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.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
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.
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