Host Family Outing

13 hours. THIRTEEN HOURS. That is a long time, especially when that time is spent with all of the ETAs and their respective host families - think upwards of 50-60 people. Two buses picked us up at the Cultural Center at 7:30am, and were not scheduled to bring us back till after 8:30pm (we actually made it back slightly early, but still). I may love my host family, and I may love my fellow ETAs, but this does not in any sense add up to me wanting to spend 13 solid hours with all of them altogether.

The Kaohsiung Education Bureau kindly wanted to host an outing for all of us, taking us to the Sandimen Aboriginal Cultural Center along with a few other random sites. It was truly very sweet of them, but as the saying goes, sometimes less is more. Saturdays are my one day to sleep in, so rising before 7am is not ideal. A few days before, we had coerced Chris into promising to bring us all coffee. And he remembered! I love Chris. :) The Bureau provided us all with breakfast, matching hats and crab name cards, but sadly, breakfast consisted of a sandwich with fuzzy meat. Have I mentioned in my blog before about my extreme distaste for fuzzy meat? And when I say "my," I mean every westerner I have ever met, aside from Kristin - but then, she is in fact Asian... :)

Anyways, we all gathered at 7:30am, found our host families, loaded onto the buses and settled in for a long trip. Vincent, Sunnie and Nana all came. Vincent promptly fell asleep, and I think the rest of us dozed a bit (happy thought: they were all equally disgruntled with the early morning call to action; whenever we plan things ourselves on the weekends, we usually do not start moving until 10am; this is why we get along so well!).











We went first to the Aboriginal Cultural Center, which boasts a museum, large performance hall, examples of aboriginal villages and aboriginal lifestyles and lots of beautiful land rich in forests and ravines. We were greeted by some of the aboriginals lighting a fire with sticks and then firing a multi-cannon salute. They started us off in the museum, watching a 20 minute introductory video. Now, I have already received lots of grief over this, but if you were put into an air-conditioned room to watch a long, rambling video after you had gotten little sleep the night before, and then they turned the lights off on you (!), well... who would not fall asleep? People around me are always amazed at my sleeping skills. If there is one thing I excel at, it is sleeping. Anytime, anyplace, any noise level - I am out.












After that somewhat less than informative video, we were walked around the museum by a tour guide, and also led outside to watch the aboriginals ceremonially set off their canons. Very loud. Then they piled us into tram buses and whisked us farther up the mountain to watch the aboriginal show. Lots of traditional dancing and singing and fun costumes, but also lots of modern dance, which I had not been anticipating. The show told the story of one aboriginal group who became cast-offs, tried to join another tribe, but caused problems, stirring up anger against themselves. The other tribe attacked, killing all but two, who escaped and called down a curse on the tribe. This is why, every year to this day, the tribe has a special ceremony to try to pay remittances to the gods and to all who needlessly died early.


Dr. Cai, the head of the Kaohsiung Education Bureau, came out to meet us all for lunch. He also stayed a while to join us in putting fake tattoos on our faces (in aboriginal culture, the men and women wear face tattoos - men wear them on their forehead and chins, whereas women wear them on their cheeks - a little bit like war paint) and to play with aboriginal music makers. These were kind of like a back-pack, in that you wear them slung over your back. They are made out of brightly colored fabric (though ours were a bit faded) and have strings of beads tasseled to the bottom. When you wear them, you are supposed to move your body in a rhythmic motion, so that the beads hit your butt, making noise. In the aboriginal show, the dancers did this while walking around the entire perimeter of the stage - something which would take a surprising amount of strength to keep up for that long.












Above: wearing the aboriginal music makers -- left: host family / right: roommates plus P. Lee
Below: modeling aboriginal tattoos -- left: with Dr. Cai / right: with host family and roommates (Vincent refused to get a stick-on tattoo, can you believe it...)











In the afternoon, we stopped at all sorts of random little places - to see an old tobacco storehouse, to look at ducks, to walk on an island made entirely of oyster shells, to go paddle-boating, to have a clam bake, to have dinner - before finally making it home late at night. Taiwanese tours are random, I do not know what else to say. The ducks might have been my favorite, though the island of oyster shells was quite impressive. Over the years, fishermen dumped all of their shells in the same place, until they built up large enough to be an island. The island is now a little mossy and hosts a tourist stand selling fried oysters and other souvenirs. We took a windy boat ride out into the lake, to land on the island and walk around for a few minutes taking pictures. The clam bake was also amusing. Vincent is allergic to shellfish, so while they went to find him ice cream, I settled down for some oysters and clams. Having never tried to barbecue my own oysters before, I was not sure where to start. Fortuitously, Kaitlyn flagged me down, so I sat by her and her host family. Now Kaitlyn dearly loves her host family, but their biggest fault in her eyes is that they are always trying to feed her too much food. She has a weaker stomach, and Asian food often does not sit well with her. I, on the other hand, will eat almost anything (I get it from my father). I love being fed, Kaitlyn's host dad loves feeding people, and Kaitlyn did not want to eat anything, so it was the perfect situation. :)











