Family Visits: Taiwan Edition (Adventures in Taichung and Taipei)

My dad visited me last weekend! It was exciting and strange to see someone from my non-Taiwan life not only in Taiwan, but in my newly adopted city. We went to dinner at my favorite local restaurant and then out for beer (Asahi is delicious; the white beer tastes like Stella and is therefore glorious).

On Friday night I took the high speed rail to stay with him in Taipei. The HSR is so beautiful and fast (it only took an hour to get from Taichung to Taipei!), but I was confused by the lack of electrical outlets. Also, the hotel we stayed in has my new dream bathroom. The bathtub was gigantic and had a high-pressure shower which renewed my faith in hot showers (I really need to figure out how to make my water heater work effectively--Edit: As of the time of this blog post, I have wrangled the hot water heater into at least slight submission).

Saturday was slow but packed with fun-filled activities. The first activity I engaged in was to take advantage of the glorious bathroom and indulge in a long, hot shower. We then ate breakfast at the hotel (I picked bacon, eggs, stewed chicken, and assorted fresh vegetables from the buffet. Yum.). Soon after breakfast we went to the Taiwan International Green Industry Show, an environmental trade show at the Taipei World Trade Center, where my dad's company (Agile Switch--check it out if you work with large-scale electrical conversion!!) had a booth. It was interesting to see all of the green technology being developed in Taiwan and elsewhere around the world right now. There were even games!

After the trade show my dad and I went to Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world from 2004 until 2010. Even on a cloudy day, which it was when we went, the view is impressive. We could see for miles (er, kilometers)! I mailed postcards to my mom and to my friend who is currently volunteering with the Peace Corps in Cameroon (I *really* hope the postcard makes it all the way!), and my dad and I sent a postcard to my sister. We also ate some scrumptious ice cream--with how gray it was outside, the experience felt like I was revisiting Toonie Tuesdays at Frostbite.

We spent hours at the 101 Building, then went back to the hotel to chill out (Internet time for me, e-mail for my dad), then went to the Shilin Night Market; this is the biggest and most famous night market in Taipei. It was quite overwhelming, and smelled DISGUSTING, like food mixed with feces and the sweat of far too many people crammed into one space; however, the food was good. It was my first night market experience, and despite the smell I plan to visit other night markets. Hopefully the markets in Taichung will not be as off-putting.

It took a while, but we finally found our way out of the night market and into the open air of the street. We took a cab to a bar we had passed on the way to the night market. It was okay, but would not even rank near my hypothetical list of top [insert number here] of bars I have visited. We then went on a wild and crazy adventure to find another bar, which we did, but we were somewhat tired by then and did not feel like paying the steep entrance fee to stand in a mass of people (if I had been less tired and with people my age I probably would have stayed--the singer on the stage sounded like the Counting Crows and was enigmatic). Part two of the incredibly misguided adventure to find a famous hotel with a purportedly awesome bar. After walking around impossibly lost for too long of a time in the stifling humidity, we decided to call it a night and made our way back to the hotel. Cue another shower to wash the night off and experience the pure bliss once again.

The next morning we woke up early (I showered again, of course, making it a personal record of three showers in two days, which is something I usually only do during camp), packed, ate breakfast, and went our separate ways. Dad had to catch a plane to China and I had bags and a train ride ahead of me, so we split at the hotel and I came back to Taichung, said hello to my bed, probably showered again to get the feel of the train off of me (oh, and a fistfight almost broke out on the train between two older men), and went to sleep for a while.

(Part-way) Around the World in 365(+) Days

Hi Everyone!

I know this is SUPER-early, since I'm currently only a month into my year of teaching, but I'm planning a trip around the world (or at least through as much of Asia as possible, parts of Oceania, and parts of Europe) from around September 2014-onward. The only necessary stops are Israel in the first half of 2015, and North America at some point to prove to my family and friends that I am still alive. Besides that, everything is up for grabs.

Restrictions:

-I am currently in Taiwan, so that will be my home base/starting point.

-I have many Israeli stamps in my passport, including a two-page student/volunteer visa.

Proposed trip so far:

Taiwan--Japan--South Korea--Beijing--Mongolia---Beijing--Shanghai--Shantou--Hong Kong--Macau--Philippines--Brunei--Indonesia--East Timor--Indonesia--Malaysia--Singapore--Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos--Thailand--Burma--India--Sri Lanka--India India--Turkey/Israel/Greece/Cyprus Europe?

ANY advice, anecdotes, tips/tricks are so incredibly welcome.

Thank you!

