What really matters in life is working

My life seems to be back on track once I started my intensive course at the cram school for the exam of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later I found a job as a sales assistant, though with meager salary, it is close to my home, and after 47 jobless days I did not really have many choices. Also, via a tutoring agency, I have also got an additional tuturing job.

Compared with other part-time job in restaurant, flyer distributing, or even the starting salaray of my company, the average hour-pay  for tutoring is much more handsome. As an experienced, English-major graduate, one can charge from 400NTD. However, it was kind of difficult for me, as a guy, to find a tutor job when I just finished my military service last September, and it was also very difficult to find a proper job, without business background nor intern experience in any company.

Back to the teaching itself. It's been two years that I have not taught English since I went on exchange in Paris. I was fortunate to be able to teach a junior high school student for one year and a half during 2009 to 2010. Right now I have a in eighth grade student, from a middle class family with caring father who seems to have good education. I use Azar grammar book and a pratical book on tourism in Taiwan. These past few weeks, I taught the conversations in Let's talk in English magazine. It was very helpful for me because I am at the same time learning very useful colloquial English.

Hiking in Yangmingshan in misty, windy, rainy day

My ferver to nature grows as I started hiking on Elephant mountain last November by myself. Taipei is a great place for hiking because many hiking trails are accessible with public transport. Most of them are in stairway, which may not meet some people's standard of "hiking", according to them, it should be natural paths. Still, the view on the summit worth the stair-climbing. Almost each hiking trail we can appreciate the panorama inside the Taipei basin.

Last weekend I went to Yangming Mountain with three other couchsurfers. It was my first time to visit the east part of Yangminshan, and it was me who organised this. Compared with other hiking trails, Yangming Mountain is a perfect getaway because it belongs to the National Park, and in the estern part of it, we don't see any building from the mountain.

Despite the weather report, I still persist going there on Saturday. The weather, as the forecast predicted, was very misty, the white vapor filled the air, and we could hardly see anything within 5 meters. It was the same in the . The wind blew harshly that any umbrella could not resist. I could hardly hold my umbrella when I attempted to climb up the hill, which was killing me, so we decided to walk in the forest downhill, to Chungshan Building.

To my surprise, the path going down still leads to the waterfall, where I have been to three years ago with other church people. We had a short rest in front of the waterfall, which is rich in negative ion. Eddy took out his lunch box and a portable gas to heat up the water. In nature, he made some mint tea in front of us, the taste was pretty good.

We continued to the Qingtiangang grassfield, where the cattle once grazes, but seems like heaven within the heavy white mist. The vast hill is belted with a circular path. I had no idea how long would the circular trail last because I could not see anything among the mist. We just kept walking and sticked out the umbrella to block the blowing wind.

At the end, we have finally made it to the visitor centre. I stamped on my Moleskine notebook to memorate this difficult trail. Waiting at the bus going back to the centre, we have seen several stray dogs idling around, soaked by the rain, they were begging for food. As human beings, we could have our choice to hike or not, but for the animals, they have no choice, and their living is more difficult.

Fuyang Ecological Park

It was a Sunday that I did not need to go to the cram school. The weather was so nice so I decided to go out for nature. I took the metro brown line and got off at Linguang Station, situated in a quiet neighborhood without too many tourist attractions, but possessing two very pleasant parks for the locals and nature goers.

^ Metro Linguang Station

My destination was Fuyang Ecology Park, which is 5-10 minutes away from the metro station on foot. Unfortuantely, Fuyang Ecology Park is still under renovation, and its entrance is totally blocked by the metal construction wall. There seemed to be other visitors with a net at hand coming on their scooters disappointed after seeing the announce on the panel. 

The map at the entrance of the park, with the announce on top of it indicating its temporary closure till Feb 1.

Fuyang park was actually a ammunition depot during the Japanese colonization and then military base, so it preserves the nature in a way.

I continued walking to  the top of the Fuzhoushan park beside, where we can have a nice view overlooking Taipei basin, and of course Taipei 101. 

July 22

How time flies, it's been 11 months since I came to Paris last year. Looking back, I accomplished something, and I failed something. Some part of me has changed in a in an indescribable way, I am not sure if it is good or bad for the time being, but as Kylie Minogue sings, "better than today", I think tomorrow will only get better.

These days the weather has been gloomy and cold since I came back last week from Strasbourg, my final travel destination in Europe. Still, Paris is my favorite city to live in the world, in terms of the weather, the atmosphere, the culture, the architecture, the language. There was a period I felt quite lost but right now I just try to maximize every single day I have here. After all, I have no more time to regret now. Before long, in 27 days, I will be on the airplane heading back to my city, with ugly buildings and bad weather but the best food in the world.

