FYI: I have fixed the commenting so now you are able to comment even if you don't have a blogger account. Just to let you know in case you want to leave a note. :)

(NOTE: This blog post was started a month ago, which was probably a good thing, since, if I sat down to write it all down now, I'd most likely forget parts of it. So, basically, while it appears that I've slacked tremendously when it comes to posting, I've really just slacked when it comes to pressing "publish post.")


Awhile ago, I went with my host family on a road trip. I was asked to accompany them to Nantou to visit their new baby nephew. After being told it was only a 3 hour car ride, I gladly agreed. After all, it's warmer in the south, and any place has to be less rainy than Yilan.

3 hours was actually 6 hours. In a car. With a 6-year-old. But the thrill of going on a road trip overshadowed the hours of playing "Pokemon" (Dale put down a card, Cliff put down a card, I put down a card, then Cliff would pick up all three and give them to me. I think I won, in the end), and watching Cliff rip up a Bo, Po, Mo, Fo book. We stopped at a rest stop about 2 1/2 hours into the trip, and aside from the fact that it was much cleaner than the rest stops I've been too (and the majority of the population was clearly... um... Asian, obviously), it felt like I could have been driving back up to school. I liked that feeling- something so familiar like driving on the highway, but in a place that's still so new.

Cliff, my host brother, taking a rest. Something which was done fairly infrequently.

Anyway, we went first to Taizhong, which was where Kendra's (my host mom) brother and sister-in-law are currently residing, since Kendra's sister-in-law just gave birth. It really only took 4 hours to get there- better than the full 6. When we arrived, we had lunch in the little area near the university there, and then walked around the BEAUTIFUL university campus. I felt like I was visiting colleges again- if I was basing where I went on it's location, I would have totally gone there. There's even a famous church on the campus, known for it's unique architecture.

While we rested in the shade of the church, waiting for Kendra's brother, sister-in-law, and daughter to arrive (the new baby was in the care center- more to come on that), we played baseball with Cliff. Which gave Kendra the idea that me and Dale would be excellent at the batting cage later that afternoon.

Following the trip to the University, we headed to the Month Long Rest Home that the sister-in-law was staying in. Usually, after a mother gives birth, her mother-in-law helps take care of the mother and the new baby. The goal is to nurse the mother back to strength, and allow her to gain her health back after putting her body through the stress of childbirth. There are strict guidelines as to what the mother should eat and behave (for example, she shouldn't wash her own hair, as the water could carry disease). While some of the suggestions seem slightly antiquated, overall, the process makes sense. The mother needs to be healthy and strong to take care of the new baby, and really, it is easier to get to that point when you have someone else to help you.

However, Kendra's brother and sister-in-law already have a small daughter, so her mother-in-law was helping with the first child, rather than taking care of mom and the new baby. This clearly is common, as there are multiple Month Long Rest Homes located near the hospitals. For 3000NT a day (less than $100), the mother can be nursed back to health by a full staff of nurses, provided with complete baby care. Need you fear that the exhausted mother might not have all of the luxuries home would provide, the rooms come with a bathroom, internet, and a TV. Thinking about the fact that you get medical help, personal help, and the comfort of being with other mothers who have just given birth too, makes me wonder why there aren't more of these facsilities around the world. Is it just that the tradition of helping out the mother isn't as prominent in other cultures? Maybe that would explain the increase in postpartum depression...

Sign outside of the rest home. Photo courtesy of Dale.

Anyway, I digress. Following visiting the baby in the home (SO cute, SO little), we headed to the batting cages. Reminding myself that, although I hadn't hit a ball since I was...um... 12, it's all muscle memory, we headed in. Not only were there batting cages (I stuck with softball, Dale ventured to faster areas), but other arcade-esque games. A few hours there, some sore muscles later, we headed to Nantou, where we would be spending the night in the house which was normally occupied by Kendra's brother. Now, however, Kendra's mother and father are staying there.

Dale testing out his swing.

Here, batter, batter. Photo courtesy of Dale.