Love,

Becca

How Disney Corrupted Me (A Love Story)

I will be the first to say that Disney (and a few choice non-Disney cartoons) corrupted me as a child. It just did not corrupt me in the ways that you might think. Yes, during the last few years I have mixed copious amounts of wine and Disney and in doing so have had some of the most fun experiences of my life (I’m pretty tame, if you haven’t figured that out). But in all seriousness, Disney taught me important life lessons, some of which I have only recently begun to understand.

The women of Disney taught me how to think for myself. They instilled a deep-seated need to want and to expect more out of life, while telling me that I would only be able to fulfill these expectations by going out and creating my own adventures.

Perhaps the earlier princesses waited around for their princes to come sweep them off their feet, but the women who were my first role models—Jasmine, Megara, Ariel, and especially Belle, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Esmeralda, and non-Disney heroines like Kayley, Anastasia, and Odette—fought for what they wanted; never mind that a few of them “sold their souls” in the process.

These women taught me how to dream. To this day I say that I want to be a princess; as a child, it absolutely never occurred to me that princesses were only princesses and nothing more. My childhood dream was to be a princess…and a dentist; a princess…and a hair stylist; a princess…and an archaeologist; a princess...and an OB-GYN. I learned from an early age that anything was possible and that the world was my oyster, and if I wanted to go just around the riverbend, then so be it!

These heroines were not just princesses. Ariel was an actress and a singer. Megara was a damsel in distress, but she could handle it. Odette was transformed into a swan and held captive in an enchanted lake, but managed to orchestrate her own escape with the help of her clever frog, turtle, and puffin friends. Esmeralda, besides being a beautiful gypsy temptress, was a respected leader in her community and was probably the most self-reliant and sexualized woman my five year old brain had ever encountered by then. Anastasia was a street-wise ruffian who wanted nothing more than to know her past so she could realize her future. Pocahontas, Kayley, and Mulan were adventurers, setting their own rules, fighting for what they believed in and for the forces of good; Kayley and Mulan were both knighted at the end! And Belle. Belle was my idol, the woman I wanted to be (I still want her library). Belle taught me that reading did not make a person strange; if anything, reading could help you find your prince, your best friends, and your adventures by expanding your horizons and enabling you to realize that everyone and everything has a story, you just have to delve deep to find and understand it.

Even the women who were not as well-developed character-wise were able to see beyond themselves and take in the bigger picture. Encumbered by family values and social, cultural, and gender-related restraints, they proved how powerful women can be. They knew that the world beyond their line of sight held more potential than they could ever imagine, and they took it upon themselves to reach as high and as far as they could, and then reach a little bit further.

Creature of Habit

I love being a regular, and I hate change. If you know anything about me and my perennially-nomadic nature, you will understand why this is probably one of my weirder statements. But both parts of the statement are truer than anything I may ever say in the past or future.

I cry every time I have to change an e-mail address or phone number (I still haven't learned my new home phone number in the US), every time I get on a bus or train or plane to leave one place for another, every time I have to say goodbye to another close friend who is embarking on their own far-off adventure (or if I am leaving for one of my own).

Even if only by face and not by name, I love knowing people at a restaurant, grocery store, or bar, and having them recognize me. The seeds of this love were most likely planted upon living in the same place for eighteen years and going to the same grocery store and synagogue every few days, where even if people did not know my name and I did not necessarily know theirs, we still had that connection of familiarity to one another.

Everywhere I have lived since then, I have been a regular somewhere. During my first year in Montreal, I was a regular at one on-campus lunch venue, thanks to my meal plan and lack of kitchen. I, along with a few friends, became a Tuesday regular at Frostbite, the small ice cream parlor in the Engineering building at McGill, but also went whenever ice cream was necessary in my life. For the rest of my tenure in the area I was a regular at Quatre Freres, a 24-hour grocery store, which I visited at all times of day and night, and at Pizza Madona, a tiny poutine and pizza place five minutes away from my apartment. I still visit both places whenever I am in Montreal. Every time I return to Pizza Madona after being away for a substantial period of time, the owner asks where I have been, and we chat for a few minutes.

In Ramla I was a regular at a shawarma restaurant. They knew my exact order (minus the toppings, which I would change frequently). There I knew who would be the most friendly at what time, and who would joke around with me, and who would brush me off as someone not worth their time, and it was magical. In Ganey Aviv, there was one supermarket I would go to during and after school. The woman at the cheese counter knew not to speak Russian to me, and I was forever grateful.

