The agent in Taipei has agreed to proceed with switching the category from spouse to common law partner. Hurray! It appears that both categories are equal, in so far as her rights and privileges are concerned.  I have to forfeit ever sponsoring my ex-wife, though. Boy, can I live with that.

My mother comes to the rescue once again. I am too relieved to complain about it this time. Seriously, I am grateful t is all going to work out. Now I can actually concentrate on  much better things to get anxious about like: what the hell am I going to do in Canada??

I feel pretty good actually. It’s all going to work out. Time passess and I will end up skeletal dust no matter what wonderful or terrible things fate has in store for me. To imagine oneself in the grave, decomposing is such a wonderful, liberating exercise. And we need more freedom; freedom from our own conditioning, freedom to love, freedom to end the illusions that our society imposes on us and that now we impose on ourlseves, freedom to live without fear.

Tags: personal, immigration, Canada, Taiwan

Tags: rant, immigration, family, Indonesia, personal, “raw food

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Please apply only if you are currently in Taiwan. Please address an email containing your resume and covering letter to Gary/Patrick for the Junior High. The address is at the end of this post. Please try to minimize the size of your attachments as the school email box is small. (no 3 MB scans of your graduating photo, please!)
I am going to write about our junior high since this is the school for which I am a coordinator, though we also have a senior high which employs about 11 foreign teachers. I will mention this one briefly and refer to it primarily in contrast with the junior program. Our side employs 10 teachers. Although the two are on the same campus and share the same Principal, and the foreign teachers have the same contract, the two are separate entities. The senior high has been around for 70 years, and is decidedly more traditional in its pedagogy and administrative structure and procedures. The ESL program is comparable to other senior high schools in Taiwan with well-established ESL programs. If you want to know more about this side of things, leave me a message here and I will steer you in the right direction.

The junior high ESL program is quite unique. Our students in 1st and 2nd year spend 13 hours a week with their foreign teachers as follows:

6 hours core ESL

2 hours CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning)

2 hours Drama

1 hour Scouting

2 hours P.E.

All of our foreign teachers must teach at least one ESL class.

The other classes are assigned to those teachers who show an interest and aptitude in that particular area. A full schedule ranges between 26 and 30 contact hours per week. We are required to be signed in between 9 am and 4 pm, though signing out during free periods is easy enough. Our students vary widely in English ability; we do try to put them in classes according to their level.

In the core ESL class, we use readers containing short stories ordered in increasing level of difficulty and length. These are used as a standard source for such things as quizzes, exams and vocabulary. They are also used as springboards to generate language “topics”. In other words, the curriculum is fairly loose. Success of each class and progress of the students is greatly affected by the individual design of each teacher. This is why it is absolutely crucial that our teachers have the ability and experience to design and implement sound lessons without too much “hand holding”. This may change in the future, but for now the teacher still reigns supreme on lesson planning and materials. For example, my second year students do two book reports a year, PowerPoint presentations and keep a News Story Notebook from which they have to orally share with the class every so often, in addition to the short stories portion of the curriculum. All of these are my choices.

The CALL class is an attempt to use the computer to learn English, and to use English to learn some computer skills. We use a system called Compass Learning as a “staple”, and supplement this with Internet based activities and projects such as PowerPoint research projects, webquests and an introduction to blogging.

The Drama class for 1st year students consists primarily of preparing their big show. Each homeroom class puts on a 15 minute play which is written by one of us. 2nd year students don’t have a show, so they instead explore drama-based activities such as role-play, skits, making TV commercials, mime, and so on.

Scouting is a class that involves knots, tents, compasses and relative fresh air (if you can call our grassy knolls, central fountain and four basketball courts a source of fresh air).

P.E. is self-explanatory, one hopes.

There is an attempt to integrate these various classes at some points: projects worked on in CALL class get presented in ESL class.

Although this school’s administration and corporate structure is fairly typical, we do have quite a good relationship with our Taiwanese supervisors. There are two foreign coordinators: the ESL Coordinator and the CALL Coordinator. The former is responsible for, well, coordinating the foreign teachers. The Call Coordinator (that’s me) coordinates the CALL program and handles “tech” things. I manage the recruitment mailbox where all applicants must send their resumes for both junior and senior high school, for example.

