Kaohsiung

Parade

Had a three day weekend at the end of February and decided to take the opportunity to see more of the island. Heading down south to Kaohsiung, took the afternoon train, arriving at night. Directions given to us were straight from a beginners’ English book:

“When you exit the Kaiyuan MRT station, turn right and walk a couple of blocks. Turn left, and walk one block, then turn right and walk until you see the hostel on your right hand side.”

Google Maps didn’t give any sound advice either, so we thought we’d just wing it. When we got to Kaiyuan Station, there were several exits. We took the one suggested by Google. We walked and walked and walked and found a huge night market (turned out to be the most famous night market in Kaohsiung). Decided to turn around and try a different direction, but couldn’t decipher what was considered “a block.”

An older man saw our confusion, took us into his house, and allowed us to use the phone. The hostel owner agreed to pick us up at Dream Mall—South East Asia’s biggest mall, supposedly. We were surprised to find an American behind the wheel and mentioned that perhaps, since he speaks English and all, should add some nouns and adjectives to the directions, such as “walk towards the GIANT FERRIS WHEEL of Dream Mall!”

After getting settled into the hostel we set out trying to find food and had to walk back to the night market, over a mile away. Ate pizza and enjoyed ice cream served in plastic pink toilet bowls. Crashed when we got back, only to be awoken by a swarm of mosquitoes that had been feasting on Matt. To the hostel owner’s credit, he went out to get us mosquito repellent and coils, but his dogs had separation issues and howled throughout the night.

Got up the next morning and hit Mr. Donut at Dream Mall then to Lotus Pond, which can only be described as a temple theme park. Gaudy rules here. But it is a nice few miles’ walk around the pond. We stopped for lunch at a pizza place where we ate duck pizza and for desert, chocolate banana pizza topped with cheese (imagine our surprise). Headed to Dream Mall for some pork cutlet where we were surrounded by people wearing plastic gloves while eating whole chickens or ham hocks. Later ventured up to try out the Dream Mall Ferris Wheel, which is really small and expensive so instead took photos with a random Teddy Roosevelt statue (resembling Robin Williams) tucked away in a corner.

Sunday, headed to an island just off the harbor of Kaohsiung. The weather was warm, and the tourists were flocking. Walked up the mountain to the lighthouse and the remnants of a fort where we were warned against “Striding” then contemplated swimming at the beach, but couldn’t bring ourselves to take off our shoes on the littered beach, let alone swim in the black water.

Got a frozen banana for lunch, sat down to enjoy the Vietnamese Irish coffee only to be kicked off of the chairs to make room for a parade. Was more interested in the people bowing before the procession and police pulling them back, rather than the actual parade. Spent the rest of the evening enjoying downtown Kaoshiung. Caught the very late train back to Changhua and then a taxi to Hemei.

Taiwan Culture

When you type “living in Taiwan” into the search bar, you are going to get a lot of info on why you should live here. The list usually includes the cost of living, the scenery, how nice the people are, how easy it is to find jobs (for Westerners that is), the weather is great, the girls are great, the food is an interesting, and you get to experience Taiwanese culture.

People are right, the cost of living is quite nice here. Even in Taipei, you can afford an apartment, metro fees, and eating out at street vendors every meal with money left over for travel, clothing, or fun. It’s also true in rural Taiwan, because there is no place to have fun. There are no coffee shops to sit and drink coffee and there aren’t any bars to enjoy a beer after work. There are very little movie theatres and nice restaurants. But you find you spend all of your money on getting somewhere that has more things to do. Also “normal” items, like coffee (even ground coffee), decent cookies, beer (even local), wine, 100% juice (instead of 90% syrup), and tampons are quite a chunk of your salary comparatively.

The scenery is nice, if you live near the mountains or travel to the mountains often. Taiwanese value their green, jungle-like national parks, but really only national parks. You will not find a valued city park in rural areas. Instead you’ll find a bit of green over grown area and a pagoda that is occupied by homeless people, construction workers trying to take a break from the heat, or older couples trying to find a quiet space to get a quickie in (Matt found that one out the hard way-iiicccckkkk). Many small towns haven’t found the value of trees. Nor can I say that any of the towns or cities are pretty, they all look the same—they hired one city architect

People are the same as anywhere else in terms of kindness. I’ve met some very kind, helpful people and I have met some terribly rude people too. If I hadn’t met co-teachers and a select few other people, I would have assumed that most of the residents of central Taiwan were animal-abusing, led-foot, creepy people.

