37 students. 1 mountain.

This past Tuesday, my entire school took a field trip. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th grades went to the Traditional Arts Center and the 5th grade went hiking. Since I had already been to the Center, I chose to go hiking with the 5th grade. When I asked how long we'd be hiking, I was told "half the day." Now, having heard my housemate's story of how "half a day" quite literally meant half of a 24 hour period, I really didn't know what to expect. In addition, I wasn't quite sure how we were going to get 37 5th graders to climb a mountain for an extended period of time.

My 5th graders

Starting off.

Turtle Island. My students were amazed that I climbed it. Goal: impress 11 year olds? Check.

After collecting our lunches (sushi? Would a school in the US ever give their students sushi for lunch on a field trip? I left my home-packed PB&J in my scooter), we took a 45-minute bus ride to the trail. We would be hiking the Caoling Historic trail, which was the only route connecting Taipei and Ilan to the eastern part of the country during the Qing Dynasty. It was constructed in 1807, and back then, it would take 3 months to walk from Ilan to Taipei, due to the condition of the path, but now the walkable part of the trail only takes 3-4 hours to complete. Phew. I was slightly relieved that we wouldn't have to be dragging 5th graders for 12 hours.

At the bottom of the mountain is a beautiful temple and a museum (unfortunately all in Chinese- but my students attempted to translate for me) depicting the changes in the land. Along the path there are a number of relics from the Qing Dynasty. One is a giant carving on the word "tiger." Allegedly, when travelers were on the path, the wind was incredibly strong and they feared for their lives. They carved the "tiger" character into the stone and the wind stopped and they were able to carry on.

You can't really tell from this pictures, but this picture was 3-D. These were all over the temple.

The tiger stone.

Another inscription is a thank you to the individuals who lived around the mountain for "allowing" the path to be built. I'm not sure they had much of a choice...

Giving some perspective as to how large the stone actually was.

All in all, it was a successful day. With the exception of one sprained wrist (which I didn't know occurred until 2 days later) and one boy lost for 10 minutes (apparently he missed the memo that we were leaving the area). The students found out that they could purchase hermit crabs at the bottom of the mountain for $10NT, so they loaded up. Not sure how parents would react to their children coming home with 8 hermit crabs.

Where we stopped for lunch.

A snake we saw on the way down. The girls screamed, the boys threw rocks at it. Children are the same all over the world, huh?

Other amusing anecdotes: I found out that two of my students were "in love" and had kissed during the field trip. Despite not wanting to get caught up in 5th grade drama, I was slightly taken aback that they would tell a "teacher" about the incident. I suppose I'm not really a teacher in their eyes... considering, also, that they're trying to set me up with the soldier (who acts as more of a security guard) at school... who is at least 18 but looks like he could be 15. While I'm unsure of this "non-teacher" position, I'm attempting to view the relationship as more of an older friend who can encourage them that English is useful, instead of something they have to learn. I've never taught kids this old for such an extended period of time, so I'm still getting used to it. I enjoy the challenge, but I have to admit that it's difficult for me.

Me and Steven.

On a completely different note:

Today is a beautiful day, and while I'm inside (attempting) Chinese homework, the weather is really incredible. I decided to take pictures of my room. Not extremely exciting, but at least you can see where I... sleep?

Ahem. Please excuse the dirty laundry.