Here's To Some Good Luck!

Warning: The following portion of the post can best be described with the word 'venting'.
I would be lying if I said I didn't find this week to be particularly frustrating, and the heart of the issue came down to the matter of communication.  I can't imagine many people would disagree with me if I told them that communication is vital in the workplace, so why was it so faulty in my workplace this week?  For example, on Wednesday one of my co-workers called in sick, and her classes were reassigned to other teachers (not me).  At 6:30, while I was in the middle of a different class, I was called and asked to cover the private student who was scheduled to come in at 8:30 (which admittedly was not too much of a challenge  because my final class of the day ended at 7:10 so I still had over an hour of preparation time, but I could have had a whole day of it since I talked to my co-worker before noon and she had already called in sick by that time.  The frustrating thing was planing the lesson, killing some time in the office waiting for it to start, then receiving a call at 8:50 (20 minutes after the class was intended to start) informing me that the student would not be making it to class (which, in my bitter translation means 'you just wasted 2 hours planning and waiting on a private class that you will never teach, and never see any money for').  Frustrating moment number two involves the merger of two closely leveled classes, my CE18 and CE19 classes which has been in the plans for months, and I have been putting effort into for about 4 weeks (so much so that I taught and tested 24 lessons worth of content in 8 classes). On Friday I taught my 'final class' to my CE18 class, signed their books with a 'goodbye and good luck in your new class', and then, halfway through my next class, received a phone call informing me that the merger wasn't happening.  Since this obviously wasn't a spur of the moment decision, I find it very difficult to understand why no one chose to inform me of this sooner, it would have completely affected how I taught that lesson (because I had to spend the class reviewing the contents of the test rather than covering the material adequately (which leads me to the moral of the story, which is: never teach for a test, tests are not accurate measures of a student's knowledge anyway)).  The last, and (upon reflection, least) frustrating moment was being told at 8:00 that the parent presentation that was starting at that moment would not be witnessed by any parents, would not be recorded, would not have a manager present, and therefore, didn't exist (though we had just spent an hour preparing for it).  Like I said, that one isn't as bad, it was a nice release of pressure to receive the news, but it was certainly news that could have been given to me hours before that point in time.
*Whew* It's good to have that off my chest.  It really wasn't a bad week, just a bit frustrating at times.  My weekend was great.  Saturday morning I was supposed to help the school with a promotional event that was rained out, so instead I was able to go to Lukang with a few other friends.  We set-loose in a candy shop and tried all of the Taiwanese candy (which was disappointingly disgusting), toured a few temples, and visited the shops on old street, then we finished up the night at the movie theater to catch Ironman 3.  Today I spent the afternoon with my language exchange partner and we were some of the trial customers in a new restaurant near my apartment.  We helped with their customer service and sampled some of their delicious meals.  Then this evening, to celebrate the beautiful weather of Taiwan we hung out in the park talking and playing soccer and badminton.  It was a perfect use of the day.
My thoughts this week involve the Chinese zodiac (shengxiao) - the set of 12 animals, each representing a different set of personality traits, which make up  12-year cycle.  Each year, around Chinese new year, a horoscope for the year is released which predict's what will happen in each animal's life (in terms of relationships, financial situations, education, life decisions, overall luck, etc.) over the following year.  I mentioned a few months back that while it is the year of your zodiac animal, your horoscope tends to contain negative predictions in all aspects of your life.  While I would not say I believe in the Chinese zodiac, I am starting to feel like I have had a bout of bad luck in Taiwan, particularly in terms of losing my possessions, so I have started using Taiwanese methods to ask for good luck.  For starters, on Saturday I asked Matzu for luck in one of her temples in Lukang.  If you need help from one of the gods in Taiwan you can do to one of their temples and ask them for a wish.  To do this you must buy a set of incense sticks and use them to announce your presence at the temple, which is done by stating your full name, birthday (consisting of the month, date, year, and hour of birth), and where you live (as specific as you can be).  This is done because the deities of these temples are not omniscient like those of many other religions, so you must state clearly who you are and what request you are making, or they will not know who to grant the wishes to.  Once you are announced to the gods, you can make a wish on your incense sticks and place them in front of a shrine to burn.  This wish alone, however, may not have cleansed me of my bad luck, so I also threw coins until I rang the 'good luck' gong.  In a temple in Lukang there is a display of boats, each adorned with a gong, and each representing something you might wish for in life (like good grades, a promotion at work, or in my case, luck).  Ringing these gongs with your coins is similar in practice to using a wishing well.  To complete the bad-luck cleansing trifecta, I walked over a bowl of fire to burn the bad luck off of me.
Another tradition in many temples consists of asking the gods for the answers to your yes/no questions using jiaobei (moon blocks).  Moon blocks are small crescent shaped pieces of wood which consist of a rounded side called 'yin' and a flat side called 'yang' and come in sets of two.  To use the moon blocks you must first purify them by passing them three times over the incense burner, then you may kneel and announce your presence to the gods (once again using your full name, birthday, and address).  Once complete you can use the moon blocks, which is done by asking them a yes/no questions then dropping them on the ground.  The answer to your questions is read by looking at the positions of the moon blocks after they fall, and can be interpreted like this:
*shengjiao - one 'yin' and one 'yang' showing: the gods say 'yes'
*nujiao - two 'yin' showing: the gods say 'no'
*xiaojiao - two 'yang' showing: the gods are laughing (which either means an 'emphatic no' or the gods know you know the answer to the question already)
*lijiao - one or both stands on its end: the gods don't understand the question so it must be re-asked
The moon blocks are intended to be used three times in a row to ensure the deity's answer was accurate, or they can be used in conjunction with fortune sticks (Kau Cim).  Fortune sticks are a cup containing 100 flat sticks, each inscribed with a number which corresponds with a list of 100 responses from the oracle.  The sticks are either in a cup mounted on the wall or a cup which can be picked up by worshipers.  If the cup is mounted on the wall, the worshiper will use both hands to pick up all 100 sticks and drop them back into the cup, the number on last of which to leave their hand (or not land in the cup) corresponds to the oracle's answer to their question.  If the cup can be lifted, then the worshiper will kneel with the cup and it's 100 sticks, and shake it until only one stick falls out (if more than one stick falls out the results are nullified and the process must be repeated), and the number on that stick represents the oracle's answer to the question.
This batch of information doesn't mean I am converting to Buddhism/Taoism, but I have always been open to the co-existence of different religions, and I find religion to be an interesting window into understanding a culture.

