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Yeah, it's been pretty lame, although I'm told this is something I should get used to. I think stuff is gonna be kinda super busy for me for at least a week or so. I've only been here since late Saturday night. I just showed up to an apartment filled with boxes and absolutely nothing else set up. I've managed to get my bed, computer, and fridge functioning, but yeah... there's a lot to do still yet. Also, work pretty much started off with a bang, no easing in (or even training) the new guy here, so, yeah. I'd be down to do something though once I get somewhat settled and acclimated to my new set up. Also I'm kind of a lame idiot that doesn't drink, hope that's not too much of a bummer.
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Nov 26, 2012 16:03
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Haha, I had to look it up on Wikipedia, so I guess that should be your answer. But I'm always down to learn new forms of tabletop nerdery.
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Nov 27, 2012 16:28
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I'm pretty sure the mirrors being there or not are having no effect on the judgment of people who would be driving so unsafely in the first place. I'd rather have them for us safe drivers to at least use than not have them just to punish those idiots who are retarded, to be honest. There are like 4 by where I live now that are pretty useful 
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Dec 4, 2012 07:15
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You mean a taxi? 800 NT could get you from Taipei to Tainan and back during the busiest travel weekends! 
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Dec 4, 2012 17:29
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I'm gonna go ahead and double post to ask a few "Where can I find this?" questions. 1. Hot sauce. The kind you'd find at a Mexican restaurant back in the states. Obviously you can get stuff like Tabasco here pretty easily, but other than that it seems like it's Asian-style hot sauces which are good, but not always what I'm looking for. I'd settle for pretty much anything, even something basic like Tapatio. I mention Tapatio because I've seen it at a few restaurants here and there, so there must be some place to get it. But hey, if there's a hot sauce/chili pepper fanatic shop somewhere I could go nuts at, even better. 2. Frames, as in for art. I'd prefer something simple and DIY since custom jobs can get pretty drat expensive, but I'd even settle on the whereabouts of a framing shop if DIY/pre-made stuff isn't an option. I know I saw a few framing shops back in Tainan but since moving up North I have not yet stumbled upon one and as far as I know there aren't any yellow pages to consult
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Dec 6, 2012 12:33
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Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I will definitely check them out. TetsuoTW, you wouldn't happen to recall about how much you paid when you had things framed at the night market? Just trying to get a ballpark on what to expect, which may affect how quickly I run off to get it done, haha. I should hopefully be getting internet at my apartment tomorrow afternoon. Apparently my apartment was the one apartment in the entire building that was not on Chunghwa's technical maps as far as what cabling it was equipped with, so they weren't able to make sure I could get any service here. I'm hoping now that I've got something actually scheduled there aren't any more delays that suddenly pop up.
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Dec 7, 2012 17:11
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Seriously, that sounds like a story and a half. For the first three years here, I lived in a tiny, cheap, shoebox apartment. But otherwise, I never took home an amazing salary, and I bought a ton of stupid poo poo without thinking twice. I managed to save a decent amount of money all three years. A decent amount of money in Taiwanese standards. That's the thing--I think as long as you're planning on staying in Taiwan, the pay will get you quite far. I would always feel a little weird when my friend in Korea is talking about making the equivalent of like US$35-40k/year, cause I am no where close to that, but on the other hand when he came here he seemed at least to be in awe with the lifestyle that's affordable here on our more meager salaries. (Or he was just being really polite) But it sucks when you try to buy a plane ticket and take a trip back home, for instance, and realize just how much of your "big savings" it's gonna take just to buy anything in the outside world. Edit: And Haraksha, I'm definitely down for learning about some nerd poo poo, but it'll probably have to be after Christmas since I've got training for the next two weeks in Taipei City and Christmas activities to do as well. Didn't want you to think I was ignoring you!
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Dec 12, 2012 02:42
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I knew that Taiwan now is part of the Visa Waiver program with the USA, but I didn't know how that affected Americans just landing without any visa here in Taiwan. So, it's 90 days now? That's good to know, especially since some family members have expressed an interest in staying for longer than 30 days without all the rigamarole of getting a visitor's visa. And just for curiosity's sake, I could do for a refresher on how one goes about getting a resident visa these days. Back when I came, you had to start with a visitor's visa--the 30-day landing visa thing was something that you couldn't convert to anything else once you were in country. I remember hearing that changed a year or two ago, though. Anyone know how that's affected by the 90-day landing visa now, too? Seems like a visitor's visa would almost be worthless now for visitors and job-hopefuls alike.
