We wish you a Merry Christmas

The heart of the holiday season has come and gone, and what a merry Christmas it was! I must say, I was a little worried about spending the holidays so far away from home, but, entirely courtesy of my amazing family and friends, I had a wonderful Christmas.  I spend Christmas eve with my co-teachers and school's TA staff at one of the universities in Taichung, where we listened to a Christian church service (in Chinese), sang hymns (mainly 'silent night' repeatedly), and counted down Christmas day with the ringing of the bells 100 times (it is tradition to count each 'dong' of the bell and then make a wish at the 100th ring).  Christmas day was spent with my closest friends in Taiwan, who I call my "Taiwan family'.  The day was spent in Yuanlin, where we started with a steak lunch, then proceeded to one of the teacher's houses for our gift exchange (we played Secret Santa amongst the teachers, and may I just say that the pictures and trinkets I received from my gift-giver almost made me cry, they were so well thought out), consumed some mulled wine (that was my first time ever drinking mulled wine, why have I never been introduced to this Christmas tradition?) and snacks, and played some games.  Overall it was a perfect Christmas day.  The next morning I was able to have a more traditional Christmas day, thanks to the wonders of technology I spent some time with my family at the cabin and enjoyed opening family presents which have been patiently waiting for me to open for a month (when you are a child your parents monitor your presents to make sure you don't open them, when you are an adult you have to monitor yourself, it is tough work).  Also, for anyone who was worried about it, Santa found me out here and was able to fill my stocking!

The Homei teaching staff - 'ringing' in Christmas day in Taichung

My 'Taiwan family'

Seeing as it is the week of Christmas, I also got to bring the holidays into the classroom.  Monday was a theme-teaching day with the CEI classes, so my co-teacher and I combined classes and hosted a singing competition, decorated gingerbread man cookies, and watched the claymation Rudolph (for me it just isn't Christmas without that movie).  In each of my classes (courtesy of my wonderful mother) I was also able to present the students with stockings filled with 'American candy' (tootsie rolls and laffy taffy).  Christmas may not be a big holiday here, but it was still fun to subject the Taiwanese children to some of our 'quirky' traditions.

As much as I would like to overlook the negative parts of my week, it would be skewing reality too much.  The first, and most unfortunate thing that has happened this week is that my brand new camera   went missing (almost certainly at the night market).  I have filed a missing property report with the Changhua police department, and now I am sitting patiently, hoping it is returned to me.  I also managed to lose my keys on Christmas day (this story has a much happier ending however).  On the taxi ride back from Yuanlin, I joked to myself about leaving my keys behind, but I hadn't, and I pulled them out to prove it.  My keys must have fallen as I was getting out of the taxi however, because as soon as I stepped out, they were no where to be found.  As I was having a borderline break-down in the middle of the street, my friends called the taxi back (who originally told us he he didn't have the keys, but agreed to drive back when we offered to pay him) and lucky me (though luck had nothing to do with it, since I had already confirmed that they keys weren't with me), we found them in the taxi right away! The real memory in this 'unfortunately adventure' is the fact that the taxi driver was so apologetic for not having found the keys by himself, that he refused to let us pay him for his troubles, which goes to show either the spirit of the holidays or the good-nature of Taiwan.  Final bit of negative is that I'm getting sicker...I am much more congested this week.

My random thought of the the week involves Taiwanese eating customs.  In Taiwan, nothing is considered a finger food (because, as is logical, our hands are dirty, though not everyone is strict with this), so 'finger foods' such as hamburgers or chicken wings pose a complication here.  I was reminded of this tonight when, at dinner, our basket of forks and knives was also accompanied with plastic gloves.  We ate at a hamburger restaurant, and, because that is a food which is common to pick up, the solution is to cover your hands first (pretty clever if you ask me).  The aversion to touching foods is also noticeable when purchasing fruits, which are always sold with skewers so you can stab your food instead of picking it up (as I discovered this week, that is an exceptionally difficult way to each pomegranate seeds), when buying street food which always comes in paper wrapping (and often with a skewer again), and when buying cakes (which are sold with the knife for cutting pieces, and the plates and tiny forks for eating).