Just Another Day in Paradise

I have no great stories from this week, no big adventures, nothing to tell.  This was just another week, and I think the only spectacular aspect of it was the fact that for me it was spent in Taiwan.  I wouldn't say it was a bad week, I enjoyed it, but you'll laugh at the moments that stood out to me, because they are seemingly insignificant.  It's hard to brag when the highlight of your weekend is buying a shower curtain and toilet paper roll holders (but I'm proud of them, and that is what matters).  The thing about shower curtains and toilet paper roll holders, is that neither of them are essential in Taiwan.  Toilet paper is primarily sold in sheets, not rolls, so before yesterday it hadn't occurred to me that wall-mount roll holders exist here, but they do, and now I own one, so I will count it as a mini-victory.  As for the shower curtain, bath tubs are essentially non-existent in Taiwan, and even when they are in a bathroom (which is not the case for my apartment), they are usually not covered by a shower curtain, instead the entire bathroom is considered the shower, and it is not uncommon to soak everything in the room (sink, toilet, etc.) in the process of showering.  For 8 months this has been how my bathroom has operated, but now I have a shower curtain to protect my now-properly displayed toilet paper.  Ok, I get it, nothing about that was interesting to you, but sometimes you need to take joy in the small things, like discovering your laundry detergent is on sale, finding a dollar on the floor, or, in this case, hanging your toilet paper on the wall.
Another seemingly unimportant, yet pride-inducing moment of my week was getting the chance to help translate the menu at a local cafe.  I am always very appreciative of the restaurants that provide English translations of their menus for the foreigner population, but I often think that it shouldn't be too difficult for businesses (especially big businesses) to have someone proof-read the English before it is printed, especially if it is a national campaign (like the slogan which is printed all across Taiwan for Chavana which reads "Do you could find clothes? You always lack one.") because some of us (for example: me) would be willing to do do simple editing for free.  That is exactly what I did this weekend, I helped fix things like "Braise the Chicken Leg" so they read nicely for foreigners, and without asking for anything in return was rewarded with free cookies and a notebook.  I would gladly do little projects like this more often because they are fun for me and they allow me to sit and talk to local business owners, practice my Chinese, and help someone else with their English.

The gramatically challenged national campaign for Chavana: Do you could find clothes? You always lack one.

