Tagged with teachingenglishintaiwan

How I saved $10,000USD teaching English in Taiwan

I saved $10,000USD in my year in Taiwan, but it wasn’t all easy. Here’s the real lowdown on what you can expect to save an earn by teaching English in Taiwan. Please note this is excluding flights to and from Taiwan.

The first thing you need to realise before you come to Taiwan is it’s not that cheap it is far more expensive than Thailand, Vietnam and the rest of S.E Asia.

Here’s a breakdown (100twd: 3USD: 2GBP)

Produce:

Rice and grains are very cheap, fresh produce is where you’re going to be in trouble. Shop at local markets and shop food that’s in season, or you’ll be paying for than in the West for vegetables. If it’s in season, it’s cheap, if not, you’re looking at Western prices. Fruit and veg are surprisingly expensive and will push your food budget up. 60twd for a head of broccoli?! 80twd for a large mango?!

Eating out:

A meal at a local place will set you back 50-150twd depending on the area of Taipei. However, there’s a good chance the cheaper you go the oilier and more unhealthy it will be.

To eat at a Western place, you’re looking at average 200-400twd for just a main course.

Alcohol:

A cocktail in most places or a nice beer/glass of wine will cost you around 300twd (9USD!) so not much difference to the west there. Taiwan beer, the cheapest beer, will sometimes be as little as 100twd on tap.

As with anywhere, if you want to save money limit your nights out and drinking or don’t drink at all. Which leads me to…

Nights out:

Cover of your standard places is usually 300twd with a drink token. Fancier clubs like Myst and Omni are 600-700twd with 2 tokens. Taxis cost about 200-300twd if you don’t live miles away.

Tea and coffee:

Are ludicrously expensive in Taiwan unless you buy them from the convenience stores or a hole in the wall place. If you want to go to a nice coffee shop, you’re looking at, wait for it, about 160-200TWD for a coffee or tea. To put that into perspective a Venti Starbucks latte in Taiwan is 140TWD. Coffee places in Taiwan are more expensive than Starbucks, and around the price of a mid-range meal.

Ludicrous. Pro tip: get a flask and make it at home, but if you’re a coffee shop dweller like me this will be a hit to your past times. A confession is I spent far too much at Starbucks in my year in Taiwan, I think on average I was buying 3 or 4 coffees there a week. It was the only place to chill at on my lunch break that did soy and wasn’t my school. Could I have saved more without them? Probably. Would I have been as sane? Probably not.

Rent and bills:

Here’s where you’ll save compared to other countries, although if you’ve researched Korea you’ll know that you’re given an apartment. If you live outside Taipei you’re going to save a lot more, but in Taipei you can get a bit of a run down place for 6000-8000twd, a nice place for 9000-11000, and a studio apartment for 11000-16000 if you want to live alone (very variable on size and location). Living in New Taipei will save you money, but if you live around the brown line/Guting/Taipower/Fuxing (basically the areas you want to live to be near things) you’re going to be paying the above amount. I was paying 11000twd for a good sized room in a flat with 3 people in an excellent location in the heart of downtown (Zhongxiao Fuxing) the flat was in excellent condition and had a kitchen. Halfway through I moved to the smaller room in the same flat and my rent changed to 9000twd. Score!

Bills come to between 1000twd and 2000twd a month. We had a maid split between us for 300twd each a week, and she did everything. It was wonderful and a huge bonus of having flatmates!

Transport:

Expensive, don’t be fooled! Well, it’s not Western Europe prices and if you just toddle round Taipei and stay on the slow trains you’re not going to spend too much. The high speed rail will set you back a lot more, as a one way from Taipei to Kaohsiung with a reserved ticket is 1,630TWD. The MRT in Taipei costs 16twd-54twd a trip, for most journeys you pay 20-24twd. I spent 1000TWD a month on transport.

Cell phone:

I got a prepaid sim and topped up in 7/11s every month. The great thing with this is that you can top up data and calls separately, so I would top up data every month for 300twd (2.2GB) and then calls and texts every 5 or 6 months for 600twd. This was great because it meant my phone was a very minor expense, and it’s definitely what I recommend. 2.2GB would last me 20 days to a month with streaming music, hotspotting, and pretty constant internet use.

