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 \^-^/