After a HUGE dinner at a hot pot restaurant (another thing that I wonder why it hasn't hit in the states...), we spent the night. Early the next morning (earlier for some- Dale and Kendra's father went to photograph the sunrise), we headed for Sun Moon Lake, the largest man-made lake in Taiwan. It was beautiful, but as Kendra pointed out, sometimes things are prettier from further away. When you get close, while the mountains surrounding it are still spectacular, you can see how the lake is slowly being polluted.

Temple at Sun Moon Lake

These golden balls had prayers written on the bottom. The temple was covered in them.


Sun Moon Lake from a distance

Me at the lake. Photo courtesy of Dale.

The rest of the trip was devoted to exploring some Aboriginal villages and seeing some (semi-tourist-y) performances, but they still helped to further distinguish certain groups from others. It was interesting to see the traditional song and dance that this particular group performed.

Name of one of the Aboriginal groups. The owl symbolizes fertility for the community.

These long poles were banged against a metal disk in the ground in a series of patterns to make a song.

Thanksgiving came and went, with both a large-scaled event in Taipei hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan, and a smaller, but no less grand, potluck celebration in Luodong. I realized how thankful I am to be here with similar-minded people, all working, struggling and realizing the joys together. It would be hard to be here alone.

Danger! Photo courtesy of my housemate, K80.

Thanksgiving clearly means Starbucks. Photo courtesy of my housemate, K80.

Part of the gang. Photo courtesy of my housemate, K80.

The spread. I contributed the carrots. Photo courtesy of my housemate, K80.

It's amazing realizing how quickly time is passing. I never realized how soon Christmas is after Thanksgiving! I'm struggling with teaching my students about Christmas, I always want everything to have an objective and purpose; sometimes teaching them how to make little sleds out of paper for no apparent reason drives me a crazy. Overall, though, things are going well. The rain is back and forth, sometimes falling for 8 days straight, sometimes (luckily) never appearing. The weather hasn't helped my immune system, of course, and despite the fact that I got a flu shot at the beginning of the year (the only time I've ever been handed the little vile of vaccination and instructed to take it down the hall to the lady who will inject it into me), I've been battling colds and viruses for awhile. I'm making a trip to see the Chinese medicine doctor tomorrow, so hopefully the clinic can give me something...

I'm long overdue for a post, I apologize. So much has happened over these past few weeks, and I kept saying to myself: "Wow! I really need to write about that!" But then something else would happen, and eventually everything just backs up... apparently, organizational skills can't go out the window when you graduate from college.

First up: Halloween. My school was supposed to do this big Halloween event that evening. Usually, they do it during the day. But this year there was supposed to be trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, as well. The PTA determined, however, that they did not think it was a good use of our time or money, and therefore we would not be doing it. Needless to say, I was slightly disappointed. Not only had we planned the whole thing (they canceled the event 2 days before it was scheduled), but I was really looking forward to it. Halloween was something all of our co-schools had talked about doing- it's really one of the American holidays that translates over here.

Anne and I decided to do Halloween with our classes anyway (subsequently, I did Halloween activities for 3rd-5th grade, too). We did a mini-event with some of the same activities we were going to do on Halloween night, including eating donuts suspended in the air, bobbing for oranges, fishing for Halloween words, and pin the hat on the witch. All the students dressed up, and for those who didn't, we supplied face paint.

Donuts waiting.

They all thought it was really easy. "TEEEACCCHER, this is so EEEASSSSY." But then they couldn't do it.

Somehow the whole aspect of blindfolding the kids didn't get across...

Fish a "witch."

My 1-B class. I had devil horns on. They all thought I was an ant. Or a goat. At least they're putting the vocabulary words that they know to good use (G-G, guh-guh, G, guh GOAT!). I suppose we shouldn't teach them the word "devil" just yet.

1-A. Note the Harry Potter, Scream mask and... Zorro without a mask in the back?


Always need one (or twelve) princes(ses).


My self-made "In a Dark, Dark Wood" big book.

I think the students really loved it- they certainly liked the costume aspect. The biggest hit this year: the scream mask that dripped blood.

