Well, um, things are going here. I am most likely moving to another town within the next week or two because the program here in Jhunan is reducing my hours. Moreover, I've been pretty homesick and isolated the last week or two, so it will be nice to go somewhere where I may be able to make some more friends and such. Overall, I am just going to take this as a good thing and try to be positive about the experience.
That said, I have had some amusing adventures in the market. I managed to buy everything that I needed in Chinese, which was good, though I ended up buying oysters by accident, which was not so good, as I don't much like oysters. Though I did make a mean scampi-ish thing yesterday, which was fun.
Anyway, that's the update on my life right now. I could use some happy thoughts, and an idea of what to do with oysters in the future :)
All my love, and thanks for reading.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
You win some, you lose some
Since my last post, things have been mostly good. I taught on Friday and Saturday, working with my adorable and rambunctious littles, which is a rewarding but sometimes frustrating experience. There are three of them, and them have the mutual attention span of a hummingbird. One of the bigger problems with them, as it is with all of my students, is that the other students speak almost exclusively Chinese in class, so anything that isn't in the book, they tend to not understand. I learned to play Simon Says with some of my young classes, which is great fun, and I administered my first test. All in all, those classes went well.
Saturday afternoon, after school, Cleo and I took the train up one stop to Hsinchu. It is amazing how much of a difference one stop can make. Hsinchu, a 15 minute ride away, is a completely different world. It's a huge, bustling city with an an ancient city center beautifully preserved as a large park. The city itself is amazing. Much like Jhunan, the streets are lined with shops and there are armies of scooters zipping around town, ready to run over an unassuming pedestrian. In most places, prices are very good and Cleo and I managed to loot pretty well for not a lot of money. Though, we did a LOT of walking and bargain shopping before we actually bought anything.
While wandering, we found two things that were amazing: The old town gate and the moat surrounding the ancient city, and a temple to the Ghost God (for more information about the Pudu rites regarding the role of ghosts in Taiwanese religion, go here). The architecture in this place is astonishing and really, no matter how many of these temples and monuments I see, I don't think I am ever going to get used to the sheer splendor of the vistas you can literally just stumble upon without even leaving the towns or cities. The area of town around the old gate has a beautiful moat that is the center of a large park, salvia and other flowers everywhere. It's breathtakingly beautiful.
After returning to Jhunan, I did a bit more shopping, and curled up with a better than average pizza for my first cheese consumption since arriving. Saturday was a very good day.
Sunday was homesick and mostly uneventful, though I did have another instance with shrimp that have heads. You know, I don't think it's all fish with heads that gross me out endlessly. I think it's just the fact that whole cooked shrimp look like evil little aliens from Europa out to eat my brains from the inside. So bad. *shudders*
Today was another good day, for the most part. I forgot that, in addition to being a beast to learn in a literal sense, there are a many millions of bizarre vaguaries and shades of gray in usage that can really never be taught. Today, I complemented my coworker, Emily, on her very attractive leopard print shoes, saying "Emily, you always wear the cutest shoes. I love that pair." She looked at me, confused, and said "Cute? I think these are more lady." And I remembered, right, cute has the denotation of young, adorable, and childing. Connotation being the evil beastie that it is, I had the fun job of explaining the different uses of "cute" in slang.
Beyond that, I taught seven classes today, including the ruffians and the miscreants. While the miscreant teenagers lapsed backward a bit today - they were pretty rough on me - the material we were studying was dead dull and there wasn't a lot I could do with it. That said, though, the ruffians, my level 3 9-11 year olds were a dream. I won!!! I had this idea that they totally bought into. One of the things they were doing that was driving me crazy was to get out of their seats and try to "help" me with stuff, so I just played off that. Today, I started keeping score, on the board, for each kid in the class. If you were good, sat in your seat, and answered questions, you got plus signs next to your name. If you were bad, you either got minus or lost a plus (depending on how many pluses you had). The point of the game was that, whoever had the most pluses for good behavior, next class gets to be the President and will have a special seat as my helper. They get reward cards or candy and they get to help me chose the President for the next class. It worked like a dream. I was SO excited.
My last class of the day was funny. It is a really small class and they're the highest level class that the school teaches. Anne, the other teacher that I really like, was in the room with me, and we were working on topic sentences and writing paragraphs. As an example of a topic, Anne suggests foods eaten in different places around the world. This turns into a 20 minute discussion of weird foods, the weirdest foods we've ever eaten, and the very weirdest foods we've ever even heard of. Apparently, it is a delicacy in mainland China to eat a bear's paw. In southern Taiwan, you are supposed to eat monkey's brains for good luck, and salamanders are another commodity eaten regularly in the south. I talked about escargot, alligator, and crawfish. The girls in my class were pretty grossed out by the idea of crawfish, but people here eat grasshoppers, so I don't want to hear it.
So, things are going well. All of my love, and thanks for reading.
Saturday afternoon, after school, Cleo and I took the train up one stop to Hsinchu. It is amazing how much of a difference one stop can make. Hsinchu, a 15 minute ride away, is a completely different world. It's a huge, bustling city with an an ancient city center beautifully preserved as a large park. The city itself is amazing. Much like Jhunan, the streets are lined with shops and there are armies of scooters zipping around town, ready to run over an unassuming pedestrian. In most places, prices are very good and Cleo and I managed to loot pretty well for not a lot of money. Though, we did a LOT of walking and bargain shopping before we actually bought anything.
While wandering, we found two things that were amazing: The old town gate and the moat surrounding the ancient city, and a temple to the Ghost God (for more information about the Pudu rites regarding the role of ghosts in Taiwanese religion, go here). The architecture in this place is astonishing and really, no matter how many of these temples and monuments I see, I don't think I am ever going to get used to the sheer splendor of the vistas you can literally just stumble upon without even leaving the towns or cities. The area of town around the old gate has a beautiful moat that is the center of a large park, salvia and other flowers everywhere. It's breathtakingly beautiful.
After returning to Jhunan, I did a bit more shopping, and curled up with a better than average pizza for my first cheese consumption since arriving. Saturday was a very good day.
Sunday was homesick and mostly uneventful, though I did have another instance with shrimp that have heads. You know, I don't think it's all fish with heads that gross me out endlessly. I think it's just the fact that whole cooked shrimp look like evil little aliens from Europa out to eat my brains from the inside. So bad. *shudders*
Today was another good day, for the most part. I forgot that, in addition to being a beast to learn in a literal sense, there are a many millions of bizarre vaguaries and shades of gray in usage that can really never be taught. Today, I complemented my coworker, Emily, on her very attractive leopard print shoes, saying "Emily, you always wear the cutest shoes. I love that pair." She looked at me, confused, and said "Cute? I think these are more lady." And I remembered, right, cute has the denotation of young, adorable, and childing. Connotation being the evil beastie that it is, I had the fun job of explaining the different uses of "cute" in slang.
Beyond that, I taught seven classes today, including the ruffians and the miscreants. While the miscreant teenagers lapsed backward a bit today - they were pretty rough on me - the material we were studying was dead dull and there wasn't a lot I could do with it. That said, though, the ruffians, my level 3 9-11 year olds were a dream. I won!!! I had this idea that they totally bought into. One of the things they were doing that was driving me crazy was to get out of their seats and try to "help" me with stuff, so I just played off that. Today, I started keeping score, on the board, for each kid in the class. If you were good, sat in your seat, and answered questions, you got plus signs next to your name. If you were bad, you either got minus or lost a plus (depending on how many pluses you had). The point of the game was that, whoever had the most pluses for good behavior, next class gets to be the President and will have a special seat as my helper. They get reward cards or candy and they get to help me chose the President for the next class. It worked like a dream. I was SO excited.
My last class of the day was funny. It is a really small class and they're the highest level class that the school teaches. Anne, the other teacher that I really like, was in the room with me, and we were working on topic sentences and writing paragraphs. As an example of a topic, Anne suggests foods eaten in different places around the world. This turns into a 20 minute discussion of weird foods, the weirdest foods we've ever eaten, and the very weirdest foods we've ever even heard of. Apparently, it is a delicacy in mainland China to eat a bear's paw. In southern Taiwan, you are supposed to eat monkey's brains for good luck, and salamanders are another commodity eaten regularly in the south. I talked about escargot, alligator, and crawfish. The girls in my class were pretty grossed out by the idea of crawfish, but people here eat grasshoppers, so I don't want to hear it.
So, things are going well. All of my love, and thanks for reading.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Take THAT, hormones!!
Ladies and gentlemen, I have done the impossible. I know that even I doubted my ability to complete this awe-inspiring task, but know that I am a invincible.
I won over the miscreant teenagers.
How, you might ask? If you're not asking, you should be, because I had a little help from a friend whose name can be summed up in two words:
Ferrero Rocher. Yep, that's right. I bribed the misfits with chocolate. Now, that's really not all I did. I realized that the reason they were acting up was probably because they were bored. Not with the material - they're bright kids and and seemed to keep up pretty well - but with the delivery. I was laboring under the assumption that they were too old for most of the teaching games the school uses and that they wouldn't buy them. Fact was, it wasn't the games they didn't want to play. It was the incentives that were lackluster. 13 year olds don't want to play just to win, or for some arbitrary reward cards that you have to earn and cash in for toys they were too old to want. They want gratification RIGHT NOW. So I gave it to them, in the form of really good chocolate. And they absolutely were awesome today.
