Learning how to be in another country.

I live up a mountain in a dilapidated, unheated dojo. This is probably exactly as awesome as it sounds to you, personally. If that sounds awful, then you would hate the constant insect invasion, faulty plumbing, pervasive layer of grime, and the pack of wild dogs barking at you as you walk down the road to the bus stop.
If you think it sounds way cool then you would probably love the view in the morning from the second-floor bathroom overlooking the mountain-jungle and the town below. And the dogs are pretty cute in a disgusting, mangy sort of way. We seem to be honorary pack members, as the alpha is fond of herding us on our way to the bus stop.

To get into town, I have to walk down a winding mountain highway with no sidewalk to wait for the old-people bus, the small 3. Below the dojo, there's a retirement community. Almost every time I head into town, I share the bus with a bunch of old Taiwanese women. This is most amusing when the bus driver drives as though he is escaping hell. Not because the old ladies react to the driver's chaos, but because they do not.

I've been here a little over a week, and I'm frustrated with how little Chinese I know. I can read essentialy none at all. I might be able to point out certain characters, like "red" and "month" but that's hardly reading. However, being illiterate isn't that much of a problem when you can just ask people relevant questions.
I can ask questions, but so far I've understood the answer one time out of four.

I've gotten good at saying "thank you" and "sorry."
xiexie, duibuqi (pinyin)
shie-shie, dwaybuch'i (phonetically)

Wo is me. But it's pronounced "wuh." Ni is you, ta is someone else. He, she, it.
-men is the suffix for plural people, and -de is for possession (like 's).
Ta shi wode taitai. She is my wife. I don't know if my grammar is correct most of the time. Chinese grammar seems to work pretty well if you just sort of jam relevant concepts at each other.
Me hungry. You good? Not-good. Bu is very useful. It means "not" or is just generally negative. Wo bu mingbai. I not understand. I not want. The Modern Standard Chinese word for "no" is literally "not-yes."

Also the Chinese word for "food" or "meal" is fan (fahn) which means rice. Breakfast and lunch are literally "morning-rice" and "noon-rice."

There's a woman here who wants me to try out for a full-time job, and it's very far from the dojo, and I don't know if want. I probably don't. The dogs are barking fiercely at 3:50 AM. A member of one of the rival gangs robably roamed or peed where he shouldn't have. This is pretty normal. It doesn't wake me up anymore.

I would like to be teaching soon, and I probably will be by next week, I just hope I can get a not-full-time position with some junior-high or high-schoolers. I think I would do best in that environment. But I'm not going to be that picky. Today one of my friend's kids running-tackle-hugged him while shouting his name, then dragged him by the hand into his classroom so he could hurry up and start the day's lesson.

I'm tempted to take the full-time thing even though I know I can't get to it without transport (which I won't be able to afford without a paycheck), and I need enough free time to have a life, since that's one of the biggest reasons I came here. I'd be raking in money like mad, but that's not why I'm here. Working reasonable hours for a livable wage is why I'm here.

Anyway I don't think I have anything else to say right now. This has been a stream of consciousness as has likely been evident.

Xiexie, zaijian.
Shie-shie, dzai-jyen.