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Dec 12, 2012 06:52
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New Taipei City is just the new name for what used to be Taipei County. It's not really a city in the traditional sense so much as it is a donut of all the areas surrounding Taipei City proper.
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Dec 15, 2012 15:05
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It's possible, but a lot of the districts in New Taipei City were sizable cities in their own right before the restructuring. They're Taipei City's suburbs, basically. It all depends on where your job offer is, and a quick glance on Wikipedia should give you a decent idea of what to expect, at least in terms of being in the sticks or not.
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Dec 15, 2012 15:43
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Ravendas posted:Classes graduate? Express. Some of the Focus stuff was really hit or miss. Express was better but it got pretty tough for them, maybe it would be different in Taipei but in Tainan their English skills were usually not so good. Focus on Clothes is easily the worst, though. The kids were always super bored, and who can blame them when faced with unit after unit of thrilling vocabulary like "sleeve" and "hanger." Also, those cringeworthy units with the songs for the reading section in Focus. I took a class over a class after they "graduated" from SA16 and taught them all through Focus and Express. By far my favorite class ever and my most memorable. When they finished Express there were only a few planning to continue, so we folded them into an essay writing class that I wasn't teaching.
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Dec 18, 2012 05:37
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Pshh, we have Huntsman Spiders in Hawaii and while they're big and scary looking, they are afraid of people and flee as soon as you approach. Plus they aren't venomous anyway. I've never seen one in Taiwan though. I've had lots of little tiny ones at my old apartment, but no big monsters. The little ones are probably more dangerous anyway.
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Dec 19, 2012 02:46
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Uh, guys, maybe be proper foreigners and grow thick fuckin' gross body hair over every square inch of your body so mosquitos can't reach your flesh and feast on the delicious blood pumping inside. Works for me.  (I dunno why I don't have any problems with mosquitos here, definitely did so back home, but eh, I'm not complaining!)
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Dec 19, 2012 10:31
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Man, I'm from Hawaii and I can still manage to be just fine here as long as I keep my feet off the freezing rear end tiles.
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Dec 24, 2012 16:25
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It's always roulette to a certain extent. If you can find someone you trust to give a certain school (or if it's a chain, a certain branch) a positive endorsement, that's probably the best you can do to guarantee a good school. Otherwise, just try to learn as much as you can when doing interviews and stuff.
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Feb 23, 2013 02:49
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I never had to work on national holidays at Hess in my three years there, and never got the impression it was a common practice to make people work then.
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Feb 27, 2013 18:17
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Haha, now you've got me interested in which school you're working at. During my 4 years in Tainan I heard a lot about bad schools (including the ones I worked at). As for fun stuff, there's not a whole lot. Anping can be entertaining at least for an afternoon or so if you wanna see some touristy stuff, but depending on where you are that can be a total pain if you don't have any transportation. Or you could just hop a train to Kaohsiung, lot more to do down there and there's an MRT, too.
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Apr 12, 2013 01:45
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I never had to insert extra digits. PINs here are 6-12 digits, but when I used my American debit card I just punched in the 4-digit code and it worked without an issue. It was always at 7-11 ATMs, too.
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May 14, 2013 06:30
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My dad had a heart attack two years ago, and he just came for eight weeks and brought a TON of prescription meds with him, he had to take like 6-7 pills daily. I dunno if it's more than "two bottles" worth but it was a lot. As far as non-prescription stuff, my friend's mom wanted some eye vitamin stuff that they sell at Costco in America, but not here in Taiwan. He brought 20 bottles (!!) of that stuff with him, and I think each one had like 50 pills in it. Customs didn't even give his bag a second look. Not sure if that will help you since they were vitamins and not medicine per se, but I think in general they're pretty relaxed about searching people's bags unless you're a person of interest, but you never know when you might get unlucky. He did carry a doctor's note explaining all the Rx stuff should the need arise, but no one has ever asked him about it. Also oddly enough he lives in Montana (Billings!) and also had no layover in Tokyo, so you may even be on the same drat route he was on! I just had fun sitting at an intersection for 30 minutes during that air raid drill thingie in the rain on my scooter. That was cool. edit: And if you're staying at First Hotel, they definitely have wifi, I was just there like 3 or 4 weekends ago. POCKET CHOMP fucked around with this message at 07:28 on May 15, 2013 |
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May 15, 2013 07:26
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I went to Banqiao's tax office yesterday, I dunno if they've just got a new system in place or if the North is really that much more advanced than the South, but drat it was so much easier than the past four years in Tainan. Quadrophrenic, you pay taxes for the previous year, so this year we're filing 2012's taxes. You weren't here for half (183 days) of 2012, so you don't need to file. 2013 resets that count, and you'll pay those taxes next year.