I would prefer not to get into the numbers of the contract at this stage. What I can say is that the salary is top notch, if one calculates all the perks, which includes:

• CNY paid holiday (usually 3 1/2 weeks)
• Summer paid holidays (usually 8 weeks)
• CNY bonus ( 1.5 times month’s salary…this is nice!)
• Tax rebate (The contract is based on post-tax income. Rebates can be surprising…)
• Opportunity for double time during July (you get your salary plus every hour you work summer school, if you want to stay)

We require our teachers to have at least 2 years in Taiwan, and at least 2 years teaching experience in a junior or senior high. Although exceptions have been made to this rule, we try to stick to it as much as possible.
You must be prepared to come in for an interview and demo lesson on short notice. In other words, you should be in Taiwan already to apply.
The email address to send resumes to is:

recruitment[at]cc001.shinmin.tc.edu.tw

If you want to know about Taichung, ask Michael. I hear it’s pretty nice…Don’t ask me as I have no social life apart from my energetic family and the occasional encounter with my neighbors, who are lovely people by the way.

“I think I’m turning Taiwanese, I really think so.”

I did some Googling on Vipassana retreats in Taiwan and found this post by Prince Roy. Great post! It’s actually a click through from another post about Spicy Girl’s course. I love the photos of the “Captain’s Chairs to Enlightenment.” Meditation centers usually have a wide array of pillows, cushions and stools which are available to meditators. As you can imagine, sitting for long periods of time can get at the very least uncomfortable, and often very painful. When the pain first hits you, there is the tendency to do whatever you can to alleviate it, a normal human response. But one quickly discovers that no matter how many layers of comfort one piles on, the discomfort and pain eventually rise to the surface. Like cream. I also confess that during my first course in 2000 I had my billowy throne, my liberation lounge-chair. As I mentioned in the previous post, you learn (through experience) that working with the pain is actually an effective method of developing panna. When I was a new student, this realization came to me after the 5th day. Slowly the layers of cushions and strategically placed blankets began to be stripped away. Mostly the pain remained, but my reaction to it changed. And when those pain-free moments, even minutes, manifested themselves there was no illusion that they were the result of 10 inches of cotton padding on my ass.

This retreat took me for a loop because on the first 3 days, I could not sit for more than 10 minutes because of the pain. In the end I discovered the “zen chair”, which saved me. It was just uncomfortable enough to start getting painful after 30 or 40 minutes of sitting. (You can see it in the slide show) Sitting at home now, I can still manage 2 daily sessions in my regular half-lotus position, but if I do another course I will have to go back to the zen chair. In any case, I found my rhythm on Day 4.

Speaking of Day 4, it’s supposed to be an “important” day, as this is the day that we recieve instructions on how to do Vipassana. (the first 3 days are for Annapanna, or breath observation) While Goenka’s recorded instructions were playing on the speakers, a funeral procession was making its way down Hsin Shr’s main street. As it approached the center, it got progressivley louder. So much so that the AT had to keep turning up the volume. It got really loud in the meditation hall at one point and since funerals crawl along at a slug’s pace, the battle of noise persited for a good 5 minutes. Those of you who live in Taiwan know the din these processions make, and there is nothing enlightening or peaceful about them.  The loudest portion of funeral processions is usually the Karaoke bus. (I Googled “Taiwan funeral karaoke bus” and the only shot which suited my needs is–surprise, surprise–from Michael Turton’s Flickr account. I am shamelessly stealing it. If you wannafightabouddit Mike, you’ll have to come get me. Just let me know so I can get the barbecue going first…) Picture one or two woebegone women in wornout costumes hanging off poles at the back of one of these contraptions, singing and dancing. They use microphones and broadcast as loudly a their speakers will allow. It was such a bizarre juxtaposition. I had to work hard to contain myself. All things considered, this wasn’t as off the wall as the constant booming coming from the rifle range. Less than 1 km from the center is a military base. Roughly 6 out of 10 mornings-but who’s counting?- starting around 9 am the shooting would start and continue until 11 or 12. While the boys reloaded, the bawan sellers (imagine a deep-fried dumpling on steroids) would promenade up and down the Hsin Shr strip, screaming ,  “Bawan!” also over loudspeakers. These added touches would never happen at a center in the US or Canada, where the atmosphere is “ideal” for meditation. But what is ideal? Dealing with this was just more opportunity to develop equanimity. Like the snoring in the dorm was. Like the freak who sat next to me every meal who ate with the demeanor of a professional cheerleader, snapping beans into his mouth one by one, zing-zing-zing-zing. Like the freak on the other side who managed to make slurping sounds even while eating salad. Like the the freak in the middle who was eating so slowly he looked like a 3-toed sloth. Hey wait a minute…that one was me.

