Adventrues with Mr. Fu!

Tonight Mr. Fu took Ryan, Folayan, and I out to eat at McDonalds! My first since leaving the states. I have to say I don't think I have ever been to a McDonalds and not seen beef on the menu. It was quite refreshing!

Later we went to see fireworks. They were a practice since the world games but it was nice to see them since we didn't see any on the fourth! Such a sight for sore eyes!

Afterward we went to the Lieohugh night market. This is the tourist night market so there were plenty of wierd things but here is the run down of the coolest things we have seen.

Puppies!

Taiwanese Billy Mays:Tofu on a stick!


Hot Dog!


Cow Tongue

Stuffed intestine:

Piggy for sale:

7/6/09 Itinerary

Ni-How! (Hello in Chinese!) We are slowly learning Chinese words for important things like Please, Hellow, Thank You, You are Welcome. The hardest things to get used to are the cultural differences and the language barrier. But more on that later!

The school schedule works like this:

8-12 am: Teach students at San Shin (The teachers move from classroom to classroom, which is different from the schools that I went to but I have heard other US schools do this, "traveling teachers").

12-4pm: Adventures around Kaohsiung ( the early deadline is because a few of the host families have the teachers ride the bus)
5 or 6pm: (at my house) Dinner! Traditional Chinese dinner - Smorgasbord of fresh foods and flavors. This is one of my favorite parts of the day because we get to watch our host family interact with each other. This is fascinating to me. I love it!
6-10pm: Night adventure to night market or other places. People in Kaohsiung have it right and have the fun out door things at night since its soooo much cooler to do so. OR Internet and reading time. Our host family loves to read and go on the Internet. They are just like an American family in this regard but there is a sense of community since the Internet is only in the living room (LAN).

Folayan and I rarely make it to bed before 11 pm since we both miss our families and love to talk to them and, with the time change, we cant do so until around 9 pm which gives us precious time with the people we love.


Monday's day venture we went to the department store by my house. It was our first time alone without a native speaker. There was a lot of pantomiming and calculators but we fared very well. See the President Department Store entry below!

First Day of Teaching

Here I am on the Balcony across from the Department Head Office, where we meet before class. Today we got to school super early, so we went to the 7-11. I <3 7-11. COLD WATER! Was my battle cry and I pillaged the store at 60 NTD, which is about 2 USD, a huge water mountain peaks cold and a coke zero. The Cold water was a hit among my fellow teachers! There were some very friendly faces that gave zealous waves, or "I want to meet you!" which is beginning English for "Pleased to meet you!" There were also a multitude of stares and people who would say "hello. bye-bye!" Fun people. So nice.

First day of teaching went well. We had a ceremony with the principal Mr. Pan. He has given us his wishes after the first day that each student have a portfolio and as many worksheets as possible(news to everyone of us!). The ceremony was in Chinese/English with a translator. Fun stuff! The only time I was nervous the whole day was during that ceremony. I loved teaching. There was one point where I couldn't help but smiling because I was having too much fun!

My first class had Michael Jackson and Albbie. They were very helpful and kind. I can't wait to have them again. The other class I had was mainly first year students so it was nice to have control, but not as much learning and participating was happening. The second group leader, Debbie, was very nice and even showed me back to the Department Head Office before she left campus. I must admit being escorted everywhere does make me feel a bit important.

I collapsed into tears at lunch after my lesson play was torn apart! I really think that poor communication of expectations all around was largely to blame, rather than poor preparation on my part. I took responsibility and went home and fixed the schedule as we discussed for anyone to take as they wished. I did this so I would feel that I did not dropt the ball, altough the work I did was really appreciated by the other teachers.

After lunch we went to the President Department Store via cab from the school. It cost roughly $4.25 for 4 people so it was like a buck and change each. We wandered about, freeing Abe from solitude, me from stiffling heat, Morgan from temporary solitude (till 4 pm when she rides the bus home), and Ray from isolation. Ray is such a trooper! Everyday he briefs us on how he is doing and we all are very sorry to hear how he feels about his host family. The department store was great. I rode back to school via Taxi with everyone and we "interneted" and hung out for a while.

Becky and I met today and she and I discussed how Miff recommended me, and I told her I was very happy to be here and to have Miff in my life! Because I am ever so greatful to Miff's support in planning and preparation for this trip. She is amazing.

After the mall the storm clouds that had been threatening to move in all afternoon, and finally did, so I did some laundry on the patio - so cool, but more about that later. The air is noticeably cooler and the Mitsubishi billboard that was a constant 28/29 degrees Celsius finally read 26 and Oh what a marvelous 26 it was.

