Giving thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!  It's Thanksgiving Day here, but not really.  This is the second time in 30 years that I've been in a foreign place on Thanksgiving, and I've spent the 4th of July overseas several times, so I've developed a resistance to the urge to run around and ask people "Why are you working??? It's a holiday!" I'm Probably not doing anything special, since I'm working today and tomorrow, and I celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend.  I'll probably start watching Christmas movies tonight, probably A Christmas Story.  Because it's tradition, and I know Randy.  It's getting chilly here, so it feels like Fall.  My former OHS students will remember that in my old room, the heater was broken, and most mornings it was 90 degrees when the heat was on.  Now I'm in a classroom that isn't heated.  At all.  Funny how things change so quickly.

    But I'm still thankful, and wanted to post some thoughts on the subject.  So here goes.

I'm thankful for God's timing.  I'm still not sure why Taiwan, why now, but I know that every time my life has been upended, I learned later it was exactly where I needed to be exactly when I needed to be there. So it'll be a surprise later when I find out.

I'm thankful for the amazing support, both from my family and friends at home, and here in Taiwan.  Especially those who got texts the first few days that I was here, and patiently waited while I ranted and raved.

I'm thankful for technology.  I know it sounds shallow, but it has kept me connected and safe.  I'm thankful that I can share pictures and experiences with everyone, and keep in touch when there's trouble.  Last month, without social media, it would have taken two weeks to get a letter to Ohio and let them know that everything was fine.  I'm Skyping with my family tomorrow, it makes the world a little smaller when we can see and hear each other.

I'm thankful for my placement.  I've heard stories about terrible experiences, especially with the sixth-graders, and I'm glad to say I have incredible, well-behaved students, and fantastic co-teachers.  Tongxiao is small, but I like the fact that I live in a safe, quiet little village.  I can still get back to "civilization" if I need to, but the small town atmosphere is nice.

So enjoy your turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie, I'll be eating dumplings and watching Christmas movies.  And probably missing Dad's deep fried turkey :)
       

Happy Thanksgiving!

The first time I spent Thanksgiving away from home, I was in France, and I went to a restaurant with 7 other American students, and one Swede.

This Thanksgiving, I have to work.  But 7 of the FET's and 10 or so Taiwanese teachers got together on Saturday to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I got to Peggy's Saturday morning, and helped her and Mandy get things cleaned, cooked, and set up.  Everybody brought something, Angel brought the turkey, and we all attempted to cook our favorite American dishes.

Peggy, Evan, and Tara, in the kitchen.

 I made mom's cheesy potatoes.  Sometimes it's impossible to find ingredients, for example, I couldn't find hashed brown potatoes or cream of chicken soup.  So I used frozen hash brown patties, and made my own cream of chicken soup.  I think it turned out okay.  The Taiwanese teachers brought their own dishes: beef, kung pao chicken, etc.  Everything was delicious.  We taught the Taiwanese the tradition of eat, sleep a little, eat some more.  I think everybody went home with a little bit of everything.

This was just a small sample of the food, every inch of counter space had a dish on it.

Evan, Chris, Peggy, and Mandy

Pit! 

We played Pit for a little while, and as people left one by one, slipped into the traditional turkey coma, ha ha. I didn't take too many pictures, too busy eating and having a good time :)  

MEV

I've had a few people ask me what an MEV is, so here's what an MEV day is.

MEV stands for Mobile English Village, we travel to different schools that do not have English teachers, to expose the students to the language and culture.  My group goes to the Southern portion of the county.  There is a bus that picks us all up near our home cities, and we get to our target school around lunch time.  After lunch, we get set up and teach 40-75 students at our respective stations.  They have a little "opening ceremony" and the principal usually speaks.  They introduce the FET's, and then they learn the Hokey Pokey to get warmed up.The sessions last about 20 minutes, and the kids rotate in groups of about 20.

Our SMS (School Military Service) boys, who set up everything up for us.

