It's official, I'm a teacher!

My first week of classes is complete, which means it's official: I'm a teacher.  I have now planned and taught 6 different classes, ranging from absolute beginners around 6 years old (CEI01), to advanced students (CEA02), to a private 1-on-3 lesson with two siblings and their aunt.  I am excited to have begun my work here, I love being around my co-teachers and the students, the atmosphere already makes the job enjoyable.
Speaking of 'enjoyable', this has been a week of great experiences.  Tuesday I was introduced to the Changhua bar scene and learned my first Taiwanese bar dice game (Liar's dice).  While I have vaguely heard the rules of the game before (meaning it is not a strictly Taiwanese game), the noteworthy aspect of this adventure is the fact that it provided the environment in which I learned how to count (to 10) in Chinese.  As my friends here can attest to, my pronunciation is still awful (I am struggling to understand the vowel tones), but this is still a step in the right direction towards leaning the language.
Almost every weekend for foreigners in this country is filled with an adventure, so this weekend I got to experience my first taste of that.  One of the aspects which I originally overlooked about the experience of moving here is not just the introduction to Taiwanese culture, but also the introduction to the cultures and customs of my co-teachers/foreigners.  For example, on Friday night I celebrated my first Shabbat with a few of my friends (one of which is Jewish, of course).
Saturday I took a scooter trip to Taichung (which is about a 15 minute train ride from Changhua), which is one of the biggest cities in Taiwan.  While I was severely limited on the amount of time I had at my disposal to roam, I was still able to enjoy a delicious Indian dinner, visit an English bookstore, and wander the Rock in Taichung music festival.  While the music festival did not feature music that my friend or I really enjoyed, it was still quite a novel experience listening to heavy metal (featuring English screaming) in Chinese.  Following the trip to Taichung a group of my friends went out for Taiwanese massages.  While I will still stand by that having been a good plan for the evening, I think we will all agree that this was a significantly more painful experience than planned.  For 600NT (approximately $20) we each got an hour massage which focused mainly on our feet (but also included head and shoulders) and was performed by older Chinese men who seemed to find it funny to make foreigners squirm by digging their knuckles into our feet.  It was funny, and I will admit that I felt great this morning, but it was definitely not the relaxing experience we were all expecting.  The night was topped off with one of the essential experiences in all of Asia: karaoke.  We went to Love98 which is an Asian-style karaoke bar where the microphones are passed from booth to booth rather than having the singer stand on an awkward stage with all eyes on them.  The whole experience was incredibly entertaining.
Today was the icing on an already great cake.  I partook in my first scooter adventure to a mountain about an hour outside of my city (called 'monkey mountain' by foreigners) which is known for having wild monkeys along the paths.  After a few minutes of walking up the mountain there were families of monkeys everywhere.  For some of the locals visiting the mountain today, the group of foreigners was a more surprising site than all the monkeys.

A family of monkeys posing in a tree near the trail.

Here I am posing with a few of the monkeys just after they have received a meal of fruit. 

At the top of monkey mountain is a beautiful temple and a small city.  We enjoyed wandering this area for a while looking for souveniers, inadvertently sampling tea from the shops, and enjoying a less-than-exciting dinner from 7-eleven.

The view from the top of monkey mountain.

The dragon-themed temple atop monkey mountain.

Outside of my social life I am working on adjusting to Taiwanese life.  It is amazing how some aspects of everyday life can be much more difficult when the language is different.  For example, I have completed my first laundry day of my Taiwanese life, and I am still not certain what each button on the machine means.  What I do know is that I successfully got the machine to fill with water and the clothes to spin around.  One thing I know I will miss over the next year is having a dryer which actually heats the clothes rather than simply spinning them (line drying is common-place here).

Another thing I miss is milk, delicious Wisconsin milk.  Taiwan has some of the best flavored milks I've ever had (papaya, mango, melon, etc.), but when it comes to plain milk it appears to be non-existent.  I heard a rumor that the explanation for this is that bottled milk here is made from a combination of milk and powdered milk, but I have not been able to find claims online that prove or deny this.  The point is, I seriously need to find some real skim milk!