Chinese lessons:

Are between 300 and 700twd an hour for private tutoring. I recommend learning enough to help you get by and not feel completely isolated from the city. Towards the end I was doing 1.5 hours 3x a week, which was the perfect amount for me but was costing me around 6000twd a month.

And what are you earning?

Okay, so all of this isn’t that expensive by Western European or North American standards, or at least most of this isn’t (I still haven’t got past the coffee prices, eeeeesh, and they make you order too!). But what you’re earning wouldn’t last you one week in a Western city. In one year, I earned roughly 18,000-20,000USD. There is simply no way I could have lived as well as I did in any Western city on that much, or saved as much as I did. Now lets look at the salary breakdown, the schools who you might get employed by, and how much you’ll need to work.

Hess

Hess is the biggest chain school in Taiwan, and they also have branches in China. They recruit you independently and put you in a huge month long training course where you’ll meet a lot of other excited newbies and can make some friends. You’ll also get your TEFL through them and be taught a lot of rousing songs. You won’t be paid as much as if you get employed with other schools (570twd an hour starting salary) but you’ll probably be able to rack up a lot, and I mean a LOT of hours.
As for experience, some people love it, some hate it. It’s so dependant on the schools. You get 10 days of leave a year, and I think you also get a contract completion bonus.

Pros: a lot of hours, you can make friends on the course and bond with other newbies.
Cons: possibly a hellish school, you can be sent anywhere in Taiwan, small wage, unpaid training for a month.

Shane

Shane schools also recruit independently and put you on a training course. I don’t know much about them but I know a few people who worked for them and got out fast after the first year.

Reach to Teach

Aren’t a school, they’re a recruiter. The schools they recruit for pay 600TWD an hour and up. I went through them and although I can’t say the school was the school was the best (split shifts and incredibly inefficient working hours, and some questionable working conditions) my experience was generally positive. I didn’t manage to get them to sort out my school underpaying me for 2 months (breaching the contract), but turns out I needed to make more of a fuss and go to Carrie, head of Reach to Teach who just sorted out the same situation for my replacement. Overall, I recommend using a recruiter if you want a decent (but probably not amazing) job sorted before you come to the country.

Other schools

Will pay a starting salary of 600-650twd. If you have experience you can get 700 or maybe even a little more if you’re lucky and can negotiate. The important thing to remember, though, is that the job market in Taiwan isn’t as good as it used to be. In the past 5 years or so, cost of living in the city has dramatically risen in the city but salaries for English teachers haven’t risen at all.

The majority of my friends were on around 20 hours a week which is around 50,000twd dollars a month before taxes, which are 18% for your first 6 months (most of which you get back, eventually). Living well but not extravagantly will set you back about 25,000 – 30,000twd a month. This is with a nice meal out once of twice a week, Chinese lessons, and the occasional night out. I was on 25.5 hours a week and it came to 55,000twd a month after taxes but I only earned that for about 9 months of my 13 in Taiwan. As you might expect, this was a problem and was not something I was warned about.

So how do you save?

Set yourself a goal every month from your salary. Mine was to save 25,000 every month (that I earned a full paycheck). Most months I hit this, some months I saved a little less, some a little more, but I could see my balance every month increasing by 25,000.

If you arrive before the 1st of July you’ll get your taxes back from this year. This is very important, if you arrive after you’ll be losing out on up to 50,000twd. You can then get your taxes express taxed if you leave 1 year later. You can only do this once every 5 years – otherwise you have to wait until summer the following year and then go back to Taiwan and collect a cheque.

Quite simply, the way to save is private students which will earn you anything from 700twd to 1500twd an hour. Try and negotiate being paid for 10 classes upfront by offering a discount – this will give you more reliability. Also try to make the classes 90 minutes minimum as you will usually have to go to them and you don’t want to be spending more time travelling than teaching. Again, offer discounts for 2 hour classes. It will pay off in the long run. Set a cancellation policy – I learned this after having a student who would cancel on me as I was on the way to a class, and another who would halve the time we were having together when I was already there. Make sure they pay you for your time. I consistently got frustrated by the lack of respect from my students that this was how I earned my living. Having said that, though, private tutoring was one of the most fun and rewarding things I did, as it allowed me to teach adults which is what I’m actually trained for.