The ruffians, the class I have before them that like to do things like hit each other with books? They're going to require a good bit more work. But hey, one down, one to go is not so bad. Especially when all of my other classes pretty much this whole week have gone well. I can handle one group of utter misfits. Though, suggestions are welcome :).
Anyway, I'm crashing early tonight because I can. All my love, and thanks for reading.
I won over the miscreant teenagers.
How, you might ask? If you're not asking, you should be, because I had a little help from a friend whose name can be summed up in two words:
Ferrero Rocher. Yep, that's right. I bribed the misfits with chocolate. Now, that's really not all I did. I realized that the reason they were acting up was probably because they were bored. Not with the material - they're bright kids and and seemed to keep up pretty well - but with the delivery. I was laboring under the assumption that they were too old for most of the teaching games the school uses and that they wouldn't buy them. Fact was, it wasn't the games they didn't want to play. It was the incentives that were lackluster. 13 year olds don't want to play just to win, or for some arbitrary reward cards that you have to earn and cash in for toys they were too old to want. They want gratification RIGHT NOW. So I gave it to them, in the form of really good chocolate. And they absolutely were awesome today.
The ruffians, the class I have before them that like to do things like hit each other with books? They're going to require a good bit more work. But hey, one down, one to go is not so bad. Especially when all of my other classes pretty much this whole week have gone well. I can handle one group of utter misfits. Though, suggestions are welcome :).
Anyway, I'm crashing early tonight because I can. All my love, and thanks for reading.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Turning Taiwanese
Ok, I really never post twice in the same day, but I had to tell about two things that happened today. It would seem that I just might be the most kick-derriere person ever when it comes to learning languages. Today, by myself and in Chinese, I purchased train tickets to the correct location, gave addresses and locations for three taxi rides, ordered a large coffee, negotiated retrieval of my suitcase with a concierge at a hotel (ok, this was mostly in English, but I did say "Hello, do you speak English" in Chinese), AND bought batteries, lunch, and milk tea. IN CHINESE!! All of it! I know how to say "Please take me to the Shangri-la hotel at 201 Tun Hua South Street" IN CHINESE!!! I know what the cabby means when he says "yi bai er"!!!! How cool is this?? I am the most self sufficient person EVER.
On a similar note, my classes actually went pretty well today. My class of littles who I adore had to get "magic lined" so they wouldn't run me over. (Magic line is "Okay, if you cross the magic line, you have to go sit down!!") My Emily class (they're the level four kids who are kind of slow) laughed at me for evacuating my skin when fireworks went off, but overall that class was good. The other two today were pretty solid. My Wednesday classes are easy because they're all younger kids and they're all lower level classes. Oh, and several of my ruffians from my Monday-Thursday class (not the miscreants. These are the younger group that wear me out before I get to the miscreants) decided to teach me Chinese today before they went to class. It was really cute. They went WAAAAAY too fast for me, so I may or may not remember anything they taught me come tomorrow, but it was still adorable.
Anyway, that was pretty much it. All my love, and I am going to bed. Night, y'all.
On a similar note, my classes actually went pretty well today. My class of littles who I adore had to get "magic lined" so they wouldn't run me over. (Magic line is "Okay, if you cross the magic line, you have to go sit down!!") My Emily class (they're the level four kids who are kind of slow) laughed at me for evacuating my skin when fireworks went off, but overall that class was good. The other two today were pretty solid. My Wednesday classes are easy because they're all younger kids and they're all lower level classes. Oh, and several of my ruffians from my Monday-Thursday class (not the miscreants. These are the younger group that wear me out before I get to the miscreants) decided to teach me Chinese today before they went to class. It was really cute. They went WAAAAAY too fast for me, so I may or may not remember anything they taught me come tomorrow, but it was still adorable.
Anyway, that was pretty much it. All my love, and I am going to bed. Night, y'all.
Note to self
Hello, all. In my journeys around Jhunan and other parts of this island I now call home, I have been carrying around a journal in which I write observations, tidbits, and about half of what ends up in this blog. What has been cropping up more and more in the last week or so, though, are little notes and reminders to myself. I was just glancing through a few of them and realized that hey, they're completely hilarious, so I thought I would share.
Notes to self:
Notes to self:
- When having an emotional crisis, eat, then continue meltdown if necessary.
- If the menu isn't in English and doesn't have pictures, assume that your food will have a head still attached.
- If the menu is in English and doesn't have pictures, assume that your food will have a head still attached.
- Get over the food with heads thing.
- Completely give up on saying "four" of anything, because you will inevitably get the tone wrong and say "death" and cause the extremely superstitious Taiwanese to hate you.
- Chinese is one of the hardest languages on Earth. Of course it's frustrating to learn. Take it slow.
- When planning lessons (or anything else), keep it simple, stupid.
- You didn't leave Murphy's Law at home with your tennis shoes and your extra chewing gum. Wherever you are, the thing you forgot is on the other end of those three flights of stairs.
- Leek dumplings are really subpar in both flavor and texture. Don't order those again.
- Do everyone a favor and stop substituting coffee for lunch.
- Brothers and mothers are completely universal.
- Chill out. You're doing fine.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Mandarin overload!!
Yesterday, I had absolutely the best day since arriving in Taiwan. I mean, really, it was spectacular.
So, as planned on Thursday, Cleo and I had lunch today at her mom's house over on the other side of town. Cleo and her husband, Jason, came to pick me up at noon, and soon we had arrived to the apartment. I walk up the stairs and am immediately greeted by two things: Cleo's absolutely adorable mom and a FEAST already spread out on the table. I have no idea how the Taiwanese are not all the size of sumo wrestlers. These people eat more than anyone I have ever seen in my life. Little old Southern church ladies having the pastor over for lunch don't have anything on the sheer quantity of food prepared by Taiwanese mamas. It's insane. For six people today, she had prepared a vat of beef and potato soup she learned to make for me just in case I didn't like Chinese food, an entire side of some flaky white fish with pepper and lime, spicy squid, Chinese sausage, some kind of sauteed chicken, pork, beef, traditional braised vegetables with tofu, rice, tea, and a basket of fruit. I don't think I am ever going to be hungry again. It was all very good and very different from the stuff we get at home. I need to get the recipe for that fish from her, because it was the best thing on planet earth.
As we are eating, Cleo is playing translator for both me and her mother. Her brothers, Ben and Ou (I have no idea how you spell it) and her husband, Jason, all speak some English but mostly speak Chinese with each other, but her mom and I were pretty much getting every hundredth word the other person said. After a little while, this evolved into the "teach Rebecca to speak Chinese" game. The basic idea was that everyone spoke a lot of Chinese and then Cleo would say "What do you think this means." Over the course of the day, I learned a LOT of Chinese. Whether I can remember it all is another thing entirely, but only time will tell with that.
Now, in Chinese, there are four tones, or accents that you can put on the word. They are the first tone, which is kind of a light, conversational pronunciation. The second starts at a lower pitch. The third kind of makes a check mark with your voice, and the fourth is a forceful, flat pitch. For a better example, click here. If you click on the Chinese characters on the page, they will play a recording of the tones. Now, yesterday, while I was learning all of this Chinese, Cleo was showing me which tone it was supposed to be by signaling where the pitch should be in the air with chopsticks. We came up with a whole sign language for the tones. Her brother and husband were almost on the ground laughing at us drawing tones with chopsticks.
After lunch, Cleo, Jason and I went down to the beach. It was SO much fun. The water front here is really vibrant and full of vendors and restaurants and fun stuff in general. And BOATS!!! There were millions of fishing boats packing the harbor. The sidewalk was packed with fish stands, and I saw some of the biggest fish I have ever laid eyes on. Everywhere we looked, Cleo and Jason asked me, "What's the English word for that?" There were squid and sea sails as big as my palm and shrimp longer than my hand span. I am glad to say that I am getting over my "EWW GROSS" when it comes to the ridiculously fresh fish here, though I still don't know how to cook it. I ran around on the beach and put my feet in the (very cold) water and generally acted like a five year old. It was lots of fun.
As we were heading back to Cleo's mom's house, we stopped by the temple to the Water Goddess. This is the largest temple in Jhunan and is absolutely beautiful. Cleo took me inside and explained to me the worship of this particular goddess. Religion here is very odd. There are some Christian churches, but for the most part it seems to be a polytheistic mix of Buddhism, ancestor worship, and a whole slew of gods and goddesses, each with their own story and symbology. It is very interesting to see the traditions of such a completely different style of worship than the way I was raised.
