Happy Moon Festival

There is no way that week contained 7 whole days, it absolutely flew by.  Upon leaving Kaohsiung last weekend I think all of the teachers were dreading the work week, thinking with the various presentations and tests that the days would drag on, and yet, here we are at the end of another week (and, regrettably the end of another weekend).  

This past week, two more of my classes graduated terms, and I held two more presentation lessons (and starting next week I have to attempt to merge together those two completely different classes).  I am proud to say that 'throwing me into the deep-end' with presentations has successfully calmed my fears about them.  My manager says that I am very confident 'on the stage' of the classroom (her words, thought the theatre analogy applies so well to my life that I'm surprised I didn't say them).

September 28th in Taiwan is Teacher's Day.  This date was chosen to commemorate the birth of Confucius, who was believed to be the master educator in China.  I may not be a master educator, but I still got to enjoy teachers day, mainly by creating an activity in which each student had to write a card to the teachers in the school (the cards could be to the manager, the TA's, or the foreign teachers).  As a result a lot of the people in the school have a lot of beautiful drawings and cute cards from the students, and I have 'new wallpaper' for my desk area!

Happy Teacher's Day from CEI07.

This weekend's trip was a short day trip to Maoli county to see the Sanyi wood-art festival.  Many of the residents in the town have wood-carving businesses, and for one month a year they hold a festival to draw attention to the fact.  Each store displayed a variety of furniture and sculptures of a variety of subjects from religious figures, to zodiac figures, to animals (particularly horses for some reason) which were intricately designed.  I am disappointed that I didn't end up buying any souveniers from the festival.

Saturday night I had my first KTV experience, a staple of the Asian lifestyle.  KTV is a karaoke business, but unlike the traditional style of American karaoke, you are only singing for your friends.  Large groups will rent out a room with a TV system (with the appropriate karaoke supplies like lyrics and microphones), seating spaces (and dancing spaces), and an all-you-can-eat buffet.  The room was ours from midnight-6am, but we only lasted 4.5 hours before surrendering to exhaustion and sore throats.  It was a lot of fun (particularly the large group numbers like "I will survive" and "It's raining men")

The full moon tonight can only mean one thing, it must be the Moon Festival (also known as the mid-Autumn festival) in Taiwan.  Many ancient traditions associated with the Moon Festival, such as sacrifice and prayers to the Gods of various religions (such as Tai Yin Hsing Ju the Taoist moon goddess) have faded away through the years, and now the main tradition on the holiday is a family barbeque.  With all of us to far from our families the TA's organized a 'school family barbeque' and we sat around for 4 hours eating (for the number of times in my life I have been told that Americans have huge potion sizes, or Americans eat too much, I have to comment that I find the amount of food consumed here to be much more than I would have been subjected to in the states).  Most of the food was things I come across on a regular basis, I believe the only new foods of the day were rice sausage (which is, as it sounds, a sausage casing stuffed with rice), and water bamboo (which is one of my new favorite foods).

Famous in Taiwan

While it occasionally sounds like my life in Taiwan is a fairy tale (and in many aspects it is), this week I was reminded that this is the real world, and sometimes things are stressful.  This week was filled to the brim with stress at school (and I was repeatedly reminded reminded of how wonderful my friends are at relieving that stress).  The main stress hanging over my head for the entire week was the fear of my first presentation which occurred during my CE15 (mid-level English class around 12-14 years old) on Friday.  In Shane School a presentation lesson occurs at the end of each term (a term lasts 24-25 lessons) and is an opportunity to prove to the students, parents, and manager how effective the class, school, and teacher are.  A presentation is a 30 minute long window in which 5 or more activities should be used to summarize what the students have learned and how their English abilities have developed during the term (and of course, if a student's abilities have not improved the parents are less likely to enroll their students in a following term).  I would have greatly appreciated the opportunity to observe a presentation lesson before having one of my own, but unlike many teachers I did not have this luxury.  While I have not received the feedback from my presentation, my self assessment is that the worrying and over-preparation I did paid off with a successful presentation with a good parental turn out, high participation rates, and behaved students. What a relief!  Too bad I have to spend this week worrying and planning for two more presentations (but then I should have a month or so of freedom).
I have completed one of the items in my Taiwan to-do list (though I know I will repeat this trip many more times over the next year) I finally went to visit the statue of Buddha on Baguashan (this landmark is known as 'The Big Buddha' and is located approximately 20-30 minutes walking distance from my house), which I was originally told was the largest Buddha in Taiwan, but I believe that is a former (or entirely false) title because my research does not seem to support the claim.  I like to compare my 'first encounters' with locations and foods in Taiwan with how I feel other foreigner's 'first encounters' went, and I feel that my trip to Buddha was completely unique in the fact that the trip began at 1am, and involved toasting Buddha at the base of the temple staircase with Heineken beers.  I also added and (and completed) 'ride the High Speed Rail (train)' to my to do list.
One of the remarkable aspects of the "teacher life" in Taiwan is the fact that we are a novelty to the majority of the people we interact with each day.  Many Taiwanese people have a fascination with foreigners, sometimes to the point that they engage us in [limited] conversations on the streets/buses/subways/etc. and (though it is less common) some ask us to pose for pictures.  One of the most interesting (and comical) experiences for me is when our group poses for pictures, and behind whoever is taking the photograph is a group of Asians taking taking our group picture for their own archive.  I think that makes us local celebrities.
This weekend I went on a trip to the second largest (and most modern) city in Taiwan: Kaohsiung, this is where the 'celebrity status' was most apparent (though, we did make a spectacle of ourselves on more than one occasion).  This weekend Kaohsiung hosted their annual gay pride festival, and what began as a plan to watch the parade became the spontaneous decision to walk in the parade (which was a two-hour ordeal which took us around a large square of the city).  During the parade we were in countless pictures and videos with fellow allies of the gay community.  Much of the walk was spent talking to the Taiwanese people around us, and serenading them with our acapella version of countless showtunes and classic 80's songs.

