Pete's Apartment (pt 2)

This is my apartment. It's not very big, but it's home. The best part is that it came partially furnished with beds, a couch, a table and chairs, and a refrigerator. All in all, a good deal. It's on the seventh floor of a big apartment complex. It has a tiny tiny deck where seriously only one person can stand at a time. However, the big window faces east, so when I get up in the morning I can see the sunrise.


There are two bedrooms and a storage room, that we convert into a guest room whenever anyone comes over. The beds are Taiwanese style, which means hard as a rock. I used to like firm mattresses in the states, but this is taking it to a whole new level. My New Year's wish is to get a nicer softer mattress.


Anyway, the apartment has become home. On Sunday's, my roommate Matt and I usually invite people over for dinner. The attendance and the attendees vary, but it's always a good time. Hopefully, we'll be able to continue it into the New Year.
So with that, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Gong Xi Fa Zai, and stay safe.


P.S. That's Matt leaning over the table, Dustin cooking, and Judy doing what she does best - "supervising"

Sheng Kung (pt 2)

I work at Sheng Kung Girls School, a private Catholic all-girls junior high and high school. There are about 2400 students, with about a 2:1 ratio of junior high to high school. The staff is also heavily female, including a dozen or so nuns from Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, who essentially run things. In fact, my direct supervisor is Sister Catharina, who has a masters in Education from a university in Texas.
It's a small, but beautiful campus. It has well-manicured lawns and sharply trimmed decorative hedges. Because this is Taiwan, there is also a convenience store right on campus. There is also a big kitchen where the students meals are prepared. The teachers are allowed to eat for free, but I demur, instead bringing my own (and may I say, much tastier) lunch everyday. Just like in Japan, both staff and students alike are curious and somewhat amazed that a 24 year-old unmarried man brings a lunch box to work.


The school has three big buildings in the center of campus, the junior high building and the senior high building, with the administrative building separating them. I work in the administrative building, because that is where both the teacher's office and the language laboratories are. Occasionally, I have class in one of the other two buildings.
The campus also has a fine-arts building, an auditorium, student dormitories, teacher dormitories, a chapel, and a convent. The presence of the nuns on campus is actually quite nice. All that I have met seem very friendly and some are eager to practice their English. Also, they scare the bejesus out of the students, which makes for somewhat less unruly classes. Every once in a while, I will be in class teaching and my students will be loudly chatting or otherwise ignoring me. A nun will walk by the window and students will immediately fall silent and snap to attention in their chairs. Of course, this only lasts a few moments after the sister has passed, but it's a nice break anyway.


I have my own desk in the English teacher's area of the staff office. Unfortunately, I don't use it that much because I'm usually teaching, or trying to hash out lesson plans on the computer in the computer lab (okay, sometimes I'm just checking football scores and watching the Daily Show online). Still, it's nice to have my own desk. It's messier than Jojoh's, who sits next to me, but much cleaner than the majority of Taiwanese teachers, whose desks are usually piled with stacks of paper, magazines and books.


Classes are going well right now, as I've mostly gotten into the rhythm of things. I have had good luck in working with both my Taiwanese and foreign co-workers, which will hopefully continue. I'll keep you posted if anything changes.