But ever since I hung up my laundry I have been updating my Blog and facebook. Most importantly Tina and Linda spent time with me while Folayan slept. She must have found the secret because I am very jealous of her continuous sleep. Now I must bid you adieu and call it a night. I love you all and I cant wait to see you. :D

President Department Store: Part II

Our host family showed us this mall on Saturday. They showed us their favorite store, the book store, and the MRT. Other than that the mall was close, we knew where it was, and we felt safe for our first day adventure.

One of the remarkable things is that there was a Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting, Learn how to paint instructor form US public television, table at an Arts and Crafts store. I could not take a picture. In the states every one knows who he is but I had no idea he was so international. He also looks like my friend Sam Mandrick.

Here are some pictures from around the mall. The first graffit and the other is Rainbow park!

7/5/09 Itinerary

Heyo! Internet is working now so I am hooked up to a LAN cable in the living room but on my own computer, hence the photos! Here is today's itinerary for those of you trying to skype-ing along:

7:30 am Wakeup and Journal
9:30 am Gmail chat Thomas
10:00 am Peace to my room to bask in AC and get ready for lunch party
11:30 am Leave apartment
11:50 am arrive lunch party
12:00 am Have business meeting
12:15 am Lunch starts, meeting over
2:00 pm Lunch ends
2:30 pm Tour san-sin High school
3:30 pm return home to have internet fixed by Ryan's host dad
5:00 pm I am writing this

6:30 pm Night market! YAY!
8:00 pm Leave night market and return home/love river
12:00 pm Home @ the latest!

The love river has become a bigger deal in recent days. It used to not be such a big deal, but now it is like the river walk in Jville I think. More to come on that.

P.S. Spoke to Sarah who is in Mainland China for a year and she says that the chinese govermnent has blocked the blogspot adress. It is crazy the kind of controll the governments overhear have. Taiwan seems to be much more layed back, but presents a serious, often mask clad, govermental face. Customs was quite intimidating, high blue desks with government workers, working quickly but quietly to get you documented and through the lines.

More later ;)

Pictures!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26556399@N05/sets/72157620851988845/

Lunch Party

Aside from the errant firecracker pop, I am sad to say the fourth of July passed here with no big fireworks to light the sky, no charcoal, and no BBQ. (Mmmm Bono's sounds amazing right now!) But speaking of food, the main agenda for today was our "lunch party."

It was held at one of the best restaurants in Kaohsiung. Julia, a part time teacher at San Shin, (who has amazing English and is our go to for taxis and how to) said her mother wishes that all the wedding banquets would be held at this restaurant so she can go there.

This is what the down stairs looked like. Crystal dangling from golden chains with orchids and a golden carriage. Very fancy. I am glad they had us wear business casual. This restaurant looked nice enough to wear fancy fancy clothes but the locals were in business casual so we followed suit.


When we arrived, we met with the teachers in a separate room, while the host families had a separate meeting in the main dining room.

[Around the table: Folayan, Morgan, (standing) John Gelabert, Helen, (seated) Julia, Ray, Abe, (my seat), Amy, Ryan, and Dr. O'Kon.

After our meeting Becky addressed the crowd in English and in Chinese, one right after the other, with ease(she is so smart!). A few times she would look at a Chinese speaker and try English, and once even looked at me once and tried to start a sentence in full Chinese. Below are Becky, John, and Jeanne addressing the crowd. (Whenever John or Jeanne would speak Becky would translate for the non-English speakers in the room.)



From there lunch was served. And when they say lunch party they mean party. No expense was spared and the lunch was delicious! First we had cuts of raw fish on a beautiful mound of ice with huge wasabi pillars and ornamented with orchids and vegetable shapes.

Then there was the mollusks and yes I ate one.

There were many dishes that were added to the large glass lazy susan in the middle of the table. All were very fresh. Very few were fried and if they were it was tempura style - light and airy.



Amy, Folayan, and Me with our Mollusks.

A dried shrimp! Linda said it started out normal sized and was shrunk during the drying process. This was from one of the main dishes. It was a goulash of crab, rice, dried shrimps like this one, spices, and bamboo sprout noodles.

Oysters and squash.

And last but not least the dessert of fruit.

I am very proud of myself. My rule of thumb was "tasty bites" of everything regardless of appearance or texture. This has really made me more accepted by the Taiwanese I have met so far. For example, at lunch when the raw fish came out I helped myself to the two oddest looking pieces there and one mom said, "I do not eat, Wow! you like?" Actually I did like it! This is just expanding my horizons beyond my wildest imaginations!

Tour of San-Shin

This is the wing where most of our classes are being held. The big glass area is an elevator. In Taiwan you fit as many people on an elevator until the weight buzzer disallows the doors to close. They are very economical and this is quite admirable in my book!