Doing the Hokey Pokey

I teach Canada, with Tara.  Tara has been doing this for 7 years, and she's awesome to work with.

We teach them words like "big mountain" and "wide waterfall" and then teach them how to play hockey.

Van teaches Australia

Ashley teaches Kenya

Peggy and Thomas teach America.

Then the kids have a little closing ceremony, where they have to show us that they've learned something.  Today was actually our last one for the semester, but so far, they've all gone well.  Today I was sitting outside after lunch, and all of the sudden I had about 50 kids around me, chattering in Taiwanese.  They know how to say "what is your name," so we chatted for awhile, lol.  Mostly, they're just fascinated because they've never met any foreigners.

Field Trip

Today was a field trip day for the Miaoli Co. FET's, we went to Taipei.    

First stop was the Museum of Fine Arts.  By the way, the first picture was illegal, I got yelled at shortly after taking it.  The modern art was...unusual.  But I liked the photography and the paintings.

This was a flashing light exhibit, it took a few tries to get a picture.
"Am I gonna have a seizure?"

 After lunch, we went to Studio Classroom, which is pretty famous in Taiwan.  They started with an English learning magazine, now they do TV shows and radio programs.  We watched them film one of the TV segments, and toured the recording studio.

Tara, Peggy, and Antonio

We heard a speech from the founder, Doris Brougham, very nice lady.

Her singing group, Heavenly Melody performed a few songs.  They're pretty good.  They performed "You Raise Me Up," which wasn't bad, but I'm still partial to Josh's version :)

Three down, eight to go

Today marks three months since I've been in Taiwan.  Actually, it seems longer than that.  All of my students are on a field trip today, and I have nobody to teach.  So here's the recap.

Since October 12, I've learned a few new Chinese words, and can understand a little when people talk to me.  I've finished a sewing project and a few good books.  I experienced a major earthquake, and I hope that's the last big one.  I went to Kaohsiung, and learned to spell Kaohsiung.  I watched monkeys play in the wild, and played a spider in a children's play about the dangers of obesity and pica.  I went to Hsinchu a few times, and spent a day getting to know my school director (who is also my landlord) and her family.  Overall, I've settled in here, and I'm enjoying it.

 By the way, I love all the snow/ice/cold statuses on Facebook.  Keep 'em coming. It's still mid-70's and sunny here.  :)

I wanna see you be brave

I couldn't find a title for this post, then this Sara Bareilles song came on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4

It's going on the soundtrack, ha ha.

Not much is new, we had another MEV on Wednesday.  It was on top of a hill.  

But it was (in my opinion) one of the best MEV's we've had.  The kids were great, and everything went smoothly.

I've now been here 13 weeks.  I've done 10 weeks of school.  That's 91 days, almost three months, and I'm a fourth of the way done with my time here.  

         This weekend, I went to Taichung to shop with Peggy and Thomas.  Talking over lunch at Chili's, we discovered something we all have in common.  Things are becoming routine.  So routine that I frequently forget for a minute where I am.  Then all of the sudden it hits me.  I live in Taiwan. I'm becoming a part of this town.  I saw a shirt here once that said "Every morning, wake up, put on your costume, and decide what part you're going to play."  So I guess I've found my "role" here, and I'm learning to play it well.  A year ago, I didn't know where Taiwan was.  I've come a long way since then.  

       

           Walking all over Tongxiao is not a big deal anymore, I don't get stared at as much.  Lots of people say hi, they know who I am and what I'm doing here.  Today I was waiting to go to the ATM, and a man stepped out of the little room where the machine is.  He said "ni hao," I said "ni hao."  Then he started up a conversation.  In Chinese.  I think he asked me if I'm the English teacher at Tongxiao.  I understood the word for elementary school, but I just smiled and nodded.  As he continued to talk, I shook my head and said sorry.  I always try to be polite, and remember that I may be the only American they have ever met, and whatever impression I make, is how they are going to view all Americans for a long time.

