Finally Some Firecrackers!

It was Chinese New Year last weekend and every night since then fireworks have been going off.  I didn't get in on any of the action because I didn't see any fireworks for sale ever, but some friends and I had been talking about getting some and then this Saturday night it finally all came together because Tyler knew where the firework stands were and I found out that he and Sarah hadn't set any off before!  As an enthusiastic pyromaniac, I couldn't just find out that information and not take any action, so Emily and I set off to purchase some fireworks.

So we got to the fireworks stand and began to inquire to the saleslady after the prices.  She also recommended a few as we were picking up pretty much everything there and inspecting it.  We had only been looking about a minute or two when a jolly, portly, slightly intoxicated, middle-aged man came up from somewhere within the store and began miming what each of the fireworks did as we picked them up.  We would kind of nod and smile and at one point the clerk told him that we already knew what they were.  I assumed that he was her husband or at least had some affiliation with the store and he eventually stopped miming and took out a cigarette and lit it (right over the table of fireworks) and then casually started flicking his lighter on and off.  Although he was holding it a foot or two above the fireworks, I couldn't help but think it wasn't a great idea.  He also would randomly burst into song, joining in with the music that was coming from somewhere in the back of the store.

For some reason I asked them what their favorite fireworks were and the store clerk said something like "they're all good" but this man picked up this massive snowman one and tried to make me buy it.  He also wanted us to buy matches but we didn't need any, but then with a benign smile, he gave me his own lighter that he had been fiddling around with.  Eventually Emily and I were satisfied with our selection and decided to make our purchase so we paid her and the clerk bagged them up for us and this man started grabbing handfuls of those butterfly fireworks and tried to put them in our bag telling us that they were a gift. The clerk however, kept taking them out of the bag and pulling it away from him saying that she had already given us a discount.  At this point I still thought the man worked there and I thought to myself "ah, we can see who is the business minded one here."  When the clerk turned around to get us our change, the man sidled up to me and discreetly handed me a giant stick of punk, which I took and discreetly put it into my bag.  Please remember that I thought he worked at the store and wouldn't rest until he had given us something.  The last part of that is probably true too: he was very persistent!  Well, we turned to leave and he started offering me a ride home on his scooter which I declined and Emily and I had only walked a little ways before who should pull up on his motorcycle but that man! Again, asking if we'd like a ride, but this time throwing in in English "only one! Only one!" (since he apparently couldn't fit more than one of us on his scooter.  I am fairly confident that in his state he should not have been driving at all, let alone with a passenger! Anyway, we declined again and he drove off somewhere and right about then it hit me that he probably did not work at that stand...so I guess I just kind of stole the punk...oops.

Anyway, the fireworks were super fun and the clerk's recommendations proved to be solid so we went back later that evening to get more to light off (that man was no where to be found, but I think the clerk's actual husband was).  And for those of you who are wondering Roman candles get you the most bang for your buck.

Christmas Weekend

So the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas were rather exciting days...well, they were different from my typical weekend anyway.  Saturday was a workday in exchange for getting Monday, December 31st off, but my school decided not to make it like a regular Monday and had a school wide talent show all morning, which was fun for the first hour or two.  But after nearly 4 hours and watching Gangnam Style get danced to 3 different times, I was ready for it to be over...There were a lot of really cute performances though and some were just funny, so I'm definitely not complaining about having a talent show instead of classes!

On Sunday my other school had Sports Day.  I guess December 25th is their school's birthday so they had a big event that Sunday morning to celebrate.  It was super cold that day and raining at first, so I was quite thankful for the complimentary matching pink vests all the teachers had to wear that day.  I was grateful for every layer I could fit on.  The day started off with a couple of speeches.  Somehow I found myself sitting on the stage with all the important people, and even though I had been told to sit there, I spent most of the day walking around getting closer to the action.  After the speeches, there were several performances.  First there was a recorder choir and then there was a special lion dance that they've done at at temple before too although I'm not really sure what the significance is.

