台北市中山區中山北路2段115巷10號4樓
Taipei, Zhongshan District, Zhongshan North Road Section 2, Alley 115 #10 4F
I think using the Chinese one will be easier.
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Alice_What
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Alice_What
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Hey everyone!
Sorry I have not posted for a while. I have been incredibly busy. I was going through Hess's training program for new teachers. I had no idea it was going to be so intense, but then again I am in a country where the people themselves have voted to get rid of a few national holidays so that they can work more! Training was a 9-day long affair and about 10 hours each day. We went through an entire textbook of material on child development, Hess philosophy, and the curricula for the different Hess grades. We had to prepare lesson plans for the different grades and then do a teaching demo in front of an experienced teacher who evaluated our teaching. Let me tell you that singing in front of 50 total strangers is not an easy thing, especially when you sing like I do. haha. There was one guy who dropped out of the training because he could not handle it.
But, the training was actually really good. I have been through training before and my usual impression is that it is a complete waste of time. This time I am really glad that I had it. It was really, really helpful and most schools do not offer it. Last night was our graduation. We went up to the 12th floor of the building to celebrate (Mr. Hess's home). They had red wine, white wine, and tons of food. It was really nice.
I have to go back tonight to observe classes for a few hours, which is basically what I will do all week. The next week I will start teaching my own class.
Now its time for a funny/disturbing story. This was told to us by one of the NSTs that has been there for six years. He was teaching a kindergarten class and on that particular day they went on a field trip. The field trip was to the police station. One of the kids was a really, really chubby boy. Chinese people LOVE chubby kids. They think chubby children are the cutest thing on earth. So, as soon as the police officers saw this chubby little boy they had him come up to the front to have his picture taken. Well...one of the police officers thought it would be cute if this two year old boy was holding a gun in the picture, so he pulled his LOADED gun out of its holster and handed it to the kid. The NST told me that at this point he thought he was going to have a heart attack. He turned to the two Chinese teachers, expecting them to be freaking out, tripping over one another to get to the front and get the gun out of the kid's hand. Instead, they reached into their purses and pulled out cameras and were snapping away saying "ohhh how cute, that is so cute!" The Chinese teachers have the final say on what is okay and not okay, so he just stood there feeling the blood drain out of his body. Then, one of the other police officers went to the back and got a bullet proof jacket for the kid to wear and they took pictures of that. But that wasn't good enough, they went back and got an even bigger gun to give the kid, so he had a handgun in one hand, the jacket on, and a giant gun in the other. The police officers then said it was unfair that they only let the chubby kid hold the gun, so they decided to pass around the handgun so that all the kids could hold it.
Luckily, nobody died, but the NST said he aged 1o years in those 10 minutes. After they got back, the Chinese teachers put the pictures of the kid with guns into his treasure chest, which is a book of pictures taken throughout the year to share with parents. When the parents of the children found out they were really mad, but not because their kids held guns, only because they didn't get a picture of their kid with guns. Apparently, in that particular branch, there is still a big picture of the chubby kid holding the guns and it is on the lobby wall.
Strange, crazy, but true.
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Alice_What
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Well, thanks to my Mom, I did not miss the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century today at around 10:00 a.m. or so. Thanks Mom! I took some pictures and videos for those of you on the other half of the hemisphere who didn't get to see it. They are not that great because I didn't know the best way to film something so bright, but they will have to do. It was not a full eclipse by the way, so it did not get that dark. Enjoy.
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First...
(Look at the title above) ... I hear that A LOT. Just so everyone is clear, I am in TAIWAN, not Thailand. Haha. First they did away with Geography, now cursive, next we won't know anything.
Its been a few days since I have written anything here. Sorry, about that, I've just been busy. Its kind of crazy here right now. I have been trying to have fun, looking for apartments, and entertaining guests (I have a friend visiting from the U.S. and her boyfriend who is stationed in Korea is also here right now).
Recently I took a trip to Taichung to look around and to meet the sister of a close friend of mine. She and three of her friends took Drew and I around Taichung. We went to a few temples, a museum, a park where we went out in row boats, and two restaurants. I tried yang le duo lu cha, which is yogurt green tea. It sounds disgusting, but actually it is good. It helped that when I tried it, I didn't know what yang le duo was. I thought it was probably a kind of fruit or something from the explanation I got. They wanted me to try some dish with pork in it, but I don't like pork so they ordered me a duck dish instead. It turns out that the pork dish is extremely fatty meat, maybe mostly just fat and a little meat over rice, so I am really glad I don't eat pork now. My roasted duck was delicious. It actually tasted like my Mom's roast beef, oddly enough.
