2013-12-25

It's not looking much like Christmas...

Considering it's been over a month since my last post, I think we can scratch off "blogger" from the list of Amanda's future employment options.

First things first... Merry Christmas! For the first (and hopefully the last) time of my life, I had to go to work on Christmas.  Weirdest feeling ever. Luckily though we were just doing classes with 1st Grade, and they were amazed that Santa knew all their names to send them candy canes.  But then when I reminded them how we wrote letters to Santa in our last class, they simply felt special that Santa took the time to respond to their letter... and send them candy. Some of you might be wondering how we handled writing letters to Santa in class because what if they don't receive the present they asked for on Christmas morning?  Well according to my fellow ETA's co-teacher, in Taiwan Santa is more of a symbol/figure of happiness.  He doesn't have the 100% direct correlation to present delivery like he does in Western cultures.  Some of the 1st Graders even asked Santa in their letters for health and happiness for their family.... talk about mature! I didn't get to that point until at least 3rd Grade. 

Now that it's hit a steady fluctuation between freezing cold in the morning/evening (honestly it's only about 54 degrees or so) and slightly chilly in the afternoon (probably around low 70s), Taiwan has a lot less mosquitoes and a lot less sweating going on. But now it's a lot more shivering. Since low 50s are about as cold as Taiwan gets, Taiwan buildings/apartments/schools/etc do not have heating. Any sort of heating. If you want heating, layer up and/or buy a space heater. I've opted for the former.

It has actually hit about the halfway point of my journey in Taiwan.  There are lots of wish-I-would-have's for the first half, but I plan to improve on that in the second half.  But to celebrate the completion of the first half of my adventure, I'm going to make two lists.... 1- Where was I naive about Taiwan? and 2- My goals for the second half....

What I didn't know about Taiwan

1. It gets really really cold here.  People from northern USA are probably reading this and thinking, "50 degrees? Girl, you don't know cold." Well let me tell you something.... you don't know survinging in "cold" until you don't have heating. Not in your house, not at your school (which is actually constantly open to the elements- the classrooms nor the office is insulated from the outside), not in restaurants, not in cars, not ANYWHERE. When you have to rely solely on layers, scarves, and gloves (that you didn't think to bring because everything/everyone says "Oh it's so warm in Taiwan").... all day long... all night long... then you know surviving in the cold.

2. Teaching 20 hours a week does not mean working 20 hours a week.  If a teacher ever says to you "I work X number of hours, always rephrase your question to how many hours a week do you work?"  Coming into the program, we were told we would be teaching 20 hours a week.  And that's true... but we actually work more like 40 hours a week.

3. (To jump off my last statement) I imagined working half days at school, having lots of time to travel around Taiwan, having lots of time to practice Chinese, go explore the community, etc.  Not true.  After coming home from working a full day teaching 6-12 year olds???? You just wanna sit, and eat, and not think.  I'm not nearly adventurous as I originally thought I would be, but I suppose that's ok.

4.  I'm not a huge fan of bubble tea after all.  There! I said it! Bubble tea here... or should I say the "real" bubble tea is actually not for me after all.  The American style now also sounds very.... processed.... and when I go back I probably won't drink it nearly as much as I did before.

5.  They don't have pepperoni here.  I've been to a few legit pizza places, and when we ask, they all say "Yes, we have pepperoni pizza. It's this one."  It's not.  It's salami or some other form of circular sausage type meat.  So needless to say, that's what I want as soon as I get back to the States in July.  Oh, and Chipotle.

My Goals for the 2nd Half of the Taiwan Adventure

1. Travel more around the island.  I need to not be so afraid/hesitant to take weekend trips to places.  Maybe it'll help now that I have a better grasp of getting around the island now with buses, trains, etc.  But I planned to see more while I'm here, so that's what I'm going to do.

2.  Make more of an effort to improve my Chinese.  Many of the people here actually have a really good grasp of English, and it's easy to slide into speaking English.  But I need to force myself to concentrate on attempting to speak more.

3. Dress a little more put together.  At my school, more than half the teachers walk in in work out clothes or a very relaxed cold-weather set.  Not to say that I'm not enjoying following their example, but (to quote a friend of mine from Taiwan) "as a foreigner, you are always on display.  How you present yourself and your behavior is always on display."

4.  Cook at home more.  I need to be a little more adventurous with my cooking and sometimes it's hard to know here what is healthy and what's not.  So I'm going to try and cook more to learn how to cook with limited access to ingredients.  Or even better, learn to cook with a new set of ingredients.

5.  Be happier.  This past few months (mostly spurned by the holidays I'm sure) have left me pretty depressed at times.  I've been going through quite the emotional roller coaster some days as some can attest to.  But I need to remember who I am, and I'm not one of those people who is "not happy." Sure I have my down days like everyone, but I think I've let myself have too much of a pity party these past few weeks and it's time to make the best of things.

Side note: I think everyone should experience not celebrating Christmas in the States at least once. Or not with their family.  I know that sounds depressing, but it made me appreciate Christmas so much more.  The atmosphere, the traditions, being with my family to celebrate... I really didn't know how much I loved Christmas until I was on the other side of the world.