One of my favorite moments in Philadelphia occurred last summer (potentially during Passover instead--I forget the exact details, but it was most likely summer). I had turned 21 a few months prior while still in Montreal, and I went to a pizza/cheesesteak hole-in-the-wall that I enjoy. I decided to buy my first legal drink in the US while there. After selecting the most interesting-looking beer, I brought it to the register. A man I did not recognize was there (a few of the others knew me as "the girl who comes in asking for cheese fries with gravy"), and he asked me for identification, which I had with me and willingly provided. One of the guys who did know me was behind him in the kitchen and said something along the lines of, "What are you doing? We know this girl. Let it go." It still makes me wonder how long I could have been buying beer there before being legal.

Philadelphia also has one grocery store by my house where there is again the priceless name-anonymity factor, but the cashiers are the sweetest women and there are consistent smiles all-around.

Here in Taichung I am a regular at the grocery store, because they have fruit and pre-made meals, and I don't have a real kitchen. I keep realizing that all of the restaurants have better food and prices than the grocery store, and have therefore been branching out a lot recently. I have decided to become a regular at the hibachi place I went to at the end of my first week of school. I can get a scrumptious beef hibachi meal with endless soup and tea for $110NT (~$4 USD), and the meal itself I can easily split into two or three parts--it doesn't seem this way, but it is a lot of food. Plus the people are great, and I can go there to read or work, and drink my soup, and not worry about anything.

I love being a regular, and I hate change. But change doesn't have to mean loss, only new beginnings. (Oh god, that was far too cheesy. But it stays.)

The Last Twelve Days, and Moon Festival!

Saturday, September 7th, 2013 to Thursday, September 19th, 2013

Warning: This post is mostly about food and complaining. My experience here has been mostly positive so far, and I love what I do, but sometimes writing things out makes me feel less bitchy and overwhelmed.
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On Saturday I had the food-going experience of picking pieces of sushi off of a conveyor belt at my whim and not caring about the price or what I was eating (I have no idea about a few of the choices of fish I made), only that I was enjoying myself and trying new things.I’m sure I looked gluttonous and strange with my wide array of plated sushi and my JK Rowling-style method of writing (yellow paper menu and the pen provided to mark it), but does anyone really care?

Interesting sushi tested: Corn with sweet mayo, a “fish” which may have been bacon (although they also had bacon sushi, so maybe this was just delicious smoked fish), and what turned out to be just a ball of rice wrapped in a sweet, soft, honey/maple dough.

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On Monday after school I went to a restaurant with the best dumplings I’ve ever had. I tried three types, and my favorite was filled with “Chinese Chives”—chicken and chives and everything good, packed into the softest, steamiest dumpling casing. I almost went back to get more, but then remembered I had the rest of my dinner to contend with for the remainder of the night.

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Oh god, Tuesday involved getting a health check. That was my task for this morning, and it was a lot easier than it had to be, but it was still such a hassle. I can still feel the needle-mark in the crook of my arm—I wish they hadn’t used my right arm, but I guess using the dominant arm is important; my veins are ridiculously tiny in both arms so it doesn’t really matter. Oh, and in the ultimate baby move, I definitely gave a little yelp when poked with the needle. Part of the check involved a chest x-ray, which meant I was asked at least five times if I was pregnant, just as a precautionary measure. Fun! My first response was “Oh god, no!” Pretty much sums up my stance on children (for those of you who are unaware, I love children when I can give them back at the end of the day). My students and my campers are “my kids”, and I am so happy with that fact.

On Tuesday I also realized that I probably need to pass over the “draw your class” sections of the workbooks for my Starter A classes, because I have now seen at least three anatomically correct drawings of myself from my 7-9 year old students and would rather they not continue.

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On Wednesday I got my own desk,w hich was exciting. However, I was also ordered (strong language, I know, but it was delivered that way) to spend more time in the lobby when marking books and writing my lesson plans in order to interact more with the students. This should be fine, an IS fine, but when I am doing work like that I prefer to be alone, or with a few quiet people, rather than in a room full of children running around and yelling. There is a time and a place for being boisterous, and I would rather not mix that with the "work" part of my job (writing that out showed me that I don't consider teaching to be "work", because teaching is the fun part, and constructive/organized chaos has the ability to work well in a classroom setting).

A big reason for working in the lobby was stated outright--to put the foreign teachers on display. The better reason provided was to give the students more opportunities to practice their English and to know their teachers and for us to better know them. I know I should not resent this as much as I do right now (which will definitely change, since working at my desk in the office is quite nice--Note: I am typing this out a week later, and now see this as a positive change), but I would prefer to mark tests and worksheets in my classroom, where I have easy access to all of my and my students' books, tests, and papers. I am sure that I resent it in part because it gives me very little time to decompress before and after classes, since I already participate in student pick-up and lunch hour in the morning, and in parent pick-up at least twice per week (all of which I love even though they are so awkward, but wonderfully so because they are rife with smiles), and that in time it will prove to be better than being alone in an empty classroom, dancing to music while performing my teacherly duties.