Jobs are easily found in the ESL sector. Some schools will even hire if you have no experience or TEFL certificate, though parents will be concerned and pull out their children, meaning you’ll get fired for loosing clients. Stated from previous blogs, you’ll notice that the hours (unless you get a public school job) are not so great, especially living in a rural area. You’ll eat 7-Eleven a lot, which is expensive.

I cannot comment on the girls, but Matt finds the giant contacts and fake eye-lashes a bit creepy. Says he is reminded of the X Files with the murdering doll. It reminds me of the creepy dolls on Dr. Who. I’m just saying, that the girls will be a lot prettier showing their natural beauty, but not so much that I can see butt cheeks, please.

I’ve commented on the food before, I am sure. MSG, soybean oil, boiled lettuce, no fresh veg because of dangerous and heavy pesticides (which I’m glad because I don’t want to find maggots in my food). I am tired of the taste of soybean oil though! Not to mention, the smell of sticky tofu (think rotting garbage). I mean, even Zimmerman can only stomach some recipes of it.

What sites don’t tell you about experiencing Taiwan culture, is that you cannot escape it. I know, I know, that is why you go somewhere, right? But when you go to some places, it is little Westlandia in your apartment, usually the only signs of living in a foreign country are the TV channels and the strange writing in your fridge. However, no matter how western your apartment may be, it will always be Taiwanese.

Sure, you can handle the Taiwanese layout of the shower being right at the bathroom door, or the washer being in the bathroom or on the balcony. Perhaps you can get used to the fact that you don’t have a kitchen and your fridge is full of used take out containers instead of produce because food attracts cockroaches and flies and you are only home once a week in time to throw the garbage onto the passing truck. However, I cannot get used to the sewage and exhaust smell that wafts through the apartment, or mold that grows because dehumidifiers are too expensive and heavy, or the greasy dirt that seems to find its way in.

Nor can I get over the sleepless nights and mornings because Taiwanese culture is so wonderfully traditional, that they have fireworks and ceremonies for every little thing at every hour. So if you want the complete immersion experience, Taiwan is the place for you.

The Long Awaited Hong Kong Post

Arrived in Hong Kong in the early morning and took the bus to the Tsim Sha Tsui district of Hong Kong. We got off at our stop and wandered around looking for the Chung King Mansion, which we thought to be a giant, derelict building by guest descriptions. After going in a circle, we started looking at signs instead of buildings, and found that the mansion wasn’t really that bad of a building (at least by Taiwanese standards). About the only correct guest description was concerning the queue to get on the elevator at night.

We entered the main area, full of money changers, peddlers, and so forth, feeling slightly uneasy to be around so many nationalities after only seeing Chinese/Taiwanese people for several months, and headed up to our amazingly clean hostel. We dropped our bags off and went in search of coffee, found a speedo sale, and the Kowloon Park behind the mosque. We wandered the quiet Temple Street (a market area, not a temple area) and all the way to Kowloon Pier. Totally not worth the long walk because of the construction and lack of activities to do once at the peir. My ankle and the heat began to bother me. We sat and watched tourists before heading back to the train station, to be told that we were no longer in Hong Kong, which confused us until we realized they meant the island. After resting, we found some dinner at a Turkish restaurant run by Pakistanis. Then we wandered to the waterfront for some nice night shots of the harbor lights.

The casinos especially look better at night.

We woke up later than expected the next day. We headed to Starbucks and to the MTR to the last stop on the blue line on Hong Kong island. We were disappointed by the long line to board the ferry to Macau, but we did it anyway. It was a great idea! We mistakenly got off the bus in the north of Macau, but it allowed us to see the less touristy areas and reach St. Paul’s ruins at dusk. Night time is the best way to see Macau, the lanterns add a nice touch to the beautiful Portuguese architecture and hide the derelict modern South East Asian buildings. We ate some Macanese food (soup and tea for me as my cold was starting to make itself known) and then got on the ferry at eleven.

Wednesday we headed for the peak in Hong Kong, but the line for the tram wound around the block twice, so we decided to explore Hong Kong instead. We spent several hours in the aviary and surrounding area of Hong Kong Park before settling on more McDonalds for lunch. We met up with a friend from Korea, now teaching in Hong Kong. From Time Square (a fancy mall, not an actual square), we headed to Happy Valley Horse Races. We bet on a few horses and enjoyed catching up.

