Taichung

A bit late, but here's an update I what we did a couple of weekends ago weekend!

Scully and I wanted to get away the weekend and decided it would be great to stay in a nice hotel somewhere and pamper ourselves a bit. So Scully went online to see what she could find for us.

Here's what she found...

A beautiful hotel, with a jacuzzi and its own private pool! We could not believe it when we walked into the hotel room as it was more like an apartment with an outdoor area too. Sorry the pictures are a bit dark, but they should give you some idea of what it was like!

On the night we arrived, we visited the local night market, which is apparently the largest on in Taichung. It was huge and had some good stuff on offer, more than what the night markets have in Nanshijiao, Taipei. Here are some pics of us having steak and noodles there...

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The morning after, we went to, what I would consider to be one of the most beautiful places I have been to in Taiwan. It is called Xinshe Castle and is host to a multitude of western style structures, such as mini castles and brick-built designs. It also has man-made waterfalls and a small lake with huge koi carp and grass eating monster fish! It was epic. I don't have access to the pictures we took at the moment but check this guy's blog out to see what it was like: http://j-travel.blogspot.tw/2011/05/xinshe-castle-at-taichung-taiwan-part-1.html.

We had such a great time that we are going back to Taichung this weekend to stay with one of Scully's friends and meet another friend who is visiting Taiwan from the UK. It is going to be great!

WORK UPDATE: after much thought and all the change that is happening recently, I have decided to stay in my job at GuangFu. I have come to the epiphany that the challenges I am facing can be partially overcome if I take action. Although the overall camp style cannot be changed, I am able to make adjustments to my lessons and the subject I am teaching (approved by the boss)! I am moving classrooms into the IT suite and will be teaching ICT instead of video production. Which is ideal as that is what my passion is and I am trained in it too!

I feel excited about my job again now and it is such a fantastic, long-awaited feeling! Goodbye Annoying Orange, hello endless possibilities!

Time for change

If you don't want to read a negative rant... please don't read on.

Well, I've been working in my current job for almost 8 months now and to be completely honest I'm done. I handed in my notice on Monday, but I agreed to stay until they find someone to replace me. Hopefully it shouldn't take too long because I don't know how much more I can take of this job before I lose the plot altogether. 

The schedule I work, to some, would seem like a dream come true. Working three days a week, only having to teach a maximum of 19 classes a week, no assessments, no homework marking, no lesson planning and having 5 and a half days off, in a row, every other week.... But those are probably the people who have never worked where I work. 

My schedule is this: 

Tuesday: 12pm - 4pm

Wednesday: 8am - 8pm

Thursday: 8am - 8pm

Friday: 8am - 4pm

Weekend off

Monday: 8am - 8pm

Tuesday: 8am - 8pm

Wednesday: 8am - 4pm

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off.

I calculate my working hours and found that I spend more time on break than I actually do teaching in the classroom in the job. So why am I so miserable?

I am miserable because of the repetitive camp schedule we have to run. Every block of three days, (8-8, 8-8, 8-12) is the camp schedule. We bring in 200 kids from schools around Taiwan, introduce them to our camp when they arrive, teach them how to make their beds, sing songs to them before they eat, play dodgeball with them, play jeopardy on the evenings and teach them for 16, 40 minute lessons. Then we repeat it next camp and again next camp and again and again and again and again, until our heads explode from the boredom.

The things I truly need from my teaching career are:

1. To form meaningful relationships with the students, which make me want to come back into work and give me the responsibility for the progression of their education.

2. To be stimulated in my work, for me to progress too.

3. To work in a positive environment where I know people want to stay, feel valued and are happy and enthusiastic about the work they are doing. Repetition will kill this for anyone. 

So, my search for a new job has begun. (Well actually it began about a month ago).

Fingers crossed I will find what I'm looking for!

Dave

Settled in...

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well and enjoying yourselves. I have finally got round to updating my blog!

Me and Scully have both been very busy as of late. Scully has found herself a good, full-time job working as an education consultant at an English school and is on a steep learning curve to get up to speed with her colleagues and be productive in her role. Almost every night after work she is still working hard learning about the Universities in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. I can already see she is going to do very well and I'm proud. How she is learning so much in such a short space of time is beyond me!

I have been busy working as usual. The schedule is a strange one which makes it difficult to get into a regular routine, although it is nice when we have good breaks between the camps we do. Compared to the other jobs available in Taipei, I doubt I could find anything as flexible as this one so I feel quite privileged.

The scar on my arm is much better these days, but I am still unable to move the top two joints of my thumb, however I am going to therapy regularly to try and solve this. The doctor gives me acupuncture, usually in my left leg, arm and in my neck to try and improve the circulation of blood that is necessary to ensure a faster recovery. I am very skeptical about acupuncture but I am willing to keep going and hope for a solution in the near future. The acupuncture is accompanied by quite a rough massage of my arm which leaves it bruised but again will help to improve circulation. Here are a few pictures of the therapy I'm doing:

                    

We have both moved into Scully's parent's apartment now after having it refurbished. It is an ideal place for us to stay while we are saving up our money to get a place of our own. Here are a few pics:

This is the living room, which goes into the dining room and then the kitchen. There used to be a wall at the end of the table until we knocked it down to make it open plan and more spacious.

This is the living room looking from the edge of the dining room. The sliding doors go out to a small garden-style area where we put shoes and plants.

This is the living room from the TV. Just wanted to show the picture of London to you. Britain is always in our thoughts! lol

This is the room where we put the piano and might put a spare bed in there in case we ever have guests. 

This is a quiet room for reading or listening to music.

 This is mine and Scully's room. 

This is our bedroom's bathroom.

 This is the main bathroom.

  This is a view of the dining room and the kitchen.

This is a bit of wall art on the wall you can't see in the dining room. Another reminder of Britain! It's a sticker though, I didn't paint it!

I no longer have to rely on buses as I have passed my scooter test. Although it is a pain on rainy days (as when it rains here it really pours), it is very nice on the sunny ones! Here is a picture of my bike. She is an automatic Yamaha Majesty Fi, just in case you were wondering! Makes going to work a bit less dull, especially on these roads...

Back to work again tomorrow, boo hoo!! Take care everyone and speak to you soon!!

Dave x