either the time or inclination to know.  In each apartment building a tiny universe of dramas and disappointments, each apartment building a part of towns or cities near and far.

Sometimes people say they're lonely, but how can we be lonely, surrounded as most of us are by so many other people?

Related Entries:

Field Trips In and Around Taitung

(Im)Permanence

Missed Rememberings

The Place I Can't Really Talk About