School was equally unexciting yet rewarding.  I taught my classes and covered an extra handful of hours because both of my coworkers were out of commission at various times.  I really enjoy being a cover teacher, because, as I've said before, you almost everything you do is new and interesting, so the students tend to be more engaged (which is pretty much the opposite of the impression I have of being a substitute teacher back in the US where students tend to be more out of control with an unfamiliar teacher in the room).  The only time when being a cover teacher is stressful for me is when it involves covering a parent presentation (lucky for me, the presentation I covered was for CEI10, and they are a well behaved, intelligent class who performed very well for the parents.
One of my favorite classes of the week was about the durian fruit, a fruit which is really only common in Asia (I had never come across it before living in Taiwan) and has just come into season (thus allowing me to to use realia by bringing in a sample for everyone to taste and smell).  Durians tend to be very large heavy fruit (between the size of a cantaloupe and a watermelon), covered in hard spikes, but their most prominent characteristic is the odor of the husk, which has been compared to rotting garbage.  The smell of the durian is so strong, and lingers for so long, that it has been banned from certain hotels and methods of transportation.  The consistency of the flesh of the fruit is similar to custard, very soft and shapeless with a slightly nutty taste to it.  Overall, I would say this fruit tops the list for my least favorite foods in Taiwan, and between the price (I spent around 400NT which is just under $15 US on one fruit), the difficulty to serve it (due to its shapelessness and thorny exterior), and the taste, I do not expect to find myself buying it again.

Happy Birthday Matsu

Matsu is the indigenous goddess of the sea, and due to the country's reliance on the sea/ocean and fishing, she has become the patron deity of Taiwan.  She is worshiped in both Buddhism and Taoism as a protector of fishermen and sailors. Every year in late March or early April (the 23rd day of the 3rd lunar month, whenever that falls in a given year), these religions celebrate her birthday.  One of the birthday traditions for Matsu in central Taiwan is a 9-day walking procession from Taichung (Dajia) to Chiayi (Xingang) and back. The procession is greeted in major cities in Taiwan with fireworks and flocks of people longing to see/touch/or lay-down under the goddess as she passes through.  The people were tightly packed, the fireworks were painfully loud, but I made it through and touched her "chair" (which should turn my luck around!).

Hundreds of people crowd in front of the temple on "Yellow Brick Road" awaiting Matsu's arrival.

This week at work I graduated from a title I had forgotten I still held, "new girl".  I have been here so long now that I had forgotten my immediate school (of three teachers) has not seen any changes since my arrival, but this week we welcomed a new teacher into our midst.  When the transitional period has ended we will have an all-girl teaching staff in Homei.

The big social events of the week centered around what we call the Taiwanniversary, which is, as it sounds, the anniversary of being in Taiwan.  Two of my close friends celebrated their coinciding Taiwanniversaries (a one-year and two-year celebration) with a night out in Changhua and a night out in Yuanlin.  The thing that is amazing about these anniversary parties is that they show us teachers not just surviving in Taiwan, but loving Taiwan and choosing to stay here.

It's time for a little small-talk, I'm thinking 'weather'.  I know, it may not be the most interesting thing to think about, but if you are in the US (particularly the midwest) right now you are probably thinking "It is April, why is it snowing?", and I'm over here thinking "will this rain ever end?".  I love the rain, but you quickly find that it is more enjoyable when you have some means of avoiding it (such as staying indoors or driving in a car with a roof rather than a scooter), and it rained on most of the days in the last week and a half, so I am ready for it to end (which is unfortunate for me since the rainy season supposedly hasn't even started yet).

This is how we combat the rains in Taiwan.

Tomb Sweeping Weekend

Can I just start by saying, I am absolutely exhausted, vacations are fun, but they often lack the element of relaxation which is planned into them.  This week was a short work week, followed by a 4-day weekend due to Tomb Sweeping Day and Children's Day.  Tomb Sweeping Day is, exactly as it sounds, a day in which people go to sweep out their family tombs.  During the celebration families will gather outside to worship their ancestors with food and money offerings, and clean, though, with the increased popularity of cremation it appears the prominence of cleaning has lessened with younger generations.