2013-11-19

We are not so different, you and me

Wedding! I got to go to a Taiwanese wedding thanks to the generosity of my coordinator here in Taizhong.  One of her elementary school friends got married, and she invited me and another ETA to go to the wedding.  Since weddings in Taiwan are not necessarily based on religious practices, they typically have a small "wedding" where they dress up with close family and friends and go sign their official government paperwork.  Then they have a "reception" of sorts later on (not necessarily that day... the reception we attended was 3 weeks after they were officially married).  The reception is more like a presentation of the couple to everyone they invited. 


In Taiwan, it's customary to get really elaborate, fancy photos done of you as a couple before the wedding (there are stores for this EVERYWHERE).  We're talking several meetings before the actual photo shoot and it is just that... a photo shoot. With elaborate dresses/costumes, sometimes destination sets, and really amazing quality photography.  It's not pictures you have taken before/after the ceremony or before the reception... these are done before you get married.  And that way they can all be on display at your reception wedding. But wedding photos in Taiwan are the best opportunity to wear the most ridiculous, poofy, and elaborate dresses that almost every young girl has fantasized about since childhood. They even do the same thing in a non-wedding manner and call them "glamor shots".... hmmm.... this might be in my future.... (see some examples in below pictures in the background).



It's also customary for the bride to change dresses 3 times at the wedding.  Her dresses were beautiful although one of them reminded me of a prom dress.  All of them were Western style dresses, the first being a ball gown style wedding dress (see in pictures below). 



But the wedding/reception itself... it was family style sit down? Is that even a style? In typical Asian style they brought the dishes to our big round table (there were many round tables that everyone was assigned a seat at) and we all shared from the dishes at our table.  There were lots of "what is that?" type dishes, but the dessert was good :D (there was no wedding cake that I could tell...)

It was very much a Disney show for a wedding than what westerners think of as a wedding reception (with dancing and cake cutting ceremony, etc).  There was a movie of their marriage ceremony and their love for each other, a light show before the food was brought out, dry ice smoking for when the bridal party came out (and the food too for that matter... Taiwanese love their food), really epic music that we might play in an action/dramatic scene of a movie (maybe not so much a wedding), and even a platform that came from the ceiling bringing out the bride when she presented her second dress.  The bride was the princess who everyone wanted a photo with and who gave out small favors to the children.... and adults for that matter....



Another Taiwanese custom... the bride and groom do not eat at their own wedding reception.  They go around to EVERY table and thank everyone for coming and do toasts.  And then take more pictures with guests.  According to my coordinator, the wedding we attended was quite elaborate and expensive for a typical wedding, so I'm curious to hear stories from any other weddings that my fellow ETAs go to. 

Thoughts on teaching continued....
These kids are doing what my friends and I did in elementary school as kids. It's kinda freaky actually. I first noticed it when the boys started doing the thing where they put their hands under their armpit and pumped their arm so it makes a farting/popping sound. My co-teacher was weirded out and even more surprised when I told her that boys my age did that back in the day. Yes, I feel I can now officially use "back in the day."

The next happened the other day when a girl called me over to show me something. She then proceeded to do that "heart beat?" thing where you connect your sleeves together in the front, bring one arm inside the main body of your sweatshirt, and proceed to pump your fist up through your shirt through the circle that your sleeves make with your body. I was stunned. I hadn't taught her that, so it blew me away that something I used to do 10+ years ago is still around, and in Taiwan no less. 

Other quick observations.... The 6th graders want to grow up too fast and be super hip/cool (see below).  Girls still team up against the boys... And win \^-^/. Kids still like to hide from other kids so they can't find them and then jump out and scare them (this happened with kids trying to scare me and girls wanting to scare the boys). And food is still the easiest way to take a lesson from ok to fabulous. 


2013-11-05

Happy Halloween!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Seeing as Halloween is not a holiday commonly celebrated in Asia, my school had me do a Halloween lesson with my students.  When lesson planning, I didn't want to just teach them grammar/vocab.  I wanted them to experience what an elementary student in America might in the process of celebrating Halloween.  However, it was a little unfeasible for me to get all the students to come to school in their costumes and for us all to have a big Halloween party in class.  And since it's not a major holiday in Taiwan, many of the kids might not know how Halloween works or what happens on Halloween (aka a candy truck arrives at your house).