I heard a knock on my door on Wednesday night, only to find my landlord and next door neighbor in the doorway. My landlord immediately handed me a Moon Cake and a package of “12 grains crispy roll”. She and my neighbor made sure I was doing alright in the apartment and at work; it was one of the sweetest encounters from semi-strangers that I have ever had.

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The rest of that week was fine. I didn't sleep much because I didn't feel like it. Over the next few days I took a few buses and explored different parts of the city, which was fun. I found an Outback Steakhouse and a Coldstone (and the day I found that Coldstone, a cookies and cream milkshake cured all of my emotional issues and silliness). We had a nine-day workweek, broken up by a one-day weekend, because of Moon Festival, but now we have four days off for Moon Festival, and it has been refreshing thus far. Oh--at one point this week I was referred to as "mean" at least twice by two different teachers. Victory! Also on Wednesday we went to the park by school, and I got to play tag with my students. SO MUCH FUN. I must make sure to get through all of my lessons' content by Friday at 3pm so that we can go to the park every week. The best.

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Moon Festival!

Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, fell on Thursday, September 19th, 2013 this year.

What I have learned about Moon Festival so far:

1. Women power: Another culture with a feminine connection to the moon, which I love.

2. Chang'e either stole or was given the drink of immortality, depending on who is telling the story. She then flew to the moon and became the Moon Goddess.

3. There are lunar satellites named after Chang'e.

4. Chang'e has a rabbit companion.

5. Sailor Moon is named after that rabbit.

6. There IS a man in/on the moon, but he is there as punishment, and is doomed to attempt to chop down the magical cassia tree for all eternity.

7. Mooncakes and pomelos, two traditional Moon Festival foods, are delicious. Also, mooncakes were used to establish the Ming Dynasty, and in Vietnam, pomelo pieces may be shaped into unicorns.

8. It is a courtship holiday. Ignoring that.

9. This exists: http://www.southstreet-themusical.com
10. Buzz Aldrin said he would keep an eye out for Chang'e when he went to the moon in 1969.

My experience with Moon Festival so far: Tonight i walked around my neighborhood eating meat, fish (which I originally thought was tofu and which I don't really enjoy, whoops), and veggies on a stick, drinking peach juice, and moon-gazing.

Signing off with these two wonderful moon-related videos:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrb4K3-DJQE
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwQ_eyLLIKE

The Concept of Home

It occurs to me that from now on, wherever I go, no matter what, I will always be a foreigner, out of place in one way or another. I thought about this frequently over the summer when I essentially lived out of a backpack except for the times I was at my “home base”—Philly. But Philly was only home base out of necessity, because that is where my parents were and I had a place to leave my belongings for more than a short term period, and I didn’t have to sign a contract, or pay rent, or be clothed to live there. But I wasn’t comfortable (besides physically—that house is awesome), because it was only home base, it wasn’t Home, regardless of ease in saying “Oh, I’ll meet you at home.” It is a city I love and a city I miss, but no more than other cities where I have lived. 

Chesterbrook is* Home. Montreal is Home. Ramla is Home—I had a conversation with a friend one night where he said he wanted to go home, and I worriedly asked, “Ramla-home or [US city name withdrawn] home?” I forget the answer, but the question rings true even now. What defines home for you, and what defines Home? For me, home is where my passport is, and Home is where my loved ones and memories are, and where my life is (thereby contradicting my declaration that Philly is not Home, in a way). Even a place as simple and public as a train station (special shout-out to the Wynnewood and Elkins Park SEPTA stations) or a beach (here's to you, Gloucester and Lake Barcroft) can be a Home due to the emotional connection it holds.

*Note: Each "is" in these three sentences had originally been a "was", but then I remembered that Homes are forever.

It is not necessarily negative to constantly seem to be a foreigner, especially when I know in my heart that I belong wherever I happen to be. It means that people go out of their way to talk to me, to give me directions and advice, and to ask me for advice on moving to my current or past place of residence. People excuse my silliness, even when I am doing exactly what everyone else in a certain situation would do and just want to blend in and be part of the crowd. Hey, even in Israel people stared at me for looking different, and that is a country chock-full of Eastern European immigrants!

I realize that I tend to have one home at a time, but that my life is full of Homes, both past and present—places I have been, places I have lived, and places I still need to experience.

ABC, Easy as...Wait, You Know I Don't Speak Mandarin, Right?

