31.1.07 

IN THE NEWS

An example of the news we get in the English news paper in Taiwan.

COUPLE SPLIT AFTER SUICIDE ATTEMPTS FAIL

A Taoyuan County couple who could not get their parents’ blessing to marry split up after three failed attempts to commit suicide together, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday.

A man identified only as Lin, 30, had been dating a woman surnamed Lee for a year and wanted to marry her, the Liberty Times (the ‘Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported.
But both sets of parents were opposed to the marriage, so Lin and Lee decided to commit suicide, the report said.

Over the weekend, the pair checked into a Taipei County hotel, determined to commit suicide by burning charcoal. However, the smoke detector in their room went off and hotel staff expelled them from the hotel, the report said.

The pair checked into another hotel. This time they wrapped a towel around the smoke detector, but the alarm still went off, and again they were forced to leave by staffers, who feared a suicide would bring bad luck to the hotel.

Next the pair bought sleeping pills and checked into a third hotel, where they swallowed two dozen sleeping pills each. They were awoken the next day by hotel staffers telling them it was check-out time.

The couple decided to return home, but quarreled in the car. Lee scratched Lin, and Lin hit Lee. When they got to Taoyuan County, they went to the police station to press charges against each other, putting an end to their relationship.

3:26 am | |

8.1.07 

PIG CROSSING THE ROAD

This big boy has little red bags on his back because he is collecting money for the local Buddhist temple.

4:26 am | |

1.1.07 

A DAY IN MY LIFE IN KAOHSIUNG


8am- Have been lying awake for about 20 mins when the alarm goes off. Up into the shower. I wash my hair three times and scrub my body but the water is still beading off over the layer of oil that has been with me since i arrived.

8.30am -Out of my apartment down the elevator, 'hi' to my guard and onto my scooter. I’m listening to Dead Kennedys this morning so am riding like a manic. In record time I am at kindy, clocking in before 8.55.
9am- Drink 500mls of coffee and tease a South African teacher about the Spring Boks. He brings up the cricket, I decide it’s time to go to class.


9.15am -Wonder into class, the kids, who are all playing with toys around the room, scream 'Teacher Christian,' and run and hug me. They are tiny 2 and 3-year-olds that walk like drunks and have giant heads. A couple are still in nappies. We spend the next two hours playing, singing and learning words. Each activity is divided by a bathroom break. The theme of the week is water transport. We colour submarines yellow and sing ‘We all live in a yellow submarine.’ The kids are so into the song they laugh hysterically. Peter vomits on me. Others start to cry because the smell is so bad.

11.30am - Dish out everyone’s lunch, say good bye and scooter home for lunch -noodles and dumplings- with Joyce.
12:30pm -We get a phone call from a lady who Joyce met at the 7-11 last week. She was super friendly and wanted to take us to her coffee shop. As soon as I got in her car I knew something was terribly wrong. Amway bags were lying everywhere. She took us to an Amway café and tried to sell us Amway for an hour. This was especially boring for me because I had no idea what she was saying -it was in Chinese.
1.45pm- After an hour of polite nodding, we tell the Amway lady we had a meeting to go to. We hail a taxi. Our driver was on drugs, and drive really fast yelling at people. She asks us to find her an American recording contract for her because she is a wonderful singer. She turns the radio on full and sings to us all the way home.

2.30pm- Joyce decides she wants some more practice on her new scooter. We head out to the lake. She follows behind and I keep an eye on her. A lady stops suddenly in front of me. I smash into her, knocking her and her vegetables onto the road. She is ok, but is screaming as though her leg has fallen off. It’s a graze. We take her across the road to an old Chinese medicine man. He rubs some black smelly stuff on her leg and demands that she comes back three times at $50 nz per visit. We spend the next hour fiercely bartering the price. He threatens to call the police, we tell him we have nothing to hide, he backs off. We pay 20 bucks and head home.


3:50pm- I say bye to Joyce -she works at a different branch- scooter to work listening to Bob Marley. I spend two hours teaching 10-year-olds when to use past-participles in a sentence. I have a ten minute break. I gulp down some coffee and spend the next two hours teaching 14-year-olds various slang phrases.

10pm- Home; Joyce got back about 10 minutes ago. We head out to a restaurant, called Hong Kong Predestination, and order dim sum and Taiwan beer.

12am- Shower watch some TV and go to bed.
Monday done.

8:39 pm | |