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May 30, 2013 08:56
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Not that Tainan was incredibly difficult, but they made me fill out the forms by myself. They were always helpful and would show me what goes where, but it was kinda weird, they'd do all the math themselves, then hand you a calculator and tell you to do it, just checking to see if you arrive at the right number. It was not difficult but it just took a while. Yesterday I just handed her my ARC, passport, and tax receipts. Waited like 2 minutes, they needed my phone number and bank account number for the refund, and then I was gone. Easy peasy.
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May 30, 2013 10:35
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I hoped to live my entire life without having to ever see that guy's face again. Thanks for dashing those dreams, Millow. He's an idiot and I'm pretty sure someone found out that he's a PUA whenever that video was originally posted. He's obviously hung up on a lot of weird things.
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Jun 2, 2013 17:50
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That article that was posted didn't even make sense to me. Maybe it's because as Ravendas said, I got to the part where the guy said he was an ABC and yet there were the pictures of Asian girls with white guys. I really thought maybe each paragraph was being written by a different person because it just was difficult to even comprehend. So, forgive me for asking, but what's the story about that? Just some random guy posting some racist, sexist vitriol against Taiwanese women in poorly-written English? Did he also write it in Chinese or is that website providing a translation? I mean is it anyone of any importance/interest or is it just something that people found on the internet and decided to get into a frenzy about? The only thing I saw on my FB this morning was a bunch of posts about a Turkish guy accused of sexual assault, seems like a lot of bad news regarding foreigners and Taiwanese women has been popping up in the past 24 hours.
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Jun 20, 2013 04:32
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Kinda weird you mention the military thing, I kept telling a guy cutting my hair to cut it short on Wednesday and he kept asking "Like American soldier style?" It wasn't a joke, he was referring to it like the style's name, I guess he meant a buzz cut.
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Jul 5, 2013 16:21
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Actually I was so sick of hearing about it from Taiwanese friends I was pretty glad it didn't pop up in this thread at all.
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Jul 7, 2013 15:41
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Yeah, it seems like you're reading a lot into how much this will really have an effect on things. The Taiwanese media sensationalizes a lot of stuff and then forgets about it quickly when the next big scandal breaks. Plus, as hitension said, why waste your time with people who are going to base their opinions on you solely through what they've read on Apple Daily or the like? Just as we denounce a lot of foreigners here who have a preconceived/blanket stereotype for how all Taiwanese people are, the same goes for Taiwanese people who are suddenly frightened that you might rape them because you're a foreigner.
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Jul 7, 2013 17:07
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Pandemonium posted:I'm approaching PARC status soon, so I've been here for quite a while. I noticed the Turkish guy wasn't mentioned and the other recent nonsense was, so I mentioned him. That's all. And it's not about the guy per se, but what the guy represents that is worth at least bringing to the attention of people, especially those who might be incoming to the island this summer. Or people who don't read the Chinese-language news. They might have otherwise had no idea this guy made the news, and they absolutely deserve to know. What? Do you really feel that this story is changing your life or having any sort of real effect on anything? This isn't something that people "need to know" because it won't change anyone's lives. People aren't suddenly chasing foreigners down the streets with pitchforks or shielding their children from the dirty waiguoren as a result of this sensationalized story that was last week's headline anyhow.
