Le premier verre est aussi amer que la vie

Every week, I give a 5 - 10 minute presentation to my co-workers at Guting Elementary School. In the beginning, I assumed that it would be best to make presentations about the United States. I talked about the places I knew well: New Orleans and Illinois, as well as cultural practices like Halloween. However, I noticed that my co-workers were never incredibly interested (most faculty members use morning meeting to finish grading before classes start) and one of my co-teachers commented that they had already been exposed to most of what I talked about by previous Fulbrighters.

So much for originality. I decided to do a presentation on France. I talked about Lyon, about the roses in my grandmother's garden, and about food. I brought some crepes to share with them, which worked miracles in getting their attention.

In continuing with this trend, I put together a presentation on Niger today. As I was flipping through information on the internet to confirm the things I'd picked up on from my mom and our trip to Niger in 2006, I found a saying that I remember hearing from our Tuareg guide when we were drinking tea and eating grapefruits in the desert:

Le premier verre est aussi amer que la vie,
le deuxième est aussi fort que l'amour,
le troisième est aussi doux que la mort.
 

(The first glass is as bitter as life,
the second glass is as strong as love,
the third glass is as gentle as death).

Each glass refers to the change in taste of the tea over the course of drinking three cups. At first, it struck me as a little strange to be an American talking about Niger to a bunch of Taiwanese. However, these places and people are not as disconnected as they first seem. After a little more research, I realized the tea used by the Tuareg is gunpowder tea - also known as zhu cha (珠茶)! It's mainly grown in Zhejiang Province but there is also a variant grown in Taiwan. Goes to show there are connections everywhere.

What I've Been Up To...

...during my extended absence this November:

listening to music at a concert on the beach with my host family, 

 

 attending a wedding during which the bride changed clothes three times,

 eating a dangerously excessive amount of Thanksgiving food,

 stalking Andy Lau at the Golden Horse Award Ceremony red carpet event,

and teaching these crazy kids.

Laowai Links

Thursday link roll is kind of boring....so Laowai links. If you look further down, you'll see it isn't exactly original but oh well.

My personal favorite isn't here (mǎmǎhūhū, 马马虎虎, meaning "so-so") but there are some of the funnest Chinese words to say in this post on Laowai Chinese, my new favorite site.

Funny: What Your State is Good At, And What It's Lame At

Interesting: Women as Academic Authors - I didn't expect the percentage of female academic authors to be so low even with the 1991 - 2010 period but it's also interesting to see what parts of each discipline, particularly anthropology, that women tend to publish more in - dance ethnology? That might be one of the few subfields that I never really read much about in college.

Good to know: Baking Supplies Store Locations so that I can make this. Or this. Also useful to anyone out there wondering where to find baking tins in Yilan because Carrefour DOES NOT have anything useful, except for tin foil (which apparently damages toaster ovens) or little, crappy throw away pans and tins.

Bwhaahahaha, fulbright funds are responsible for this: Laowai Gangnam Style
 

The Caoliang Trail (Dali)

This is from a while ago but I've been meaning to post about it - partially because I want this blog to be a resource to any future Yilan Fulbrighters or anyone else traveling in Yilan. The blogs belonging to previous Fulbrighters have been useful to me and so I'd like to do the same for others. Anyway, there's an old hiking path called the Caoling Trail (草嶺古道) that stretches from Dali (大里) to Yuanwangkeng (远望坑), which is near Fulong (福隆) and Gongliao (貢寮). A friend and I took the train from Yilan, although you could conversely take it from Taipei, and got off at Dali. The ride there is really scenic: rice fields, mountains, and sandy coastlines.

There's an information center and a temple at the start of the trail in Dali that's worth checking out. We only hiked for about an hour or so before turning back to Dali but we got high enough to get a good view of the coast. Hiking the whole thing would probably take around three to four hours.

 

 

 

 Back near the temple, we found some food stands down the stairs across from Mr. Brown Coffee. We had some pretty oily noodles and fried spinach egg roll. Good if you don't mind having your food prepared in a wok filled with old oil. Afterwards, we went down to the beach and watched the waves crash against the shore. There had been a typhoon the day before so the waves were much bigger than normal. It was one of those things that are both beautiful but also slightly terrifying.

10/10 National Day

Yesterday was the 101st anniversary of the Republic of China's founding. All the Fulbrighters were invited to attend a reception at the Taipei Guest House (臺北賓館). Most of the guests were foreign and local officials. The president and the vice president of Taiwan were both there, so we Fulbrighters were pretty low on the totem poll. Nonetheless, I got to shake hands with the vice president.

 There was music, wine, and food. Tables and tables of Taiwanese food, Chinese food, as well as Japanese, French, and Indian were spread out across underneath tents outside. In addition to eating mini quiche lorraines, people-watching was one of the best parts of the reception. There were men and women dressed in all kinds of clothes: black suits, cocktail dresses, flowy Hollywood gowns, qipaos, and even a sari or two. Reporters flocked around the most high ranking figures. Men in black suits with earpieces held the small crowds at bay. Somehow though, I managed to get close enough to take a photo of President Ma Ying-Jeou.