I'm now going to share with you my Halloween lesson plan because I was quite proud of it (if you don't want to read it, skip to next paragraph)....
Opening: Watch the clip of the song "This is Halloween" from A Nightmare Before Christmas (I thought this clip/song set the tone for Halloween really nicely being both a little spooky and a little silly... not to mention it had pretty much every "Halloween" related concept in the book).
Trick or Treat Skit! My co-teacher and I did a skit where I sneaked out the back classroom door and knocked on the front classroom door so the kids couldn't see me (I was also wearing Minnie Mouse ears with a pumpkin bag for candy).  She opened the door and I jumped out at them and yelled "Trick-or-Treat" (they got increasingly more surprised the younger they got).  I then got some candy from my co-teacher and "left" aka snuck back around to the back-door and scared/tried to scare them again.
Halloween Vocab: We talked a little bit about Trick-or-Treating and I let a few kids try trick-or-treating (and they got to keep their candy... as you can guess after the first brave volunteer soul went, EVERYBODY wanted to try). We also talked about dressing up in costumes, and using that, I introduced "Halloween vocab" using pictures of costumes of the vocab so they could see what it meant to dress up on Halloween.
Fun stuff: Then we did an activity to see how well they remembered the words (1st: Vocab freeze game... act like what I call out and the team that freezes when they hear "freeze" the best gets a point), 2nd Grade: Draw a line from vocab word to picture and color to your heart's desire.... 3rd Grade: Unscramble vocab word, draw a line from word to pic, and color to your heart's desire.... 4th Grade: Vocab crossword puzzle with LOTS of assistance from teachers.... 5th Grade: Vocab crossword puzzle with some teacher assistance) (side note: 6th grade did not get to do Halloween lesson because they had an extra lesson to get in before the big test so there was no time)
Then we did arts and crafts!
1st: Color a mask
2nd: Color a pumpkin face and put a stem on your pumpkin
3rd: Learn "Trick-or-Treat smell my feet" song (they were very excited to learn the "or I'll pull down your underwear" verse for the first time)
4th: Color Ghost face on piece of paper to make hanging gosts
5th: Make origami bats with fake gem-stone eyes (they could pick red or silver... some got creative and did one of each)
Origami Bats and Unique-Faced Pumpkins designed by 5th grade and 2nd grade respectively

Ghosts with faces designed by 4th Grade

The scariest pumpkin faces you've ever seen...

Looking back,  (I won't lie) it caused me a lot of stress to put these classes together and I constantly was overwhelmed with all that I had to finish prepping.  I had approximately 60 orange circles to cut out, 70 black squares to cut out, 3 worksheets to design, 15 ghost tubes to attack toilet paper to, 60 ghost tubes to attack string to, 2 sets of power-points to make, and 90 masks to cut out the eyes from and actually cut out.... and assemble string to so they could wear them.  But it was so worth it.

I LOVE these kids. I never thought I would love a job this much.  Truly, every hour I spent prepping for the classes was worth it.  The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, some got really into it, and I think it was great for them to have a break from the textbook stuff.  And of course, they all loved the fact that you just say "trick-or-treat" and you get candy on Halloween.  Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and it was really sad for me not to be in the States to celebrate it this year. And like I said, I wanted these kids to have a day like a student would in America, or at least as close as they could get.  Honestly, maybe I did go a bit overboard, but I had an epiphany as to why it was so important for me to do it.....
Handing out candy after hearing the magic words of "Trick-or-Treat"... (I was an Angry Bird for Halloween!)

Scared Face (or at least we were trying...)


Teacher Angry Bird posing with student, student's Angry Bird pencil case, and (on the right) one of the cutest 1st Graders

"Angry Face" with 2nd graders... Alan (to my right) is a champ

It's all because of you Mom and Dad.  Thank you for giving me the best childhood a kid could ask for.  I never wanted for anything and every holiday was something I started counting down to at least 2 months in advance.  I remember doing so many crafts at school and having them be apart of our family decorations for years (some even still are).  At school, we had so many beautiful parties that my mom helped to put together full of games and WAY more sugar than should be allowed in one elementary school classroom.  Thank you mom for busting your butt to make sure I had a stellar costume and I was all bundled up underneath before going out trick-or-treating.  Thank you dad for taking me to every single house I could go to in the space of 2 hours or so and pulling the wagon up and down the hills for when my Halloween bucket got too heavy to carry and needed to be emptied.  And thank you both for making me throw away at least half my candy every year.  These kids should be thanking you because I know what drove me to go as far as I could for these kids were the amazing memories I had of my Halloween days (and holidays in general) from all that you did for me.  So even if they don't look back at this memory as "oh I love Halloween because we get to do blah blah blah," I hope they look back and at least look at it as a beautiful, fun memory from English class or school in general. 

So in case I forgot to tell you once I matured a bit.... Thank you for all the amazing Halloweens over the years.  I'm doing my best to pay it forward.  I love you guys!

2013-10-22

Traditional Chinese Medicine

So it's been a while since I've posted, but I wanted a good topic to talk about that didn't just consist of a play by play of my travels in Taiwan.  And today I found it.... traditional Chinese medicine.

Continuing the saga of Taiwan and I's stand off in terms of medical issues... I busted up my right middle and ring fingers on Friday night playing basketball with some of my male co-workers (2 v 2).  My team won though so it's all ok (and I scored half my team's points).  Originally I thought I just jammed them and continued to play the game, however afterwards I realized my fingers hurt more than they should... like a lot more.  The nurse at the school thought they were broken, but other people weren't so sure since I could still bend them a little and move them around. So I decided to wait until the next day to see if my fingers showed any improvement before rushing off to the hospital for x-rays.  I did learn how to eat with chopsticks left-handed that Friday night which was a cool skill to learn.  My fingers slowly improved (meaning they weren't broken thank goodness).  But when I tried to make a fist, my two fingers didn't come down the way they used to.  If anyone is familiar with chiropractic care (which I am a huge supporter of), I felt like my fingers were "out of adjustment" (not dislocated, but not set quite right either).  But where do you find a chiropractor in Taiwan/Asia??? Do they even have chiropractic care here? The answer my friends is yes... and it is called Chinese traditional medicine!