Above: Sunnie and I on the way out to the oyster island / Island made entirely of oysters
Below: On the oyster island










We did finally manage to make it back home alive after an incredibly long day. Taiwanese host family outings are quite the event. Happily, Vincent, Sunnie and Nana are all very restful people, so the day was not nearly as stressful as it could have been. I will say, though, they should consider scheduling in a mid-afternoon nap-time for next year. But then, everyone knows my proclivity for naps. :)

Easter

This year, I celebrated Easter both at school and at home with my roommates. Holidays here are always a bit odd, because you have to decide which traditions from growing up are ones that you want to carry on yourself. Being a teacher adds the additional responsibility of trying to determine which parts of a holiday are essential for your students to know in order for them to understand the purpose and beauty (or craziness) of a holiday.











For me this year, Easter was incredibly hard to decipher. I love Easter, but for me, the beauty of the holiday comes from its Christian/religious meaning. Hiding Easter eggs and eating chocolate bunnies may be fun for small children, but it is also fairly pointless. I thought it was important to teach my kids about the holiday - it is a major American holiday after all - but I did not know how to do it without talking about the Easter Story. If there is one thing that is ingrained into me after years of American education, it is the separation of church and state. I am incredibly squeamish about religious discussion in the classroom, particularly if it is coming from the teacher. Talking about God in a secular classroom feels awkward and unnatural. So I was stuck - wanting to teach the meaning behind Easter, but not wanting to touch on any sensitive subjects (I guess I am not as brave as I act sometimes).










Above: dying Easter eggs
Below: blowing eggs into buckets and recycled pudding containers











I went to ask my co-teachers their opinion, and was amazed to find that they had no idea what Easter was about. All they knew was what the children's English textbooks taught - some rubbish about White House Easter egg rolls (I had never even heard of this tradition before...) and the Easter Bunny. They both told me that they wanted me to teach about the origins of Easter including the Christian story and traditions (after all, if you go back far enough, Easter was a pagan holiday). I guess the way to think about it would be if a teacher wanted to do a cultural lesson on India, so they taught about a Hindi holiday and the different traditions associated with said holiday. In the end, I did what they wanted and taught Easter, including the Easter story. The kids were surprisingly interested... The best part, though, was arts and crafts afterwords. We made blown eggs, dyed Easter eggs, made egg chicks and did several other random activities. It was so entertaining to watch the kids' curiosity when they went to dye eggs. Something which is so natural to me was entirely exotic for them. It was cute.















For Easter at home with the roommates, we went all out with Easter dinner. Kristin and Kaitlyn cooked up awesome American food, Katherine brought over a gorgeous carrot cake and I made my mother's famous Easter bread bunnies! Every Easter Sunday growing up, my mother would wake up at 5am to make these bread bunnies from scratch for us, so that they would be ready before church. They were always one of my favorite things when I was little (that and our coconut lamb cake, but where was I going to find a lamb cake mold in Taiwan?), so I decided it was a tradition I needed to perpetuate here in Kaohsiung.

My Eyes

As I mentioned in my last posting, I currently have keratitis, infection of the cornea. It is incredibly painful, causing my eyes to tear, turn red and be incredibly sensitive to light. What the doctor thinks happened is that, during the dust storm from China three weeks ago (when I was in Kending with my family), something got into my eyes and became minorly irritated. By the end of the weekend, my eyes were fairly bloodshot but not in pain, so I blamed it on sleep deprivation (I had gotten very little sleep while my family was here). The next two days, my eyes were tired and easily irritated. I remember rubbing my eyes a lot and thinking that the air had dried out my contacts. Tuesday night, I was working at my computer and grading papers, when I started tearing up in earnest. My eyes had been hurting since dinner, so I took out my contacts, put on my glasses and tried to work again. Now my eyes started crying in earnest. Within an hour, I could not even see anything, so I decided to give up and go to bed. I honestly just thought my eyes were tired and needed rest.

However, the next morning, I woke up early for taiqi and could not see a single thing. I could hardly open my eyes, they hurt so badly. I stumbled into the bathroom, took a shower, got dressed and then stood in the middle of the hallway wondering what to do. I still could not see, could not stop crying and any light was incredibly painful. My biggest concern was how to ride my scooter into work. At this point, Kristin came out of her room, took one look at me, and told me I was not allowed to go into school.