Last Thursday I met my next-door neighbor. She is 23 and very sweet. We spoke in a Mandarin-English-sign language mix, and she tried to help me contact the landlord so I could pay rent. Taking advantage of the refreshing torrential downpour and having nowhere to be, I spent the rest of the day (besides a trip to 7/11) relaxing, watching Netflix, and getting through my Internet tabs. I've also been reading while listening to Vivaldi, which is such a treat.

I'm pretty sure my landlords think I am nuts. I had not unpacked yet, except for a few things scattered around the room, and still don't have bedding, so the room looked like a mess, but also seemed generally sparse. However, I did feel super-classy having Autumn from Vivaldi's Four Seasons playing in the background. We exchanged e-mail addresses in order to use Google Translate for future communication.

Over the weekend I bought a briefcase-sized gas stove, bringing me one step closer to fulfilling my lifelong childhood dream of living in the Murry house from Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quartet (of A Wrinkle in Time fame), where the mother cooks with a Bunsen Burner in her in-home lab. I did have a fun experience going to the grocery store and asking for fire because I had left my apartment without writing down the word for lighter.

On Friday, what I assumed was classroom decorating time ended up being lesson planning time, which was even better! I will be teaching two Starter A classes (basically Kindergarten-level), and one 4A class. So psyched. Also, guess what! I finally unpacked, using my own whimsical and unique form of scattering my belongings everywhere.

The First Week of School: A Play-by-Play

Sunday

-I have all of my lesson plans ready for Monday, and I find that I am not too nervous for the formal beginning of my teaching career.

-I still stay up late and don’t get to school until around 11:15/11:20am on Monday morning, still well before my 11:30am start.

Monday

-I get to school (five-minute walk, fantastic) a few minutes early after a mad dash to the grocery store to pick up something for lunch. Upon getting to school, I discover that the lunch built into my contract is a real thing, but I don’t take part in it (because by then I have already eaten).

-At 12pm I put on an awesome blue vest and go with one of the other teachers to pick up the younger students from the castle-like elementary school. They are adorable, and I almost immediately realize that, although I am being incredibly awkward, I have made the right decision in choice of profession and location.

-From about 12:30-2pm I refreshed myself on lesson plans, and mentally prepared myself for my first day of classes. Apparently I was supposed to eat lunch with the students, to talk with them, which makes sense, I just wish I had been told before I missed the festivities. I have since spent every lunch hour with the students, and it tends to be consistently awkward, but I believe the students are warming up to me, and that feels great.

-At 2pm my first class began. It is a Starter A class, which means the students are bare-bones beginners. Most know the alphabet and numbers from one to ten, but nearly nothing else. They are good kids but don’t get too wild on this first day.

-From 4-4:30pm I had a break to (mentally) prepare for my next class.

-4:30pm saw the start of my second Starter A class. These kids proved to be a lot more wild than my first class. One problem is that most of the students are older, so they already knew the alphabet and numbers so well, but I have three students who are even more bare-bones beginners than my first Starter A class. This lesson had a bit of yelling, mostly for order. Augh. Not my worst experience, though.

-At 6:10pm the director of the school came into my classroom saying “The parents have been waiting for so long!” That class was supposed to end at 6pm, but I had convinced myself that it ended at 6:30, and I have no idea why. Oops.

-After class I tidied up, then prepared a few more lesson plans, and then went downstairs to eat my dinner. Turns out I was supposed to wait with the students during parent-pickup (another thing I wasn’t told until after-the-fact, but it is okay) so that the parents can see their children interacting with the English-language teachers and therefore practicing their English. I only have to do it on the two days when I don’t have my third class.

-By then it was around 6:30pm, and I was exhausted and raring to go home, but my contract hours are from 11:30am to 7:30pm, so back to lesson plans I went! A little while after 7:30pm arrived, I punched out and went on one of my many grocery store trips. Then I stayed up too late, but didn’t have to be at school until 2:30pm the next day so it was fine.

Tuesday

-I came in at 2:30pm, had student pick-up at 3pm, and had my first class (the second Starter A group) at 4:30. They were rambunctious again. Crazy kids. Silly me, I had gone into this playing into Asian stereotypes and thinking that my students would, for the most part, be quiet, polite, and good-natured. Turns out kids are kids, and that is wonderful. It definitely makes for an interesting experience. Pus I love busting stereotypes.

-At 6:10pm I met my third and final class. I had been warned about this group, a 4A class, but they were fine, quiet and engaged, even. They are all fairly good readers, writers, and speakers, and it is such a different experience between teaching them and teaching my Starter A classes, but I enjoy them all.

