• Weather

It finally happened today, the downpour. It was the first rain I had experienced since coming to Taiwan...but it did it in style! The warm torrential rain hammered agaisnt the ground producing a beautiful sound and sight. I discovered a new hobby today - walking around in the tropical rain listening to the smooth sounds of Faith No More's song 'Evidence'. The feeling of the warm rain trickling down my spine was sensational and soothing. It appered that I was the only one who felt like this though, all the local Taiwanese quickly ran for cover and looked at me in my saturated state with an 'are you insane?' expression. All the Taiwanese carry umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun and umbrellas to keep themselves dry in the rain - Its amazing what they do to sheild themselves from the elements. I realised something today, whether its sticky sweaty humidity or warm torrential rain, this Island makes amphibians of all of us!

The start!

This is my first post on marcblog (drumroll...), I'm hoping that my inability to write does'nt hamper the quality of my blog too much.

• The Flight

Yeh...not the smoothest flight in the history of mankind. It was delayed by 20 hours, cheers 'cathay pacific' you've really outdone yourself this time. They appologised whole-heartedly with a £2 off voucher for burger king...does'nt quite cut it guys!

I realised something when I got to the airport in Taiwan...I cant blag the chinese language like I thought I could. I spent a few minutes wandering around the airport like a headless chicken. Luckily I bumped into a Taiwanese girl from the plane who spoke English and she put me on the right bus, thanks Chien-Ya you absolute legend!

• Arrival in Taipei

I arrived at the hostel around 5pm, the people were friendly and most importantly, they spoke english (whey!), and as a bonus there is a guy from the US who gets the comedy of 'king of the hill'! Despite the crippling jet lag, I took a stroll round Taipei to get a feel for the city. Anyone who is familiar with my legendary sense of direction wont be surprised that I got lost pretty quickly. Taipei is no where near as westernised as I thought, In my 2 hour walk (1 hour exploration and 1 hour trying to find the hostel) I saw a total of 3 westerners...insane considerind how packed Taipei is. Over here when you see another westerner you give discreet nod...kind of like a secret society of western dudes! ha.

• Second Day

After my much needed 13-hour sleep I headed off to the train station to go to my English teacher interview in Hsinchu city. I sat down in my seat on the train and then to my extreme delight, a group a buddhist monks sat down next to me...Yes! (This has got to be up there with my top 5 life-long goals). They were awesome, they spoke very little english but they really tried to comunicate with me which just shows how cool they are! Ive got to learn some mandarin so I can return the favour sometime.

I got changed into my suit and walked out into the 37 celcius, 90% humidity of taiwan...the jacket was off with 2.6 seconds...yeh that was never going to happen! By the time I got to the interview my light blue shirt had turned a lovely dark blue from my sweat (sexy I know). Despite my saturated state, the interview went well and I was offered the job there and then so I'm now a connoisseur of the english language. The jobs 20 hours a week teaching adults in small groups (whey!!!)

One thing you imediately realise about Taiwan is the road is rules by scooters, they make the law! And its not just rebellious teenagers and youths, oh no. Today I saw one of the best sights ever. I saw this extremely stern/hardcore businessman riding one of these scooters with a little pink helmet, his tie was flailing around everywhere...he didnt look impressed.

At this stage in my blog I'm going to introduce the 'scooter deathcount report', this is the amount of times that I was alm ost killed by a scooter in the day. I dedicate this to my close family and loved ones as I'm sure it will be appreciated by them! Todays count is 3 (whey!)

Till next time!