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Jul 8, 2013 05:45
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You still really need to chill out, dude. Did you expect the British guy to get into a dissertation about the difference facets of American culture on a casual talk show whose primary goal is pretty much to provide mindless entertainment. Maybe given the fact that you like to write paragraph after paragraph and asking Tetsuo to explain where he "pulled that bit about human nature from" (lol), you honestly do expect that. I also got a similar vibe that you're kinda making a blanket statement about Taiwanese while complaining about the same thing happening to you. Even if you use qualifiers like "most" or "the majority", isn't that the same thing? You said, "it's like the guy has been infected by the Taiwanese worldview, just replacing all foreigners with all Americans." So you're saying all Taiwanese have the same worldview and you also make it sound really negative ("infected") and close-minded. You should get out more or something, you'll meet Taiwanese people who have super broad world views. And like the same thing doesn't happen everywhere? When I spend time in Montana, you're just about as likely to meet a person who puts all Asian people together into one group as you are to meet a Taiwanese person here that thinks all foreigners are identical. Hell, I'm from Hawaii which is as diverse as it can get for an American state, yet there's tons of this "subtle racism" or stereotyping or whatever you want to call it. I survived 21 years of it by just dealing with it and not fighting every small battle. But I guess you think you're gonna change the world one Taiwanese girl you're trying to date at a time, so good luck with that. I guess I've just given up or something, apparently it's not possible to just not flip your poo poo over this stuff without "giving up on affecting any kind of change." edit: This was in reply to pandemonium, just fyi. New page and all that. POCKET CHOMP fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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Jul 8, 2013 14:25
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I've had a lot of weird student names over the years. I have a student right now whose name is Seven. I love it because I'm a huge Seinfeld dork.
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Jul 9, 2013 07:24
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Taoyuan is off after noon. Welp, this typhoon is gonna end up costing me a lot of money. One of the bad sides of my awesome work schedule is that if any of my few work days are off, it's a huge hit.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:27
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Exactly! drat, I hope I don't end up on any sensationalist news sites as "Foreigner doesn't care about the human suffering created by typhoon, also here's his dick size."
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Jul 12, 2013 05:16
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I don't live there anymore, so it's not like it matters to me now, but why is Tainan City always like the LAST place to call it a typhoon day or not?
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Jul 12, 2013 13:47
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It's not a projection, it's the past 48 hours 
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Jul 14, 2013 14:48
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I find the whole thing kinda funny, in January a bat somehow got into my completely screened-in and sealed-off apartment, I posted about it on Facebook and a bunch of people (back in the US) freaked me out about needing to get rabies shots if I didn't know how long the bat had been in my house, etc. I knew Taiwan was rabies-free but still got really paranoid about it, enough to the point where I was calling up some of the top scientists/doctors for Taiwan's CDC (whose contact details I found online) randomly asking them if there was any risk. The doctors were really helpful towards me at first, asking me what university I was representing, thinking I was doing research! I had a few good laughs about that, but in the end I was assured that there was no risk, they assured me Taiwan hasn't had rabies for a looooong time. ...Then a few months later, boom, rabies outbreak. That being said, I have a dog which I take out on long walks twice a day, she's vaccinated for everything but rabies, and I'm not rushing to get a vaccine. I think it would definitely be a good idea, sure, but I'll wait until her next check-up or until things cool down. As you said, there's going to be something of a shortage anyway, made worse by people freaking out and rushing to get them vaccinated now. Unless you live in a high-risk area, I don't think it's a big deal. They've only confirmed cases in the mountains of Nantou and Taitung, right? And only in ferret-badgers thus far, as well. The other funny thing is my vet in Tainan never even offered the vaccine against rabies. When I moved up here and went for her yearly booster, my vet was really pushing the rabies vaccine on me because if I wanted to go back to America and take my dog, I'd need it. I told her I planned to stay in Taiwan and so I didn't need to get it, looks like I wasted that opportunity! edit: and yeah, a lot of wild dogs around here, some are quite vicious as well. At night I carry a big rear end flashlight with me that I typically use to scare them off when I'm walking my dog, they hadn't been around for a few months and suddenly reappeared on Sunday night, I got them to run away while they were still quite far away, but yeah with the rabies thing in the back of my mind I definitely did feel a bit more scared than I ever had before. POCKET CHOMP fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Jul 30, 2013 |
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Jul 30, 2013 02:33
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I couldn't even find a place that does RFID chipping. Not that I have a big risk of my dog getting away from me but, you never know. I guess I never looked into it much. Is it common? My vet never mentioned it as an option and they're almost always looking for any chance to upsell stuff.
