So, I've made it to the Osaka airport, and I'm now sitting on the floor, plugged into the outlet so I can write my final blog post. My plane leaves from Osaka to Detroit at 12:50, so I've got some time to kill. There are tons of people speaking English, and it's been slightly overwhelming. I think I'm listening in to conversations just because I can.

Anyway, I've had some time to reflect, and I'd like to make a list of things that I'm going to miss about Taiwan, and some things that I won't miss too much.

Things I'll miss:

1. Riding my scooter when it's a beautifully sunny day and there's no one on the road.
2. Being able to bike everywhere.
   
3. The smell of temple incense as you're walking/biking/scooting by.
   
4. Breakfast shops (see the pictures and captions below). Getting a full breakfast for a little more than a dollar? Yes, please.
   
5. Fresh fruit. I've been subsiding on mango juice for the past few weeks. I'm pretty sure it's in my blood stream.
6. My students
7. My friends
   
8. My host family/other teachers
9. A plethora of cheap vegetarian food
10. Night markets
11. Plastic coverings on all the beverages. Come on, U.S.! You'd make a fortune with this idea!
12. Cheap health care

Things I won't miss as much:

1. Riding my scooter when it's pouring rain.
2. Riding my bike with one hand trying to hold an umbrella because it's pouring rain.
3. Temple activities including loud drums and music at 7 in the morning.
4. Being stared at/whispered about
5. Not finding any pants that fit my hips/height
6. Mold/humidity

I'm glad there are more things that I'll miss than things I won't miss. I think that's a good sign. So long, Taiwan. It was great to experience you!

Peanut butter thick toast. A breakfast favorite.

Look how thick!

Soy milk at every breakfast shop = my dream come true. And look at the top! Nothing spills! Genius!

Rice balls. These things kept you full for a really long time. Red rice with veggies, tofu, and egg inside.

Dan bing. Egg inside a very thin, stretchy tortilla like thing. This is a picture looking down at the bottom of the take-out bag.

The graduating class

So, in an attempt to blog about the end of the year (in addition to wasting time while I'm waiting for my van to pick me up at 1:30AM for my 7:30AM flight...), we approach the end of the year. And what better way to end the school year than with graduation?

Getting awards

Our 6th grade graduation was held on Friday, June 20, which happened to coincide with my final day of teaching. The day itself, in terms of my teaching, was pretty normal. My school was very low key, and I would have been really surprised if they had done anything big. No, classes went on as usual, and a few of the students gave me notes, but for the most part, it was a normal day. What was weird was, even though the students were graduating on the 20th, they still had school for another week. Anti-climatic?

Looking oh-so-happy to be junior high students.

That night, we all gathered in the gym at 6. The graduation was more a presentation of awards, as groups of students were called up to the front, and awarded certificates and gifts by the PTA. I'm pretty sure every student in the 6th grade got a prize, which I think is definitely a good thing. A lot of them were for scores on tests, or diligent studying. In between the award giving, there were performances by 6th graders, as well as some of the younger students. I received a HUGE bunch of flowers when they gave flowers to the 6th grade homeroom teachers. They passed out a rose to each student in the class, and then during a designated time, they could give them to teachers. I got two from two of the 6th grade boys.

The kindergartens graduated too!

A violin performance by some first and third graders.

I managed not to cry until the 5th graders sang a song for the 6th graders. It was sweet, because it was clear the 6th graders had learned it the year before- they were all singing along. Then the 6th graders processed out through the 5th graders. My 5th grade girls were a mess! Some of them were sobbing, and giving me hugs didn't help anything, nor did a teacher asking them to take a picture with me. I definitely feel better about letting my emotions show! The hardest part of the evening: scootering with the bouquet in between my knees...

My flower loot!

A couple of the shorter trips I took are going to be rolled together into one post, for sake of time. First off: How Katie (my housemate) and I tried to go to Hong Kong.

My friend Wen, from Vassar, recently moved back to HK, and I thought it would be a lot of fun to go see her. Not to mention, although I had flown through mainland China, I had never stopped and visited. So we quickly planned a Friday-Sunday trip. Come Friday night, off to the airport we went. Although our plane was a few minutes late taking off, everything was fine. It only takes about an hour and a half to get to Hong Kong, and Wen was going to meet us at the airport when we got in.