I went back to bed for a few hours, and then Fonda came to take me to the hospital. Most painful car ride of my life. Even with sunglasses and covering my eyes, the slightest amount of light hurt terribly. The doctor told me that I had keratitis, and that there were now holes in my cornea. Keratitis, when not caught promptly, can result in cornea erosion and eventual loss of the eye! He told me to not wear contacts for 2-4 weeks, and gave me three types of antibiotics to put into my eyes multiple times a day.

That was two weeks ago, and my eyes are still red and still sore. I have been to three different eye doctors, been prescribed seven different eye drops and eye creams, and nothing! The worst part is that people keep coming up to me with horrified expressions, asking what is wrong with my eyes and do I know that they are completely red and bloodshot? Why no! Thank you for telling me. I had no idea... YES, my eyes are red. YES, I have a cornea infection. NO, I did not get plastic surgery on my eyes (a Taiwanese person asked me this...).

One good thing to come out of this all is that I got new glasses. I have always hated wearing glasses (still do), but now that I have to wear them every day, I figured I ought to at least get trendy, cute ones. Funny story, second day of me wearing glasses, Fonda asks me if I would like to buy new ones. Puzzled, I say, "No - do you think I should?" Fonda, "Well, yours are crooked..." Haha I love Fonda. :) Yes, I have had my old ones since high school, and they are neither stylish nor straight nor the proper prescription. All excellent reasons to get new glasses. Fonda took me out to an eye glasses store in Xin Jue Zhang, staffed by many good-looking Asian men, and got me fitted out with new, classy, black plastic frames. My mother might be appalled - she has never liked black frames on blonds... But I took a vote in the shop and had the unanimous support of all of the good-looking Asian men.

Despite my new frames, I still hate glasses and deeply hope that my eyes will be returned to normal again soon.

Taidong

We just got back from a lovely little weekend excursion to Taidong. The original plan was to visit Green Island (famous for great snorkeling and hot springs), a one hour plane ride east of Taidong. Sadly, our plans fells through when we discovered that the sole daily flight was completely booked for Thursday through Monday. While there is also a boat which runs regularly out to the tiny island, horror stories abound as to the terrors of seasickness. Apparently, no matter how strong your stomach is, it is impossible to ride this boat without succumbing. Considering that a number of us are already susceptible to seasickness (remember Phuket?), we decided that the boat ride was out of the question. Therefore, we are postponing our Green Island trip until some later date.

Taidong was not a bad substitution. Located on the east coast, south of Hualien, it is literally minutes from both the mountains and the ocean (everyone from Illinois should know my passion for both).

From Kaohsiung, one must take a 3-4 hour train ride across the central mountains. Our biggest problem in setting up the travel arrangements was securing train tickets ahead of time. Because of the weekend being a national holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day - Monday, April 5), everyone in Taiwan had decided to take advantage of the long weekend and travel (thus the plane tickets to Green Island were all booked over a month in advance). At the last minute, Fonda worked her magic and somehow managed to secure us reserved seats. The train was packed, with people standing in the aisles and crammed into every nook and cranny.


Left: Awesome bedazzled scooter I found in Taidong. In case you cannot tell, the whole thing was covered in rhinestones.







Our adventure started off with a bit of a mishap. About five minutes after leaving the station, we (Katherine, Caroline, Kristin, Kaitlyn, Fonda and myself) were all chatting away happily - perhaps being noisy, obnoxious Americans? But I think not so much. We were using our in-door voices, merely telling entertaining stories and laughing a lot... The train had "just" left, so people were still settling in and getting arranged. Well, mid-laughter, we suddenly hear this guy yell at us from the back of the train car: "Bull shit! Please be quiet!" He was using his angry voice. And let me tell you, he looked quite angry too. The entire car went deafeningly quiet, as all of the Taiwanese people tried not to stare at us. We all sank down into our seats as far as we could, not sure whether we were more horrified, embarrassed or entertained. It was really quite hard to suppress the giggles. First of all, by Taiwanese culture, what he did was quite rude. Taiwanese people are all gentility and and subtlety, usually avoiding conflict, particularly with foreigners. You could tell that everyone else on the train was very embarrassed by what he had done. Second of all, the matter of the "bull shit." It has come to our notice over the course of the year, that swear words do not translate well. People with poor English do not know how or when such words are appropriate. Now, I honestly feel that no time is the appropriate time, but recognizing that there are extreme situations which certain people feel require extreme expletives, I can grant a person the occasional swear word. But here in Taiwan, I hear them all the time: from my children, from co-workers, from the random person on the street... I blame Hollywood. Taiwanese people think that Americans use these words all the time, and that the words are just a natural part of our speech. The other day, I had a child write "Oh my God" on his homework. Appalled, I showed my co-teacher and questioned the student. He had just meant, "OMG - this homework is so fun" (yes, I do give "fun" homework assignments - they were supposed to draw pictures). I tried to explain that this phrase is offensive to me, but it did not seem to translate well. At any rate, tangent aside, it was obvious the man had poor English and did not understand the full implications of his rebuke. The "bull shit" and the "please" seemed at odds with each other in our minds... It was clear he was annoyed, but I do not think he was that enraged. I believe the "bull shit" was just his way of trying to get our attention - which it certainly did.


