Life as a Student

Since I am living the life of a student now, my life is not nearly as exciting as it was last year. Last year, we would often travel two out four weekends a month, or at least have amusing/entertaining functions to attend. Now I sit around memorizing vocabulary lists and grammar structures all day. And even after all of that effort, I am constantly frustrated by how slow my learning curve is. Foreign languages have never come easily for me, but I think I had hoped that in coming back here to solely focus on language study, I would wake up one day and suddenly become like my grandfather, who managed to master some half a dozen languages during his lifetime. What I lack in genes, though, I make up for in determination. After three hours of class in the morning, I typically spend another three hours studying and doing homework before my brain completely melts or I am called off to teach some small child English. My most productive time is actually in the mornings before class (also the reason why I am loving my morning classes this year, and did not absorb any knowledge from my night classes last year). No doubt about it - I am a morning person. Further proof of this happened just last night.

Wednesdays are my busiest days, as I go straight from Chinese class to Minzu Jr. High School (my school from last spring semester) to teach two periods of English club. Then I go to Sophie's for two hours of tutoring and finish with another two hours of tutoring two high schoolers who attend the Kaohsiung American School. In other words, I am gone from around 8:30am until past 10:30pm (college all over again, no?). So last night I was hanging out with Sophie after tutoring (we often go out for dinner afterwords), when I remembered that I had an exam this morning. In my defense, we have been having exams all week, so it is not like I have not been studying throughout - I just had momentarily forgotten about this particular one. So when I finally got home around 11pm, I decided to buckle down and study. I prepared well, stuffing my system full of caffeine and sugar. Did it work? Well, ask my roommates when they found me 45 minutes later sound asleep on the couch. So much for that idea. :) Sometimes I wonder how I ever made it through college...

On the bright side of things, my Chinese is improving a lot (just not as fast as I would like, which would be fluency by tomorrow ha). My reading and writing have improved drastically, as has my listening. For some reason, I still cannot speak. Whenever I open my mouth, all knowledge of complex grammar structures and interesting vocabulary flees my head, and I am left stuttering in incoherent thoughts. Everyone is very sweet and encouraging, though. For example, this past Sunday, I attended the wedding of one of the teachers from Minghua Jr. HS. We had been in the same office last fall, so it was fun to go see her all dressed up and beautiful. Taiwanese wedding banquets are all about the wardrobe changes of the bride and the plethora of dinner courses. People eat and eat and eat... way too much food... It is a good thing there is no dancing at Taiwanese weddings, because after consuming that much food, there is no way anyone could dance. Anyways, several weeks before, my old office conspired against me and nominated me to give a speech at the wedding. After the dinner, the bride and groom go around to each table, drinking a toast with all of their guests. When they came to MY table, everyone thought it would be "cute" or "funny" or "endearing" if I stood up and made a bunch of toasts in Chinese. Oh Taiwan.... The whole previous week I spent in nervous preparation, practicing my string of Chinese wedding blessings (Chinese loves the use of idioms - the language has them for just about every occasion, and when it comes to weddings, there are many such as: 早生貴字 - wishing the couple the early birth of a son; or 百年好合 - wishing the couple may have a hundred years together; my office friends gave me a whole list of these to memorize) on any Taiwanese local who would listen. Sunday afternoon, Phoebe took me out to get my hair washed and styled for the wedding, and I rattled off all my phrases to the hairdresser who found me incredibly amusing.... When the time finally came, I managed to get out all of the words without any major catastrophe, and everyone present seemed to get a kick out of it (which is what we foreigners are for - entertainment for the locals lol).


Pictures: (above) me and Phoebe; (far left) me and the hairdresser; (near left) my hair - pretty! too bad it did not stay that way long...







