We had a MAJOR earthquake! It was scary! PRAISE JESUS I was not inside my 12th floor apt when it hit. I would have been even more scared and probably sobbing. Luckily I was outside, on the ground, with Cassandra and Jacque in the city. We were just walking around where everyone hangs out at night when it hit. It was a big one even for the Taiwanese. Some people were screaming. I found out it was a 6.8...aaahh! It just kept going and going and getting scarier. My mind was racing and I was like "we're standing under this tree and that can't be safe. What do they do in movies? Oh, they go stand in a door frame." So I walked to go stand in the closest thing and Jacque was like "what are you doing? Get away from there!" Turns out my "door frame" was the entrance to a small little outdoor seating shelter that probably would have come down before the tree would have, haha. I was panicking though and didn't know what to do. The stone path we were walking on was broken after from the tree roots. I am glad to know that even after an earthquake of that size everything in our apartment was okay. Nothing huge fell over, just my pictures frames and books and stuff in my bathroom. So now I know the bigger items in our apt can withstand a good-sized quake.
However, when Cassandra and I did arrive back at our place there were fire engines outside. Some pulled up right as I did and I was watching to see what they were doing. They got off the truck and started looking up at the balconies. I was like Oh My Gosh someone fell off the balcony! But again, praise Jesus, that was not the case. Long story short a guy on the first floor ran outside during the earthquake and heard something hit the ground, then he smelled gas. It turned out to be an empty gas tank that fell off of someone's balcony. But all everyone kept hearing was gas leak and we had to stay down in the lobby for 30-40mins while the firemen got the whole thing sorted out. (For those of you outside of Taiwan we have 2 gas tanks on our balcony, one for the stove and one for the water. So it's not an odd thing that an empty gas tank fell off of someone's balcony)
I'm now up to 5 on the aftershock count which almost doubles the number of quakes I've felt since I got here. I'm going to put pictures up tomorrow and check out the news websites to make sure it wasn't worse than it seems but I don't believe it was bad enough for buildings to be destroyed or casualties. Still, very very...VERY scary!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Saturday, December 5, 2009
So I have this boyfriend and he's super cool...
and he's coming to see me in 23 days!!!! AH! I'm so excited. Aside from the fact that I miss him like crazy and cannot wait to see him, I'm super excited for someone from my life at home to witness my life here. It's strange but they're such different worlds and I would love for every single person in my life at home to come here at some point but I know the plane ticket cost alone prevents most from being able to do that. I keep talking to my friend Karin here about the culture shock we're going to go through...when we go home. When we got here, yes life was different, people spoke a different language, yada yada, but there are many of us here in the same situation. We talk to each other all the time about what we're going through and compare experiences. When we get home, we have to merge our way back into our old life while at the same time feeling so different. And no one will be there to understand. As much as I can't wait to be home and see everyone, I think it will be hard. So having one of my favorite people here to see my city, my apartment, my schools, my favorite hang out spots... it'll be really great. =)
Plus, he's never traveled out of the country before and I highly advise everyone to do it at some point in their life. It's just such an incredible experience and something I LOVE so if he could catch the travel bug too that would be groovy.
OK that's all I wanted to say =D
Plus, he's never traveled out of the country before and I highly advise everyone to do it at some point in their life. It's just such an incredible experience and something I LOVE so if he could catch the travel bug too that would be groovy.
OK that's all I wanted to say =D
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
I won the Taiwan lottery...
well, I won the lowest prize but still =D
Okay so Taiwan has the lottery they created with receipts that you get at stores, restaurants, etc. They were trying to find a way to encourage customers to demand a receipt so that the business had to be more accountable for their books. So, being foreigners, we jumped on the lottery craze. People kept telling us, "Oh it gets old after the first month, just donate your receipts." Well us three Hualien gals saved all of our receipts from August and waited for the July/August numbers (the numbers are drawn every 2 months). We had a party one friday night, checking all of our receipts, BUT people were right, nothing. Well, I'm fairly persistent so I continued to keep my receipts from September and October and once again, last week it was time for new numbers. I needed something to do on the train ride to Taipei so I grabbed all of my receipts and jotted down the numbers. There are 8 numbers on a receipt and you have to check them starting from the right. You have to have the numbers consecutively and winners start at 3 numbers. Well, I had one receipt that had three of the numbers! It's the lowest prize and only 200NT ($6.06), but that particular receipt was from buying a 10NT ($.30) newspaper so I'm excited =)
Also, I'll use this post to get away from my yesterday grumps and write about the past week. Last week I got to talk to Asher and Kate on Skype. It was Asher's first international video call and I was so excited haha I can't believe how much he's changed since I was there to see him in person! I love reading their blog to see how the Smola family is doing and Kate is much better than I am at updates =)
On Friday Cassandra and I left for Taipei. We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday going to completely new places thanks to our fantastic tour-guide Karin. Friday night we went to Ximending, a really fun area of Taipei with shopping, art, and good food and drinks. Saturday we went to the Jade Market. It's a HUGE market underneath the interstate. The tables of jewelry made of Jade, Coral, Rose Stone, etc go on and on and on. We walked up and down those rows for hours, did some bargaining, and found lots of great Christmas gifts. After the Jade market we did some more shopping in the big shopping district with various clothing stores and the big department store. Then we met up with some other friends for our "Thanksgiving" dinner at Chili's! I had been soo excited to go to Chili's in Taipei because it's one of my favorites at home.
On Sunday Cassandra and I changed our tickets to a later train so that we could go to the hot springs way up on the north side of Taipei. It was really crowded there and I couldn't help but think about how dirty the water was but it did feel good. After the hot springs we got some good ol' Italian food for lunch and then realized it was way too sunny and gorgeous to not be outside. So we got a blanket and some cards and went to a park near Karin's house. Definitely an enjoyable afternoon even though Karin kicked my butt at Phase 10 (there were forces against me that I will not go into) =) Finally we went to the Taipei 101 area to go to the English bookstore, I got My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (both highly recommended by Karin). Lastly, before getting on our train we went to the big grocery store with lots of American food so that I could get ingredients for Chili and mexican stuff.
It was a very enjoyable weekend as it always is with my Taipei tour guide Karin =D
Okay so Taiwan has the lottery they created with receipts that you get at stores, restaurants, etc. They were trying to find a way to encourage customers to demand a receipt so that the business had to be more accountable for their books. So, being foreigners, we jumped on the lottery craze. People kept telling us, "Oh it gets old after the first month, just donate your receipts." Well us three Hualien gals saved all of our receipts from August and waited for the July/August numbers (the numbers are drawn every 2 months). We had a party one friday night, checking all of our receipts, BUT people were right, nothing. Well, I'm fairly persistent so I continued to keep my receipts from September and October and once again, last week it was time for new numbers. I needed something to do on the train ride to Taipei so I grabbed all of my receipts and jotted down the numbers. There are 8 numbers on a receipt and you have to check them starting from the right. You have to have the numbers consecutively and winners start at 3 numbers. Well, I had one receipt that had three of the numbers! It's the lowest prize and only 200NT ($6.06), but that particular receipt was from buying a 10NT ($.30) newspaper so I'm excited =)
Also, I'll use this post to get away from my yesterday grumps and write about the past week. Last week I got to talk to Asher and Kate on Skype. It was Asher's first international video call and I was so excited haha I can't believe how much he's changed since I was there to see him in person! I love reading their blog to see how the Smola family is doing and Kate is much better than I am at updates =)
On Friday Cassandra and I left for Taipei. We spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday going to completely new places thanks to our fantastic tour-guide Karin. Friday night we went to Ximending, a really fun area of Taipei with shopping, art, and good food and drinks. Saturday we went to the Jade Market. It's a HUGE market underneath the interstate. The tables of jewelry made of Jade, Coral, Rose Stone, etc go on and on and on. We walked up and down those rows for hours, did some bargaining, and found lots of great Christmas gifts. After the Jade market we did some more shopping in the big shopping district with various clothing stores and the big department store. Then we met up with some other friends for our "Thanksgiving" dinner at Chili's! I had been soo excited to go to Chili's in Taipei because it's one of my favorites at home.
On Sunday Cassandra and I changed our tickets to a later train so that we could go to the hot springs way up on the north side of Taipei. It was really crowded there and I couldn't help but think about how dirty the water was but it did feel good. After the hot springs we got some good ol' Italian food for lunch and then realized it was way too sunny and gorgeous to not be outside. So we got a blanket and some cards and went to a park near Karin's house. Definitely an enjoyable afternoon even though Karin kicked my butt at Phase 10 (there were forces against me that I will not go into) =) Finally we went to the Taipei 101 area to go to the English bookstore, I got My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (both highly recommended by Karin). Lastly, before getting on our train we went to the big grocery store with lots of American food so that I could get ingredients for Chili and mexican stuff.
It was a very enjoyable weekend as it always is with my Taipei tour guide Karin =D
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Today was a cranky one
Haha, I can't believe I'm writing a blog about being cranky but I said to myself I was going to try and update more often so here it is.