Besides the four lions (each one had two kids under it) there were two kids with massive head/masks who waved green leaves around

At the end this bigger lion came out and held a banner

The recorder choir was made up of fourth, fifth and sixth graders

After that the students also all did dances that they've been working on for a while.  Below are some clips of them.  The first one was a kind of warm up dance type thing that all the students did.  The person leading them is our principal.  Then there is the fifth and sixth grade dance, the first and second grade dance and a really short clip of the third and fourth grade dance.

Then there were some performances by two groups of middle aged women (actually the second group had some men too).  They mostly danced to Chinese music but I nearly lost it when they started dancing to "Achy Breaky Heart".  It just seemed so out of context.  After that amusing interlude, I spend the rest of the day watching the kids compete in goofy little contests.  Although some of them were really cute because there were so many parents and grandparents there that about half the activities included them and it was just really nice to see the kids and parents and grandparents all working together and having fun.

This group also did a dance with fans

This is the whole school standing with their grade 

Some fourth and fifth graders dancing (the one in the front is the same jump roper in the photo at the end)

Sixth and fifth grade

Third and fourth grade

The fifth grade contest involved a relay of putting tennis balls on the frisbees and then picking them up again...it was much more exciting than it sounds

The sixth graders had to race around while only stand on those foam squares

The third and fourth graders competed in a jump rope race relay.  This little guy couldn't jump rope at all (you can see everyone else had finished by this point).  He even lost his shoe during it but he never stopped smiling

After Sports Day was over, I hopped on my scooter and drove to the orphanage to see what they were up to for Christmas.  That was what really got me in the Christmas spirit I think because all the kids (well, not just the kids) had so much excited energy there and it was contagious! There was a massive gift exchange and they had even gotten me a gift! It was so sweet of them! All in all it was a wonderful day!

Oh, there's no place like home for the holidays!!

Well, Christmas has come and gone...but in a small way I sort of feel like I'm still waiting for it.  This year was definitely different, which is no surprise of course.  First of all, being in a totally different climate this year didn't prepare me as the bitter cold and snow of Minnesota usually do, by making me realize it's winter and that Christmas will be coming.  Then of course, there weren't finals (not that I can say I missed those!).  But I've sort of gotten used to those as being the last thing to conquer before I can really delve into Christmas festivities completely.  And finally, here in Taiwan we had no Christmas break and in fact, I also had to work on the weekend before Christmas (more on what those days involved later), so I joked about the 12 Days of Work instead of the 12 Days of Christmas...which doesn't actually sound funny now, but for some reason I found it amusing at the time.  Anyway, despite all that, I would still consider it a really great Christmas! And the title of this post isn't trying to be ironic or something, it's just stating a fact.  There really is nothing like being with your family for Christmas! But I had the joy of being with my family via skype on Christmas Eve during our family celebration.  Besides the fact that I wasn't actually there to give everyone hugs...it pretty much felt like I was there (until I signed off and went to work...that was probably the low-point of the day).  But through skype we all took turns opening our gifts just like usual and I even had some to open due to a wonderful friend from college (thanks Amy!).  Then my dad read the Christmas story from the Bible (which we usually do before presents, but in the excitement of skyping we got things a little out of order).  Anyway, I was (and am) very thankful for technology because it really makes the distance seem much smaller!

Despite the fact that (and maybe because of it) Christmas isn't celebrated much here, I got to teach about it in school.  We even got to have class in a different classroom with a projector that day just for the occasion! We sang some songs and I gave a little presentation about Christmas traditions and then shared what my own family does.  Cutting down Christmas trees was a subject of fascination and one fourth grade class in particular asked tons of questions.  They wanted to know how much they cost and if you had to pay more for bigger trees and if you could just pay fee and then take as many trees as you'd like, and lots of other things...Then some of the classes got to play Pass the Parcel which is always a big hit.