Unfortunately the countdown to Christmas has restarted, and since I don't want to count the next 358 days, I'll do the brief countdown to New Years, in which the festivities will commence in: 1 day!

Its the end of the world as we know it?

Congratulations! The fact that you are reading this means we have all survived December 21st, 2012: 'the end of the world'.
If I were being 100% honest with myself, I would say that this has not been my favorite week.  I'm feeling a little out of sorts right now, likely for one (or more of the following reasons):
*this past week was a 6-day work week rather than 5 (in order to have new year's eve and new year's day off from work we had to hold an extra day of classes, so that fell on Saturday)
*two of my friends went home this week (goodbye Zach and Wendy)
*It is almost Christmas, but Taiwan is lacking the level of holiday-spirit which I am accustomed to (I have my tree, and I am excited about the pile of presents and cards which are waiting under it, but it is the first time I haven't been home for Christmas day, and that is a weird feeling)
*I am sick (its just a minor cough, but as my friends warned me, something about the first time you are ill in Taiwan is more crippling than it would be back home, and this cough has affected my sleep patterns, eating patterns, and has caused a dull pain in my eyes) which usually wouldn't bother me too much, except that teaching small children, particularly teaching them Christmas Carols, can be straining on a healthy throat, and the process keeps sending me into coughing fits
Don't get me wrong, I'm in Taiwan, which means that overall there is more good than bad happening in my life.  This week I bought my first scooter (moped), which makes me a Taiwan Adult (or a proper nerd, depending on how you look at it).  It may not be the motorcycle I have always talked of wanting, but it is the closest I have ever come, so I'll take it!  I have really enjoyed my new-found means of exploring the city, it gives me a chance of actually learning my way around Changhua.  Also in my list of exciting purchases are a hot plate (so I can finally cook in my apartment), a teapot (first one I have ever owned, and with it I just made my first cup of tea), and a cup of strawberries (I know what you are thinking, but I haven't had strawberries in at least 4 months, and they were delicious).
Comparison time! Did you know, that in Minnesota right now, the daytime temperature is 15 degrees Fahrenheit (with a windchill causing it to feel like 5 degrees).  The daytime temperature in Taiwan today was 68 degrees Fahrenheit.  The interesting thing about temperature is that it is all relative.  Have you ever noticed that as autumn begins and the temperature drops, we are quick to bundle up, but when spring begins and the temperature starts rising we are quick to shed our extra levels.  The temperature when we add layers, tends to be higher than the temperature when we start losing layers.  The bodies tolerance for cold increases the longer it has been exposed to it.  Most of the Taiwanese people I know have been wearing winter jackets and thick knit sweaters for weeks now, and wool scarves and hats have been on sale for months, but I can picture my friends and family shedding all of their winter-protective-gear if the temperature today rose to 70 degrees.  I've always had a good tolerance for the cold, but I'll admit, even I had on a long sleeve shirt, vest, jacket, scarf, and gloves today.

Taiwan 'family photo' - gathered around the Christmas tree

Countdown to Christmas: 2 days (wow, tomorrow is Christmas eve already!) Happy holidays!

A fond 'farewell'

