November has essentially slipped away from me since my last update. I don’t remember anything in particular catching my interested the week I got back—mostly I spent that time at work, and fighting my way back through the jetlag. While I was gone, four Yilan ETAs successfully ran the half marathon in Toroko Gorge—congrats, guys. You are absolutely amazing. Now December is upon us, but I still feel there are stories of November worth telling.
Week of November 15—the week of Adventures
Sunday—November 14 (Happy Birthday, Russell!)
Jill and Andrew and I met up with out teacher from Fo Guang, Hong Laoshi, and had an outing. We had understood in class that we were going to be getting breakfast, going hiking, and maybe having lunch. Beyond that, we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. We were picked up by our teacher, her husband, her mother, and her son and went to Luodong for breakfast. She introduced us to a sort of gyro place owned by a Pakistani-American and his Taiwanese wife. On one side you could get amazing gyros, on the other, danbing and soymilk, and other Taiwanese style breakfast options. Fortified with happy, warm stomachs, we embarked on our journey to the mysterious hiking trip. We ended up in Dongshan (I think…), driving through tea fields. When we parked, we were at the bottom of this hill. The hill had a road filled with switchback going up rather steeply. We hiked up it a ways until we got to a tea shop where we had some green tea and rested for a bit before the hike back down. On the way down, our teacher explained a lot of what we were seeing in Chinese. I think one of the things that astounded me the most was the giant ant’s nest in a tree. I was sure it was a beehive. Apparently not. The ants had built nests large enough to hide a couple of human heads I think.
It turned out the hike was part of a gathering for a branch of the Kiwanis in Taiwan, and after the hike, we went to lunch at a restaurant that was filled to the brim with Kiwanis. It was a traditional ten course meal frequently found at really nice Taiwanese restaurants with an assortment of sashimi, shrimp, fish, squid, soup, chicken, mystery part of a pig, and topped off with desert. Everyone was really friendly and people were frequently approaching our table and being introduced to us.
Tuesday—November 16
At school on Tuesday, it turned out that one of my co-teachers, Richard, was helping out with a music competition all week at another school and a sub was going to be in class again. They told me it was alright if I didn’t go to class, but I hadn’t seen my fifth graders in a long time and I wanted to go. The worst thing that could happen was that it would be too difficult to teach with someone new and I’d go back to my desk after the first class. I’m so glad I went. I had a fantastic day. The substitute teacher was the mother of one of my second grade students, and we clicked really well. She had all sorts of activities planned for the students that really complemented the lesson. Our lesson was on the days of the week and we quizzed them using a calendar, flipping pages and asking what day it was. We used the calendar in their textbooks and I read off dates asking what day a particular date was. We ended with a game of telephone where the last player had to race to the front of the room and write the word on the board. The first player to spell the correct word correctly got a point for their team. We managed to do all of this and cover the lesson dialogue. It was a great day and I really enjoyed seeing my fifth graders again after not having seen them for so long. We had both been nervous since we had never co-taught with one another before, but it worked out really well and I’m so glad I went. The 5 class periods flew by.
Thursday—November 18
After English Village, I met up with Yvonne for a haircut—my first haircut since coming to Taiwan. It was interesting. Instead of leaning your head over the sink for the shampoo and rinse, you’re first given a 10 or 15 minute shoulder massage sitting in the chair, and then you are shampooed sitting up in the chair in front of the mirror. Apply shampoo, apply some water in a squirt bottle, remove excess soapy foaminess as necessary….then over to the sink to rinse. This was followed by a neck rub/massage with a hot wet towel in case leaning your neck back in the sink made you uncomfortable.
After the haircut, we went on a field trip. We went to a goat farm owned by Yvonne’s cousin. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a playground (a lot of schools go to the farm as a field trip—the farm is somewhere between being a farm and being a petting zoo). There were free range chickens and geese wandering around. There were some of the biggest rabbits I’ve seen (they were in a pen with guinea pigs). The next pen over had adorable black and pink piglets. I got to bottle feed them some goat’s milk. They were absolutely precious. There were even a couple of baby chicks in there that I almost missed entirely. We grabbed some greens and the rest of the goat’s milk bottle and fed the kids (baby goats, not children) upstairs. It was a rainy, murky day so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was very peaceful.
After feeding the animals, we went inside and had some of the house specialties—I had hot chocolate made with goat’s milk (which was absolutely amazing), and fresh made goat’s milk waffles. Everything was delicious and I totally plan to go back.
Friday—November 19 (Thanksgiving #1)
AIT threw a Thanksgiving dinner for all of the Fulbright scholars in Taiwan. It was a really wonderful affair. All of the ETAs in Yilan and 高雄市were invited, as well as all of the Fulbright researchers. I don’t know what else to say other than that it was an amazing night with great food and better company. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, brownies, and other such goodies as are standard for us this time of year and a little hard to come by away from home like this. In Yilan, the 16 of us see each other fairly often—we have our workshops every 2 weeks, we don’t live too far from each other, and we have English Village on Thursdays. We only see the researchers and the ETAs from高雄市 so often, and it was great to spend the holiday with our sort of extended family.
Midnight on Thursday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I) opened. I was skeptical about how good the adaptation would be, but of course I was at the theatre Friday night after our dinner all the same. I have to say, the movie surpassed all my expectations. It was evident where creative license was taken, but it was done well, and in such a way as to not sacrifice crucial plot for creativity. I also thought that with a few lines, they managed to cover a lot of points that had been ignored in previous movies and will be important in the next movie—they managed to explain that Tonks and Remus were married and hint that Tonks was expecting, and they managed to introduce Bill Weasley, who up to this point hadn’t been seen, just to name a few points. I will say—do not take young children to see this movie. There is fairly graphic torture in this film, significant bloodlust, and other things generally inappropriate for young children. It’s up to you to decide how young you think is too young. If you have children under the age of 12, watch it or read reviews before taking them, and gauge based on your own knowledge of your children’s maturity and ability to handle violence.
November 22
Wednesday—November 24 (Thanksgiving #2)
On Wednesday night, after our Tea Ceremony workshop, FSE took us out to dinner at a very nice restaurant in Yilan to celebrate Thanksgiving at an authentic Taiwanese restaurant. It was good to laugh and eat together. I tried some new foods, including raw swordfish (and to be honest, after that many courses, I’m really not sure what else I ate). And so commenced thanksgiving 2010, part II.
Thursday—November 25—Thanksgiving Day (Thanksgiving #3)
The actual Thanksgiving Day arrived, and as bizarre as it is from the prospective of someone who’s had an entire week off for Thanksgiving for several years now, and several days off for Thanksgiving since I started school at the age of 5…I had to go into work. I went into English Village that morning. Since EV is only in the mornings, I was planning to meet up with someone for lunch. On my way to lunch, my bicycle thought it would be a good idea to take on a car door at full speed, just past Luna Plaza. For the record, that was a very bad idea and I’ve had stern words with my bicycle over it. For those of you who enjoy a bit of gore, here are the bruises. I was wearing my helmet and I’m grateful to my parents for teaching me to always wear one when riding. I was also wearing a sturdier helmet than the usual Styrofoam bicycle helmet. Because it had been raining and chilly that day, I had on a thick jacket. Thus, I was saved from road rash and a smushed head. My right arm and right leg took the brunt of the damage, hitting the sharp edge of the car door at good speed. Hitting the door slowed me down enough to hit the pavement at a significantly slower speed (I didn’t even feel the injuries and bruising on the left side ‘til the second or third day). The driver got out and helped untangle me from my bicycle. I had gotten a new phone that week and didn’t have Kelly’s number in it yet. I called Carolyn and she called Kelly. Within 10 or 15 minutes of the accident, while I was still shaking and crying, there were 6 Fulbrighters and Kelly there, and a cab was on its way to take me to the hospital to get checked out. I think part of the reason I was shaking so bad, was that I knew it was a really busy intersection and I was still shocked that I hadn’t been run over while I was on the ground. I was fortunate; no one had been behind me. I got checked out and x-rayed at the hospital, and sent home with orders to rest, take ibuprofen, and stay in bed. Apparently getting hit by a car (or hitting one) is a good enough reason for a day off during Thanksgiving. Just to reiterate—Thank you, Mom and Dad, for teaching me to wear a helmet; Thank you, Creator, who had me put a jacket on to keep the rain off and who kept the cars at bay; Thank you Driver who stayed until help came for me; Thank you Kelly; Thank you, Yilan ETAs.
Now that it’s several weeks later and I’m finally posting…the bruises were large, impressive, and deep. I muscle movement is fine, though I think there’s calcium deposits in my thigh that are going to be uncomfortable for a long while to come. I stayed home all weekend.
Thanksgiving Dinner—a box of beef stroganoff Hamburger Helper from home.
November 28
I can’t remember anything particularly amazing happening this week, nor anything particularly awful, so let’s just say, standard week.
December 10
On the 10th of December we celebrated an early Christmas in Luodong, with American food specially prepared by the awesome residents of Luodong A, and baked goods by Carolyn. It was a fantastic time to relax, hang out, and just enjoy being together. We listened to Christmas music, watched some old favorite Christmas cartoons, and just in general had a fantastic time. With Christmas music already playing in the stores in Taiwan for a couple of weeks now, and knowing everyone at home is getting ready for their semester break, it really felt right to be celebrating together. I’ve been writing and mailing Christmas cards for about a week now and thoroughly enjoying the Christmas spirit, reaching out to people who are important to me, and who maybe I haven’t talked to in a while.
I think I’ve caught up on all the highlights of the past few weeks…if I missed anything, it’s probably on my Facebook in a pile of old statuses and comments, feel free to sift through them.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Safe Journey, Safe Return
My last post told you that I was going home for a week to see my dad. I'm glad I did. I would have forever regretted and wondered if I hadn't gone home. I made the decision, I went, and now I'm back at my desk in Taiwan, a little tired, but in a much better emotional place than I was 2 weeks ago.
My plane landed around 9:30 PM Sunday night, and two buses and 2 taxis later, I was home in my apartment a little after 1 in the morning. With jet lag clamping it's claws around my head, I didn't make it to school on Monday, though I did manage to (just barely) pull myself together for my Chinese class Monday night (I was immensely regretting it about halfway through when all I wanted to do was sleep).
Anyway, now I'm back to work, nose to the grindstone and I'm glad of it. I like routine. I like my routine. Yes, I'm one of those people. Too much spontaneity makes me anxious. And nauseous. And well, I like having plans. It has occurred to my somewhat well ordered mind that while many of my posts have given you guys a peek into some of the special events I've gotten to go to since I got here, I really never gave you a good look at the everyday hustle and bustle that is my life.
Here it is, isn't it pretty?
The gray blocks are time that I'm required to be at school but don't have any classes to teach. During this time period I blog, study Chinese, make PowerPoint presentations and worksheets for the first and second grade, and grade workbooks.
Mondays I present the Weekly English sentence to the whole school out on the basketball court. I'm glad the sun isn't in the eyes of the small children...I wish it weren't in my eyes either. Maybe one day I will remember to bring sunglasses out there. After that, I go to either first grade or second grade (depending on the week), and teacher 4 (or 2) periods of story time. So far we've covered Rosie's Walk, Go Away, Big Green Monster, and Harry the Dirty Dog. Monday afternoons I have to be at school, but I don't teach any classes so I can use the time to work on PowerPoint presentations or find other ways to try to make myself useful. Monday nights after dinner I've got 2 hours of Chinese class. It really gives me a big appreciation of what I'm asking of the first and second graders. There's generally not much Chinese involved during our story time and my Chinese teacher only speaks the rare word of English here or there, a word she happens to know after we spend 15 minutes trying to explain random concept X in Chinese.
Tuesdays start out bright and early with Newspaper English for the faculty at 7:55. I find an article about something important (usually I virtually thumb through CNN) and make a PowerPoint with the most important words from the article title (and a few from the article), and present them. The ever awesome Yvonne translates for me. I've got one period after that to rest (or grab breakfast across the street and bring it back). Tuesdays I work with Richard and it's the only day of the week I get to see the fifth grade. Starting at 9:35 I have 3 back to back classes with the 5th graders. Lunch comes and goes, and I have another free period after lunch. Then I've got 2 more classes with the 5th grade, finally ending about 4 o'clock.
