Pictures

I'm quite tired and have an early morning tomorrow, so I have just posted some pictures. I haven't cropped or messed with color at all, so forgive me. Yesterday Josh and I went to the zoo, to dinner, and Taipei 101. It was an incredible day full of laughing and animals and at dinner I laughed so hard I cried. Today was training all day with lots of new and interesting people. Fun dinner and rain adventures and hopes for more tomorrow.

Working on the railroad

It’s hard to motivate a blog entry when it would be about how exhausted one is, so here is my summary of the last several days. Now that it is my one-day weekend, I can rest and catch (you) up a bit.
I have been working since last Friday, the day after I arrived in Taiwan. I wrote about Sunday’s adventures already, and since then I have had more training, observations, and classes. I have taught 6 hours of class thus far, and have worked probably 40 hours. I only get paid for teaching hours, so I will be very happy when my lesson plans take 15 minutes instead of 2 hours, and same for grading homework.
This morning I taught my second full (two hour) class, and after, graded the homework that had been collected from the lesson before. I had to grade it right away, because immediately after leaving school, Josh and I went to test drive and purchase a friend’s scooter, drive home, quickly pack things, and catch a train to Taipei. We will be in Taipei for tonight and tomorrow, and then Josh returns home while I stay in Taipei for training. Most of my fellow-new-hires will be arriving in Taiwan today or tomorrow, and will be jumping into training right away. I have had the (fortunate or unfortunate) opportunity to train in advance, so I hope I don’t screw up. It should be much easier for me, considering I have already taught some classes, but we will be training for the kindergarten curriculum and others that I have not learned anything about (other than watching the adorable Teacher Josh). My company is pretty corny, and it’s been a long week, so I hope the new folks are cool and sane and altogether interesting to be around.
I have had some interesting experiences in the last several days. I think the main cause of my exhaustion (other than working until 11) has been that I am running on very few calories. The following is not meant to frighten or complain, just to explain that my bubble of protection is more interesting than it is perfect. At first I was willing to try lots of new foods because I was never hungry, so if I didn’t like it, I was fine. Then I started getting hungry. And I stayed hungry. I am hungry now. Lots of crackers and fruit and new fruits and some vegetables, but because I was working from 3-11, I didn’t really eat much. I can order dinner at work, but I haven’t been very good at it. Anyway, I was getting very hungry. Yesterday morning I found the scale in our apartment and I was 47 kilograms. This means that I have lost 14 pounds since the start of the kidney stone; about 6 since I left the US. Being the wonderful and worried boyfriend that he is, Josh took me out to lunch to a place that he knew I liked. We had that same teppanyaki and I again got shrimp and I ate the whole thing. Faster than he did. I was full and happy and it was actually a fairly emotional felling of relief. …but then I didn’t really eat dinner so there you go…but there is hope and I am feeling better and Taipei promises lots of delicious foods and adventures.
Next story: I have had some neat music experiences in the last several days. On Sunday, when Josh and I were hiking, the music from the town wafted up into the mountains. As we took in the birds and the jungle and the village below, the music (and incense) made it seem the quintessential Taiwanese experience. 2. The book store. Josh and I were on various missions – he to find a cd for his Chinese book; I to find a bird book that I could understand. As I am looking through the book, writing down names so I didn’t have to pay for it, I realize I am singing along to the instrumental music playing. Then words formed in my head: “Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you….away, you rolling river…” Next song: Simple Gifts. And for finish: “Home, Home on the Range.” I wonder if anyone there knew what they were hearing. Knew the way I remembered Brackenridge friends on the Plaza with a guitar singing “you rolling river” in 6 part harmony. Or if they knew that Simple Gifts is Lord of the Dance and that makes Bill grin and mom cry. Or if they knew I sang Home on the Range in the back of the plane as loud as I could cause no one could hear me over the engine and we were going to Iowa. In Taiwan there are not any ice cream trucks. I think there are ice cream bicycles, but I have not yet experienced one. I did however learn that there aren’t any ice cream trucks when I heard a truck drive by playing music, grinned with joy, only to find out it was the garbage truck. There are no ice cream trucks in Taiwan.
Two days ago, I met this girl on the train. Her name is “Jenny” and she is 17 and she goes to school in Taichung and has been going to English cram school for five years. I met her because I was a foreigner and a seat opened. She and her friend beckoned me to sit. They giggled nervously as they tried to speak. “Our English is not very good.” “That’s okay, my Chinese is worse!” They helped me practice my numbers and saying “excuse me.” Jenny and I got off in Fongyuan; her friend stayed on. Jenny and I said goodbye.
Yesterday, I took the train home again. I watched in the windows for Jenny, and I found her. When I got on, she was in the back corner and I couldn’t get her attention. Eventually, Jenny’s friend saw me, giggled, and called me over. We talked about food. Jenny and I got off in Fongyuan, I told her to keep practicing, and she giggled as she met Josh. I told her I was getting a scooter and I wouldn’t be taking the train anymore. I know it’s strange, but I want to take the loud, smelly train now so I can talk to the shy girl with a big spirit.
For the record, Taiwan is beautiful.