As is the nature with most travelers, nothing is permanent.  For the majority of the teachers living in Taiwan, we understand that we will eventually move on from here, possibly to another school, or to another country, or back to our previous homelands.  The last of which is in the near future for one of my close friends here in Taiwan, who will be moving back to the states on Thursday after 3.5 years of living here.  By the time I leave, I know I will have seen the majority of my current friends leave, but this is my first real 'goodbye' since arriving, and unlike in the states where I have always been within a few hours of my friends, now when we part, they will be worlds away from me.  It certainly is hard to say 'goodbye' to people.  The optimist side of me adores the realization that I could meet up with friends all over the world now, while the realist side of me remembers just how expensive that will be (its a good thing my optimistic side always wins).
As some people have observed, I don't often reference people by names in my writing.  I don't know if it is to avoid sounding too repetitive each week, or if it is to avoid boring my readers with those 'you had to be there' moments, but it has been an intentional effort.  I have decided, however, that since this is primarily a means for me to remember my time here, that is the first of what I imagine will be a long list of 'dedication posts' where I will reflect upon some of the defining moments of my close friendships here.  Today's post is to Zach, one of the first friends that I made here in Taiwan.  Most of my memories of Taiwan thus far have involved this man, which makes whittling the list down to 'defining memories' more difficult.  Zach is credited with being the reason why I know my Chinese numbers, was the 'cause' of the first bee sting I've ever had, and was the person who introduced me to a lot of my favorite restaurants here in Taiwan, but I'd say the race for 'defining moment in a friendship' goes to either our 'non-dating date night' which consisted of dinner, waltzing lessons in front of the train station, and my first trip to Johnny Bar (where we were sold the worst smelling flower I have ever experienced and split a frozen potato) OR the night his scooter ran out of gas and we pushed it across the city to the nearest gas station and spent a lot of the walk reminiscing on other key moments in our friendship.  He's been a great friend these past few months, this move wouldn't have been the same without him.

Goodbye Zach

This 'goodbye', however, is coupled with a 'hello'.  On Friday we welcomed my manager's baby into the world.  He's a healthy, 3kg baby boy (who does not have an English name yet, and I don't know his Chinese name).  The biggest change that this will bring about (in my life) is that the school will be functioning without our manager for at least the next month.  While the TA staff has been trained in how to run the school while she is away, there will still be an interesting work dynamic for the next few weeks.
The most time consuming event of the week is actually an extension from last week, and that is because, as you know, Chanukkah lasts for eight nights.  As I previously mentioned, we began lighting Chanukkah candles last week on Saturday, and that has continued through the week, with the commencement of Chanukkah being sundown tonight.  We observed many [not-so-traditional] traditions of Chanukkah over the last several days, such as the traditional making of the Jewish puns, the traditional breaking of the candles, and the traditional sharing of the convenient store foods.  While these are obviously not 'Chanukkah traditions', they were a fun addition to the traditional candle lighting ceremony we observed each night.
This week's unrelated thought process reflects on the availability of certain products in Taiwan.  There are things that we accept as not only normal in our lives, but also as necessity, but we rarely think about how necessary other people would consider these items.  In other cultures, the items which westerners find essential, may hold very little importance at all, and I have found this to be the case especially when looking for certain toiletries here.  For example, there is no stigma attached to women having hairy legs in Taiwan, which means that products like shaving cream are not made for women (which has resulted in my use of men's shaving cream).  Another note that I doubt most people have considered (though women who enjoy travel should look into) is the prominence of tampons abroad.  In many countries, Taiwan included, pads are the popular choice for women, and the tampon selection is limited to one or two brands (quite a difference when compared to an aisle of similar products in any US store).  Some of my male friends have also commented on the limited number of deodorants/antiperspirants designed for men in Taiwan (I have not found this to be the case for women's deodorants/antiperspirants, though I have noticed that the selection of products for females contains far more spray products and far fewer roll-on products that I am used to).  This is only the skimmed surface of the differences between toiletry shopping in Taiwan versus the US, but overall the differences don't matter, a good traveler learns to acclimate to their surroundings after all.

Merry Christmas from TeaWork

By the way, the countdown to Christmas is 8 day! My goodness, where has the time gone?!

Chanukkah in Changhua

Happy Chanukkah (or Hannukah, or Hanukkah, or whatever your spelling preference may be) from the small (and not particularly Jewish) island of Taiwan.  Today is the second night of Chanukkah, and because our small group is so diverse, we have reason enough to celebrate the holiday.  To start off Chanukkah, last night we had a hanukiah-making, candle-lighting, latke-eating, dreidel-playing party.  Tonight while slightly less traditional (slightly may be an understatement), included lighting the Shamash ('helper candle') from the stovetop, the recital of Hebrew blessings by three Gentiles (because there were no Jewish people present due to a last minute scheduling conflict), and the recreation of the Team America theme song (so it pertains to Chanukkah).  As per the traditions of Chanukkah, we will continue lighting candles for the remainder of the eight days.

