Cishan with Vincent and Sunnie

Vincent and Sunnie took me out on another day trip, this time to Cishan by way of Fo Guan Shan (佛光山). Foguanshan is the largest Buddhist monastery in all of Taiwan, and located just an hour outside of Kaohsiung. I had been wanting to visit for a while, but as most of my friends had already gone with their host families, I had been unable to find anyone who wanted to go with me. When Sunnie mentioned we would stop there on our way to Cishan, I was quite happy with the idea.


Religion in Taiwan is a bit convoluted. Most people believe in something, but few people know exactly what that is. Religion for them is more about family traditions that are passed down from one generation to the next. For example, Tomb Sweeping Day, where everyone goes out into the countryside for the day to sweep their ancestors' tomb - considered a deeply important family holiday. In talking to them about their religion, most of them do not seem to have very solid beliefs. Many people believe in a mishmash of Taoism and Buddhism, not even knowing themselves where one belief ends and the next picks up. For the majority of people I have met, religion does not have a major impact on their lives (though I have met a very few devout Buddhists). It is something you do when you need good luck - such as going to the temple to pray before a big exam, or once a year paying money to light candles in the temple to help your family in the upcoming year. It is not something you need do every day, but rather, just when you feel so moved (however, there is one lady who lives in our apartment who "feels so moved" way too often - she is forever burning paper money in the courtyard directly below our windows at around 5-6am; hence we often wake up with our entire apartment smelling like burned paper money - not a happy smell...). The thing I find refreshing about religion here is that they never try to prove their religion based on a set of logical points. It is very freeing to be in a society that is not hostile towards religion. In the States, I always feel defensive about my beliefs, as if I have to prove myself to people - prove to them that what I believe is rational and real. In Taiwan, everyone has a slightly different take on religion (for example, Sunnie is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism leaning more towards Taoism, whereas Vincent is agnostic - sort of), so there is a natural curiosity to learn more about other people's beliefs, without any type of judgmental baggage. Since I love learning about other people's religions as a way to gain insight into their culture and way of life, I enjoy being able to have friendly religious conversations with people, without anyone becoming upset or heated (not possible in America).

We wandered around Fo Guan Shan for about an hour, but as it was very hot and Vincent does not particularly enjoy heavy physical exertion (walking up hills qualifies as "heavy physical exertion" here), we never actually made it up to the famous 36 meter tall Buddha statue. Instead we did our best to stay on level ground or walk downhill for the entire time - quite the feat considering that the monastery is built onto the side of a mountain... I love my host family - they never cease to amuse me. :)

After our brief jaunt visiting the monks, we went on to Cishan. Now Taiwan is entertaining in that every single town, no matter how small or seemingly unimportant it may appear, is famous for something. Cishan is famous for its bananas. This does not mean that it the only place in Taiwan to find bananas or that their bananas are somehow better than the bananas elsewhere on the island. No, there bananas are exactly the same as all of the other bananas in Taiwan. The entertaining part is that every hamlet and village wants to be unique and renowned for something, so Cishan chose bananas. The capitalize on their logo/mascot/export by making famous banana coffee, banana ice cream, banana shaved ice and the list goes on. They decorate in bananas, there is a museum dedicated to telling about banana farming, there are banana statues - in short, everywhere you look, bananas. Now I love bananas as much as the next person, so I was hugely bemused and enjoyed myself thoroughly. And it should be noted: Cishan's banana coffee = 很好喝。
Above: (left) Sunnie and Vincent on a banana seat; (right) me eating a delicious banana split sundae











Above: (left) eating lunch - a meatball dumpling thing; (right) riding a banana bicycle
Below: at the Banana farming history museum, converted from an old elementary school

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.