The crew at Kaohsiung Gay Pride Festival

There does not appear to be as harsh of a stigma against homosexuality in Taiwan.  One of the best moments on Saturday (the day of the parade) was on the walk home when we were over a mile from the festivities and walking to our hostel through a night market and a woman who barely spoke English pointed out our rainbow flags showed her support [for us and] the gay community. 

Today was spent further exploring Kaohsiung.  The day began with a walk to the old British Consulate where we enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea and got our first great view of the harbor.  The port of Kaohsiung is the largest harbor in Taiwan.  We later traveled through this harbor (by way of ferry) to the island of Cijin (a small island with a day-market and a lovely beach).

The harbor of Kaohsiung (including Kaohsiung's tallest building: Tuntex Sky Tower) 

One of the aspects of Taiwanese economy that I find most interesting is the Taiwan lottery system.  In Taiwan there used to be a problem with businesses failing to report all of their sales on tax forms as a way to either save money or receive more money from the government (it was particularly easy for small businesses and street vendors to get away with this).  Taiwan changed this in one of the most original manners I could imagine, by implementing a lottery system in which each receipt printed is eligible to win.  Each time something is purchased in Taiwan you are given a receipt (which may sound normal for the states as well, but think back on how many times you have thrown away your receipt or asked for it not two be printed) and each receipt is printed with its own lottery numbers.  Once every two month a new set of winning lottery numbers are released and everyone searches through all of the receipts they have collected to see if their numbers match.  A winning ticket can be worth 200NT (about $7) to 10,000,000NT (about $341,000).  I currently have a bag full of various receipts from 7Eleven/Family Mart/tea stores/etc. waiting for the next lottery number announcement.

One Month Anniversary

Would you look at the time (ok, I mean calendar), today is the 1-month anniversary of my arrival in Taiwan.  I've accomplished a lot in a month, but I think there are a few basic goals which I will highly regret if I don't accomplish them soon: learn basic directions around the city (getting from point A to point B without calling for directions every time would be a welcome change), go to a store (a department store preferably, I'd like basic things like a clothes rack, and a garbage can), get ahead on class planning rather than playing 'catch-up' by planning lessons on the day they are taught (I hear its possible, but I don't think most teachers actually do that), learn to produce the tones in Chinese so I can actually start learning the language, and visit Buddha (I live approximately a 20 minute walk away from the largest statue of Buddha in all of Taiwan, and I still haven't gone to see it). I have a lot of other things to accomplish this month, but those are the things that I should have done already.

This was my first week at school without any observation classes, and I must say that I enjoy the official teacher status I have achieved now.  I'm starting to get to know the students, which helps me to plan activities that will actually promote interaction, rather than promoting that 'I wish my teacher would shut up' facial expression that all teachers come to know.  During the school week I had several firsts including the delivery of my first (two) written and oral exams, I level-checked (interviewed) my first prospective private student (which is the teacher's chance to gauge the student's abilities, and the student's chance to decide if they like the teacher) and got my interviewee to sign-up for my class (which means I get a bonus of NT150), my first manager observed class (which I will get the results from this week, but if I had to guess, I would say that I will get a positive review) and my first paycheck.  The highlight of my school week came from a conversation I had with my manager early in the week though.  We were talking about some of the responsibilities I would have in the near future, and she told me that she thinks I was born to be a teacher!  I was literally 'all smiles' the rest of that day!