We've been rehearsing for this big English competition (English Easy Go) since September. All of our schools are involved, as well as many other schools in the area. There are two portions: the song/dance competition and the Reader's Theater competition. I was only supposed to be working on the song/dance portion, but somehow got involved with our school's Reader's Theater kids as well. While it involves students in grades 1-6, Anne decided that we'd get "cute points" if we had our younger students do the song/dance. 15 students in 1st-4th grade. Singing. Dancing. Practicing 3 times a week. At least the Reader's Theater portion was the older students. Both groups were judged on creativity, costume, pronunciation, overall performance, etc. The competition was this past Saturday. Apparently, all of our rehearsals must have paid off, because we came in 2nd place in the song/dance competition. I was so proud of my kids!

Reader's Theater students with some dads and the principal (on the far right).

OBVIOUSLY to sing "Good day, Sunshine," "Twinkle, twinkle little star," and "I can sing a rainbow," we'd dress our kids in glitter and reflective tape. I mean, what else would they wear?

This is exactly how I felt when English Easy Go was over.

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.

At a certain point, you transition from temporary residing in a place to actually living there. I've realized that this shift usually goes unnoticed until something tips you off. In this case, I think it was a solo trip to the night market for dinner one evening. Strolling back to my scooter, greasy night market food in hand, it hit me that I live here. Reinforced the next morning as I went to get soy milk for breakfast and, upon walking in the shop, the woman who works there looked at me, said "cold soy milk?" and went to get it out of the fridge. I hadn't said anything. This is home for now. It's incredible how almost 3 months have passed; on one hand it seems like the weeks are flying by, on the other, I can't believe how much I've learned about the place I'm calling home. My students are finally warming up to me: they run over and grab my hand in the morning when I'm walking through school, you can see them trying to use their English more and more. I'm getting used to the politics of the school and learning how to suggest new ideas and how to put my personality into my teaching. Things are still frustrating, things are still hard at times, but it's nice to see some change and some settling.

I'm going hiking with my 5th graders all day tomorrow, so I'm sure there will be a post about that, but for now, just something to whet your appetite (thanks, momma!).

5th grade vocabulary. Always thrilling.

First grade learning math terms.

Parts of the face. Where is your...um...nose?

National Palace Museum

Today was Double 10 day here in Taiwan. It's basically celebrates the Wuchang Uprising (which happened October 10, 1911). The uprising led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, so 10/10 is considered Taiwan's birthday, basically. There are lots of parades, both military and otherwise, and it's generally a patriotic day.

We Fulbrighters celebrated by going to the National Palace Museum in the early afternoon. As we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, you'll just have to take my word that it's a spectacular museum, one which you can spend days in. We saw a ton of artifacts, including a tiny tiny carved ship with working windows, and a piece of stone which looked like a piece of meat. Since we only spent an hour there today, I know a number of us are planning on going back to cover more ground.

After changing into formal wear in the museum bathroom (and gathering more stares than usual as we all came out of the handicap bathroom and proceeded to put on make up in the mirror by the sinks), we were taken over to the Taipei Guest House, as we were invited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to a 10/10 celebration. Walking up the red carpet, I think it hit us that none of us had ever been in this position before, and possibly will never experience anything like it again (unless we really make the right connections).

Waiting to get in, we were passed by many black town cars. Needless to say, we were curious as to who could be in those cars.Who could it be?

Tons of foreigners were invited to the celebration, including, but not limited to, various US state senators, a bunch of students from a college in Illinois, foreign diplomats, and THE PRESIDENT OF TAIWAN. Although I didn't get a picture of him, it was pretty cool to say that I've seen the president of Taiwan, and he was at a party I attended. He stayed for all of 15 minutes, but still.

Miss Taiwan and Miss Teen Taiwan were in attendance.

Feeling glamorous.


Katie, Jeannie and me with various officials and the grandson of the King of Swaziland.
Jeannie, Meg, Jenny, Katie and me with the Prince of Swaziland.

Needless to say, it was a big bash. Many of us got calligraphy of our names on large sheets of paper (mine says "May luck be with you," in addition to our name), there was a ton of food and entertainment. Including these acrobats who could balance on various objects (the picture doesn't do it justice).

And these girls who spun things with their feet and rode tall tall unicycles. Crazy. What a day.