Taichung is cool because it is way more Taiwanese than Taipei. I was surprised how many more people speak Taiwanese there than do in Taipei. It would be difficult for me to explain it, but Taiwanese people like to put exclamation words on the end of everything. They don't really mean anything, but they change the feeling of the sentence. They especially like to say "ah" at the end of sentences. In Taipei, you will here "dui ah", but in Taichung everyone says "hei-ah" instead. Signs say "ho jia" instead of "hao chi" (tasty). I learned a lot of Taiwanese words from the Ruling and her friends that day, so now wa a hiao gong jit diem diem ma e dai gee.
At one of the temples we went to, they taught us how to pray. We also learned how to ask the gods a question with two little half circle pieces of wood called "buei". When you throw them the action is "buabuei". Drew got an affirmative answer to his question, I got a smile and then a no because apparently that Ti gong mm gayi wa! I will ask another one. There are many.
After that we went to a museum, or we were going to but the policeman said we couldn't walk the dog there. Then after that, outside the museum in a grass area we saw some Taiwanese people doing the free hugs thing. People do free hugs all over the world, but it was the first time I had seen it done in Taiwan so I was excited. We went over and got free hugs, but as soon as we did another policeman came and said we all had to leave and that they couldn't do free hugs there. The policeman must not have liked us or something because the free hugs people had been there for a while and it didn't seem to be a problem until we approached them.
Ruling and her friends paid for everything we did. We tried to pay, but they wouldn't let us. During dinner, Drew even passed me money in a book. I said I had to go to the bathroom, and then I took the money and talked to the owner about settling the bill. Ruling caught me though and then rushed up to pay. The owner wouldn't take the money from me, so I didn't have a choice in the end. After that it was getting late and we left to catch the two-hour long train ride back to Taipei.
I have been looking for apartments lately without much luck, but today I found a good one. It is spacious, close to an MRT station, close to where I work, and in a cool area. We have a lot of cleaning to do there, but once that is done it is going to be really great. It is cheap enough that Drew and I can afford it on our own, but also big enough that we could have another roomate if we wanted. To give you an idea of the area look at the map at the top of this post. Look on the red line for Minquan. Everthing worth going to is close from there.
Tomorrow there will be the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century, and I am lucky enough to be on the side of the world it can be seen from! I am excited for that, even though solar eclipses kind of freak me out a little.
This has been random and poorly written, but I just wanted to give you all an update. I probably won't write for a bit as I have to move, get my apartment in order, and then I start training on Sunday.
: )
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The past two days have not been that eventful, but I had fun anyway. On Thursday I ate breakfast with Vicki and then went to Hess's main office to drop off some documents. I had an appointment with a woman there to discuss my placement. I have been anxious about it because if it were to be in Taipei I want to start looking for apartments asap and I have a roommate. Well, it turned out that the lady was ill that day, so I didn't get to find out. But I did find out today that my tentative placement is Taipei. She said she was almost sure it wouldn't change, but she had to leave herself some sort of out. So, I am in Taipei.
For lunch we went to my favorite curry restaraunt. Last time I went there were video cameras (they were doing a news feature on the restaurant and I ended up on t.v.). Then we went to Ikea to look around and pretend like we actually have money to buy furniture. Minhye came with us. It was nice to hang out with her again. Last year I hung out with her nearly every day. Later that night we went to a coffee shop in gongguan that is cute and has good food. But we didn't want food, we wanted beer. We were waiting for a bar to open that we wanted to check out and had 2 hours to kill so we ended up at the coffee shop. It turns out that they have beer there, belgian beer. If the belgians knew what was being done with their beer here they would have a fit. They put ice in it and flavoring and then stick a straw in it. In Taiwan, every drink comes with a straw, including beer. I chose not to add flavor to my beer, but Vicki had a kiwi beer and Drew had a blue caracao. I tasted it and can say that I am not a fan.
