My school lies to the government.

In Taiwan, of course, lying to the government is a way of life. It's true all over the world, I suppose, but I must say that the Taiwanese are good at it.

They under-report my salary. They say, on paper, I work at another school. They helped my get a scooter, even though I have no license. But by far, the best lie was told on Monday.

The government inspectors came in, so they spent the previous week getting ready. Because they licensed to have only so many classes, they combined 8 classes (15-20 students each) into 4. Because they are primarily considered a day-care, they had to hide all the teaching materials and students' classwork. And most importantly, because they are not allowed to teach English, I got the day off.