First of all I woke up at 7:27....my ride picks me up at 7:30, so right there I'm off on the wrong foot. On top of that for some reason I have multiple aches and pains hitting me at once. I'm used to the hamstring being sore (I injured it in April) and I've been getting used to my back being sore, but the headaches have been the most annoying. Once I got to school though I wasn't in a bad mood...yet. My 6th graders were fine, we had some fun and I was looking forward to doing some venting during my break. But then, that conversation didn't turn out so well, and after, I had my 5th graders who were complete little pills. I have four classes in a row before lunch and that usually wipes me out. I had 2 more classes in the afternoon and then finally it was time to go home. For some reason I just kept getting more and more cranky over the course of the day and I just couldn't handle the guy driving me home. I love the people here, I do, they go above and beyond for me and are always very concerned with my well-being but sometimes their form of "conversation" due to lack of English words becomes redundant and annoying. I decided to ask the teacher who drove me home some Chinese instead of him trying his best at English and I asked him if beef was "ro" which I was already pretty sure it was but couldn't remember if it was beef or meat in general. He had no clue. I've noticed here that some people get so freaked out about assuming they aren't going to be able to understand your English that they don't listen to your Chinese. Sometimes at McDonald's we'll try to tell them the number we want in Chinese, or one time my roommate was telling them tea in chinese, and they get all twitchy and ask someone else to come over. We're speaking Chinese! And I realize you're thinking "you're probably saying it wrong" and sometimes yes that's the case, but other times they are very basic words that we've been saying for months now. It's just that they don't take the time to listen and realize we're speaking Chinese because they get so freaked out about not knowing English. Anyway I guess that's kind of what happened in the car because he said he didn't know when I asked what the Chinese word was for "beef" and asked if it was "ro". I said "Chinese" in chinese, and then said "eat" and motioned eating....then "cow"...then I moo-ed. Still, nothing. I went as far as to give an example of a dish that I like "lou ro fan" which is minced pork rice but no. When we got to my apartment he pointed to my building and tried to start telling me about getting "beef" at this restaurant and he said it like he was introducing me to a new place. It's in the bottom of my apartment building!! I'm aware. Well my patience was shot for the day and I said "I know that, I've lived here for 4 months." Hopefully his lack of English comprehension will mask my rudeness =X
So anyway, that's a little insight into me not always being pleasant. I do think this whole journey has been extremely good for my patience level in many different ways (which has always been a little low in certain areas). Tomorrow is a new day AND it's Wednesday which means I don't teach any classes. I have the whole day to plan and prepare for Christmas! =D
First of all I woke up at 7:27....my ride picks me up at 7:30, so right there I'm off on the wrong foot. On top of that for some reason I have multiple aches and pains hitting me at once. I'm used to the hamstring being sore (I injured it in April) and I've been getting used to my back being sore, but the headaches have been the most annoying. Once I got to school though I wasn't in a bad mood...yet. My 6th graders were fine, we had some fun and I was looking forward to doing some venting during my break. But then, that conversation didn't turn out so well, and after, I had my 5th graders who were complete little pills. I have four classes in a row before lunch and that usually wipes me out. I had 2 more classes in the afternoon and then finally it was time to go home. For some reason I just kept getting more and more cranky over the course of the day and I just couldn't handle the guy driving me home. I love the people here, I do, they go above and beyond for me and are always very concerned with my well-being but sometimes their form of "conversation" due to lack of English words becomes redundant and annoying. I decided to ask the teacher who drove me home some Chinese instead of him trying his best at English and I asked him if beef was "ro" which I was already pretty sure it was but couldn't remember if it was beef or meat in general. He had no clue. I've noticed here that some people get so freaked out about assuming they aren't going to be able to understand your English that they don't listen to your Chinese. Sometimes at McDonald's we'll try to tell them the number we want in Chinese, or one time my roommate was telling them tea in chinese, and they get all twitchy and ask someone else to come over. We're speaking Chinese! And I realize you're thinking "you're probably saying it wrong" and sometimes yes that's the case, but other times they are very basic words that we've been saying for months now. It's just that they don't take the time to listen and realize we're speaking Chinese because they get so freaked out about not knowing English. Anyway I guess that's kind of what happened in the car because he said he didn't know when I asked what the Chinese word was for "beef" and asked if it was "ro". I said "Chinese" in chinese, and then said "eat" and motioned eating....then "cow"...then I moo-ed. Still, nothing. I went as far as to give an example of a dish that I like "lou ro fan" which is minced pork rice but no. When we got to my apartment he pointed to my building and tried to start telling me about getting "beef" at this restaurant and he said it like he was introducing me to a new place. It's in the bottom of my apartment building!! I'm aware. Well my patience was shot for the day and I said "I know that, I've lived here for 4 months." Hopefully his lack of English comprehension will mask my rudeness =X
So anyway, that's a little insight into me not always being pleasant. I do think this whole journey has been extremely good for my patience level in many different ways (which has always been a little low in certain areas). Tomorrow is a new day AND it's Wednesday which means I don't teach any classes. I have the whole day to plan and prepare for Christmas! =D
Saturday, November 21, 2009
got my hair washed today...mmmm
I love getting my hair washed here! Going to the salon is quite different here than in America. First they sit you down and massage your neck, upper back, and shoulders. That alone makes getting a haircut enjoyable. But then, they not only wash your hair, but massage your scalp for about 10mins. It's fantastic...literally, gave me goosebumps. Then they cut your hair, style it, and you're all set. And the best part? It cost me 300 NT. That's under $10. Incredible.
So I decided since I had just been sitting around all day on a Saturday that I needed to get out and do something. I hadn't had my hair trimmed since I first got here in August and remembered LOVING the experience as explained above, so decided I could go to the salon and then hit up the grocery store on the way home. About 4 blocks into my journey though my scooter was driving kinda funny, like it was on ice or something and the steering kept sliding to the side. I stopped to check things out even though I had no clue what i was looking for and everything seemed okay so I thought I'd just try it again to see what happens. Well, that time it was worse, the bike wouldn't budge even when I gunned it. I got off again, and then I saw the busted tire. I had to call my director Doris, have her call the shop where I bought the scooter, and they came to pick up me and the scooter. It took like 10 minutes at the most for them to give me a new tire. While they were changing it I was thinking to myself, "good thing I just decided against the Hong Kong trip in two weeks because this is probably going to cost me some money." Well when he was finished I asked how much (in Chinese) and he answered (also in Chinese of course). It still takes me several seconds to translate and process the numbers in my head and when I got it I thought "hmm, 500, that's not too bad I guess." I handed a $500 bill and waited to see if he was going to hand me a receipt, but he handed me change instead. I said thank you and walked away (of course pretending like I wasn't confused haha). I realized he had given me 450 back. It only cost me 50NT to be picked up and taken to the shop and a new tire put on. That's like a buck fifty!! Holy cow!
SO, that turned out to be just a small hiccup in my evening, and after, I got to enjoy my scalp massage and get some groceries. I decided to write a blog about it even though it's not that big of a deal because I've been horrible about blog updates lately. I think in the beginning everything was so exciting and new and there was so much to write about and now everything has become fairly normal and routine so I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share.
So I decided since I had just been sitting around all day on a Saturday that I needed to get out and do something. I hadn't had my hair trimmed since I first got here in August and remembered LOVING the experience as explained above, so decided I could go to the salon and then hit up the grocery store on the way home. About 4 blocks into my journey though my scooter was driving kinda funny, like it was on ice or something and the steering kept sliding to the side. I stopped to check things out even though I had no clue what i was looking for and everything seemed okay so I thought I'd just try it again to see what happens. Well, that time it was worse, the bike wouldn't budge even when I gunned it. I got off again, and then I saw the busted tire. I had to call my director Doris, have her call the shop where I bought the scooter, and they came to pick up me and the scooter. It took like 10 minutes at the most for them to give me a new tire. While they were changing it I was thinking to myself, "good thing I just decided against the Hong Kong trip in two weeks because this is probably going to cost me some money." Well when he was finished I asked how much (in Chinese) and he answered (also in Chinese of course). It still takes me several seconds to translate and process the numbers in my head and when I got it I thought "hmm, 500, that's not too bad I guess." I handed a $500 bill and waited to see if he was going to hand me a receipt, but he handed me change instead. I said thank you and walked away (of course pretending like I wasn't confused haha). I realized he had given me 450 back. It only cost me 50NT to be picked up and taken to the shop and a new tire put on. That's like a buck fifty!! Holy cow!
SO, that turned out to be just a small hiccup in my evening, and after, I got to enjoy my scalp massage and get some groceries. I decided to write a blog about it even though it's not that big of a deal because I've been horrible about blog updates lately. I think in the beginning everything was so exciting and new and there was so much to write about and now everything has become fairly normal and routine so I feel like I don't have anything interesting to share.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
a random assortment of updates
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Whew I'm finding it hard to keep this updated. Since my last update I've had three extremely busy, but fun weekends. First we went to Kaohsiung to visit with Deb and her family. We got to see some really cool sites around the city the night we got in thanks to our super groovy tour guide, Mike. Saturday we met up with Deb and her family and headed to Fridays for some fantastic American food. Then we got to go to the "Dream Mall" with its 7 floors, I believe it was, of food and shopping with a ginormous ferris wheel on top. After the mall we went to get tattoos and piercings =D Deb and Staycie got tattoos. Cassandra, Jacqueline, and I weren't real keen on permanently inking our bodies so Cassandra Jacqueline got their ears pierced and I re-pierced my nose! Later Saturday night we got to have a girls night out and walk to a little bar near our hostel. OH, speaking of our hostel, that was my first time staying in one and it was sooo nice. I'm pretty certain that's not normal for a hostel but ours was like renting out someone's apt. Our night out at the bar was full of fun and laughing, lots of laughing!
Halloween weekend, we went to Taipei. Cassandra's aunt had invited us to go to a parade with her on Saturday so we decided to go up for the weekend and visit with our Taipei friends also. Saturday night we got to dress up and go out for Halloween! Turns out Halloween is a huge celebration in the city. I was a hippie because it was cheap and easy to put together with stuff I already had, haha. We had a great time as always in Taipei.
This weekend there was a marathon in Hualien. People came from all over the island and even from as far as Kenya to participate in the race. Our Taipei friends Staycie, Karin, and Monica came as well as Eileen and Eric. We had an early night Friday night because of the early race time. Those participating had to leave at 4:30am! The rest of us were supposed to be on a 7:20am train BUT, true to form, I overslept =) I missed the train because my alarm was set for "Mon-Fri" therefore did not go off even though I had set it the night before. I decided instead of driving over to the train station to find out what time the next train would be, I might as well just make use of my own transportation and ride my scooter. It was my first long ride on the scooter. It took about 40 mins to get there and I got to test out driving with a little more speed... I got up to 65 (that's only about 40 mph lol). At the race it was really cool to see so many people from all over. Also, after the race we took our visiting friends on a walk through the gorge to see some of the beauty of Hualien. We mainly just rested and chatted all afternoon and then went out to entertain ourselves in the city for the evening. We went to the golden bear (it was our first time even though we live here) which is this huge casino looking place with all kinds of video games. We played a few games in Chinese and then went to get some dumplings for dinner. Lastly, we went to crazy bar! Let me explain that we (and by we I mean Karin, haha jk) have been talking about going to crazy bar ever since the first time the Taipei crew were down in Hualien. Well I will not give the all the details of the evening but I will say that Crazy Bar definitely lived up to its name in many ways. It was fun, exciting, embarrassing, mortifying, and hilarious all rolled up into one. Today we got up and went to Country Mama's (also a first for us even though we live here) to have some yummy western breakfast before taking the girls to the train station.
