Noobster

[ForkLift]

Welcome Doc! Glad to have you here.
Hope you choose to contribute some.
You said a PhD? PhD in what exactly? You said something about chinese medicine Then teaching english? But from what i took, you dont have a PhD in English?

 

[mahavairocana]

Wow, this community is awesome! Thanks for all the kickass replies!

My Asian wife has tried to eat my dog many times but she knows I'll cut off her noodle allowance if she does!

My PhD is in "Asian Studies", thats the actual degree. But I study a certain form of Buddhism. To write a dissertation, you have to find a TINY little subject (that is still important on the world's overall understanding of Asia), so I am writing about a particular figure in the 20th century, his life, philosophy, influence, teaching, etc.

Before becoming a Zen monk he was a crazy Daoist master who took all sorts of herbal remedies and stuff, (also performed exorcisms and ALL sortsa insane sh*t) so even though before writing I mainly studied just Buddhism, I have had to get knowledgeable about Chinese medicine and Daoism in order to understand wtf the crazy cat was saying half the time. My Chinese-English (or even Chinese-Chinese, Chinese-Japanese) Buddhist dictionaries aint got sh*t when I look up a lot of terminology this guy used (he died in 2000) since a lot is from Chinese medicine or Daoism.

The teaching English is just to pay the bills. Rent here is super cheap. I had a 6 story house for around 400USD a month (jaw drop!) but that was in the country. Now I live in a bit more expensive place, 2 bedrooms, its 300USD a month. English pays around 20-30usd an hour, so its easy to make rent. I don't get funding from my school while living abroad, but my PhD is fully paid for (so no tuition). I only teach in the evenings for a few hours so I have time to do my writing (and now working out). Aint making bank and gettin rich or nuthin, but I never have to worry and actually am able to waste more money than I should (booze, clothes, date nights with the wife, that sorta thing). But monday-friday I spend, probably, around 60usd TOTAL on living expenses between my wife and myself (and we eat well and I drink coffee like a madman). Its just super cheap here.

Since the monk I am studying was Taiwanese...I can just drive to temples on my motorcycle from my house (some even walking distance) to do my fieldwork, then sit and home and do the writing. Taiwan's not a bad place, a bit of a backwater...even by Asian standards, but its SUPER easy to live here. A lot of people come here for a year and then just get stuck.

 

[NbleSavage]

Great intro. Welcome to UGB!

 

[bvs]

welcome mate!
sounds like you lead a very interesting life. is there much of a gym scene in tiwan?

 

[mahavairocana]

The gym scene here is a joke. Just one example:

My apartment complex has a "gym", in the gym there is one treadmill...and a PINGPONG TABLE! I'm not joking, you can't make this sh*t up.

I ask my students if they exercise, they say yes, ping pong or badminton!

Basketball is popular here...but not weightlifting. The only buff dudes you ever see are foreigners. I've seen maybe 3 buff Taiwanese dudes my ENTIRE time here in 3 years.

I just workout at home. Use stacked books and furniture for a makeshift spotter if need be