Zhong and Chang are the same character

I am slowly learning some chinese, both spoken and written. I have been trying to connect the characters on road signs to the names of the roads, and so far it has been pretty effective. Looking for familiar characters among the thousands of store signs and billboards is a great way to pass the time on the back of the scooter. Especially because the arabic spellings are sometimes very different for the same character (see title). Josh is expert at food words which I find amusing, and I can barely count to ten. Sleep now, work tomorrow.

school day numero uno

A day of school...after straightening things in the apartment, hanging a couple of pictures from home (R-S-G in Chicago, etc.), I met Josh for lunch. Met other teachers from his school, and then watched him teach the beginning of a class (7-ish yrs). Then off to do observations at my branch, where I met two of the Taiwanese women with whom I will teach, and lots of other interesting people. My boss is excellent thus far. Sleepy sleepy right now, and an early and late day of work tomorrow. Wednesday is my first day of class!

Sunday Afternoon Adventures

This afternoon we went exploring. Hopped on the scooter and headed north. We stopped for dumplings (shui jiao..."shway-jow"), then later to put on sunscreen, and then to cross a crazy suspension bridge into the jungle, then to see a huge temple, then finally in Guguan where we parked and went to explore. We found the Siaolai trail with a new suspension bridge (max limit 10 persons)and having no idea what the trail was like other than it was 1300 m out, hiked up a mountain. Along the way spotting birds, fighting mosquitoes, and watching for snakes and volkswagon sized rocks (if you'd seen the sign, it would be funny to you too). I swear I will make Josh a bird-convert, as he is already independently keeping his eye and ear out, loves binoculars, and has numerous times caught a glimpse of one doing something really cool (a bird, not a binocular). I have yet to identify very many species, but I've seen a few neat ones. Identifications are black-crowned night heron and black-browed (or Taiwan, or mullers) barbet, but I've seen a few more (5 or so) that I can't seem to identify using el internet.

We got back to the scooter at dusk and got home after a bumpy and beautiful drive on windy back roads. Today was marked by construction projects and we have a feeling they are mostly a result of the typhoon of last month. Bridges and whole chunks of road were missing, and scooters, trucks, bicycles, and cars were dodging potholes and each other. We arrived home in one piece thanks to expert driving that I had nothing to do with and then got foods from a buffet (note to self: noodles can be deceptively spicy). All in all it was a fantastic day with lots of laughter, tiny temples, beautiful mountains, and exhaustion. This day was just what I needed to be okay with working saturdays. As long as my sundays remain in the trees I will be just fine.

This still won't tell you much

Just returned from a day of scooting...first to Taichung (pronounced Tie-(as in neck) -Jung (sort of rhymes with "young")) where I had four hours of going over curriculum for my potential classes. Overall interesting, although I probably could have learned it in half the time it took us to plod through. I'm sure they are used to training larger groups, but with the two of us there, it seemed a little unnecessary. For Kelly: all children in Taiwan learn KK, which is very similar to phonetics. I will probably be teaching this. I have training/observations all of next week and I start a bit of teaching on Wednesday. I have to work a bit on Saturday which was unexpected (training technically starts a week from Monday, but they found out I was coming early so there goes the week of adjustment and grad school apps.) Next weekend Josh and I are going to Taipei and then he comes back here while I stay there until Thursday for training.

Then we drove back here, tried to find a mattress pad that was within my budget (Taiwanese beds are boards), and of course ended up wandering around this huge department. We tried a couple of different edibles...the girl cut us off a piece of some candies--dried fruit of some sort with some sugary something...very tart-ish. It looks like owl pellets. We had noticed them in 7-11 yesterday, and were still curious. Didn't taste as I would assume owl pellets would, but it was still..."interesting." Josh tried some beef-looking jerky which was supposedly a little bit "la" (fourth tone)and ended up in slightly redder faced Josh so of course we all laughed.