One of the gardens on campus


Ryan was so excited he was tap dancing in the HUGE 2-story entry way. Everything is big here. This is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, in Kaohsiung! 9,000 students during the year!


Kidding! Christopher is Ryan's first name and it is often abbreviated Christ in Taiwan.



They were not kidding! Here is a picture of the poster they sent us (that I posted previously). Here Ray exclaims that he had no idea that picture was intended for global publication! Ray is to the left and Abe's host brother Art. 7/5

"Queens of Kaohsiung"

11:30 pm Hello! I have made it to Kaohsiung! I am writing to you a day after we arrived here because there was some difficulty with the internet and the husband/electronics-guru is out of town at the moment. so we are sharing one computer with our host family so time is at a premium!

[Yo-yo and Tina using the computers 7/5]

For those of you who were with me closest to my departure I was worried about my living conditions. Well no worries here. We are situated at the top floor of a very nice apartment complex very close to the President Department Store. It is very nice and air conditioned! Not unlike our room that has a small window unit. Everything is in Chinese! We know "blue is on, top left is function"


The house is very modest but all on one floor. There is no air conditioning in the common areas but there are window units in the bedrooms. Thank you sooooooooo much mom for forcing me to take my pillow. That is the one thing that I appreciate the most.


When we got to the airport in Taipei last night the feel was more like a mall in bus station or a train station, so dramatically different from the M-16 totting security guards in Los Angles. When we got to Kaohsiung we cleared customs and collected our bags and immediately afterward there was our host families! It was more like a movie theater on the other side of the wall we passed out of. Chairs in a row, eyes fixed upon the door, awaiting arrival of friends, family, strangers in our case. Eyes darted from face to face in our group and quickly students were gathered by their host families! It was so nice to meet them! At first my instinct was to RUN! but then I calmed myself down and said, "its only a month. you did not just fly half way around the world to get scared when you got here."

The representatives from the school gave us our NTD lunch allowance and that was it. We were with our host families! Folayan and I were the last to leave because the car they brought was to small for our huge foreigner luggage. They had me take a cab with the two girls, Ya-ya and Tina. The cab was a bright yellow Toyota Yaris. It shook like going over the bridge at camp the whole time. The cabby and the girls only spoke Chinese/Taiwanese to one another and were very quick about it. I tried to be friendly and strike up a conversation but they were very shy. One memory from this ride was when Tina grabbed Yo-yo's hand and gave it to me and said "cold!" other than that I was on my own to gaze ga-ga out the window in this foreign place.

[Folayan and my host family with Ray and his host mom and her son. Row 1: Yo-yo, Tina, Linda (My host family), Grein. Row 2: Folayan, Son, Ray, Skylar]

When we got to the apartment it was very dark. There are very few streetlights off the main roads. It had rained in Taiwan and the ground was wet, so a few student's bags were wet but, saved again by the space bags, my stuff was all dry and packed just like I left it. We were shown a wardrobe to put our clothes in and I started moving stuff in to get out of my malting suitcase.

1:30 am The shower was cold but that is a good thing because it must be 100% humidity and its 29 degrees Celsius even at night. I stayed up for a little bit of the Internet debacle last night but I was tired and so I took a pm and passed out until 11 am the next day.

The Delorian is out of order, so we have to take the 747

Hey all! It is about 5:34pm Tallahassee time and only 2:34pm Los Angeles time and we are about to board our 3rd flight but 1st International flight. The international portion of the Los Angeles air port is like the Miami airport except Asians instead of Hispanics. It is quite a unique experience. But for the next 15 some odd hours I will be traveling to Taiwan! Wish me luck!

Here are a few pictures of the huge planes!
This is our plane! 13 hours! window 3 - 4 - 3 window! Tons of people!

I am packed!

We just measured and weighed my suitcases and I am just under the 50 pound max! They are 43 and 44! I have made sure I have things that I can throw away when I am done with them to make more room for all of the purchases I am sure to make on the trip. I bought spacebags and wow do they make the difference! They hold all of the stuff together and suck all of the air out from between my clothes and makes packing more like Tetris!

Also today I got an email from my host family! They have two girls and their father lives in Taipei during the week and comes home on the weekend. The other bit of news I got today is that Folayan and I will be sharing a host family. The family is apparently wealthy and has a nice sized house. This is a comforting thought at the end of a long journey. I am sure that irregardless of the financial situation of the family the trip will be life changing and memorable for everyone.

P-p-P-p-Poster

Here is the poster that is posted around San Sin!

Popular!

http://www.wctv.tv/schools/headlines/48182052.html

We were on the news! According to a friend, our picture and a brief description of our program was on the local Tallahassee news! The link above is to the WCTV article that is also on the TCC!