Just talking about Christmas to one of the classes

Who will get to unwrap the parcel?! (Clearly that's what they're all wondering)
By the way, if you noticed the face mask on the little boy, that's totally a common sight.  People wear them whenever they have a cold or cough

The excitement of Pass the Parcel never ceases!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l3e-xe9iEg

Here is a link of the second graders at one of my schools doing a funny little dance to Jingle Bells.  They could sing it really well, but multi-tasking was a little difficult for them.  They actually practiced this for a couple lessons so  performing it and getting recorded was the reward.

And below is a video from one of my first grade classes on Christmas Day!  This was at my other school and the first graders are singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas (and also doing a funny little dance).  This was only a one day thing, but I think they did a pretty good job! In the video they are practicing because they went back and performed it for their homeroom teacher.

Are you an American? Or a foreigner?

I realized that I haven't said much about what I actually spend most of my time at, which is at school, so I figured I'd take this time to tell a few stories to prove that I actually work sometimes and tell a few things that have happened at school.

Earlier in the fall I was sitting in the office and some men came in with all these blankets.  Turns out they were traveling blanket salesmen.  I thought it seemed kind of random for them to show up at a school to peddle their wares, but no one else seemed to think so and they made a fair amount of business that day.  I guess they had come last year too and business was just as good then.

A few days after that, I walked into the office after teaching a class and what should I find but a grey parrot in a box.  Apparently it had escaped from its home and flew into a classroom so somehow someone had caught it and boxed it up and it was waiting for its owner to come retrieve it.  I was disappointed I had missed all the commotion of trying to catch it, not that I actually heard that there was any commotion, but I imagine that trying to catch a parrot is no easy task!

For Halloween, there were a bunch of school-wide activities in the afternoon and we were assisted by parent and grandparent volunteers.  At my beanbag toss station, I had the pleasure of working with these two precious grandpas.  I loved how good natured they were about wearing these random blue wigs just to get in the spirit of things.  Unfortunately, they only spoke Taiwanese, so our communication was rather limited, consisting mostly of smiles and some attempts at Chinese on both sides.

The first graders all think that I understand Chinese fluently.  The fact that after they rattle off all kinds of stories to me and I just kind of smile and say "oh?" hasn't seemed to change their opinion yet.  So the other day I was working with a group of them and one asked me out of the blue, "Teacher Charissa, ni shi mei guo ren, ha shi wai guo ren?" (are you an American or a foreigner?).  Everyone looked at me expectantly and were shocked when I told them I was both.  I didn't know how to explain it, so I just let them be amazed, as if it was something I had any control over.

Recently, before I was to begin reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to the same first grade class, the students asked if I'd be reading it in English.  Grace, my LET, jokingly asked if Taiwanese would be better and then someone shouted that they thought Japanese would be good! I have no idea why since no one in their class understands Japanese.  Also, immediately upon seeing the picture of Goldilocks in the book, a few students wondered whether that was me.  No kids, I'm not Goldilocks.

Then of course, there was the day Grace and I walked into our fourth grade class and after the usual whole class shouting in unison, "Good morning Miss Yang!  Good Morning Teacher Charissa!" a kid said that his pants ripped.  No one seemed too concerned as I replayed what he said in my head and decided that that was in fact what he had said, but then he proceeded to show us and the whole class that his pants had indeed split completely down the middle.  Thank goodness for long underwear!

We do a whole lot of singing (our Hello Darbie textbooks have a lot of songs.  A lot of songs) and of course I sing along with everyone, usually kind of loudly at the beginning so they can hear how the words are pronounced.  I decided to take it as a compliment (and believe me, it could go either way) when the fourth graders wondered if I was the person singing on the "Hello Darbie" CD.

Most recently, yesterday in fact, there was an old dog just hanging around the school all day.  He didn't really move all morning and the kids were being told not to pet him since no one knows where he came from.  In the afternoon apparently some of the fifth graders put him in a box and moved him to the orchestra classroom where their plan was for the orchestra to take care of him.  This morning when I got to school I found out that after the orchestra teacher said they couldn't keep the dog (no surprise there), the students moved the dog to the bathroom where he apparently spent the night and is still there this afternoon...I'm curious to see how this is going to turn out...

