September

Lukang

The entire month in one post, deep breath:

 I was sick for nearly two weeks. I went the doctor and was prescribed a ton of pills that made me feel better. Amazing how that works!  I started to feel human around the time Matt was scheduled to arrive in Taiwan. As his luck would have it, he got stranded in Bangkok for three days because of stupid airline policies with Hong Kong Airlines. Finally, they allowed him to come on to Taiwan, but not before making him buy a ticket back to London in November. Ug. London vacation, perhaps?

Poor Matt was very jetlagged and drained from the stress of the past few days, but we still managed to get enough energy to go to Taichung on Sunday. We wandered around various malls and found a random park, apparently built by the Japanese during the colonial period. Its main features are a pond, a giant goat sculpture, and black squirrels.

Matt spent Monday through Wednesday preparing and wandering the streets of Hemei and Changhua looking for English schools. He got some pretty good job offers when he was needed to cover for a day at my school. He is now employed at my school, but we rarely see each other at work because of, well, work.

One weekend we took a break from it all and headed to Changhua to check out the giant Buddha. It was an easy climb through a jungle park to find the massive Buddha and good views of Changhua. We danced merrily as “Under the Sea” and “Mickey Mouse” played over loud speakers… very odd for a temple setting, I must say! 

Moon Festival was on Thursday. We had a long three day work week before having a short four-day weekend. Because a typhoon of dramatic proportions was coming, we didn’t make any plans to go anywhere and our hiking trip to Ali Mountain was canceled, forever.

Thursday we had beautiful weather and a BBQ at my co-teacher’s house along with two of my students (ages six and nine), they both screamed and ran away at the sight of me. But later warmed up to Matt and me and we were all playing “Ghost” and other running games until Matt and I thought we’d die—I’ll blame the mountains of food we consumed. We had a feast of beef, pork, fish, mushrooms, onions, and other nameless vegetables, sweet potatoes, and toast.  Matt, of course, tried the chicken, oysters, clams, and shrimp that were also available. It felt like the first real meal I have had since the hot pot they had cooked for me!

We got up early on Friday to meet with our co-workers for drinks, to find out that they had canceled on us! Since we were already heading towards Changhua, we went further to Taichung and had another shopping trip. We rushed home to meet with my neighbor, only to have him cancel on us too. Saturday we were warned of the huge typhoon, but the weather was so wonderful, we headed to Lukang anyway and enjoyed an amazing day with little rain. Apparently the typhoon skipped Changhua County.

By Sunday we were zombies, Monday was just painful, Tuesday long, and Wednesday the students were driving me crazy. Thank goodness for easy Thursdays with my nice classes! Friday was actually pleasant; most Fridays are very stressful with five hours teaching children between the ages of five and eight.

In random news: won the Taiwan receipt lottery. I won a whole 200 NTD (that is almost 7 USD).  This lottery was set up in order to keep stores from not reporting their total sales. Naturally, the only places I receive receipts are the big chain stores, all the local stores have a cash-only, no receipt policy.

Tis the Season for Typhoons

Two typhoons in two weeks. The wind is at a minimum, just enough to wreak havoc on the already abused umbrella.  I found myself thinking like Forrest Gump, “We been through every kind of rain there is: little bitty stingin' rain and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways and sometimes, rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night...” Luckily, it hasn’t rained straight for four months…yet. But three days last weekend and four days this week is enough for me!  Was supposed to go on a hiking trip to Alishan, but the park has been closed due to landslides.


Nothing is drying out with all this moisture. I have already had to toss one pair of shoes because the mold set in right away. The windows have a nice sheen of mist on the inside. The clothes and paper have a distinct damp feel. Despite the colder temperatures (26 degrees C/ 78 degrees F), I’ve put on the dehumidifier on the air conditioner, but it hasn’t seemed to help.


On top of all that, I’m battling strep throat. I finally figured out what it was on Wednesday and demanded that I be taken to a doctor. But because my boss didn’t apply for the Alien Registration Card fast enough, I had no national ID and of course, no insurance. He thought it would cost too much to take me to the doctor. We fought and fought and fought until I stormed out to ask a TA to take me. But because the boss said no, she wouldn’t do it, but she took me to the pharmacy and demanded they give me penicillin. However, I’m still not functioning and it hasn’t occurred to me to ask a TA where the doctor is so I can go on my own.


