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. :)