After the temple, we went back to Cleo's mom's, where she decided that it was officially time for me to learn to cook Chinese food. I will say, there is no faster way to learn a language than to learn to cook in it. Cleo's mom speaks the international language of "Mom": Here, let me show you; no, try it this way; see, it should look like this; oh, be careful! It's funny how some things are so universal, despite major differences in culture. She decided to teach me to make chiang yo bien, a kind of insanely work intensive scallion pancake. It's REALLY good. So the first thing you do is make the dough, which she and Jason had done earlier, then you let that sit for about 45 minutes. Then you portion it off and roll the dough out into thin circles about 8 inches across. You spread oil, salt, pepper, and scallions across the circle and roll it up into a thin tube, squeezing it to make it thinner and to make it hold together. THEN you curl the tube up like a cinnamon roll, sprinkle it with flour, squish it, and roll that out to be about the size of a dinner plate. After that, you fry it like a pancake and serve it. So, kind of a pain. Good, worth it, but kind of a pain.
This process, however, was hilarious. The five of us (Cleo, her mom, Jason, Ben, and I) were crowded around the counter with Jason and I actually rolling out the dough, her mom directing traffic, and Ben and Cleo either "helping", translating, or being a peanut gallery. Needless to say, there was more of the latter than either of the former. Words I learned to say in Chinese over this - ugly (bai), pretty (sui), squeeze (juoa), big (da), small (shao) and probably a dozen or so others. As Cleo's mom was showing me how to pinch the tube together to lengthen it out and get the bubbles out, she would say "juoa, juoa, juoa, juoa, juoa" accompanying the motion. When I started doing the same, everyone found that really funny.
After we spent the afternoon making cakes (and a huge mess) and generally just having fun, Jason, Cleo, Ben, and I headed up to Hsinchu, just north of here, to have coffee with some of Ben's friends. We were in another coastal town called Nanliao, which was completely beautiful and reminded me a little of Kitty Hawk. When we arrived, there were literally hundreds of people flying kites of every shape, size and color. The absolute coolest thing, though, was these four guys who worked as a team with professional, triangular trick kites. They had them dancing. The men would syncronize the kites, going in vertical circles and drawing pictures in the sky. It was seriously the most amazing thing I think I have ever seen.
At this point, it was starting to get dark, and so we headed back to Jhunan. After making plans to hang out at least three more times, my new friends took me home and I relaxed after my very good day.
So, that said, here's hoping that today is anywhere near as good as yesterday was! All my love, and thanks for reading.
So, as planned on Thursday, Cleo and I had lunch today at her mom's house over on the other side of town. Cleo and her husband, Jason, came to pick me up at noon, and soon we had arrived to the apartment. I walk up the stairs and am immediately greeted by two things: Cleo's absolutely adorable mom and a FEAST already spread out on the table. I have no idea how the Taiwanese are not all the size of sumo wrestlers. These people eat more than anyone I have ever seen in my life. Little old Southern church ladies having the pastor over for lunch don't have anything on the sheer quantity of food prepared by Taiwanese mamas. It's insane. For six people today, she had prepared a vat of beef and potato soup she learned to make for me just in case I didn't like Chinese food, an entire side of some flaky white fish with pepper and lime, spicy squid, Chinese sausage, some kind of sauteed chicken, pork, beef, traditional braised vegetables with tofu, rice, tea, and a basket of fruit. I don't think I am ever going to be hungry again. It was all very good and very different from the stuff we get at home. I need to get the recipe for that fish from her, because it was the best thing on planet earth.
As we are eating, Cleo is playing translator for both me and her mother. Her brothers, Ben and Ou (I have no idea how you spell it) and her husband, Jason, all speak some English but mostly speak Chinese with each other, but her mom and I were pretty much getting every hundredth word the other person said. After a little while, this evolved into the "teach Rebecca to speak Chinese" game. The basic idea was that everyone spoke a lot of Chinese and then Cleo would say "What do you think this means." Over the course of the day, I learned a LOT of Chinese. Whether I can remember it all is another thing entirely, but only time will tell with that.
Now, in Chinese, there are four tones, or accents that you can put on the word. They are the first tone, which is kind of a light, conversational pronunciation. The second starts at a lower pitch. The third kind of makes a check mark with your voice, and the fourth is a forceful, flat pitch. For a better example, click here. If you click on the Chinese characters on the page, they will play a recording of the tones. Now, yesterday, while I was learning all of this Chinese, Cleo was showing me which tone it was supposed to be by signaling where the pitch should be in the air with chopsticks. We came up with a whole sign language for the tones. Her brother and husband were almost on the ground laughing at us drawing tones with chopsticks.
After lunch, Cleo, Jason and I went down to the beach. It was SO much fun. The water front here is really vibrant and full of vendors and restaurants and fun stuff in general. And BOATS!!! There were millions of fishing boats packing the harbor. The sidewalk was packed with fish stands, and I saw some of the biggest fish I have ever laid eyes on. Everywhere we looked, Cleo and Jason asked me, "What's the English word for that?" There were squid and sea sails as big as my palm and shrimp longer than my hand span. I am glad to say that I am getting over my "EWW GROSS" when it comes to the ridiculously fresh fish here, though I still don't know how to cook it. I ran around on the beach and put my feet in the (very cold) water and generally acted like a five year old. It was lots of fun.
As we were heading back to Cleo's mom's house, we stopped by the temple to the Water Goddess. This is the largest temple in Jhunan and is absolutely beautiful. Cleo took me inside and explained to me the worship of this particular goddess. Religion here is very odd. There are some Christian churches, but for the most part it seems to be a polytheistic mix of Buddhism, ancestor worship, and a whole slew of gods and goddesses, each with their own story and symbology. It is very interesting to see the traditions of such a completely different style of worship than the way I was raised.
After the temple, we went back to Cleo's mom's, where she decided that it was officially time for me to learn to cook Chinese food. I will say, there is no faster way to learn a language than to learn to cook in it. Cleo's mom speaks the international language of "Mom": Here, let me show you; no, try it this way; see, it should look like this; oh, be careful! It's funny how some things are so universal, despite major differences in culture. She decided to teach me to make chiang yo bien, a kind of insanely work intensive scallion pancake. It's REALLY good. So the first thing you do is make the dough, which she and Jason had done earlier, then you let that sit for about 45 minutes. Then you portion it off and roll the dough out into thin circles about 8 inches across. You spread oil, salt, pepper, and scallions across the circle and roll it up into a thin tube, squeezing it to make it thinner and to make it hold together. THEN you curl the tube up like a cinnamon roll, sprinkle it with flour, squish it, and roll that out to be about the size of a dinner plate. After that, you fry it like a pancake and serve it. So, kind of a pain. Good, worth it, but kind of a pain.
This process, however, was hilarious. The five of us (Cleo, her mom, Jason, Ben, and I) were crowded around the counter with Jason and I actually rolling out the dough, her mom directing traffic, and Ben and Cleo either "helping", translating, or being a peanut gallery. Needless to say, there was more of the latter than either of the former. Words I learned to say in Chinese over this - ugly (bai), pretty (sui), squeeze (juoa), big (da), small (shao) and probably a dozen or so others. As Cleo's mom was showing me how to pinch the tube together to lengthen it out and get the bubbles out, she would say "juoa, juoa, juoa, juoa, juoa" accompanying the motion. When I started doing the same, everyone found that really funny.
After we spent the afternoon making cakes (and a huge mess) and generally just having fun, Jason, Cleo, Ben, and I headed up to Hsinchu, just north of here, to have coffee with some of Ben's friends. We were in another coastal town called Nanliao, which was completely beautiful and reminded me a little of Kitty Hawk. When we arrived, there were literally hundreds of people flying kites of every shape, size and color. The absolute coolest thing, though, was these four guys who worked as a team with professional, triangular trick kites. They had them dancing. The men would syncronize the kites, going in vertical circles and drawing pictures in the sky. It was seriously the most amazing thing I think I have ever seen.
At this point, it was starting to get dark, and so we headed back to Jhunan. After making plans to hang out at least three more times, my new friends took me home and I relaxed after my very good day.
So, that said, here's hoping that today is anywhere near as good as yesterday was! All my love, and thanks for reading.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Why I hate middle schoolers, part 2, and more on the last few days
Hello all, and greetings again from Taiwan. The last few days have been mostly uneventful as I have basically just getting into a schedule and finding my routine. A few things have happened, though, that were noteworthy, for better or worse.
For starters, on Thursday morning, I got lost in a building. This was not my fault, I will have you know. When I went to Taipei for the second half of my (optimistically named) training class with Cleo, I was following her to the building where our class was held. We go in a door that I am not sure looks right, but it's early and my coffee hasn't kicked in just yet, so I could be wrong. We take the elevator to the 5th floor... and it doesn't look right. We go to EVERY floor in the building and can't find where our class is supposed to be held. Finally Cleo asks the guy at the front desk, and turns out, our building is three doors down. We rule.
That same day, I discovered, yet again, why I hate middle schoolers. This time, it was my Level 10 class that, last week, the part time teacher had not shown up for and I didn't know what unit they were on. So these kids already LOVE me. Over the course of one hour, they chatter, talk back, throw one of my teaching props out the classroom window, and generally drive me crazy. I wanted to throw the evil little miscreants out the window after the ball, but I decided deportation wasn't worth it. Close call, though. However, there are two redeeming qualities to this class. One is that they actually are very smart, they're just teenagers. They catch on quickly and seem to actually do well in class. The other is that one of the girls in the class felt bad about picking on me and drew a chibi (a cutesy style of anime drawing) picture of me and left it on my desk. That was sweet. Oh, and as a side note, one of my students, Angel, actually has a Sailor Moon anime girl voice. It's REALLY funny.
