Typhoon Time

As I grow more comfortable living in Chungli, the quest to immerse myself into the cycling industry and culture grows. Taichung City, the industry hub, is located in the middle of the island. I’ve been researching companies and organizing contact information for the major players in hopes to hitting up some key manufacturers when I have some time off.

In the mean time, I’m scoping out local shops and trying to get a gig working or volunteering within them. This is proving to be particularly difficult, since most speak little English. Around two weeks from now I will begin Chinese lessons with some fellow teachers and hopefully in a month or so I will actually understand some of the things that are happening around me.

We are currently hanging out in the dorms waiting to see what Typhoon Songda has in store for the weekend. It looks like the mountains to the east will break up the any of the remaining bad weather, so overall nothing too insane will be happening on our side of the island. Unfortunately, enough rain and wind will get  through the mountains to ruin our hiking plans for the weekend:(

Looks like an excursion to Taipei is in the works for tomorrow instead. I have found a few shops online that sell second-hand bicycles, however finding the shops in real life might prove to be much more of a challenge. Either way, it will be fun to explore the city a little more and hopefully meet a few more of the contacts that we have within the country.

Life seems to be fairly easy once you get settled in to the job. Most people I have met are planning or have already signed up for another year at the school. It seems like it is hard for people to actually find a school in Asia where they want to stay for more than a year, so I feel fortunate to actually have stumbled onto this school. We will see, next week I start teaching more frequently.

Hope to have some fun pictures and updates up later today or tomorrow.