2nd to 8th March

2^nd March to 8^th March

Second week into the new semester and it was a great week.  The first practical classes are always appreciated and filled with excitement and curiosity as the student finds his/her way through exploration and curiosity as they work with their peers.

I’m teaching two classes in the baking and pastry program, one baking class in Paul’s program and one theory class in Paul and Sophie’s programs.

A three hour theory class can be daunting not only for the students but for the teacher as well.  Paul and I are sharing this particular class in terms of content and speaking in the class.  I found it to be a very inviting class and we actually had participation from the students and that is not an easy task simply because the Taiwan students to not normally ask questions or partake in discussions unless pushed or pressured to do so.

The time went by quickly but at the end, my throat felt like I had eaten handfuls of hay. 

On Thursday, Nicholas and I went for a ride to the ocean side but had to make a pit stop at Starbucks.  Nothing better than sipping on a chai tea latte while viewing the large ships coming through the harbour.

Later in the day, Nicholas and I met up with the owner of the restaurant we visited last week in Sandiman.  He wasn’t there the time of as he was in Chile.

He wanted to meet both of us and discuss some options/ideas about giving his menu a 100% turn around.

We went to a café called ‘Reve’ that was very trendy and Nicholas was saying that they started out with one restaurant and now have five, so they are doing something right.

Friday

Another somewhat busy day. 

It started off with having breakfast at the local eatery just around the corner.  Then Lee assisted me in returning the ‘walker’ back to the hospital.  I’m now free and clear from these medical items.  I normally just use a cane now and can get in and out of the shower without the use of the walker.  I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. J

We then rode to the ocean side and grabbed a latte at 7-11 and chilled there for a while and observing the tourists.

After that we went to the harbour where the Taiwan Navy was holding what looked like an open house of their ships.

There were performances taking place so stayed there for maybe half hour watching all of the happenings.

It was now almost lunchtime so rode to Fengshan where there is a specialty dumpling restaurant that serves the best dumplings I’ve tasted here in Kaohsiung.

After lunch we rode back to the exhibition centre where there is a four day event featuring ‘organic’ foods and a tourism show.  Met up with Vivian and she gave me four coupons for the event so it costed nothing for entrance. 

The exhibits were good but we breezed through everything as nothing really of interest unless one was planning a vacation or wanted to purchase some organic foods.

I received a message from one of the Humber students explaining to me a situation that needed my attention.  To condense the scenario, I rode my scooter to the residence apartment where the Humber students are staying and addressed the issue with the concerned individual(s).  I was there for almost three hours and then came back home.  I was exhausted by this point and just need to sit down and put my feet up.

I had to contact key individuals at Humber regarding this as the issue is now up and beyond what I can do.  Appropriate action will be confirmed and implemented on Monday.

Saturday

The weather has still been quite tolerable and no, I have not turned on my A/C since last October.  My electricity bill arrived last week and for a two-month period, the expense was less than $700NTD compared to almost $3000NTD when I use the A/C. 

Today is the 7^th March and I still have not turned on the A/C.  I’m wondering how long I can last out…hahaha

Not sure why today but one very noticeable sign that this area where I live is becoming exceedingly busy day by day is the traffic. 

I remember clearly from two years ago when I lived here, this particular side street was very quiet with the odd auto and scooter going down.  Now it is similar to a freeway.  The new library has created this chaotic traffic movement along with three brand new high-rise condos either finished construction or in the construction phase. 

An example is just this afternoon I rode my scooter up from the parking garage to street level and I wanted to make a left turn onto the street.  I waited for almost one minute before I could get out.  This has never happened before.

Ok today is Saturday but still, this increase in business is astounding.

I worked on my own studies for most of the morning then had to get out for some fresh air so that is when I left early afternoon to go to the Oceanside.  A couple of mentionable incidences took place and I think worth mentioning.

My usual routine is once I’m at the ocean side I will walk to the nearby 7-11 to get a latte then just a few steps to the walkway along the ocean and sit down and relax.

When I walked into the 7-11 there were around seven people and I had a good feel that they were Mainland China tourists.  As I’m standing at the counter patiently waiting, there was a cluster of people standing next to me making a lot of fuss over some packages of cigarettes.  Then without my noticing another man pushed his way between me and the person next to me and I almost fell down but grabbed my cane and counter to stop my fall.  I turned abruptly to the person and grabbed his arm and said ‘STOP IT’ in a rather loud and forceful voice.  There was a brief moment of silence and the person said sorry three times to me.  I noticed the facial reactions of the employees (they’ve seen me many times) smile.  At that point, one of the employees stepped in to deal with the tourists and the other employee assisted me directly and prepared my latte.

The person preparing my latte spoke some English and he said to me “Chinese tourists.”

I smiled back and I think I rolled my eyes.  They seemed like animals that were scrambling to get out of their cages…. argh!!!

I did afterwards enjoy my latte and sat down by the Oceanside and enjoyed the nice breeze and fresh air.

I then proceeded to go back to my scooter and I noticed three ‘non-Asians’ walking towards me.  As we became nearer, one of them said hello to me and we began a conversation.  They had arrived in October of last year.  One girl was a Spanish teacher at a cram/language school here in the city and the other two said they were just visiting.  As our conversation grew, it then became apparent when they told me that two of them were Jehovah Witness.  They were from Italy and doing some work with this belief.  The young man then asked me if he could share some information with me and I politely replied with no thank you and walked away.  This was the first time I’ve been approached by Jehovah Witness outside of Canada.

I rode the scooter back and once again as I came nearer to my apartment the traffic became chaotic.  I took a longer route back and the side street leading directly to my apartment to try and avoid much of the traffic.  It seemed to work.  I’m once again exhausted…. but study time now.

Sunday

Didn’t do much today except some school stuff.  Went for a ride to the Oceanside (as I do almost every free day).

Nicholas and I went to a new (to us) café called ‘Peter Rabbit’.  It was a cool looking place inside and out.  We arrived just as majority of the patrons were leaving, so good timing.

As we glanced at the menu, I noticed at least three food items that had the same name (in English) but with different prices.  I thought this was odd so I showed Nicholas and he said the translation was wrong.  He pointed this out to the server and she said they were in the process of redoing their menus so they just left it as is but they were aware of the errors.

We saw some very good food dishes on other tables and we ordered a simple Caesar salad and truffle fries (to share).  Fries were good but the salad was not.  Somewhat expensive but that's the name of the game when one is trying out new eateries.  You never know until you try.

Well the end of another week (already).

Unsure of what next week will bring but I’m sure there will be interesting moments along the way.