This weekend was dedicated to the exploration of Taichung, which is the third biggest city on the island (and is approximately a 15 minute train ride away from my city of Changhua). Yesterday I went to a beautiful concert put on by one of the other foreign teachers in the area, following which, the group celebrated week 2 of birthdays at a 'white party' (which was about clothing color, but every one of us laughed at the irony of inviting a bunch of Caucasians to a 'white party').

Dancing at Freedom for the "white party".

Today was my chance to introduce my friends to something new (since I came here I haven't been much of an event coordinator because I haven't had much of an idea of the possible options around here).  I took several of my friends on a geocaching trip in Taichung.  We only successfully found one cache today (we only attempted two however, so I guess 50-50 isn't too bad) which was in an abandoned military tank under an underpass (it was a very cool location).  It was fun to be able to introduce everyone to a piece of my home life (and it is a great way for me to explore the island).  The night ended with dinner at an Indian restaurant (which is slowing becoming my favorite food group) called Bollywood.

Here we are with our successfully obtained geocache (also, we are in a tank).

One of the aspects of Taiwanese culture that I would like to look into further while I am here is the Taiwanese funeral customs (which have been coming to my attention a lot in this past week because an apartment across the street from where I live is in mourning).  The mourning period of a family tends to be at least a week (and the body should be kept in the house during this time), during which time tents, pictures of the deceased, and floral arrangements are common outside of the family's house.  The aspect of funerals here which is most unusual in comparison to western funerals is the presence of funeral strippers.  That was not a typo, it is common (though it has become less common over the last few years) for strippers to be part of a funeral (there are many possible explanations for this tradition, among which are the belief that it is an 'offering' to appease lower-gods).  In time I will research this subject further.

Acclimating

With every day comes a new and exciting adventure (I know it sounds cheesy, but I have no other way to describe my life right now).  Another week of teaching and another weekend of adventure have come and gone.
I already have a fairly regular schedule at work, which makes me feel even more at home in the school (and also saves me because one of the frustrations that comes with my particular school branch is the fact that we are not provided with our following week schedule in advance (meaning I will be planning and teaching my Monday lessons in the same day)).  This will be the first full week without the teacher I am replacing around the school, which means that starting Monday I am Shane English School (Homei)'s 3rd full time teacher!
On Tuesday of this past week I experienced my first night market, which appears to be a common occurrence in most cities.  The night markets of Taiwan typically consist of a vast array of food, some drinks, limited shopping, and games of 'hoopla' (but perhaps this is just the review of Homei's night market).  Among my friends it is commonplace to convince the newcomer to eat some of Taiwan's less-popular foods (less common among the foreign population, I am under the impression locals enjoy them).  My first food test was Stinky Tofu, which is a fried tofu dish most commonly known for its fragrance (which has been described as smelling reminiscent of gym socks and/or garbage), and less known for its taste (which is borderline flavorless).  I also enjoyed quail eggs on a stick, and shaved milk with mango.  The highlight of my night however would have to be winning a bottle of non-alcoholic champagne in Hoopla (a 'standard' game of ring toss, where the targets range from liquor/beer to small toys).
Saturday was a my first Shane School function.  All teachers and TA's from the four franchise schools in my region all got together for a complementary dinner at a local barbeque called Bake Shape Ape (which we all agreed was an excellent phonics lesson, but a horrible restaurant name).  The style of the restaurant was unlike anything I have been at before (though I don't believe it is unique around here).  Each table is sunk into the floor and has places for people to sit around them (also on the floor).  In the middle of each table is a place to cook food hot-pot style and barbeque style, and raw meats/veggies are served to the tables to be cooked to each person's individual liking.  Lunch included more meat than I have had in weeks, and included various parts of pork, chicken, beef, and seafood animals (the most exotic of which was chicken heart). Following lunch was a night of partying and dancing for my friend Derek's birthday.

Several of the Homei TA's and teachers enjoying our barbeque lunch.

We're about to eat chicken heart for the first time.

Today was a day of exploration is the small town of Jiji.  The day started with the intent to go go carting (which did happen), but there were other highlights.  The most hauntingly beautiful sight of the way was the Wu Chang Gong Temple.  This is a temple which was leveled years ago by a powerful earthquake, and now all that remains is a partially intact roof.  Many pieces of sculpture-work from the roof, as well as the overall shape of the roof, have been left in place.  One of the highlights of the day was the train ride home.  Because we tend to be the only foreigners the Taiwanese people see on a regular basis, they are always fascinated by us.  On the train we had a Chinese lady feeding us Tangelo, and a Taiwanese lady feeding us dried plums (though she told us they were mangoes, and they tasted like tomatoes), and dried bananas.