After all that fussing and crabbing at my boss on Wednesday, I taught a two hour-long class. After which, I was too exhausted to carry on, my boss “graciously” sent me home after prodding from the TAs and co-workers. I stumbled home and attempted to sleep. Mostly I remember bits and pieces of “The Nanny Diaries” on TV and the “Jacuzzi” of the front of the tea box. I eventually got so hungry that I ventured outside. Somehow I made it to the store and back, despite the sea of nausea, neon lights, cockroaches, and smiling neighbors.


Sometime in the wee hours of morning I finally fell into a restful sleep, only to be woken at seven when the landlord decided to come and do some very loud handiwork. I gave up and went to work in the afternoon. 

Observation Week

The week after Sanyi brought Cheech the Cockroach into my apartment. I was having a lovely, relaxing morning before work when I felt an icky tickle and I looked down at my feet to see a cockroach running away. Naturally, I yelped and jumped out of bed. By the time I reached for a shoe, the cockroach had gone between the bed and the wall, and since the landlord is a thinking landlord, he bolted the bed to the wall. I stayed sentinel by the bed with my shoe, calling the cockroach all kinds of names, but he chose not to come out.

I slept terribly for the next few nights, waiting for the cockroach, but I never saw him. On Saturday I had a girl day at my apartment, another manicure! Then Sunday, as I prepared to go to Taichung with the girls, the cockroach jumped at me after I had gotten out of the shower. By the time I had dropped my towel and found the fly swatter, it had gone behind the wardrobe.

The next Saturday, still no cockroach. We had a birthday party for one of the TAs at my apartment. We had Pizza Hut and dark chocolate brownie… yum! I spent Sunday relaxing and preparing for Observation Week at work.

Observation Week is a special kind of hell. Basically the boss observes one class per day, sometimes two. But you have to arrive early to work (unpaid) and give him your lesson plan. Then you have a special meeting about your lesson plan that cuts into your lesson planning for other classes, so you fall behind. Then you teach your classes with the boss either staring at you from the back row or through a one-way window they have in the classroom. Then you have another meeting afterwards. So that was my week. On top of that, I had a final to prepare for and a Parent’s Day to prepare for. Also we had to take a trip to Yuanlin, Changhua County seat, to apply for our ARC. Needless to say, I was a stressed out wreck.

Wednesday I was in the middle of downward dog split when I saw the cockroach on the wall. I dropped and rolled and sprayed the wall with poison—missed him. I went back to yoga and saw him run across my bed (seriously?) and sprayed my bed with poison (yes I washed the bedding), missed again. He emerged under my desk, apparently the effects of the poison had taken their toll and he was wiggling in pain. I smacked him and put him out of his misery. I then relieved some stress by doing a victory dance. And like all wars, you have to take a photo of your kill.

I was a drooling bag of bones by Saturday. Monday was a bit more cheerful as payday rolled around, but it was a sad pay day because of all the “loans” I had “taken” out from my boss—basically, the landlord collects his rent a day early and comes before I ever get to work, so the boss pays him the rent and takes it out of my paycheck. Also the ARC fees were three times higher than quoted. Something I learned in Korea, never trust any quotes, even if they are supposed to be an authority on it.

The joy I felt at not having a particular class anymore was struck dead when I found out that I teach them in their new class. They are cute, sometimes. With only four girls—three of them pretty clueless most of the time—and twelve boys, it makes for a pretty active class. For the first time in teaching history at Inter, I had my hair down. One boy, I call him The Screamer, started screeching and pointing, “Teacher! Teacher! Teacher! Hair! Hair! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOTIIIIIFUL!” I think he has a thing for long, strawberry hair.  However, the cuteness soon dissipated. I have one kid who no matter what I do, is always in La La Land. So when I call on him to participate in a game, he is always late at reacting, and the other team scores, and then he cries. But he has never learned that he has to pay attention. As my TA says, “This class is, ummm, special.” In their defense, they have had at least three teachers in the last five months, so that is a lot to get used to when you are seven years old.

A Day out with the Boss

In front of the Sanyi Sculpture Museum

The week after the typhoon I went to one of the TA’s house for hot pot. A few of us girls gathered at the house and we scootered around town trying to find all the ingredients. I then sat back and watched the girls prepare the hot pot, since I am the foreigner who doesn’t know anything about hot pots! Instead I got to know the niece. We played grocery store for nearly an hour. I was incredibly grateful for the dinner call because there are only so many times you can buy the same four items!