In case you are thinking it is strange that I was so nervous to speak in Chinese at the wedding, I have recently discovered something about myself. Most people know I have always loved public speaking (thanks to my mother's efforts during early childhood). Whether impromptu or prepared speeches, I always have fun. Impromptu amuses me, because I love to see what happens when everything is spontaneous; but the process of brainstorming, writing, practicing and delivering a speech is also rewarding, from the creativity and organizational skills involved all the way down to the thrill of connecting with an audience. What I have now realized about myself, though, is that all of this is null when the speech is in Chinese. Whether I am standing at the front of class to give a five minute speech or being forced to speak in front of everyone at a wedding, my gut feeling is to panic and stand mute. Every thought flees my head and I begin exhibiting classic symptoms of stage fright. Must show how self-conscious I am when speaking Chinese...


Back to weddings for a moment, though - the Chinese and Taiwanese see luck and superstition in everything. For seemingly insignificant details, there is a proper way in which things must be done in order to bring good luck to yourself and those around you. For example, certain days are more lucky than others to get married on (or to be born on). When giving the bride and groom their red envelope (wedding presents here are done in the form of money, presented in a red envelope), you should give in even number amounts - for example, 1200NT but not 1100NT or 1300NT. When getting married to your spouse, there are lucky and unlucky age disparities. Marry someone 1, 4, 7 or 11 years different from you, but stay away from possible partners who are 2, 3, 6 or 8 years different.

My Chinese has been facing other challenges this past month, which has the side result of making me very tired. Last weekend, one of the ladies in my class (the Korean lady - whom we all call "Korean Mama" since she is the only one with kids) invited us all over to her house for dinner. My teacher lives just a few blocks away from me, so she offered to pick me up and give me a ride. What would normally have been a 20 minute ride turned into an hour long trip due to the weather and rush hour traffic. Imagine me trying to keep up a one-on-one conversation with my teacher in Chinese for over an hour... painful. Once we arrived at Korean Mama's house, we of course had to continue talking all in Chinese, as we have to whenever our teacher is present (she is apparently fluent in English, having lived for two years in Philadelphia, but I have never heard her speak English). By the time I returned home, I had spent over 5 hours in concentrated Chinese conversations - intense and exhausting. This coming week, I am going to start hanging out with a language partner, so hopefully, I will begin having many more protracted Chinese conversations (the problem with most of my Taiwanese friends is that their English is much better than my Chinese, so it is easier/more natural to use English when we hang out).

Tutoring English also has its amusing moments. All of my students are "special," some more so than others. The continuing saga of Jane, my problem child, might sadly (or happily) be coming to an end. Jane is a fifth grader who transferred this year from Chinese school to KAS, and has been having problems adjusting to the level of English, since no Chinese is allowed at the American School. Jane, however, does not like to learn. She is the classic strong-willed child coupled with a streak of laziness. She has major attitude problems and no respect for authority. Luckily, having been a strong-willed child myself, I can have way more attitude when necessary and will win any battle in stubbornness. That being said, Jane has absolutely no desire to cooperate and no motivation to even make an attempt at learning - with that I really cannot help. Her mother tells me that Jane is the same way with both of her parents, and both of them are at wits end to know what to do with her. We are beginning to think it might be better for Jane to take a hiatus on her lessons since her attitude is preventing her from actually gaining anything out of them (other than the joy of a battle of wills - which I may find entertaining but suspect she does not ha). Such encounters make me relieved I am not yet a mother and responsible for the moral upbringing of another human being.

