A day in the life

How a week is a long time in politics... Things have changed for us so dramatically in the last few days!

Firstly, our jobs have stepped into full swing. We've both now done the teacher training sessions, the mandatory observational classes and our first real teaching classes (as emergency substitutes.)

Ohh, it's strange stuff. It's weird for me personally to have gone from being in a 'backpacker', observational mindset to realising - hey, I have a career here! It's odd walking into the centre and realising that I'm a TEACHER, not a student. The authority of it is strange, and being an employee in a big company - also odd, but good!

One of the most interesting things about our school so far has been the secretaries who run each of the school's branches in Taipei. Firstly, when you walk in, there are about 4-5 secretaries who organise class schedules and new students, etc. They are all locals, and are totally equipped to deal with anything that we need! They also deal with various complaints from the students, so it's been interesting realising just how much influence they hold in the successful running of the entire company. And we've been told to keep them on side, as the number of hours we receive totally depends upon them - they decide who receive the new classes and any new students that sign up! :)

So.. our school is one of the biggest 'chain' English schools in Taiwan. It's all over the internet, the TV and radio channels, so it's very well known. They have four branches here in Taipei - Simon has been allocated to the Fuxing branch, and I the Fuxing and Shilin branches. We've been allocated specific intermediate and advanced classes, so too private one-on-one/three-on-one student classes (which are more expensive and mostly held on Saturdays.)

Also, next week Simon will undertake his first corporate class (!) teaching business English at the offices of Far Eastern Airlines. Incredible stuff! We're earning over $20AUD per hour teaching the groups and private classes, and about $22AUD + transport for the corporate classes (which sound kind of intimidating!) so it's a great wage over here.

I can't leave a post without mentioning that today, just as we were leaving work and about to jump onto a bus... Sim really hurt himself! We were about to get onto the bus, so we hurried a little, dodging the crowds. In the process, Sim didn't see the large rear-view mirror of the bus and smacked head-first into it... Ouch! The crunch sound was absolutely horrible, and I looked over to realise there was blood on his face, I thought he'd broken his nose. Instead, he's got a slight gash on the top of his nose and a rather sore forehead... But he's okay, no headache even, which I think is amazing. I guess if that's the most dangerous thing to happen to us so far... ?!

Tommorrow is Simmo's 24th birthday, of course... And how excited we are! We're teaching tommorrow night (Sim - 2x advanced classes to whom he taught about 'religion' and 'civilisation' yesterday, and I'll be teaching the first lesson of a class that I'll hold for ten weeks!) so we went out tonight for dinner and drinks. We found this AMAZING place called Sababa which is a tiny hole-in-the-wall place serving amazing Moroccan and Iranian food! So we had pitas and falafel and hummus and moroccan style-chicken (for Sim)... So so so so good. Totally on par with Moroccan Soup Kitchen (though I would argue better, no?) Way to go, we love you multicultural Taiwan, you are amazing!

Then off for cocktails and beers at the local expat hangout, which could be likened to a Hard Rock Cafe. Shitty music and old guys hanging out with women far too young to be drinking booze! Either way, we loved it, bopping around to Prince's 'Cream'... and so the birthday celebrations begin!