For the holiday several friends and I made the ambitious plan to visit the mountains and the beaches.  Thursday morning we caught a train to Chiayi, a relatively small city (which takes 30-minutes to walk across) in south-western Taiwan known for wind music (though we didn't see anything musical while we were there).  There is honestly not much to be seen in the city, but regardless, we spent an enjoyable day sightseeing and geocaching.  My favorite place in Chiayi was the sun-shooting temple which is a 62 meter high round tower which represents the aboriginal myth of the moon's creation.  Many years ago there were two suns in our sky, one much bigger than the one which lights our sky today.  The suns rotated around the earth at all hours of the day, and therefore was never in darkness.  The plants dried out, and food was scarce, and the people decided that one sun must be killed in order for the people to continue living, so three men set out on a journey to the sun, and each man brought with him a baby boy and a bag of seeds.  The seeds were to plant trees along the way to provide food for the journey back, and the babies were because it was destined to be a long journey which the men would not complete in their lifespan.  As predicted, the men died of old age along the journey, but by this time the babies had grown into young men, and came to the cave of the sun (the bigger of the two suns), and they shot it.  The sun began to bleed and its molten blood killed one of the men, but the other two survived and journeyed back to their village.  Both suns can still be seen today, but so much size and light has left the attacked sun that it is now no more than a faint light in the night sky which we now refer to as the moon.  After assuring the sun had been properly taken care of we continued on with our journeying by walking around the Lantan Reservoir, grabbing dinner at a Szechuan restaurant (where we started the longest running meme of the trip, which involved repeatedly informing each other about the location of the Kung Pao Squid), and finishing the night with a youthful trip to the arcade where I showed off my lack of video game prowess.  

The group at the Sun-Shooting Tower

I have mixed feelings about the next three days of the trip, because overall I have a positive recollection of most of the things that happened, but experiencing them wasn't as much fun as it could have been.  Friday morning we took a bus trip to the top of Alishan (Ali Mountain) for a nature walk in the pouring rain.  Ali Mountain is best known as a location to watch the sunrise, but our timing didn't allow us to be there, so I will need to return to the mountain top on another weekend.  We slid around like fools in our rain ponchos and booties on a steam train, walked through the woods (and got lost temporarily), and froze in our soaked clothes for the rest of the trip back to Chiayi.  The start of the rain on Friday was the start of a cold, soggy weekend.  That night we caught a local (slow) train to Kaohsiung which is about two hours south of Chiayi so we could catch a bus to the southern tip of the island (Kenting).  Unfortunately for us, a lying taxi driver told us we had missed the last bus south and we would have to take a group shuttle to get there (which was, in all fairness, our alternative plan and was estimated to be the same price).  After two hours of stop-and-go price negotiations between us and the driver (that includes the time we took to go get dinner, and the time he made us wait until the final train had arrived and left so he could attempt to gain more passengers) we got into the shuttle and began our two-hour drive to Kenting.  Kenting is best known for its beaches, and due to the music festival being hosted this weekend, it is the Taiwanese equivalent of a Spring Break location (loud music, alcohol, counting swimsuits as entire outfits, the works.  Unfortunately, after having spent a day soaked on a mountain, and ruffled on trains and shuttles, walking through a Spring Break crowd carrying all of our luggage was less than ideal.  Eventually we settled down in a campground near Baishawan (which is a white sand beach featured in the movie Life of Pi near the end of the movie).  We put our tents up literally minutes before it began raining, soon we found ourselves sitting in our tents, waiting out the heavy rain.  The rain protection on my tent began to slip, and soon tent started taking in water, so I decided to go out (half-dressed, in a combination of tank top and swimsuit bottoms) to re-peg the tent, which inspired my tent mate to join me in the rain and to run to the campsite bar, where, low-and-behold, we discovered the majority of our group had already gone to wait-out the storm.  So there we sat, almost until sunrise, (me in a state of relative undress, which was the most comical aspect of the day), until the rain finally slowed and I was able to dry out the tent a bit and finally sleep.  Looking back on it, I would say we overbooked this day in our schedules, that was a crazy (and long) day.

Saturday was meant to be a day of relaxation.  We all slept in then spent the day swimming (and getting tossed around by) the beach.  I love a good day on the beach, but I'd say the sea did not love our company this day.  She (being the waves) stole several important (and not-recovered) items from us which, affected the overall mood of the group.  One thing that I learned about Taiwanese culture during this is that the Taiwanese people believe when you undergo a material loss, it allows you to not undergo an accident (so at least our group should be healthy for a while). 