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Jul 30, 2013 07:22
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He's back 
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Aug 8, 2013 17:14
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Damnit man, can't you either post these job openings when it's really far away from my contract renewal so I can't even consider it, or right before my contract renewal so I can at least take a stab at it? I'm at a point in my contract where I don't feel like I could just up and leave, but where I am thinking about job opportunities, and just... drat. Honestly, I've been seeing you post these openings once in a while for a couple of years now. It always sounded like a really appealing job to me and I'd like to think I'd be a good fit. When I was down in Tainan it was easy to handwave away as impossible, but now that I'm in the North, the only thing really holding me back is my job now. Totally E/N post, but, I read about the opening while I was on a break this afternoon and now all evening it's been running around in my head, haha. Please post more to dissuade me from wanting the job, 'cause my current school is pretty invested in me and has done a lot to accommodate me. I just don't think I'd have the heart to bail on them if I could even manage to get the job. ...Or let me know if there'll be more openings in 2-3 months' time.
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Aug 19, 2013 14:20
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Spanish Matlock, what exactly have they changed to make it easier for the APRC? I know the basic requirement is five years. I'll be coming up on that in a few months at the end of my current contract. After that, I've heard it's something like a tax requirement, I know I've paid taxes every year since I moved here, but I have no idea about even how much or whatever, especially since in the first few years I wasn't too concerned about it. I've heard that there's also like a background check or something you need to get from your home country, translated into Chinese, and get it all notarized? I've heard that's a pain. I'm not in too much of a rush, since getting ARCs has been simple enough and the girl I'm with now seems kind of serious about the long term, so in a few years I may qualify for an APRC through marriage anyway (those are some scary words to type, but I guess I'm getting older). But hey, I always told people at the minimum I was staying five years to get an APRC, and now that date is looming in the not-so-distant future. Also I've got a pretty drat big apartment (I think the listing was 27 ping, but I never actually measured it) in a pretty nice apartment building for about 8.5k/month. Two floors (!), three bedrooms, living room and the upstairs loft landing room, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies. But I live on the outskirts of New Taipei City sooooo yeah. It's a 30 minute local train ride to Taipei Main Station.
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Aug 20, 2013 07:30
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Spanish Matlock posted:Marriage nets you a JFRV not an APRC, as I was saying before. They removed the health check and foreign criminal record check if you've stayed here for such and such a time without taking extended leave (6 months?) the whole five years. So you just pop over to the tax office, gather up your work permits, hit the poice office for a Taiwan criminal record check and then wait a month or two while poo poo is processed. That's good to know. Are there any big differences between the JFRV and an APRC aside from the fact that I guess one is tied to you actually being in a family with a Taiwanese person? I've always heard married foreigners just refer to it as "Permanent Residency" or something so I just assumed it was the same as an APRC. Work permits are the letters you get from the Board of Labor or whatever? Since my old ARC always got taken away when I got a new one, I assume that's the only proof that I have that I've been here for so many years. Which... is a real kick in the dick, 'cause the Hess I worked for in Tainan never gave me a copy of them. My first school did, and the school I work for now did as well, but right now in my records I have a gap in the middle. I hope they're even still in business, and still have them on file. I plan to go back to Tainan in a month or so, I guess I'll need to harass them for those records. Unless there is another way to get a reproduction of an old work permit from the government? Also, can you still have your ARC while applying for your APRC? Regardless of APRC status, I plan to at least renew my ARC for what would be the beginning of my 6th year, and then start the APRC process. I'd obviously like to maintain legal residency while applying for APRC, so it seems like that would make sense, but I'm not sure if you're allowed to have one while applying for the other or whatever. It always seems like the bureaucracy has some weird rules. Bloodnose posted:It must be bigger than that, right? All that doesn't sound like it would fit into 900 square feet. Honestly I have no idea, maybe that's only including the first floor since that's the "true" apartment space, it's one of those buildings with super high ceilings so I guess a lot of people in the building decided to build second floors into their apartments. The ceiling on the second floor is low enough that I can hit my head on the light fixtures, haha. But even then, I'm not entirely sure how accurate the ping count is, I'm basing it off the number that was scrawled on the initial information sheet the realtor gave me. I'm honestly not even sure if I'm reading the number right, the 2 could be a hastily written 3.
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Aug 20, 2013 08:03
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 00:39 |
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Yeah Taipei/Keelung/New Taipei City are all closed today. Taoyuan, Hsinchu, and Yilan are closed after noon. But I definitely commiserate with you on schools not letting you know, especially if you have a school that is prone to stay open on typhoon days anyway. My old school always did that unless it was actually torrential rain.
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Aug 21, 2013 02:51
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