A more comical tutoring situation happened this week with one of my high school students. He is a junior at KAS, and I typically help him with his English literature assignments or SAT prep. We just finished working on Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House," discovering different literary techniques, analyzing plot and character developments etc. Having never read the book myself, it was slightly challenging to help him wade through the book. The other day, he showed me his new book for class, "The Kite Runner." I got excited, because not only have I read the book, but I loved it. In my forever-absentmindedness, I happened to forgot a few major plot points... We started reading chapter two together, and almost immediately, the realization of what I was getting into hit me. We were only on chapter 2 - chapter 2! - and already the book was graphically mentioning sex! It is one thing to have a mature conversation about such a book with a friend, quite another to analyze it with a high schooler, slightly more awkward when that high schooler is a boy and more awkward still when the high schooler's English is not good enough to understand what he is reading! Imagine reading a mildly explicit sentence, and then having the high school boy ask you to explain it to him. Oh goodness... One of those many moments when I think to myself: "I am not getting paid enough for this." All I know is, there are certain chapters in that book which I will NOT be reading with him. He can just go ask his teacher to explain those passages to him. After all, what is an American teacher thinking to assign such a book to Taiwanese high school students?! The SAT-level vocabulary and political setting alone put the book way over the poor guy's head, let alone the adult content and deep psychological issues which are taking place. But no matter how much I feel for the guy, we will NOT be discussing rape or sex during our tutoring time.

On other lesser news, I finally bought a blender (called a "juice machine" in Chinese - is not that cute?). I love smoothies, and one day, decided to make one at home. Having dragon fruit (see picture) already in the fridge at home, I stopped by a market to pick up pineapple on my way back from school. Looking in the freezer, I realize we have no ice and no ice trays. So I turn around, go back downstairs, find the nearest 7-11 and buy ice. I march all the way back upstairs only to discover that our kitchen is lacking in a blender! What to do? I believe I have already mentioned my stubbornness in this post? Well, that particular personality trait rarely lets me give up on an idea, no matter how futile or bleak things are looking. Being resourceful, I pull out a mixing bowl and a blender. Oh terrible terrible idea. In less that 10 seconds, the ENTIRE kitchen is covered in magenta-covered goop. Ceiling, cabinets, floor, counters.... I wish I had taken pictures, because it was awesome. Needless to say, I purchased a blender soon thereafter. Moral: never ever attempt making a smoothie in a mixing bowl with an electric blender (I do not have pictures of the actual incident, but I took some today to show the color of the smoothie, so you can imagine that substance being flung about and covering everything in sight).


PS - Happy Birthday, Mommy! :)

Back in Kaohsiung

It seems fitting that things should come full circle, and so it is with my re-initiation back into Taiwan. Last year, I had all of a week to acclimate before Typhoon Marakot hit the island. This year, there have already been three to pass by, the last one, Typhoon Fanapi, being the worst. It hit Sunday morning, lasting into the evening, at which point it finally crossed the Taiwan Strait into China. We had all sorts of exciting adventures such as losing Cable internet/TV for 19 hours, losing cell phone service intermittently, getting stranded at McDonald's when we tried to walk home from church in the middle of the storm... Of course, it could have been worse. Many people lost power, had basement/garages flooded, lost sides of buildings, wiped out while scootering (yes, you would be surprised by how many people were still on scooters in the typhoon...). Katherine even saw a tree fall across a car. Would hate to be that person the next morning.... Even though the storm had mostly blown itself out by Monday, the City still called a Typhoon Day, I suppose as a clean-up/put-back-together day.

Other than typhoons, coming back to Taiwan has been an easy adjustment. I was supposed to fly back September 2nd, and after minor adventures in Champaign, Chicago and Narita (that would be every single airport where I had a connecting flight), I finally made it to Kaohsiung on the evening of the 4th, after 51 hours of traveling.

This year, I have relocated to a new apartment building up north along the Love River, relatively close to the Kaohsiung Arena, Ruifeng Night Market and my old school Minghua Jr. HS. It is also two blocks away from church, which is - non-coincidentally - how we got the apartment. My two roommates this year are both on staff with church, so the pastor helped us set all of this up through a friend of a friend. Katherine, one of the other ETAs last year, is now working part-time at church as the youth ministry coordinator and part-time as an English cram school teacher (though they both seem to add up to two full-time jobs). Jennice, a local Taiwanese, is also on staff at church, helping out with so many different ministries that I cannot even keep them straight. Additionally, she attends seminary two days a week up in Tainan. Both of the girls are incredibly sweet and very fun to live with, when I see them that is. Since I have class in the mornings, and they work afternoons and evenings, it is very easy to miss each other for days on end. I think I only saw Jennice once the entire first week I was here, and that might have been at church. Lately, though, we have all been home more, which is fun. And while Jennice helps me with my homework, I look forward to teaching her more about American sarcasm! (NB - Taiwanese people do not understand sarcasm - it is a fine art which I often see as my mission to spread the joys of whenever possible)