However, as we approached our final destination, the pilot got on the loud speaker and said that there was some bad weather in Hong Kong, so we were going to have to circle for a little while. We circled and circled, and then finally closed in on Hong Kong. When it looked like we were just about to land, the pilot again got on the loud speaker and announced that, since the thunder storms in Hong Kong were so bad, we, in fact, were unable to land there AT ALL, and therefore would be returning to Taipei. So we flew the hour and a half trip back to Taipei.

Our joke of a flight pattern to Hong Kong and back.

The airline was going to put up all the passengers at local hotels and then fly them to Hong Kong the following afternoon. However, the thunder storms were supposed to last all weekend, and there was no guarantee when the plane would be arriving on Saturday. Since we were only staying until Sunday afternoon, we figured it wasn't really worth it to go for less than 24 hours. The airline nicely paid for a taxi from the airport back to our house. Our travel agent is working on our refund, but it will have some money deducted, because it wasn't the airline's fault, it was our decision to cancel. Not to mention, the refund will take 3-6 months to getback. It was, by far, the most expensive trip I didn't go on.

A trip that worked out better was the day trip Jenny and I took to Yingge and Sanxia. These small towns were about half an hour outside of Taipei. Yingge was an old pottery town, and had tons of stores selling anything pottery you could ever hope for. Sanxia was a nearby town which had, hands down, the coolest, most ornate temple I have ever seen. We almost missed it (to be fair, we were looking the other way AND there was a huge kid performance going on in the square AND it was kind of hidden behind some trees), but I'm so glad we saw it before we left.

Inside a vase in Yingge, the pottery town.


At the entrance to one of the old tunnel kilns.

The old street in Sanxia. This was before we found the temple.

Decorations at the temple.

Detail of the decorations.

The gods wait...

That afternoon, after arriving back in Taipei, we decided to go to the top of Taipei 101 (the not-anymore-tallest-building-in-the-world-thanks-Dubai!), since neither of us had been to the top. We went at sunset, which was an awesome time to go.

BIG Katie, little Taipei 101

The southern view. I was trying to find Yilan.

Posing with a "Damper baby." Oh, the marketing. The damper is the big thing in the middle of the building that keeps it from falling down during earthquakes.

Jenny and I also went on an adventure to Green Island, which is an Island off of Taitung in the south. We had planned to go Monday-Wednesday, since it takes a fair amount of time to get there (5 hour train ride, 40 minute ferry ride), but as our departure day approached, it became apparent that a typhoon was heading our way. A typhoon that capsized a ferry in the Philippines. Determined not to let weather spoil another one of my trips, we decided to shorten our adventure to one night, instead of two. Turns out, Green Island is pretty small, and we were able to get in all the things we wanted to do in a day and a half... we really didn't feel like we missed anything by not staying the whole three days. AND, the typhoon went way west, into China and we had beautiful, beautiful weather. We went snorkeling (first time I've ever driven a scooter in a wet suit) and saw some amazing fish. There weren't really beaches there, it was more rocky formations up to the water's edge. But the fish were gorgeous. Saw some medium sized green and bright purple striped and a HUGE bright turquoise one. I really liked the small ones that were all black with a white tail, too. They looked like they were wearing tuxedos.

After a BBQ dinner (Taiwan style...), we were going to go to the salt water hot springs by the ocean (1 of 3 in the world!), but we ended up falling asleep around 8:30. Blame the sun and the surf. We decided to wake up super early the next morning (4:45!) to get there before it got hot. Apparently, a good time to go is to see the sun rise, but we were a little late. They were still cool, though. In addition to the normal kind of tiled pools, there were also these pools down by the ocean. It was all very green and lush and incredible. Afterwards, we scootered around the island, which took about 40 minutes, and then caught the ferry home!

Hot springs

In an attempt to see more of Taiwan, Ben and I went to Tainan one of the last weekends in May. He had already been last year, so it was nice to have a walking a talking guide, rather than just my Lonely Planet guidebook. It was a long bus ride from Taipei down to Tainan, but it was totally worth it. The forecast for the weekend was supposed to be rain, so we were prepared to be wet the whole time. However, we were pleasantly surprised that it was only overcast, which meant that it wasn't too hot. Score!

Love for the little brother in Tainan!