Thursday I woke up with green liquid pouring from my nose and eyes. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t see. I was miserable.  However, we got up and decided to take the tram to the peak. We paid a little extra to visit the viewing platform on the peak—so not worth it. It is just as good of a view from down below, and way less crowded. On our way back we found the free zoo at Hong Kong Park as well as a pizza parlor that sold pizza by the slice. We met Tom (our friend from Korea) for dinner and had tacos just off the world’s longest covered escalator chain (how do these records get started). We called it an early night as I was feeling terrible and Matt was beginning to feel a cold coming on too.

Friday we spent in Kowloon Park, enjoying the small zoo and aviary. Mainly, I sat on a park bench in the sun and slept. Luckily, I managed to avoid having a fever as I went through the quarantine check at the airport back in Taipei. But as soon as we reached the hostel in Taipei I had a raging fever and a horrible cough. Naturally, we were sharing the room with two other people. Those poor people.

We woke up early and checked out of the hostel. We wandered to the nearest hospital, a colonial-looking building that is part of one of the universities in Taipei. After many friendly helpers, and having to check my own weight, height, blood pressure, and heart rate, I was able to see a doctor.  The doctor couldn’t really explain the green ooze from my eye and looked extremely shocked when I told him about it.

We managed to catch the train to Changhua just after my doctor’s visit and we headed back, happy to have a weekend to rest and recover from my cold. 

Finally, Taipei!

It has been nearly two weeks since arriving home from our holiday and I am just now getting around to posting something about it. You can blame laryngitis and tonsillitis and a cold (all at once) for that.

We waved our co-workers goodbye on Wednesday night, frantically packed our two surprisingly heavy backpacks, and enjoyed our night of freedom. We woke up early to head to Changhua, not wanting to accidently miss our train (those tickets were a pain to buy). Our train left Changhua at 1:30, and we were happy to have seats as we watched all the poor souls that had to stand in the isle getting hit by the service carts. Nothing exciting happened on the trip. I would to have to pee on one of the roughest parts of the track, but I managed to stagger over that squat like a champ.  Who would have thought growing up in rural Idaho would have been so beneficial to traveling abroad?

We arrived in Taipei at 3:50 PM. The city was quite dead because of the new year. The homeless people were taking advantage of the lack of police officers and nice weather to take showers in the fountain and air out their meager possessions. We escaped the smell and I immediately sent us in the wrong direction, so we turned around and went immediately in another wrong direction (again I blame Asian maps never being oriented to a consistent point). Finally Matt used his skills at philosophy and deducted the correct direction. It took us across intersections with zebra crossings that went into elevated highways or shrubs, past a hut made entirely from umbrellas (we would have taken a photo but the smell alerted us that the owner was home). Eventually, after asking many helpful people, we found our way to the Zebra Apartment and Bike Rental in Ximen District.

The owner came by and offered to move us to a private room down the street at the Leopard Garden. We accepted and followed her a few blocks to a better located hostel. This place was quite clean for Taiwan. We had our own room on the front porch. It was a tall, narrow room of three tiered bunks, which could sleep at least four, six if need-be, but considering Matt and I couldn’t stand together in the room without having to climb a level, it would have been very uncomfortably for six. 

For more photos of the hostel visit Matt's photo
page (here).

This place can sleep at least thirty people, if no one is claustrophobic as everything is either dark wood or leopard print (I mean EVERYTHING). There are no windows in any of the rooms, which are located in four “normal” bedrooms and at least three lofts. Despite it’s weird interior, the place was quite homey and the guests quite nice. We often relaxed and watched TV together.

We left our garden and headed to the market area of Ximen. It is near the university, so all of the shops are cheap clothing, accessory, make-up, and shoe stores. Also there are about six large cinemas on the street. Eating is surprisingly sparse, unless you hit the street at the right times. We passed on the stinky tofu and got ddeok boki and 7-Eleven ice cream and beer instead.

The next day we found ourselves at Starbucks drinking chestnut macchiatos and eating cinnamon rolls. We left feeling quite content and marveled at the large sidewalks and the many trash bins (the first we have seen in many months). We sunned ourselves on a bench in a Japanese memorial temple—basically a large cement foundation covered with a metal roof and some reproduced wooden structures. Then we walked around old town to a cordoned off old street, Haxi Street Market (where we fought for our right to walk), Longshan Temple (apparently New Year’s day is the busiest time to visit a temple), and to Snake Alley. Snake Alley is the oldest tourist market in the city named after snake charmers and such. Now deemed terrible because of the poor treatment of the snakes and less desirable prostitutes, it has tamed down. But you can still buy adult toys from old ladies and sample some snake meat or snake venom wine.

