Broken Bones, Not a Broken Spirit

Ouch! Something I have forgotten for the last 22 years of my life is how painful broken bones can be (not that I really remember my the last time I broke a bone, I was still a toddler).  In what has to be described as a 'scooter accident' but could more accurately be described as 'clumsy and unfortunate', I tipped my scooter while it was going less than 10km/hr in front of my apartment, and thankfully there is no damage to the scooter (it fell straight over, no scraping) and very manageable damage to me (don't get me wrong, I gladly would have taken a reversal of those to results).  I successfully braced myself in a standing position as my scooter fell, so no part of me was trapped under it, but I lost my balance and fell butt-first onto my scooter, thus fracturing my coccyx and sacrum.  Both the benefit and curse of a fracture in this location is that essentially nothing can be done, no cast can be placed, no surgery is necessary, the healing process is just time and pain medications.  Most of the time it doesn't affect me much, I have gotten used to most of the pain when sitting, standing, and lying down, it is just the transition between those positions which is almost overwhelming.  Every day I have felt a little better, so hopefully the recovery process won't be too long, in the meantime, it isn't slowing down my work or social life.
Butt-pain aside, I had a wonderful weekend in Kaohsiung.  Apparently I have already been in Taiwan long enough to be celebrating the next 'annual...' of events, so the sequel to one of my first Taiwan adventures occurred this weekend with the celebration of Kaohsiung Gay Pride.  While I have not consulted the records, I would predict that the event's turn out (at least the parade portion of it) was much smaller this year, and the parade route seemed shorter as well (though that could have been because we skipped the first portion of it).

Marching in the parade - Kaohsiung 2013 Gay Pride

The rest of the weekend involved some of the necessary adventuring around Kaohsiung.  We traveled to the top of the tallest building in the city: Kaohsiung 85 (also known as the Tuntex Towers).  To be honest, the building isn't much to see, the ground levels are filled with a shopping area which had no patrons, and in the lower levels, had no store clerks either.  The empty but not abandoned feeling was strange to experience, but not worth going out of your way for.  As far as the 'top of the tower' is concerned, you can really only visit the 74th floor, because the higher levels are residential.  The 74th floor has viewing windows to look out over the city, a small gift shop/cafe, and nothing else.  With all that being said, I personally enjoyed our time in the Tower, but that was due to the people, the sunset over the harbor, and the much appreciated air conditioner.  We also spent time around the Lotus Pond, which is one of my recommended sites in the city, especially if you like temples and really tacky designs (like dragon-shaped walkways and deity-shaped pavilions), and the Liuhe Night Market.

My final thoughts on the week are:

*In comparison, while the seats on a bus are more comfortable, long travel on a train is more tailbone-friendly

*Students are strangely compassionate about broken bones, but far less compassionate about my distaste for wearing shoes in the classroom

*There is an Outback Steakhouse in Taiwan, which might now be my favorite place here (it already was my favorite place back in the states)

A Water Park!? In Changhua!?

Discovery of the week: Changhua has a water park (water slides, wave pool, etc.).  I know, most people are used to having water parks in their city, or at least in an accessible location to their house, but things are  different in Taiwan.  This is a country where a large percentage of the population can't (or doesn't) swim, where swimming pools are hard to find (and personal swimming pools might be unheard of).  The biggest difference about water parks in Taiwan, and water parks in the US (from what I can tell) is the enforcement of rules, it felt like we could have done anything in the park today.  We literally rode down the water slides stacked on each other, in a chain, standing up (well, trying to stand up, it is harder than it looks), and spinning in circles.  The mature side of me spent the day thinking we're going to break the slides or drown each other, but the immature side of me kept saying "this is so fun, how have I never done this before!".
To be honest, this week was a little underwhelming, work-wise, and I fear next week won't be any better.  With the transition into a summer schedule, two of my classes merged, thus removing 3 hours from my work week.  I find myself now with a 18-hour work week, annoyingly spaced out so over 27 hours in the office (because I often teach the first and last classes of the day with a 1.5-3 hour break between them).  Some extra hours can be nice because they give you time for lesson planning and eating, but when your number of unpaid/non-working hours are almost equal to your paid/working hours you run out of things to do.  Hopefully, with the starting of summer classes, there will be some new classes for me soon.
My initial review of this weekend was that it wasn't very eventful, but that would be a lie, it was full of ridiculous and unrelated moments placed in my usual weekend hangouts (namely KTV).  Saturday was another special Taiwanniversary for the group (a Taiwanniversary is the anniversary of any foreigner's arrival in the country), which is a more impressive event than it sounds because it marks the commitment of a teacher to stay for another year.  For many people, moving to a new country to teach is a very temporary life event, and staying for even a year is a big accomplishment, but to commit to a second year abroad shows that you are not just 'getting by' with your life, but you have found something worth staying for.  That something could be any variety of things: enjoyment of your job, happiness in your social life (which is very flexible, so this is sometimes a concerning reason to stay), an incomplete 'adventure' (knowing there is something more you need to do/see), etc..  You can get a lot done in a year, but in the long run it isn't a big span of time, so I definitely understand the need for extra years here).