After stuffing ourselves on two flavors of hot pot, we headed upstairs and had our nails done. The host TA had studied nail art so we got a free manicure. Then we took the customary half hour photo shoot before heading home. It is very hard to get four women, a little girl, and a little dog into the range of a Galaxy phone camera!

The next morning I had to get up bright at early for a Taiwan culture day out with the boss. My co-worker bowed out and so it was just the New TA and me with the boss. The boss wanted to show me how to take the bus and train. So we took the bus instead of his car. He remembered as we got on the bus that I had spent my first week in Taiwan riding the bus back and forth between villages. But this was the first time to ride the bus all the way to Changhua. Then my boss showed me how to take the train by walking to the train station (conveniently located behind the bus station-how amazing is that!), making me wait in the middle of the train station while he purchased the tickets and then leading me to the platform and not telling me how to tell which platform was which.

The train ride was over an hour long and on an older Korean underground train—so seating was limited and we had to stand. Half way through the train ride, my boss got the horrible realization that we were on the wrong train. So we got off at the next stop and talked to the conductor to find out that no, we were on the correct train, so we got back on.

When we reached Sanyi, a town famous for sculptures and furniture made from cedar and camphor wood, it was still early in the morning. It was already hot, and I really had to go to the bathroom. Nothing was open yet as it wasn’t the major tourist season for the town. No shuttle bus and the regular bus came once every hour, and we had just missed it. The wood museum is two kilometers from the train station. My boss decided to walk. It was a miserable five blocks until I found the forestry building, which was thankfully open on a Sunday!

After visiting and confirming the direction of the museum and shops, we headed out with renewed energy. I unfortunately brought only a small bottle of water with me, which was soon gone, especially at the terribly slow pace of my co-workers. Eventually we made it to the street with all the wood shops.  Quite beautiful stuff, but nothing any average person has room or money for. Each shop smelled of cedar and camphor—to the point of being nauseating. My boss drug us into each shop and the TA and I walked around stiff as boards afraid we’d knock some ivory or jade figurine off a shelf or accidently knock a flower off a wooden sculpture.  It was quite stressful! The highlight was when the TA and I snuck away for five minutes and enjoyed a large Buddha overlooking a car park with the mountains behind him. MOUNTAINS!

Then we got smoothies to cool us down. My boss and the ticket booth ignored the “NO DRINKS” sign, and we went into the art museum, had our tickets taken, and then told to wait in the lobby until we finished our drinks. The boss was the first to finish, so the TA and I had a massive brain freeze for the first floor of the museum.

I am not a fan of art museums and this was an art museum. It was neat to see the more traditional art with wood cut as thin as paper. I liked the art from the native Taiwanese tribes. There were blasts from the past with Andong masks. This museum is obsessed with Japanese art, and I find Japanese art to be just weird—it is dominated with misplaced, abnormally large breasts and giant penises, oh and also terrifying looking, sexually charged children.

By the time we got out of the museum the tour buses arrived at all the restaurants. So we had to hike one kilometer back towards new town to find a noodle place, which was so full we had to sit in the back without a fan. We then hiked the rest of the way back to the train station, where we actually got to sit the entire way to Changhua! When I arrived back home I realized I was dehydrated and sick, so I spent the night trying to drink electrolytes and eat watermelon and bananas.

It's All About Hemei!

Daodong Academy in Hemei

The last two weekends I have spent in Hemei. The weekend of the sixth, attempts to visit the sea fell through. Instead, I graded mid-term exams while the next door neighbor practiced Fur Elise and the wedding march over and over and over again on the piano during a thunderstorm. On Sunday, I headed out in search of a stationary store to buy birthday cards. I went to the catch-all general dry-goods store—I think it’s called 101. This store carries just about anything.

I spend almost an hour each trip to 101 just trying to find what I need. I found the cartoon- themed cotton swaps on isle 14, but when I got to isle 5, there were the regular, cheaper ones in with the nail polish, and then some surgical ones in the first aide items on isle 3. Feminine pads everywhere around the store—like a mad game of hide the maxis (seriously, why have tampons not caught on here!?!).  Anyway, after what seemed like an eternity, I made it up to the counter with my 4 items that came to six USD. I left the store and turned right instead of the customary left.

