Month and a half in

I was recently informed that I have not kept people back home informed enough about what I've been doing. Something about being 1000s of miles away and blah blah blah. Well I figured I could start this thingy to keep you occasionally updated on what's going on. I say occasionally because for the most part I'm teaching and to be completely honest I'm going to be doing much of the same thing here as I would be anywhere else. Also, I am a terrible writer so I'm going to do my best to limit the writing and let pictures speak for me.

As the above picture tells you and if you didn't know before I moved to Taiwan (not Thailand) in early July. I applied, interviewed and for some reason, still unknown to myself, was hired to teach at an International School call Ivy Collegiate Academy (http://ica.ivyjhs.tc.edu.tw/).

Along with teaching a few History and Geography courses I am also a dorm parent and the head of a house. Sadly I didn't get Gryffindor, but wound up with Adams. Needless to say as head of the house I will implement this as our theme song (http://youtu.be/IokBKvFiCvM). I live on one of the three student floors with a few other teachers. We rotate throughout the week making sure the students are studying and sleeping while also watching for smoking and other forms of shenanigans.

 I've thrown in a picture of the school as well as sign at the school entrance that wigs me out a bit. The first month in Taichung, Taiwan was summer school. Summer school ended up being a cross between make up for students who failed classes and English classes for students from around Taiwan. I had the extreme pleasure of teaching 3 different classes of Writing and one class of Speaking. All in all not a bad month for the money.

Along with the teaching and dorm parenting I spend summer school getting to know my colleagues who were here and exploring the city of Taichung. So far so good in those respects, I enjoy all my co-workers (except one and they know who they are... just kidding) and Taichung is going to be quite the place to explore. Early enjoyments would be a Taiwanese German restaurant with the wait staff in Lederhosen and wiener dogs in the main park downtown shaved and looking hilarious. I may not love Taichung, but it has got me intrigued.

 Since the school is a boarding school the students spend the their weekends at the school and to keep the students from going stir crazy (teachers too) the administration plans trips to different places around Taiwan. during summer school the students went to night markets, malls, amusements parks, zoos and movies. As teachers we are required to chaperon these trips which could be thought of as a bummer and a pain in the ass, but I've found them to be a lot of fun. Highlight of the weekend trips would have to be convincing one of my students to ride the Taiwanese power town , him loving it and being super stoked the rest of the day. Can't beat that.

On one of the weekends I was not required to work (babysit?) another teacher rounded up a group of us to take a trip down to Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second biggest city. It was highlighted by black sand beaches, deep-dish pizza and a lady sleeping while selling fish. Maybe the sleeping lady wasn't a highlight, but I still found it entertaining.

After finishing up summer school it was brought to my attention that we would have about 2 and a half weeks off before returning for orientation.And with all that free-time I just had to go somewhere and that somewhere just so happened to be Bali, Indonesia, with a pit stop in Taipei (Taiwan's capital). Not a bad day in Taipei, went up the tallest building in Taiwan (5th largest in the world), ate in the mall underneath it and had some beers at a few bars around town.

Number 3 Ladies

Sunset beach soccer

 Bali... If you didn't know Bali is one of the many islands that make up Indonesia, but what makes Bali special is its roots with Buddhism and Hinduism separating it from the predominantly Islamic rest of Indonesia. It's also located in a spot that offers quite the epic surf breaks which has been enticing surfers from all over the world since the 70s.

During my stay I spent the majority of my time in Kuta. A very touristy spot on the coast with huge waves and huge crowds of tourists. I believe I could get away with calling it the Cancun of Bali. Lots of resorts and full of tourist, but unlike Cancun these tourists are predominantly Australian, but also a mix of Asian tourists as well as European. My days in Kuta were spent getting massages, wondering around the city, bartering for knock off goods (5 dollar jerseys) and the just good old relaxation.

Kuta was great, but I think it's a quick stop before it sucks you in.

To get out of Kuta, myself along with my partners in crime did a few day/night trips. Visited two of the more popular temples Uluwatu cliff temple and Tanah Lot water temple. Each were gorgeous in their own right, but I think the water temple took the cake. I could've stayed there all day and watched the tide surround the temple and then disappear.

A few of us also made the midnight trek up Mount Batur for sunrise. Not a bad hike, Nothing too strenuous, but we made it up a bit early and ended up freezing our cojones for an extra hour before sunrise (not Fuji cold though).

Then came the best adventure, white water rafting the Telaga Waja river. Yes, it was jam packed and we got stuck a bunch, but damn was it fun.

Shout out to Wall Drug from Ubud 

After the hustle, bustle and loud noises of Kuta is was time for a little quiet and let me tell you Ubud is the place to go. I Loved Ubud, never would've left if I could realistically made that possible. Besides staying in a bungalow situated peacefully near rice fields, Ubud has a rich art community (along with a lot of Bali) and some fantastic food, but by far the best part and this might be the greatest thing in the world, was the monkey forest. I mean seriously, a freaking forest full of monkeys. While walking to the forest I created a best case scenario where the forest is similar to the monkey forest in the Jungle book and worst case scenario, a couple of malnourished monkeys being paraded around on leashes. Although it wasn't quite the jungle book (monkeys didn't break out into song), it was excellent. A couple of dollars could buy you some bananas for the monkeys and once the monkeys figured out you had food the proceeded to make their way to where that food was. If you didn't have food, it didn't matter. There were so many monkeys meandering around, playing, fighting and... humping that you were always entertained. The biggest warning I can give is to constantly be alert, because if you have a backpack or something in your pocket a monkey won't hesitate to check it out and try and make it their own. It was quite enjoyable to watch a woman get her backpack opened and searched for food like she was going through TSA security. 

The trip finished with me trying to spend the rest of my Indonesian Rupiah and I just happened to come across the greatest way to spend those last few Rupiahs.PEPSI BLUE!!!!!

Hope you somewhat enjoyed this.
Late Fools

-Mr. Hickel