Adventures

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.