I walked a bit down the road to an unassuming open gate. I peeked in to find a beautiful Chinese-style house. I cautiously stepped into the gate, not really sure if it was a public or private place. No one shooed me away, so I causally walked around the yard. My attempts at taking pictures were thwarted by two cute kids coming over to say hello and introduce me to their parents and the owner of the teashop next door who asked to please, please come by and have tea with him.

I eventually found the stationary store and managed to kill forty-five minutes buying cards. I went back to the academy on Monday to write the cards, enjoying the cool winds that were bringing a typhoon. The week went on without too much happening. The typhoon started on Friday night, but I went to the language exchange anyway. We played games and ate tons of junk food to send off the native teacher I am replacing.  We called it a night at 11, and I got a very windy ride back to my apartment.

By the time I woke up on Saturday morning, the typhoon was in full force. Heavy rains and heavy winds prevented everyone from leaving their houses. I sat twiddling my thumbs for most of the day. I did attempt to open the window at one point, only to get a face full of water, cartoon style. Some parts of Hemei flooded, not too badly, but enough to cause some issues. It lasted all day, but by nine PM, I was able to wander out and get food. On Sunday, I met up with the teacher who is leaving to eat hot pot with the TAs and collect some things for my apartment.

Lukang

In my attempts to befriend the neighborhood cat and the geckos, I seem to have attracted the attention of some overly friendly, creepy neighbors. How I came to be so lucky when it comes to being irresistible to blood suckers, creepers, and gravity, I’ll never know. And after all that, I still haven’t won over the four-legged creatures. I have however befriended the ladies at the sandwich shop across the street from the temple. We had a lovely conversation the other morning. They were very curious if I am married to the other teacher, and if I have kids. Then they seemed to suggest that I was a mother to seven children, but I am guessing it was their way of asking if I was a teacher. But it is hard to tell exactly what was being said, with my Chinese being so great and all.

I am learning Chinese slowly. I have learned the symbols for rice, noodles, beef, pork, chicken, and small. Please don’t ask me to pronounce them though. I have also learned how to say “delicious,” “thank you,” and “hello.” Also thankfully, “bye-bye” works pretty well here. I have joined a language exchange group and was gifted a set of flashcards, so I should be well on my way to learning Chinese. I’ve also learned my first word in Taiwanese. Apparently “decide,” is almost the exact pronunciation for the Taiwanese word for pig poop. Of course that would be the first word I’d learn. Have to love nine year olds.

Teaching is going well so far. The nine year olds find me satisfactory and are warming up to me quickly. I’m already adored by the six year olds and I adore them, especially when they get upset when I make them take a potty break after 40 minutes of class. The jury is still out with the high school students. There is quite a Mean Girls scenario going on in that class. So let’s hope I can get through to them. I have met one private student so far, and we are so much alike—down to the love of writing essays. And, a fact that all of us foreign teachers are in awe of, her sister has blue eyes.

I am also getting to know my co-workers fairly well. On Saturday, one of my co-workers took me to her grandmother’s house. Her grandmother lives out in the country in a little park called “Baggie Park.” The house the grandmother grew up in occupies the park, but is now just a squat crumbling, red-brick shack used for storage. The grandmother and some of her children live in a three story “modern” house, with an identical house next door for the grandfather’s family. Several aunts and uncles live in neighboring houses too. So, naturally, I met many of the aunts and uncles, cousins, and nieces. Surprisingly, quite a few of them speak a bit of English.

After ensuring I was stuffed with a traditional meal of fish, tofu, rice, eggplant, lotus, and other veggies, four of us girls piled in one car, and two boys and the six-year old niece got into another. We drove to the neighboring town of Lukang—one of the oldest towns in Taiwan. It used to be a center for Dutch trading. Much of the architecture has a European feel to it, while still being distinctly South-East Asian.

Matzu

Once in Lukang, we abandoned the car and headed to the most famous temple in Lukang—Matzu (of course worshiping the God, Matzu). We accompanied one of the girls around the temple as she burned incense (yumm incense) and money (don’t worry, it isn’t real) and prayed for a safe trip to America, as well as good grades in her intensive English course. It was great to have my co-worker as a tour guide to explain the various gods and rooms of the temples.

