Life in Kaohsiung and Yong Kang

Well, it's official. I now have the name of Long Tan elementary school stamped onto the back of my ARC and i'm off to Yong Kang, a city adjoining Tainan. I was pretty nervous while we waited for the government department to take their weeks and weeks of asking questions, but finally i have their approval and i can move house, probably tomorrow.
Ching Shan, the school where i'm working now is working in with the Tainan government to place foreign teachers in county schools, and I'm teacher number 5.  It'll be a big change.  Working daytimes, monday to friday.  teaching kids, not adults.  Being in Yong Kang, not Kaohsiung.  There're the other 4 teachers in the region to keep me company, but some of them are pretty far-flung.  Luckily for me, Sharon is nearby.  She comes from Australia and is a very enthusiastic teacher.  so, any minute now, i'm going to unplug the computer and pack it.

See you after the move.

There was a time when the question "what do you do?" referred to your profession.  The answer would be something like, "I'm a teacher", or "I'm a fireman".

At some point someone asked a hero, probably a fireman, "why did you risk your life to drag that crippled dog down seven flights of stairs in a burning building who's basement is laden with explosives?", and the inarticulate hero humbly shrugged and said, "it's what I do.", meaning, it's my job; I'm a fireman.

Later, this response became the humble and articulate response to many such questions:

     Why do you do such a dangerous job?  It's What I do.

     Why do you endanger your own life for the safety of others?  It's What I do.

     Why do you jump out of airplanes?  It's What I do.

     Why do you jump off bridges with elastic rope tied around your waist?  It's What I do.

     Why do you ski down avalanches?   _ _ _ _    _ _ _ _   _     _ _.

Maybe you can catch the drift here, from heroism to intrepid (intrepid means "stupidly dangerous")

So, intrepid sportspeople, in their 2 seconds of fame on TV lived out their childhood fantasy and answered these questions with an heroic shrug, it's what I do, they say. like we're supposed to coo at such heroism, such humility.

we really want HIS baby.  Yeah!

Well, now it's drifted one step over.  Let's say now, that "it's what I do" no longer answers questions relating to profession or calling, but rather answers questions that ask for an explanation for acts of dangerous stupidity.

Now the new McDonald's slogan makes much more sense.  "It's what I do.  It's what I eat."

Imagine someone's vocation, their life calling being to eat McDonalds.  That's just silly.  But eating McDonalds as an intrepid sport?  Well, it's a stretch, but they may have a point.  Considering that advertising smoking is illegal now, where else is a budding advertiser going to use such a slogan?

Last night I got more stress from a friend who wanted to share files in msn, so i finally downloaded the new version, and the computer told me i still can't share files because of my computer, and would i like help?

So....OH!  JUST SKIP TO THE PUNCHLINE, LA!

So, I converted the hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS!  WHEE!!  That involved running a backup program that i'd never touched, and all KINDS of things.  I had to type commands instead of pointing and clicking.  I spent ages studying the text and trying to figure out if there was supposed to be a space before the slash or not.  but it worked, and now i can share files.  WHEEE!  (actually, i only had to type two commands, but that's a big step, a big step).

Anyway, it got me thinking about making a list of all the intrepid things I've had to do since i arrived in taiwan, that i would have avoided had i been in nz.  I remember sally used to say that she was puzzled by people who went skydiving for "a challenge" since she finds everyday life quite challenging enough, and I'd have to say I agree with her.  maybe you think converting your harddrive isn't really intrepid?  bear in mind please that and english version of windows is hard to come by here, and I had to find something big enough to back-up to, and if i stuffed up the computer, I would have to find a computer engineer who can handle an english operating system, and can communicate with me, and who has time to bother with me.

So here are my other accomplishments:

1.  riding a scooter (on the right hand side of the road)

2.  killing a rat

3.  having 2 animals put down, and holding them through it

4.  holding the clamp while the vet neuters my dogs, and a spays cat

5.  getting electrocuted (is that an accomplishment?)

6.  dealing with a breast cancer scare and getting a tumor removed under local anaesthetic

7.  fixing roof leaks  (and mounting tarpaulins inside to catch the leaks)

8.  going to a bar alone

9.  eating at a proper sit-down restaurant alone

10.  using a P2P server

11.  Travelling to Hong Kong alone (and having a panic attack in my hotel room)

12.  Going on a drip in the Philippines (I always thought a drip would freak me out)

13.  Taking a taxi from Kaohsiung to Da Fa industrial park (believe me, that's scary!)

14.  riding a scooter with 2 dogs on board

15.  buying lunch (in chinese!)

that's all i can think of right now...