Wednesdays I'm supposed to be at school at 7:55. I teach 3 fourth grade classes from 9:35 to noon with Yvonne. I'm not sure if this is throughout Taiwan, or just throughout Yilan County, but Wednesday are half days...for the students anyway. We're supposed to stay at work 'til 4 as usual, working on whatever needs to be done. Every other Wednesday the Fulbrighters have a workshop at the teacher's center, or a field trip to enhance our cultural enrichment experiences. Two weeks ago we went to Lanyang Museum--this week we have a workshop about teaching about American culture and holidays. Workshop days feel really long--the workshops don't end until 4:30 and that half hour feels like it makes a difference when I've only got so much time to bring stuff home, settle for a bit, have dinner, and leave for Fo Guang by 6:30/6:45 for class. Days when they've got us in workshops 'til 4:30...not all of those things happen. And let me tell you, being gone from 7:30ish in the morning 'til 9:30ish at night is a long day if I don't get to make it home.
Thursdays, oh Thursdays. Thursdays are my day for going to English Village. We've got to be there by 8:30 (Woo! Sleeping in...Oh wait...It's twice as far away as school...No sleeping in...) A fully filled English Village day has 72 students and 8 English Teachers. Six of the English Teachers take a group each (12 students or less) and lead them around to four stations in English Village. The stations are Restaurant, Multimedia Room, Dance Studio, Bank/Post Office, Shopping Mall, Health Clinic, Airport/Airplane. Shopping Mall and the Health Clinic are small stations, so one of our auxiliary ETAs takes half of the group at the shopping mall to the Health Center. This ETA stays at the Health Center for all four station rotations. Our other spare ETA is at the airport. The airport/airplane set up is impressive, but it's the sort of place where it would be very easy for things to get out of hand, so it helps to have an extra teacher there to cover you. The second auxiliary ETA spends his or her day at the airport as the rotations of students go through. By lunch time, we're free to go and explore our own cultural enrichment--hiking, museums, acupuncture, Taipei, are just a few of the options on the menu. 7 PM I have to be back in my apartment though--I tutor from 7-8 PM.
Friday--is it the weekend yet? Not quite. Friday I deliver the Weekly English sentence at 7:55. After that I'm free until 10:30--I teach with Yvonne from 10:30 to noon. After lunch, the afternoon is pretty open for grading workbooks or finishing PowerPoint presentations or whatever else needs doing 'til 4. I just added a new item into the mix--Yoga from 4:30 to 5:30 on Friday afternoons. The class started last week and I wasn't here, but no worries, I'm sure I can catch up.
Anyway, this is what a typical week for me looks like. I'm thrilled to be back here. Who knows? Maybe I won't go back to the terrible land where winter exists. I'm learning to appreciate 63 degrees being considered "freezing."
My plane landed around 9:30 PM Sunday night, and two buses and 2 taxis later, I was home in my apartment a little after 1 in the morning. With jet lag clamping it's claws around my head, I didn't make it to school on Monday, though I did manage to (just barely) pull myself together for my Chinese class Monday night (I was immensely regretting it about halfway through when all I wanted to do was sleep).
Anyway, now I'm back to work, nose to the grindstone and I'm glad of it. I like routine. I like my routine. Yes, I'm one of those people. Too much spontaneity makes me anxious. And nauseous. And well, I like having plans. It has occurred to my somewhat well ordered mind that while many of my posts have given you guys a peek into some of the special events I've gotten to go to since I got here, I really never gave you a good look at the everyday hustle and bustle that is my life.
Here it is, isn't it pretty?
The gray blocks are time that I'm required to be at school but don't have any classes to teach. During this time period I blog, study Chinese, make PowerPoint presentations and worksheets for the first and second grade, and grade workbooks.
Mondays I present the Weekly English sentence to the whole school out on the basketball court. I'm glad the sun isn't in the eyes of the small children...I wish it weren't in my eyes either. Maybe one day I will remember to bring sunglasses out there. After that, I go to either first grade or second grade (depending on the week), and teacher 4 (or 2) periods of story time. So far we've covered Rosie's Walk, Go Away, Big Green Monster, and Harry the Dirty Dog. Monday afternoons I have to be at school, but I don't teach any classes so I can use the time to work on PowerPoint presentations or find other ways to try to make myself useful. Monday nights after dinner I've got 2 hours of Chinese class. It really gives me a big appreciation of what I'm asking of the first and second graders. There's generally not much Chinese involved during our story time and my Chinese teacher only speaks the rare word of English here or there, a word she happens to know after we spend 15 minutes trying to explain random concept X in Chinese.
Tuesdays start out bright and early with Newspaper English for the faculty at 7:55. I find an article about something important (usually I virtually thumb through CNN) and make a PowerPoint with the most important words from the article title (and a few from the article), and present them. The ever awesome Yvonne translates for me. I've got one period after that to rest (or grab breakfast across the street and bring it back). Tuesdays I work with Richard and it's the only day of the week I get to see the fifth grade. Starting at 9:35 I have 3 back to back classes with the 5th graders. Lunch comes and goes, and I have another free period after lunch. Then I've got 2 more classes with the 5th grade, finally ending about 4 o'clock.
Wednesdays I'm supposed to be at school at 7:55. I teach 3 fourth grade classes from 9:35 to noon with Yvonne. I'm not sure if this is throughout Taiwan, or just throughout Yilan County, but Wednesday are half days...for the students anyway. We're supposed to stay at work 'til 4 as usual, working on whatever needs to be done. Every other Wednesday the Fulbrighters have a workshop at the teacher's center, or a field trip to enhance our cultural enrichment experiences. Two weeks ago we went to Lanyang Museum--this week we have a workshop about teaching about American culture and holidays. Workshop days feel really long--the workshops don't end until 4:30 and that half hour feels like it makes a difference when I've only got so much time to bring stuff home, settle for a bit, have dinner, and leave for Fo Guang by 6:30/6:45 for class. Days when they've got us in workshops 'til 4:30...not all of those things happen. And let me tell you, being gone from 7:30ish in the morning 'til 9:30ish at night is a long day if I don't get to make it home.
Thursdays, oh Thursdays. Thursdays are my day for going to English Village. We've got to be there by 8:30 (Woo! Sleeping in...Oh wait...It's twice as far away as school...No sleeping in...) A fully filled English Village day has 72 students and 8 English Teachers. Six of the English Teachers take a group each (12 students or less) and lead them around to four stations in English Village. The stations are Restaurant, Multimedia Room, Dance Studio, Bank/Post Office, Shopping Mall, Health Clinic, Airport/Airplane. Shopping Mall and the Health Clinic are small stations, so one of our auxiliary ETAs takes half of the group at the shopping mall to the Health Center. This ETA stays at the Health Center for all four station rotations. Our other spare ETA is at the airport. The airport/airplane set up is impressive, but it's the sort of place where it would be very easy for things to get out of hand, so it helps to have an extra teacher there to cover you. The second auxiliary ETA spends his or her day at the airport as the rotations of students go through. By lunch time, we're free to go and explore our own cultural enrichment--hiking, museums, acupuncture, Taipei, are just a few of the options on the menu. 7 PM I have to be back in my apartment though--I tutor from 7-8 PM.
Friday--is it the weekend yet? Not quite. Friday I deliver the Weekly English sentence at 7:55. After that I'm free until 10:30--I teach with Yvonne from 10:30 to noon. After lunch, the afternoon is pretty open for grading workbooks or finishing PowerPoint presentations or whatever else needs doing 'til 4. I just added a new item into the mix--Yoga from 4:30 to 5:30 on Friday afternoons. The class started last week and I wasn't here, but no worries, I'm sure I can catch up.
Anyway, this is what a typical week for me looks like. I'm thrilled to be back here. Who knows? Maybe I won't go back to the terrible land where winter exists. I'm learning to appreciate 63 degrees being considered "freezing."
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Life's Too Short
Life's too short not to spend time with the people you love while you can.
As I write this, I'm in Japan. For the purpose of keeping this a surprise until I arrive, I'm not posting this until I actually make it home. Yes, I'm going home.
I have been unhappy for weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not continually unhappy--there are plenty of times I am genuinely happy, and far more occasions where I'm simply too busy to be happy or sad. Mostly, it's been a generally air of restlessness around me, of feeling like I'm in the wrong place, that something isn't right, and that I need to fix it. I did it. I took life in my own hands, acted more spontaneously than I probably ever have in my life, and made a decision. I'm sure it was the right decision. I love Taiwan, I love the Fulbright, but taking this trip home is something that I need to do to get my head back on my shoulders. When I come back next week, I promise to do my very best to have my head on straight and dive back into the program full force. In the meantime, I just need a few days.
Thursdays are half days for me--I teach at English Village in the morning, and then find cultural exchange to keep my occupied in the afternoon. I went to lunch with Carolyn and Glen and an old Taiwanese woman restored my faith in rice—it can taste wonderful! It doesn't have to be a flavorless spongy pile. I definitely plan on going back to that particular restaurant again. We also went into Taipei, where Carolyn picked up her suit. I have to say, I now have a much higher appreciation for clothes that fit, and an understanding of the way they should fit. Johnny's work is excellent and I plan to get a custom suit before I leave Taiwan. I went back to Yilan, and tutored my students until 8, when I finally got around to making dinner. Sitting and eating dinner, I thought about everything that had been tumbling around my mind disconnected for the last few weeks. I've been expecting the call most days since I get here. They days I don't feel like I'm expecting it are the days when I'm just too busy to think about everything going on at home, and even then, the thoughts still cross my mind. I've been waiting to go home, knowing I'd get the call.
And then it occurred to me. This time is a gift. It's a gift that no one thought we would see. What the heck am I doing, sitting on my hands, waiting for a call? I think my mind was made up before I even started searching for the tickets. I could go home. Not for long...just for a week. Just long enough. I started looking for a ticket for mid or early November. I expanded my search dates and found it. If I was willing to leave in 12 hours...I could go home now. I clicked confirm. I was on my way. It was 9:30 at night.
I don't think I've ever made such an impulsive decision in my life before. But at the same time, it wasn't impulsive at all. I've been thinking about this for weeks, I haven't been myself. I've noticed it, others have noticed it. After my teaching observation the principal and director mentioned to the professor that I've been thinking about home a lot and wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help me here. I knew that I could take a bus to Taipei...but that the last one out was probably 11, 11:30, midnight at a stretch. I started to pack and try to think. I was lucky that Carolyn came home and helped me sort things out and I was on the phone with other ETAs to find out about getting to the airport and finding a place to stay in Taipei if I took the 11 o'clock bus. She found a 3:20 AM train to get me into Taipei just after 5 in the morning. I could even sleep a little.
I packed, slept maybe two hours, and 3 AM when downstairs to catch a taxi to the train station. 3:30 I was on the train. 6 hours until returning home. I dozed fitfully, always worried that I might miss my stop. The train was an overnight train going from the south of Taiwan all the way to the north (and maybe a little west?). At any rate, I knew that if I was asleep and missed my stop, no one was going to wake me up and tell me it was time to get off the train. I arrived at the station. Did you know there are three major bus terminals around the train station? There's Terminal A, Terminal B, and Taipei Bus Station. As a note, I went to the wrong one, and eventually found my way to the right one and hopped on the express bus to the airport.
9:30 AM Friday morning, 12 hours after realizing that I need to be home, and I need to be home now, I left Taiwan. I'll be back soon. Right now, I'm going to be where I need to be. I feel bad for leaving without the proper 2 weeks notice and getting my paperwork in order, but I'll do that as soon as I have an internet connection and can download the files. By 3 o'clock Friday afternoon local time on the east coast, I'll be home, landing at JFK. My journey will have taken a full 24 hours, from leaving at 3 AM on Friday morning to it actually being 3 AM Saturday morning in Taiwan when I arrive at JFK...but it's worth every minute.
People say it's not what we do that we regret, it's what we don't do. I think if I didn't go home now, I'd regret it. Going home right now, having one more chance for a hug, one more chance to talk...it's worth whatever I need to do.