The first week here, I got to do lots of independent, grown-up activities, with the added bonus of doing it all in Chinese. Last year, I never fully appreciated how much work Fulbright did for us - or that is, how much FONDA did for us... I started off by visiting the immigration office to register for my ARC (alien residency card), attended orientation at school, applied for a school parking permit, had Cable installed, attempted to get health insurance and visited the DMV to renew my drivers license, re-register my scooter and buy new motor vehicle insurance. Getting Cable hooked up might have been both the most frustrating and most amusing experience. For a full week after I arrived, we had no internet service. Katherine would steal off of a neighbor's unencrypted line, but for some reason, my computer refused to connect. Internet is always priority number one for me, so you can imagine how frustrated I was. Jennice had promised to look into it, but since she was never around, I tried to find a faster solution. When I would try to ask the guards downstairs, my Chinese would utterly fail me. Two of my co-teachers from last year came over one night, and I dragged them downstairs to question the guards for me. However, the apartment internet turned out to be incredible slow and not what we wanted. Katherine had been not wanting Cable internet since it is so expensive, but in the end, we decided it was the best option since it is the fastest. Plus now I get to watch international CNN TV coverage 24/7 again, which makes me happy! But back to why this story is amusing. As sweet as Jennice is, she often has no clue about real life things. I mean, I make no claim to understanding the adult world, but in comparison, I must know something... The Cable guy comes over to hook up our TV and router. He starts explaining in Chinese how since our TV is an older model, you cannot simultaneously hook up both the DVD player and the Cable box without buying an additional cord (something about the outlets at the back of the TV). Jennice is so confused and not understanding anything he is saying, so keeps patiently asking questions in her sweet, innocent way. You can tell she really wants to understand, but just cannot. The Cable guy, meanwhile, is getting super fed up at having to repeat everything and has a very annoyed expression on his face. I, of course, understand very little of the Chinese, but comprehend precisely what the trouble is with the TV, yet am equally unsuccessful at explaining it to Jennice in English as he is in Chinese. When the poor Cable guy finally left and Katherine got home, we had a long laugh about the whole situation. And then Katherine looked at the television herself and realized the Cable guy was wrong the whole time - both the DVD player AND the Cable box can be hooked up simultaneously. So much for Cable guys...

As for school, I am loving my classes so far. It is the most amazing feeling to be the student again, learning information that you honestly and truly really want to know, versus being the teacher, trying to force information down unwilling teenagers' minds. Plus I just love learning Chinese. By the end of last year, I was quite frustrated with Chinese. Since I had no time to spend actually learning the language (or perhaps I am just a poor manager of time), I usually just felt fairly stupid since my limited Chinese could not service me through many different kinds of situations. Learning again makes me feel so happy, and also makes me increasingly excited for grad school in the future. My classes are also fairly entertaining, which makes them that much more enjoyable. I have class every morning, three hours a day (though last week I had an additional two hours a day, as I took an extra class to try to learn b-p-m-f, the phonetic symbols which Taiwan uses instead of Pinyin - it was mildly terrible and made me feel like I was 5 years old again trying to learn the alphabet...). On Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I have a grammar class, and on Tuesday/Thursday, I have conversation. At first, I like my grammar class a lot better because we do more advanced things, in terms of both vocabulary and grammar structures. The conversation class, on the other hand, has stayed on much more simple topics, things that I already feel I know. Our teacher keeps making us repeat the same things over and over again. At first, I found this very boring, but I may be appreciating it more now. My listening comprehension is much better than my speaking. I can usually understand the teacher, but have a much harder time answering questions. While it may be boring, it is probably good for me to keep trying to practice the elementary conversation so that I do it correctly, versus knowing a lot, but not being able to verbally express myself well.