Lastly, we come to Sunday, the travel day.  We spent about 9 hours in transit today, which has left me uninterested in sitting in a train again anytime soon.  The first two hours of travel were spent in a 16-person karaoke shuttle bus which was half-filled with Taiwanese girls.  The girls, after realizing the karaoke selection did not include English songs, silenced the TV, played all of the English songs on their smart phones and passed us the microphones to serenade them.  It was the most unique travel experience I've ever had.  Then, after a subway journey, two entertaining local train journeys, and 7 hours of sitting, we finally arrived back in Changhua, were I sat down at the computer, and proceeded to spill my memories of the weekend (but I suppose you already knew that part of my day).

The end of the first leg of our journey, with our karaoke buddies

I love adventures, I love holidays, I love my friends, and I love Taiwan, but right now I love my bed and the inside of my eyelids.  Goodnight!

Happy Easter

Overall, I would say this is the least traditional Easter I have ever had.  That is what happens when you live in a primarily non-Christian country.  It may not have been a sunrise church service, or a day with the family, but for the first time in I couldn't tell you how many years, I did eat a chocolate egg to celebrate the holiday (because apparently I like chocolate now, which makes no sense to me).

Happy Easter from the crew at the Filipino disco

Without a doubt, the most memorable moment of this week was on Wednesday morning when Taiwan underwent the biggest earthquake it has experienced since my arrival.  I have been around for several little quakes, and I know this one wasn't too big because I have seen the consequences of the high-scale quakes, but this one was measured at 6.1 with an epicenter in Nantou county (which is next to Changhua County).  I was in my Chinese lesson (which takes place outside at a coffee house) at the time of the earthquake, and it was unnerving to see how much the buildings can sway.  Thankfully there were not many major damages caused, though some collapsed ceilings and cracks were reported.  My apartment was unaffected.
My work week was relatively uneventful, so let's skip to the weekend.  Saturday was spent on the scooter, exploring the wonders of Taichung's geocaching scene.  It appears I have gotten yet another group of people hooked on my hobby, and we wandered all over Taichung trying to find these treasures (though we only managed to find 3).  Sunday was also spent in Taichung, but this time it was at the Filipino disco instead of on the road.  I believe I've mentioned the Filipino disco before, but can I just comment again on how much fun it is.  Usually when you picture dancing, there is the mental image of late nights and lots of alcohol, but the Filipino disco is open from 2pm-7pm on Sundays, so the aforementioned atmosphere doesn't fit as well, which is ideal for me.

We found the cache in Dali!

Exciting update about last week's post, my time-off request for late-August/early-September has been approved which means that I will be able to make a short trip home at that time.  I love Taiwan, but I really look forward to seeing everyone back home as well!
My extra thoughts this week are based on a song that we learned in my Chinese class on Friday.  First of all, I really think songs are a brilliant way to teach, and I say this because they are one of the easiest ways for me to learn (I acknowledge that learning styles are not universal, so it will not work for everyone, but for those who have a memory for lyrics, just recalling the tune brings sentences to your tongue).  This week we learned a song which is cholk-full of useful phrases for anyone who is not fluent in Chinese.  The song is somewhat of a joke song, because it follows a group of friends who don't have much knowledge of the language.  Curious about the words? here you go (enjoy your new found Chinese knowledge, I can't seem to get it out of my head):

Duibuqi, wode Zhongwen bu hao - I'm sorry, my Chinese is not good.
Duibuqi, duibuqi, wo bu zhidao ni shuo shenme - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what you are saying.
Duibuqi, wode Zhongwen bu hao - I'm sorry, my Chinese is not good.
Duibuqi, duibuqi, wo zhi xiang gen ni dang pengyou - I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I only want to be your friend.

Hello, ni hao ma? Nide Yingwen hao haoting - Hello, how are you? Your English is very good sounding.
Ni shi Meiguoren ma? Bing bushi Meiguoren - Are you American? I'm definitely not American.
Wo shi yiwei Yinguo shenshi - I am an English gentleman.

Ruguo ni zhuanxin ting, ni hui liaojie wo - If you pay attention you can understand me.

Huanying guanglin, limian zuo - Welcome, come inside.
Xiansheng, ni yao chi shenme? - Mr., what do you want to eat?
Wo yao shuijiao.  Ni hen lei shi bushi - I want to sleep.  Are you very tired?
Wo bulei.  Wo duzi hen e - I'm not tired.  My stomach is hungry.
Wo xiang yao chi shuijiao.  Qing ni kuaidian zuo - I would like to eat dumplings.  Give them to me quickly.

Meguanxi.  Wode Zhongwen jinbu le - It's alright.  My Chinese has improved.
Meguanxi, meguanxi.  Wo hai yao gen ni dang pengyou - It's alright I still want to be your friend.