12 Days of Wugu

Whether you call it Wugu District, New Taipei City, Wugs, The Wild Wild West, The 'Gu, or You-Live-Way-Out-There!?!, Wugu is my Taiwanese home-away-from-home.  It's has its pluses and minuses, but overall, I truly enjoy living in this town.  In keeping with the holiday season, here is a list of some of the wonders of the Wugs!

On the first day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me.....

An awesome fruit market.

Delicious, cheap fruit!  I didn't even know some of the fruits existed....

On the second day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

Countless betel nut stands.  We may not employ the highest-quality Betel Nut Beauties, but what we lack in looks, we make up for in numbers.  Wugu must have at least 15 betel nut stands just in the half-mile radius I frequent.  Go mouth cancer!

On the third day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

Stray dogs galore.  I won't even get into the piles of poop left behind by these mongrels.  The stray dogs scared me at first: I thought they were going to attack me.  But now, I hardly even notice them.  I still notice their poop.

Sure, why NOT sleep in the street?

Watching over their parking lot kingdom

On the fourth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

One million scooters.  Or, should I say, "motorcycles."  Mopeds are called motorcycles here; I go along with it.  While very frightening at first, riding on the back of a scooter is actually fun!  Well, with the right driver.....

Riding shotgun with Anna (who is a very responsible driver)

Scooter lane to the freeway!

A small fraction of the scooters parked outside my apartment building

On the fifth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me.....

A wonderful school!  I was extremely lucky to land at Shane Wugu!  The staff is amazing, the kids are great, and the school is brand new!  It's a BIG change from teaching special education in Milwaukee Public Schools.  I loved my job back at home, but this has been a nice change of pace.  Several people have asked me if I ever go to work here in Taiwan.  Apparently, I've given off the impression that all I do is have fun and play on Facebook.  While I feel like I'm on permanent vacation here, I do actually work.  Perhaps I'll take some pictures to prove it and dedicate an entire blog entry to dispelling this rumor......

On the sixth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me.....

An evening market.  Not a night market, like most areas in Taiwan have.  No, no, here in the Wugs, we go to bed early.  We have an evening market, that as far as I can tell is open from about 3pm-7pm. This is smack-dab in the middle of my teaching hours.  So, usually I miss out on the market fun, but when I get the chance, I head down the street to get my fill of fresh fruit, butchered animals, and cheap clothes!

Wugu Market

On the seventh day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

One strange gym.  The only gym in Wugu leaves much to be desired, but I have to take what I can get.  I'm almost always the only person working out, which is pretty nice.  Every once in a while, a little man will come in and walk slowly on the treadmill with his shirt off and his Crocs on.  Hott.  But the pool makes up for it!  We have an Olympic-sized outdoor pool (which, by the way, I swam laps in during the month of November!), and two indoor pools, along with a kiddie pool with slides, and several hot tubs and saunas.  Yeah, it's awesome.

Check out the equipment

Ooo lala

Way better than the pool at Bally's downtown Milwaukee....

On the eighth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

A rockin' karaoke bar.  There's not much (any) nightlife here in Wugu.  EXCEPT for the karaoke bar on the corner.  I went there with my friends to celebrate Thanksgiving, and we took over the place.  This wasn't difficult, since there were only two other patrons.  Oh, and I was told the next day that the karaoke bar is where prostitutes hang out.  So.... now I know.

Janet showing us all up

Why is this fun?

On the ninth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me.....

A lovely Riverwalk.  Now, coming from Milwaukee, which has quite a nice riverwalk, Wugu had a lot to live up to.  Wugu's river is small and rather stinky, but the path is nicely paved and well-lit.  At night, the lights even change colors.  OoooOOooooooo.  I like to run along the path when I can't manage to walk all the way to the gym.

Entering the river path

Along the river

Wugu!!

On the tenth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

An envy-worthy apartment.  Many of my friends have teeny tiny one-room apartments that make my freshman dorm room seem spacious.  But not me.  One perk of living out here in the boonies is that rent is cheap and space is available.  My roommates and I have a large loft apartment with a full kitchen, laundry room, and one and a half bathrooms.  And I pay a fraction of what those city-dwellers pay!  Yeah, go ahead and be jealous.

My apartment building... I'm on the 4th floor

Still standing with Wisconsin :)

Luxury livin'

My bedroom! And that's a balcony, not a shower.

View of Wufu Road

On the eleventh day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

Two wonderful roommates!  I could not have asked for better roommates than Abi and Muni!  These two girls have taken very good care of me, and I am so lucky to have them as my friends.

On the twelfth day of Wugu, Taiwan gave to me....

Celebrity status!  As the token foreigner in Wugu, I spent the first two months here getting stared and pointed at as I walked down the street every day.  If you know me at all, you know I don't mind having all the attention on me, so this really didn't bother me.  Now my novelty has worn off a bit, but small children still seem to be perplexed by my pale skin and extreme height.  Luckily, the people here in Wugu are generally friendly and at least pretend to want to help me out with my very poor Chinese.  It's fun living in this "small town" and getting to know the people up and down the street.  I don't actually know anyone's name, but I look forward to saying ni hao to the noodle stand lady and the old couple who sit outside the 7-11 every day.

I'm a real Wuguian!  Or is it Wugite?