After asking my coordinator Iris if she knew of a chiropractor or a place where I could get my fingers examined because they felt stiff, she recommended going to a Chinese traditional medicine place because they could "pop" my fingers there if need be.  So off we scootered down the street to the traditional medicine CLINIC.  Not "tiny little store on a side street with glass jars full of herbs everywhere run by a really old Chinese man/woman." Clinic.  With a receptionist and "nurse" in full scrub garb and a doctor in a white lab coat.  They even took the national health insurance (ya for alternative medicine taking health insurance!!!). The doctor then proceeded to examine my fingers, wrist, and elbow followed by a series of twists, pulls, and pops.  And my fingers felt infinitely better! But they still weren't quite there.... Chinese medicine doctor: no problem! *pull**pop* How's that?... And I could naturally make a fist again. Granted, my fingers still hurt and are still a little stiff (we'll see how they are after a week post-injury), but this was an incredibly positive experience for my first encounter with traditional medicine.  Afterwards, a nice nurse wrapped some herbal medicine on some gauze pads around my two fingers which then proceeded to feel like icy-hot as well as create cloud of minty-freshness surrounding me for the rest of the day.  Completely made from various natural ingredients. 

In other updates...

Sun Moon Lake
My fellow Taichung ETAs and I visited the famous Sun Moon Lake, which lives up to its reputation as beautiful scenery... however said beautiful scenery has created a tourist town around it as well that is less than ideal.  But you take what you can get.


Look at that fog (Sun Moon Lake)



10/10 Party!
Taiwan's national holiday (October 10... aka 10/10) was last week, and we got to go to the big party with the president, ambassadors, and all sorts of other people that I would never have the courage to approach.  It was also not a very good networking type place, but I definitely got to see what these sorts of people look like in person.  They had TONS of food there representing all types of famous and traditional Taiwanese food.  They had stuff you can commonly find in restaurants anywhere (except this was the most delicious version I have ever tasted), aboriginal food and liquor, and even some western style food (the brie, grape, leafy green thing, and walnut horderve was particularly popular amongst the Fulbright program.... and yes I had to look up how to spell horderve sadly enough). They had lots of cultural presentations from Taiwan and various countries who are Taiwan's political allies.  And did I mention all the free food?


Henna

This past weekend (and this coming weekend too for that matter) was the Taichung Jazz Music Festival and it was awesome. Honestly it was more like a shopping and food festival with jazz music in the background for atmosphere... and if you wanted you could eat your food on the lawn watching some jazz players play.  But besides the shopping and eating, me and my fellow ETA got henna done! It'll be gone in a week or so, but it's fun while it lasts. 

Newest updates on Amanda personally: inspired by my awesome looking students at a dinner I attended Friday night (with my damaged fingers), I will now be joining them on Monday afternoons for their Taiko class.  I will be learning Taiko people!
And I got my ears double pierced :)

Coolest Taiko Group is at JiFeng Elementary School

2013-10-01

Taiwan's Medical System

In case you didn't already know, I had a cough that was persisting over an approximately 3 week period.  Although it was slowly getting better, I had never experienced anything like this before especially since the rest of my body felt like a champ.  Then when my throat randomly got sore, I decided I wanted answers.  So far I had been to the doctor's office twice, and each time they said "You have a cold. Take these pills, and you will get better." Well I took the darned pills, but I didn't get better. So this time, I was gonna go to the hospital.  There they would for sure do a swab test of my throat, maybe take me in for some scans of my chest, or something more than just do a visual observation, right??? Wrong.  The ENT took a more thorough visual observation of my throat and said, "I see nothing wrong with you. You look fine. You just have a cold." ---- I almost cried right there.  When I've had a cold, I have never had a cough that would just not stop nor did I have a sore throat where it felt like knives were stabbing my throat when I swallowed.  And I think he saw how upset I was because then he said he would take another look.  And he looked again and came back with the same answer.  Was it too much to ask to have them stick a q-tip down my throat to swab for a bacteria culture test? However, instead of giving the same pill regimen that I had been working with (general anti-cold stuff), he gave me anti-cough medicine and gave me specific instructions to not talk so much (aka not talk as much during teaching for a while).  So in a nutshell, it felt like a waste of time.

However, after about 5 days of being on the anti-cough meds, my sore throat went away. And now that I'm off the anti-cough meds, I am no longer coughing. So in the end, I suppose the doctor knew what he was doing.  But I came out of this experience with a couple thoughts.... 1- when we first came to Taiwan, we were so excited about taking advantage of the cheap medical system here. I have since found that, in most common sickness cases, their cheap medical system is very helpful and reassuring, especially for those people who don't have a lot of money.  But if you get a more complicated sickness or one that is inexplicable and you are not worsening/on the brink of death, they aren't going to go out of their way to find out what is wrong with you.  They will continue to push you the standard diagnosis (you have a cold) and some standard medication. Although America's healthcare system is overpriced, as long as you have the money, they will do what is in their power to find you a medical answer until you're satisfied. So both Taiwan's and America's medical systems have their pros and cons.  For those of you who say poo-poo to "government medicine," it feels amazing to only have to pay $0.20 for 7 sets of pills.  For those of you who say poo-poo to America's medical system, one way or another they will get to the bottom of your sickness if it continues to persist or not follow the standard symptoms. 