Wow, these last few weeks have been exhausting! I think November is going to be the month to rest and regroup.
Whew I'm finding it hard to keep this updated. Since my last update I've had three extremely busy, but fun weekends. First we went to Kaohsiung to visit with Deb and her family. We got to see some really cool sites around the city the night we got in thanks to our super groovy tour guide, Mike. Saturday we met up with Deb and her family and headed to Fridays for some fantastic American food. Then we got to go to the "Dream Mall" with its 7 floors, I believe it was, of food and shopping with a ginormous ferris wheel on top. After the mall we went to get tattoos and piercings =D Deb and Staycie got tattoos. Cassandra, Jacqueline, and I weren't real keen on permanently inking our bodies so Cassandra Jacqueline got their ears pierced and I re-pierced my nose! Later Saturday night we got to have a girls night out and walk to a little bar near our hostel. OH, speaking of our hostel, that was my first time staying in one and it was sooo nice. I'm pretty certain that's not normal for a hostel but ours was like renting out someone's apt. Our night out at the bar was full of fun and laughing, lots of laughing!
Halloween weekend, we went to Taipei. Cassandra's aunt had invited us to go to a parade with her on Saturday so we decided to go up for the weekend and visit with our Taipei friends also. Saturday night we got to dress up and go out for Halloween! Turns out Halloween is a huge celebration in the city. I was a hippie because it was cheap and easy to put together with stuff I already had, haha. We had a great time as always in Taipei.
This weekend there was a marathon in Hualien. People came from all over the island and even from as far as Kenya to participate in the race. Our Taipei friends Staycie, Karin, and Monica came as well as Eileen and Eric. We had an early night Friday night because of the early race time. Those participating had to leave at 4:30am! The rest of us were supposed to be on a 7:20am train BUT, true to form, I overslept =) I missed the train because my alarm was set for "Mon-Fri" therefore did not go off even though I had set it the night before. I decided instead of driving over to the train station to find out what time the next train would be, I might as well just make use of my own transportation and ride my scooter. It was my first long ride on the scooter. It took about 40 mins to get there and I got to test out driving with a little more speed... I got up to 65 (that's only about 40 mph lol). At the race it was really cool to see so many people from all over. Also, after the race we took our visiting friends on a walk through the gorge to see some of the beauty of Hualien. We mainly just rested and chatted all afternoon and then went out to entertain ourselves in the city for the evening. We went to the golden bear (it was our first time even though we live here) which is this huge casino looking place with all kinds of video games. We played a few games in Chinese and then went to get some dumplings for dinner. Lastly, we went to crazy bar! Let me explain that we (and by we I mean Karin, haha jk) have been talking about going to crazy bar ever since the first time the Taipei crew were down in Hualien. Well I will not give the all the details of the evening but I will say that Crazy Bar definitely lived up to its name in many ways. It was fun, exciting, embarrassing, mortifying, and hilarious all rolled up into one. Today we got up and went to Country Mama's (also a first for us even though we live here) to have some yummy western breakfast before taking the girls to the train station.
Wow, these last few weeks have been exhausting! I think November is going to be the month to rest and regroup.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
scooter crash update... and a little irony
Here are some pics of my bruises, lol, I know that's exactly what you've been dying to see right?
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As well as some pictures of the scooter I just bought!!... see the irony now?? =D
It's old, and hunter green, but it was cheap and it'll get me from point A to point B...and it's mine!!
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As well as some pictures of the scooter I just bought!!... see the irony now?? =D
It's old, and hunter green, but it was cheap and it'll get me from point A to point B...and it's mine!!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Exploring Hualien
We've been here for about two and a half months now and are still finding new and beautiful places to explore! Hualien really is incredible and I'm so glad I was placed here =) Yesterday we took advantage of the movie theater's October discount and saw Surrogates. It was decent...I don't really have much to say about that. Then we met up with Jacque and Linda in the city. We found some new stores that were really cool and a Mexican restaurant! You have no idea how excited I was to have sour cream lol! We also met some new people around the city. We met a guy from Africa who has lived here off and on for 15 years and his 2 little boys. They were half African half Taiwanese with long dreads and BEAUTIFUL faces! Absolutely the most adorable children I've ever seen. He had a friend with him who was Canadian and they said there is a big group of foreigners who all hang out together on Friday nights at this bar in town. So we're excited to check out this bar sometime and hang out with other foreigners living in Hualien! We also met this really siiiick break dancer. We saw this battle going on and he was by far the best one. Then we ran into him later on and started talking to him. I told him I video taped some of it and asked if he cared if I put it on youtube. Not only did he not care, he said I could video tape some more sometime, put it on youtube, and let him know what people have to say. ALSO, he dances at a studio and I'm going to go with him on Thursday to check out the studio and maybe start taking some hip hop classes! I'm super excited about that =)
Today, we met Jacque and Linda in the city again and Linda had some work to do but said we could borrow her scooter. So today was the first day, ever, that I got to drive a scooter...aaaaaannndd it was the first day I crashed a scooter =-o oops! It's very difficult to explain how it happened but i ended up inside the cement hole still straddling the scooter with it on it's side on top of me. Some old guy walking by helped me get the scooter out along with some family walking by that gathered round. I was mortified! It did a fairly decent number on my legs and I have some swelling and bruising. I'm fairly certain I'm going to be in a lot more pain in the morning. As much as my super sweet boyfriend would like for that to be my last time driving a scooter, I'm still looking to buy a used one. Especially after driving one today, aside from the wreck, I really loved the independence and being able to get around on my own. Cassandra and I only get to go somewhere new if someone else finds it and takes us there. I won't be able to stand that for another 7 months. BUT, I have learned that I cannot handle a 125cc, it is just too heavy for me. I'll have to get a 90cc and I will drive SUPER slow and stick to places I know for a long time.
So aside from the small incident, we had a fun day today too. We found this adorable cottage/museum place that I loved! I can't wait to see what else they have there in the next few months. We also went to a great beach location and I got to hear what has become my all time favorite sound in the world, the rocks clinking over each other after the tide comes in and then goes back out. It is the best sound I've ever heard. I want a CD of that sound. Now it's way past my bedtime because it's back to school tomorrow to teach all about Halloween!!
Today, we met Jacque and Linda in the city again and Linda had some work to do but said we could borrow her scooter. So today was the first day, ever, that I got to drive a scooter...aaaaaannndd it was the first day I crashed a scooter =-o oops! It's very difficult to explain how it happened but i ended up inside the cement hole still straddling the scooter with it on it's side on top of me. Some old guy walking by helped me get the scooter out along with some family walking by that gathered round. I was mortified! It did a fairly decent number on my legs and I have some swelling and bruising. I'm fairly certain I'm going to be in a lot more pain in the morning. As much as my super sweet boyfriend would like for that to be my last time driving a scooter, I'm still looking to buy a used one. Especially after driving one today, aside from the wreck, I really loved the independence and being able to get around on my own. Cassandra and I only get to go somewhere new if someone else finds it and takes us there. I won't be able to stand that for another 7 months. BUT, I have learned that I cannot handle a 125cc, it is just too heavy for me. I'll have to get a 90cc and I will drive SUPER slow and stick to places I know for a long time.
So aside from the small incident, we had a fun day today too. We found this adorable cottage/museum place that I loved! I can't wait to see what else they have there in the next few months. We also went to a great beach location and I got to hear what has become my all time favorite sound in the world, the rocks clinking over each other after the tide comes in and then goes back out. It is the best sound I've ever heard. I want a CD of that sound. Now it's way past my bedtime because it's back to school tomorrow to teach all about Halloween!!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
AND....it's still raining!
This rain, geesh! It did not end up stopping in time for me to go shopping for our guests friday night (Karin, Staycie, and Avrum came to visit from Taipei) so I rode my bike in the rain to the grocery store, not fun. However, we did have a fun weekend despite the rain. As I've said many times before to people, the teachers at Nanhua are incredible and one of them let me borrow her car this weekend. I got her car Friday night to pick our friends up from the train station. They didn't get in until 9:30 that night so it gave Cassandra and I plenty of time to prepare and insane amount of food ( I really really love having a kitchen).