Well, those are some of the first little stories that came to mind to give you a glimpse into my typical day...if there is such a thing as a typical day.

Hetal's Visit!

Yes, that’s right.  My good friend and fellow ESL major from Northwestern visited me for a couple of days at the beginning of November when she was passing through Taipei on her way to teach in India.  It was so much fun to have her here and to show her around.  We also did plenty of exploring of some spots that were new to both of us.  I learned that I’m not the best tour guide there ever was, and if you want to know what the plan is…you will probably be disappointed because there probably isn’t one.

I met her at the Taipei train station (where the airport bus dropped her off, but that’s a whole other story in itself) at the bright an early hour of around 8 am on that Saturday morning.  After our joyful reunion we spent a significant amount of time roaming underground through the train station, bus station, MRT and an underground mall that was connected to it all, trying to find lockers for Hetal to store her luggage, find a place to get wireless internet, find some food and figure out what we were going to do that day.  We didn’t really pick a priority out of our list of things to do so we spent a significant amount of time running about not really getting anything accomplished and I even asked a local man who kindly tried to help us because he thought we were lost, “What do you think we should do today?”  He was very kind but not a whole lot of help in the matter.  Finally though we found the lockers, food, and internet and after a quick phone call to my friend Sarah to help us out with directions, we were on our way to ride a gondola up a mountain to where there were a lot of teahouses.

Well, we made it to the place to ride the gondola and promptly got our tickets and boarded our gondola.  Our fellow passengers in our car were an elderly couple from Hong Kong and their friend.  Somehow the wife ended up sitting between Hetal and me and they were all quite chatty.  I probably would have been more so if after about 10 minutes I hadn’t begun to feel so ill.  Not only was I going backwards, but it was also a pretty windy day so the car was swaying all over the place.  After about 10 more minutes we could finally get out as we had reached the final stop.  However at this point I still felt weak and faint and Hetal’s long hours of traveling and jetlag were catching up with her so after going about 30 steps up the mountain in search of a teahouse, we turned around with the idea that there had to be teahouses that we could get to by going downhill and we finally found a place that not only had oolong tea, but also waffles which is exactly what I was craving (but let’s be real, when am I not craving waffles?).  Anyway though, the view was absolutely breathtaking.  Then we headed back to the bus station and did a little shopping along the way, picked up Hetal’s bags (once we eventually found the lockers) and made our way back to Luodong.

The next day we decided to venture to Suao, a nearby town, and check out the habour and a beach which I had heard were pretty cool.  We decided to take the train to Suao and then take the city bus to the harbour.  The fact that I haven’t taken the city bus anywhere yet didn’t really seem to be important to the plan at the time.  The friendly conductor asked if we were going to Suao and the whole train ride was going quite well until we found out that Suao had two train stations and I didn’t know which one we wanted to get off at.  We hopped off at the first one to check the platform out to see if we could find any answers before the train took off again and sure enough as we scurried about the platform looking for who knows what, the conductor motioned for us to get back on the train so we frantically ran into the nearest car.  Apparently that first station isn’t really by anything much.  In our new car there was a couple and an older lady (traveling together, but I can’t remember the relationship between them) who struck up a conversation so we covered the basics about where we’re from, how long we’ve been here, what we're doing here…it turns out the wife went to one of the elementary schools that I teach at! They live in Taipei now but her mother lives in Suao and they were going to visit her.  Once we all got off the train, they asked what we were doing and I told them of our plans to take the bus to Nanfangao (the harbour) and they told me where the bus stop was (since I was completely clueless).  So Hetal and I thanked them and went towards the bus stop…but our hesitant steps must not have gone unnoticed because the older lady showed up behind us and ended up walking us all the way to the bus stop and told us when the bus we wanted came to raise our hand so it will stop.  They were so helpful and kind! 