Once in Taidong, we met up with Kim and bused over to our hotel. Fulbright Alex's family lives in Taidong and runs a hotel there. It was a very Taiwanese hotel, rather old and endearing, with everything in miniature. For example, the mirror reflected my stomach - nowhere close to my face, and the towels were the size of wash clothes (and also left bits of yellow tuft all over one's body when rubbing down...). Alex's family was adorable, though. So tiny! His mother must have been the size I was in second grade. Actually no - I have no memory of ever being that size haha. He and his brother had all of the same mannerisms and expressions. It was like talking to Alex, except not. Very crazy.


The first night there, we bummed around a bit - finding food, indulging in shaved ice and renting scooters. The shaved ice place was also home to a very minuscule dog, much to the delight of Kristin and Kaitlyn. I must say, for me, small does not equal cute. Give me a golden retriever or a labrador any day. We also visited Starbucks for late-night coffee. Odd things happen with caffeine late at night as evidenced by the video and pictures below...











Pictures Above: First night there - can we blame sleep deprivation?

The next day, we set off adventuring on our scooters to see the ocean cliffs by morning and to soak in hot springs by afternoon. The week before we left for
Taidong, I developed an eye infection in my cornea. For a while, I was uncertain whether I would even be able to go, especially since the group had been depending on me as one of the scooter drivers (only half of the people going had scooter licenses). By Friday afternoon, though, I could see clearly and with relatively little pain. The tearing had, for the most part, ceased, and as long as I wore my sunglasses and avoided direct sunlight, I was ok. Still, Kaitlyn had an enormous amount of faith to trust me driving her around town and up and down country roads.


We started by driving up north along the coastline, stopping periodically to scramble down to the ocean and take photo-shoots. One of the most interesting spots had rock formations named for their similar appearance to tofu. It would have been more beautiful if I could have seen clearly, but after a while, the sunlight got to me, and I had to go hide under a tree with my eyes closed.










Pictures Above: tofu rock formations
Pictures Below: Caroline and I enjoying the ocean; Kim, Kait, Katherine, Kristin, Fonda and Me










In the late afternoon, we went to the Zhiben Hot Springs. To all future hot springs goers, make sure you bring your own towel and swim cap. You cannot get into the water without a swim cap. Surprisingly, though, the place had plenty of hair dryers to use after coming out of the showers. The hot springs were amazing - soaking in bubbly hot water while staring up at the hills and forests surrounding us. We stayed till the sun went down and the lights came on, and even then, had to tear ourselves away. The Zhiben hot springs are quite large, with six large pools and lots of smaller tubs. Some had boiling hot water, others freezing cold, some with jacuzzi bubblers, and some with scented/colored water (lavender and rose).


For dinner, Fonda took us to a lovely little barbecue place. You could pick out different meat and vegetable shish kabobs, and then the guy would barbecue them for you with a certain sauce. It was amazing! I wish we had one of those places in Kaohsiung.











Before heading home the next day, Fonda said we had to get the famous Taidong sweet potatoes. Taidong is known around the island for its candied sweet potatoes and sweet potato chips. The tiny hole-in-the-wall shop did not open till 9am, but when we pulled up at a quarter till, there was a line halfway down the street already. However, now speaking from experience, the sweet potatoes were fairly amazing, though perhaps not worth the half an hour wait in the sun?

The great thing about traveling with Fonda is that we get a glimpse into how the locals travel and go on vacation. Taiwanese people travel for the food. Every town in Taiwan is famous for some special delicacy, and Taiwanese people will travel halfway across the island for the sole purpose of eating the food in some small local shop and then buy extras to take home to all of their friends. Traveling in Taiwan is all about the food and the photo-shoots, and not so much about the actual sight-seeing or "doing." For example, when I travel with my host family, we always need a picture in front of everything, but we will rarely "do" the activity. And our whole schedule is planned around meals and famous snacks. In Taidong, that would be sweet potatoes. :)


After indulging in sweet potatoes for breakfast, we set off for one last adventure. We had heard that there was paragliding about an hour up the mountain. The drive up was quite scenic, but sadly, when we reached the top, weather conditions prevented us from jumping. It was too windy, and the trainers said that they were not letting anyone go off. While we chilled at the top for over an hour, we only saw one guy jump, and he was only in the air for about ten minutes before he went down. Happily, though, we did find lots of amazing fresh pineapple and ice cream to amuse ourselves with while waiting. In the end, we decided to give up and drive back. Since I had gotten to go while my family was here the week before, I was not too crushed. Hopefully, there will be another time for other people to try it.