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.

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.

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...

Ghost Festival: Curse of the 8th Floor

The Hungry Ghost Festival started last weekend. Already, we've had our first encounter...

Guorong A & B (my apartment group) went to see the new Bourne movie in a shopping department building. We bought our tickets on the 7th floor, then clamored back into the elevator and hit the button for floor 1. However, instead of going down, the elevator went up. And stopped - on floor 8. The doors rolled open to darkness. A red rope was linked from side to side, blocking the entrance. Someone screamed behind me. Fiona pulled me away from the door to where everyone was huddled in the back of the elevator. Then she dashed forward and hit close on the button panel. The elevator continued rising, this time to a normal department floor. We all breathed a sigh of relief, and then noticed that there wasn't even a button for floor 8...

The curse of the 8th floor continued, except this time is was our doing. Or at least, that of Sarah  and I. It was part of a prank within a prank. The first prank was this: Sarah, Charissa "Shizzle", and I brought Guorong B's couch up to the roof. Charissa and I went down to Guorong B to get them up to the roof. On our way back up, the elevator stopped on floor 8 - Fiona & Shizzle both screamed, backing away from the doors. Sarah had gone down the stairs in order to stop the elevator. Laughing, I led them up to the roof, where the couch was waiting for us.

Visiting Prospective Schools

We started visiting schools today. We eventually have to choose which school we'd prefer to teach at and (hopefully) get placed there for the year. Two of the schools we visited were here in Yilan and the other two were fairly far away, in Nanao county. The two schools in Nanao had aboriginal students, some of whom performed a song and dance for us:

The Trash Truck

The first time I heard it I thought it was an ice cream truck. I was sadly mistaken. Essentially, when you hear that little jingle, you grab your trash and run. At least,you do if you're as unaware of the time and unfamiliar with the system as we were...

Creating a Routine

This morning the rain let up so I went looking for a place that would be good for running. There's a track a couple blocks away, but the gate was locked. Two women were running along it though, so I figured there had to be a way in. In the process of circling the block, I came across a path alongside what I think is the Lanyang River. From there, I could see the hills rising all alongside the city and the river. In addition, beneath the path there were crops growing in the muddy shores of the river. I think I found the place for my morning runs.

I love this process of discovering new places and creating a routine in them. I might only be in this apartment for a month (we're assigned schools at the end of the month, and, if we aren't already in the apartment closest to our school, we have to move), but I might as well get comfortable in the meantime. The first photo is of the street the apartment is on, and the second is of the apartment itself. The rest are from my run along the river.

Finally, Taiwan!

It's 6:00 AM and there's a typhoon roaring outside. The fulbright schedule for the day has been canceled due to the weather, but I'm perfectly happy to have an extra day to rest up, even if that means being stuck indoors. Yesterday was a long day: I flew from San Francisco to Taipei on a thirteen hour flight and spent most of the subsequent hours talking to the other Fulbright ETAs, learning more about what to expect for the next year from the coordinators, moving into an apartment, and having a rush shopping spree so that the other ETAS and I could have some sheets, food, and water before the storm became worse. Whewww.

On the ride from the Taipei airport to Yilan city, we drove over (and under) some amazing hills. I loved that the road we were on did not twist and turn around the hills (thus inducing unpleasant nausea). Instead it rose over (or under) the hills, so there were some wonderful views.

 

My Thomas the train engine blanket is awesome ;-D