Yesterday was similar. I had several really good classes and I had fun teaching some little kids to say please and excuse me. I had a fairly unpleasant meeting with my boss, who said I was going too fast for some of the kids, but then I taught my last class of the day with Anne, another teacher who I adore, and she said I was doing very well. So we'll see.
Anyway, two very, very funny things did happen yesterday. One is that, while I was teaching Anne's class, who are all 10-12, one of the boys swore in English. The thing is, he used the word incorrectly, which brought me to a completely hilarious impasse. Obviously, as the teacher, I should tell him not to use that word, particularly not at school, but should I do him a favor and at least correct his usage first? Hahaha. Ultimately, I ended up scolding
him and reporting him to Anne (she had stepped out of the room), but it was just about the hardest thing in the world to not bust out laughing in the middle of class.
The other funny thing that happened was much later, when I went out to buy my dinner. There is a beautiful restaurant diagonally across the street from the school that I pass just about every day, and I had been curious about what it was, so last night I decided to dip in there for late-night take out. Turns out, it is a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food, so I was very excited. I look at the menu, which thankfully was in Chinese and English, and order the green curry with coconut milk that I always get in the US. Kind of as an afterthought, I ask the waitress, who was Thai, if the food was very spicy. "Not really," she says, and, being me and tired, I took her for her word.
WRONG. This food was so spicy I drank about a quart of milk and still disintegrated my taste buds. My mouth was on FIRE. I could not smell or taste until well into this morning. And then I remembered... right. I am in Asia. Of course the Thai food is actually authentic and therefore is going to be insanely spicy. Duh. That said, though, the food was very good. It was just crazy hot.
As for today, I have been pleasantly lazy, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, and generally being a bum. I plan to go out to the night market a little later and explore what it has to offer. That should be fun. One note on today's insanity. In Taiwan, we don't really have dryers. We have washing machines, but all clothes are essentially hung to dry. So, with that being the case, after I had washed my clothes, I brought them up here to the apartment to dry in my little closet that seems to exist solely for hanging up clothes. Thing is, I had more clothes than my current clothes line (which is a doubled over length of blue plastic chain) would hold, so I had to improvise to come up with another one. After some rummaging, I came up with a neon green internet cable. I tied one end to the grate over the window in the closet and the other... well, where would I tie the other? The chain has a hook on the end, so it conveniently hooked into the window sill in the bathroom, but what would I do with the cable? Inspiration struck, and I used the suitcase I had packed to send back to the US as a counterweight for the line. Necessity is the mother of invention, but this was pretty funny. See:
So, with that fabulous image, I bid you farewell, and hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day, Singles' Awareness Day, or whatever the pagan Roman holiday was back in Caesar's time. All my love, and I'll post again soon :)
For starters, on Thursday morning, I got lost in a building. This was not my fault, I will have you know. When I went to Taipei for the second half of my (optimistically named) training class with Cleo, I was following her to the building where our class was held. We go in a door that I am not sure looks right, but it's early and my coffee hasn't kicked in just yet, so I could be wrong. We take the elevator to the 5th floor... and it doesn't look right. We go to EVERY floor in the building and can't find where our class is supposed to be held. Finally Cleo asks the guy at the front desk, and turns out, our building is three doors down. We rule.
That same day, I discovered, yet again, why I hate middle schoolers. This time, it was my Level 10 class that, last week, the part time teacher had not shown up for and I didn't know what unit they were on. So these kids already LOVE me. Over the course of one hour, they chatter, talk back, throw one of my teaching props out the classroom window, and generally drive me crazy. I wanted to throw the evil little miscreants out the window after the ball, but I decided deportation wasn't worth it. Close call, though. However, there are two redeeming qualities to this class. One is that they actually are very smart, they're just teenagers. They catch on quickly and seem to actually do well in class. The other is that one of the girls in the class felt bad about picking on me and drew a chibi (a cutesy style of anime drawing) picture of me and left it on my desk. That was sweet. Oh, and as a side note, one of my students, Angel, actually has a Sailor Moon anime girl voice. It's REALLY funny.
Yesterday was similar. I had several really good classes and I had fun teaching some little kids to say please and excuse me. I had a fairly unpleasant meeting with my boss, who said I was going too fast for some of the kids, but then I taught my last class of the day with Anne, another teacher who I adore, and she said I was doing very well. So we'll see.
Anyway, two very, very funny things did happen yesterday. One is that, while I was teaching Anne's class, who are all 10-12, one of the boys swore in English. The thing is, he used the word incorrectly, which brought me to a completely hilarious impasse. Obviously, as the teacher, I should tell him not to use that word, particularly not at school, but should I do him a favor and at least correct his usage first? Hahaha. Ultimately, I ended up scolding
him and reporting him to Anne (she had stepped out of the room), but it was just about the hardest thing in the world to not bust out laughing in the middle of class.
The other funny thing that happened was much later, when I went out to buy my dinner. There is a beautiful restaurant diagonally across the street from the school that I pass just about every day, and I had been curious about what it was, so last night I decided to dip in there for late-night take out. Turns out, it is a Thai restaurant. I love Thai food, so I was very excited. I look at the menu, which thankfully was in Chinese and English, and order the green curry with coconut milk that I always get in the US. Kind of as an afterthought, I ask the waitress, who was Thai, if the food was very spicy. "Not really," she says, and, being me and tired, I took her for her word.
WRONG. This food was so spicy I drank about a quart of milk and still disintegrated my taste buds. My mouth was on FIRE. I could not smell or taste until well into this morning. And then I remembered... right. I am in Asia. Of course the Thai food is actually authentic and therefore is going to be insanely spicy. Duh. That said, though, the food was very good. It was just crazy hot.
As for today, I have been pleasantly lazy, doing laundry, cleaning the apartment, and generally being a bum. I plan to go out to the night market a little later and explore what it has to offer. That should be fun. One note on today's insanity. In Taiwan, we don't really have dryers. We have washing machines, but all clothes are essentially hung to dry. So, with that being the case, after I had washed my clothes, I brought them up here to the apartment to dry in my little closet that seems to exist solely for hanging up clothes. Thing is, I had more clothes than my current clothes line (which is a doubled over length of blue plastic chain) would hold, so I had to improvise to come up with another one. After some rummaging, I came up with a neon green internet cable. I tied one end to the grate over the window in the closet and the other... well, where would I tie the other? The chain has a hook on the end, so it conveniently hooked into the window sill in the bathroom, but what would I do with the cable? Inspiration struck, and I used the suitcase I had packed to send back to the US as a counterweight for the line. Necessity is the mother of invention, but this was pretty funny. See:
So, with that fabulous image, I bid you farewell, and hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day, Singles' Awareness Day, or whatever the pagan Roman holiday was back in Caesar's time. All my love, and I'll post again soon :)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
I am in love.
Tonight will be a shorter post because I have to be up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to go to class in Taipei and then am teaching 6 classes starting almost as soon as I get back, so I need to get to bed pretty shortly here. That said, there were a couple of occurrences today that I absolutely could not go without chronicling. And.... *drumroll please*.... we have a recipe! Nice to know I am still a culinary rockstar half way around the world with a two burner stove and no oven.
Anyway. Things that need to be shared:
I taught a class of Taiwanese 6 year olds to sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" today, with permission from my director, which to me makes it even funnier. The kids were doing review on three units that were body parts - arm, leg, foot, eyes, ears, etc. Well, while prepping for the class, I saw the page that said "Eyes, ears, mouth, nose" and promptly got the song stuck in my head, which turned into the single cutest flash of inspiration I've ever had. Seriously, you have not lived until you have lead a class of 20 or so little Taiwanese cherubs in a shouted chorus of head, shoulders, knees and toes. Other highlights of the class were teaching vowel pronunciation by making really exaggerated faces and acting like a fish, dog, cat, and bird, respectively, to teach those words as vocab. In addition to being an absolute blast to do, it was enough cuteness to make me melt... and also to seriously consider a career in elementary school teaching when I come home.
This tidbit is mostly for the benefit of Eric, one of my readers via the RSS feed on facebook, I got my watch fixed today, which was good. I cannot say that I did this on my own. Janet, the director from school, took me over there to handle the more complicated bits of Chinese for this particular transaction.
Another class related bit of awesome today actually has more to do with Chinese than it does teaching. So my last class of the day was a group of about 9-11 year olds in level 6 English. Now, the school rule is that classes are supposed to be English only, but nobody really follows that. This class was learning opposites such as pretty, ugly, short, tall, thin, and fat. I had them playing a game of some variety or another, and two of the boys in the class got bored and started talking to each other in Chinese. So, being Ms. Teacher, I said "English, please." One of the boys looked at the other, who said "something something ingwen", which is Chinese for English and is one of the few words I know. I look at him and say, "Yes, Ingwen." The whole class got this look like "Oh man, she can UNDERSTAND me?!?!?!!" and proceeded to get very quiet. I had to force myself not to bust out laughing and forfeit my upper hand.