Then we headed to the bar called The Jailhouse. It was listed in Drew's guidebook so we thought it must be decent. Actually, it wasn't. We were the only ones there and they ran around like crazy getting things ready and kept apologizing. It felt like they just shut everything down (music, lights, etc.) unless customers come, and it seems like they don't come all that often. The waitress sat down at our table and talked with us. She also played a drinking game with us. It was a little awkward, but it was okay. One of the rules in the game we were playing is that you have ot touch the floor when you draw a certain card and you can't be the last one or you drink. The waitress must have forgotten or not have heard that rule though, because when Vicki suddenly hurled her body sideways and put her hand to the floor the waitress actually tried to catch her and then told her that she should start drinking water instead of beer. haha. Vicki tried to explain, but I'm pretty sure that the waitress just continued to think she was wasted.
Today Drew and I wandered around Taipei. It was a lot of walking and we didn't discover anything particularly interesting. We did take pictures of some temples though. I finally was hungry enough to eat dinner so we went to NCCU (my old school) to eat at the little restaurant I like there, but I forgot that I like to eat the beef and kimchi fried rice not noodles. Oh well. Mom, if you are reading this, and Laura too, I just want to warn you that a lot of the places I like to eat at are very dirty. But, you cannot be afraid to eat at these places because they have the best food. In my experience, the more expensive, sit-down places that are sparkling and clean only have s0-so food. Anyway, I have never been sick from the food, so I think it is fine.
Tomorrow Drew and I are heading to Taichung. My friend Ruchun's family lives there and her sister was going to be our guide, but I didn't get back early enough to call her and now it is late, so I think I won't. Then at some point after that I will be going to a small island north of Taiwan called Mazu. Summer is supposed to be the best time to visit, so I am excited for that.
Well...the past two days weren't that eventful, so more next time.
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Jiufen
Drew and I didn't know what we were going to do today. Originally, we were just going to study Chinese and look in his guidebook for something to do later in the day in Taipei. We took the express train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang and a bus from Ruifang to Jiufen. But we started flipping through the pages in his guidebook and decided to take a day-trip to Jiufen instead. We took the express train from Taipei Main Station to Ruifang and then a bus from Ruifang to Jiufen. At the bus stop, I had my first picture request of the trip. A girl asked if I would mind if she took a photo of me. She said I was pretty and that she liked my hair. I said I didn't mind. I never mind when people ask, I only mind when they "toupai." Literally "steal a shot". Well, sort of. Actually, part of the reason I dyed my hair black is to avoid intense stares. The lighter your hair is the more people will stare at you. I noticed this last time I was here, when the lighter my hair got from the sun (it almost turned blonde, but I dyed it), the more attention I received. But even when my hair was dark it happened on occasion that someone would toupai.
The worst was while I was waiting in line to take the gondola up to Maokong. I was talking to my friend Loren, and we noticed this old man who kept talking and waving his hands at us from a distance. We thought he was weird so we just ignored him. Later, I realized he was trying to let me know that another guy with a giant camera was taking a bunch of photos of me. I finally noticed and then opened my umbrella in his direction to block his shot and to let him no I wasn't pleased. His face turned red and he stopped. But don't think he is weirdo. He is probably a perfectly nice guy. Taking pictures of foreigners here is a hobby in its own right. I was complaining about it to some of my Taiwanese friends once, and then I noticed they were kind of quiet. It turns out they have toupai-ed foreigners too. When I asked them why they wanted a picture of a stranger and what they do with it, they said that they like to take pictures of foreigners they think are good-looking, nicely dressed, or otherwise intersting and that they usually just show eachother. It isn't anything sinister, but nevertheless I prefer to be asked first.
Anyway, the topic of this post is Jiufen, so back to Jiufen...
Jiufen is an old goldmining town developed by the Japanese, but with a history predating their control of the island. It is built on the side of a mountain and the shops are built along the sides of narrow staircases that twist and turn their way up the mountain (like the one above). Red lanterns hang down everywhere and there are many tea shops with wonderful views overlooking the ocean. Drew and I stopped at the Sky Lantern Teahouse for some tea I can't recall the name of at the moment. We were the only ones there and our table was outdoors with a great view. The waitress was really nice (which isn't really surprising since Taiwanese people are probably the nicest people on earth). She spoke to us in Chinese and showed us how to prepare the tea. They brought out an earthenware pot and heated up coals inside of it. Then they brought out a teapot and placed it over the coals. I wish i had brought a little notebook to remember all of the names of the tea things, but I haven't purchased one yet, so I forgot. We drank the tea there and cooled off a bit. We were so drenched in sweat from walking around in 114 degree weather that my faux hawk had melted into a no hawk. Somehow drinking hot tea cooled us off, I don't know, but it did. We got to keep the tea that we didn't drink and Drew bought extra for himself since he liked it. They also gave us a lot of free samples of other types of tea. It was really nice.
