Tuesday morning we arrived at school at 8:15AM for continental breakfast. We were introduced to the administrative staff at 8:30 and listened to Dr. Sharon Hennessey give a brief history of the school. She made it perfectly clear that she wanted us to feel comfortable, welcome and supported in Taipei. Retention of her staff is her biggest priority. We have met people that have been here for 10 – 40 years who came for a 2 year contract. A great many people have married locals and made Taiwan their permanent home.
After break we met with the Lower School Admin staff and the new hires for that department. We listened to the introductions of each other and got some basic information: what hours we are expected to be on campus. (7:30-3:30)
Lunch was provided in the cafeteria and was fabulous.
A settling in lecture basically went over all of the things we have already done having arrived so early. How to get rid of garbage, ordering bottles water for the house, tipping, and taxis.
Next was a tour of the school. There is a large pool, tennis courts, gym, track, and squash courts. The food service provides meals and snacks as well as a catering service. You can order food in the morning and pick it up by 4PM to take home for supper. After a week of eating the caf food it seems like a great idea. The food was delicious every day.
TAS is setup as one building with 4 sections: Lower School block A, Middle School block B, Upper School block C and then facilities: Admin, Business, Maintenance, etc. It is a large school and they are actually building a new Upper School and Science and Technology Building that should be finished in Dec of 2011.
After the tour we headed to Costco and B&Q, similar to Home Depot. We bought the typical supplies of sugar, flour, salt, bread, paper products, coke zero (Ling Ka in Chinese) and snacks. At B&Q we bought nails, hangers, and other things to make the place feel homey. (not that nails and hangers make things homey but the thing we hang up with them surely do)
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