Life's too short not to spend it with the people you love while you have the chance.
As I write this, I'm in Japan. For the purpose of keeping this a surprise until I arrive, I'm not posting this until I actually make it home. Yes, I'm going home.
I have been unhappy for weeks. Don't get me wrong, I'm not continually unhappy--there are plenty of times I am genuinely happy, and far more occasions where I'm simply too busy to be happy or sad. Mostly, it's been a generally air of restlessness around me, of feeling like I'm in the wrong place, that something isn't right, and that I need to fix it. I did it. I took life in my own hands, acted more spontaneously than I probably ever have in my life, and made a decision. I'm sure it was the right decision. I love Taiwan, I love the Fulbright, but taking this trip home is something that I need to do to get my head back on my shoulders. When I come back next week, I promise to do my very best to have my head on straight and dive back into the program full force. In the meantime, I just need a few days.
Thursdays are half days for me--I teach at English Village in the morning, and then find cultural exchange to keep my occupied in the afternoon. I went to lunch with Carolyn and Glen and an old Taiwanese woman restored my faith in rice—it can taste wonderful! It doesn't have to be a flavorless spongy pile. I definitely plan on going back to that particular restaurant again. We also went into Taipei, where Carolyn picked up her suit. I have to say, I now have a much higher appreciation for clothes that fit, and an understanding of the way they should fit. Johnny's work is excellent and I plan to get a custom suit before I leave Taiwan. I went back to Yilan, and tutored my students until 8, when I finally got around to making dinner. Sitting and eating dinner, I thought about everything that had been tumbling around my mind disconnected for the last few weeks. I've been expecting the call most days since I get here. They days I don't feel like I'm expecting it are the days when I'm just too busy to think about everything going on at home, and even then, the thoughts still cross my mind. I've been waiting to go home, knowing I'd get the call.
And then it occurred to me. This time is a gift. It's a gift that no one thought we would see. What the heck am I doing, sitting on my hands, waiting for a call? I think my mind was made up before I even started searching for the tickets. I could go home. Not for long...just for a week. Just long enough. I started looking for a ticket for mid or early November. I expanded my search dates and found it. If I was willing to leave in 12 hours...I could go home now. I clicked confirm. I was on my way. It was 9:30 at night.
I don't think I've ever made such an impulsive decision in my life before. But at the same time, it wasn't impulsive at all. I've been thinking about this for weeks, I haven't been myself. I've noticed it, others have noticed it. After my teaching observation the principal and director mentioned to the professor that I've been thinking about home a lot and wanted to know if there was anything they could do to help me here. I knew that I could take a bus to Taipei...but that the last one out was probably 11, 11:30, midnight at a stretch. I started to pack and try to think. I was lucky that Carolyn came home and helped me sort things out and I was on the phone with other ETAs to find out about getting to the airport and finding a place to stay in Taipei if I took the 11 o'clock bus. She found a 3:20 AM train to get me into Taipei just after 5 in the morning. I could even sleep a little.
I packed, slept maybe two hours, and 3 AM when downstairs to catch a taxi to the train station. 3:30 I was on the train. 6 hours until returning home. I dozed fitfully, always worried that I might miss my stop. The train was an overnight train going from the south of Taiwan all the way to the north (and maybe a little west?). At any rate, I knew that if I was asleep and missed my stop, no one was going to wake me up and tell me it was time to get off the train. I arrived at the station. Did you know there are three major bus terminals around the train station? There's Terminal A, Terminal B, and Taipei Bus Station. As a note, I went to the wrong one, and eventually found my way to the right one and hopped on the express bus to the airport.
9:30 AM Friday morning, 12 hours after realizing that I need to be home, and I need to be home now, I left Taiwan. I'll be back soon. Right now, I'm going to be where I need to be. I feel bad for leaving without the proper 2 weeks notice and getting my paperwork in order, but I'll do that as soon as I have an internet connection and can download the files. By 3 o'clock Friday afternoon local time on the east coast, I'll be home, landing at JFK. My journey will have taken a full 24 hours, from leaving at 3 AM on Friday morning to it actually being 3 AM Saturday morning in Taiwan when I arrive at JFK...but it's worth every minute.
People say it's not what we do that we regret, it's what we don't do. I think if I didn't go home now, I'd regret it. Going home right now, having one more chance for a hug, one more chance to talk...it's worth whatever I need to do.
Life's too short not to spend it with the people you love while you have the chance.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
When It Rains, It Pours
With so many major events occurring this past week I felt like it was time to blog again. This blog starts on the week of the 17th (Sunday). From Sunday the 17th until I tell you otherwise...there was continuous rain.
Monday I taught story time again--the latest tale for the first and second graders is Harry the Dirty Dog. It required a little bit of creative word swapping. Words like "coal chute" aren't exactly on the need to know vocabulary list. I decided to do something I hadn't done before and I brought my lunch back to the office to eat. I spent the afternoon working on a Halloween crossword puzzle for the 4th grade.
Tuesday, instead of co-teaching fifth grade, I got to go to Zhong Shan's kindergarten for story time. We taught Go Away, Big Green Monster to the students. We were in the 4 year old kindergarten class, and the 5 year old kindergarten class. "Kindergarten" in Taiwan refers more to Pre-school, Pre-K, and Kindergarten as we would think of them in the US. Every kindergarten class has 2 teachers that are always there. With Yvonne and I there for story time...we had 4. The first thing that struck me was how tiny and adorable they are. The second thing that struck me was that they seemed really well behaved when we were there. They were also very smart. It's amazing to see how much difference a year can make in students so young, I could definitely see how much more the 5 year old class knew than the 4 year old class, but even with the 4 year old class, not all the words I introduced were alien to all the students. In the 5 year old class, as I presented the colors, they almost all seemed to already know the English names for them, and some of them knew the adjectives we covered--long, short, wavy, straight, big, little. I thoroughly enjoyed Tuesday. I decided to bring my lunch back to the office again...apparently it was thought a little funny that I decided to eat noodles two days in a row. Seems a litte strange to me to find that funny when rice seems to be on the menu everyday here.
Wednesday was awesome. Wednesdays are half days for all the students in Taiwan. I co-taught 4th grade with Yvonne and we introduced Halloween vocabulary. This particular Wednesday was one I've been looking forward to for a while--bowling! Some weeks ago, Yvonne had asked if I wanted to participate in a bowling competition with the faculty. I love to bowl(not that I'm particularly good at it...). I was all for it. When I got back from lunch on Wednesday, it was time to go. 10 teachers from Zhong Shan (including me) went to the bowling alley. The colleague who drove me as a daughter in kindergarten. He said that she came home from school the day before talking about the English teachers that came to her classroom. That was fantastic to hear--yes, she probably won't remember it in 2 years, but she remmebers it now, and it makes me feel good. At the bowling alley I found out that it wasn't just a little bowling competition between the teachers of Zhong Shan, this was a yearly bowling competition between 8 schools (there were a total of 15 teams from 8 schools). We were the first there and I felt a little bit worried--what if I did a terrible job and brought down the school's score?
It was really great to get to interact with the teachers outside the office. I feel like I know them a little bit more now, even if I don't know their names still. Yvonne and Richard weren't there to translate for us, but between a little English, a little Chinese, and hand gestures, we cobbled together conversation. I knew Grace, one of the second grade homeroom teachers, and Shi Pei the student teacher who has the desk next to mine. Beyond that, there were familiar faces that I still haven't put names to, but I'm working on it. Luck must have been with me, or god stepped down to say, "I don't want you to embarass yourself too badly in front of your colleagues." I broke 100 for the first time in I don't know how long--I scored 101, the second best score on my team. Our team did not come in last place! We tied for 12th. The other team from my school did a fantastic job--they placed 4th of 15! They made it into the second round of the tournament and we stayed to cheer them on. They ended up in 5th place in the second round, only a few points off from a trophy. Still, we felt like we had done really well, and a great time was had by all. The teacher who had driven me to the bowling alley offered to drive me home--I was grateful--it was still pouring out.
I got back from Chinese class at Fo Guang that night to find out that English Village for Thursday had been canceled. Apparently though a school had signed up to come, none of the homeroom teachers in the school had signed up to come--so close to midterms, they were unwilling to give up the class time. We were emailed assignments to complete at home. With the pouring rain, it seemed like a blessing that this mix up had occured. It also gave me time to stay up and talk to Sarah and my dad on the phone for a lot later than I normally would have, which was really fantastic with such gloomy weather.
Waking up on Thursday, the rain was even worse. I shuddered a little at the thought of walking 2 miles to English Village in it and was glad that I had been able to sleep in and stay home. Glad is an understatement--I would have been soaked to the bone if I'd gone out that morning. By 2:30 in the afternoon, school was canceled for the entire county. In my part of Yilan city it didn't seem excessively terrible...Carolyn and I walked to Carrefour for groceries in the afternoon (we took a taxi back and had to wait and exceedingly long time for it). Walking to Carrefour--we were in water up to our ankles more than once, and my pants were soaked through with the rain. I really need to remember to pick up rain pants one of these days. At any rate, we had enough groceries to hunker down for the weekend and we made an amazing dinner that night--steak (with a good dry rub) and garlic mashed potatoes. Oreos for desert. We even sat at a table like civilized people instead of eating in our rooms on our beds.
Friday it was still raining but not nearly what it had been on Thursday. Thursday night, the Taiwanese news stations announced that school was canceled for Friday due to the flooding. When they cancel school it's a county wide thing--if they cancel it for one school, they cancel it for all the schools in the county. Su Ao, just south of Luodong, was one of the worst hit places. Cars were stranded, houses filled the entire first floor with water. There was a story of water at the train station. A week's flooding by Typhoon Megi was more than this county had figured on. Typhoon Megi was passing south of Taiwan and I personally hadn't thought we'd feel any impact. With 1000 km radius...we sure as heck did. This was the worst flooding in Yilan County for 100 years I've been told. All the same, in Yilan City, the water was draining and I met friends at the new Japanese curry restaurant at Luna Plaza without incident. I've come to the conclusion that while the few times I tried Indian curry it was too strong for me...Japanese curry is just right!
Saturday astounded us all. On Saturday, it dawned, for the first time in about a week. I woke up to the sunlight streaming in my window (about 11 AM). This was the first time in days I could see any sky. The sky was blue with some white clouds and the sunlight poured in by the bucketful. I met up with Jill for lunch--it was the first time my bicycle had left the apartment in a week. I'm not much of an outdoors person, as anyone who knows me will attest, but being out in that windy, bright, sunny, perfect fall day was too good to resist. After lunch, I rode my bicycle around Yilan for over 2 hours, keeping off the busy roads and just exploring. Never in my life have I ridden a bicycle for that long, or for the sure pleasure of it (though my body complained the next day). I met up with friends at the Luodong night market that night (train, not bicycle--not quite up to that trek yet). It felt so good to be out.
Sunday morning I was up early for the first time since Wednesday. I joined an exploration of Hualian's jade markets. There was a DIY Jade place, where you pick your stone, which is already roughly cut--a leaf, Taiwan, a heart, etc. and you grind it down and polish it, and then pick the necklace you want for it. I picked a stone shaped like Taiwan. I will admit--I did not grind the stone down myself. I liked one of the finished stones coloring better than the unfinished Taiwan stones so I told them I wanted that one. After the DIY Jade place, we went to lunch and a large Jade market. We had some of Hualian's specialty treats before heading home for the day.
Now it's Monday and for the present, the weather seems to be holding, bright and sunny with blue skies.
Monday I taught story time again--the latest tale for the first and second graders is Harry the Dirty Dog. It required a little bit of creative word swapping. Words like "coal chute" aren't exactly on the need to know vocabulary list. I decided to do something I hadn't done before and I brought my lunch back to the office to eat. I spent the afternoon working on a Halloween crossword puzzle for the 4th grade.