Wednesday

-This was my first three-class day. It was exhausting, but in the nicest way.

-Today was the day that I realized my students have not yet figured out that I do not speak Mandarin, because they keep speaking quickly to me under the assumption that I understand. Sorry, kids.

Thursday and Friday

-I spent a large part of Thursday and Friday yelling excitedly and miming words. My kids are unaware, but I am using a few signs from ASL to teach them how to meet and introduce people. The only problem I have had with that so far is that it was difficult to come up with a sign for "friends", because that sign is too similar to the sign used for "name", and I did not want to confuse them; the sign we ended up using is far too close to the sign for "f***" for my liking.

-I also initiated the point system on Thursday, which led to a lot more student participation and made both of my Starter A classes a lot more animated (and loud, but organized chaos is the best).

-By 7:40pm on Friday night I was tired, hungry, and schooled-out (at least until Monday morning). I stayed for a bit to finish marking papers and making copies, then went out for a delicious hibachi meal with one of my co-workers, then came home and settled in for the night.

-At one point on Thursday night I was given a small pineapple cake by a random man outside of a bakery where he presumably bought it. It was delicious, by the way.

The Face That Spawned a Thousand Gifs.

Tonight seemed like it would be wonderful. I was going to get back from training in Hsinchu, go straight to the hostel to pick up my suitcases, and take a taxi to my new apartment. I had all of the numbers and addresses I needed, and everything went as planned until  gave the address of the apartment to the taxi driver, thinking he would be able to get me there. I was wrong. He almost found the apartment, but instead dropped me off at a random number on the correct street. Since I had two bags and two suitcases with me, I did not want to go gallivanting around looking for the right building, so I asked the next person I saw where the building was. I also had already called the landlord, hoping to have help getting to the apartment, but that did not work out, so I felt really lost, nervous, and aggravated. I tried calling my school's director to see if he could help me figure out where I was, and the man brought me into the liquor store he ran so I could be there while he called the landlord. Nothing worked, so ultimately my school's director came to get me, drove me the fifty (or fifteen) meters to the apartment building, and helped me bring my suitcases to my new apartment. I only cried once, and that was thankfully before my director arrived. Now I am sitting pretty (aka sweating buckets because I'm not sure how to turn off the air conditioner but I don't want it running too much so I just unplugged it instead of dealing with it) on my gigantic (sheet-less, whoops) bed.

Everything turned out fine, as it should have. The main problem is that I did not really sleep last night because I decided to go on an adventure with my two new friends/coworkers (the girl who works at school with me and one of the other guys from another Taichung branch of the school), and we did not go to bed until after 5am, then had to be at training, a half hour cab ride away, by 9am (we were only a few minutes late, yay!).

Fun thing about training yesterday (the second day of training)--the leader of the first seminar kept bringing up the "crying Dawson" face from Season 3 Episode 23 of Dawson's Creek, also known as the face that spawned a thousand gifs.

Also, it should be made known that garbage trucks sound like ice cream trucks.

I heard a question about one of the textbooks, "Enter the World of Grammar", as "Does anyone have any questions on 'the end of the world'?"

So yes, okay. Everything is as it should be, though I should probably figure out how to dislodge what appears to be a piece of pretzel from my computer's charger socket.

The Training Begins...

I am beginning to think that I take abnormally short showers. Either that, or all of my hostelmates take abnormally long showers. Of the eight-or-so who have been in and out over the last few days, many have taken at least a half hour or longer in the shower, not including getting changed. Granted, I know my five-to-ten minute shower sprints are short, but everything gets cleaned, and those showers are only so short because I wait until the last minute in the morning and would rather sleep than spend ten to fifteen extra minutes zoning out under a burning-hot rain spout.

I was awake before 6am and ready by 6:15am to catch the train to Hsinchu for teacher training. My head was NOT happy with me. However, I still managed to run late for meeting the other teacher at the train, but she was also running late, and we had arranged to meet almost a half hour before the train left, so it worked out. We did not meet up with the third teacher from Taichung until after arriving in Hsinchu. He looks kind of like Trent from Daria, but with longer and lighter hair, and potentially fewer tattoos. Trains in Taiwan have assigned seats, which seems useful until people pile recklessly into the trains regardless of whether they have a seat or not.