Anyway, Tainan is lovely. It has the feel of a bigger city, without the craziness I've come to associate with Taiwanese cities. It seemed to have a slower pace, and there was an incredible blend of city, old history, and greenery. Apparently, it has the most Buddhist and Taoist temples than any other city in Taiwan. And it's also one of the oldest cities. We saw the old wall of the city, the Chihkan Towers, which were built by the Dutch, TONS of temples, including one with pretty vivid and gruesome pictures of all the possible ways you could die, the Anping fort area, and the Eternal Golden Castle, which was a cool fort with some huge cannons.

The old wall

The top of Chihkan Towers

Ben in a vase doorway at Chihkan Towers

Why, yes! That IS a pomegranate growing in the wild!

My favorite temple was the Lady Linshui Temple, where parents brought their children to pray for safety and health.

Lady Linshui and a baby

So, it's Friday night here, and I leave early Sunday morning. It feels somewhat surreal to have everything packed up and cleaned and to be looking at leaving. These next couple posts are going to come in rapid succession within the upcoming few days. I'm going to try to break them up into events, so they're easier to read about than one long post.

A team stretching prior to racing.

First off: Dragon Boat Festival. This year, Dragon Boat Festival fell on the weekend of June 8. Although I was not participating in the Dragon Boat races themselves (practices were 6am weekday mornings), many of my friends were, which prompted me to go to the races early Saturday morning. They were excellent! Although the foreigners' team (organized by the university where we took Chinese classes) lost to the second team they raced (they totally won the first!), it was a really great thing to see, and a really wonderful experience. I loved cheering them on.

Starting off...

My friend, Jenny, really putting her all into it.

Success!

Way to win!

Dragon Boat Festival was one of the only Chinese holidays that I had to teach about in my English class. We touched briefly on the Moon Festival (see October for a memory booster), but this was the one that we went into more depth on, at least with the first and second graders. It was also the first time I ran into the problem of "Well, we just don't have that word in English, so we use the Chinese word..." This really threw my younger students off. The example: For the Dragon Boat Festival, people eat these triangle glutinous rice dumplings, wrapped in bamboo leaves (see the story below for more details on why). In Chinese, they're called zhong zi. However, there's not really an English translation of that word, and on the poster we had for the Dragon Boat Festival, they just labeled them as "zhong zi." Needless to say, my students were throughly confused, and every time I pointed to the picture, had no clue what to say, despite me coaching "What do you call them in Chinese?"

So, the story of the Dragon Boat Festival: the festival commemorates the death of Qu Yuan, who was a famous poet from the kingdom of Chu. He was extremely patriotic, and tried to warn the king and his fellow country men about the expansion of the Qin (this was during the Warring states period). This resulted in exile. When the Qin, in fact, took over the capital of Chu, Qu Yuan was so upset that he drowned himself in the river. The story goes that the local people threw packets of rice into the river so the fish would not eat his body. If you're interested, there's also a fable about a snake: White Snake story.

Besides zhong zi and boat racing, the holiday also includes hanging up medicinal herbs and using sweet smelling sachets, since it's believed that it's easier to get sick this time of year (makes sense, since, as I've experienced, the humidity and heat is overwhelming). Also, you're supposed to be able to stand up eggs on their ends at 12 noon on the day of the dragon boat festival. Apparently it is for good luck, and the ability to stand them has something to do with the pull of the earth? I wasn't able to do it, but then again, I tried at 1:00...

Well, I'm certainly nearing the end of my stay in Taiwan. I leave 2 weeks from today, which I can't believe. It's amazing how these 10 months have passed by. Needless to say, I feel like a lot of reflection/remembering will be going on in the next two weeks. Maybe some of it will make it on to this blog.

I've been trying to travel a little more this semester (maybe you've noticed), and have had some great successes. Not only was it great having Ben know all about Taiwan and traveling around the island with him, Katie (my housemate) and I went on some international trips, as well. The biggest one being to Singapore a few weeks ago.

On our way!

Blurry (Hey, it was early!), but excited!

After leaving the house at 4am, we arrived in Singapore (with a short stop in Hong Kong) on Thursday afternoon. We took the rest of the afternoon and evening to explore the area around our hostel (which was great! If anyone ever goes to Singapore, ask me about where we stayed. Best hostel ever!) and finding dinner. The next day we set out to Chinatown (wait... don't we live in "China"town?) and Little India, walking the same number of hours that we had slept the night before. And let me tell you, it is mightly hot in Singapore. Heat + walking = exhaustion.