When I went to have the leftover tea put in a bag, the lady behind the counter asked me if I was from France. I said no I am from the U.S. Sadly, I have learned that if someone thinks you are from anywhere in Europe that is a complement, but if someone thinks you look like you are from the U.S. most of the time it is an insult (it means you are either fat or not fashionable or both). Then she said I had very pretty eyes. I said thanks out of habit, then immediately regretted because it is not polite to say thank you after being complemented in Chinese. I should have denied it and said they weren't anything special. Its not really a big deal, people don't care and they know you aren't trying to be rude, but I know better so I just think I should try not to do it. Anyway, overall the day was good for my self-esteem.
After the teahouse we wandered around a bit more and found two temples. We even got to go on the roof of one of them, which was really cool. Every part of a temple has intricate sculptures or other decorations. I always want to take a picture of every part, but it is too hard because there is too much detail even on one temple. On the roof the edges are all capped with round dragon faced tiles. One of them was broken and laying on the ground. I was tempted to take it home because it would be cool to have, but I didn't know if they were going to reuse it or not and taking a piece of a temple just seems wrong anyway, so I just took a picture of it and put it back on the ground where I found it.
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After a summer spent fishing, watching television, and hanging out with family, it is now only two days until I return to the misty mountains of Taiwan. Summer is ending, but something else is just beginning. Something new. Although I spent six months in Taiwan last year, I spent most of the time in Taipei with only a few short excursions into thecountryside and even my time in Taipei seemed short. I still feel there is a lot there that I haven't seen and haven't done yet. For my first blog before leaving, I thought I would share some general information as well as some of my plans/goals for this trip.
Last year I was a student studying at Chengchi University on the outskirts of Taipei. This year I will be teaching English,well, somewhere in Taiwan.Things are still up in the air as to where I will be living. I am arriving in Taipei early and staying at a hostel called Taiwanmex. It is clean and cheap (only $10/night). I will be there until the Hess training program begins on July 25th. At that time I will move out of the hostel and into a hotel paid for by my employer. This is also when I will find outwhere in Taiwan I will be teaching. I was able to choose three locations from a list of Hess schools. In order of preference I chose: (1) Taipei (2) Keelong (3) Taichung.
Taipei is located on the northern part of the island and is the capital. Being in the capital has obvious adantages such as convenient transportation and a good nightlife. I also am already familiar with the layout of the city and have many friends living there. The downside is that it is more expensive to rent an apartment and too many people speak English. All of those people want to practice their English and so when they see a foreigner they will only speak English regardless of how their proficiency in English compares to your proficiency in Mandarin.
The second location is about an hour by bus from Taipei. I picked it because it is proximity, but I sort of regret it now. I could have picked Gaohsung, a large port city where the World Cup will be held this year. It is further away but there is a highspeed rail that could bring to Taipei in about the same amount of time it takes to ride the bus. The bus rides aren't exactly relaxing and definitely not for those who are prone to carsickness. Last time I tookthe bus to Keelung, the driver took a fast curve and I flew out of my seat across the aisle and into my friend's lap. It was funny, but not something I want to experience on a regular basis. Although it is my least favorite of the locations, it wouldn't be terrible.
It is on the northern coast of Taiwan and home to the largest (or possibly second largest) nightmarket in Taiwan. Being situated on the coast, it also has delicious seafood that cannot be easily found in Taipei. There are also some interesting places in the area, such as a small town called Jiufen which was built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, interesting windblown rock formations, and a futuristic housing project that was built andabandoned in the 1960s. Finally, less people speak English there so I would be able to practice my Chinese more; however, because it is very far north, not many people would speak Taiwanese there, or they might, but probably not fluently.
The third location, and my second favorite, is Taichung. Taichung is located in the center of the island and the city where bubble tea was invented. It is supposed to have some of the best teahouses on the island. There are many advantages to living in Taichung. The biggest is that I would have a free place to stay. I became good friends with one of the Chinese t.a.'s at the University of Iowa lastyear and she said I could stay with her family in exchange for teaching her sister English. Because it is further south, less people would speak English and more peoplewould speak Taiwanese, which is a language I would like to learn. Rujun's family speaks Taiwanese fluently, so this wouldbe the perfect opportunity to learn. Finally, it is also connected by highspeed rail to Taipei.