Tuesday, instead of co-teaching fifth grade, I got to go to Zhong Shan's kindergarten for story time. We taught Go Away, Big Green Monster to the students. We were in the 4 year old kindergarten class, and the 5 year old kindergarten class. "Kindergarten" in Taiwan refers more to Pre-school, Pre-K, and Kindergarten as we would think of them in the US. Every kindergarten class has 2 teachers that are always there. With Yvonne and I there for story time...we had 4. The first thing that struck me was how tiny and adorable they are. The second thing that struck me was that they seemed really well behaved when we were there. They were also very smart. It's amazing to see how much difference a year can make in students so young, I could definitely see how much more the 5 year old class knew than the 4 year old class, but even with the 4 year old class, not all the words I introduced were alien to all the students. In the 5 year old class, as I presented the colors, they almost all seemed to already know the English names for them, and some of them knew the adjectives we covered--long, short, wavy, straight, big, little. I thoroughly enjoyed Tuesday. I decided to bring my lunch back to the office again...apparently it was thought a little funny that I decided to eat noodles two days in a row. Seems a litte strange to me to find that funny when rice seems to be on the menu everyday here.
Wednesday was awesome. Wednesdays are half days for all the students in Taiwan. I co-taught 4th grade with Yvonne and we introduced Halloween vocabulary. This particular Wednesday was one I've been looking forward to for a while--bowling! Some weeks ago, Yvonne had asked if I wanted to participate in a bowling competition with the faculty. I love to bowl(not that I'm particularly good at it...). I was all for it. When I got back from lunch on Wednesday, it was time to go. 10 teachers from Zhong Shan (including me) went to the bowling alley. The colleague who drove me as a daughter in kindergarten. He said that she came home from school the day before talking about the English teachers that came to her classroom. That was fantastic to hear--yes, she probably won't remember it in 2 years, but she remmebers it now, and it makes me feel good. At the bowling alley I found out that it wasn't just a little bowling competition between the teachers of Zhong Shan, this was a yearly bowling competition between 8 schools (there were a total of 15 teams from 8 schools). We were the first there and I felt a little bit worried--what if I did a terrible job and brought down the school's score?
It was really great to get to interact with the teachers outside the office. I feel like I know them a little bit more now, even if I don't know their names still. Yvonne and Richard weren't there to translate for us, but between a little English, a little Chinese, and hand gestures, we cobbled together conversation. I knew Grace, one of the second grade homeroom teachers, and Shi Pei the student teacher who has the desk next to mine. Beyond that, there were familiar faces that I still haven't put names to, but I'm working on it. Luck must have been with me, or god stepped down to say, "I don't want you to embarass yourself too badly in front of your colleagues." I broke 100 for the first time in I don't know how long--I scored 101, the second best score on my team. Our team did not come in last place! We tied for 12th. The other team from my school did a fantastic job--they placed 4th of 15! They made it into the second round of the tournament and we stayed to cheer them on. They ended up in 5th place in the second round, only a few points off from a trophy. Still, we felt like we had done really well, and a great time was had by all. The teacher who had driven me to the bowling alley offered to drive me home--I was grateful--it was still pouring out.
I got back from Chinese class at Fo Guang that night to find out that English Village for Thursday had been canceled. Apparently though a school had signed up to come, none of the homeroom teachers in the school had signed up to come--so close to midterms, they were unwilling to give up the class time. We were emailed assignments to complete at home. With the pouring rain, it seemed like a blessing that this mix up had occured. It also gave me time to stay up and talk to Sarah and my dad on the phone for a lot later than I normally would have, which was really fantastic with such gloomy weather.
Waking up on Thursday, the rain was even worse. I shuddered a little at the thought of walking 2 miles to English Village in it and was glad that I had been able to sleep in and stay home. Glad is an understatement--I would have been soaked to the bone if I'd gone out that morning. By 2:30 in the afternoon, school was canceled for the entire county. In my part of Yilan city it didn't seem excessively terrible...Carolyn and I walked to Carrefour for groceries in the afternoon (we took a taxi back and had to wait and exceedingly long time for it). Walking to Carrefour--we were in water up to our ankles more than once, and my pants were soaked through with the rain. I really need to remember to pick up rain pants one of these days. At any rate, we had enough groceries to hunker down for the weekend and we made an amazing dinner that night--steak (with a good dry rub) and garlic mashed potatoes. Oreos for desert. We even sat at a table like civilized people instead of eating in our rooms on our beds.
Friday it was still raining but not nearly what it had been on Thursday. Thursday night, the Taiwanese news stations announced that school was canceled for Friday due to the flooding. When they cancel school it's a county wide thing--if they cancel it for one school, they cancel it for all the schools in the county. Su Ao, just south of Luodong, was one of the worst hit places. Cars were stranded, houses filled the entire first floor with water. There was a story of water at the train station. A week's flooding by Typhoon Megi was more than this county had figured on. Typhoon Megi was passing south of Taiwan and I personally hadn't thought we'd feel any impact. With 1000 km radius...we sure as heck did. This was the worst flooding in Yilan County for 100 years I've been told. All the same, in Yilan City, the water was draining and I met friends at the new Japanese curry restaurant at Luna Plaza without incident. I've come to the conclusion that while the few times I tried Indian curry it was too strong for me...Japanese curry is just right!
Saturday astounded us all. On Saturday, it dawned, for the first time in about a week. I woke up to the sunlight streaming in my window (about 11 AM). This was the first time in days I could see any sky. The sky was blue with some white clouds and the sunlight poured in by the bucketful. I met up with Jill for lunch--it was the first time my bicycle had left the apartment in a week. I'm not much of an outdoors person, as anyone who knows me will attest, but being out in that windy, bright, sunny, perfect fall day was too good to resist. After lunch, I rode my bicycle around Yilan for over 2 hours, keeping off the busy roads and just exploring. Never in my life have I ridden a bicycle for that long, or for the sure pleasure of it (though my body complained the next day). I met up with friends at the Luodong night market that night (train, not bicycle--not quite up to that trek yet). It felt so good to be out.
Sunday morning I was up early for the first time since Wednesday. I joined an exploration of Hualian's jade markets. There was a DIY Jade place, where you pick your stone, which is already roughly cut--a leaf, Taiwan, a heart, etc. and you grind it down and polish it, and then pick the necklace you want for it. I picked a stone shaped like Taiwan. I will admit--I did not grind the stone down myself. I liked one of the finished stones coloring better than the unfinished Taiwan stones so I told them I wanted that one. After the DIY Jade place, we went to lunch and a large Jade market. We had some of Hualian's specialty treats before heading home for the day.
Now it's Monday and for the present, the weather seems to be holding, bright and sunny with blue skies.
Friday, October 15, 2010
National Day 10-10
October 11, 2010
8:19 AM
Zhongshan Elementary School
Since I’m actually updating in a reasonable amount of time, there’s not terribly much to catch up on. I was struck down by a vicious head cold/minor chest infection last week, and after a visit to one of Taiwan’s many fine national health care clinics and three days of antibiotics, I was right as rain. This is particularly important since this was a very big weekend.
Friday night, about half the ETAs got together for dinner at one of our local Shabu Shabu restaurants. Shabu Shabu is the Japanese version of hotpot. The primary difference is that at a hotpot restaurant, the table shares one large pot in the middle of the table to put their sauces and chosen foods in and everyone eats from it. At Shabu Shabu, everyone has his or her own pot of broth over the heat for cooking. A good time was had by all.
Saturday found me in Taipei where, after some long anticipated Mexican food, Jill and I went to the Taiwanese Handicraft Mart. It was 4 stories of goods made in Taiwan, usually following traditional arts and crafts of the island. There were gorgeous tea sets, jewelry, paintings, and more. I picked up a couple of books, including the translation of a diary of a 17th century Chinese literati who was sent to Taiwan and created a travelogue of his journey. Since my research last year was on the records left by the Dutch invaders about 50-70 years before this man’s arrival, I’m really looking forward to seeing the other side of things. I haven’t had time to start reading past the first few pages yet for the very good reason that when I got back, we had another family dinner night—Brittni and Harry cooked up some mean fajitas/burritos. The next day, hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to Taipei we go.
October 10th is National Day. All of the Fulbright Scholars in Taiwan were invited to the big National Day celebration in Taipei hosted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timothy Yang. This celebration was the celebration for all the foreign dignitaries in Taiwan. Walking in was a bit of a shock, the kind that just makes you stop and say, what did I do to get invited here?
We passed through the entrance under a large metal gate and up the red carpet, our guest passes with our names and titles clipped to dresses, suits, and purses. Off to one side were metal detectors and tables for purses to be searched—we weren’t stopped—we walked straight through. I have to say, I felt like we cleaned up really well. It’s amazing the transformation from meeting just off the plane with 24 hours of travel and no sleep, to seeing everyone dressed to the nines with hair, makeup, and fabulous clothes. We walked in up the red carpet, shook hands with Minister Yang and his wife, and were led out through the back of the building where a double line of women with drinks on trays was waiting for us, and a crowd of diplomats had already arrived.
There were ice sculptures, an orchestra from one of Taipei’s performing arts universities, a renowned calligrapher, a straw artist, and a slew of other entertainment. There was a vast variety of food, ranging from barbequed lamb, beef tenderloin, and chicken, to Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hakka, and Taiwanese dishes. There was even a Hagen Das booth. I have to say the green onion pancakes, Peking Duck, and Hagen Das, were probably my favorites.
And the world just keeps getting smaller. I met a little girl from Arcadia, California who won the title Junior Miss Taiwan World. It was an incredible evening, with all the different people I saw and talked to. At one point, we were walking and noticed a large, moving huddle of people—it was President Ma, walking down the lane with a crowd around him. Jill and I both shook hands with him. We also chatted with a Ph.D. student working at the National Library who, coincidence of coincidences, studied with one of the teachers at Fo Guang who presented us with introductory Chinese during orientation. Like I said, the world keeps getting smaller. It can’t be a sphere—it must be a spiral.
The range of clothing was pretty impressive. There was everything from full length gowns to the traditional qipao to cocktail dresses and women in suits. Everyone seemed to be dressed to the nines in their chosen style.
It was a fantastic evening and one that I won’t soon be forgetting, but just in case…there’s plenty of pictures to go check out on Facebook.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Recap
I’m guilty again. I haven’t been blogging on a regular basis. In fact, it’s been weeks. So shall I recap the highlights? If only I could remember what they are…
Alright, so we left off in the narrative with me at mid-September. It’s not the beginning of October, and I’ve been here for 9 weeks, and I’ve been teaching for a full six weeks. Let’s break it down.
The week of September 13:
(Pretty much covered in my last post, not a lot went on other than a trip to the Traditional Market, which was admittedly a lot of fun.)
Weekend:
Typhoon Fanapi hit in the early hours of Sunday morning. Though it knocked out power most of the day in Nanao, Yilan was fine (minus the fact that I know how goo from the typhoon tape on my windows that I have to figure out how to remove). I have to say—I applauded the fact that the Seven-Eleven in Nanao stayed open during the typhoon, even without power, operating by flashlights, calculators, and handwritten receipts according to a reliable witness (Jenny! <3) They even had a number so you could call and make sure they were opened before venturing out into the weather. How would we get along without Seven?
I passed the typhoon sitting pretty comfortably in my room, reading, on the computer, and watching movies, venturing out once or twice to Seven. The night when the typhoon was raging the hardest, I did have a heck of time trying to sleep. The way the wind was whistling reminded me of screaming children—not a pleasant thought for invading a girl’s sleep.
The week of September 20:
I’d say I had two big highlights this week. The first was in regards to teaching. I managed to finally fill the entire class properly with a structured lesson on Monday during my story time. It has taken practice, but I feel like I’m getting there. Of course, this was my third week of teaching Rosie’s Walk…you’d like to hope I could manage it after three weeks. Even so, it was a first and I’m glad I was able to get there.
We had Wednesday off from school for the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is the celebration of the autumn equinox. The celebration is accompanied by a never-ending parade of Pomellos (a big, citrusy fruit), and moon cakes (highly unhealthy deliciousness). I used the day off to head down to Nanao with Courtney with the intention of checking out the hot springs there before moving on to the second part of the usual Moon Festival festivities—a barbeque with family and friends. What we didn’t know before going up to the hot springs though, was that the Hot Springs had been closed down for the typhoon and hadn’t reopened yet. Oh well—we wandered around the area and took a look at some of the gorgeous Nanao scenery. There were some really pretty butterflies, and the river that runs through the area reminded me of the Kern River at the particular point we were at.