In cultural news, (cultural news being me adjusting to the culture, haha) I have discovered a fabulous way to learn numbers. Basically, I learned the Chinese word for "hundred" and kind of figured out how it sounds. When I go to the market, which is where I have the most trouble with prices because nothing is written down, I listen carefully for that word and, anything under it, I pay with a 100 NT bill (something like 30 bucks at home) and figure out what the word they said means based on the change they give me. That way a.) I am learning and b.) I don't have to do the "How much???" dance every time I want a cup of tea.
Huh, so much for a short post. Okay, because I absolutely MUST wash my face and go to sleep sometime akin to NOW, here's the recipe I came up with today.
Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Stir-fry (so sue me; I like alliteration)
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 T Sriracha or other chili paste (WARNING: go light on this at first. We want a kick, not a trip to the emergency room because your taste buds disintegrated.)
1/4 -1/2 cup mirin (a sweet Chinese rice wine used for cooking. You can get it at Kroger on the international aisle or at an Asian grocery)
About a 1/2 lb of small shrimp
A 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
A small handful of baby corn. You can use baby carrots if you must, but I prefer corn
1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced
Salt and pepper
Optional garnish that you really should use: cilantro and scallions
Combine lime juice, sriracha, and mirin in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add shrimp and stir to coat. Set aside.
In a hot (and I mean HOT) skillet, quickly saute ginger and garlic, being careful not to overcook. Add peppers and corn, and stir constantly for about 2 minutes.
Add shrimp and marinade. Cook just until shrimp are pink. Serve over rice and top with cilantro and scallions.
Sit back, relax, and watch a kung fu movie while marveling over your awesome Chinese cooking.
Anyway, bed time for me. All my love, and thanks for reading!
Anyway. Things that need to be shared:
I taught a class of Taiwanese 6 year olds to sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" today, with permission from my director, which to me makes it even funnier. The kids were doing review on three units that were body parts - arm, leg, foot, eyes, ears, etc. Well, while prepping for the class, I saw the page that said "Eyes, ears, mouth, nose" and promptly got the song stuck in my head, which turned into the single cutest flash of inspiration I've ever had. Seriously, you have not lived until you have lead a class of 20 or so little Taiwanese cherubs in a shouted chorus of head, shoulders, knees and toes. Other highlights of the class were teaching vowel pronunciation by making really exaggerated faces and acting like a fish, dog, cat, and bird, respectively, to teach those words as vocab. In addition to being an absolute blast to do, it was enough cuteness to make me melt... and also to seriously consider a career in elementary school teaching when I come home.
This tidbit is mostly for the benefit of Eric, one of my readers via the RSS feed on facebook, I got my watch fixed today, which was good. I cannot say that I did this on my own. Janet, the director from school, took me over there to handle the more complicated bits of Chinese for this particular transaction.
Another class related bit of awesome today actually has more to do with Chinese than it does teaching. So my last class of the day was a group of about 9-11 year olds in level 6 English. Now, the school rule is that classes are supposed to be English only, but nobody really follows that. This class was learning opposites such as pretty, ugly, short, tall, thin, and fat. I had them playing a game of some variety or another, and two of the boys in the class got bored and started talking to each other in Chinese. So, being Ms. Teacher, I said "English, please." One of the boys looked at the other, who said "something something ingwen", which is Chinese for English and is one of the few words I know. I look at him and say, "Yes, Ingwen." The whole class got this look like "Oh man, she can UNDERSTAND me?!?!?!!" and proceeded to get very quiet. I had to force myself not to bust out laughing and forfeit my upper hand.
In cultural news, (cultural news being me adjusting to the culture, haha) I have discovered a fabulous way to learn numbers. Basically, I learned the Chinese word for "hundred" and kind of figured out how it sounds. When I go to the market, which is where I have the most trouble with prices because nothing is written down, I listen carefully for that word and, anything under it, I pay with a 100 NT bill (something like 30 bucks at home) and figure out what the word they said means based on the change they give me. That way a.) I am learning and b.) I don't have to do the "How much???" dance every time I want a cup of tea.
Huh, so much for a short post. Okay, because I absolutely MUST wash my face and go to sleep sometime akin to NOW, here's the recipe I came up with today.
Sweet and Spicy Shrimp Stir-fry (so sue me; I like alliteration)
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 T Sriracha or other chili paste (WARNING: go light on this at first. We want a kick, not a trip to the emergency room because your taste buds disintegrated.)
1/4 -1/2 cup mirin (a sweet Chinese rice wine used for cooking. You can get it at Kroger on the international aisle or at an Asian grocery)
About a 1/2 lb of small shrimp
A 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
A small handful of baby corn. You can use baby carrots if you must, but I prefer corn
1/2 of a red bell pepper, diced
Salt and pepper
Optional garnish that you really should use: cilantro and scallions
Combine lime juice, sriracha, and mirin in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add shrimp and stir to coat. Set aside.
In a hot (and I mean HOT) skillet, quickly saute ginger and garlic, being careful not to overcook. Add peppers and corn, and stir constantly for about 2 minutes.
Add shrimp and marinade. Cook just until shrimp are pink. Serve over rice and top with cilantro and scallions.
Sit back, relax, and watch a kung fu movie while marveling over your awesome Chinese cooking.
Anyway, bed time for me. All my love, and thanks for reading!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Pros and Cons
And so ends another day out here in Taiwan, and let me tell you, I am seriously exhausted. Did any of you ever watch the show Animaniacs? Well, if you did, you will already know what I am talking about, but if not, here's the point. They used to have these segments called Good Idea/Bad Idea that were absolutely hilarious. It would be like "Good Idea-riding the bus to work. Bad Idea - riding the bus to work while playing an accordion." Too funny. Well anyway, that's kind of how I have felt this day has gone, so we're going to riff on that with Good Thing/Bad Thing bullet points.
Good Thing: I woke up nice and early, got coffee and breakfast, and chatted online with Sze. Always a good way to start the day.
Bad Thing: I did so after an absolutely rotten night's sleep.
Good Thing: I went to the market right at the peak of selling time to get groceries. It was an utterly amazing experience. There were people EVERYWHERE. It was different from the open-air markets in Europe. The energy was so high and positive. The vendors were shouting and hawking their stuff, people were bartering, and all of the food was so fresh you could just taste it in the air.
Bad Thing: I almost got run over by several scooters in the process of getting to the market, and I seemed to have a "SELL TO ME!!!!!" sign on my obviously Caucasian forehead.
Good Thing: I bought chicken without being sick, I used my one trusty phrase of Chinese to get me through a dozen transactions, I bought a BEAUTIFUL plate of fresh strawberries so ripe they look like rubies, and I even got limes, ginger, and cilantro without having to resort to English.
Bad Thing: I went to the fish stand where I have been the last few times to get tuna, salmon, and shrimp (no heads, thank you.) As I am reaching over to gesture to the fabulous salmon steak I ended up buying, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Creepy glassy-eyed angel fish the size of dinner plates and vicious silver pike the length of my arm? Par for the course. Spindly wicked chickens hanging from stands on display? No problem. Pigs feet on the sidewalk? I can deal. Movement? Not so much. Especially when I turned my head to the source of the movement, which was the biggest mistake I made all day. ONE OF THE FISH WAS STILL ALIVE. I mean, I am ALL for freshness, but that sucker was still respirating, or really well he probably wasn't actually breathing but he was STILL ALIVE on the ice bed from which I was purchasing my dinner.
I almost passed out. *Shudder*
Okay, on with the list.
Good Thing: I got my spoils back to the apartment with plenty of time to spare.
Bad Thing: That was after walking 3/4 of a mile with seriously heavy groceries.
Good Thing: I taught a full day today, 3:20-8:40.
Bad Thing: See above.
Good Thing: I taught a class of 4 and 5 year olds who were absolutely heart-meltingly adorable. I really, seriously, wanted to take all of them home with me. They were so precocious and bright and active and fun... I was completely in love.
Bad Thing: I taught a class of 12-15 year olds who were normally taught by a part time teacher that no one seemed to be able to find and who the school had failed to inform that they had a new foreign teacher who would be sharing the class. So, lucky me, I walked into that classroom without even knowing what book they were working on.
Good Thing: Most of my younger classes went really well today, even if I was a bit scatterbrained.
Bad Thing: By a bit scatterbrained, I mean I left markers, books, or magnets in almost every classroom and had to go back the next break to get them.
Good Thing: My "classroom management" skills seem to be improving as I managed to keep a class of 16 10-13 year olds mostly under control without killing them.
Bad Thing: I ended up having to physically separate a group of kids who were beating each other with books.
Good Thing: I bought a new watch today.
Bad Thing: My new watch broke today. It's going back tomorrow, if I can remember where in the world I bought it. That's one that will require help.
Good Thing: I survived the day :)
Bad Thing: And now it is definitely time for sleep.