My favorite part of the reception was the performance by a children's choir. The children were members of the Paiwan aboriginal tribe from southern Taiwan. They sang traditional Paiwan folk songs. Taiwan Today covered the group's development and success. I was even able to talk to them for a little afterwards and we got a photo together.

Thursday Link Roll

Never mind a big, long boring post. Here are some shiny links.

Took the Myers-Briggs personality type test online...apparently I'm the Scientist. Some of it is right, but some a bit off. Or so I think.

There's an interesting article on PopAnthro about consumerism amongst anti-materialistic backpackers. Find it here.

I really want to make these. Yum. It will happen.

Something to keep in mind, I guess: 15 Ways 20-Somethings Ruin Their Twenties.

My dad sent me this article how standardized tests are failing to accurately measure a school's performance. So called "failing schools" are actually doing better than these tests would indicate.

I had big plans for the weekend. Hot pot with my coworkers. Then Taipei plans. Costco. Macho Tacos. This place that has good cheese. Maybe the zoo. Instead, I have this to look forward to:

 

This is Where I Want to Live (One Day)

Okay, not this exact house, but a house like it. Or an apartment. Whatever. I love the wooden floors, the tatami mats, the sliding doors, the little carvings...and the garden outside with towering trees and a small pond (carp included, of course).

Unfortunately, this is not my future home. It's the "Memorial Hall of Founding of Yilan Administration", a traditional Japanese wooden house built in 1900. The building is a remnant of the old Japanese regime in Taiwan. It used to be the official residence of magistrates and is currently used as a regional history museum. The address is No. 3, Lishing 3rd Lane, Jiocheng S. Road Yilan City (next to Luna Plaza).

A Day in the Life of a Gu Ting Teacher: Mice and an Earthquake Drill

So...been a while. Got a lot to catch up on - my 22nd birthday, a Fulbright orientation event in Taipei, passing the scooter test, and just general life. But...I'll do that later. Today is today.

I got to school seven minutes late today. My valid excuse: the scooter is broken and the taxi service people kept hanging up on me...rude. So I had to call a bunch of people and get a hold of a native Chinese speaker: our coordinator, Kelly, my savior. This is is the only time I've been late - I'm usually half an hour early - but of course, it's a Tuesday and being late was not really the best course of action. On Tuesdays I have to present the weekly English phrase to the entire student body. Generally speaking, I stand sweating in the sun with a microphone while I get 200+ kids to repeat a few sentences and my co-teacher Stacia explains them (in those moments, I really miss the air conditioned auditorium where my high school's assemblies were held).

Honestly, while it's occurring, I'm a bit skeptical of how useful this activity is - I can hardly focus on the task at hand because of 1). the heat, 2) the sun blazing into my eyes and 3). the immense crowd of kids. However, all throughout the day, I hear kids using the sentences - correctly. So...I guess it works and I just need to suck it up for the time being. Today's sentence was "Are you okay?" and "Yes, thank you," or "No." Stacia had a student with a broken arm so we could properly demonstrate this. Poor boy had to say no.

Today, I had three classes with the 4th graders and Stacia. We normally have two breaks in between these classes, but today, instead, was an earthquake drill. The drill started and suddenly kids were putting on their little hats and diving underneath their desks. Stacia motioned towards the lights, indicating I should turn them off and get under one of the desks. A minute later, and the kids were lining up outside and heading towards a field, away from the buildings.

Then, during the second break, there were mice. Cute adorable little mice.

First Day of School

Okay, technically, today is the second day. Yesterday was my first day at Guting. But yesterday I didn't get to teach (I mostly sat at my desk using a really slow computer to look up Christmas carols for the Christmas performances that I'm supposed to get started on now...obviously a big thing here). Today I did! I had three fourth grade classes that I co-taught with my LET (Local English Teacher), Stacia. And I realized that my picture is on a board outside, next to all the other photos. Official faculty member! I feel old...maybe also because I'm turning 22 tomorrow!

 

 

Guorong Pasta Dinner

There's only so much you can do with a gas stove and a hot plate, but we're learning. Slowly. Thinking of buying a toaster oven so that we can make more cookies. Real cookies, not just no bake cookies and broken cookie cobbler on the stove. My roomie Sarah was so sad when we burned some of the cookie dough. For a while our apartment smelled like burnt cookies. And burnt popcorn (different fiasco). For now though, there's always Mister Donut.

Honeymoon Beach

We (Guorong) went to Honeymoon Beach last weekend. No one was swimming - all were surfing. Next time we go, I'm renting a board so I can learn how to surf. Just being in the water for that day was such a relief. I don't think I ever want to live away from a coastline...