Buildings around our hostel.

The oldest, largest temple in Singapore- down the street from our hostel.


Come to Singapore, find Taiwanese food.

In Chinatown, we saw a Hindu Temple (I didn't take any pictures of the inside, so you'll have to make do with picutres of the roof), and managed to get there just in time for their noon service. I'm not sure really what was going on, but there were lots of drums and noise and people following around a man who was holding something on his head. There was also some flower throwing and singing, I believe. It definitely was the first time I've ever seen anything like that, and it was incredible.

Top of the temple.

Next up, we went to the Buddah's Tooth Relic (which we didn't actually see, since the tooth relic display was closed when we were there). While we missed the relic, we DID see the amazing roof, which had an orchid garden, a massive prayer wheel and 10,000 tiny Buddahs! I think that was my favorite part about the relic temple.

Tiny Buddahs

Each one was so small!

We also had lunch in a Hawker center, which is basically a big, open air food court. But the one we went to was HUGE and had tons of cheap, different kinds of food. AND! I got to have soy milk with the tapioca pearls (珍珠: zhen zhu), which usually come in the milk tea (珍珠奶茶: zhen zhu nai cha) here. However, since I don't drink milk, I've missed out on milk tea with bubbles. But not in Singapore! My favorite find: Mr. Bean. This shop supplied me with all the soy milk bubble tea and soy ice cream that my little heart had been missing. Singapore rocks!

Mr. Bean!

The henna art that I got in Little India.

2 people, 4 meals

Anyway, that night we had a massive dinner in an Indian vegetarian place, and went to bed early. The next day (Saturday), we went to the Colonial district, and hit up the Asian Civilizations Museum (One cool part: leaves that had had their "flesh" stripped away, so all that was left were the delicate skeletal strands holding them together. Then, the artist had painted, in gold, quotes from the Quran. Beautiful.) and then headed over to the Battle Box. This was the underground command centre of the British Malaya Command Headquarters during World War II. It's also where the decision to surrender to the Japanese on February 15, 1942. We walked through the Battle Box (which is built into the side of a hill) and got to listen to conversations that had been taped, and see these life-size dummies act out what happened during that time period. Despite the fact that our guide was rushing us slightly, it was really cool to see the actual structure and find out more about how the decision to surrender had been made.

Playing dress-up at the museum.

Singapore in the background.


Replica of the flag used to surrender to the Japanese.

After a late lunch, we walked down Orchard Road (huge shopping street) and headed to the Raffles hotel, which is a famous 19th century hotel. It was "the retreat and source of inspiration for many writers and movie stars, including Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad and Charlie Chaplin." It also was the birthplace of the drink, the "Singapore Sling," which we enjoyed out the porch overlooking Orchard Road. Most expensive drink I've ever had, but also one of the best experiences. We finished up our posh evening at a tapas restaurant.

The Raffles Hotel

Posing with the sign.

Our final hot day in Singapore, we walked over to the Fountain of Wealth, which is the largest fountain in the world. Supposedly, if you walk around it 3 times clockwise, you get good luck. So we DEFINITELY did that. While the fountain was big, it wasn't a very impressive sight. Apparently it's all lit up at night. Oh well.

Fountain of Wealth!

After the fountain, we walked BACK down Orchard Road and caught a bus to the National Orchid Garden. My favorite part: The section devoted to celebrities who had visited. Princess Diana and Jackie Chan, I can understand. But Ricky Martin?

Ricky Martin orchid.

Pretty orchids.

More prettiness.

We hurried back to our hostel to catch the shuttle to the Night Safari. Everyone said we should go on it. It WAS pretty cool- I definitely saw some animals that I've never seen before (and some were REALLY close to the little tram we were riding around on), but sometimes it felt like we were just at the zoo at night. And there were a ton of people. Still, a good experience, and I'm glad I went.

We came back to Taiwan on Monday, after an incredible trip. And now, since this post is already crazy long, I'll save the other travels to another post (in the near near future). Next up: "Travels to Tainan" and "How We Almost Went to Hong Kong."