See, nothing around it.

From there we ate Subway and got on the metro to visit Taipei 101. It is the tallest building in Taiwan and still one of the tallest residential buildings in the world. We decided to try to go in, but it was too busy, so we got on metro and went on quest to find Mexican food. We failed and ate at a Japanese restaurant where you had to order and pay from a machine while ten waiters stand around watching. But it was cheap and the steak and pork cutlet with an endless supply of miso, white rice, and cabbage was delicious. After dinner, we ended up back in Ximen behind the Red House for drinks at one of Taiwan’s first “gay friendly” bars.

The next day we continued what would become a tradition of the trip: a pastry and coffee at Starbucks (who would have thought). As we finished our coffee we headed to a destination I got from a Chinese guidebook about a Lin Family Mansion in west Taipei. It was worth the trip and the large amount of annoying tourists. It is a compound of old architecture and a maze of gardens and ponds. It was easy to forget that a city was just outside the walls as we climbed up fake mountains and under old trees.

After spending quite a long time at the mansion, we went to Chiang Kai Shek’s memorial. It is quite huge and imposing and the heat radiated off of the pavement. We went in search of the Mexican food again, and didn’t find it. But I did manage to twist my ankle in a typical uneven pavement, of course, I was wearing boots.

We gave up on the dream of edible food and went into a 7-Eleven for a hot dog. Because of miss-communication, Matt was told to put one hot dog bun in the microwave for the wrong setting. As Matt was asking me what I wanted on my hot dog, smoke came billowing out behind him and the store was in chaos. I sat there like an idiot as the owner shooed Matt away from the flaming bun and everyone stood dumbfounded. The owner took over preparing our hot dogs and even made sure we could put the condiments on it properly. Worth every embarrassing moment.

We tried the 101 again, but the line was even longer, so back to Ximen and the hunt for real food. We settled on Bimbibap. Not quite my definition of real food. We washed it down with Cold Stone and a beer behind the Red House.

On our last day in Taipei, the line at the 101 was shorter, so we braved it. The queue to buy the ticket moved fast, but the line to get up to the tower was forty minutes long, thanks to two tiny elevators (though those elevators are the fastest in the world). We entertained ourselves in line with a tourist photo and complaining about how terrible life in rural Taiwan is.   

 

The view from the 101

We jumped out of the crammed elevator and rushed to claim a spot at the window for the specular view. The problem with the world’s tallest buildings is that you are above the clouds, making the view not worth the money. We stayed up, wandering around the observation deck, the world’s highest (and ugliest) jewelry store, and learning about all four wind damper mascots trying to get our money’s worth. It was a miserable time, as the quick change in elevation alerted me to the start of a cold.  To add insult to injury, we had to wait nearly another forty minutes to go down.

My ankle and head were killing me, so we found an out of the way area between shopping malls to enjoy some coffee. When I finally felt rested enough, we headed back to Ximen where we watched TV until nine PM, when we caught the bus to the airport. We had five hours to wait until check in. Luckily, the food court was left open (sort of) for sleepers. We snagged a stuffed bench and spent the night, freezing. It would have been miserable if it wasn’t for the various people sleeping squished between the benches and the table in order to block out the light, or the group of forty or so Chinese tourists who ran for the bathroom in a large herd and blocked the bathroom in order to take group photos.

Happy New Year!

Happy late holidays! They have come and gone in a flash.  Before I knew it, I was tossing out all of the crinkled holiday song papers. We were pushed to teach the children all about Santa and Christmas, teaching them thirty special words on top of their normal vocabulary words, plus songs and stories. We were to perform them during Christmas, first at local businesses, and then just in the lobby, but it never happened. Surprise, surprise. The students of course were very disappointed to find out that they had not received anything from Santa. I felt like a missionary.

Some students did receive Christmas cards from Santa. The ones from Germany were actually written in English, the cards from Norway weren’t. All of the cards were very generic, except for a couple of post scripts on the cards from Canada which answered various strange questions the children had asked Santa.

Before Christmas, we had a school dinner. Matt was too ill to attend, so I went with Jenny. We all sat, making awkward conversation until the food arrived. We ate at a restaurant that has become famous in Taiwan. Apparently, it is all cooked somewhere else, packaged, and then delivered to the restaurant to be heated up upon ordering, much like airplane food, and it tastes similar too. Apparently, this is so you can get the feel of a nice cooked-to-order restaurant without the wait, sure.