  Speaking of money, I saw some chairs that I liked at a store in Top City Mall.  I sat down in one of the desk chairs, and I liked it.  I asked about the price, thinking that if it was reasonable, I might get one.  It was 75,000 NT.  Pretty close to $2,600 dollars.  I've never jumped out of a chair that fast.

           One of the biggest things that I've learned since I've been here is not to rely on a credit/debit card.  At home, my paycheck was direct deposited, so I never carried cash.  I would go shopping for groceries, or whatever, and never pay attention to prices.  If I didn't have enough cash, I used the credit or debit card without a second thought.  I used a debit card to pay for $3.00 purchase once.  Very few places in Tongxiao will take plastic, maybe 7-11 or the train station.  As a result, before I leave the apartment, I have to check how much cash I have, and watch the prices as I shop.  Definitely a habit I'll keep when I come back to the US.

      This upcoming week should be interesting.  I'm going on a "field trip" on Monday with the Miaoli County FET's to Taipei.  We're having Thanksgiving on the 23rd, and then I'm going on a weekend trip here the next weekend.  It looks amazing.  

          

A weekend in Tongxiao

After the excitement of Thursday, Friday was an ordinary day.  I did my last five Halloween lessons, and let me just say, Halloween is over.  I'm done doing the Frankenstein impersonation, and done being chased by kids begging for candy.
      Friday night, I went to dinner in Zhunan with Peggy, Thomas, Mandy, Linda, and David.  We ate at a little outdoor place, and had steak and noodles with an egg, with black pepper sauce on top.  Very good, they made it to order, and brought it to the table still sizzling.  We walked back to the station, and David (who is fluent in Chinese, and I don't know how many languages) helped me buy minutes for the phone.  When I got back to the apartment, the Yangs (my landlords, I just learned their name today) had company.  I didn't want to bother them, but they asked me to sit down and have tea with them.  I met Mr. Yang's mother, and Rose's mother was there too, she lives here, and about five other retired teacher friends of theirs.  Their son, Nick, translated because he was the only one who speaks English.  I tried some authentic Taiwan Black tea.  They like it strong, and with no sugar.  I only had one cup, if I had another, I probably wouldn't have slept all night.
  This morning, I woke up at about 7 to the sounds of fireworks in front of the building.  Most of the time, it sounds like the building is going to blow up, but I've gotten used to it.  Reminds me of my childhood, ha ha.  While I Skyped with Aunt Dawn, I happen to look out the window, and saw a balloon arch in front of one of the buildings, and a bride going in.  From what I understand, weddings are a huge deal here, the bride has several outfit changes, and the meals are huge.

At 11:30, I went to lunch with Nick and his grandmother (Mr. Yang's mother).  They heard that I really liked dinner on Friday, so they took me to lunch in Tongxiao to have the same thing.  It was just as good as the one in Zhunan.  This was the first time that a foreigner had ever been in the restaurant.  I learned the name of the dish, I will definitely be back.

After the usual afternoon nap, we drove to the grandmother's house, just outside of Tongxiao, and she showed me her house, and her garden.  She makes what they called "Chinese knots," and they're beautiful.  There are hundreds, all over the house.  Someday my house will probably look like that, but with cross-stitch pieces.  

I didn't get any good pictures of the garden, or the pool.  The pool was empty, because she can't take care of it anymore.  I told them my grandmother used to have a garden that size.  But she never had a pool with a live crocodile in it.  This one did, at one time.  I had coffee again, and seaweed crackers.  They like to snack here.  She kept trying to teach me Chinese words, but I kept forgetting them.  I do remember the words for pomelo, black tea, and peanut.  I just can't spell them.  We stopped at their family friends' place on the way back and had more tea and snacks.  The wife showed me purses that she sews, they were better than any Vera Bradley I've ever seen.  I had dinner with the family, chicken, some vegetables and fried rice.   

So far, it's been a good weekend.  This next week is going to be crazy again, the FET's have to perform in a festival on Tuesday, and then we have mobile English village on Wednesday.