Walking the streets of Jiji

The remains of the Wu Chang Gong Temple.

One of the quirky superstitions in the United States is a fear of the number 13, and I have learned in Taiwan that there is a similar fear related to the number '4'.  The number '4' in Chinese is similar to the word for 'death' in Chinese (which I believe are both 'si' with varying tones) which is the basis for the phobia.  As a result, many buildings will not have a labeled 4th floor and will instead skip to the 5th floor or have a 3A and 3B floor.  In apartment buildings the main result is that foreigners (including myself) live on the 4th floor.

It is time to get my lesson plans together and get some sleep! Goodnight friends!

It's official, I'm a teacher!

My first week of classes is complete, which means it's official: I'm a teacher.  I have now planned and taught 6 different classes, ranging from absolute beginners around 6 years old (CEI01), to advanced students (CEA02), to a private 1-on-3 lesson with two siblings and their aunt.  I am excited to have begun my work here, I love being around my co-teachers and the students, the atmosphere already makes the job enjoyable.
Speaking of 'enjoyable', this has been a week of great experiences.  Tuesday I was introduced to the Changhua bar scene and learned my first Taiwanese bar dice game (Liar's dice).  While I have vaguely heard the rules of the game before (meaning it is not a strictly Taiwanese game), the noteworthy aspect of this adventure is the fact that it provided the environment in which I learned how to count (to 10) in Chinese.  As my friends here can attest to, my pronunciation is still awful (I am struggling to understand the vowel tones), but this is still a step in the right direction towards leaning the language.
Almost every weekend for foreigners in this country is filled with an adventure, so this weekend I got to experience my first taste of that.  One of the aspects which I originally overlooked about the experience of moving here is not just the introduction to Taiwanese culture, but also the introduction to the cultures and customs of my co-teachers/foreigners.  For example, on Friday night I celebrated my first Shabbat with a few of my friends (one of which is Jewish, of course).
Saturday I took a scooter trip to Taichung (which is about a 15 minute train ride from Changhua), which is one of the biggest cities in Taiwan.  While I was severely limited on the amount of time I had at my disposal to roam, I was still able to enjoy a delicious Indian dinner, visit an English bookstore, and wander the Rock in Taichung music festival.  While the music festival did not feature music that my friend or I really enjoyed, it was still quite a novel experience listening to heavy metal (featuring English screaming) in Chinese.  Following the trip to Taichung a group of my friends went out for Taiwanese massages.  While I will still stand by that having been a good plan for the evening, I think we will all agree that this was a significantly more painful experience than planned.  For 600NT (approximately $20) we each got an hour massage which focused mainly on our feet (but also included head and shoulders) and was performed by older Chinese men who seemed to find it funny to make foreigners squirm by digging their knuckles into our feet.  It was funny, and I will admit that I felt great this morning, but it was definitely not the relaxing experience we were all expecting.  The night was topped off with one of the essential experiences in all of Asia: karaoke.  We went to Love98 which is an Asian-style karaoke bar where the microphones are passed from booth to booth rather than having the singer stand on an awkward stage with all eyes on them.  The whole experience was incredibly entertaining.
Today was the icing on an already great cake.  I partook in my first scooter adventure to a mountain about an hour outside of my city (called 'monkey mountain' by foreigners) which is known for having wild monkeys along the paths.  After a few minutes of walking up the mountain there were families of monkeys everywhere.  For some of the locals visiting the mountain today, the group of foreigners was a more surprising site than all the monkeys.

A family of monkeys posing in a tree near the trail.

Here I am posing with a few of the monkeys just after they have received a meal of fruit. 

At the top of monkey mountain is a beautiful temple and a small city.  We enjoyed wandering this area for a while looking for souveniers, inadvertently sampling tea from the shops, and enjoying a less-than-exciting dinner from 7-eleven.

The view from the top of monkey mountain.

The dragon-themed temple atop monkey mountain.

Outside of my social life I am working on adjusting to Taiwanese life.  It is amazing how some aspects of everyday life can be much more difficult when the language is different.  For example, I have completed my first laundry day of my Taiwanese life, and I am still not certain what each button on the machine means.  What I do know is that I successfully got the machine to fill with water and the clothes to spin around.  One thing I know I will miss over the next year is having a dryer which actually heats the clothes rather than simply spinning them (line drying is common-place here).

Another thing I miss is milk, delicious Wisconsin milk.  Taiwan has some of the best flavored milks I've ever had (papaya, mango, melon, etc.), but when it comes to plain milk it appears to be non-existent.  I heard a rumor that the explanation for this is that bottled milk here is made from a combination of milk and powdered milk, but I have not been able to find claims online that prove or deny this.  The point is, I seriously need to find some real skim milk!