The other highlight of my week was the Moon Festival barbeque I went to at one of the LET’s houses (Jodi, from Dali). I went with several other ETAs and I’m glad I went out and didn’t give in to my natural desire to stay home alone. Jodi’s family picked us up at the train station and brought us to their home. We walked to the local temple. I have to say, the temple was breathtaking—my favorite part was the carving on the ceiling. I wish pictures could do it justice. There were a lot of people there, and they were setting up for a community raffle.
Back at the house for the barbeque, there were fried noodles waiting for us, courtesy of Jodi’s mom (absolutely delicious, like everything else we had that night). There were fresh clams and shrimp (and I mean really fresh…the clams were still snapping away in their bowl and the shrimp came from her aunt’s farm). A Moon Festival celebration seems to largely involve barbeque, beer, friends, family, moon cakes and pomellos. Minus the moon cakes and pomellos…it could be a Fourth of July back home. BBQ at home and in Taiwan have some similarities and some differences.
Barbequing in Taiwan isn’t done at a big stand up grill—you work on a little hibachi (or several little hibachis). At first I remember thinking it was a little strange that all the earliest things off the grill were put on pieces of bread and handed out to eat. Then again—holding a hot dog or hamburger patty with your bare hands would be uncomfortable…we wrap them in bread at home (buns, bread…same thing, right?). Later things coming off the grill mostly went on sticks—another handy way to keep from being burned. There was so much food…there was beef, lamb, chicken, pork, potatoes, clams, shrimp…done in combinations I certainly wouldn’t have thought of. Have you ever seen a mushroom wrapped in bacon and bell pepper on the barbeque at home? The whole night was one of laughing, talking, good food, and good fun.
Weekend:
With 10/10 day rapidly approaching, a lot of us realized that we lacked any suitable clothing for meeting heads of state. Several groups of ETAs made their way into Taipei that day. I went in by myself, opting for sleeping in a little. I have to say, the Eslite book store at the Taipei City Hall MRT stop/bus station was amazing. There are a few floors of books, several floors of random awesome stuff, and a food court in the basement. And if I didn’t mention it…there’s a cheese shop selling blocks of real cheese. A note: you cannot buy a block of cheddar in Yilan City anywhere that I’ve looked. And I’m hankering to make mac and cheese, even though it won’t be as good as Aunt Barb’s. Anyway, Eslite is a phenomenal place.
But I was on a mission—somewhere out there was a dress with my name on it. A lot of the guys had gone to get fitted for suits—I knew a custom dress was an option if I didn’t find anything that fit. After two hours of wandering around a fairly major mall not far from the station, I was beginning to wonder if maybe I should have gone to the tailor and got fitted for something after all. My biggest problem was that I didn’t know what I was looking for beyond—something that fit, was knee-length, and looked nice enough to meet the President of Taiwan in. Guys’ clothes are so much simpler…a suit is a suit.
I met up with Jill and we went to the Shilin Night Market (士林夜市), figuring on poking around and having something good to eat before going home. The Shilin Night Market is massive. You could be lost in it for days and not see everything. We had admittedly gotten off on the wrong stop, entirely my fault. I forgot that for Shilin Night Market, you don’t want to get off at the Shilin stop—you want to get off at the stop before it, Jiantan. It took us a bit of time to get to the Night Market coming from the wrong stop, but we managed, and coming in that way, we went past some stores that we might not have seen otherwise. Working our way towards the main food part of the Night Market for 小吃 (small eats), we found a dress shop. There were long dresses that looked like bridesmaid dresses, and some cocktail dresses. We went in…food could wait a few more minutes. I found the purple dress that had caught my eye on the mannequin at the front and the shop owner told me it wasn’t going to fit when I asked about trying it on. I was a little dejected—it’s not the first time I’ve heard that in this country and it won’t be the last. The last time I had heard it, it was followed by being told that nothing in the store was going to fit me. I was expecting the same rejection this time, but it didn’t come. The woman looked at me, and pulled out another dress, same color, different fabric and cut, and held it out for me. She picked up several more as possibilities.
To cut a long story shorter…I walked out with a dress that night when I had given up on the possibility of finding one at all that day.
The week of September 27:
This week went amazingly well. My highlight this week was Tuesday, when my Yvonne told me that the teacher in 2D (I think it was 2D…it might have been 2B) came up to her and complimented me on how much my teaching had improved. She hadn’t seen me in the classroom since the second week of school, my first day doing story time. Monday I had story time with the second grade again and everything seemed to fall into place. I read Go Away, Big Green Monster. My energy level was up, we went over all the necessary vocabulary, covering colors, parts of the face, adjectives... We read the book together and finished with worksheets I created, which seemed to be at just the right level for the students. It was such a nice feeling to know that not only was I feeling better about my teaching, but that somebody else had seen an improvement and noticed it and bothered to mention it.
The whole rest of the week seemed to go pretty smoothly too. I remember getting to the weekend and feeling like everything had gone right this week.
Weekend:
I chilled and it was good. What else needs be said? Seemed like the perfect way to cap off a great week.
The week of October 3:
It’s October? When the heck did that happen? Oh right…Well other than battling a cold, the week is going alright—let’s see what it has in store for me.
Alright, so we left off in the narrative with me at mid-September. It’s not the beginning of October, and I’ve been here for 9 weeks, and I’ve been teaching for a full six weeks. Let’s break it down.
The week of September 13:
(Pretty much covered in my last post, not a lot went on other than a trip to the Traditional Market, which was admittedly a lot of fun.)
Weekend:
Typhoon Fanapi hit in the early hours of Sunday morning. Though it knocked out power most of the day in Nanao, Yilan was fine (minus the fact that I know how goo from the typhoon tape on my windows that I have to figure out how to remove). I have to say—I applauded the fact that the Seven-Eleven in Nanao stayed open during the typhoon, even without power, operating by flashlights, calculators, and handwritten receipts according to a reliable witness (Jenny! <3) They even had a number so you could call and make sure they were opened before venturing out into the weather. How would we get along without Seven?
I passed the typhoon sitting pretty comfortably in my room, reading, on the computer, and watching movies, venturing out once or twice to Seven. The night when the typhoon was raging the hardest, I did have a heck of time trying to sleep. The way the wind was whistling reminded me of screaming children—not a pleasant thought for invading a girl’s sleep.
The week of September 20:
I’d say I had two big highlights this week. The first was in regards to teaching. I managed to finally fill the entire class properly with a structured lesson on Monday during my story time. It has taken practice, but I feel like I’m getting there. Of course, this was my third week of teaching Rosie’s Walk…you’d like to hope I could manage it after three weeks. Even so, it was a first and I’m glad I was able to get there.
We had Wednesday off from school for the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is the celebration of the autumn equinox. The celebration is accompanied by a never-ending parade of Pomellos (a big, citrusy fruit), and moon cakes (highly unhealthy deliciousness). I used the day off to head down to Nanao with Courtney with the intention of checking out the hot springs there before moving on to the second part of the usual Moon Festival festivities—a barbeque with family and friends. What we didn’t know before going up to the hot springs though, was that the Hot Springs had been closed down for the typhoon and hadn’t reopened yet. Oh well—we wandered around the area and took a look at some of the gorgeous Nanao scenery. There were some really pretty butterflies, and the river that runs through the area reminded me of the Kern River at the particular point we were at.
The other highlight of my week was the Moon Festival barbeque I went to at one of the LET’s houses (Jodi, from Dali). I went with several other ETAs and I’m glad I went out and didn’t give in to my natural desire to stay home alone. Jodi’s family picked us up at the train station and brought us to their home. We walked to the local temple. I have to say, the temple was breathtaking—my favorite part was the carving on the ceiling. I wish pictures could do it justice. There were a lot of people there, and they were setting up for a community raffle.
Back at the house for the barbeque, there were fried noodles waiting for us, courtesy of Jodi’s mom (absolutely delicious, like everything else we had that night). There were fresh clams and shrimp (and I mean really fresh…the clams were still snapping away in their bowl and the shrimp came from her aunt’s farm). A Moon Festival celebration seems to largely involve barbeque, beer, friends, family, moon cakes and pomellos. Minus the moon cakes and pomellos…it could be a Fourth of July back home. BBQ at home and in Taiwan have some similarities and some differences.
Barbequing in Taiwan isn’t done at a big stand up grill—you work on a little hibachi (or several little hibachis). At first I remember thinking it was a little strange that all the earliest things off the grill were put on pieces of bread and handed out to eat. Then again—holding a hot dog or hamburger patty with your bare hands would be uncomfortable…we wrap them in bread at home (buns, bread…same thing, right?). Later things coming off the grill mostly went on sticks—another handy way to keep from being burned. There was so much food…there was beef, lamb, chicken, pork, potatoes, clams, shrimp…done in combinations I certainly wouldn’t have thought of. Have you ever seen a mushroom wrapped in bacon and bell pepper on the barbeque at home? The whole night was one of laughing, talking, good food, and good fun.
Weekend:
With 10/10 day rapidly approaching, a lot of us realized that we lacked any suitable clothing for meeting heads of state. Several groups of ETAs made their way into Taipei that day. I went in by myself, opting for sleeping in a little. I have to say, the Eslite book store at the Taipei City Hall MRT stop/bus station was amazing. There are a few floors of books, several floors of random awesome stuff, and a food court in the basement. And if I didn’t mention it…there’s a cheese shop selling blocks of real cheese. A note: you cannot buy a block of cheddar in Yilan City anywhere that I’ve looked. And I’m hankering to make mac and cheese, even though it won’t be as good as Aunt Barb’s. Anyway, Eslite is a phenomenal place.
But I was on a mission—somewhere out there was a dress with my name on it. A lot of the guys had gone to get fitted for suits—I knew a custom dress was an option if I didn’t find anything that fit. After two hours of wandering around a fairly major mall not far from the station, I was beginning to wonder if maybe I should have gone to the tailor and got fitted for something after all. My biggest problem was that I didn’t know what I was looking for beyond—something that fit, was knee-length, and looked nice enough to meet the President of Taiwan in. Guys’ clothes are so much simpler…a suit is a suit.
I met up with Jill and we went to the Shilin Night Market (士林夜市), figuring on poking around and having something good to eat before going home. The Shilin Night Market is massive. You could be lost in it for days and not see everything. We had admittedly gotten off on the wrong stop, entirely my fault. I forgot that for Shilin Night Market, you don’t want to get off at the Shilin stop—you want to get off at the stop before it, Jiantan. It took us a bit of time to get to the Night Market coming from the wrong stop, but we managed, and coming in that way, we went past some stores that we might not have seen otherwise. Working our way towards the main food part of the Night Market for 小吃 (small eats), we found a dress shop. There were long dresses that looked like bridesmaid dresses, and some cocktail dresses. We went in…food could wait a few more minutes. I found the purple dress that had caught my eye on the mannequin at the front and the shop owner told me it wasn’t going to fit when I asked about trying it on. I was a little dejected—it’s not the first time I’ve heard that in this country and it won’t be the last. The last time I had heard it, it was followed by being told that nothing in the store was going to fit me. I was expecting the same rejection this time, but it didn’t come. The woman looked at me, and pulled out another dress, same color, different fabric and cut, and held it out for me. She picked up several more as possibilities.
To cut a long story shorter…I walked out with a dress that night when I had given up on the possibility of finding one at all that day.
The week of September 27:
This week went amazingly well. My highlight this week was Tuesday, when my Yvonne told me that the teacher in 2D (I think it was 2D…it might have been 2B) came up to her and complimented me on how much my teaching had improved. She hadn’t seen me in the classroom since the second week of school, my first day doing story time. Monday I had story time with the second grade again and everything seemed to fall into place. I read Go Away, Big Green Monster. My energy level was up, we went over all the necessary vocabulary, covering colors, parts of the face, adjectives... We read the book together and finished with worksheets I created, which seemed to be at just the right level for the students. It was such a nice feeling to know that not only was I feeling better about my teaching, but that somebody else had seen an improvement and noticed it and bothered to mention it.
The whole rest of the week seemed to go pretty smoothly too. I remember getting to the weekend and feeling like everything had gone right this week.