I earned between 9,500 and 20,000twd extra every month from private students by listing myself on tutoring websites. I think one month I hit 30,000twd from privates, but I was exhausted and drained and it stopped being worth it. I tried to limit myself to two private classes a week, one on Saturdays and one in the evening after work. I could have done more, but leaving my apartment at 9am and getting home at 10.30pm after an entire day of teaching isn’t sustainable for more than one or two days a week, for me at least. If you can do that, great. And of course, the more hours you’re earning, the less you’re spending. Because I tutored at the weekend, the number of weekend trips I went on was limited.

Remember, 25-30 hours of teaching a week might not sound much to someone who’s used to a 9-5 40 hour work week, but you’re on your feet and talking constantly. You’re also expected to do unpaid preparation time and marking in pretty much every job, about 10 hours a week average if you have a 30 hour work week.

Final tips:

Keep a budget app. I loved Monefy, because the interface was extremely nice to use.

Meal plan I saved the most when I still had a kitchen (before my stove broke 6 months before I left) and I would do all my cooking on a Monday evening, then take it to school for lunch and a mid afternoon meal. My school had a microwave (which then also broke…) so I would heat things up there. Bulk buying and cooking and using a lot of dried beans bought cheaply saved me a lot of money, and I was eating well for around 100twd a day. Plus an extra 60twd or so for my breakfast smoothie and a light meal at the end of the day.

Do a mixture of day job and privates, or kindy and buxiban I know I’ve said this already, but this really is where you’ll make bank in a way that you simply won’t with just buxiban (afternoon cram school). If you can get an all day kindergarten job (usually 9-3/4) then find an evening cram school job or tutoring, that’s the best.

Avoid a Western lifestyle if you go out every weekend, if you drink, if you hang around in coffee shops, and if you hunt down the Western food you will burn through your earnings very, very fast. Eat noodles, rice, local market produce, and from local places and you’ll find it easy to put away money.

And most importantly, enjoy! I could have saved a lot more, but I’ve very happy with what I did save and I had fun, learned Chinese, took yoga classes, went out about once a month, and travelled around a little. I lived a single lifestyle where I was rarely home, and I at times spent more than I maybe should have. I struggled from time to time, but when I left Taiwan it was with a lot of positive feelings.

You can save a lot in Taiwan, or nothing at all. It’s completely up to you how hard you want to work and how hard you want to play. Just don’t think that it’s cheap just because it’s Asia. Good luck!

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10 things to love about Taipei, Taiwan

Maybe I haven’t always been the most positive about Taipei. The cockroaches, the working hours, the lack of alternative night-life, the terrible dating prospects for Western women… (more on that later). Now that I’m leaving, though, all the nostalgia is kicking in. I will be genuinely sad to leave Taiwan: it grows on you.

The Mountains

The air in Taipei is not that polluted for an Asian capital, but it’s not clean, either. The city has nice parts, but it’s not an attractive city. What makes the city bearable is that almost wherever you are, you can see the mountains between the buildings or over the rooftops. Ride the MRT from the city centre for 15-30 minutes in any direction, and you’re in nature. Take a train or a bus for an hour, and you’re at the beach. Surrounded by mountains. They’re green, lush, and a beautiful way to escape from the city for a few hours.

On a Sunday morning hike in Neihu.

On a Sunday morning hike in Neihu.

The People

If you’ve heard about Taiwan at all, and aren’t one of those people who hear me say Taiwan and respond with ‘Thailand! Awesome!’ (seriously, learn the difference)  then you’ll have heard that the people are lovely. They don’t disappoint. With very few exceptions they’re friendly, helpful and welcoming. They compliment your Chinese if you can say anything at all, and they’ll go out of their way to give you information, take you places, and see that you’re alright.