Happy Taiwanniversary Nick!

Cultural note: This is a cultural issue which I am surprised I haven't discussed before: face.  'Face' in Taiwan doesn't simply refer to a person's eyes, ears, and mouth, 'face' embodies a person's dignity and reputation.  It is very important in the culture here to preserve your own'face' and to not cause another person to lose their 'face'.  A person can lose 'face' in a variety of ways, but the most common are through being embarrassed or being insulted.  For example, if I were to voice a disagreement with a Taiwanese person with witnesses around, that would cause the Taiwanese person to 'lose face', or if I were to be caught in a lie or break my promises that would cause me to 'lose face'.  In order to save 'face', it is expected that you handle tense situations involving anger or criticism in a private setting, never act in a way that will make someone else feel inferior, and in general, act in a manner which increases (rather than decreases) self esteem.  

From the day we arrived in Taiwan, most of us teachers were taught about the idea of 'face' and were asked to consider it in our personal interactions, but there are times when it is not viewed as a priority, and there are times when it is viewed as a double-standard, so the topic is a little controversial among the foreign population.  What do I mean by 'double-standard'? Well, in a country where it should be intrinsic to consider everyone's face, it is far too common to see Taiwanese salesmen increase their prices for western shoppers (which causes a  'loss of face' by being viewed as inferior), or for Taiwanese people to tell foreigners that we are fat and would be more beautiful if we lose weight (which causes a 'loss of face' through public criticism), or anything else of the sort.  One thing I will give credit to though, is that whether it is due to 'face saving', a different temperament, or less violence, I don't think I have seen any violent or angry outbursts by Taiwanese people.  No bar fights, no screaming matches, nothing of the sort (which is not so say that I think it doesn't happen here, I just think it is less common).

Dragon Boats, Taipei, and a "goodbye"

Well, it happened...I wore my parents out so they had to flee the country to recover.  Well, maybe that isn't exactly what happened, perhaps it was just the end of their vacation time here in Taiwan.  Either way, they have safely returned to the states and I will have to wait a few more months before I see them again.
The adventures of this week were marginally more relaxed than last week, and didn't involve nearly as many cities (which was probably appreciated).  Monday and Tuesday were regular work days, so my parents and I settled back down in Changhua, again.  The unique this about these work days though, was having my parents as 'students' in my class.  I don't think most teachers can say that their parents have observed them in action, and even fewer are likely to say that they participated in the lesson, but mine can now say just that.  In the younger of the two classes my parents were their own team (team 'old people') and, while they fought hard, they lost to the students (team 'young people'), and in the older class they observed from the back of the room.
The weekend started on Wednesday, just as it did last week, but this week it kicked off with a national holiday.  The 5th day of the 5th lunar month is known as the Duanwu Festival, which, in English, is known as Dragon Boat Festival.  Dragon Boat Festival originated in China, and its observance has been recognized in many Asian countries, including Taiwan.  The holiday centers around the racing (or simply watching the racing) of long, motor-less boats which are propelled by a team of rowers.  Each boat is traditionally adorned with a dragon's face and tail decorations for the race, and is manned by a team of 22 people (1 drummer who sets the timing for the paddlers, 1 person who steers the boat, and 20 people who paddle the boat).  Each race takes only a few minutes and the standard distance of the race is 500 meters.
Another tradition of the Duanwu Festival is eating zongzi, which is a sticky rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo.  Chinese history attributes the significance of these dumplings to the death of a famous poet.  The poet tried warn others that their land was at risk due to the expansion of neighboring peoples, and when his people lost the poet drowned himself.  To try and stop the fish from eating the poet's body, the townspeople threw zongzi-like packets of rice into the water.  After having finally eaten one of these rice dumplings, many of us agree that fish-food is their best use.  Their flavor, and the consistency of the sticky rice do not combine to being one of Asia's better food items.
One of the main cities to watch the races from in the Changhua area is Lukang, so that is exactly where my parents and most of my fellow teachers went.  I have to say, while I love the concept of Dragon Boat Festival, I was let down by the reality of this holiday; only two boats raced at a time, none of the spectators seemed to be paying attention or cheering, it was hard to see who won, and for our safety we had to abandon our river-front seats.