Weekend:
I chilled and it was good. What else needs be said? Seemed like the perfect way to cap off a great week.
The week of October 3:
It’s October? When the heck did that happen? Oh right…Well other than battling a cold, the week is going alright—let’s see what it has in store for me.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Mid-September Already? Where Did the Time Go?
September 14, 2010
7:35 PM
Yilan Apartment
Okay, so I was looking at the blog the other day and realized, that it was mid-September and I haven't posted since August. Part of the reason is that I've been busy. The last time I updated was when I was moving into my apartment in Yilan City. The next Monday we started teaching classes, and the Monday after that, Chinese classes added into the mix. I've now started my third week of teaching...Okay, so I'll do a bit of a recap.
The first week of teaching went well. I was eased into my responsibilities over the course of the week. I introduced myself to the fourth grade on Wednesday and Friday--Thursday we lesson planned at the English Village. About halfway through the week our refrigerator died (we now have another one in perfect working order, for which I am enormously grateful). We had a family dinner at Xue Shan K on Saturday night--spaghetti and meatballs. Sunday, I made an effort to go hiking in Nanao. I tried. I really tried. We walked to the train station and took the train to Nanao. From there it was a 15 or 20 minute walk to the trail we were taking. The trail started out as stairs going straight up the side of the little mountain. The pace was pretty fast and my legs were cramping in the first five minutes. I should have stretched. I gave it another 5 minutes or so and the trail kept going up steeply, all stairs, and the pace was still too hard on my body. I recognized this as a good time to turn back before getting any deeper in, and I did. I had to stop and rest several times on the way back to the train station--my legs felt like jelly and I was sure they were going to go out from under me. I made it back safe and sound.
The second week of teaching started, and I went into it full-fledged. On Monday I did Weekly English with the whole school, and Story Time with the second grade. Story Time was a little chaotic. I didn't have my time budgeted well and with the first two classes...I finished the story and an intro about myself in a total of 40 minutes. I should have had my PowerPoint and additional activities enough to cover 40 minutes for each class...not 40 minutes combined. And since I didn't think about listening for a bell...it was at the end of the first period when I realize I'd already done the work of two periods. I went back to the office to wait out the time until my third class was supposed to start. The third and fourth class went a little better--I improved and got more comfortable as I went on, though I'm still not entirely sure if it's even possible to stretch Rosie's Walk out to 40 minutes. Monday night was my first class at Fo Guang University with Jill and Andrew. The class is pretty much being taught entirely in Chinese and with traditional instead of simplified characters. I definitely was irked by both of these things to start off with, but the truth is, the traditional characters aren't that much more difficult than the simplified since I already know the simplified. I think if I was starting from scratch, it'd be another story. The fact that the class being taught entirely in Chinese made my head spin a little with incomprehension as forgotten words tried to fight their way to the surface of my brain probably tells me just how much I need this class right now. I acknowledge that I need it and am looking forward to the improvements I know will come in my listening and speaking abilities in Mandarin.
Tuesday and Wednesday went pretty well in the classroom, and I successfully navigated my way to school on my bicycle. If you know me well enough, you know this is a big accomplishment given my usual sense of balance. Thursday we finished lesson planning for English Village before heading out for Taipei for the Fulbright Orientation. Yes, I know, we just finished a month of orientation. But that was only orientation for the ETAs. This was orientation for all the Taiwan Fulbright Grantees--the 16 Yilan ETAs, the 12 Gaoshiung ETAs, and about 20 research grantees. We spent two days getting to know each other and meeting a few members of AIT (the American Institute in Taiwan). Thursday night, Jill and I met up with a friend of mine from last summer in Taiwan, Nicole, and we went to the Shilin night market. Friday night we had dinner at the Taipei World Trade Center Club and got to meet a lot of members of AIT and get to know the other grantees better. We got a special tour on Saturday of the National Palace Museum with a doson, who gave us a lot of background information on the pieces we looked at. I definitely plan to go back to the museum and spend more time there.
By Saturday night, I was burned out with Taipei overload and was ready to go home to Yilan, and I took it easy until classes resumed this week.
Monday I gave Rosie's Walk another try with the first graders. This time it went better--I had my lesson up to about 30 minutes. Maybe by the time I teach the last two classes on the book next Monday I'll have it up to the full 40. Today the newspaper English I presented at the faculty meeting was from articles about the United State's reaction to the 9th anniversary of 9/11. I can't believe it's been nine years. It's not that it feels like it was a long time ago, or that recent. It's just that, nine years sounds like a long time. I know I'm not the same person I was 9 years ago--I'm not the same person I was 5 years ago. But to think that 8th grade was that long ago--almost a decade--mind boggles me. That's nearly half my life.
On a lighter note, while reading at lunch today (yes, my usual lunch hour pass time), I found another note from home. Thank you to my favorite Sarah. We've got our first teachers' workshop tomorrow afternoon, and our first real day at English Village on Thursday.
I'll try not to go so long between updates again--my goal was at minimum to do one once a week. Sometimes my mood isn't really favorable for writing, and sometimes I don't have time. I'm also planning on trying to get pictures put up on Photobucket this weekend all labeled and everything.
7:35 PM
Yilan Apartment
Okay, so I was looking at the blog the other day and realized, that it was mid-September and I haven't posted since August. Part of the reason is that I've been busy. The last time I updated was when I was moving into my apartment in Yilan City. The next Monday we started teaching classes, and the Monday after that, Chinese classes added into the mix. I've now started my third week of teaching...Okay, so I'll do a bit of a recap.
The first week of teaching went well. I was eased into my responsibilities over the course of the week. I introduced myself to the fourth grade on Wednesday and Friday--Thursday we lesson planned at the English Village. About halfway through the week our refrigerator died (we now have another one in perfect working order, for which I am enormously grateful). We had a family dinner at Xue Shan K on Saturday night--spaghetti and meatballs. Sunday, I made an effort to go hiking in Nanao. I tried. I really tried. We walked to the train station and took the train to Nanao. From there it was a 15 or 20 minute walk to the trail we were taking. The trail started out as stairs going straight up the side of the little mountain. The pace was pretty fast and my legs were cramping in the first five minutes. I should have stretched. I gave it another 5 minutes or so and the trail kept going up steeply, all stairs, and the pace was still too hard on my body. I recognized this as a good time to turn back before getting any deeper in, and I did. I had to stop and rest several times on the way back to the train station--my legs felt like jelly and I was sure they were going to go out from under me. I made it back safe and sound.
The second week of teaching started, and I went into it full-fledged. On Monday I did Weekly English with the whole school, and Story Time with the second grade. Story Time was a little chaotic. I didn't have my time budgeted well and with the first two classes...I finished the story and an intro about myself in a total of 40 minutes. I should have had my PowerPoint and additional activities enough to cover 40 minutes for each class...not 40 minutes combined. And since I didn't think about listening for a bell...it was at the end of the first period when I realize I'd already done the work of two periods. I went back to the office to wait out the time until my third class was supposed to start. The third and fourth class went a little better--I improved and got more comfortable as I went on, though I'm still not entirely sure if it's even possible to stretch Rosie's Walk out to 40 minutes. Monday night was my first class at Fo Guang University with Jill and Andrew. The class is pretty much being taught entirely in Chinese and with traditional instead of simplified characters. I definitely was irked by both of these things to start off with, but the truth is, the traditional characters aren't that much more difficult than the simplified since I already know the simplified. I think if I was starting from scratch, it'd be another story. The fact that the class being taught entirely in Chinese made my head spin a little with incomprehension as forgotten words tried to fight their way to the surface of my brain probably tells me just how much I need this class right now. I acknowledge that I need it and am looking forward to the improvements I know will come in my listening and speaking abilities in Mandarin.
Tuesday and Wednesday went pretty well in the classroom, and I successfully navigated my way to school on my bicycle. If you know me well enough, you know this is a big accomplishment given my usual sense of balance. Thursday we finished lesson planning for English Village before heading out for Taipei for the Fulbright Orientation. Yes, I know, we just finished a month of orientation. But that was only orientation for the ETAs. This was orientation for all the Taiwan Fulbright Grantees--the 16 Yilan ETAs, the 12 Gaoshiung ETAs, and about 20 research grantees. We spent two days getting to know each other and meeting a few members of AIT (the American Institute in Taiwan). Thursday night, Jill and I met up with a friend of mine from last summer in Taiwan, Nicole, and we went to the Shilin night market. Friday night we had dinner at the Taipei World Trade Center Club and got to meet a lot of members of AIT and get to know the other grantees better. We got a special tour on Saturday of the National Palace Museum with a doson, who gave us a lot of background information on the pieces we looked at. I definitely plan to go back to the museum and spend more time there.
By Saturday night, I was burned out with Taipei overload and was ready to go home to Yilan, and I took it easy until classes resumed this week.
Monday I gave Rosie's Walk another try with the first graders. This time it went better--I had my lesson up to about 30 minutes. Maybe by the time I teach the last two classes on the book next Monday I'll have it up to the full 40. Today the newspaper English I presented at the faculty meeting was from articles about the United State's reaction to the 9th anniversary of 9/11. I can't believe it's been nine years. It's not that it feels like it was a long time ago, or that recent. It's just that, nine years sounds like a long time. I know I'm not the same person I was 9 years ago--I'm not the same person I was 5 years ago. But to think that 8th grade was that long ago--almost a decade--mind boggles me. That's nearly half my life.
On a lighter note, while reading at lunch today (yes, my usual lunch hour pass time), I found another note from home. Thank you to my favorite Sarah. We've got our first teachers' workshop tomorrow afternoon, and our first real day at English Village on Thursday.
I'll try not to go so long between updates again--my goal was at minimum to do one once a week. Sometimes my mood isn't really favorable for writing, and sometimes I don't have time. I'm also planning on trying to get pictures put up on Photobucket this weekend all labeled and everything.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Settling In
August 28, 2010
1:45 PM
Yilan Apartment
On Thursday, Yvonne helped me move apartments. I'm now settling in comfortably in Xue Shan with Brittni and Carolyn. I'm missing the familiarity of Luodong but I'll learn my way around here soon enough. Thursday I had lunch with a couple of other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and their LETs (Local English Teachers) and went to Carrefour for some essentials. I was feeling a little bit down, just out of sorts with stress and moving, so I went to Luna Plaza that night for dinner. I have to say, Cafe Grazie perked me right up. I had a great pasta dish with a Coke while I read one of my books from home (and found another love note in it), and the radio played familiar country music. Seriously, what more could a girl ask for?
Friday I started looking over books for Monday's story time and then went to the big faculty lunch meeting for the start of school. Yvonne and I sat with the school nurse, who was very sweet. Yvonne invited me to ghost month dinner with her family. I went home for about an hour and got some laundry done before she picked me up.
I have to say it was a really wonderful experience. Yvonne has twins, about a year old. At first they didn't want me to hold them very much, but who can blame them? When you're in your grandma's arms or your auntie's arms, and your mom just got home, you don't want a stranger holding you. They warmed up to me though and Yvonne's whole family was so nice.
I found out that there's a correct way to burn paper money for the ghosts--making sure that the shiny part is on the outside and folding all the pieces of paper. Dinner was home cooked with a lot of organic food grown by Yvonne's family. I think my favorite was the yam cake. We also had chicken, duck, rice, some sort of green vegetable for long life whose name I can't remember, something else made with yams...there were 5 or 6 dishes I think, and the rice. After dinner, Yvonne took me out to a bicycle shop she knows and helped me pick out a good bicycle, negotiate a good price, and even got the owner of the shop to tried the bicycle to my apartment for me since I didn't have any other way to get it home. I am now the proud owner of a new bicycle--the first bike I've owned since I was probably about 8.
I'm going to practice with the bicycle today in the courtyard between the apartment buildings, where I can't get run over, and try and find a new place for dinner tonight.