The finale of an epic hike in Yilan
In terms of travel and teaching.... I visited Yilan and did some amazing hiking (on possible the most intense hike I've ever done).  We were climbing up ladders, hiking up steep hills with ropes, climbing over rocks, wading up rivers, and all sorts of stuff.  Something new I learned... there are leaches in Taiwan. I had never thought "there aren't any here," but it was something I had never thought about before.  About 5 minutes into the hike, I look down, and sure enough... there is a leach on my foot. Luckily I was able to spot it and brush it off before it attached to me.  My friend on the hike was not so lucky.  On the train ride home we spot this HUGE leach crawling around on the ground beneath us (*cue the "gross!" and quick moving of bags to different seats on the train*).  We had no idea where it came from until we got home and he found a bloody part on his foot under his sandal strap. 




ETAs + Waterfall (credit to fellow ETA's awesome camera/running-to-get-into-the-picture skills)


Why yes, we commonly meditate before class :D
Teaching! If you would like to see some pictures and videos of me teaching a bunch of 2nd graders, head over to my Facebook profile page.  I would upload them here, but they are not my pictures/videos.  Teaching is still going well, and I have discovered that 99.99% of the children here LOVE and/or watch Adventure Time (dubbed in Chinese of course).  I foresee many grammar lessons involving Adventure Time in the future....

Main office where my desk is
Being silly

























Side of Jifeng Elementary School's building
Lotus pond in front of my school

2013-09-16

Are words really important?

What does it mean to communicate with another person? This is something that I've been wondering about lately as I've been getting into the swing of teaching. A major part of learning a language is to use that language for communication purposes, and as a language teacher I'm beginning to feel my responsibility for making sure these kids can use the English that they learn to communicate effectively.

So what goals do I set for the end of the year for my 小朋友們 that will constitute communicating effectively? How do you define communicating effectively? When I first arrived in Taiwan, my Chinese was rusty, and I was incredibly unfamiliar with the traditional characters having always studied simplified characters. Even ordering food was a challenge those first few days. But through translator apps and various pointing/acting methods, I didn't starve and was able to order what I wanted. Sure, my language skills weren't stellar, but I was able to communicate what I wanted through more than just words. 

My latest example that has me pondering effective communication is..... Yep, you guessed it: the adorable students that I have the privilege of teaching.  My relationship with my students is an interesting one because, on average, the most I've ever said to them outside of class (aka not related to lessons) is "Hi!/Hello!" with some hand waving and smiles mixed in. Granted this has still been the first few weeks, and I'm slowly having more short conversations with them as my Chinese improves and they grow more comfortable around me (the fourth graders even put my hair in a ponytail for me this morning). But it comes down to this.... Even having had such little verbal communication with them, I'm amazed at how much I already know about them.  I know who struggles in English and who is so far advanced they are bored out of their minds.  I know who doesn't care much for English class or using their English to communicate with me, but our 5x daily ritual of "Hi!" and enthusiastic hand waving/high fives is something they will never miss.  I know which kids may not be doing exactly what you want them to do when you ask them to do it, but they will do it eventually in their own time if you leave them alone.  I know who to continuously check in with when working on workbooks because they need the reassurance that they are doing the assignment right. Overall I'm just truly amazed at how good of friends we have become (as good friends as tons of tiny students and their teacher can be), how happy we are to see each other, and how much fun we have together all with bare minimum verbal communication.
Classroom at school with a bunch of adorable Grade 3 students

Drawing from this experience, I think it's sometimes hard to forget how much body language and facial expression plays a role in communication when you live in a country where your first language is spoken everywhere.  Needless to say I will never underestimate the power of the mighty smile, wave, and high five ever again. 

One of the things that has stuck with me is something an administrator from my school said on day 1: "Our goal for having you here is not to make them into the best English speakers.  We want to the kids to experience interacting with a foreigner in addition to you teaching English."  As much as I hope by the end of the year they could be some of the best English speakers in Taichung, realistically I've set my goal to something I feel is much more realistic:  I hope by the time I leave my students will know how to respond when someone asks them their name, reciprocate the question, deal with the question "How are you?", know a little more about how different the world can be (in both appearance and culture), have the confidence to make friends/attempt to interact with someone who doesn't speak their language, and to learn how to use more than words to communicate.

Quick updates:

It's official- I am now a celebrity to Grade 4, Class 1.  I had my first small children mob experience with all of them demanding that I write both my English and Chinese names on whatever they could get their hands on.... paper, textbooks, and yes, their actual hands. 

This week on Thursday is 中秋節/Mid-Autumn Festival so we do not have school Thursday nor Friday.  But we only got Friday off because we all came in on Saturday and had those Friday classes on Saturday... yes you read that right... on Saturday. I had a 1 day weekend.... not fun.  But because of the festival I have had a continuous supply of 月餅/moon cakes and 柚子/pomelo fruit, all of which is delicious.  For my four days of a much deserved break I'll be visiting Taibei and Yilan.

