And so begins the real work: getting to know our LET (Local English Teachers)- figuring out who we want to be working with for the next 10 months, getting to know teaching styles, lesson planning, personalities. Personality is definitely the major thing- I'd be happy in any of the counties, which is nice. I'd much rather be working with someone because I think his or her personality is compatible with mine than based on where the school is located.

I've never done lesson planning like this. It seems fairly abstract, just creating a plan for a class without knowing the background of how much the students know, what kind of a school it is, how old the students are. It's much less structured in that regard than I'm used to. We don't have to list the standards and the objectives. The focus more is on presentation and whether it conveys the information you want it to. Lesson planning is not new to me, but having to repeat things so many times, and using as few words as possible (and as much body language as possible) to convey directions is hard. I'm used to giving directions to students who understand (at least most of) the words. Practice makes perfect, though. Today I felt my lesson plan was much more solid than it was yesterday. Today I taught prepositions.

After sharing our lessons in the morning, the ETAs (English Teaching Assistants) went and visited two schools in Nan-Ao, a county that is about an hour and a half on the bus from Ilan, but only 15 minutes by train, and only a half an hour by train from Luodong.
















Basically the entire trip consisted of winding roads up and down steep, lush mountains. Every now and then you could see the coast. The view was absolutely incredible.

The two schools that are out in Nan-Ao have a primarily Aboriginal student population. They are VERY small schools, with a staff of 10-15, and 100-130 students. They both go from K-6, and the ETA that is placed out there would teach in one school 2 days, and the other school 3 days. One of the schools has 3 requirements for the students to graduate: they must partake in the Aboriginal dance group, they must learn judo, and they must participate in the brass band which is being formed this year.

The town's population is 3,000. It'd be like living in a Vassar-sized town. But because the community is so small, apparently you are known very well and everyone watches out for you- you're invited to families' houses and to celebrations. The music and dance programs in the school really appeal to me, but I'm not sure if I could be that isolated from the rest of the group in Ilan and Luodong. More importantly, there is even less English in the Aboriginal village than there is in Ilan and Luodong- I suppose that would give me motivation to learn Chinese faster, but I'm sure it would also be hard. However, thinking about it, I'm not sure when you'd get another opportunity like it. At every school, they gave us food, and then we went to this ice place, which is shaved ice flavored with different things. I had lemon (they have no yellow lemons here, only green!) and passion fruit. It took me a minute, but I realized that it tasted just like water ice. I feel like I'll be frequenting the ice place regularly. These pictures are the views surrounding the schools.

When we got back to Luodong, all 12 of us, plus the staff went to dinner at a hot pot place near our house. Hot pot is great because you can chose what you want to eat- most of them are buffet style, with a set price for an all-you-can-eat. You pick your food, it's raw, and you cook it in a personal pot filled with broth or water. It's definitely a skill, and the first time I did it, things ended up very water logged and slightly mushy. This time was better. After hot pot, we had a scavenger hunt in the Luodong night market, which personally, I prefer to the Ilan night market.

















(Getting our scavenger hunt teams)

The other night marked the beginning of Ghost month (this is the 2nd day of July, according to the lunar new year). Supposedly, the beginning of Ghost month is marked by the opening of the gates of hell, and all "hungry ghosts" come out to haunt people. However, the ghosts are not talked about because it attracts some of the angrier spirits. To show respect to the ghosts and to keep them happy, people pray, burn incense, and burn money in offering daily, though only three days are mandatory for the money burning: the beginning, middle and end of the month. Not all ghosts are bad, but the ones that are good are called different names.

There were HUGE tables set up in the night market FILLED with food and incense for the spirits. There was a huge skinned pig at one end, and people were burning money everywhere. There were also performances and fireworks. I'm going back to the night market later this week, so expect photos...