The Dragon Boat races in Lukang

Thursday was my parents last full day in Taiwan, so we spent it in Taipei (to be close to the airport).  We spent several hours exploring Ximen, which is one of the big shopping/eating areas in Taiwan, and (almost unintentionally) wandered over to the Longshan Temple and Snake Alley again (night markets, teppanyki, and McDonalds seemed to be the staple food providers for my parents during their stay).

I had so many plans for my weekend, but none of them actually came to fruition.  However, I would say the weekend I had was much better than what I originally intended on doing.  Alone again, after the departure of my parents, I decided to explore some of the sites in Taipei that I had never visited before, namely the Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Halls, two buildings which were constructed to commemorate two of the most influential political figures in the history of Taiwan.  

This is me, in front of the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei.

The Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei

Realizing that I didn't want to spend my weekend alone in Taipei when everyone else was back in Changhua, I took a bus back to my city and spent the weekend with my friends.  Due to the influx of new teachers in the group it was time for a walking tour of Changhua which included the major sites of the Confucius temple, the water features of Baguashan, the Great Buddha statue, and LA Lounge (a bar which happened to be featuring KTV).

To finish off the weekend, and to cope with the heat of a Taiwanese summer, today was a day dedicated to cooling off.  Several people jumped on our scooters and traveled into the mountains around Taichung to see the waterfall in Taiping.  Along the way we tackled an obstacle that I have approached with friends several times now: the Bat Cave.  In Taiping there are a series of old water tunnels which have been claimed as a home to the bats for centuries I imagine, but it has been modified with tourist features (like bridges, bathrooms, and picnic areas) more recently than that.  I have been brought here two times in the past, but both times the group turned back before we properly explored the tunnels, but this time we made it through the whole thing  I have always been told that the bats have vacated the primary tunnels due to stream of visitors that disrupt them, but there were probably about 50 bats in the cave today.  The tunnel itself was very small at points, causing us to bend down as we walked, and walk sideways at points, but the most uncomfortable aspect of the experience was the mud which coated (and other unidentified substances) which coated the floors up to knee-level at times and tried to steal out shoes at ever step.  Thankfully we were on our way to swim in the mountain streams, so it wasn't hard to clean off afterwards.  It was a perfect wrap-up to a great week!

Memorable conversation of the week: I find that as a teacher I say some ridiculous things to my students from time-to-time, and it always amazes me when my students retain these things.  Last week there was a cockroach on the wall of my CEI 11 classroom.  My students pointed it out to me, but seeing that it was near the ceiling and thus out of reach, I did not want to deal with killing it, so I told them "That is my friend Derek, I invited him to our class today".  My students laughed, then accepted this explanation, and didn't comment on its presence for the remainder of the class.  One of my co-teachers taught the same class this week in my absence, and while she was teaching a cockroach crawled out from behind the whiteboard, so she removed her shoe and promptly killed the cockroach, to which my class' response was "You can't do that! That is Teacher Kaitlin's friend!".  Take a minute to savor the mental image of a group of children mourning the death of a cockroach like that.

Around the World (Country) in 80 (5) days

The best start to this blog would be with the heart-warming start to my week.  Seeing as last week was my birthday, one of my classes (a while which I teach only one day a week) took it upon themselves to arrange a party to celebrate.  They approached me last week and asked if we could have a party during class (because their other teacher told them they needed my permission first), and when I said "yes" they took it upon themselves to assign jobs for the party.  The students arranged to bring drinks (soda and yakult), snacks (chips and crackers), and candy (chocolate and jelly), as well as balloons and gifts for me.  I have some great students!

Celebrating my birthday with a party thrown by CEI11 (they forgot to look at the camera after throwing the balloons)

I'd love to think I will keep this brief, but I have a lot to talk about this week.  I have spent the last five days dragging my parents all over Taiwan (well, the west, north, and east coasts at least), making sure they get the most of their time here.  I took my first chunk of time-off in 9-months and started the "Parent Tour" of Taiwan with a High Speed Rail trip to Taipei on Wednesday.  It isn't every day that I would call traveling 1/4 of the way around an island an "easy day", but on reflection...it was.  We arrived in Taipei in the early afternoon and found a hotel right outside of Taipei Main Station next to the 2-28 Memorial Park (home of the not-so-famous 'aquatic rat' (because it  is so hot in Taiwan, the rats go swimming too)).  We got a tour around the city by one of my favorite locals (a friend who moved to Taipei a few months ago), ate dinner in a Japanese restaurant, and got a birds-eye view of the city from the top of Taipei 101.