In desperate pursuit of trying to find a way to connect with my 5-6 graders, I realized that I had a moral standing that I could not ask them to learn English vocabulary words if I did not even know them in Chinese.  So I have been making it a point to be able to fully translate their dialogues and vocabulary.  As a result, I came up with the idea that every time they have a vocab quiz/test, I will also take the same quiz/test (the students ask me the questions while I write my answers on the board).  This could have potentially been awesome or undermined my authority, but luckily.... they all loved it.  If anything, it brought us closer together as students and teacher because 1- it brought me down to their level that I am a language student too, 2- they were very impressed I could write Chinese (they knew I could speak a little, but I don't think they expected me to be able to write as well), and 3- they LOVED helping me when I forgot parts of the characters or wrote it wrong (seriously, it was kinda scary as to how much they loved correcting me).  But probably the coolest part of this experience for them came from their reaction when my co-teacher told them that they would be giving me a test.... "Wait... we're going to give Teacher a test?" It was like I had said I can breathe underwater.  I couldn't tell if they were more surprised that they were allowed to quiz a teacher or that I was going to be tested on writing Chinese.  Either way... it worked! And now every time they have a test/quiz, so will I.

Just as a final summary on how I'm doing.... I absolutely love living here.  Especially now that I've gotten into the swing of things.  I love my job, I love my apartment, I love my room mates, I love my friends, and I am so happy with my life here.  Granted, its all very tiring, but it's worth it.  My language skills aren't improving as fast as I had hoped, but if that's the only complaint I have, I'll take it. 
The insane amount of pills I had to take when I got sick (and this is just the "after dinner" round)

2013-09-04

Amanda Teacher

Have you ever had a whole crowd turn and look at you almost simultaneously? Well I can check that one off my bucket list.  Being the "new beautiful blonde foreign teacher" (yes, that was how I was introduced to the school at the welcome-back-to-school assembly) at an elementary school, I have probably been stared at more times in the past 3 days than in my entire life.  That is definitely true if you include this past month.  However, I have never waved at so many smiling faces as in the past 3 days either.  Sometimes the kids would willing start smiling and waving their hands a potentially wrist snapping pace. Sometimes the kids would just stare with a blank look on their face.  But once I waved and smiled they would join the children from the previous category.  And of course there were some that just kept staring and walked away (awkward).

*Cute story time*
First graders.... so adorable. Today was my first day with the first graders (<- no pun intended).  Occasionally one would come up to me and ask, "你是外師嗎?/Are you the foreign teacher?" or something to that effect. I would respond "是/Yes," and their face would light up like a Christmas tree. For what reason, I have no idea. Maybe it was because they got to speak to the new foreign teacher, maybe it was because I could speak Chinese. You could definitely see the looks of relief on many faces when I was able to ask them in Chinese if they had an English name.  If they already had an English name, they knew how to respond to "What's your name?"  If not, they would just stare, and their face would start to fall until I said in Chinese, "你有英文名字嗎?/ Do you have an English name?" at which point they would confidently answer with "沒有/No." At the end, some just skipped right by me out the door, some purposely came to show me how pretty their new name tag was with their English name, and some came just to whisper "Bye!" before promptly running out the door in sheer terror at what they had just done.  And the best part? The first graders don't ask you too many questions.  So if I don't understand what they say, I can just smile and nod (maybe even throw in a high five), and they are perfectly happy.

Miss Emily..... I didn't learn her name until Day 2, but on Day 1 she walked by my classroom at least 5 times in one day.  Each time she waved from when she could see into the classroom/caught my eye all the way until she couldn't see me anymore (and windows run the full length of the classroom), and I'm pretty sure she doubled back once considering as soon as she disappeared she reappeared for another waving/smiling round. 

I have so far been asked why my eyes are blue. And many Taiwanese are shocked that my curly hair is natural. They can't believe it.  Most thought I permed my hair.  Nope, just add water here.

*Not so cute story*
I was the source of potentially over 50 dares on Day 1... say hi to the foreign teacher and run away giggling with your friends, don't even wait for her to respond. The first couple were funny since I knew I was the shiny new toy so to speak, but I was losing tolerance after #25.  Luckily, they have now switched to "hello teacher" or "老師好."

Teaching so far
I haven't done much teaching so far, only a self introduction. And that went well. I had some funny pictures that the students (aka 小朋友/little friends) loved. I have played some games in certain classes, and so far so good. I'm holding my breath for when we move beyond Day 1 school which could be a whole different ballgame.  *crosses fingers*

Apartment move in!
I am now in my new apartment with my two awesome room mates (one boy and one girl). Two of us share a bathroom and the other gets their own. We live in a FANTASTIC location, and it couldn't be more convenient. So overall, I think I'm really gonna like living here.  Although I am getting eaten alive by 小黑蚊/little black mosquitoes (aka noseeums). But today my teachers shared with me their choice brand of bug spray... ideally the little mosquitoes don't stand a chance.


2013-08-23

The Good with the Bad

Lots of stuff to update on along with some final thoughts on best/worst things about Taiwan so far...