All my love, and thanks for reading.
Good Thing: I woke up nice and early, got coffee and breakfast, and chatted online with Sze. Always a good way to start the day.
Bad Thing: I did so after an absolutely rotten night's sleep.
Good Thing: I went to the market right at the peak of selling time to get groceries. It was an utterly amazing experience. There were people EVERYWHERE. It was different from the open-air markets in Europe. The energy was so high and positive. The vendors were shouting and hawking their stuff, people were bartering, and all of the food was so fresh you could just taste it in the air.
Bad Thing: I almost got run over by several scooters in the process of getting to the market, and I seemed to have a "SELL TO ME!!!!!" sign on my obviously Caucasian forehead.
Good Thing: I bought chicken without being sick, I used my one trusty phrase of Chinese to get me through a dozen transactions, I bought a BEAUTIFUL plate of fresh strawberries so ripe they look like rubies, and I even got limes, ginger, and cilantro without having to resort to English.
Bad Thing: I went to the fish stand where I have been the last few times to get tuna, salmon, and shrimp (no heads, thank you.) As I am reaching over to gesture to the fabulous salmon steak I ended up buying, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. Creepy glassy-eyed angel fish the size of dinner plates and vicious silver pike the length of my arm? Par for the course. Spindly wicked chickens hanging from stands on display? No problem. Pigs feet on the sidewalk? I can deal. Movement? Not so much. Especially when I turned my head to the source of the movement, which was the biggest mistake I made all day. ONE OF THE FISH WAS STILL ALIVE. I mean, I am ALL for freshness, but that sucker was still respirating, or really well he probably wasn't actually breathing but he was STILL ALIVE on the ice bed from which I was purchasing my dinner.
I almost passed out. *Shudder*
Okay, on with the list.
Good Thing: I got my spoils back to the apartment with plenty of time to spare.
Bad Thing: That was after walking 3/4 of a mile with seriously heavy groceries.
Good Thing: I taught a full day today, 3:20-8:40.
Bad Thing: See above.
Good Thing: I taught a class of 4 and 5 year olds who were absolutely heart-meltingly adorable. I really, seriously, wanted to take all of them home with me. They were so precocious and bright and active and fun... I was completely in love.
Bad Thing: I taught a class of 12-15 year olds who were normally taught by a part time teacher that no one seemed to be able to find and who the school had failed to inform that they had a new foreign teacher who would be sharing the class. So, lucky me, I walked into that classroom without even knowing what book they were working on.
Good Thing: Most of my younger classes went really well today, even if I was a bit scatterbrained.
Bad Thing: By a bit scatterbrained, I mean I left markers, books, or magnets in almost every classroom and had to go back the next break to get them.
Good Thing: My "classroom management" skills seem to be improving as I managed to keep a class of 16 10-13 year olds mostly under control without killing them.
Bad Thing: I ended up having to physically separate a group of kids who were beating each other with books.
Good Thing: I bought a new watch today.
Bad Thing: My new watch broke today. It's going back tomorrow, if I can remember where in the world I bought it. That's one that will require help.
Good Thing: I survived the day :)
Bad Thing: And now it is definitely time for sleep.
All my love, and thanks for reading.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Why I hate middle schoolers and more adventures in Jhunan
I despise middle schoolers. I abhor them, inherently disdain them, revile them, dislike them, am repulsed by them, and generally could easily do without them. In case there was any question, I really, really, really hate the group of children between the ages of 12 and 14. I could probably write an entire dissertation on why, exactly, this is, but instead, I will paint you a picture with my words.
This morning, I woke up, ON A SATURDAY, to teach one half-hour class from 9-9:30. This was a prep-course for the English Proficiency Test, and the students were all in middle school. Over the course of a mere 30 minutes, I had to, on three separate occasions, clap and raise my voice VERY loud to say "LISTEN" to keep these charming cherubs from chattering and leaving their seats. Moreover, they barely listened to the first half of the lesson and it was only when I got them playing a game (boys vs. girls, I learned my lesson yesterday) that they were at all involved in the class. I have four year olds who were better behaved than these kids. Grrr.
That said, the class really didn't go all that poorly. I think they did manage to actually learn what I was trying to teach them and they didn't do anything out of the ordinary for their age group. I mean, they're hormonal self-centered pre-teens. It's not their fault that they are the scum of the aging process. So, I guess when you take that into consideration, they were actually pretty well behaved. I think that, if I ever have teenagers, I am going to have to send either them or myself away for a few years.
Well anyway, after that exciting adventure in teaching, I clocked out, returned to my apartment for breakfast, some conversation with people in the US, and general vegging. Of course, eventually all of the East Coast people had to go to bed, and so I decided to venture out into town once more to learn my way around and just get a feel for Jhunan during the day. See, usually I am at the school by now, so I hadn't had a chance to really see what goes on around here. So I took my purse and my two feet and set out around town.
My first order of business was a belt. The fabulously comfortable jeans I am wearing have begun a southward migration (most unfortunate) so I was constantly pulling them up, which is highly irritating. I stopped at a cute boutique and procured a beautiful red leather belt. I get the distinct impression that the shop owner ripped me off royally, but you know, it had to happen some time, and at least it was just a belt. I continued my wanderings in the direction of the market. Now, I know it seems like the only place I ever go is the market, but "the market" is about 15 blocks of shops, stands, stores, vendors, scooters, cars, people, and general madness. And that's not even counting the designated food market, which is pretty much big barn-like building in the middle of town with rows and rows of steel stands where people sell fish, meat, poultry, vegetables, fruit, and the like. So I will probably never tire of the market because there is so much to see and explore.
See, here is the market, looking down the street in one direction.....
And here's the market looking down the street in the other direction....
So you see? No risk of boredom ANY time soon. Particularly because that's just one of the probably 7 or 8 different streets packed with stuff like that. Anyway. Where was I?.... right. The belt. So after the belt, I wandered around some more, mostly just looking at things, figuring out where stuff was, and making a mental map of the town so I could go back to that shoe store or this junk store or the bookstore over there in the future. I dipped into a trendy clothing shop, kind of like Forever 21 back h
ome, and bought a bicycle and scooter friendly bag that I can use to carry my school stuff and my purse things -wallet, ipod, camera, etc. I ended up at the food market, kindly pictured to your left, where I *gasp* managed to buy fish without dying or being sick on my own and in Chinese. I swear, learning to say "I would like that" was the single most useful thing I have done since arriving. "Wo xiangyao zhiege". I purchased another glorious tuna steak (maybe I won't overcook this one since I have figured my stove out) and some weird looking fruit. It may be the dragonfruit that Max from Portland warned me off of, but you know what? I'm going to try it anyway. Besides, I didn't come all the way out here to try or not try things just because someone else told me to, now did I?
After dragonfruit and fish were purchased, I was starting to feel a bit hungry and thirsty. I found a bubble- tea stand and ordered in Chinese with only a little help from the teenage boy waiting for his order. Apparently "zehxie" or something to that effect is how you say bubble tea. I also found a restaurant and ordered my own lunch. I was having a little bit of trouble understanding the prices of things when someone said them to me, because I haven't quite figured out numbers. Oh well. That is next on the list. So, after ALL this wandering, I decided to take my spoils and head home.
And you know what? I didn't even get lost.
So, upon arriving back to my apartment, I sat down to enjoy my lunch, which is some kind of soup, but I really didn't know what was in it. I am eating, trying to guess what the different flavors are. Okay, I think this is egg. This is tofu. That's chicken. What's this? Oh. An ENTIRE shrimp, antennae, eyeballs, legs, and everything, hanging out in my soup! Well that's fascinating! I think I'll go die now.
Here's to adventure.
All my love, and hope you have as fun of a Saturday as I have had.
This morning, I woke up, ON A SATURDAY, to teach one half-hour class from 9-9:30. This was a prep-course for the English Proficiency Test, and the students were all in middle school. Over the course of a mere 30 minutes, I had to, on three separate occasions, clap and raise my voice VERY loud to say "LISTEN" to keep these charming cherubs from chattering and leaving their seats. Moreover, they barely listened to the first half of the lesson and it was only when I got them playing a game (boys vs. girls, I learned my lesson yesterday) that they were at all involved in the class. I have four year olds who were better behaved than these kids. Grrr.
That said, the class really didn't go all that poorly. I think they did manage to actually learn what I was trying to teach them and they didn't do anything out of the ordinary for their age group. I mean, they're hormonal self-centered pre-teens. It's not their fault that they are the scum of the aging process. So, I guess when you take that into consideration, they were actually pretty well behaved. I think that, if I ever have teenagers, I am going to have to send either them or myself away for a few years.
Well anyway, after that exciting adventure in teaching, I clocked out, returned to my apartment for breakfast, some conversation with people in the US, and general vegging. Of course, eventually all of the East Coast people had to go to bed, and so I decided to venture out into town once more to learn my way around and just get a feel for Jhunan during the day. See, usually I am at the school by now, so I hadn't had a chance to really see what goes on around here. So I took my purse and my two feet and set out around town.