My parents and I made it to the top of Taipei 101.

Day two was dedicated to history-based sight seeing.  We started our morning at the National Palace Museum, which is the national museum of Taiwan, showcasing a collection of near 700,000 pieces (many of which were brought from China during Chinese Civil War) which span in ages up to 8,000 years old.  The museum has a variety of carvings, paintings, rubbings, coins, textiles, etc. which are so great in number that they are in a display rotation because there isn't space for everything, and fill multiple floors of multiple buildings.  We didn't discover until the end of our museum trip that we hadn't even entered the main building yet (that will have to wait until a future trip for me).  During the evening hours we moved on to the Longshan Temple which was built in the 1700s but was partially destroyed in both of the World Wars and had to be repaired.  It is a popular destination for Buddhist, Taoist, and folk deity (like Matzu) worshipers.  The Longshan temple is at the outside of a "tourist night market", which obviously gets it's name to draw travelers but I think we were the only foreigners present that night and the formerly infamous "snake alley", an area known for snake charmers and meals made from snake meat.  While we didn't partake in any snake soups, we did enjoy a seafood dinner in the night market.
We left Taipei on day three and took a train East to Keelung.  This was my first trip to Keelung, but there isn't much to be said about this city.  It is very busy (and the traffic is possibly worse than Taipei's, though that was more likely due to poor street planning around the harbor and train station areas than due to the drivers or population.  Keelung is one of the largest ports in Taiwan, and is one of the rainiest cities in the country (though we got lucky and were not rained on during our stay).  From Keelung we were only a taxi ride away from our day-trip destination, the geopark in Yehliu.  As I mentioned during Chinese New Year, Yehliu is known for its oddly-shaped rocks (like the iconic Queen's Head rock) which are known for being narrow at the base and wider at the top due to the rocks' varying hardnesses.  Once again, we finished the evening with a seafood dinner from a night market (what can I say, we are creatures of habit, and this habit of mine imprinted on my parents immediately).

Dad and I, climbing the cliffs above Yehliu Geopark.

The only word I can think of to describe day 4 was: ridiculous.  The goal of the day was simple: jump on a train or bus and travel south along the east coast to Hualien.  Unfortunately, though we attempted to get up and get on the road early, our lunch and my photo-taking adventures caused a complete change in the day's plans.  What was presumable only a short time before we arrived at the train station (probably during the 10 minutes I spent wandering around the harbor taking pictures of boats and the Statue of Liberty behind McDonalds) there was an accident at the Keelung Train Station.  Just as a woman stepped onto it, one of the footbridges used to walk over the train tracks collapsed and sent her falling to the platform.  She had only minor injuries, and thankfully no trains or people were under the platform at the time, but the accident delayed incoming and outgoing traffic for the rest of the day.  The next best solution would obviously have been to take a bus south, but no buses run directly between the cities, so we took a taxi to the nearby city of Qidu, where were were told we could take a train (that would bypass Keelung), but we had to board it at Badu, then when we reached Jiaoxi I failed to realize that our "transfer" tickets were for different seats on the same train (but I assumed they were for a different train, so I convinced everyone to leave the train, run to the next platform, realize my mistake, run back to the first platform, and watch our train depart without us.  That gave us the chance to spend an unintentional (and frankly, unwanted) hour in Jiaoxi.  We finally reached Hualien, and settled in for the night after nothing but a short scooter tour around the city.
Our last day, today, was all travel.  We started with an early morning on the road with our scooters, making the hour-long journey to Taroko Gorge from Hualien City.  Once again, as mentioned during Chinese New Year, Taroko Gorge is a gorge carved into a marble mountain by the Liwu river.  It is considered one of the must-see sights of Taiwan, and is home to the picturesque Eternal Springs Shrine - a shrine built with a waterfall flowing under it, meant to commemorate those who died while building the cross-island highway through the gorge many year ago.  We then raced back to Hualien City to pick up our luggage and go to the train station, only to realize that we were doing too well on time and had two hours to wait.  So we waited...in a hotel, in a restaurant, in the train station, and then on a train, for 7 hours, because that is how long it takes an express train to get half-way around the island.  The train ride was a bit long, but we all kept ourselves entertained, for the most part, with sleep, reading, work, or in my case, pretending to have an angry bird battle with the small Taiwanese boy sitting across the aisle from me (I think I got him in trouble with his mom on multiple occasions for being too loud because he was too enthusiastic about our game).  What is an "Angry Bird Battle" exactly? I wouldn't have known either, but it turns out it is pretty easy to do, even if both parties speak different languages (the conversation could be summarized by him informing me "Wo buyao ge ni" which means "I don't want to give [them] to you", and me saying "Weishenme?" "Why?" and "Wo yao" "I want [them]").  The game involves a lot of throwing, catching, shrinking, and growing of invisible blobs, a back-and forth of vocal noises (somewhat like animal noises except that most of these animal species would be unidentifiable), and sporadic use of English letters, numbers, and colors.  Come to think of it, I think might be easier to learn as you go, I definitely recommend it for your next 7-hour Taiwanese train adventure.
And now, here I am, back safely from that exhausting adventure, and I'd like to note these things:
*Taiwan is a beautiful country, especially the east coast.
*Trains are such a efficient method of transportation in Taiwan, it is a shame that same concept doesn't apply equally well to the US.
* While my Chinese is not that great, it managed to get us a hotel every night, food for every meal, travel around the cities/country, and directions when needed.  I'm feeling pretty good about my minimal knowledge in this language right now.