The Convenience

When I lived in Germany I was always getting caught out by all the shops closing on Sundays. In Taipei, the schedule is the same all week long. 24/7 convenience stores are on every corner and sell most things you might need in a hurry: umbrellas, rain ponchos, toothbrushes, alcohol, disposable underwear. A lot of shops are open until 10pm and nightmarkets are on till midnight, so you can finish work late and still go clothes shopping with friends. Basically, when you need something, you can get it.

The Transport

Admittedly it’s not cheap, but the HSR (High Speed Rail) will take you all the way down the coast from Taipei to Kaohsiung in a little over two hours. If you want a cheaper option, there are trains and buses. Taipei has an excellent transport network: the MRT (Metro) is constantly having new lines added to it, and there are buses if that fails. The Ubike system is used by everyone, so much so that the bike stands are frequently emptied and you have to stand like vultures waiting for someone to return theirs. Most of inner Taipei is flat, and so it’s perfect for biking: as long as you’re brave enough to bike in the scooter traffic amid the buses and taxis that will try to flatten you.

The Metro: clean, convenient, just don't bring your birds.

The Metro: clean, convenient, just don’t bring your birds.

The Safety

The other night I was walking the 20 minutes back to the MRT from an art class I was portrait modelling for. It was about 10.30 at night and I was in a suburb I didn’t know, right in the South of Taipei. It suddenly occurred to me that I’d never even thought about my own safety, because it’s just not an issue in Taiwan. Even when I’m alone by the riverside cycling home in the early hours of the morning, I’ve never once felt in danger.

One warning: bike theft is quite common here. If you have a nice bike, get a decent lock and lock it to something when possible.

The Tea Shops

This is something I haven’t seen anywhere else. Tea shops are everywhere here, and I don’t mean places where you go in, sit down and get a teapot. Here, you order bubble tea, or mango green tea, or one of many other flavours, you say how much sugar and ice you want, and you have a tea to go. And they’re big. They’re perfect for cooling you down on a summer day.

The Fruit

One of my biggest disappointments here is that the fruit is so expensive! It’s almost UK prices unless you go to the big wholesale markets. But it’s so tasty, and it’s everywhere, and it’s all perfectly ripe. When you buy a pineapple they’ll chop it up with a cleaver to save you the hassle (I hate to admit how many times I’ve accidentally let a pineapple go bad because chopping it was too troublesome.) Things also come in and out of season here, so there’s always something to look forwards to. And fruit and veg stalls pop up everywhere.

An extremely well-organised fruit and veg seller.

An extremely well-organised fruit and veg seller.

It’s not the Mainland

We have regular internet service, there’s not intense monitoring systems in place, and people are much more liberal. Taiwan has progressive laws for same sex couples, relatively speaking, and although discrimination is an issue here it’s small enough that you can for the most part get by without being aware of it. Schools still need to be better about hiring teachers on skills, not looks, but other than that Taiwan is good to foreigners. You won’t get overcharged, ripped off, or given dirty looks for being Western. People are polite and well mannered: they don’t shove, they don’t smell, and they don’t use the street as a bathroom. Taiwan is just generally more in touch with the rest of the world than the mainland.

Vegan and Vegetarian Food

I can’t state enough how easy it is to be vegan here. Once you learn to recognise the characters for vegetarian restaurant, you realise that they’re everywhere. Most food is labelled, so you don’t need to check the ingredients and risk missing something you don’t know the character for, and people know what a vegetarian is (there’s still some confusion about vegan, but they’re getting there.) More on being vegan in Taiwan here.

Vegan food at Vege Creek.

Vegan food at Vege Creek.

The Coffee Shops

You can get good coffee here, but for some reason you can’t get cheap coffee (unless you want it from the 7/11). Hipster culture has permeated Taiwan so deeply that coffee shops are everywhere, filled with quirky interiors and very expensive slow drip coffee from Brazil. A good coffee in most of the places here will set you back around 160nt, which is more than Starbucks, and more than most meals unless you’re in a restaurant. They are incredibly endearing though, and I like seeing the curious cafes that pop up everywhere with their hipster charm. Finding one down a ramshackle alley is one of the things that gives Taipei its charm. Find your vegan latte here.

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Taiwan, and the demise of my self-esteem

“You have a lot of pimples, are you on your period or just tired?” was the first thing my Chinese teacher said to me when I walked into Starbucks one day. I just wasn’t wearing makeup.