1:45 PM
Yilan Apartment
On Thursday, Yvonne helped me move apartments. I'm now settling in comfortably in Xue Shan with Brittni and Carolyn. I'm missing the familiarity of Luodong but I'll learn my way around here soon enough. Thursday I had lunch with a couple of other ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) and their LETs (Local English Teachers) and went to Carrefour for some essentials. I was feeling a little bit down, just out of sorts with stress and moving, so I went to Luna Plaza that night for dinner. I have to say, Cafe Grazie perked me right up. I had a great pasta dish with a Coke while I read one of my books from home (and found another love note in it), and the radio played familiar country music. Seriously, what more could a girl ask for?
Friday I started looking over books for Monday's story time and then went to the big faculty lunch meeting for the start of school. Yvonne and I sat with the school nurse, who was very sweet. Yvonne invited me to ghost month dinner with her family. I went home for about an hour and got some laundry done before she picked me up.
I have to say it was a really wonderful experience. Yvonne has twins, about a year old. At first they didn't want me to hold them very much, but who can blame them? When you're in your grandma's arms or your auntie's arms, and your mom just got home, you don't want a stranger holding you. They warmed up to me though and Yvonne's whole family was so nice.
I found out that there's a correct way to burn paper money for the ghosts--making sure that the shiny part is on the outside and folding all the pieces of paper. Dinner was home cooked with a lot of organic food grown by Yvonne's family. I think my favorite was the yam cake. We also had chicken, duck, rice, some sort of green vegetable for long life whose name I can't remember, something else made with yams...there were 5 or 6 dishes I think, and the rice. After dinner, Yvonne took me out to a bicycle shop she knows and helped me pick out a good bicycle, negotiate a good price, and even got the owner of the shop to tried the bicycle to my apartment for me since I didn't have any other way to get it home. I am now the proud owner of a new bicycle--the first bike I've owned since I was probably about 8.
I'm going to practice with the bicycle today in the courtyard between the apartment buildings, where I can't get run over, and try and find a new place for dinner tonight.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Moving Along
August 25, 2010
9:34 PM
Luodong Apartment
Things feel like they're moving along pretty quickly right now. Yesterday I passed my written test. I can now legally own and drive a 50 cc scooter in Taiwan. I have to say, the DMV felt and looked almost exactly the same as the DMVs back home. The only difference being that it wasn't as crowded as the DMV in Pasadena or quite as dirty.
Yesterday and today we went to the English Village at 新生国小 (Xin Sheng Elementary). We were introduced to it yesterday, and today we had our first groups of kids there as we manned the stations. It was exhausting enough with two of us manning each station. I can only imagine how intense it will be when we're leading the stations on our own with about 12 kids (compared to the six or so we each had today, being guided by two of us).
I'm really glad to know my schedule now. I'll be speaking at morning assembly with the students on Mondays and Fridays. Tuesday mornings I will be speaking to the faculty assembling, covering newspaper English. Mondays I'll also be doing story time with grades 1 and 2, either 2 or 4 hours depending on the week. Tuesdays I will be co-teaching five 5th grade glasses. Wednesday I will be co-teaching four 4th grade classes. Thursdays I will spend 4 hours at English Village (and then have cultural exchange in the afternoon). Fridays after my meeting with the students, I have one class period co-teaching a 4th grade class.
I feel better right now, knowing that I have a schedule and it's set. I'm still waiting to hear on which days I will have class at Fo Guang University--I'll be taking class there twice a week, 2 hours a day. All I can hope is that I don't have it on Tuesdays.
At 9 AM tomorrow I'm moving to Yilan. I'm going to really miss Luodong--I've become attached to this place in the month I've been here. But, it's only a couple of train stops away--I'm sure I'll be back frequently. I'm not expecting the process to take long. My co-teacher is driving me to Yilan with my suitcases. Friday I'll be meeting the rest of the teachers at 中山国小 (Zhong Shan Elementary). Monday...school starts. It's a little intimidating, but I'm ready--I hope.
I'm missing Mike and my family. Part of me wishes I was home now, but I know this year is going to be a great experience and I can hope I'm the better for it.
9:34 PM
Luodong Apartment
Things feel like they're moving along pretty quickly right now. Yesterday I passed my written test. I can now legally own and drive a 50 cc scooter in Taiwan. I have to say, the DMV felt and looked almost exactly the same as the DMVs back home. The only difference being that it wasn't as crowded as the DMV in Pasadena or quite as dirty.
Yesterday and today we went to the English Village at 新生国小 (Xin Sheng Elementary). We were introduced to it yesterday, and today we had our first groups of kids there as we manned the stations. It was exhausting enough with two of us manning each station. I can only imagine how intense it will be when we're leading the stations on our own with about 12 kids (compared to the six or so we each had today, being guided by two of us).
I'm really glad to know my schedule now. I'll be speaking at morning assembly with the students on Mondays and Fridays. Tuesday mornings I will be speaking to the faculty assembling, covering newspaper English. Mondays I'll also be doing story time with grades 1 and 2, either 2 or 4 hours depending on the week. Tuesdays I will be co-teaching five 5th grade glasses. Wednesday I will be co-teaching four 4th grade classes. Thursdays I will spend 4 hours at English Village (and then have cultural exchange in the afternoon). Fridays after my meeting with the students, I have one class period co-teaching a 4th grade class.
I feel better right now, knowing that I have a schedule and it's set. I'm still waiting to hear on which days I will have class at Fo Guang University--I'll be taking class there twice a week, 2 hours a day. All I can hope is that I don't have it on Tuesdays.
At 9 AM tomorrow I'm moving to Yilan. I'm going to really miss Luodong--I've become attached to this place in the month I've been here. But, it's only a couple of train stops away--I'm sure I'll be back frequently. I'm not expecting the process to take long. My co-teacher is driving me to Yilan with my suitcases. Friday I'll be meeting the rest of the teachers at 中山国小 (Zhong Shan Elementary). Monday...school starts. It's a little intimidating, but I'm ready--I hope.
I'm missing Mike and my family. Part of me wishes I was home now, but I know this year is going to be a great experience and I can hope I'm the better for it.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
A Great Day
I haven't been in the mindset to really blog the last week or so. I've been cranky and frankly, no one would have really wanted to read anything I wrote, so I saved your eyes and my fingers the effort. Yay for efficiency. Right? Right.
So when orientation ended yesterday I set the reset button. I went home, and treated myself to some Pizza Hut and spent the rest of the evening and most of today chilling out alone in my room while I reset myself and sorted things out.
Things that you've missed since my last update:
• 中山国小 (Zhong Shan Guo Xiao in pinyin)
• My co-teachers will be Yvonne and Richard
• I will be teaching grades 4 and 5
• On Thursday I will move into one of the 雪山 (Xue Shan) apartments with Brittni and Carolyn
Tuesday I'll be taking the written test for the 50 CC scooter. I did manage to get back on the scooter after the accident with my foot. It's a learning experience. I also plan to better acquaint myself with the wonderful world of bicycling (after the move...no sense in hauling it out here and hauling it back to Yilan City).
Today I started looking at options for what to do when the Fulbright ends in June. I've thought about teaching elsewhere overseas or maybe trying to get a job with the Department of State or AIT. When I looked at teaching abroad my first instinct was Bermuda--it's close to home and I have family there. I slowly found myself drifting back towards Asia. When I realized I was looking at listings in Taiwan, I knew that I was going to be okay here.
I went out tonight to a little dumpling place by the super market that was pretty good...and I now know the word for shrimp and won't be ordering that particular dish again--I do however know where to get awesome dumplings in Luodong. After that, Courtney and I went to the stationary store and bought calligraphy brushes, practice paper, stroke guides, an ink stone, a pestle to grind the ink stone on...and went back home to attempt to become great calligraphers. You can tackle any mountain...an inch at a time.
Feeling much better about life, the universe, and everything, I'm ready to call it a night with a smile on my face.
So when orientation ended yesterday I set the reset button. I went home, and treated myself to some Pizza Hut and spent the rest of the evening and most of today chilling out alone in my room while I reset myself and sorted things out.
Things that you've missed since my last update:
• 中山国小 (Zhong Shan Guo Xiao in pinyin)
• My co-teachers will be Yvonne and Richard
• I will be teaching grades 4 and 5
• On Thursday I will move into one of the 雪山 (Xue Shan) apartments with Brittni and Carolyn
Tuesday I'll be taking the written test for the 50 CC scooter. I did manage to get back on the scooter after the accident with my foot. It's a learning experience. I also plan to better acquaint myself with the wonderful world of bicycling (after the move...no sense in hauling it out here and hauling it back to Yilan City).
Today I started looking at options for what to do when the Fulbright ends in June. I've thought about teaching elsewhere overseas or maybe trying to get a job with the Department of State or AIT. When I looked at teaching abroad my first instinct was Bermuda--it's close to home and I have family there. I slowly found myself drifting back towards Asia. When I realized I was looking at listings in Taiwan, I knew that I was going to be okay here.
I went out tonight to a little dumpling place by the super market that was pretty good...and I now know the word for shrimp and won't be ordering that particular dish again--I do however know where to get awesome dumplings in Luodong. After that, Courtney and I went to the stationary store and bought calligraphy brushes, practice paper, stroke guides, an ink stone, a pestle to grind the ink stone on...and went back home to attempt to become great calligraphers. You can tackle any mountain...an inch at a time.
Feeling much better about life, the universe, and everything, I'm ready to call it a night with a smile on my face.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
It Bit Me
August 12, 2010
10:20 PM
Luodong—Apartment H
Alright, so I’m guilty. I haven’t updated in a while—almost a week. I’ve been posting statuses on Facebook but haven’t made my way to the blog. Since I last updated I informed Facebook that I most triumphantly conquered my age old enemy—the dreaded bicycle. I’m still working on it, but I can ride, which I honestly hadn’t thought possible. Stuart let me ride her bike and being on a bike that was actually the right size for me helped a whole lot—previous attempts on bikes too tall had gone miserably. I actually seemed to be able to pick it up. A couple of days working on my balance on the bicycle and I wanted to hit the scooter again. It didn’t go great, but it went better than it had the first time around.
Erin O'Brien officially conquered the bicycle today. Total bonus points on her coordination.
Monday at 9:02pm
Erin O'Brien rode the bicycle again today and had better luck than last time with the scooter.
Tuesday at 6:33pm
Erin O'Brien is done with this whole sweating thing...can bodily fluids be put on suspension in a plane of non-existence?
Yesterday at 3:54pm
Okay, so there are the missing Facebook updates since I last wrote in the blog. Now everyone is caught up. Saturday night we went to the Luodong Monkey Carnival and watched the group of European performers there. There was a guy who did contact juggling with the crystal balls—made me want to go watch Labyrinth. There was an aerialist, a guy who balanced things on his face, another guy with fire batons, and a contortionist. All in all it was a really spectacular show—no complaints. And there was a vehicle of some sort made to look like a glowing dragon parked up the street with instruments hanging off it that anyone could play—inside the wire mesh was a full on drum kit where a kid was banging away and having the time of his life.
Sunday we had a big group gathering at the apartment, about 12 of us eating Brittni’s awesome Japanese style curry and then hanging out on the rooftop for a while. It was really a great night. I wish I could elaborate more but today has left me pretty drained.
Yesterday we went down to Nanao and saw several aboriginal schools down there. The area is gorgeous and unpolluted. The schools are small, so it will be a really intimate learning environment for whatever ETAs end up there. We make our list of school choices tomorrow I think after we see the last of the schools. At the train station on our way back, Kelly broke out the birthday cake and surprised Harry and we all sang Happy Birthday to him. After we got back from Nanao we all went out to Shabu-Shabu for hot pot to celebrate the birthday boy, then back to Zhongshan to hang out together for the rest of the night. 16 ETAs…one apartment. Fight the damp, y’all.
Today we had a former ETA and the former director of the Fulbright program come talk to us about culture and education in Taiwan. At the end of the day, it was time for scooter practice again, getting us ready for the driving test coming up. I was feeling pretty good, as though maybe today I’d actually be able to make the loop around the lot the way most of the other people had been able to do last time. My balance was improving and I was getting a better feel for the throttle. I have to tell you…no such luck. I started off okay, and then felt like I was going a little fast and hit the break. I was still okay, I’d try and go around the curve. I started up the scooter again but hit the throttle too hard and couldn’t stop soon enough. I went over sideways, hitting the curb and my sandal got caught on the steering handle, maybe in the hand break—I’m really not sure. I hit the ground and my foot was between the bike and the curb and caught on something. Long story short, I’m bruised, sore, and suffering a bit of a damaged ego, but no permanent damage. My foot is several interesting shades of blue and purple at the moment and I’m hobbling around with help. After the fall we had an FSE dinner with Dr. Chen and Wu Laoshi and the Director-General of Education for Yilan County. We had really good traditional Taiwanese food (mostly seafood) in Yilan. Now I’m glad to be home, elevating my foot and finally updating the blog.