My first order of business was a belt. The fabulously comfortable jeans I am wearing have begun a southward migration (most unfortunate) so I was constantly pulling them up, which is highly irritating. I stopped at a cute boutique and procured a beautiful red leather belt. I get the distinct impression that the shop owner ripped me off royally, but you know, it had to happen some time, and at least it was just a belt. I continued my wanderings in the direction of the market. Now, I know it seems like the only place I ever go is the market, but "the market" is about 15 blocks of shops, stands, stores, vendors, scooters, cars, people, and general madness. And that's not even counting the designated food market, which is pretty much big barn-like building in the middle of town with rows and rows of steel stands where people sell fish, meat, poultry, vegetables, fruit, and the like. So I will probably never tire of the market because there is so much to see and explore.
See, here is the market, looking down the street in one direction.....
And here's the market looking down the street in the other direction....
So you see? No risk of boredom ANY time soon. Particularly because that's just one of the probably 7 or 8 different streets packed with stuff like that. Anyway. Where was I?.... right. The belt. So after the belt, I wandered around some more, mostly just looking at things, figuring out where stuff was, and making a mental map of the town so I could go back to that shoe store or this junk store or the bookstore over there in the future. I dipped into a trendy clothing shop, kind of like Forever 21 back h
ome, and bought a bicycle and scooter friendly bag that I can use to carry my school stuff and my purse things -wallet, ipod, camera, etc. I ended up at the food market, kindly pictured to your left, where I *gasp* managed to buy fish without dying or being sick on my own and in Chinese. I swear, learning to say "I would like that" was the single most useful thing I have done since arriving. "Wo xiangyao zhiege". I purchased another glorious tuna steak (maybe I won't overcook this one since I have figured my stove out) and some weird looking fruit. It may be the dragonfruit that Max from Portland warned me off of, but you know what? I'm going to try it anyway. Besides, I didn't come all the way out here to try or not try things just because someone else told me to, now did I?After dragonfruit and fish were purchased, I was starting to feel a bit hungry and thirsty. I found a bubble- tea stand and ordered in Chinese with only a little help from the teenage boy waiting for his order. Apparently "zehxie" or something to that effect is how you say bubble tea. I also found a restaurant and ordered my own lunch. I was having a little bit of trouble understanding the prices of things when someone said them to me, because I haven't quite figured out numbers. Oh well. That is next on the list. So, after ALL this wandering, I decided to take my spoils and head home.
And you know what? I didn't even get lost.
So, upon arriving back to my apartment, I sat down to enjoy my lunch, which is some kind of soup, but I really didn't know what was in it. I am eating, trying to guess what the different flavors are. Okay, I think this is egg. This is tofu. That's chicken. What's this? Oh. An ENTIRE shrimp, antennae, eyeballs, legs, and everything, hanging out in my soup! Well that's fascinating! I think I'll go die now.
Here's to adventure.
All my love, and hope you have as fun of a Saturday as I have had.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Teacher me! Teacher me!
Today was my first day teaching. The way that classes work here is pretty odd. For one thing, this "cram school", which is (and I say this pretty lightly) 'English Only', mostly in that that is supposed to be the only language spoken in the classroom and it is the only subject taught here, teaches classes from around noon to 9:00 pm. There seems to be a young-child school or a daycare that goes on in the mornings, but even that doesn't start until around 10:00 am. Each teacher has a class for an entire day that is at a certain level. So say I have a group that speaks English pretty proficiently - they can say "I wish I were taller" and "I went to the market yesterday" and some slightly more complex sentences - but they are all different ages. All of those kids would be in one class that was a level 11 or 12 class. Now, most of the proficiencies are grouped pretty well. You don't typically have 4 year olds and 12 year olds in the same classroom. However, 8-11 is a pretty standard spread, and that's a hard range of ages to try to cater to.
Where I come in is even stranger. I teach for half an hour to an hour at a time, taking over a block of another teacher's class. This apparently is not just a bridge period before I get my own class. This is how they use the "foreign teacher" so that all of the kids get the experience of working with a native speaker. So I spent today jetting around from a 3rd level class of about 5 year olds to an 11th level class of 8-10 year olds (one of whom cried because I unwittingly put him on "the girls' team"), a pre-K class which was a BALL because basically the sillier I was, the more responsive they were, and a level 12 class of 10-12 year olds who were bouncing off the walls. I teach one class tomorrow (yes, on Saturday. It's a prep-course for the nationalized English Proficiency Test. When you look at that acronym, you'll see why I kind of snickered seeing it on the wall of an elementary school) and then I start over next week with a whole new set of classes that I get to meet and try to acclimate to my presence here.
Teaching was exhilarating. I am, of course, completely exhausted, but the kids and the energy and really seeing them understand was so exciting for me. My biggest challenge today was not running away with the language. Of course I understand the difference between "I wish" and "He wishes" but they don't, and I had (and have) to make sure that I clearly explain that before I started playing games to practice. Not to mention that I speak so quickly as a general rule that I am REALLY having to ssssssllllllooooooooooooowwwww iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt doooooooooooooowwwwwnnnnnnnn for anyone to understand me.
A few funny notes, though. In my pre-K class, the kids were learning the CK sound, so they had a rhyme that we were all saying together. It was:
Rick and Huck
kick a rock
block the ducks
from the dock
accompanied by a neat little picture in the book. So after repeating this a few zillion times, I had a few of my kids come up and pretend to be a duck, pretend to be a rock, and show me what a kick was. It was absolutely the cutest thing in all of history. And I got to pretend to be a duck for my job.
Also, and this may just amuse me, the older kids resolve absolutely ALL disputes by playing Paper, Scissors, Stone. And the whole class gets in on it. It's REALLY funny because, be it a game that they think is tied or a matter of whose pencil that is on the floor, they'll all shout, "PAPAH SCISSOH STONE!!" and play paper rock scissors for it. Everything. I cannot express how prevalent this game is. It's even in the teaching manuals.
So, all said, I think that teaching is going to kick some serious butt and that I am actually going to be pretty good at it. I only have a couple of kids (so far) who may be problematic, and that is a very good thing. Maybe this was a very, very good idea after all.
I am going to go to the night market and see if I can get a couple of things and then, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to pass out.
All my love, and look for the next post!
Where I come in is even stranger. I teach for half an hour to an hour at a time, taking over a block of another teacher's class. This apparently is not just a bridge period before I get my own class. This is how they use the "foreign teacher" so that all of the kids get the experience of working with a native speaker. So I spent today jetting around from a 3rd level class of about 5 year olds to an 11th level class of 8-10 year olds (one of whom cried because I unwittingly put him on "the girls' team"), a pre-K class which was a BALL because basically the sillier I was, the more responsive they were, and a level 12 class of 10-12 year olds who were bouncing off the walls. I teach one class tomorrow (yes, on Saturday. It's a prep-course for the nationalized English Proficiency Test. When you look at that acronym, you'll see why I kind of snickered seeing it on the wall of an elementary school) and then I start over next week with a whole new set of classes that I get to meet and try to acclimate to my presence here.
Teaching was exhilarating. I am, of course, completely exhausted, but the kids and the energy and really seeing them understand was so exciting for me. My biggest challenge today was not running away with the language. Of course I understand the difference between "I wish" and "He wishes" but they don't, and I had (and have) to make sure that I clearly explain that before I started playing games to practice. Not to mention that I speak so quickly as a general rule that I am REALLY having to ssssssllllllooooooooooooowwwww iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttt doooooooooooooowwwwwnnnnnnnn for anyone to understand me.
A few funny notes, though. In my pre-K class, the kids were learning the CK sound, so they had a rhyme that we were all saying together. It was:
Rick and Huck
kick a rock
block the ducks
from the dock
accompanied by a neat little picture in the book. So after repeating this a few zillion times, I had a few of my kids come up and pretend to be a duck, pretend to be a rock, and show me what a kick was. It was absolutely the cutest thing in all of history. And I got to pretend to be a duck for my job.
Also, and this may just amuse me, the older kids resolve absolutely ALL disputes by playing Paper, Scissors, Stone. And the whole class gets in on it. It's REALLY funny because, be it a game that they think is tied or a matter of whose pencil that is on the floor, they'll all shout, "PAPAH SCISSOH STONE!!" and play paper rock scissors for it. Everything. I cannot express how prevalent this game is. It's even in the teaching manuals.
So, all said, I think that teaching is going to kick some serious butt and that I am actually going to be pretty good at it. I only have a couple of kids (so far) who may be problematic, and that is a very good thing. Maybe this was a very, very good idea after all.
I am going to go to the night market and see if I can get a couple of things and then, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to pass out.
All my love, and look for the next post!
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Finding light
Okay. This REALLY shouldn't be funny, considering that Americans tattoo incorrect Chinese characters on their bodies everyday, but after the couple of days I have had, wandering across this sign over a really swanky, high end hair salon was just about enough to make me stop dead in my tracks and get run over by a scooter.
Yes, you are reading that right, and no, I didn't make it up and my PC is too old for photoshop. That says Fascism Salon. HAHAHAHAH.