The classes are fairly diverse at NSYSU. In my two classes, I am the only American. The other kids are from Canada, Czech Republic, Japan, Korea and Vietnam, and possibly a British guy who comes occasionally. More surprisingly, I may be the youngest. The Canadian is an English teacher here in a cram school and is in his mid-twenties. The Czech guy just graduated from college and is here on the MOE scholarship - same one I have. His girlfriend is Portuguese and also here studying Chinese on the scholarship. One Japanese girl is 26, and being paid by her hotel hospitality job back home to live here for the year and to learn Chinese. The other Japanese girl studied abroad in the States, met and married a Taiwanese guy, moved back to Kaohsiung with him and is now trying to learn Chinese. I cannot tell how old the Korean guy is, though he has some of the more fluent Chinese in the class (the Japanese girls said that he is repeating this class for the second time...). Another Korean lady just joined our class halfway through last week. She is in her mid-forties, and I just found out that her teenage daughter attends youth group at our church (which I started helping out with last Saturday, and thereby met her daughter - random). The Vietnamese guy has moved here permanently to work, and seems to be a very committed student, spending most of his afternoons at the school library.

Other than class every morning, I have picked up with my tutoring again. The scholarship is nice, but certainly not lucrative. I am slightly poorer than last year, so private tutoring is perfect. I think I have ironed out my schedule to have 12 hours a week. There are a few other students who would like to start up, but I am already feeling quite busy, so they might get turned down. My tutoring students this year all seem nice so far. I do not have any where the parent has obviously signed the kid up against his/her will (had a few of those last year, and they were like pulling teeth).

Two of those tutoring hours I actually spend at my school from last spring semester, Minzu Jr. HS. As happy as I am to not be teaching full-time again this year, it is rather nice to be back in the classroom once a week. I have decided that teaching is fun in small doses. I teach two different English conversation club classes for the school. One is for the eighth graders, which is fun since I know all of them from last year. The other is with the seventh graders. I have only had them once so far, since this week was a holiday, but they are quite cute. Very nervous and shy about being in junior high school suddenly, but very adorable. I had forgotten the barrage of questions I would be greeted with:
"Teacher, do you have a boyfriend?"
"Teacher, are you married?"
"Teacher, where are you from?"
"Teacher, how old are you?"
"Teacher, how tall are you?"
So predictable... Oh and a child corrected my English! They had to pair up and ask each other questions, then introduce their partner to the rest of the class. On the board, I wrote out the questions, one of which was "What is your birthday?" One student raised her hand and asked in clearly enunciated English, "Teacher, shouldn't it be 'WHEN is your birthday?'?" I went home and asked Katherine, who agree with the small child. Then I emailed my whole family, who agreed with me! Perhaps it is a midwestern colloquialism, but we often say "WHAT is your birthday?" meaning I suppose, what is (the date of) your birthday. Linguistics... Amazing that anyone would want to hire me to teach English haha. Supply and demand is a beautiful thing. In my defense, though, while my English may not be perfect (and you really should not hire me to teach phonics), I have been told that I am a very entertaining and patient teacher, which must be worth something. :)

As a sidenote, I am no longer doing Minghua's English newspaper. Last year, I supervised their newspaper the entire year, even after moving to Minzu. While I loved the kids and enjoyed moonlighting as a newspaper man, it took a huge amount of time, which I simply do not have this year. Feeling bad about not being able to help out again, I passed on word to this year's ETAs. One of them was a journalism major and worked for the past year as a news reporter - perfect! I was so excited, Minghua is excited, she is excited - basically win-win for everyone.