Before leaving Paris, I need to finish my tedious but essential procedures, close the bank account, prepare the luggage, but at the same time, I will continue to discover Paris and swim. I hope to grasp the every precious moment I am here. The best part of my life.

Amsterdam

Mar 18
17h43 Central station
18h-20h Nieuw Markt, Den Waag, Rembrandtsplein, Singel, Herengraacht
線上買amsterdam Card的網址有九折，可以在中央車站前廣場的旅客服務中心取票 其實看了主要幾個博物館和搭船就已經回本了。

Mar 19
中央車站
11h Amsterdam History Museum 瞭解阿姆斯特丹如何站上世界舞台的歷史

Varamese Fritehuis, 阿姆斯特丹最著名的薯條攤 Voetoogstraat 33
Maoz Falafel,中東口袋餅,4€50,可以續沙拉。Muntplein, Leidstraat, Ferdinand Bolstraat, Damrak

博物館廣場
14h 梵谷博物館，收藏梵谷和同時期法國印象派作品
16h Riksmuseum 國家博物館 可看到著名荷蘭畫家的作品

Mar 20
10h 搭船遊運河
12h Joods historisch Museum 猶太歷史博物館, 因為有特展所以多付 1€50


13h Central Station Bibliothek 設備很棒的圖書館
14h Nemo 科學博物館
15h Allard Pierson Museum 希臘羅馬古文物
16h30 聖經博物館

20h Leidsplein
21h China town, Red light area

Mar 21
9h Vondel Park, Bloemenmarkt, 沿著Jordaan區的運河散步。
10h30 Museum Willet Holthuysen
11h30 Hermitage Amsterdam Musueum 東正教文物博物館
13h Rembrandthuit 林布藍故居，工作室，這裡展的畫作主要以版畫為主。

14h Oudekerk (整修)
14h30 Ons Lieve Heer op Solder (整修) 以前天主教被禁，教會藏身在民宅之中

15h30 Nieuwe Kerk 教堂失去宗教意義，目前是博物館，現在有回教文物特展，相當推薦。

16h Keizergracht
Museum Van Loon

18h 在Klavierstraat閒逛，荷蘭超市HEMA值得一看
20h 在中央圖書館上網
22h 在Dockland閒晃

Mar
8h Begijnhof
9h Ooster Park
10h Tropen Museum
11h Dutch Resistance Museum二戰時期荷蘭人抵抗的歷史

14h16 Return to Paris

My trip

With the promotion of Easyjet airline and also the special discout of train booking in advance, I spent the whole morning yesterday checking my schedule and book the tickets. Finally I figured out my travel plan for this semester. It is actually not that expensive because the tickets summed up totally less than 500€.

0124-0130 Eurostar to London 7 days
0219-0222 Thalys train to Brussels, 4 days
0228-0303 Easyjet to Barcelona, 4 days
0318-0322 Thalys train to Amsterdam, 5 days
0402-0405 Easyjet to Prague, 4 days
0416-0419 TGV to Lyon, 4 days
0504-0508 Easyjet to Madrid, 5 days
0524-0528 Easyjet to Budapest, 5 days
0603-0608 Easyjet to Berlin, 6 days
________________________________________
Nine cities, travelling 44 days

Although I leave Paris every two weeks, it does not mean that it is a tour for leisure. My purpose is to appreciated the cultural and natural landscapes in major European cities. I still keep the spirit of saving the money. I will move to Saint Denis, situated in Northern Paris, where I do the au-pair and live in a Algerian French family. Also I learned from my friend to study during weekdays and have fun during the weekend. I don't have class Friday afternoon till Tuesday, so that I have disaposible free time for 4 days and a half, which makes it easy for me to plan all the trips. I think this semester will be very interesting.

Christmas eve party

Instead of throwing a party by myself, I was luckily invited to Rita Bao and Jun Wang's party. It was an impressive night with Chinese food, wine, talk and dance. I also invited my Mexican couchsurfing guest Joshua to come along. Even though he may be the only one who could not speak Chinese, he enjoyed dancing and has kind of hypered up the atmosphere of the party.

I observed that Chinese people are more reserved when it comes to dancing. Many among us just stood aside watching instead of joining. Even though I do not really know how to move my body properly I still enjoyed dancing to the rhythm, who cares? Just have fun.

In the end when other Chinese friends have left, there were six of us still staying. We stayed in the kitchen talking, drinking and eating chocolates. Joshua seemed to be confused that Chinese people preferred talking to dancing, and kept on encouraging me to dance. Finally I was exhausted and slept in Jun's French roommate's bed.

Anyway, party has been always the best chance to drink and time to let go a little bit of boundaries. Same for me, I seemed to forget the pressure when drinking, dancing and talking.