Night Life in Taipei

Last night I was fortunate enough to get some free passes to a show of DJ Qbert. Playing at the club Luxy the time was quite amusing. His rapid beats produced a lively show that while not entirely danceable was a huge improvement according to local fans over his last show here in Taiwan. Now I'm not a big house fan by any stretch of the word but I enjoyed myself nonetheless and it seems Taipei has an active night life with a large contingent of westerners with my guess placing their presence compromising around 30-40% in the case of Luxy nightclub last night.

As for the dress code, style and music selection one can expect to see much of the same thing as back home. Drinks are comparable to western prices with a mixed drink at Luxy costing around 200NT which amounts to a $7 drink back home. When you factor in the lack of tipping and quality of service drinking is quite comparable within the club. Where the scene differs as to drinking is in the outside drinking. It is more then acceptable to leave the club for a little bit head down to the 7/11 around the corner and drink a little more before going back in. Once you've been stamped getting back in is no hassle. Furthermore, the attitude to drinking is a lot prohibitive one of my friends in fact was right about to go in while cutting in line with a can of beer to where some other friends of ours meant he got to finish his beer and be right in front of the line avoiding a good forty minute wait to get in.

As for the music and fashion scene I'll let the pictures show the clothing style. Dress code is fairly relaxed at Luxy with a no shorts rule being pretty much the only one. People come out to the club dressed in tailored suits to a pair of jeans, sandals and a printed shirt. As for female fashions, bikini tops seemed a popular choice with shrugs or wraps for modesty sake. Clothing is bright and summery even as the cool fall weather has begun to set in. Music on the other hand tends toward the poppy and also shows a lot of western influence. Chinese raps will throw in English words periodically and most of the music is only about six months behind the cutting edge in North America.

Teaching in Kindergarden

This has been the first full week of teaching kindergarden and I'd have to say it has been quite amusing, a little challenging and a definite memory blast of my own experiences in school. The kids are generally good if a bit challenging I can only imagine the sort of pressure that some of them must be under from their parents to succeed and the curriculum that we offer at the school is certainly quite challenging for children of such a young age.

I won't get into too much detail but to say that the children at my level show skills in english only slightly behind what a native might have at their age level. When it comes to writing and reading some of them display skills above and beyond most English speakers when it comes to letter and word recognition. I do have to constantly remind myself that Taiwanese attitudes to children and face are different from my own personal views on how to best educate children. Some times I feel we push them to much and other times not enough. My own Chinese co-teacher yells at them in a way that I think is demeaning something which I don't think is the best attitude if we wish to develop children with a strong self-concept.

As for today we had a birthday celebration. My own class the seal class did for their contribution a stirring rendition of the hokey-pokey. The practice in the morning was brutal with bumps, screams, and tears ending just short of full out bloodshed. I discovered the power of my voice raised in commanding force something I don't think I have ever done. These kids are sweet and I'm already looking forward to next week when we can get back to learning some more.

A quiet afternoon off!

So I'm sitting in this pleasant coffee shop a few minutes from the school I teach at. There's a quaint little park just across from the window I'm sitting at and the greenery is a calming oasis in the city of frantic scooters and burning heat. The first hints of autumn are just arriving as several trees are beginning to turn a soft yellow. I'm planning to head out to a night market later on and I'll definitely post some pictures of that soon.

This is what the park is like outside. Notice the scooter zooming by, that's a pretty common sight in the city.