Then to dinner at a teppanyaki place where they cook the food right in front of you. The food was excellent, and aside from the soup there was no trace of fish. This is a welcome change from eating food wrapped in seaweed for the last two days. Ooo! We also tried dragon fruit and pomelo this morning in my first kitchen creation. Dragon fruit is white, firm yet quite watery, and has little black edible seeds. The Pomelo tastes a bit like a grapefruit. I don't think I would eat either alone, but I hear dragon fruit is excellent in smoothies. I might try to freeze a bit of it to use instead of ice.

We were going to go out with some friends but we missed the text message so now we are home and I am just fine with that. It's not even ten but I am sure I will be asleep quite shortly.

Fake apologies for the mundane update; at some point I'll write about what it is like to dodge in and out of traffic on the back of a scooter and maybe even about the ever-frequent breakdowns of exhaustion. Let's just say Josh is a very patient man.

Love to all

Scooters and Saunas

This post was intended to be an account of my arrival in taiwan, but I am hot and exhausted, so here is what I wrote on the plane:

It’s 1:09 in the afternoon on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009. In Pennsylvania. It is 1:09 in the morning on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 in Taipei. I (think) I have crossed the International Date Line which means very little to me. I am suspended somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. I know it’s nighttime…I can tell by the stars outside. And I am a five hour flight from Taipei which means that if I knew how fast we were going (about 650 km or miles an hour…which doesn’t help because I don’t know which) I could figure out how far away we are and then figure out which time zone I am in. But anyway that will change soon enough so let’s just say it’s nighttime for five more hours and then its 6am and I am getting a car to the office and then ten hours after that Josh picks me up. That will be early Wednesday for the east coast and it will be afternoon for Taipei, both on Thursday, and who knows what time for that spot in the Pacific above which I currently am.
Also, I have acquired a new super power of knowing the future. But only within twelve hours. This means that I get to celebrate your 22nd or 67th birthday before you do. I figure I’ll just read the morning newspaper here and if anything bad happens in America, I’ll call to let you know to stay in bed.
But in all seriousness, all of the stewardesses are gorgeous.
And the food is really good. Except that they gave us two dinners, and I was totally in the mood for breakfast (it was 5 above Alaska, which means it was 9 above Pennsylvania, which meant I wanted pancakes and not chicken.) But the first chicken dinner was the most delicious chicken thing I had eaten and they gave us lemon cheesecake that I didn’t eat before we got to AK and they took it from me. Booo!
Am I supposed to be writing about how nervous I am? I’m not really that nervous. I walked into JFK to check my bags and I felt peaceful. Mom and I didn’t even cry. Most of the people in line were going home to Taiwan or the Philippines. Lots of people make their home in Taiwan and there will be really cool people there. At the gate it was the same. And everyone on this flight-the flight attendants and the captain and the safety video all speak both English and Chinese and when they are offering hot tea everyone knows what it is. I’m so lucky that my language is the second (or fourth) language used all around the world. It makes traveling a bit easier when I won’t be able to read road signs. Everyone smiles on this flight. Even the guy next to me who got on and immediately apologized for his smell. He had a few drinks so he could fall asleep. Thank you for the apology and then for staying awake to ask me awkward questions.
I took the GRE and passed and I finished a rough draft of my personal statement for Michigan. I had a nightmare they cut up my passport and blackened out my face on my visa. I am so glad I packed a toothbrush in my carryon. And also big crazy hiking socks. Someone I was talking to asked if Josh and I liked the outdoors and my first thought was to say “look at my Tevas.” The same guy has THE CUTEST children. First he had a 3 ½ year old little boy. I feel asleep and when I woke up he was referring to the kid next to him as “she” and this kid had pink pants and totally looked different than the kid I thought I had seen before. It all became clear to me when I saw his wife and the little boy a few rows up. No wonder little kid number two didn’t know who I was when she woke up. I guess I’m a creeper.
This is far too long for your enjoyment, but I am sitting here trying to stay awake so that I can go to sleep in a few hours and wake up well rested in Taiwan. That’s probably a pipe dream but I’m’a try it. More soon I’m sure.