The harbor was super cool.  There were just a lot of neat looking boats and people working on them.  There was also a fish market that this random old man told us we should buy fish from and he showed us his purchases and seemed pretty insistent, so we walked through the market to appease him, not that we were planning to buy any fish.  I had also heard that there was really pretty beach around there somewhere so we kept wandering about and then I saw a sign that I read, “Chinese-character-I-don’t-know-Chinese-character-I-don’t-know 20m”.  I pointed out that something cool must be 20m up that road because the sign looked interesting (as in, it was painted kind of cool, since I couldn’t actually read the words on it) so we ventured that way.  It turns out that the unknown characters and 20m were the name of a restaurant (which was significantly more than 20m away from the sign) but the restaurant also happened to be on the beautiful beach so it all worked out anyway.

One of the boats in the harbour

The way back into Suao we had to take the bus again and since I wasn’t 100% sure about anything I decided to ask the bus driver if it was the correct bus to get to the train station.  He gave it some thought, checked which station we wanted and then announced that it was! So we began the ride and as we neared our stop (it was the same route as how we got there so we knew we’d be the third stop again) I heard a voice from the front of the bus shout (in Chinese naturally), “Train station friends! We’re almost at your stop!”  Yes, that bus driver was certainly looking out for us.  I kind of wanted to duck down in my seat because every single other passenger was looking at us (how did they know we were the "train station friends"?) but instead we went up to the front of the bus and the driver began to give me directions on how to walk to the train station from the bus stop.  At the same time, the man in the front seat began to give Hetal directions as well.  But it’s a good thing I already knew because I’m not sure I would have understood the directions…plus the bus driver gave me two options of how to get there which generally just confuses me.

That night we did some shopping and eating at the Luodong Night Market, which is always a treat.  One thing I noticed about the time that Hetal was visiting was that I ended up speaking a whole lot more Chinese than I usually do.  Probably most of this was due to the fact that since we didn’t plan things out, I usually had to ask a lot of questions to figure out what was going on, but my Chinese got quite a workout!  Another thing I noticed (more than I already have) is how incredibly helpful people are!  We got so much assistance with people going out of their way to make sure we ended up in the right spot.  It was incredible.

This is how we got around

Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent at my school and then we went to see some local sights each day.  Monday we went to some waterfalls (where my camera completely broke and I haven’t even been able to get the pictures that were already on it off it yet…but I’m working on that.  So these pictures on here are courtesy of Hetal's facebook) and then she also got to meet most of the other ETAs and Tuesday we stuck around Luodong and ended the evening at the night market again and on Wednesday morning we went to the airport where she took off for India to continue her adventures and I made my way back to Yilan to continue mine! 

Us at the waterfall

Hetal, me, and Grace (my LET)

Us and one of my first grade classes-what adorable children I teach!!
(notice the two girls making a heart in the middle of the picture)

Tainan: The Continuing Story

Well, to continue where I left off...

The next morning I filled myself on taro buns (which I adore) at the hotel breakfast and then we piled back onto the bus to go to an elementary school that was big into energy efficiency, or something like that.  We had lunch there too and I found out that food in Tainan (by now I knew that we were in Tainan County for sure) is known for being sweet.  And sure enough, everything was sweet (and cold).  The vegetables, the meat, the other mixed dishes…it was alright, but I couldn’t really get into it.

This is a view of rice paddys from the school.  It was super beautiful.  I'm afraid the picture doesn't do it justice.

After that we toured The Magic School of Green Technology, which is a university.  I asked why it was called magic and they said it was just an adjective.  Well, I know that, but I wanted to know why that was picked over some other adjective, but I never did find out.

Anyway, then we went to a clothing factory that became really eco-friendly after they had had a fire a few years ago.  The ironic thing was that I smelled burning rubber the whole time we were there, but that could have been coming from any of the neighboring buildings I suppose.  It seemed to me that we were there a really long time.  Then I thought we were finally going to leave but we just went outside to walk around their “Happy Farm” which was a little farm on the company’s property.  I don’t really know who tends to it, but I do know that it was getting dark and I was famished. 