On a more day-to-day level, this week has been a bit odd. First with the typhoon canceling everything Sunday and Monday, and then today is the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節 or Moon Festival). Classes are canceled at NSYSU today and tomorrow. As a result, I will only have class twice this week - Tuesday and Friday - quite strange. I have made a commitment to be productive with my time, though. However, seeing how I have already caught up on the season premiers for Chuck and Glee, it might not go as well as planned.... And Bones comes out in another day. And I want to start watching a new Taiwanese drama (they really can help you learn Chinese! haha). So if you know of any good ones, let me know (and no, Joy, I do not want to watch your Korean drama, but thanks...).

Outing with Sophie

One of the things I do in addition to teaching at school is tutoring. By contract, we are allowed to work 4 additional hours tutoring outside of class. My first tutoring student was Sophie, and while I have since accumulated others, Sophie remains my favorite. Sophie lives in my same apartment building just across the courtyard, so every Thursday evening, I trot over to speak English with her for an hour.

Sophie is delightful. She is one of the sweetest people I know - always thoughtful, always adorable, always going out of her way to help others. She brings fruit or home-cooked meals to our apartment at least twice a week; invites me out to dinner with her family; always prepares a drink and fresh fruit for me during our lessons; and usually sends me home on Thursdays with multiple bags of everything from breads, to cakes, to books, to DVDs to English New York Times issues (how she procures these is beyond me). My roommates and I have decided that she has adopted me. Her husband commutes every day to his job in Kending (which is a two-hour drive one way), and she only has one son, who is currently in high school (which means he is constantly busy studying). We think that she must have always secretly wanted a daughter, and here I am, the perfect age. :) Not that I am complaining - I adore Sophie.

Three times a semester, junior high schools here have major exams. The exams last for 2-3 days, and since I do not need to administer the exams, this means that I get 2-3 days off school. for our most recent exam testing period, Sophie invited me out with her on a day-trip to Tainan. Tainan, half-an-hour north of Kaohsiung, is the fourth largest city in Taiwan, one of the oldest cities on the island and also the old capital before Taipei. It is also known for having the most number of temples anywhere in Taiwan, not hard to fathom after walking around the city and literally seeing one on every street corner.


While I had been to Tainan various times with my host family and friends, this time, Sophie wanted to take me to a famous restaurant there. It was started by a woman as a way to show off her artwork - displayed both in the architecture and in the sculptures. Sophie had been very moved by the woman's story when she first heard it years ago, and she still finds her life very inspiring. This woman grew up in the country with almost nothing, never finished school, was forced into marrying someone by her brother and did not manage to find herself until she reached middle-age. After she escaped her unhappy marriage, she began her artwork, creating statues solely using natural, recyclable materials. She built her first restaurant entirely by herself, with ocean driftwood and other damaged materials she found after a typhoon. She now has over half a dozen restaurants scattered around Taiwan, each unique with its own theme and specially designed environments and artwork. For example, the restaurant in Tainan, as you can tell by the pictures, has a forest feel to it, with trees growing up from amongst the tables
to the skylights in the ceiling. Her artwork focuses on women's empowerment and has a strangely Picasso feeling to it... The food was also superb, though as I understand, not inspired by the same artist, but by a chef who has paired up with her.












After the restaurant, we did a bit of sight-seeing, visiting the Eternal Golden Castle and the Chikkhan Towers. It was interesting seeing how much the land has changed over the last few hundred years, as both forts were originally built right on the water and are now several miles inland. The Eternal Golden Castle was built in 1874, by a Qing Dynasty official to help defend against the Japanese. Sadly, it proved mildly ineffective, as the Japanese would invade two decades later. The Chihkan Towers were constructed in 1653, during the Dutch colonization. However, they were later rebuilt, which is why the buildings today look Chinese, although their foundation is the original Dutch brickwork.