School Placements

As possibly the most significant event to occur since arriving in Taiwan, last week we visited/toured the schools that each of us would be teaching at this school year. On the tours we all agreed that there was not a single "bad" school in the bunch.  Each had something different to offer. What was really bizarre to me was that everyone really did seem to have a slightly different opinion on each school.  I mean, I know "we are all different," but you would think with a group that gets along as well as ours does that there would be more overlaps in opinions (although we do have quite a wide variety of interests in our group).  Granted, some people had similar #1 choices, but I was often surprised after coming out of a school thinking "meh" that another ETA was talking about how amazing it was. Or even the one I fell in love with, someone else wasn't as impressed with it as I was (that was ok because it meant less competition).  Each school really pulled out the stops for us. Most had a snack available for us (examples: fruit and cookies, sweet bean ice drink thing - this was actually really good, iced lattes, pudding and fruit, more lattes). And one had its faculty applaud as we walked up the front steps... yah, we were quite confused by this since we hadn't done anything yet.... other than walk up the front steps looking fabulous... so maybe that was it :D.

From there we were able to fill out a form listing our favorite schools, and then Monday we were given our school assignments. There were some surprises, but everyone was overall pleased with their placement.

Receiving my assignment with a representative from my school
Ladies and gentleman... I will be an English Teaching Assistant at 吉峰國小 (JiFeng Elementary School) for this coming school year.  Once the school year gets started, I'll be sure to talk a lot about more about it, but for now, check out a picture taken by another ETA here in Taichung.

Fun facts on Taiwan schools: The "relatively not well-off" elementary schools in Taiwan (that was where the Fulbright program requests that the Taichung government sends us) are almost as nice as the college I went to in the States.  In terms of technology and campus, many were unbelievable.  Not one was under 2 stories.  Each had an elaborate gate or entry way of some sort.  Essentially, all these public schools looked like older private schools in the States.  I'm not sure what this says about Taiwan vs American education systems, but I thought it was interesting. Also, many of these kids don't just go home or go to sports/dance practice after school.  They go to cram school.  If you've never heard of them, they are essentially an extra class.  Cram schools are generally their own agencies that parents pay extra to send their kids to to learn/study more in a specific subject.  Pros: kids learn a lot more about a specific subject and begin to excel in that subject.... Cons: kids tend to get ahead of the other "normal kids" in their cram school subject (especially in English) leading to a wide variety of levels in the classroom, kids don't get out of cram school until almost 8-9pm.

Buddhist Temple Visit

Head nun/monk

Very nice nun who spoke great English and has been to USA before
Main worship era
On Saturday our coordinator invited us to visit her temple as she is Buddhist.  Although I'm Christian (and a couple other people in the group are), I wanted to go for the cultural experience.  Her mother arranged for us to all go with some other people on a bus as it was up in the mountains.  Most of us had the image of a temple in the forest with monks wandering about, some in prayer, some conversing, etc.  The only thing this temple had in common with that was it was in the mountains surrounded by trees and there were monks.  This was actually a temple with only female monks, and I was shocked at first to see a more modern looking building as our destination. And lots of carnival colors. We were all a little taken aback at first, because these pavilion tents were nothing like we were expecting.  As it turned out, they were celebrating the birthday of the specific Buddha that this temple worships.  Thus, they had many extra shrines and stations set up for the occasion.... and it was looking like rain... hence the tents.  Not gonna lie, at first I was very uncomfortable because this was not a "just stand back and observe" type of set up.  Although the monks (or nuns if you would rather call them that... but they were nothing like any nuns I've ever seen) were very nice, they seemed a little over eager at first to get us involved in what everyone else was doing for my taste (not in a "I'm gonna convert you!" type of way, just wanting us to be able to participate).  Once I communicated that I did not want to do certain things and figured out how to continually maneuver myself to the back of the group (something that I don't typically do haha), I managed to have a nice time and just observe. The trip was actually a great spiritual adventure for me too.  Never having been so thoroughly exposed to another religion before, it gave me the chance to reflect on my own faith and  remember some of the teachings I often forget about. Overall, I came away much more solid in my faith.






Nuns make great zhong-zi (rice made with stuff wrapped in bamboo)
Symbolic bread made to look like a peach (peach=longevity)
Typhoons

"How sad. Taiwan is a tropical island, so unfortunately, there are no snow days so school/work can be canceled."
"That's ok! We have typhoons instead."
Complete lack of care that a typhoon is supposed to be coming soon by natives ^^

Today (this was originally written on Wednesday) actually is my first experience with typhoons.  Our ETA training was canceled last night, but when I woke up this morning I wasn't sure why.  Sure the ground was wet, but it was barely raining and there were plenty of cars and mopeds on the streets.  The sun even peaked out for a while. So far today has been a steady alteration between sprinkling and, in the best way to describe it, "fat rain." And maybe there was some wind thrown in.  My roomies and I went to the convenience store, went to a tea shop, and even went out for hot pot (although since the hot pot place is right next door, I'm not sure if that counts as an accomplishment).  Heck, the waffle lady's stand was open too (she's under an overhang, but it's not in a solid building). Taichung's geographical position on the island is such that it's known for its nice weather, and we were even told that it's often sheltered from typhoons.  But that didn't stop us from going out last night to get a couple packs of ramen, snacks, and water just in case.  Now, I think we might have over reacted slightly.  But overall I'm not complaining because today has been a nice, relaxing day filled with The Avengers, getting caught up on some cleaning, and delicious snack food.
*Side note* Thursday, the day after typhoon day, we almost weather almost as bad as (if not worse) than the actual typhoon day.

It's now time for.... the Best/"Worst" of Taiwan so far....