 The conversation kind of picked up after dinner, mostly with news about my co-worker’s upcoming wedding in Bali before Chinese New Year. Apparently, Chinese New Year is THE season to get married in Taiwan. The saying goes, it is warmer with two in a bed than one. To which I stuck my foot in my mouth and replied that it would be cheaper to buy a heater… dead silence until the boss got it. I don’t think the co-worker has forgiven me yet. We opened presents from our revealed secret Santas. Jenny was my secret Santa, so I got nail polish. Matt got a scarf from his secret Santa. My co-worker forgot to buy the boss something, so he sat alone, giftless.

The next day, the girls took me out to eat hot pot. It was a fun day, where little bits of gossip were translated into English now and again so I could “understand” what they were talking about. But it was fun and I got a free meal as well as some more gifts.

Matt and I treated ourselves to the new Hobbit movie in 3D where we missed the first few minutes because of people coming in to the theatre late, cellophane wrapped popcorn, and just people having to chit chat about whatever. The cellophane and cell phones continued throughout the movie, much to my annoyance, so I went to the bathroom and stomped my heels down each step (we were at the top of the theatre) and I made as much noise going back to my seat. Not that it really mattered, because everyone was reading the subtitles anyway and laughing at the gruesome beheadings.

I was surprised to find out that we had a day off on New Year’s Day. Thankfully, I found out New Year’s Eve as I was leaving work. Matt and I spent our day off wandering around Taichung. We ate Mexican food and Matt played Time Crisis, while I watched. I played a terrible game of air hockey, but how good can you be when there are four pucks coming at you at once? We topped off the New Year with a buy one, get one Cold Stone—talk about calorie overload!  

Spent Saturday with the boss. He wanted to make up for Matt missing the “feast” so he made a “register” at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, Nantou County. We wound along tiny raised county roads to this European-style house that had been turned into a restaurant. The walls were bare concrete inside, but artwork lined the walls, and a baby grand sat in the corner. The food was Taiwanese, but it wasn’t so bad. After eating, the boss took us to a local craft park, which was just a gallery of expensive rocks painted like cats, pottery, woven grass figurines, and blue- dyed clothing.

People have been commenting on how wet Taipei is at the moment. I cannot even imagine! This place is so damp! A backpack hasn’t been moved in two days and it is completely covered in mold! Shoes become moldy in two days, tops become smelly very quickly. I don’t know how people live like this!  

'Tis the Season... oh bah humbug...

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the cram school in Taiwan. The TAs have worked very hard hand making paper decorations and cutting out tiny white letters for a poem claiming that a snowman is the best boyfriend ever. Red and green cellophane cover the windows, a cardboard tree is being used as a Christmas vocabulary advent calendar (get all twenty-five right and you can get a pencil and eraser!), giant nutcrackers and mini Santas line the desk behind the receptionist. On top of that the school had a great idea to have to students make snowmen for a contest. I thought we were going to die in an avalanche of snowmen! The students had a blast making them, though some may be suffering from PTSD after watching me accidently decapitate some of the less stable snowmen. It is payback for having to listen to “Ten Little Snowmen,” “Where is Santa?” and “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” over and over again.

Around Hemei, many of the shops have mini Christmas trees decorated for the holiday. Terrible Christmas music (surprisingly very religious songs) loop over and over again in every store. It seems like they sort of get into the Holiday spirit around here. However, it still doesn’t feel like Christmas is six days away...especially when I have to work on Christmas.  I have managed to get some of the Christmas cards out, but the only Christmas shopping I have done is to my secret Santa at work. There are so many rules, it is difficult to buy or sneak the damn present anywhere. Matt has benefited greatly by getting little treats I had intended for my person, but the boss caught me and lectured about how I need to be sneakier and blah blah blah...it is very hard to be sneaky when everybody watches your every move...

In other news, weekends have been incredibly busy. Last weekend we graded papers and treated ourselves to delicious Egyptian food. That was possibly the most expensive meal we have had in Taiwan yet, but so worth every penny! I suggested that I wanted to go there for my birthday celebration this weekend, but my co-worker claimed that she didn’t like Egyptian food, and then proceeded to ask what Egyptian food tasted like. She didn’t believe me when I told her it tasted like heaven!

