Being a Mute

So I have been told by an anonymous source that I should make my blog posts shorter and more frequent instead of larger and rarer. I feel this is probably a good idea because I know that when I read long posts I get bored of them myself, even when it is my own post.
My life the past few days has been pretty boring, so I just want to elaborate more on my current perspective of Taiwan and teaching. I cannot downplay how hard it is to live in a country and not speak the local language. I find that I can't perform simple tasks such as asking the apartment security guard where to put our garbage, or ordering food at a restaurant without picture menus, or even following signposts that direct one to local tourist attractions. Yesterday Carolyn and I tried to go hiking in the mountains near Taichung. We made it to the base of the mountain by taking a bus (we got on the right bus on our first try!), but figuring out where to find the hiking trails proved to be beyond our ability. After walking for about 45 minutes up a road that had some signposts in English and some not in English, and even after asking a security guard we found on the way up, we still failed to find the trails and headed back because we wouldn't have enough time for hiking before it got dark. This was partly our fault that we didn't get there early enough. But it was also due to the fact that the only signs in English were at the base of the road, and then afterwards all of the remaining signs were in Chinese only. So walking up this road that lead up the mountain turned out to be the only hiking we were able to do yesterday.
The signs at restaurants, street signs, addresses, menus, and product descriptions are rarely translated into English here. In Hong Kong almost everything was at least poorly translated, but here it is quite tough getting what you want or where you want if you don't know the language.
Teaching so far has been a mixed experience. I have some great students and some downright awful students. Some students goof off in class, are disrespectful, and so forth, while other students try very hard to please me. However, in my adult class all the students are pretty awesome. I assume it is because they want to be there and aren't being coerced by their parents. This is why I hope I get more adult classes and less children's classes. It's not that I don't like teaching children, it's just that I don't like teaching very bratty children. I have substituted a few children's classes that are completely filled with very cooperative and fun kids. But the other classes are mixed and when I finish teaching them at night I am burned-out.
Carolyn and I visited this gigantic shopping complex the other night called Shin Kong Mitsukoshi or something like that ( I think it's Japanese). It is like a very large shopping mall with a movie theatre on the top floor, fast food one floor under that, a food court with Taiwanese food one floor under that, and fancy restaurants one floor under those. And under the fancy restaurants are 12 floors of fancy stores like Louis Vuitton and Gucci. So we just took the elevator to the food court and we bought Hakka food (the Hakka are the aborigines of the island, but they also live in mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and some other southeast Asian countries). I had some great chicken in a very spicy red pepper sauce with vegetables. It also came with an awful soup that tasted like really funky gym socks, something that I believe was chopped intestine still containing the contents of the intestine, and delicious steamed white rice. I didn't really dig into the soup or intestine, but the rest of the meal I would have to say was the most enjoyable local food I have had here so far. One strange thing that really frustrates me though (perhaps because I am an American and I like the convenience that American restaurants provide), is that almost every restaurant does not sell drinks. You have to either go to a restaurant that specializes in drinks, or find the KFC or McDonalds and buy drinks from them. So effectively you must wait in line twice, which in this crowded food court took forever.