Recently, I have been fighting an ongoing battle with pinkeye. It’s now 7 weeks and counting. When it first developed I immediately went to the doctor before it could get worse (clearly that worked). Having had a bad experience with a clinic previously, when a doctor insisted my dislocated rib was a pulled muscle and refused to even feel the large, hard lump sticking out of my chest, I decided to go to the hospital this time round. And to make sure there would be no understandings, I took my friend who studies Chinese philosophy, who speaks Chinese.

Google ‘pink eye’ or ‘conjunctivitis’ and you get a page of stomach turning images of green gunk filled, swollen, red eyes. That is exactly, eye for eye, what my left eye looked like. I could only just open it. It was not, emphasis on not, a hard diagnosis.

So you can imagine my confusion when I was sent to the optometrist and tested for glasses. Almost in tears, I insisted that I couldn’t see out of my eye and stop trying to make me see tiny letters on the distant wall.

“If you can’t see, then you need glasses,” the girl said.

I pointed at my red, oozing, swollen eye in disbelief. “This isn’t something I need glasses for!”

Thankfully, my friend convinced her to be less trigger happy about prescribing me a pair of lenses. After more logic-less healthcare and five hours of my life gone, I left with two bottles of eye drops and a weird longing for the NHS.

The doctor had given me the all clear to go straight back to work, but I took the next morning off anyway because conjunctivitis is extremely contagious when it’s oozing still, and giving it to all my small children would not make me teacher of the year.

“Eyes? Red eyes?” chorused my six year olds when I entered, first class back. Their English is very limited so my co-teacher explained to them that they couldn’t come too close to me. In unison, their hands went over their eyes. “No!” I shouted, “that will make it more likely to infect!”

“Why are your eyes red?” asked one of my twelve year old girls. I proceeded to explain what had happened and we talked about whether it hurt. Two minutes later the boy in the seat behind her asked, “teacher, why are your eyes red?”

“See?” I replied. “This is why you need to listen and not talk Chinese. We just talked about my eye.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Really.”

“So, why are they red?”

“TEACHER, YOUR EYES, THEY’RE SOOOOOOO RED, AND SOOOOOOO SMALL,” shouted one of my eight year old students the second I walked into the room. By far my biggest cram school class, all seventeen of them gathered round to stare, laugh and point.

I wish there was a happy ending to my battle with pinkeye, but thanks to the climate (hot and humid is a breeding ground for bacteria) and my babies (a room full of toddlers is also a germ factory) it keeps coming back, just thankfully not as bad as the first time round. Salt water is helping more than the eye drops, and I’ll keep fighting it.

The eyes are just part of the picture, though. Since I got here my hair has turned into a frizzball of a totally different texture that gets drier instead of greasy the longer I’ve gone without washing, and my skin broke out so badly it was my teenage acne years all over again. A year in my face has cleared but my chest hasn’t, and I’ve cut my hair off to a level where the frizz is more manageable, but I still wouldn’t say I feel like ‘me’.

And the thing is, this is not British or Western culture. Personal comments here are a sign of caring, and it’s relatively normal to comment on weight gain or loss however minimal, on pimples, and on hair and general physical appearance. In the UK if I was having a breakout, sometimes what would get me out of the house would be the thought ‘it’s okay, no one will notice, it’s just me that it’s obvious to.’ What you realise here is that, everywhere else, they’re just being polite.

I know I’m a soft touch, which definitely exacerbated the following events, but a few days ago my 8 year old girls decided to massage my shoulders when I was writing communication books. Before, they liked braiding my hair and saying “Mei mei!!” which means little sister. Apparently I have bad hair, because it’s curly. I interpret this as being my hair is bad, because it’s different. After a moment of pummelling my shoulders, they started flapping my arm fat. I have no more than the average woman, and less than most, but still enough to amuse 8 year olds. Then they called my eyes small, and my nose big. And have I thought of surgery? Everyone gets it here… Then they asked me “teacher, do you think you’re fat?” That’s where I drew the line and told them you don’t ask people that. They said okay and sloped off.