We ate and just visited Friday night, then got up Saturday morning to go into the mountains and to Liyu Lake. Unfortunately it was raining, so they didn't get to see the full beauty of the mountains. We were going to go to the Cultural Center for more festival activities for stone sculpture month, BUT, the rain prevented us from doing that. Instead we went into the city for dinner at this great Japanese restaurant, some people got massages and some of us shopped around, then we went to a couple bars. We tried to go to Crazy Bar, which we saw across the street from our restaurant, and we were starting to think there weren't any bars in Hualien. However, it wasn't open yet so we went next door to another "bar" to have some Taiwan beer and wait. We were the only people in there but naturally, they had karaoke so we had a blast singing American music from the 80's and 90's. After A LOT of singing, we walked over to crazy bar and low and behold, Hualien City actually has a dance club! Who knew?!? (Well, apparently Karin knew the whole time haha) Shortly after walking in we found out it cost 180NT each to stay there, i guess kinda like a cover charge, so we didn't end up staying. But you better believe we'll be heading back there sometime =)
Sunday we ate a big homemade breakfast (pancakes, eggs, toast, and sausage) mmmmm! Then we went to the movies since they're so cheap for the month of October. We saw the Ugly Truth and I can't decide how I feel about Katherine Heigel but it was a funny movie. After the movie we had to return our pals to the train station and then I spent the rest of the afternoon planning for this week. I get to start my Halloween unit now, yay! I've found a lot of great stuff and I'm excited to introduce them to a major American holiday =)
We ate and just visited Friday night, then got up Saturday morning to go into the mountains and to Liyu Lake. Unfortunately it was raining, so they didn't get to see the full beauty of the mountains. We were going to go to the Cultural Center for more festival activities for stone sculpture month, BUT, the rain prevented us from doing that. Instead we went into the city for dinner at this great Japanese restaurant, some people got massages and some of us shopped around, then we went to a couple bars. We tried to go to Crazy Bar, which we saw across the street from our restaurant, and we were starting to think there weren't any bars in Hualien. However, it wasn't open yet so we went next door to another "bar" to have some Taiwan beer and wait. We were the only people in there but naturally, they had karaoke so we had a blast singing American music from the 80's and 90's. After A LOT of singing, we walked over to crazy bar and low and behold, Hualien City actually has a dance club! Who knew?!? (Well, apparently Karin knew the whole time haha) Shortly after walking in we found out it cost 180NT each to stay there, i guess kinda like a cover charge, so we didn't end up staying. But you better believe we'll be heading back there sometime =)
Sunday we ate a big homemade breakfast (pancakes, eggs, toast, and sausage) mmmmm! Then we went to the movies since they're so cheap for the month of October. We saw the Ugly Truth and I can't decide how I feel about Katherine Heigel but it was a funny movie. After the movie we had to return our pals to the train station and then I spent the rest of the afternoon planning for this week. I get to start my Halloween unit now, yay! I've found a lot of great stuff and I'm excited to introduce them to a major American holiday =)
Monday, October 5, 2009
Earthquake number....I don't even know
I've lost track of earthquakes because there were some small ones I felt and then some that my roommate asked if I felt but I didn't and I'm sure others that we didn't feel at all. However, yesterday there was a big'n! I was actually talking to Chris on Skype about 1:30am when it hit. I was like "Oh my gosh it's an earthquake...oh my gosh...oh my gosh...." you get the idea. My picture frames started falling over and I sat up real fast and just closed my eyes. I think at one point I was even telling him "make it stop, make it stop...." lol! I checked online after I woke up and it was a 6.3, yikes! Even the Taiwanese are starting to get a little concerned about all the big earthquakes going on in Southeast Asia right now.
We're also having a typhoon right now. It's pretty mild as far as wind goes but the rain has been crazy! It will just not stop. It really needs to stop in the next day or two because we have some shopping to do for our guests coming to visit this weekend =)
Ok so last weekend was the weekend of 2 major events. First, Saturday was Moon Festival which is a Holiday in Taiwan on the full moon sometime during the lunar calendar i believe but ended up in October for us. People just have BBQ's and give moon cake gifts to each other and eat Pomelos. Pomelos are a fruit they have here that kind of belongs to the orange/tangerine/grapefruit family but with less color to it. They peel the pomelo, eat the inside, and then kids wear the pomelo peel as a hat haha. The other major event is Stone Sculpture month in Hualien County. Hualien hosts sculptors from various countries for one month. They give them a tent outside the cultural center with a block of stone. They have one month to make their sculpture and then Hualien keeps their sculptures to be placed around the outside of the cultural center.
Saturday we went to the movies (yes we saw a movie in English haha) because the theater is only $100 a ticket for the month of October in honor of the stone sculpture month. Then later that evening there was a huge parade through the city with music, dancing, fireworks and so on so Jacque and I rode her scooter alongside the parade and joined in the fun lol Then we met up with Cassandra and teachers from her school who were participating in a drum festival. Apparently they have something going on every night all month for the stone sculptors! Which means we'll have some fun stuff to do with out guests next weekend =)
We're also having a typhoon right now. It's pretty mild as far as wind goes but the rain has been crazy! It will just not stop. It really needs to stop in the next day or two because we have some shopping to do for our guests coming to visit this weekend =)
Ok so last weekend was the weekend of 2 major events. First, Saturday was Moon Festival which is a Holiday in Taiwan on the full moon sometime during the lunar calendar i believe but ended up in October for us. People just have BBQ's and give moon cake gifts to each other and eat Pomelos. Pomelos are a fruit they have here that kind of belongs to the orange/tangerine/grapefruit family but with less color to it. They peel the pomelo, eat the inside, and then kids wear the pomelo peel as a hat haha. The other major event is Stone Sculpture month in Hualien County. Hualien hosts sculptors from various countries for one month. They give them a tent outside the cultural center with a block of stone. They have one month to make their sculpture and then Hualien keeps their sculptures to be placed around the outside of the cultural center.
Saturday we went to the movies (yes we saw a movie in English haha) because the theater is only $100 a ticket for the month of October in honor of the stone sculpture month. Then later that evening there was a huge parade through the city with music, dancing, fireworks and so on so Jacque and I rode her scooter alongside the parade and joined in the fun lol Then we met up with Cassandra and teachers from her school who were participating in a drum festival. Apparently they have something going on every night all month for the stone sculptors! Which means we'll have some fun stuff to do with out guests next weekend =)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
great day today...def top 5
Wednesdays are good days in general. They come after Tuesday, my worst day of the week so are automatically going to be better than the day before, haha. Also, I don't teach any classes on Wednesday. It's a half day for the kids and then we have professional development after lunch. However, it's usually in Chinese so I don't have to go =) Except for once a month, when I am the professional development and I teach the teachers English, which was today. I spent the morning planning my lesson. The director asked me a couple weeks ago to do a lesson on various foods and sentence patterns for dining. I also teach the teachers a mini lesson every monday morning for about 15 mins. So, for the past 2 Mondays we've been working on basic food vocabulary (breakfast, lunch, dinner, chicken, pork, beef, soup, salad, sandwich) and sentence patterns:
"What would you like for (breakfast, lunch, dinner)?"
"I'd like a/some ____________"
"What did you have for breakfast?"
"I had _________________"
"Are you full?"
"Yes, I'm full" or "No, I'm still hungry"
So after they learned those over the past 2 weeks today I wrote an "At the restaurant" dialogue. My director, the military boy and I role played the scene, while the teachers read along with copies of the dialogue. Then they got into groups of 3 to practice. After 30 minutes each group took a turn performing the scene. It was sooo much fun! We laughed a lot and they got really into the them of my restaurant scene...Mexican Food!!!! mmmmmm, my favorite haha. I taught them all about tacos and quesadillas and burritos and they totally loved it.
It was really cool to watch them all recite my scene =)
"What would you like for (breakfast, lunch, dinner)?"
"I'd like a/some ____________"
"What did you have for breakfast?"
"I had _________________"
"Are you full?"
"Yes, I'm full" or "No, I'm still hungry"
So after they learned those over the past 2 weeks today I wrote an "At the restaurant" dialogue. My director, the military boy and I role played the scene, while the teachers read along with copies of the dialogue. Then they got into groups of 3 to practice. After 30 minutes each group took a turn performing the scene. It was sooo much fun! We laughed a lot and they got really into the them of my restaurant scene...Mexican Food!!!! mmmmmm, my favorite haha. I taught them all about tacos and quesadillas and burritos and they totally loved it.
It was really cool to watch them all recite my scene =)
Friday, September 18, 2009
Taipei Weekend
Last weekend Jacquelyn and I took off on the Hualien train for Taipei. We arrived Friday night, were greeted by our gracious hosts, and taken to Partyworld to sing some Karaoke. (I'm tellin' ya, it's the thing to do here haha) Luckily the weekend we were visiting happened to be during a huge event in Taipei, the Deaflympics. There were teams from all over the world here competing and I've never even heard of this before! So Saturday we went to see the Russia vs Germany semifinals match and unfortunately the extremely over dramatic, crybaby russians won =) Then we went to go watch some table tennis at the arena but I have no idea who was playing whom or how far in the competition it was there. For dinner we met Mama Leah at FRIDAYS!! I cannot tell you how excited I was to have some fattening, greasy, American food mmmmmm. I got a bacon cheeseburger =) They have cheeseburgers here, but I"m always a little frightened of the meat so never get one. The menu said it had cheddar and mozzarella cheese on it, but turns out by mozzarella they meant the cheesesticks from their appetizer menu thrown on top of the burger. It turned out to be one of the top 3 most delicious burgers I've ever had. The top one is the creation of my boyfriend's brother, so I would say you should let him know that, but, I don't think the bf has time to read this anymore with his ridiculously time consuming job =(
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After burgers we went to a couple of bars and saw tons of foreigners. It was exciting to see other whitey's and even some black people! Taiwan actually had some diverse colors going on for a couple of weeks haha. On Sunday we really only had time to do some shopping in the basement "malls" of the Taipei Main Station before getting on our train back to Hualien.
Taipei was a blast. I really loved being in the city and riding the train everywhere. I'd love to go back to try and get in many more sights but the next several weekends are booked. One of which is FET weekend in Hualien!! woohoo, Double tens day=party time! (translation for American's= Several other foreign English teachers and some of our orientation leaders will be coming to visit on Oct 10th, which is similar to our Independence Day, but not as huge.)
This weekend we have a staff trip (mini vaca i guess) to the....power park? i think that's what I was told. I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but Cassandra is going too so that will definitely help. Doris told me to bring a lantern (i.e. flashlight) so I have a feeling we'll be roughin' it a bit.
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After burgers we went to a couple of bars and saw tons of foreigners. It was exciting to see other whitey's and even some black people! Taiwan actually had some diverse colors going on for a couple of weeks haha. On Sunday we really only had time to do some shopping in the basement "malls" of the Taipei Main Station before getting on our train back to Hualien.
Taipei was a blast. I really loved being in the city and riding the train everywhere. I'd love to go back to try and get in many more sights but the next several weekends are booked. One of which is FET weekend in Hualien!! woohoo, Double tens day=party time! (translation for American's= Several other foreign English teachers and some of our orientation leaders will be coming to visit on Oct 10th, which is similar to our Independence Day, but not as huge.)
This weekend we have a staff trip (mini vaca i guess) to the....power park? i think that's what I was told. I'm not exactly sure what to expect, but Cassandra is going too so that will definitely help. Doris told me to bring a lantern (i.e. flashlight) so I have a feeling we'll be roughin' it a bit.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
goodmorningteachertaranicetoseeyouhaveaniceday
haha, my title is what i hear ALL day everyday at Nanhua. The 5th and 6th graders have learned to say this whenever I pass...everytime, haha. It's always all run together and has a singsongy tone to it. The younger kids just say "goodmorning teacher tara" even after noon.