My parents, showing off their scooters before we explore Taroko Gorge.

Birthdays are the Best, I Should Try Having One Every Year

Ok, I imagine there is some day in the future that I will not agree with the title of this blog, but thankfully, that day has not yet come.  I have had a very memorable birthday, filled with good students, great friends, and my family!  Phrases like "birthday week" have been around for as long as I can remember, but I think this has been the first time I really experienced that.  While my birthday was on Thursday, and it was a great day, the day itself lasted about 36 hours because of my friends in various time zones, but my celebrations have been ongoing.  As school on Thursday I had students coming up to me all day saying variations of "Happy Birthday, Teacher Kaitlin" and I was surprised with cakes from my private students, handmade cards from my CEI11 class (who I don't even teach on Thursdays), a lovely rendition of the "Happy Birthday" song by my CE02 class (who are the youngest class in the school), and a cake from the other teachers, TA's, and managers after the school day ended.  The festivities didn't end there though, I finished up my night with a pizza and games nice with a group of my close friends, it was perfect!
The best thing in my birthday celebrations was the arrival of my parents in Taiwan.  After 9 months of being away, it is about time I get to see them again!  I believe their initial review of Taiwan could be summarized in one word: hot.  They reactions to the heat have actually helped me realize that I am actually acclimating to the heat a bit (I would still pick a cold day over a hot day, but at least I'm not dying every time I step outside now).  In their first weekend of Taiwanese adventuring, we haven't managed to accomplish much, but we are making memories none-the-less.  For starters, they are staying in a themed-motel, have you ever heard of such a thing? Each room is designed after a different business around the world (but primarily in Taiwan), and my parents have now experienced the B & O railroad room and the Global Village Organization room, each equipped with a giant bathroom, a jacuzzi style bathtub, some form of water massage tub (we don't understand how it works), and an open-air patio enclosure (in the room!).  Considering it isn't a very fancy or expensive motel, It has certainly impressed me with its entertaining features.  After leaving the hotel (which has a very good air conditioner, thus making it hard to leave), we ventured out for lunch and started our most Taiwanese experience of the day: scooter (moped) driving.  For anyone who didn't know, Taiwanese roads are not like American roads, people drive in all directions, ignore lights, cluster close to other vehicles, and honk their horns a lot.  All of these features are things that I am used to, but leading two other drivers through that mess is a lot of pressure (thankfully we survived, unscathed).  We drove our scooters to Ershui to see the monkeys on Monkey Mountain, but this was the first time I have been there that the monkeys weren't near the trails, so we didn't see any (that was very disappointing).  We followed up the mountain visit with dinner in the largest of Changhua's night markets, and again returned to the lair of air conditioning.  Our weekend's adventures ended with an eventful Sunday.  We started with a scooter trip up Bagua Mountain to visit the Great Buddha statue.  While I didn't hear many comments about the Buddha statue, or the temple behind it, the stand out feature for my mother seemed to be the dried squid salesmen, "What I find funny is, there are what, 20 or so vendors here, and half of them are selling the same squid?".  It was then time for the finale to birthday week: KTV (karaoke), which, by now, there have been a lot of stories about karaoke nights, and this one goes a lot like the previous ones.  There were a lot of songs (several of which my voice failed me on) and a lot of ridiculous moments!

"Happy birthday" to me, from my wonderful friends and family!