Did I know about plastic surgery when I was 8? Maybe, because I grew up next door to a clinic, but I wouldn’t have known the details or known enough to tell someone to get it. The comments were a strange mixture of childish rudeness and cultural gap. I like the girls who made them a lot: they’re good kids, and I can’t imagine that there was anything malicious or hurtful intended in them. They do what I ask and are usually respectful. It had me wondering, what actually counts as disrespect here?

The only comment on my aesthetics that’s ever provoked a negative reaction from a Taiwanese coworker was when I was teaching colors in kindergarten. “Brown!” I flash-carded them. One of my Korean toddlers shuffled forwards and pointed at my quite-tanned arm. “Brown!” he shouted out.

“Brown!” The face of a toddler confronted with a blonde-haired green-eyed Westerner.

My coworker looked shocked. “He doesn’t mean it!” she said, placating me as though he had just pointed to me for the flashcard ‘ugly cow’.

There are some curious culture divides.

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You want to pay ME? Teaching ESL as an introvert – the highs and lows

I have a very quiet voice. I’m a quiet person, a little reserved, and self-promotion isn’t something that comes naturally to me. And now I spend about 30 hours of my week standing in front of other people instructing them on how to talk. And then taking their money for it. As expected, these don’t exactly go hand in hand.

I have various issues with teaching. Not with my students: the adults are wonderful, and interesting, and make me think; the kids are cute and funny and I laugh so many times each day. My issues are all internal and revolve around social anxiety.

Before I started teaching English, I was a literature student. I sat indoors and read books all day, and occasionally went to seminars where I didn’t say much. One on one with other people, I was good. In groups, well, it depended on the day. Then I came to Taiwan and started teaching, and it was such a learning curve for my social skills I don’t even know how to start describing it. Here’s a rundown of the issues I’ve experienced with how I am naturally, and how I need to be to teach.

1. Wait, I talk with you for an hour then take your money?

The question for beginner teachers is always, am I charging too much? Too little? What’s a fair amount? Add in a nervous disposition and a want-to-please personality and it’s a recipe for a highly-strung disaster. There’s such a tense moment when stating a price, and negotiating working hours. Then there’s having the confidence to organise a lesson, to pull a student back to the subject if the lesson strays, and to keep to time. Basically, to act like a teacher. This might not seem a big deal in text, but when you’re just starting out and your student is twice your age? It’s a one-way train to a land of sweaty palms and self-doubt. A few times I’ve drastically over-prepared a lesson and gone along to it with a large amount of material I haven’t used, because I’ve been so nervous about coming across well and making the student feel they’re getting value for money.

2. All the little children

Have you ever stood, clutching flashcards, in front of 17 two year olds? If so, you’ll know how terrifying it can be. I’ve had moments where I’ve lost control and have had 3 jumping on my back, several more fighting with each other, more stealing my teaching materials and ripping them/throwing them/hiding them. My teaching assistants are off in a corner dealing with the one who’s crying so hard she’s projectile vomiting, and the one who just wet himself. That’s only 11 accounted for, the other 6 are making escape attempts or are also screaming.

Just another day at the office.

The amount of nervous energy this takes is in no way small. And that’s just the morning. To keep them interested and engaged I have to be SO UPBEAT AND OUTGOING AND EXCITED ALL THE TIME. For an introvert, even without everything going on, it’s utterly exhausting.

3. Talk, talk, talk

After a day, a week, and definitely a month of 5+ hours of constant talking a day, when I finish work I just want to not talk anymore, or see people, or do things. This makes a social life pretty hard. I’ve found that the longer I work, the less I want to see friends. Social contact is becoming more of an effort for me than it’s been for years. At University, social contact was a break from work. Here, it almost is work.

I’m becoming far more selective in my social contact, and far more aware of what recharges and what further takes my energy. 7 months of teaching with only 1 week off in that time? In some ways I’m getting used to it – I have more energy than I did to start with, and it’s far less of an adrenaline rush these days – but in other ways I’m tired. My introvert side needs a week of talking to and seeing hardly anyone, so that I can feel normal again.

…….