All in all, it was a great course. I deepened my understanding of some things which before I did not see. For instance, I discovered that consummating the sexual urge, wether under the auspices of a loving relationship, in the seedy underbelly of a redlight district, or the singular comfort of a chair and screen all lead ultimately to some degree of suffering. Perhaps a topic for another post? In any case, I won’t become chaste anytime soon, but it was an amazing experience to make the discovery without any self-judgement. On another note, my relationship with my kids seems to be improving, and the usually ever-present feeling that nothing I am doing about anything is enough is vastly diminished, sometimes completely gone. If I can continue sitting once or twice a day it will be beneficial for me and for the ones I care for. Ja-yo!

Vipassana is a way of self-transformation through self-observation. It focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind. It is this observation-based, self-exploratory journey to the common root of mind and body that dissolves mental impurity, resulting in a balanced mind full of love and compassion.

The scientific laws that operate one’s thoughts, feelings, judgements and sensations become clear. Through direct experience, the nature of how one grows or regresses, how one produces suffering or frees oneself from suffering is understood. Life becomes characterized by increased awareness, non-delusion, self-control and peace.

My first course was in April of 2000 at the centre in Shelbourne, Mass. I stayed on for a second course immediately after the first, except this one I chose to serve as well. “Serving” a course means you become a worker for the duration of the course, cooking and cleaning for the benefit of those “sitting” the course. I found the experience to be of great benefit and, while I maintained my practice, I was able to sustain a level of harmony with myself and others that I had not before experienced. Of course, it was short-lived; I quickly let my practice slide after just a few months. Although much of the intellectual understanding remained, the day to day benefits also began to fade. Such is the way of “Anicca”, or Impermanence, with a capital I.
This year (from about February) has been a difficult one for me on a few levels. The vicissitudes of life took me on roller coaster rides for which I had a great deal of aversion. My ability to put into practice the motto “This too shall pass.”, or as Goenka calls it, equanimity, was greatly diminished. It was time for me to get down to some serious samadhi (meditative concentration) and panna (wisdom/understanding the true nature of things). My sila (morality) was already pretty good. Except for the porn…
As the starting day approached-July 11-I began to get anxious. I knew it was important that I monitor myself for expectations I might have. I also was a little fearful of the rigorous schedule: 4:00 am wake-up, 10 hours of sitting throughout the day with 2 breaks for breakfast and lunch (no dinner for old students) and another rest period, lights-out at 9:30. I tried to take a course about 4 years ago, but had to stop due to a nasty fever which would not break. At the time, I felt great dissapointment because of this (exactly the opposite reaction of what the tecnique teaches!). I hoped this feeling would not return to sabotage my current effort. And finally, I was extremely worried that my body would not be able to take all that sitting as well as I had managed it a few years back. One usually has to work through alot of pain, especially in the legs and back. It is one of the tools which makes this tecnique work. But for a couple of years now, I have pretty uncomfortable pain if I stay in any one position for more than 10 minutes, let alone 10 hours. This includes sitting on my comfy couch while I am being distracted by Deadwood or Six feet Under. Hell, I can’t even manage 10 minutes in one position while I am asleep, so claims my wife.
On the day, we all packed into the car and drove off to the hills behind our home. The centre is only 10 minutes away by car, a lucky boon. We arrived a few hours before the course was to begin. Though official silence was not yet in effect (you can’t have any verbal or visual contact with anyone except the Assistant Teacher or Course Manager for the duration of the course), an air of peace and quiet permeated the entire grounds. An atmosphere that was quickly dispelled by my two children running around like maniacs, screaming at the top of their lungs. I could see that some of the fellow meditators were already trying hard to observe their sensations!
The first 2 days were hell. So much pain! It turns out I can no longer sit in the position I am accustomed to, at least not for those prolonged periods. I finally gave in, and approached the A.T. with this problem. She suggested a back rest, which I tried for a couple of sits. I approached the A.T. again and told her it wasn’t helping. She said that a chair would be placed at the back and I could use that. Oh no! A chair! Why, that would make me a veritable Vipassana pussy, a mollified mediocre meditator! Again, I conceded. Although not ideal, It did allow me to sit for more than 10 minutes at a time. Unfortunately, it also made me very drowsy-not uncomfortable enough, I guess.
This is the end of Part I. Ill finish this one up later this weekend.
In the meantime, if you are interested, you can click through and listen to a podcast of a Goenka talk in Cupertino, California.

(those of you using an rss reader, the embeded slideshow probably won’t show. This is the case with Google Reader, the one I use.)

As it turns out, I was the one havin a good time. One of the lads from Taipei had a terrible accident near Dahu (the place I would go plum picking with my family the following day). He is still in bad shape at the hospital and we still can’t piece it all together. He’s got a cracked skull and will probably loose an eye. He just had a baby a few months ago. Fuck. Get well soon Thierry.

I’ll write about the plums in the next post.