Woohoo!
The beach was great! We stayed in a fancy hotel, ate fancy food and there was even fancy dancy in the discoteque. Excellent!!
We travelled up to Puerto Plata with a load of other English teachers on Friday morning, and then spent the day taking part in workshops and coffee breaks and lunch and workshops and then we all got dressed and partied!!
There was a bonfire on the beach and a disco in the hotel and lots and lots of rum and coke.
The next day was more workshops but only until lunchtime, and then it was more partying basically... It's so much fun being a teacher =) Hehe
I NEED to go back and spend more time at the beach I have decided...
Much more fun than staying at home slogging through lesson plans, which is today's itinerary... groan.

P.S. While I was in the hotel I noticed that they sold British newspapers, so I picked up The Sun (only one left). Oh my lord I forgot how dreadful that paper is!

Well, it's been a while, but what a week!

Similar to my initial journey to Taiwan, I've been through the entire range of emotions this week, from moments of "Oh my god, what AM I doing?" to mad laughter, total sweaty exhaustion, and deranged dancing in front of 22 seven-year-olds (just picture it and then up the embarrassment factor by 10 - that's what I'm talking about!).

The lesson planning has been taking an age due to my not knowing where some books / flashcards / props are etc. And some of the lessons have, erm, run a little short at times, but hopefully this next week should be better. After all, if it went perfectly straight away, how boring would that be?

I am already getting an idea of the kids' personalities, ranging from attention-seeking egomaniacs to cute quiet ones and strange little chaps who talk in squeaks and shake their booties at every opportunity...

So... wish me luck this next week... and now, onto Taiwan in general...

The food still rocks (baked and/or fried squid - pretty tasty)... soup flavoured by pigs' trotters, ragged bits of tofu, much too much nice tucker to mention...

Today I blagged a lift on Lizanne's scooter up to the foot of the central Taiwanese mountains. It was very Dumb and Dumber what with me on the back, the road getting steeper and steeper, and our speed plunging down to around one metre an hour (ish). The mountains were great though - actual fresh air (no pollution, so we could take our pollution masks off!), lush rainforest-type vegetation, and little hamlets of locals in the middle of nowhere processing bettlenuts. I just looked and breathed, and breathed a little more...

On the way back we drove to a huge supermarket - A T Mart - very cheap you know, and the food... jeez, I could've spent, erm, five pounds or something! We also passed through Doulio, the capital of Yun-Lin County and then back to Hu-Wei (home) via the freeway. At the side of the freeway there are some real interesting sights - the most bizarre being underwear-dressed hookers in little glass fronted cabins (complete with red flashing lights on top) smoking away and looking generally unimpressed with their chosen lifestyle.

Another great thing I've noticed... cheesy (and often terribly written) English phrases written on a great many Taiwanese products. I've started writing these down as they're just great. Here are two for starters...

1. OOlong Tea - for better tomorrow, YES!

2. If you like my clothes, you are buying a piece of me!
(written on the back of a Tai lad's nylon bomber jacket!)

Anyways... more soon. Hi Jess!