Hanging out at the mouth of "Touch Breast Lane"

After the temple, we wandered around the old city market area, eating some local ice cream, then to the more modern market to eat pineapple and grass jelly shaved ices. I drank my first bubble tea too. And then we headed to another temple and then to Lukang’s narrowest street (no longer used except by tourists), “Touch-Breast Lane.” It’s pretty dang narrow. Could have made for some pretty interesting photo ops, but sadly, it just didn’t happen. Then we crammed back into the cars, headed back to the grandmother’s house and had mango shaved ice. Exhausted and burned from the heat of the day, I headed home and relaxed.

This week could be deemed as the Koreans call “nothing special.” I have spent a lot of time remembering too late that I need to purchase some sort of slipper for the apartment. I am getting really tired of practicing my figure skating and gymnastics whenever I step out of the bathroom with wet feet.

  

Otherwise, I’ve had a few adventures in communication both here and at home. Also, as I mentioned above, I have joined a language exchange group—basically a very small group from the local church who want to learn English and in exchange teach the English teachers Chinese. I’ve decided to continue the tradition, even if I don’t learn any Chinese, they are a great group of people. For example, my ride home warned me that she was a “crazy driver” and that if I fell off the back of the scooter, not to worry because she’d come back and get me.

The Taiwan Apartment

View from my window during the rain.

We (the other new teacher and I) arrived at the new apartment building to discover that it still wasn’t finished. But we moved in any way, as our apartments were mostly finished. As I unpacked, they came and installed the TV, refrigerator, and washing machine. The banister still needs to be put in on the main stairs and floor needs to be laid in the building’s entry. We were promised internet and cable TV, but the cable wasn’t working and the internet goes off the cable. The landlord painted scooter parking places on the ground floor in the “lobby.” But we still don’t have mail boxes.

After getting a few things settled in the apartment, I met the TAs from my school. We drove the forty minutes to the third largest city in Taiwan, Taichung. There we hit beloved Daiso, Asia’s equivalent to a dollar five store. I stocked up on things for my apartment. We then ate some fried pork cutlet, very similar to Korean style, but instead of served with gravy, it was served with egg and caramelized onions with broth and rice.  Quite good!

The girls then took me to a store to help me purchase the essential female products and we drooled over shoes, purses, dresses, etc. When we left the mall at 6:30, it was already dark and the neon lights were dancing down the streets. It made me miss living in a city. I was sad to leave it and come back to quiet Hemei.

Luckily, the girls wanted to see my apartment and walked me to my building. The brilliant designer added a deadbolt to the building’s entrance, but it can only be unlocked from the inside. So we were locked out of the apartment for twenty minutes until we could finally get enough pebbles against the upstairs window to get someone’s attention. The landlord could not seem to fathom why the deadbolt couldn’t be unlocked from outside and why someone would bother locking the deadbolt.

Sunday was spent scrubbing the apartment. Apparently, it is very difficult to clean up after yourself in building projects. They didn’t really clean the access grout; in fact, there are grout hand prints on the walls. There was still glue and grout on the facets. I still have to wash the walls in the main part of the apartment, but at least the bathroom is clean.

My apartment is on the third floor and I chose the biggest apartment for a whole ten dollars more a month than the smaller one. It is very, very, very basic with white walls, white tile floors, a hard Taiwanese bed, air conditioner, a desk attached to the wall, a built in wardrobe, mini fridge, washer, sink and shower head. There is no hob, and I miss it already. But it has some nice features too, like the fact it came with curtains, an electric kettle, garbage cans, and a light switch above the bed, so I don’t have to get up to turn off the light if I am reading. Also the washer has a built in lint trap—how cool is that!?! Another perk is that it is right behind a temple and a grocery store. I’m a ten minute walk to a bank, twelve minutes from 7- Eleven, and fifteen minutes from work.

I unfortunately look right into my neighbors, but at least I cannot reach into their window, so that is at least a high point. I actually have screens on the windows too, that slide out of the way so I can hang my laundry out on the clothes line. The only issue is to grab the clothes before the rain starts, not after, and to shake and pat down for any cockroaches or locust. But you must be careful not to kill a gecko that may have climbed in your clothes to explore.  

I’m in seventh heaven trying to win over the neighborhood cat who likes to sleep on scooters and the baby geckos that climb around the walls outside of my window. I think the other new teacher thinks I’m a bit “special” as they say in Asia.   

More photos to come soon!