I'm middle school at home so this is very different, but do elementary school teachers in America have students running up to them in the hall to scream out what they learned in class that day? (Nesh?) Haha, my students get sooo excited! They'll run towards me saying "Hello! My name is Andy! What's your name?!" or "The weather is sunny!!"
I love it
My other school, that's a bit of a different story. Most of the kids there really are great, and I love my English Club. So when I complain, I'm not saying it's horrible, like worse than in the states. It's just difficult. Percentage-wise, there are far less "naughty" kids than my classes at home. Out of my 300 kids I have 10 or less who would be considered "bad." Even within those, I've found in my 3rd week that only 3 or 4 are really bad, the rest i've figured out how to manage. I CANNOT complain about 3 or 4 difficult kids out of 300 haha, but it's just hard with the language barrier. I have to put in twice as much effort to literally show them what they're doing wrong, what I expect them to do, and what the consequences will be if they don't. I actually think only seeing them once a week is more of a problem than then language barrier. They have a whole week to forget what we went through or assume that I'll forget and act up again. So when I try new things, I just have to wait until the following week to find out if there are results.
Anyway, that's about all for this update, I just wanted to share some things about the teaching aspect. Tonight when I get home I might do another one about my visit to Taipei last weekend!
I'm middle school at home so this is very different, but do elementary school teachers in America have students running up to them in the hall to scream out what they learned in class that day? (Nesh?) Haha, my students get sooo excited! They'll run towards me saying "Hello! My name is Andy! What's your name?!" or "The weather is sunny!!"
I love it
My other school, that's a bit of a different story. Most of the kids there really are great, and I love my English Club. So when I complain, I'm not saying it's horrible, like worse than in the states. It's just difficult. Percentage-wise, there are far less "naughty" kids than my classes at home. Out of my 300 kids I have 10 or less who would be considered "bad." Even within those, I've found in my 3rd week that only 3 or 4 are really bad, the rest i've figured out how to manage. I CANNOT complain about 3 or 4 difficult kids out of 300 haha, but it's just hard with the language barrier. I have to put in twice as much effort to literally show them what they're doing wrong, what I expect them to do, and what the consequences will be if they don't. I actually think only seeing them once a week is more of a problem than then language barrier. They have a whole week to forget what we went through or assume that I'll forget and act up again. So when I try new things, I just have to wait until the following week to find out if there are results.
Anyway, that's about all for this update, I just wanted to share some things about the teaching aspect. Tonight when I get home I might do another one about my visit to Taipei last weekend!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
how did people live without the internet?
I often find myself wondering how on earth people lived without the internet. Thank goodness for internet discussion boards. A place where people can post the most weird or random problems and find not only others with the same problem but an answer? It's amazing! I've been trying to figure out what in the heck is going on with my lips. They started out feeling dry and I thought it had to do with my dehydration. (I got really dehydrated last week and am trying to remember to drink lots of water) So I just kept putting on chapstick and drinking water. Then I started waking up with swollen lips. Then I realized I had these teeny tiny little bumps along my lip that I can feel, but other people can't see. Now this has happened once or twice before but it was awhile ago and I don't remember how I got rid of them. I searched on the internet and found several articles that didn't apply to my problem and then this one discussion board with person after person saying "oh yes, I have those same little bumps" just like me. Finally a person at the end said, "It's a bacteria from using one chapstick for too long. Throw away the chapstick immediately and it will get worse, but then dry up and get better." So I looked at my chapstick and sure enough, now that i look at it, it is a little discolored in that center part (gross right?) lol and I have had for a long time. Without the internet I would have been continuing to put that bacteria filled stuff on my lips 72 times a day like I have been, geez!
I know, I know, this entry has absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan, haha
I know, I know, this entry has absolutely nothing to do with Taiwan, haha
Sunday, September 6, 2009
I get it now
The whole telling me I need to exercise, calling me fat, or that my "weight is too much, need to be less" has been very confusing for me because I see plenty of larger Asians here. I mean, I'm sure their percentage of overweight people is far less than America's but I see several people larger than me every day. Today, a teacher from my roommate's school took us shopping for some school clothes. Well when I put on the XXL pair of capris and they fit, that's when I finally understood, LOL. XXL?!?! sucks man! I met an Asian teacher who is SLIGHTLY overweight, and she said she gets comments all the time so I guess I just need to learn to dust it off and not focus on the size on the tag.
On a brighter note, I got to go to the beach twice this weekend and absolutely loved it! I'll be posting pictures here and maybe a video on youtube sometime when it's not going on midnight on a school night, but for now just a short update and then bed (I'm too tired to wait any longer for a certain someone to WAKE UP!) =D
I also now understand why people don't really swim in the ocean here. Aside from it being ghost month and they're afraid ghosts of their dead will pull them into the water, the waves are insane! They are so high and come crashing onto the shore, plus, it doesn't have a steady decline like the beaches we go to, just a sudden drop off. I tried to ease in just slightly, to my ankles, but no such thing. You can be not in the water at all and then suddenly the waves come crashing in and you're getting soaked. AND the freaking ocean stole my flip flops right off my feet! It took one, I went chasing after it (well the best chasing job I could do without falling over myself in the waves) but couldn't catch it. Defeated, I turned around to go back and there goes my only remaining shoe! It was sooo not cool. However, once the tide went back out we found my flip flops sticking out of the sand LOL, soo they were recovered =)
I really can't explain how amazing the ocean and mountains are here, especially when they meet each other. Hopefully my pictures turned out somewhat decent when I check them out tomorrow. To be continued...[gallery link="file" columns="5"]
On a brighter note, I got to go to the beach twice this weekend and absolutely loved it! I'll be posting pictures here and maybe a video on youtube sometime when it's not going on midnight on a school night, but for now just a short update and then bed (I'm too tired to wait any longer for a certain someone to WAKE UP!) =D
I also now understand why people don't really swim in the ocean here. Aside from it being ghost month and they're afraid ghosts of their dead will pull them into the water, the waves are insane! They are so high and come crashing onto the shore, plus, it doesn't have a steady decline like the beaches we go to, just a sudden drop off. I tried to ease in just slightly, to my ankles, but no such thing. You can be not in the water at all and then suddenly the waves come crashing in and you're getting soaked. AND the freaking ocean stole my flip flops right off my feet! It took one, I went chasing after it (well the best chasing job I could do without falling over myself in the waves) but couldn't catch it. Defeated, I turned around to go back and there goes my only remaining shoe! It was sooo not cool. However, once the tide went back out we found my flip flops sticking out of the sand LOL, soo they were recovered =)
I really can't explain how amazing the ocean and mountains are here, especially when they meet each other. Hopefully my pictures turned out somewhat decent when I check them out tomorrow. To be continued...[gallery link="file" columns="5"]
Thursday, September 3, 2009
first days of school update....
thanks for all the great comments/advice! After talking with my director at Nanhua we decided locking them out probably wouldn't go over so well with the principal (I still like the idea =) ) She recommended having them stand in class for the same amount of minutes that they are late. I think this is worth a try. Plus she called the director at that school and spoke to him about the problem so maybe it will have remedied by Monday. We'll see!!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
First Days of school...=O
On Monday I started at Nanhua. I started with the 6th graders, then down to 3rd, then 4th, then 5th. I found it difficult to keep them quiet! They chat chat chat, and I have no idea what they're saying. After I went through my rules presentation I stayed on them about talking out. One kid I had to keep saying "Are you teacher?" "No?... then ssshhhh" hahaha, I really had to improvise with how to get things across to them. My last class, the 5th grade was definitely the worst. They were literally yelling as the came in and sat down, hitting and kicking each other, being ridiculous! The third graders are cayoooottt, though, oh my, haha.
Today, I started at Shoufong. I had to start making stuff up stat! with these kids. I did the same thing with them, rules presentation and name learning activity, but there were a few in each class who just couldn't keep it together. The first class of 6th graders was decent, definitely manageable, but the second.....aaahhhhh
My second class of sixth graders, the bell rang and I was still missing 5 or 6. I asked my co-teacher and her response was alarming! She very casually stated that they are often late and they are "naughty" boys. They do not pay attention in class and just do what they want. She told me this as if she was saying the sky is blue. WHAT?!? Because of only teaching at one school prior to this experience, I have these Tindley expectations embedded in me and I had to realize, especially with the language barrier, that I would need to, not entirely let go of my expectations, but adapt them. However, I was not going to stand for disrespectful, careless behavior, whether you understand me or not. After she told me they are often late I shut both doors and locked them. We started the presentation and 2-3 minutes later there is some banging on the door and I look over to see one kid trying to climb through the window! Seriously?! I told him, back, went out the door to greet them and shut it behind me. I told them they were late (pointed to my wrist) and could NOT be late to my class or they would not get in (pointed to locked door). I'm going to have Doris ask the principal for me if next Tuesday I can send the ones who are late (I'm certain they will test me) to the office and not let them in the room. I don't know if this will go over well because I've noticed a massive lack of discipline here. There are good kids, and bad kids, and that's that. If I have to take care of it myself, then I'm thinking about bringing a treat to pass out right as the bell rings, and when the other kids get there, they won't have one.
Another situation I had to deal with was a student who just absolutely wouldn't shut his mouth. I moved him up front. still yelled out. I walked over to him and said "did you raise your hand?" (raised my hand) he said "no" and I said, "well then SSSHHHHH" he literally laughed and turned around to talk some more. Now I KNOW he understood ssshhh so I went to get a piece of paper, wrote out "I will raise my hand before talking" numbered 1-10 and gave it back to him. It took him exactly until the bell to finish it, perfect =) He didn't talk anymore while he was writing.