And so, boys and girls, ended what has actually been the best day of my trip so far. I went back to Taipei starting at the CRACK of dawn this morning for a formal training class. My travel companion was a woman named Cleo, a Taiwanese English teacher from another Joy school in the Jhunan area. I didn't think Jhunan was big enough for more than on Joy school, but apparently there is a lot of demand for TOESL here.
She and I were INSTANT friends. By the time we got to Taipei, we had already planned to have lunch together with her husband on Sunday. She's awesome. So, upon arriving, getting completely lost, getting un-lost, and procuring the all important elixir of life, coffee, we crept into class (late) to catch the tail end of a demonstration by the swishiest man I have EVER laid eyes on about presenting vocabulary in an interesting way. The vocab words? Mosquito, spider, ant, cockroach and bug. The topic of presentation? "Now class, how do you kill an ant?"
I couldn't make this up if I tried.
About 10 minutes after our late entry, another American guy saunters into class. His name is Max and I really don't think he could be MORE from Oregon if you branded him on the rear. He was seriously a West Coast posterchild. That said, though, he was nice, warning me off of dragonfruit (it looks cooler than it tastes, he says) and espousing the myriad merits of stinky tofu, a regional specialty that I haven't had the guts yet to try (he says fried, though, not boiled, though if I want boiled, man, he's no one to stop me...).
Class went as one expects a class training a bunch of adults how to teach young children English would go. A little boring, somewhat informative, but mostly common sense. C'est la vie, right? After class, Cleo and I grab some utterly weird burgerish lunch from a restaurant in the train station and then haul it onto the next train back to Jhunan. After a brief nap and adventures in giggles and self-portraits with my cool new camera that eats AA batteries for lunch, we were back in Jhunan and on with our days. Janet, the school owner, picked me up at the train station so that we could go to the hospital for my required health check before I can get my ARC (alien resident card). Unfortunately, there was no time for that, so it was put off until tomorrow. I strolled into school to see what training stuff I needed to do today, just to discover... haha! I start teaching tomorrow! Woohooo!!! Wait... what?
Fortunately for my palpitating heart, I am teaching other people's classes while that Chinese teacher is still in the room with me, which definitely assuages some of my communication fears. Still, this is good, if a little scary, and so my day kept looking up. After looking over the class materials for a while, I got thirsty and decided that I would go absolutely out of my mind if I had to go back to the 7-11 one more time. So I wandered off in the general direction of the market and the train station, where apparently EVERYTHING is. (Side note - literally every thing I have asked anyone where it is in the last two days, the answer has been, "Oh, over near the train station.") As I am ambling through the dusk, I remembered that Janet was going to lend me a phone while I am here if I can just get a SIM card and number for it. Fortunately, this memory coincided with my arrival on what is apparently the cell phone block of the market district. I managed to get the SIM card and a number on my own without having to resort to pointing or gesturing. I was excited.
That done, I continued my journey toward the cool stuff part of town. As I wandered, I came across a bubble tea stand where Cindy had taken me a few days ago. I crossed the street, managed to order my tea IN CHINESE and then began crossing back toward home.... when I saw the Fascism Salon sign. At which point I took a picture, just about died laughing, and decided it was time to go home. I walked back to the school, cooked some dinner, and now, here I am, blogging to you.
It has been a good day.
All my love, and hope your days have been as bright.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Ummm...
When I get home, remind me to write a personalized letter of thanks to the CEO of Kroger simply for existing.
Today, I went grocery shopping for the first time. Cindy, the very nice admin of the school, took me over to the traditional Taiwanese market where I could get good prices instead of the Western grocery store that was "too expensive", she said. I don't know if it is a Taiwanese thing or just a Cindy thing, but she was very concerned about the prices of things.
Honestly, I think I would have taken the Western market. Things started out just fine. There were clothing stands and shoe stores and produce stands spilling out into the street, with people milling around and darting from one place to the next. It was mostly what I expected when she said "traditional market". I got weird fruit and a funky green tomato, rice and noodles and onions, and some red chili paste that I am hoping won't kill me.
Then we went into the meat market. Umm... yeah. There were long, creepy looking silver fish stacked one on top of the other and glassy eyed perch STARING at me and evil, spindly black chicken legs reaching up, feet included, off the ice beds. I though I might die. I mean, we have butchers and meat markets and such back home, but NOTHING compared to this. Everything was packed in close and right there in your lap almost.
I did buy a beautiful piece of tuna steak, though, and what looked like it might be swordfish. You know, if I have to look at creepy fishies on a steel stand, I may as well get the good stuff.
I will say, though, if I learn nothing else from this journey - I am never taking the grocery store for granted again.
Lots of love :)
Today, I went grocery shopping for the first time. Cindy, the very nice admin of the school, took me over to the traditional Taiwanese market where I could get good prices instead of the Western grocery store that was "too expensive", she said. I don't know if it is a Taiwanese thing or just a Cindy thing, but she was very concerned about the prices of things.
Honestly, I think I would have taken the Western market. Things started out just fine. There were clothing stands and shoe stores and produce stands spilling out into the street, with people milling around and darting from one place to the next. It was mostly what I expected when she said "traditional market". I got weird fruit and a funky green tomato, rice and noodles and onions, and some red chili paste that I am hoping won't kill me.
Then we went into the meat market. Umm... yeah. There were long, creepy looking silver fish stacked one on top of the other and glassy eyed perch STARING at me and evil, spindly black chicken legs reaching up, feet included, off the ice beds. I though I might die. I mean, we have butchers and meat markets and such back home, but NOTHING compared to this. Everything was packed in close and right there in your lap almost.
I did buy a beautiful piece of tuna steak, though, and what looked like it might be swordfish. You know, if I have to look at creepy fishies on a steel stand, I may as well get the good stuff.
I will say, though, if I learn nothing else from this journey - I am never taking the grocery store for granted again.
Lots of love :)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Settling in
After a few rather hilarious adventures and a renewed desire to learn Chinese, I have left Taipei, and I am glad for it. In hindsight, I must say that starting my journey to a foreign culture on the other side of the planet alone in a bustling metropolis was not one of my brighter plans. After the obligatory "WHAT am I doing here??" crisis of faith and about 24 hours of wrong train, wrong town, wrong language, and generally the wrong side of the bed, I have arrived and am in a much better place, physically and mentally, for it.
Well, I am in Jhunan now, a "town" in the province of Miaoli, on the western coast of Taiwan. Coast is used freely here, as I have seen no ocean since getting off the train, but a lot of words seem to mean something different here than they do at home.
Take the word town, for instance. At home, a town is like Ashland or Duluth, in GA. Small, ruralish, not a big population. The town of Jhunan is bigger than the city of Richmond. It's bustling and busy and built up, with cows and butterflies inexplicably popping up EVERYWHERE. I should say plastic or metal ones, not the real, respirating variety. Jhudon is beautiful, though, in its own way. Everything is really lit up with bright neon signs, giving it a very Las Vegas quality at night, but during the day, especially a nice day, like today, you can see all the beautiful trees and flowers that line the streets. The family that owns my school is very nice, and they took me to dinner last night after I got off the train and settled into my apartment.
Seriously, the Taiwanese eat SO MUCH. I had a half of a HUGE portion of beef fried rice, two pig ears (which Janait didn't tell me what they were until I had tried them), three shrimp breaded with some kind of amazing bread crumbs and served with a sweet pinapple sauce of some kind, a bowl of fish and tofu soup AND two dumplings and Simon, the husband, chided me for eating so little. No lie. Between the food and the driving (don't even get me started on the scooters), there is a lot for me to get used to here. However, I am in good spirits and I start training today (in about a half an hour, actually) so here's hoping that things will continue to look up.
Love you all, and I'll post more soon!
Well, I am in Jhunan now, a "town" in the province of Miaoli, on the western coast of Taiwan. Coast is used freely here, as I have seen no ocean since getting off the train, but a lot of words seem to mean something different here than they do at home.
Take the word town, for instance. At home, a town is like Ashland or Duluth, in GA. Small, ruralish, not a big population. The town of Jhunan is bigger than the city of Richmond. It's bustling and busy and built up, with cows and butterflies inexplicably popping up EVERYWHERE. I should say plastic or metal ones, not the real, respirating variety. Jhudon is beautiful, though, in its own way. Everything is really lit up with bright neon signs, giving it a very Las Vegas quality at night, but during the day, especially a nice day, like today, you can see all the beautiful trees and flowers that line the streets. The family that owns my school is very nice, and they took me to dinner last night after I got off the train and settled into my apartment.
Seriously, the Taiwanese eat SO MUCH. I had a half of a HUGE portion of beef fried rice, two pig ears (which Janait didn't tell me what they were until I had tried them), three shrimp breaded with some kind of amazing bread crumbs and served with a sweet pinapple sauce of some kind, a bowl of fish and tofu soup AND two dumplings and Simon, the husband, chided me for eating so little. No lie. Between the food and the driving (don't even get me started on the scooters), there is a lot for me to get used to here. However, I am in good spirits and I start training today (in about a half an hour, actually) so here's hoping that things will continue to look up.
Love you all, and I'll post more soon!
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