Above: at the Eternal Golden Castle
Below: (left) Chihkan Towers; (right) statue of Dutch surrendering to the Chinese










Below: (left) god of literature - the figure is holding a writing brush in one hand and an inkwell in the other, one foot on the head of a tortoise and the other kicking the stars, the symbolism of which means high academic success, so students often come here to pray before taking exams










Above: (right) classic Chinglish


On a sillier note, Sophie also insisted that I let someone at each site take my photograph. I could not figure out what was happening at first, but it turned out that she was signing me up for insurance cards. The city of Tainan has a free insurance program for tourists, covering all of its historic sites. Basically, if you give them your name and other identifiable information and let them take your picture, they print you a nifty little card and guarantee you free insurance for the duration of your stay in Tainan. Plus you end up with a cute little souvenir - a card with your picture in front of the historic site. Sophie got so excited by it, that she even ended up getting a card herself at the second site.

We have arrived: living the adventure of the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel

The first week we arrived in Kaohsiung, we were taken to the Dream Mall, the largest shopping mall in the city. On top of this mall, rests the second-largest Hello Kitty ferris wheel in the world. Awesome. I love how that sounds: Kaohsiung has the second-largest Hello Kitty ferris wheel in the world. Which means, there are "at least" two Hello Kitty ferris wheels in the world - perhaps more! In case you have never been to Asia, Hello Kitty is beloved and adored by all age groups and all genders. Her iconic little face gets put on everything, rivaled only by Sponge Bob (Hai Mian Bao Bao!).
For the first couple of months, Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel was a thing to laugh at and mock. Slowly, I began to secretly want to ride it. When I heard that each car has a Hello Kitty cushion inside, I began to earnestly desire a picture of myself with that cushion on the ferris wheel. Yes, it is true - I am developing certain Asian tendencies, such as the overpowering yearning to take pictures with ridiculous "cutesy" things. Each time I had family come to visit me, I would mention the ferris wheel off-hand, demeaning it as childish and eccentrically Asian, secretly hoping someone would see the joke in it all and also want to ride it with me. Alas, no.









Well, this week, Kristin's friend Maddalena is visiting from the States, so we have been entertaining her with wild and crazy adventures. On the list, I suggested Hello Kitty. It was epic. We went late at night, when you can see all the lights from around the city. Maddalena had the great idea to bring Mr. Donut with us for our mid-air snack. Living the dream - Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel - do not miss it on your next vacation to Taiwan.

Taiqi

As I have mentioned before, I practice taiqi three mornings a week with a lovely little group of Taiwanese people, all over the age of 50. I like to think of myself, the tall blond 30 years their junior, as their mascot - I show up to things, make a solid effort, usually get my butt whipped by all of the 70-year-olds, understand about 30 per cent of what is said around me and have an overall grand time. Everyone else in my group works at the Kaohsiung City Tax Office, just a block past my apartment building next to the Cultural Center. There are a couple of other people who come regularly, who clearly know everyone, but who always walk off in a different direction. Maybe they are retired now? One of these is my coach, a little old guy, completely adorable. He is always walking over and correcting my body posture - I do not know where he finds the patience. :) Then there is also the main teacher. He only comes some of the time, which confuses me. I did not ever work with him until back in January when I finally became good enough to join the entire group. Even so, he often comes and just observes from the back the whole time. Every once in a while, he will get on a microphone and demonstrate things for us.

Back when my family visited in March and came to watch me practicing taiqi in the Cultural Center, my group asked if I wanted to join them in a performance come May. I readily agreed, of course!

The performance turned out to be an exhibition of nearly all of the certified taiqi groups in southern Taiwan performing for the Kaohsiung mayor. There were over a thousand people, coming from Tainan, Pingtung etc. Kaitlyn came with me to watch and take pictures. As we were driving up to the stadium, she started to point out someone wearing the same uniform as me, to ask if they were from my group. She was shocked to discover that all 1000 of us were wearing the exact same clothes. Looking for me in all of the pictures and videos she took is a little like "Where's Waldo" Grace-style.