Sharing Andy's gold coin winnings following the dreidel game.

Since the main focus of my adventure here is my teaching experience, I had better hurry up and share my big accomplishment of the week.  I spend a lot of time talking about my CEI class (the class that I posted Thanksgiving pictures with a couple of weeks ago), which is the class I spend the most time with each week (an average class has two lessons each week, while a CEI has four).  My CEI class began studying at Shane on the same day that I began teaching at Shane (so unlike my older classes who have studied under many teachers in the past, I am their first Shane teacher), and have by far been the class I have struggled with the most. I have a special bond with this class, and I know that despite everything I am about to say, that they genuinely like me (as much as any student could like a teacher I suppose) and I know this because they will visit me before/after my classes and are lovely children, but in-class they have always been, for lack of a better word - naughty.  Unlike a normal class of 7-9 year-olds who tend to be enthusiastic about new games, afraid of punishments, and overall sponges for new information, this class has been mildly-violent and some students celebrate punishments (such as receiving extra homework).  In the last four months I have tried various punishment and reward systems, I have tried a plethora of new games, I have modified my teaching style through varying levels of strictness, and nothing seemed to work.  It appears, however, that I have made a breakthrough with them, which was showcased during their second parental presentation (on Friday), which has been noticed (and complimented) by my TA's, co-workers, and my manager!

That class has been a bright spot on what has otherwise been a dark week.  That wasn't meant to be a metaphor, after 3.5 months without rain in Taiwan, we have been subjected to rain everyday for the last 2 weeks, which has caused a shortage of sunlight.  The upside to this is the fact that it brings this country to an ideal temperature for me (which is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit), but the lack of sunlight, and excess rain make most activities less achievable, and therefore make most days less enjoyable, which is a major downside (also, in a country where you depend on hang-drying your clothes, the lack of fresh air for your "dryer" really complicates the process).

On an unrelated note, this weekend has involved an unofficial, yet ongoing scavenger hunt among the foreigners in all Asian countries (though I will clearly be focusing on how it pertains to Taiwan), which is the quest to find comical examples of Engrish (specifically Chinglish).  That was not a typo, I am referring the misuse of written English in many Asian-countries (known as Engrish) and the narrower category of mis-typed English when translated from Chinese (known as Chinglish) on signs, shirts, products, etc..  While English is not a native language in Taiwan, it is still very popular in education, shopping, and the fashion industry, and while some of the uses of English are perfect, others have errors that provide not only noticeable, but comical mistakes (some of which are so severe they make the entire piece unintelligible).

Dream (not)
 hvops last stop like castle lock
pvats biost off like
roose we came to get storted throw
imbows like some angry
thers our dolvery's pedigres hdaded
sharpoon like the chambass at the wu fang our
shots got that mathod man wann
shong with the otangutans moss op
imbows like some angry
shots got that mathod man wann
shong with the otangutans moss op

Final thought: the countdown to Christmas is at 15 days! Happy Holidays!

Welcome to the holiday season

My big news of the week is that I got health insurance.  I know, that doesn't sound like a big deal, health insurance is commonplace, especially in countries like Taiwan with National Health Insurance policies available to all of its citizens, but I was originally denied insurance due to my, shall we say, "American size".  While I acknowledge never having been on the thin side of the spectrum (even in my younger, 'more athletic days') I have also never considered myself to be too large, so this was upsetting news to me.  I have worried for the last few months about what would happen if I got sick or injured here, and thankfully nothing of the sort has happened, but it is comforting to be fully insured.  I wish I could explain what happened, what changed about me or the system to allow me to gain health insurance, perhaps I lost weight, perhaps they checked a BMI scale, perhaps they simply realized that I am taller than 5ft...I don't think I will ever know for sure.

There are no noteworthy moments from my teaching week, which is a positive sign that teaching has morphed into being second nature for me.  I have spent the week introducing some new games to my classes, teaching Christmas Carols, and prepping most of my classes for the fact that final exam and parent presentation 'season' is upon us (yet again).  Within the next 3 weeks ALL of my classes will have had an exam, that'll be a lot of work!