I had to try that again the next period, but this time I had to take a desk from the back carry it up front, face it in the corner, and sit him there. I gave him a sentence with numbers also but he kept turning around to talk even more during it! OMG it was so frustrating. I just walked over, turned him around, ssshhh at him again, and added more numbers. These classes took far more redirecting than yesterday's. I was told that my co-teacher, who was the English teacher last year, is not much of a disciplinarian, which I witnessed today. Her idea of discipline is to actually hit the child, like bop them upside the head, which they find very amusing, it's ridiculous. I know she was trying to help me but it made it worse.
This is going to be a struggle. It's one thing to get kids in line at the beginning of the year when you're in an environment where their other teachers are doing the same thing, but here, here I'm trying to get behavior out of them that does not seem to be expected anywhere else. I'm still going to try though because I refuse to just allow, disruptions and lack of effort in my class.
Any creative advice teachers (or anyone haha)????
Today, I started at Shoufong. I had to start making stuff up stat! with these kids. I did the same thing with them, rules presentation and name learning activity, but there were a few in each class who just couldn't keep it together. The first class of 6th graders was decent, definitely manageable, but the second.....aaahhhhh
My second class of sixth graders, the bell rang and I was still missing 5 or 6. I asked my co-teacher and her response was alarming! She very casually stated that they are often late and they are "naughty" boys. They do not pay attention in class and just do what they want. She told me this as if she was saying the sky is blue. WHAT?!? Because of only teaching at one school prior to this experience, I have these Tindley expectations embedded in me and I had to realize, especially with the language barrier, that I would need to, not entirely let go of my expectations, but adapt them. However, I was not going to stand for disrespectful, careless behavior, whether you understand me or not. After she told me they are often late I shut both doors and locked them. We started the presentation and 2-3 minutes later there is some banging on the door and I look over to see one kid trying to climb through the window! Seriously?! I told him, back, went out the door to greet them and shut it behind me. I told them they were late (pointed to my wrist) and could NOT be late to my class or they would not get in (pointed to locked door). I'm going to have Doris ask the principal for me if next Tuesday I can send the ones who are late (I'm certain they will test me) to the office and not let them in the room. I don't know if this will go over well because I've noticed a massive lack of discipline here. There are good kids, and bad kids, and that's that. If I have to take care of it myself, then I'm thinking about bringing a treat to pass out right as the bell rings, and when the other kids get there, they won't have one.
Another situation I had to deal with was a student who just absolutely wouldn't shut his mouth. I moved him up front. still yelled out. I walked over to him and said "did you raise your hand?" (raised my hand) he said "no" and I said, "well then SSSHHHHH" he literally laughed and turned around to talk some more. Now I KNOW he understood ssshhh so I went to get a piece of paper, wrote out "I will raise my hand before talking" numbered 1-10 and gave it back to him. It took him exactly until the bell to finish it, perfect =) He didn't talk anymore while he was writing.
I had to try that again the next period, but this time I had to take a desk from the back carry it up front, face it in the corner, and sit him there. I gave him a sentence with numbers also but he kept turning around to talk even more during it! OMG it was so frustrating. I just walked over, turned him around, ssshhh at him again, and added more numbers. These classes took far more redirecting than yesterday's. I was told that my co-teacher, who was the English teacher last year, is not much of a disciplinarian, which I witnessed today. Her idea of discipline is to actually hit the child, like bop them upside the head, which they find very amusing, it's ridiculous. I know she was trying to help me but it made it worse.
This is going to be a struggle. It's one thing to get kids in line at the beginning of the year when you're in an environment where their other teachers are doing the same thing, but here, here I'm trying to get behavior out of them that does not seem to be expected anywhere else. I'm still going to try though because I refuse to just allow, disruptions and lack of effort in my class.
Any creative advice teachers (or anyone haha)????
I'm behind on update so I don't have a good title...next update
Okay, so I left off with our weekend of ballroom dancing and pizza. The next week was my last week before school started so I spent a lot of time at school preparing lessons. I spent waay too much time making a PowerPoint presentation over my rules for the classroom that turns out was well worth the time. I spent an entire afternoon making lessons centered around fairy tales only to discover that my plans were far outside of their ability range. On Friday, Doris took me to the post office to open my bank account (yes i typed that correctly, haha) and I started feeling very sick. I had to get out of line and sit down and I started searching the room for the least disgusting place to puke. After I sat for awhile I started to feel better so I got back in line and finished. At school during lunch time I mentioned to one person that I wasn't feeling well when she questioned why I didn't want to try the delicious soup. It took a couple of hours before multiple people were coming to see me, call me, etc to find out if I was okay and if I needed to go to the doctor. LOL, I realized that evening at home when my calf muscles and toes started to cramp up that it was from dehydration. I don't know why it takes me so long to figure that out, it's happened often enough for me to catch the warning signs before I'm about to pass out.
Saturday morning Doris called me at 8:45 and told me that the kindergarten teacher was coming to pick me up at 9:30, yikes. She took me to another dance place, this woman LOVES to dance. It was under a bridge, outside, on the concrete and they had a dance floor set up with chairs all around it. It was actually really cool and I guess it's open to dance at every morning and evening from 8-10:30. I'll post the videos I took of the flamboyant old man who insisted on dancing with me on youtube =) He was hysterical. After the dancing, Rae Ting took me to get a massage! I've been dying to get a massage since I got here because my back has been so sore. It was incredible, that's all I've got to say about it, very relaxing. When I got home Jackie called us and said she and a teacher friend were coming to pick us up to go to dinner, a concert, and a bar. The entire evening was FUN! The concert was part of an aboriginal festival but very rock concertish (again, the video will be on youtube). The bar which was called "Beer City Bar" hahaha, was fun to just hang out with the girls and chat. We went to check out a couple of people's apartments and then they took us back to our place. We were actually out until like 1:00am, that's a first here. Sunday became once again, rest day, aside from grocery shopping.
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Saturday morning Doris called me at 8:45 and told me that the kindergarten teacher was coming to pick me up at 9:30, yikes. She took me to another dance place, this woman LOVES to dance. It was under a bridge, outside, on the concrete and they had a dance floor set up with chairs all around it. It was actually really cool and I guess it's open to dance at every morning and evening from 8-10:30. I'll post the videos I took of the flamboyant old man who insisted on dancing with me on youtube =) He was hysterical. After the dancing, Rae Ting took me to get a massage! I've been dying to get a massage since I got here because my back has been so sore. It was incredible, that's all I've got to say about it, very relaxing. When I got home Jackie called us and said she and a teacher friend were coming to pick us up to go to dinner, a concert, and a bar. The entire evening was FUN! The concert was part of an aboriginal festival but very rock concertish (again, the video will be on youtube). The bar which was called "Beer City Bar" hahaha, was fun to just hang out with the girls and chat. We went to check out a couple of people's apartments and then they took us back to our place. We were actually out until like 1:00am, that's a first here. Sunday became once again, rest day, aside from grocery shopping.
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Thursday, August 27, 2009
It's been a little while...
Now that I'm getting into the groove of my daily living, I'm finding it harder to remember to update. However, I started out frantically writing a blog the first time I experienced an earthquake and since that apparently happens weekly here, I've decided that will be a good reminder for me =)
We had earthquake number 3 tonight, it was tiny and I only felt it because I was sitting down.
OK, continuing on from my last update. I did indeed stay in and relax all of that Sunday as I predicted I would do. I spent Monday through Wednesday at school getting started on my lessons and such, meeting and talking to the other teachers. On Thursday, Cassandra and I got to go to this really sweet Japanese Teahouse in Hualien City. Cassandra randomly met a woman on the train who spoke really good English and lived it Taipei, but she had a friend who lived in Hualien and was also a school teacher so gave Cassandra her number. I'm sure that would be extremely strange in rare in America, haha, but that's just how things are here. We wouldn't have experienced half the things we have if we didn't get in cars with random people and let them drive us somewhere lol. Anyway, Sharon and her friend Amy took us to the teahouse and got us some bubbletea, yum!
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On Friday one of the orientation leaders, Doris, who lives in Hualien also, took us to her husband's Japanese restaurant which was delicious, and then we took a bus to Liyu Lake for the Water Show put on by the Aboriginal's there. The Water Show is famous in Hualien and it was absolutely packed! We even spotted some other "hey, it's white people!" as we called them, haha (We certainly can't assume they're American, but I guess it would be more appropriate to say Caucasian) I took some videos that don't at all do it justice and put them on youtube (taiwantara there as well).
On Saturday we were picked up bright and early to go to this all day Aboriginal Harvest Festival for the tribe near my school. I got to see many of my students who are Aboriginals (meaning their family is Native to Taiwan, not descendants of Chinese orJapanese who came to Taiwan). Their costumes and dances are incredible! We just don't have culture that compares to that in the states. We met many important people there like the chief of the tribe, the leader of the village, the leader of Ji-an Township, and a candidate for the leader of Hualien County. My introduction to the leader of the township (kind of like the mayor of a big city) went something like this: speaking to him and pointing at me "This is Tara...some other stuff in Chinese about me being an English teacher," speaking to me and pointing at him "He is single!" LMAO! They are very funny about that here, that is also how the introduction went with my principal. We got to watch some dancing, participate in some dancing, drink some Taiwan beer and something they called wine that tasted more like straight vodka and tequila mixed together, then eat lunch which included many many foods that scared the bejesus out of me =)
Saturday Night, a kindergarten teacher from my school and her friend took Cassandra and I dancing at this ballroom place. I learned how to Tango! I love it! The couples there were soo straight faced and serious about their dancing, it was interesting to watch. (video also on youtube)
Sunday was once again the day of rest after all of that fantastic activity over the weekend! Cassandra and I did ride our bikes to pizza hut Sunday night for dinner to have some good ol' American food... well that's what I thought until I saw the various pizza's on the buffet! What's wrong with just pepperoni?? No, corn, no pineapple, no shrimp, no weird green stuff....just cheese-pepperoni!
We had earthquake number 3 tonight, it was tiny and I only felt it because I was sitting down.