Before I started teaching I wondered if I would cope. I’m now working more consistently than I ever knew I was capable of. It’s a test of endurance for a normal person, let alone someone who used to be unable to leave the house or make eye contact. I enjoy it. I enjoy the teaching, the students… but it’s hard. Some things are suffering:  And when I have my next week off in another 5 months’ time please don’t call me, text me, or email me. I’ll be in the mountains somewhere, alone, with my thoughts.

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Happy Holidays from Taiwan

As I may have mentioned here before (with a slight tinge of bitterness) holiday time here is something non-existent. Last night I Skyped a friend who’s been living and teaching in Beijing since last May. It was our first time catching up. “How much annual leave do you get?” he asked. I held up a balled fist to the camera. It took him a moment to realise. Because I private tutor too – one session a week adds significantly to what I save every month – I work Saturday mornings. My school also has me working the occasional Saturday, and once, in December, a Sunday.

This was a strange award ceremony on the 4th floor of a cinema in a remote part of the city, where the kids doing well in English got to watch a film, and then a colleague and I were brought in to hand them awards on a tiny raised podium. Trying to manoeuvre around ten children standing on a 4ft by 7ft raised platform to put medals over their heads wasn’t easy, and I nearly fell off or knocked a child off a couple of times. Then I had to have a picture taken handing them a certificate. Tip: if you’re coming to Taiwan, learn how to have the perfect camera smile ready to pop out at any moment. I don’t have one. Mine was a pained and awkward grimace. What made this whole event particularly surreal was that the music they had chosen to play sounded like ‘riding over hills’ generic video game music from ten years ago. I was pretty sure I remembered it from Legend of Zelda.

I had to press ‘Insert link’ to get this image on the page, get the pun? (Nerd reference).

The Saturday I worked in December was a ‘make-up day’ for having two days off at New Year. This wasn’t just my school, this was every company across the island. Because New Year was a Thursday, Thursday and Friday were off school. But two days off in a row??? Who heard of such a thing? The country will collapse! So we had to work Saturday the 29th to make up for not working Friday the 2nd. Some companies ignored this of course, they gave the Saturday off but not the Friday, and some gave both, but most schools held to having the make-up day. All of this meant that in the whole of December I was not working for… 3 days. I’m burned out. Because of the make-up day and the cinema award ceremony, I was working for 13 days straight, with Christmas towards the tail end of those days. By the end of this period, I bore an uncanny resemblance to this rabbit:

Me in December

My coping strategy towards dealing with missing Christmas, and one that I’ve heard repeated by other expats, is to tell myself that I’m just saving Christmas up for next year. I was homesick at the time, but now that it’s over and it’s 2015 it doesn’t seem like such a big deal. Something that is celebrated is New Year’s Eve, though.

When I left work on Wednesday night, the city had changed. Small nightmarkets had popped up where they’d never been before. People, people were everywhere! Although, for a capital of Asia, Taiwan is pretty small and empty of people, it’s still far more densely populated than most European cities. But because everyone is working all the time, I never really realised this until so many people appeared.

The biggest event in the city is the fireworks at Taipei 101. One of the tallest buildings in the world in a relatively small city, it looks odd standing out so high about the city with very few other buildings that even reach 1/3rd of the way up it. People appeared about 4 hours early to get a good spot, and I’m pretty sure I saw a few tents set up. By about 11.30pm it was hard to move. We found a patch of ground to sit on, and waiting for the fireworks. They started at midnight, and lasted for three minutes. They were nice, but not that impressive.

The most impressive thing was the amount of people videoing it. My newsfeed now has many, many pictures that all look exactly the same. Something like this one.

Taipei 101 lit up

Taipei 101 lit up

And when I turned around to look at people’s faces, this is what I saw:

Smart-phone fever

Smart-phone fever

It doesn’t really show the amount of people on their phones, but I think it was every other person watching the fireworks though their screen. I wondered what the point of even being there was. Oh well, welcome to the future. Even though the MRT was running until midnight, there were lines around the block to even get it, so I walked home. The internet on all phones had stopped working several hours before, so meeting up with any other friends wasn’t going to happen. All in all, a mellow NYE. And then four days off. In which I’ve been sleeping, and writing, and staying up too late. It’s glorious.

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