Regarding training: The first trainer has the same voice and mannerisms as one of my friends, but with a slight Irish accent. I kept writing down a bunch of games and activities that I can use in the classroom--constructive zoning out! We were in the same room for the whole day, which was tedious. The seminars, however, were great. I am pretty sure I learned more in a day here than in three weeks at the ITF orientation. This is probably because my school has been around for a lot longer than the ITF program, so it has a well-established curriculum which every teacher in every branch of the school uses. I did start to zone out later in the day, but I think that had more to do with being over-caffeinated and waking up far too early. Also, I realized around the last hour that although the classroom decoration seminar is not until Wednesday (the last day of training), the craft corner is already set up. ALL the excitement.

After training, the group of us from Taichung went to our hotel to drop off our bags, then went wandering around Hsinchu. We ate dinner and talked for a few hours, and it was great, especially because these we will all be in the same city for at least the year. There is even a guy from Philly! We went back to the hotel after dinner; I am rooming with the girl who is the other teacher from my school who came to training. It is a good thing that we spent the day together and got to know each other a bit, because there is only one bed in the tiny, tiny room. Due to certain clues, such as a cutely-arranged plate of condoms, Band-Aids, pornography, and mouthwash by the bed, and a container of "Bethes the breast" (a crude translation of body wash, perhaps) in the bathroom, we determined that this hotel is most likely a sex motel; the listing of hourly rates at the front desk did not help its case. Good work, school, for putting us up in this hotel for the duration of training! But seriously, it is hilarious. The only thing missing is a mirror on the ceiling. We spent the rest of the night watching a Japanese horror show.

Guess who has an apartment!!!

Victory! I've apparently already memorized my new phone number!

Sadly I did not make headway on finding an apartment yesterday, but the hostel owner (Auntie Julie, for anyone who wants to go to Taichung and needs a place to stay, her hostel is wonderful) has room for me to stay another night. Also, teacher training starts tomorrow and will be in a hotel so that means I will have a few extra days of lodging. Today might have to involve heavy badgering of my director and recruiter to see where they are on talking to landlords, but I *hate* nagging.

This morning I learned if I sleep with my hair in a braid, I will look like Medusa the next morning. Good to know for future Halloweens!

Today I engaged in my favorite activity for when I am in a new city or have no time limitations or am simply feeling antsy--getting so lost that not even a map can save me. I only went out for a few hours, because I was in jeans and it is incredibly hot and humid outside, but oh man, did I have a great time.

I left under the guise of looking for a place to buy a towel (which I did not find, but I also did not ask for help in this quest), but ended up just walking around, taking everything in. One of the best parts of the afternoon was finding green tea juice boxes in the Family Mart. They were really cool and refreshing, and just sweet enough to be delicious. I also got another sticker for my Family Mart book (30 stickers gets you a toy. My inner child is so happy).

At one point I found a mall that had either three or four floors (I lost track), mostly full of hip clothing shops with restaurants and little food stands on the side, but the top floor was riddled with karaoke bars, many of which were already at full occupancy at one in the afternoon. I am excited to explore those further--hopefully they have pinyin (transliterated Mandarin) selections!

After about two hours, I was decidedly lost, hot, and tired enough to hail a cab to take me back to the hostel. As is my usual, I had only been about a kilometer away from the hostel, but considering everyone I asked for directions kindly shook their heads and sent me on my way, the taxi was probably a good idea. If I had dressed weather-appropriately, I probably would have stayed out longer, but I once again have to get used to living in a tropical climate. Maybe one day I'll go live in the North Pole and get a job as one of Santa's elves, because that seems like the only way I will ever live in a cold climate again!

Also in the Family Mart was a "Tuna Sushi Roll", which is exactly how it sounds and is everything I ever wanted in sushi (a long tube of sushi--so happy), but if I die, this is the reason.

My recruiter, Michelle, just called and she's going to help me find an apartment!!! We are meeting with a landlord at the school and we will go together to look at one of the apartments I found. So excited to have a home!!! Hostel life is great for now, but I can't wait to have a stable place to live.

Cut to a few hours later: I just went to see the apartment. I met Michelle, my recruiter and another teacher at the school, and her daughter. She brought me to meet the landlord, a sweet older woman who told her I was cute; she showed me the first apartment, which was okay in size but had no window, then told me there was another apartment one floor down which would costs a negligible amount more, but has a window overlooking the park. I decided to take that one (there will be before and after pictures on Facebook soon). Sadly, I couldn't move in tonight because I wasn't able to withdraw money from the ATM for the rent and deposit, but she said I could move in on Wednesday and pay on Thursday after I go to the bank. Easy-peasy! The apartment is a five minute walk from the school, multiple convenience stores, a supermarket, the aforementioned park, and a Costco. Perfect location, in my opinion.