OK, continuing on from my last update. I did indeed stay in and relax all of that Sunday as I predicted I would do. I spent Monday through Wednesday at school getting started on my lessons and such, meeting and talking to the other teachers. On Thursday, Cassandra and I got to go to this really sweet Japanese Teahouse in Hualien City. Cassandra randomly met a woman on the train who spoke really good English and lived it Taipei, but she had a friend who lived in Hualien and was also a school teacher so gave Cassandra her number. I'm sure that would be extremely strange in rare in America, haha, but that's just how things are here. We wouldn't have experienced half the things we have if we didn't get in cars with random people and let them drive us somewhere lol. Anyway, Sharon and her friend Amy took us to the teahouse and got us some bubbletea, yum!
[gallery link="file" columns="4" orderby="title"]
On Friday one of the orientation leaders, Doris, who lives in Hualien also, took us to her husband's Japanese restaurant which was delicious, and then we took a bus to Liyu Lake for the Water Show put on by the Aboriginal's there. The Water Show is famous in Hualien and it was absolutely packed! We even spotted some other "hey, it's white people!" as we called them, haha (We certainly can't assume they're American, but I guess it would be more appropriate to say Caucasian) I took some videos that don't at all do it justice and put them on youtube (taiwantara there as well).
On Saturday we were picked up bright and early to go to this all day Aboriginal Harvest Festival for the tribe near my school. I got to see many of my students who are Aboriginals (meaning their family is Native to Taiwan, not descendants of Chinese orJapanese who came to Taiwan). Their costumes and dances are incredible! We just don't have culture that compares to that in the states. We met many important people there like the chief of the tribe, the leader of the village, the leader of Ji-an Township, and a candidate for the leader of Hualien County. My introduction to the leader of the township (kind of like the mayor of a big city) went something like this: speaking to him and pointing at me "This is Tara...some other stuff in Chinese about me being an English teacher," speaking to me and pointing at him "He is single!" LMAO! They are very funny about that here, that is also how the introduction went with my principal. We got to watch some dancing, participate in some dancing, drink some Taiwan beer and something they called wine that tasted more like straight vodka and tequila mixed together, then eat lunch which included many many foods that scared the bejesus out of me =)
Saturday Night, a kindergarten teacher from my school and her friend took Cassandra and I dancing at this ballroom place. I learned how to Tango! I love it! The couples there were soo straight faced and serious about their dancing, it was interesting to watch. (video also on youtube)
Sunday was once again the day of rest after all of that fantastic activity over the weekend! Cassandra and I did ride our bikes to pizza hut Sunday night for dinner to have some good ol' American food... well that's what I thought until I saw the various pizza's on the buffet! What's wrong with just pepperoni?? No, corn, no pineapple, no shrimp, no weird green stuff....just cheese-pepperoni!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Exploratory weekend
My first weekend in Hualien (well, sans typhoon) was really fun! It's only Saturday night, but tomorrow will be the day of rest for me after this weekend. Cassandra and I both have bicycles now so we're able to ride around and explore. Jackie, another English teacher nearby came to visit yesterday. We met her at the McDonald's near our place (it's a great landmark to give people because of the tall sign) and then rode around to find a new place to eat. We came across this little outdoor restaurant with beer! haha, we pretty much just pointed to 3 dishes on the menu and took our chances. The food was delicious!! Definitely a place Cassandra and I will frequent since it's right around the corner. That was my first time having Taiwan beer and it's really good! I don't even like beer and I like it. We started off sharing a beer since they were HUGE bottles... then ended up with 4 empty ones hahaha
After that we were riding back home and there is this little outdoor area with grass and benches and there were ladies there having an evening aerobics class! We rode up right as they were doing the macarena so naturally we hopped of our bikes and jumped in. That was soo much fun trying to follow along so I wonder if they do it every night, or every friday or what.
Today we sat around the house for awhile watching our cable, enjoying the air conditioning. Then we decided to ride into downtown Hualien. It really wasn't too bad of a bike ride, but of course a scooter would be much better. I loved downtown!!!! There are so many little outdoor markets and cheap cheap cheap stuff. I found shoes for $5. I really wanted another pair, some purple converse ones, but it's very hard to find my monster of a shoe size here (40= 8 1/2) haha We went to the KFC downtown lol, because we had coupons. I'm so excited to have a "big city" area near us even though it's not anywhere near the size of Taipei.
Here are some shots of the city (and the pizza hut delivery scooters haha)
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Friday, August 14, 2009
first lesson
Quick update because I'm still borrowing my roommates internet USB thing. Hopefully I'll get mine on Monday after I get my ARC card.
On Thursday I got to teach a lesson to the kids who were in summer camp this week at my school. There were only 13 of them so it was a great way to ease my way into this. I taught a small lesson on transportation. I found some incredible vocabulary cards at a local bookstore with a picture of the item on one side and then the English and Chinese word on the other. There were all different forms of transportation so I picked out 13, one for each kid, showed them the picture, had them read the Chinese word, and then told them the English word. We went through them all, reviewing as a group the English words, and then played two games. For the first one I had written all of the words on huge index cards so they had to pick an index card and match the word to the correct picture (bicycle, car, garbage truck, airplane, etc). Then I used my bananagrams (Thanks Smola family!). I dumped out all the letters and each kid had to take a turn finding the right letters to match the picture and spell out the word. They absolutely loved doing it! Their favorites were jet and school bus, and the difficult ones for them were fire engine and ambulance. It was a little difficult to keep them all calmed down becuase they were so excited they kept creeping up on me and the cards. I had to keep saying "back, back, back" and motioning with my hands. For some reason they LOVED that and kept singing the rest of the time "back,back, back, back..." except they didn't pronounce the ck very hard so they were just saying "ba..ba...ba" hahaha it was cute. The lesson went very well except for this one troublesome class clown who said "F*** you." LOL, i honestly don't think he had any clue what he was saying, but did know it was something not good becuase when I looked at him his face was all guilty. I motioned for him to come over to me and made him sit right by me the rest of the time. I told him he could not say that it was very bad, but who knows if he understood me. I think he knew he was in trouble so that's good enough. After he sat quietly for awhile he said "teacher?" When I turned around he said "face is beautiful" hahahaha
I got to see my classroom on Thursday too. It's kind of dirty and a mess right now but I'm gonna work on it all next week. I have a SmartBoard!!! It's all in Chinese but whatever, it's a SmartBoard, I'll figure it out =) And I have endless manipulatives. There are drawers and drawers and boxes of flashcards and posters with English vocabulary words. The computer has a ton of files with songs, videos, and interactive games. AND, I have a co-teacher in every class with me. This school is already providing me with so many more materials than I'm used to. It's amazing.
That's about it for now. I borrowed a bike from one of Cassandra's teachers and her school bought her one. Our friend Jackie is in the same county and just got a scooter so she's going to ride over here toward us and meet us at McDonalds, haha, it's the easiest place to find around here. Then we'll ride around and explore the city. Hopefully we don't get lost because these streets are insane. It's not a nice grid of north and south, east and west like at home. They go every which way.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
retraction: earthquake!
I love how I called what we felt "an earthquake!" and then mother nature was like, "ha, THIS is an earthquake!"
Apparently the teeny little tremor we felt was just a prequel to the earthquake that woke me up at 5:30 this morning. Holy geez Louise in Belize that was scary! I'm sure it was nothing to people here, just their weekly tiny quakes, but on top of the rumbling, I had to endure the feeling of my building swaying back and forth from the 12th floor! AAhhh! I couldn't get back to sleep for an hour. Had to pop in a Friends DVD to calm me down.
Okay, just wanted to make that correction =)
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
earthquake!
First typhoon, then earthquake... I think
haha, my roommate and I are fairly certain we just felt a teeny tiny earthquake. I just so happened to be standing in quite an unfortunate place for my first earthquake.
HERE
The thought of looking out the window from the 12th floor is scary, but I actually didn't even realize that's what it was until Cassandra said something. I thought I was just feeling a little light-headed or something from being so high up LOL If that's all it is for their weekly earthquakes I can definitely handle that. However, we're on the 12th floor of our 15 floor building so "Please God" do not let them be any worse in my year here!
I went to my school yesterday and met a lot of other teachers and the principal. They are all ecstatic to have me here and to practice their English on me (and laugh at my attempt at Chinese). The women keep touching my cheeks and saying "so beautiful, so beautiful" hahaha, and everywhere Cassandra and I go people just wave and wave at us. It's weird to think that someone like Paris Hilton could be here and not be treated any more like a celebrity than we are (because they wouldn't know who she is lol). People are so kind and will bend over backwards for "guests" in their school/town/country. Today I went back to school and was able to meet some of my kids =) They all gave me their English names and what grade they are in. Turns out most people here just make up an English name, and can change it if they feel like it. A lot of times they will tell me their English name and it's not actually a name that we use or I've heard of and when I tell them that, they change it haha Either that or they've been pronouncing it wrong and I have to tell them it's actually Michelle, not Mitcher lol
So far I've been taken to experience "hot pot" or some other name that I forget right now. They put a pot of water on the table in front of you that has a little heating stove thing underneath and then bring out a massive plate of vegetables and your choice of meat or fish, and you cook your own soup. YUM! I loved it! Then, Cassandra and I ventured out on our own for the first time and walked into the city (about 10-15 mins) and around our own neighborhood a bit. I didn't realize we were going to be walking so far and had flip flops on. I got some blisters on my feet so I really need to find some tennis shoes here. But we had a good time checking out different shops and the night market. And last (so far), today we got to experience the ever so famous, KTV. Holy crap do these people take their karaoking seriously. OMG, we went to this place where you have to make a reservation, it is soo nice inside, and you get put in a private room with a big wrap around leather couch, table, karaoke system, and huge TV. There is a buffet outside the rooms where you go and pick out your food and take it back to your room. LOL, they are so serious here about their KTV's. We introduced them to quite a few American songs and artist such as, Taylor Swift, TLC (they were impressed with my rapping skills in Waterfalls lmao), Brittney Spears, Mariah Carey, and Pussycat Dolls. One woman wanted to know what "cha" means after we sang "Don't cha" hahaha... we explained to her that it was slang for "do not you"... I don't know if she got it lol
That's about it. There are some other things we're wanting to do but we have to wait until things get cleaned up from Typhoon Morakat which apparently was way worse then I realized. I heard that it was the worst typhoon in over 50 years and that in the south their was a huge mudslide, entire towns under water, and buildings and bridges collapsed. The death toll is up to 30 I believe but hundreds more are still missing! There are actually people from my group who are supposed to be going to that area.