While we had to be at the stadium at 8am, nothing really happened until after 10am when the mayor finally arrived. We spent the several hours getting marshaled around the field, arranged into lines, marching out, marching back again. We even did a practice run of the whole thing with music and girls (dressed like majorettes) holding signs. Once the mayor did finally show up, we had to stand, in the by-now oppressive heat, listening to nearly an hour of speechifying and acknowledgments for every single person of the several dozen sitting on stage. If this sounds boring/tortuous, now imagine listening to all of the speechifying in Chinese. Haha I really wanted to strip off all my clothes and then pass out in the middle of the field. In the end, I decided that might not be kosher... After all, I was already the only non-Asian on the field, so I had a reputation to uphold as the sole westerner. :)

We were finally allowed to start, and for the next seven minutes, the whole experience was very fascinating to be a part of and to watch. All 1000 of us were in lines, doing the same routine, moving in "perfect" uniformity to the music (It was actually far from perfect, thanks to the grass making it very difficult to turn properly. The best part was these two guys right in front of me - not from my group! - who obviously had no idea what they were doing. It was hilarious, and made me feel much better about myself). It was cool to watch all of the lines move as one, almost like waves of the sea. At the front of the lines, were nine taiqi masters, wearing silken pajamas. I did not realize until later when Kaitlyn showed me pictures, but one of these was my group's instructor. If you look in the videos, he is the one closest to the camera (or on the far right if you were facing the field).











After baking in the sun for a few hours, the entire field retired to another in-door stadium across the street where certain taiqi groups entered into a competition. My group did not take part in the competitions, for they told me they did not have enough people. This surprised me, because there are usually over 20 people at practice on a given day. Anyways, after about 30 minutes of watching more of the same routine performed again and again, Kaitlyn and I were utterly bored and left. The morning was a very fun experience, though, and I am glad I was able to participate.

Bike Riding in Meinong

Bekah and I had both been to Meinong with our respective families, but we thought it would be fun to take a scooter rode trip out by ourselves. One of the things Meinong is famous for is bike riding, so we decided to rent bikes for the day and go exploring. Meinong roads used to be covered in color-coded bike paths, but the old markings were either so old and faded or else paved over that they sadly did not exist anymore. Luckily, the town itself is very small and the surrounding countryside is fairly logical, so we never got too lost. There was one moment, though, where we almost started biking straight up a mountainside, but a local saw us trying to make out a sign, and kindly pointed us in the proper direction (our bikes were far from mountain bikes).












Since living in Kaohsiung, I have done surprisingly little bike riding, considering the amount of bicycles in the country and my love for cycling. This is due to three factors: my scooter is faster and more fun, the heat/humidity makes cycling an unpractical mode of transportation for anyone hoping to arrive at work with dry clothing, and the bikes here are not built for my body type. Back in October, Minghua's PTA council gifted me with a bicycle (which was so sweet of them!). It is foldable, making it great for taking on the MRT. This same feature, though, means that the wheels are about one foot in diameter and the frame is very unstable. I am always afraid I will break it when I ride it! Anyways, the bikes we rented in Meinong were more sturdy, but still built all wrong for me. Even with raising the seat and handle bars, things were still out of proportion. Maybe my torso is too long? We had meant to stay out most of the day, but after less than two hours, my body was ready to quit. Bekah was done too, as the heat was terrible. One thing I am looking forward to this summer is taking my American bike out for long cycling adventures through Illinois cornfields haha.


After buying fresh pineapple from a fruit stand along the road (while I will be upgrading my bicycle, I will sorely miss Taiwan's fruit this summer - nothing compares to it), we set out riding amidst banana and beetlenut trees, through quaint villages and along the mountain ridge. Once we had given up on the bikes, we took a walk around a pretty little lake and even got to listen to some traditional aboriginal music. It was painful. One could hear it from a mile away, and of course, Bekah needed to get up close so as to better savor the experience. I have included a recording of it so that you call all witness the discordance.