"Duel of the Fates" (or..."Army it is, Pt.2")

It's been another one of those days.
Again.

Had dinner with some relatives and we joked about the prospects of me hunting wild boars in the mountain regions of Taiwan while I served out my civil service requirement teaching English. To tell you the truth, initially, the idea of teaching English wasn't too appealing to me at first, but it had grown on me, especially since I thought that the day where I could learn more about this little island was fastly approaching. So, I'd started reading up on Taiwan's mountainous central county, Nantou...hoping that I would end up there high amongst the clouds.

Well, after dinner, I went to browse the Ministry of Interior's website. My heart must have skipped a couple of beats. They had just posted the timetables for service entry and my number had been pushed all the way back until February of 2006. $#@#@@!!! (the images of me shooting wild boars vanished). It would seem that the army "option" hasn't completly faded away from my destiny...in fact, I would say, it may be just a month before I'll end up where I thought I would end up anyways...in the ROC armed forces...and what do you know, the slot I'm most likely to end up is August 24th. Never thought I'd spend my 24th birthday in a barracks.

For the time being, the name of this blog remains the same:..."The military industrial complex is strong in this one..."

Stay tuned....

A month to go...

If you've managed to get here or are amazingly still following this after my month long hiatus from posting: thank you. They say, in space no one can hear you scream. And I suppose, the internet and blogging can be the same, and there's no excuse if you don't update at all.

I may need to alter the name of this blog for the third time (changes are pending) as I may no longer face impending conscription by the Ministry of Defense here on Taiwan, ROC. Two months ago, following great arguments made by family members, peers and other informed citizens, I decided to apply for Alternate Civil Service (known as 替代役). Using my language speciality (English yipee), I joined 312 other young men who used academic degrees earned outside of Taiwan to apply for this type of civil service in lieu of basic military training.

I was informed just weeks ago that my application was accepted and hopefully within a month, I will be off to training (one month of basic military training and then a few weeks of specialized training). After that, my occupation will be "English teacher for elementary schools students in Taiwan's mountainous/rural/outlying isle regions" (that title does have a ring to it, doesn't it?).

In the end, I've rationalized that any way I can help kids learn before society chaffs away at their good-natured idealism is indeed much better than having the Ministry of Defense waste their energy on training me to be an able member of the Military Police.

More news on this as information arises.