10:20 PM
Luodong—Apartment H
Alright, so I’m guilty. I haven’t updated in a while—almost a week. I’ve been posting statuses on Facebook but haven’t made my way to the blog. Since I last updated I informed Facebook that I most triumphantly conquered my age old enemy—the dreaded bicycle. I’m still working on it, but I can ride, which I honestly hadn’t thought possible. Stuart let me ride her bike and being on a bike that was actually the right size for me helped a whole lot—previous attempts on bikes too tall had gone miserably. I actually seemed to be able to pick it up. A couple of days working on my balance on the bicycle and I wanted to hit the scooter again. It didn’t go great, but it went better than it had the first time around.
Erin O'Brien officially conquered the bicycle today. Total bonus points on her coordination.
Monday at 9:02pm
Erin O'Brien rode the bicycle again today and had better luck than last time with the scooter.
Tuesday at 6:33pm
Erin O'Brien is done with this whole sweating thing...can bodily fluids be put on suspension in a plane of non-existence?
Yesterday at 3:54pm
Okay, so there are the missing Facebook updates since I last wrote in the blog. Now everyone is caught up. Saturday night we went to the Luodong Monkey Carnival and watched the group of European performers there. There was a guy who did contact juggling with the crystal balls—made me want to go watch Labyrinth. There was an aerialist, a guy who balanced things on his face, another guy with fire batons, and a contortionist. All in all it was a really spectacular show—no complaints. And there was a vehicle of some sort made to look like a glowing dragon parked up the street with instruments hanging off it that anyone could play—inside the wire mesh was a full on drum kit where a kid was banging away and having the time of his life.
Sunday we had a big group gathering at the apartment, about 12 of us eating Brittni’s awesome Japanese style curry and then hanging out on the rooftop for a while. It was really a great night. I wish I could elaborate more but today has left me pretty drained.
Yesterday we went down to Nanao and saw several aboriginal schools down there. The area is gorgeous and unpolluted. The schools are small, so it will be a really intimate learning environment for whatever ETAs end up there. We make our list of school choices tomorrow I think after we see the last of the schools. At the train station on our way back, Kelly broke out the birthday cake and surprised Harry and we all sang Happy Birthday to him. After we got back from Nanao we all went out to Shabu-Shabu for hot pot to celebrate the birthday boy, then back to Zhongshan to hang out together for the rest of the night. 16 ETAs…one apartment. Fight the damp, y’all.
Today we had a former ETA and the former director of the Fulbright program come talk to us about culture and education in Taiwan. At the end of the day, it was time for scooter practice again, getting us ready for the driving test coming up. I was feeling pretty good, as though maybe today I’d actually be able to make the loop around the lot the way most of the other people had been able to do last time. My balance was improving and I was getting a better feel for the throttle. I have to tell you…no such luck. I started off okay, and then felt like I was going a little fast and hit the break. I was still okay, I’d try and go around the curve. I started up the scooter again but hit the throttle too hard and couldn’t stop soon enough. I went over sideways, hitting the curb and my sandal got caught on the steering handle, maybe in the hand break—I’m really not sure. I hit the ground and my foot was between the bike and the curb and caught on something. Long story short, I’m bruised, sore, and suffering a bit of a damaged ego, but no permanent damage. My foot is several interesting shades of blue and purple at the moment and I’m hobbling around with help. After the fall we had an FSE dinner with Dr. Chen and Wu Laoshi and the Director-General of Education for Yilan County. We had really good traditional Taiwanese food (mostly seafood) in Yilan. Now I’m glad to be home, elevating my foot and finally updating the blog.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Friday
August 6, 2010
10:30 AM
Yilan Teacher Center
Yesterday I think I learned a lot. I found out that it looks like we live in the tallest building in Luodong--or the tallest we can see at any rate, looking at the view from 25 stories up. The stars were out in force and even from as high up as we were, we could hear frogs, cicadas, and the trash truck (which blasts music that mostly sounds like it belongs in an ice cream truck).
Going up to the roof top to hang out and chat would never have entered my mind but the breeze was great and so was the company. I can't wait to see the view in the daylight.
Yesterday started with a visit to the Yilan Winery. I have to say that I think the treat Principal Lin got us was a truly Taiwanese original--red wine and rice popsicles--I can't imagine finding that anywhere else.
We spent the rest of the day creating our bank accounts, learning the train and bus stations, and getting acquainted with Yilan City, and eventually hitting the Luodong Night Market for a scavenger hunt. Amongst the things I learned yesterday is the fact that Taiwan is coming up on it's centennial. The Taiwanese year is 99--the reckoning starting in October 1911. My bnak deposit was marked 99-8-5 and a note from my landlord was dated 99-8-4; now I know why.
I'm on the bus now heading to the International Children's Folklore and Games Festival at the River Water Park. It's Friday night and I'm not sure what I'md doing with my weekend yet. the Luodong Monkey Carnival starts this weekend. I saw some of the performers practicing when I was at the night market last night. It was a European group with at least one aeialist, a guy with fire batons, and several others whose talents I couldn't yet I dentify. We just arrived at the river park, time to drop the pen.
Erin
10:30 AM
Yilan Teacher Center
Yesterday I think I learned a lot. I found out that it looks like we live in the tallest building in Luodong--or the tallest we can see at any rate, looking at the view from 25 stories up. The stars were out in force and even from as high up as we were, we could hear frogs, cicadas, and the trash truck (which blasts music that mostly sounds like it belongs in an ice cream truck).
Going up to the roof top to hang out and chat would never have entered my mind but the breeze was great and so was the company. I can't wait to see the view in the daylight.
Yesterday started with a visit to the Yilan Winery. I have to say that I think the treat Principal Lin got us was a truly Taiwanese original--red wine and rice popsicles--I can't imagine finding that anywhere else.
We spent the rest of the day creating our bank accounts, learning the train and bus stations, and getting acquainted with Yilan City, and eventually hitting the Luodong Night Market for a scavenger hunt. Amongst the things I learned yesterday is the fact that Taiwan is coming up on it's centennial. The Taiwanese year is 99--the reckoning starting in October 1911. My bnak deposit was marked 99-8-5 and a note from my landlord was dated 99-8-4; now I know why.
I'm on the bus now heading to the International Children's Folklore and Games Festival at the River Water Park. It's Friday night and I'm not sure what I'md doing with my weekend yet. the Luodong Monkey Carnival starts this weekend. I saw some of the performers practicing when I was at the night market last night. It was a European group with at least one aeialist, a guy with fire batons, and several others whose talents I couldn't yet I dentify. We just arrived at the river park, time to drop the pen.
Erin
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tuesday
I seem to be over the jet lag and I'm settled into our apartment in Luodong quite cozily--the probability of moving in a month is a little sad--this place is already feeling homey. Then again, I'm sure the next place will too. The view from our balcony is really pretty. Luodong is green and teeming with life. Team Luodong spent tonight at the Luodong Night Market. It's not a bad walk--maybe twenty minutes or so, just a single right turn down the road from us.
This morning we went to see the Yilan County Magistrate and got to tour the building. The architecture was really unique. I'm tired and getting ready for bed and running out of words to describe it. I'll have to remember to post pictures soon.
This afternoon we got cell phones and made our first attempts at riding scooters. I feel like it could have gone better on my part, but I'm aware that it could have gone a heck of a lot worse. I'll just have to take this one step at a time. I feel drained. It's 9:30 at night and I'm ready for a shower and bed. Maybe I'm not as over my jet lag as I thought. I woke up 3 or 4 times during the night last night.
是生活。是吗？
This morning we went to see the Yilan County Magistrate and got to tour the building. The architecture was really unique. I'm tired and getting ready for bed and running out of words to describe it. I'll have to remember to post pictures soon.
This afternoon we got cell phones and made our first attempts at riding scooters. I feel like it could have gone better on my part, but I'm aware that it could have gone a heck of a lot worse. I'll just have to take this one step at a time. I feel drained. It's 9:30 at night and I'm ready for a shower and bed. Maybe I'm not as over my jet lag as I thought. I woke up 3 or 4 times during the night last night.
是生活。是吗？
Monday, August 2, 2010
Round 2
August 2, 2010
5:45 AM
Just Sleep, Room 903
That didn’t work. I couldn’t finish journaling last night. I fell asleep hard. I woke up an hour or two later screaming bloody murder with Charlie horses in both of my legs. These were the worst Charlie horses I can ever remember having. I think I probably scared the girl in my room. I’m going to be sore for days.
Okay so back to what I was going to write yesterday…
The FSE staff met us at the airport and we took the bus into Taipei. We had a couple of hours to freshen up, eat, and check our email before walking over to the Fulbright office.
We spent the day taking care of paper work, financial matters, introductions, and having lots of food. The lunch box I ate had fish, shrimp, chicken, eel, and steamed egg. I tried them all.
Our day had a lot of built in buffer time where we could just hang out and talk to each other. One of these breaks was over an hour and eight of us followed to guys who’d been here studying for a couple months out into the city. We walked through the Ximen shopping area where I remember going last year with Kelly and Vanilla. It felt even busier during the day than it had at night.
Deciding we had the time for it if we hurried, we all took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. It was worth the trip. There buildings around it on the grounds were gorgeous and the Chiang Kai Shek statue is set into the building kind of like the Lincoln Memorial, but with a live guard on each seat. I think the weirdest thing was watching a guy get up from the desk off to the side to straighten out one of the guard’s uniforms—I guess it was less than perfect, but you could have fooled me.
After that we finished the FAQ back at the office and went for dinner, working hard to stay away until a decent bedtime. Dr. Chen was really funny and everyone we met from the FSE office seems really nice. For now, I’ve got a couple of hours until check out and I’ve got to see if I can make my legs behave.
5:45 AM
Just Sleep, Room 903
That didn’t work. I couldn’t finish journaling last night. I fell asleep hard. I woke up an hour or two later screaming bloody murder with Charlie horses in both of my legs. These were the worst Charlie horses I can ever remember having. I think I probably scared the girl in my room. I’m going to be sore for days.
Okay so back to what I was going to write yesterday…
The FSE staff met us at the airport and we took the bus into Taipei. We had a couple of hours to freshen up, eat, and check our email before walking over to the Fulbright office.
We spent the day taking care of paper work, financial matters, introductions, and having lots of food. The lunch box I ate had fish, shrimp, chicken, eel, and steamed egg. I tried them all.
Our day had a lot of built in buffer time where we could just hang out and talk to each other. One of these breaks was over an hour and eight of us followed to guys who’d been here studying for a couple months out into the city. We walked through the Ximen shopping area where I remember going last year with Kelly and Vanilla. It felt even busier during the day than it had at night.
Deciding we had the time for it if we hurried, we all took the MRT to Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall. It was worth the trip. There buildings around it on the grounds were gorgeous and the Chiang Kai Shek statue is set into the building kind of like the Lincoln Memorial, but with a live guard on each seat. I think the weirdest thing was watching a guy get up from the desk off to the side to straighten out one of the guard’s uniforms—I guess it was less than perfect, but you could have fooled me.
After that we finished the FAQ back at the office and went for dinner, working hard to stay away until a decent bedtime. Dr. Chen was really funny and everyone we met from the FSE office seems really nice. For now, I’ve got a couple of hours until check out and I’ve got to see if I can make my legs behave.
Failed Post
August 1, 2010
8:43 PM
Just Sleep, Room 903
I’ve been a long day. I’m trying to stay awake long enough to hit a reasonable hour to go to bed.
8:43 PM
Just Sleep, Room 903
I’ve been a long day. I’m trying to stay awake long enough to hit a reasonable hour to go to bed.
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