I believe I have gone on more trips to the movie theater in the 3.5 months I have spent living in Taiwan than I did in the rest of 2012 (which isn't saying much, since I have only seen four movies here, but since two of them were this week it seems like a big deal).  Many people are curious about what the movie viewing experience is like here, since I am in a country where English is not the primary language.  My experience does not summarize the entire film industry of Taiwan, simply the limited selection of movies which I have viewed, which were all in English with Mandarin subtitles (no dubbing!).  As you have probably already realized, Taiwan is not particularly a film capital, so many of the movies here are foreign, and a lot of them are played in their original format (and therefore original language) because the process of dubbing movies is a time-consuming and expensive process.  The only real differences between seeing these movies here, and what I imagine seeing them at home would have been like, is that the cost was cheaper here (190NT per ticket, which is approximately $6USD), the theaters are smaller, there isn't always a huge concession stand in the theater's lobby (and if there is a concession stand, it doesn't sell buttered popcorn since that is primarily an American snack), and the movie doesn't play through all of the credits following the film.  These are all differences which I am willing so accept, so on Wednesday several of the Changhua teachers went to Life of Pi, which was recently released both here and in the states (one of the frustrating things about movies in Taiwan is that their release dates are often delayed, sometimes by multiple months, from their US release dates).  I'll start by saying that this was a beautifully filmed movie, and I recommend everyone see it, but I don't intend on providing a review of it here.  Instead I would like to talk about why this movie is important to Taiwan, which is a short list starting with the mention of its director, Ang Lee (did you know he is Taiwanese?), and ending with the fact that some of the scenes were filmed in Taiwan in Taichung and Kenting.  It may not seem like much, but when you think about all the times 'movie magic' is used instead of location-shooting, and when you think about how often people think about Taiwan (which, for the average American (those American's that don't know anyone who has moved here) is not too often), it is a little more impressive.  I also saw, and don't make fun of me for too long about this, part 2 of Twilight: Breaking Dawn.  This movie had no significance to Taiwan, but I have to hand it to everyone involved, I found this to be a monumental improvement from the other movies in the series.  

I inadvertently ended up at the outdoor portion of the Life of Pi  exhibit at the Taichung Science Museum.

Saturday was a strange day.  The activities of the day were normal enough, the strangeness came in those moments that trailed between the main events of going to the art museum, eating at a western restaurant, and having a game night.  The adventure started with my taxi ride through Taichung to meet up with my friends at the art museum.  For starters, taking a taxi has become a semi-regular means of transportation for me, because the cost here is far more reasonable than back home (for example, I can get home from my school, which is about a 15 minute ride, for 200NT (about $6), or I can get anywhere in Changhua for 100-150NT ($3-5)).  I should have known this would be an interesting taxi ride when the driver handed my phone out the window to a different taxi driver to get directions, and I really should have known when I heard the driver shouting out the window that he was driving a foreigner (wai guo ren) around town, but it was when he tried to sell me his cell phone that the oddities clicked for me.  The irritating, yet somehow fitting thing about this taxi ride was that he ended up dropping me off at the wrong museum (I was at the science museum, not the art museum), and I had already paid and left the taxi by the time I discovered this, so I had to catch another cab to get to the right location.  Somehow, many hours later, destiny saw fit for me (and several other people this time) to find the first taxi driver again, in our quest for a ride back to the train station.  This time, while there were no phone sales tactics, he did decide that getting into the car to back it into a suitable loading zone required too much effort, so instead he just pushed it (literally, pushed this mid-sized car) several feet backwards.  The other noteworthy moments of the day were: finding Dr. Pepper (in Taiwan the soda selection is limited to Sprite and Coca-Cola), seeing Christmas displays, and eating enchiladas (enchiladas are so much more exciting when you haven't seen Mexican food in 4 months).

'TEACHERS, ASSEMBLE! Standing strong with the metallic silhouettes at the entrance to the Taichung art museum

Getting in the Christmas spirit by riding reindeer in Taichung

Speaking of Christmas (and by that I am referencing the above picture), the Christmas countdown is at 22 days! Happy Holidays everyone!