These bears were positioned around the company building and the smiling bear brought
me some joy at a very hungry low-point

We finally left and went to a restaurant and the first dish they brought out was fried rice, which was delicious.  After that the next several dishes were seafood and I didn’t have any but everyone started asking about if I was a vegetarian so I just said that I didn’t eat seafood, but after that every dish that came they’d be like, “Can she eat it?”  Well, I felt kind of bad so the next dish that came out I just went ahead and grabbed a piece of.  It looked rubbery so I figured it’d just be squid or something I could choke down.  Well, I couldn’t chew it at all because of it’s rubberyness and it tasted incredibly sour and just not a flavour I wanted in my mouth so I just swallowed the piece whole.  It didn’t really seem like the squid I’ve had before and I made the mistake of asking what it was.  “The inside of a pig.”  Oh…

Somehow I found myself putting on a huge smile and saying something like, “Oh! I’ve never tried this before! Mmmm.”  Then I promptly drank some tea and began to eat fish to get the taste out of my mouth (which just tells you how much I didn’t like the intestines!).

By the time we got to our new hotel in Tainan city it was too late to see any of the city, which was unfortunate because I’ve heard it’s a really cool place.  In fact, I know several people who say it’s their favourite city in Taiwan.  But I used the massage chair in the hotel gym and also found a bowl of bananas there, which I helped myself to.

This hotel had cereal at their breakfast so I was all over that on Saturday morning.  It was amazing.  Our only stops for that day were some kind of museum, which seemed to have everything in it.  There was a natural history part, and a part about inventions and history of that nature, a part with a bunch of old guns and tools, a part with lots of plants and grains, a part with information about aquatic animals and I think some other sections but I don’t remember what they were.  It was pretty interesting to look at, although I didn’t always know what I was looking at.

Next we went to see a water buffalo.  At least that’s what I thought.  Then they said it was the water buffalo’s house, but he had died this summer (it wasn’t the same water buffalo as the Togo village though, I checked).  Anyway, to me this place just looked like a little farm.  It was nice though.  Actually, it was my favourite place we visited on the trip because there were two swings hanging from a tree branch that I got to swing on!

Part of the farm

I was loving the swing

This is the old man who told us about everything.  Apparently the water buffalo lived in that little building right behind him (it looked really nice inside for a water buffalo though).  I believe this man lives on the farm

After this we just had to stop for lunch and then begin the long ride home.  They were saying there were two options for the soup and we had to pick right then so they knew what to order once we got to the restaurant.  I asked what the options were and they said, “fish ball…” and before I heard the rest I thought, “Oh I’ll get the other one” (I can’t get into fish ball soup, or actually fish ball anything, though I’ve tried) but then I heard the rest of the sentence: “…or blood soup.”  Well, fish ball it is.  But then I found out they were also getting some kind of rice thing too so I opted to just eat that and skip the soup entirely.  That was definitely a good decision.

The bus ride home was fairly uneventful.  It took about 5 hours or so and the last two and a half we had karaoke.  Some people were pretty into it and every now and then from the back of the bus I would hear, “Charissa! English song! English song!” Each time I just kind of gave a nervous chuckle because I didn’t know what else to do.  Picking out an English song to sing didn’t seem like a great option to me.  Then at a rest stop one of the teachers came up and said, “Charissa. We are the world.”  It took me a couple times to understand even what he was saying but then I realized he wanted me to sing We are the World.  Well, as fun as that would be, I knew I didn’t know the tune well enough to sing the whole thing even with the words, but after that I paid more attention to the songs coming up incase someone had just gone ahead and requested it for me.  I never did sing anything though, which was fine, because there was never really a lull during those 2.5 hours so I figured there was no reason to take their fun away by taking a turn myself.  So here's a video I tried to discretely take of the singing.  Pretty much all the singing was behind me so I didn't want to turn around to actually tape the singer, but I guess this way you can imagine exactly what the ride was like for me.  This particular song was in Taiwanese.

All in all, it was quite the trip.  I was glad to get back to Luodong for the rest of the weekend, but I think it was worth the trip.  Definitely an interesting experience.