"Worst" (which is not actually that bad in the first place)
1. Sugar in Drinks
Posters from a gym here... I feel like these statements contradict.
Taiwan has a sweet tooth when it comes to their drinks that gives America a run for it's money.  Personally, I prefer lighter sweet tastes in general, but even some of the ETAs who have never really developed that preference (and are totally for sugar) are complaining that the sweet here is too sweet.  ESPECIALLY in the drinks.  At all the drink stands here you can completely customize your drink. You can adjust the sugar and ice levels to your satisfaction. The "full" sugar level is pretty much undrinkable. I usually go with the lowest sugar level of "無糖/no sugar" or "微糖/tiny (or 1/3) sugar"... and actually some stores' "tiny sugar" is too much.  Now the real fun comes when you buy bottled drinks (mainly juices and teas) because you can't customize the sugar levels (and it does not seem to be a requirement to put sugar quantities on the nutrition label... hmmm I wonder why... *sarcasm*). So it's kinda a game to try a new drink from the convenient store.... "how sweet is it gonna be? Drinkable not drinkable?" *person takes a sip* *insert face appropriate to either "way too sweet and is disgusting" or "not too sweet... will be buying this brand more often"*
2. Checking out at a store
The actually checking out process is fine.  But sometimes I'm a little slow at putting my change away, putting my receipt away, picking up my stuff, and heading out the door. However, if there's someone waiting behind me, as soon as the cashier is done handing me my my receipt and change, it is time to ring the next person up no matter how crowded the counter gets with 3 people and merchandise. 
3. No 3G
Sure I could turn on my 3G, but it would be so expensive (since I have a prepaid card and can't get a plan - 2 year minimum) that it's not worth it. However, one ETA switched the company he has his sim card with because apparently this other company has a deal to buy 1 GB of data for X amount (and X is cheap).  So depending on how I hold up in the next couple weeks, I may switch too.
4. Can't drink the tap water
But there are water dispensers with filtered water everywhere, so it's not a big issue.
5. Lack of public trash cans.
Needs no explanation.
6. A night market is right next to our hostel
The night market is filled with delicious, cheap snack foods (noodles, fruit, fried things) and desserts (such as waffles - ya waffles are desserts here) that are too easily accessible from my hostel (literally a 2 min walk). And when you're tired at the end of the day and don't wanna travel too far to go eat dinner, guess what is the default dinner place? And this is clearly not a healthy, slimming habit to get into.


Extra-delicious pizza... brick-oven cooked too
Pizza... delicious pizza



Best
1. A night market is right next to our hostel
All these delicious foods are close by. So when you want something fun and/or sweet to eat it couldn't be easier to get it :) Especially waffles at 10pm.
Soy tofu with ice covered in honey and sesame seeds...cheap and kinda healthy?
2. The tea shops
Sure I'm not a fan of the super sugar tea drinks, but Taiwan makes it really fun and easy to stay hydrated.  They have so many types of tea available.  There are fruit options, add milk for typical "bubble milk tea," add the tapioca pearls that make it "bubble," hot or cold, etc etc. I've never had such a variety of iced tea available in my life. There is at least one of these stores on every block and each one seems to be doing healthy business.  And the lids! That's just it, there are no lids. It's a plastic seal that they put over the top which is quite clever actually. Because it's sealed, if the cup tips while you're transporting it to where you want to drink it, it won't spill.  And to drink it, you just just puncture the seal with your pointed end straw.
3. You don't need a car to get everywhere
It's easy to access everything you need without a car.  Everything you could want in terms of food, shopping, entertainment, etc is easily accessible by walking or taking the bus (and the first 8km is free on the bus).  It's a lot like New York City in that respect I guess.  But coming from the suburbs where you have to drive everywhere, it's a much preferred change. And anything you could desperately need can be easily bought at your local 7-11.
4. 7-11/ Taiwan convenience stores
In Taiwan, 7-11 and other convenience stores are not the sketchy places of the underworld that we know them to be.  Here they are your local family spot for just about anything you need. Tons of drinks, tons of food, even clothes! Wanna buy the latest video game? Need to pay your bills? Does your bus card need more money? Wanna buy a train ticket? Go to 7-11. Seriously, you can have breakfast, lunch, and dinner there, and have no problems eating a variety of foods. You can buy vitamins too.  Pretty much, when in doubt of where to do something, just go to 7-11.
Food buffet with manga/dvds/video game rack behind it
So much delicious food, umbrellas, and my roommates.

5. Prices (especially for food)
Seriously, we can have a great quality meal, that's quite healthy too, for under $6 (yes, American dollars).
Only $3.33 people... only $3.33...

5. The people
The Taiwanese have been some of the nicest people I have ever met. Truly.  I have never met people more willing to go out of their way for strangers to help them or build relationships.  But most importantly, this ETA group along with our coordinator is amazing.  Everyone is really cool, nice, wanting to go on adventures, and willing to help everyone out. Seriously, when we go places as a group, people don't pair off into regular groups.  It's a constant shift of who you are talking to and spending time with.  Yet we are all different.  So I'm very excited to learn a ton from these amazing people and hopefully have 11 close, lifelong friends by the end of this year-long adventure.
Local boy who started hanging out with us. Speaks great English. And he did a fantastic job on my nails \^-^/