One weekend we made it to Tainan, the old capitol of Taiwan. It was colonized by the Dutch in the 1600s, but the Taiwanese didn’t have much patience for the Dutch laws of replacing wood shacks with less-combustible brick huts, putting the pigs at the back of the house instead of in the front or letting them run wild in the street, and having a designated garbage dumps (and compost piles). The Chinese came in and set the Dutch sailing.

Another weekend we made it to the new Hunger Games movie... getting front row seats so that everyone could make a fool of themselves getting up every fifteen minutes to go the bathrooms, which were located on the right side of the video screen...Other weekends we’ve made treks to Taichung for Huge Burgers, Indian food, and hummus... all heaven for the eyes and taste buds... I don’t know why in Homei they cannot make the food look or taste appetizing.

I have definitely hit that six month senioritis mark. Everything is getting to me... the food, the miscommunication, the dirt, the mold, the lack of sunshine, lack of roof gutters and street gutters... it is only lightened by the free coffees that we get sometimes or the incredibly cheap clothing and shoes I can get. The boss has realized that I am “upset” about things at work... we had a special one hour meeting about the things that were bothering me in which the only thing resolved was that because I am a woman, I have to work extra hard to accept change, because women cannot adapt to change very well...oh boy.

Here is to making it to Christmas and then surviving the holidays! Happy holidays to all!

The Lost Art of Letter-writing

As Yuletide approaches, we are told by the boss to ignore any other holidays and focus on Christmas. First order of business: to teach the students how to write a letter to Santa. We had two lessons to do this, but we were supposed to only take ten minutes per lesson. Sure.  Most of my students are under the age of ten and have never heard the English name for Santa. In fact, many of my students had no idea who Santa is. So, the first lesson was spent showing them Christmas. The only convenient book was a pop-up book and I don’t care how old you are, you are always more fascinated by what pops up than whatever else is going on.

In the next lesson, a sample letter was written out for them that already said “Dear Santa, My name is____________.” This was the first snag…

The trouble with Asian English education is that the students memorize language for a certain situation, but they never learn that sometimes the language can be used in another situation. For example, if I am in class and I ask a student “What is your name?” The student will reply in a robotic voice, “My name is [Peers].” But if you ask outside of school, on a test paper, or on a letter to Santa, it might as well be Cantonese.

Confused student impression.

Therefore I got a bunch of “Teacher, what!?!” I said, “Write your name.” And they do their best pug impression and go “HUH?” I go write my name on board. And they go “Ohhh!” Eight out of ten students will write their name, but the other two will write my name. Ok. That is finished and fixed.

Now onto line two: “I have been really good this year.” Oh jeeze, now we have “I’ve ben rely gob tis yen” Ok so fix that as many students are saying “Teacher! Teacher! Finished.” And I am saying “No! Check it!” And of course they don’t. Now, the class is over time and hasn’t finished the last lines of the letter.

Next lesson: for the more advanced students they wrote “May I get some toys?” The little kids just finish off with a “Merry Christmas!” (mainly because I cannot be bothered to go any further). Amazingly enough, this has also gone over time. The addition of a school-wide Christmas bingo game in which my first semester English kids are expected to read and say “decorations,” “ornaments,” and “gingerbread,” when they cannot even tell the difference between the words “orange” and “red” adds more confusion.

Their homework was to write the letter into a nice card for Santa and to have their parents go onto Google maps to find their mailing address. Oh the age of electronics where nothing is ever snail mailed anymore! Now the students have their card (which they’ve somehow managed to mess up by attempting to copy incorrectly, but Santa is forgiving), and their addresses. The TA teaches them how to address the envelope. She writes her name to show that the students need to put their names on the return address. Of course, several students write the TA’s name instead of theirs. Then they start writing the return address at the bottom of the envelope, at the stamp side, or wrapped around the entire envelope. Ok, so they cannot judge distance yet with their writing.

Next we glue Santa’s address to the envelope. The TA freaks out because many people haven’t written “To: Santa” even though the printed address is addressed to Santa Claus already. Time to put on the postage! It usually costs about $13 to $18 NTD to mail a card to the US and the UK. But these kids had one $1 stamp or six $5 stamps. All the stamps are the lick kind, but the kids are fighting over glue sticks to glue the stamps on ALL OVER the envelopes. I show them that all they have to do is lick the stamps, but that concept seems foreign and disturbing to them.

A student started handing out stickers for the other kids. All the children grabbed the stickers and sealed up their envelopes with the cards still lying on the desk. I can’t wait to teach them Christmas carols.