I was going to add some videos I took out the window during the typhoon, but I can't get them uploaded onto wordpress. I'll have to wait until my super savy techie boyfriend wakes up to help me ;)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Typhoon Tara
I survive my first typhoon! The house I was in was extremely sturdy. It was crazy windy outside, but we were cool inside, until the power went out. Ugh, several hours in a new place where no one spoke English without my computer?? I managed to pass the time but reorganizing the things in my bag, lol, playing some solitaire, and making beaded bracelets with the little girl even though we couldn't really talk to each other. A lot of trees and branches blew over but other than that I didn't notice a whole lot of damage. However, I haven't seen the news so other parts of the island might have been worse.
Ok so here's the skinny on my living situation. Doris, the director of my school, dropped me off at the house. It was a very nice, westernized house, and the family is great. BUT, they don't speak any English. I felt very lonely right away and realized how difficult it was going to be to ever feel "at home" therewith daily activities (showering, eating, watching TV, etc). One of the two other girls who traveled down to Hualien with me is Cassandra. She had already been apartment hunting and found one near her school, which is only about 10 minutes by car from my school. It's a two bedroom apartment and she said I could move in if I wanted to. The apartment is 10,000NTD and we both get 5,000 from our schools so it would work out perfect. SO, I had to decide. Nice cushy living in a house with wireless internet, food always prepared for me, air conditioning, and within walking distance of my school, but no one to speak freely to in English, OR a nice apartment with an English speaking roommate but I'll have to pay utilities, buy my own internet and food, and probably have to buy a scooter to get to my school. I realize it was a lot to give up just to have someone to talk to, but I really really didn't like that lonely feeling especially when I'm already so far from home, so I went with the apartment. Cassandra signed the lease today, we moved in our stuff, and went shopping for bedding, food, cleaning products, etc. We bought a DVD player since I brought along all my DVD's =) However, we found out that it wouldn't play American DVD's because of the country code or format or something like that. Turns out Cassandra's husband is a technology beast and talked her through some code you can put in to change the country of the DVD player. Works now =)
I hope we get some house guests soon, cuz our pad is pretty Saweet!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Taipei, Taiwan!!
I'm in Taipei! I have a lot of details to add to this about orientation, all the super cool other teachers, and going to the night market!! plus pics
but for now i have to catch up on my ZZZZ's
Ok, I was exhausted and fell asleep with the computer in my lap while downloading pictures haha. But now I'm up and have some free time before breakfast so I'll finish this blog.
I got to the airport yesterday and found out that my luggage was still in San Francisco, that was fun =) But it's supposed to be being delivered to the hotel this afternoon so hopefully that will work out ok. I had to take a taxi from the airport to the hotel because no one from here knew when I was getting in. The ride was very long and expensive =/ but, I'm also giving that receipt to the travel agency because if I had been here on time someone would have been at the airport to pick me up.
I got to take a few cool pictures on the way in though and I'm going to make my picture albums on facebook, I think that will be easier than putting them all on here but I'll put a few of the good ones here.
I got to the hotel at 8:30 and had to be downstairs for orientation at 9! I ran up to the 9th floor (well took the elevator of course, haha) jumped in the shower, threw on some fresh clothes and ran back down. Orientation was ALL day long but was a crap ton of good information. I learned a lot! Then last night we went in groups to the night market which is definitely the first thing everyone has to experience when they get to Taipei! The smells coming from all the different booths are sooo overwhelming, especially the stinky tofu, it lives up to it's name haha Then we went to the shopping part of the night market and holy cow... I have never seen such a shopping paradise. Turns out the Taiwanese... extremelyfashionable and trendy! The night market is this one LONG street of booths and stores with clothes, shoes, toys, accessories, makeup, toiletries, purses and bags.... sooo much better than the mall! And cheap! I bought some lotion and an umbrella and the leaders said "you should have tried to talk them down" and I was like well it's already a heck of a lot cheaper than in the states. I saw some puma's for between $40 and $60. My umbrella was about $6 and my lotion was about $8 (Victoria's Secret). I need to wait until I actually start getting paid here and then take a weekend trip back up to Taipei to do some serious shopping =D
Alright, it's time for breakfast and then Mandarin Corner! I'm excited to learn Chinese today because I missed yesterday's lesson
Here's some pictures of the city and the night markets. In the first picture if look to the really tall building far away in the far left of the picture, that's Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world (currently) and we're going there tonight =)[gallery]
Monday, August 3, 2009
Still here
I have not made it out of San Fran yet. I'm not going to give all the details because this would be just as long as the first one but the short version is that 7 people got on from standby before me and right as it was my turn at the counter a late arrival showed up who had tickets and I was bumped. I again found a hotel, this time minus the crazy guy, and was thankfully able to get about 8 hours of sleep this morning. I feel tremendously better now that I've slept and there's no reason for anyone to do any extra panicking! I am safe and doing okay, just bored haha
I do not think this is a scam, although I'm sure that's what people would say right before they get tricked into a scam because it's not like someone would say "hey I think this may be a scam" and still do it. However, I really don't. This has been a very long process, I've spoken to several various people involved in the program over the past few months and I've done my own independent research on Taiwan. It is not a scary South American country where people go and never come back. It is a very pleasant place to travel and I've read in many places that the people there are very friendly and helpful.
I've been working some more on contacting people at the travel agency, my contact at the graduate school, and the other teacher's in Taiwan via email so we'll see if I hear back from people today. But keep in mind, it is the weekend which easily explains why I'm having trouble getting ahold of people in their offices.
I really appreciate all the love and concern from everyone and I apologize if my freaking out at first has caused stress on you. I'm fine and this will work out =D
These are new, boring San Francisco airport pictures. I'm back in my cubby again, I have a blister on my heel from my tennis shoes and walking around this place and my messenger bag broke because it was so heavy haha I bought a new one and I really like it. It has a lot of pockets for all my stuff and is a backpack so hopefully won't kill my shoulders like the bag that just went on one shoulder at a time.
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Saturday, August 1, 2009
Stuck in San Fran =/
Well unfortunately my first blog is not one of a happy arrival in Taipei. And, I fought against whether I wanted to post all of this or not, however, I have 12 hours to kill in the airport so I really just don't have anything else to do.
Warning: this will be extremely lengthy so don't start reading unless you have time to finish.
I realize now how many errors I made (hindsight is 20/20). When the travel agent lady told me two weeks ago she would send me an updated itinerary and I never received it, I should have called. When the itinerary said I had one stop in Denver but didn't give any other layover info, I should have inquired. When I got off the plane in San Francisco, went to Eva Airlines, per my itinerary, and they didn't have any record of my information nor any of the other names from my group, I should have asked if any othe airlines were flying to Taipei that night. When I realized I wasn't going to be getting on that flight and my luggage was being sent straight through to Taipei, I should have asked about it then, instead of doing it an hour and a half later to then find out my luggage went to China Airlines, not Eva Airlines.
You get the idea, not my fault that the wrong itinerary was given to me, but a lot of shoulda coulda woulda's
SO, after missing the flight at 1:20am San Fran time (4:20 according to my internal clock from Indy) and crying so much that my head was pounding, I decided I was too exhausted to function and had to sleep. I cannot explain how impossible it would have been to sleep where I was so I went looking for a taxi to take me to a hotel. There was naturally, in coordination with the rest of the day, some difficulty in doing this task, but is far less dramatic in comparison. Oh, and I called and woke my mom up at this time so she could talk me through some things to do because I could not come up with clear thoughts whatsoever, therefore keeping her up all morning with me, sorry!
When I got to the hotel, the clerk was extremely kind and let me push a late check-out back to 2:00pm. While checking in, there was an extremely creepy middle eastern guy walking around the lobby on his phone. He wasn't creepy because he was middle eastern, he was creepy because he couldn't actually talk, even though he appeared to be on the phone, he could only make short grunts and high pitched noises occasionally. Something was clearly wrong with him on top of the fact that he appeared to be drunk. Keep in mind this is like 3am which makes everything seem even more frightening. As I signed the paperwork and the clerk was telling me how to get to my room, grunting guy made his way toward the elevator. The clerk stopped me and recommended that I let him go ahead of me on the elevator and made a drinking motion to indicate that the guy was, as I had observed, not in his right mind. So I waited, heard the elevator ding, and then heard the doors shut. I turned around to head towards the elevator and there's grunting guy, creepily standing against the wall peeking around the corner at me! He was freaking waiting for me to get on the elevator with him. Well my exhaustion and stress collided full force with fear and I burst into tears. The clerk came around the corner and walked me to the elevator, then stood in the doorway while it shut to keep grunting guy out while he stood behind the clerk staring at me and grunting. OMG! This elevator escort did not assuage my fears enough to stop me from bolting out of the elevator, running to my room, and quickly dead-bolting the door. Somehow my fear overrode my exhaustion and prevented me from sleeping for quite a while.
For some insane reason I woke up after about 3 short hours of sleep and then couldn't get back to sleep because I was too worried about getting everything worked out. So I started making more phone calls, couldn't get ahold of anybody of course because it's Saturday, and then decided to call China Airlines to check on my luggage. Turns out there was a reason my luggage went on China Airlines, because I was supposed to be on it too. They found me on the flight I had missed and put me on standby for the next one, at 1:35am tonight/tomorrow morning. If I can't get on the flight, the next one doesn't leave until August 4th! I tried to go back to sleep at the hotel, thinking at least I knew somewhat what was going on now, but couldn't. I got up, took a nice long hot shower and watched some Hannah Montana to try and de-stress =) I got on a shuttle back to the airport and started checking out the international terminals only to find that China Airlines' only flight is the one I'm trying to get on and they don't have a counter open until 4 hours before the flight. Awesome
SO, I'm chillin' at the airport. Finally got some food. Doin' a little blogging. Trying not to cry anymore. I'm certain things will be better once I get there and get settled, but right now I'm really struggling with figuring out why I shouldn't just hop on a plane back to Indy =/
<------ My little work cubby at the airport
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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