Michelle is awesome, by the way. Her daughter is this adorable five year old nugget. She started off quite shy, but opened up quickly. We read a story together; her English is great for a five year old! Michelle told me that the students in the school are aged seven to thirteen years old, but she lets her daughter study there even though she is a bit young.

I also learned about training--three of us from Taichung will be attending, including one guy from a different Taichung branch of the school. It will be at the head office in Hsinchu, and we will take the 7:03am train tomorrow, yikes! Training will be from tomorrow morning until Wednesday night, and then I will meet with the other teachers on Friday afternoon so we can create lesson plans. So excited!

The school itself seems wonderful. It is small and homey, and has a little washing station outside and a library with big plush couches right inside. Also, it appears that I will be referred to as "Teacher", otherwise nameless, of course, for the rest of my English-teaching career. I don't mind at all, and think it is kind of sweet.

Note to all of my teacher-friends: I want to set up language exchanges between our classes! Let's talk when the school year starts and we're all situated. Even once-a-week or once-a-month Skype dates would be AWESOME, especially if the time difference works out.

Day One! (This is currently the most imaginative title that comes to mind. Yikes.)

Ten hours here and I have already misplaced my keys to the hostel. Even for me this is impressively fast. (Note: I found them fairly quickly. They were still in the bed, between the bedframe and the mattress.)

Goals for today:
1. Phone! Get at least a SIM card for now, and hopefully a phone contract.
2. Scavenge for food. If up to it tonight, explore a night market.
3. Make headway on finding an apartment (this is technically happening through my school, but I am trying to push it along, because as much as I love living out of a suitcase, it isn't what I want to do while starting a new job/life thousands of miles away from home).
4. Explore Taichung!

Conversation with the hostel owner about moving to Taiwan:
Auntie Julie: "Is this your first time in Taiwan?"
Me: "Yes! It's very new."
Auntie Julie: "You have no friends here?"
Me: "Nope. I have a few in China, but it is kind of far."
--Understatement of my life

Getting a SIM card seemed to be quite an ordeal, but it was actually quite simple. The hostel owner's son came with me, because he speaks perfect English (they lived in South Africa for years, then moved back to Taiwan) and Mandarin. The man at the FarEasTone counter gave us a hard time at first because I do not have my visa yet, but I gave him my passport and passport card, and then provided the information for the school, and he gave me a SIM card, which began working almost immediately.
Note: Skype, Facebook, and e-mail are still the best ways to contact me if you aren't in Taiwan.

Lunch (also breakfast): I walked around looking for something quick and close, because I was REALLY hungry and didn't want to get too lost. I found a FamilyMart and bought a bento-box-type meal, a honey roasted chicken sushi triangle, and what I thought was chocolate rice milk but was instead peanut rice milk. I had the sushi triangle and the rice milk, and both were delicious. I have found my new favorite snack (until I try the next new and scrumptious food).

For now it is raining, which in my (probably jet-lagged) world means naptime!

Oh! When I was outside looking for lunch, I discovered that I am two doors down from an arcade. Definitely picked the right hostel.

Just had my first real food-scavenging episode. I walk-sprinted in the rain on sidewalk-less streets, weaving through cars and scooters, which was not as dramatic as it sounds--I was in little-to-no danger of being hit by a car or scooter. After a few minutes, I found what seemed to be a neighborhood hot-spot. There were a bunch of people inside, and a short line had formed at the food-serving counter, which was only partially sheltered from the rain. Most of my interaction with the people at the counter involved smiling, pointing, and nodding, with the occasional "yi ge" ("one of these", but in the wrong context; most of my knowledge of Mandarin is from high school, though I remember a surprising amount of single words and short phrases). Luckily I love to engage in pantomime*, and naturally talk with my hands. Getting dinner was fun, though--with the pointing and nodding there came a lot of scooping of rice and vegetables, topped off with a large piece of chicken. With many "xie xie"s (thank you) and "zaijian"s (goodbye), I paid and left, walk-sprinting back to the hostel in the rain.

Back at the hostel, the hostel-owner was showing new guests to their beds. At one point she turned to me and asked if I had dinner. I pointed to my bag and said yes! She then told me that there was a McDonald's and a KFC nearby, but I told her that I don't usually eat from there anyway.

The only real negative about this hostel is that there is one girl who snores so ridiculously loudly. Right now I don't know if I'm awake at 3:30am because of jet lag, going to sleep too early, sleeping with my contacts in (whoops), or because of the jet engine in the bed diagonally above me. Oh well!

*For some reason I always thought this word was "pantomine", no idea why. I guess one really does learn new things every day!

"'Homeward Bound' is never one direction." -The Fugitives, "Greyhound"

Somehow I left for a year in Taiwan on the exact date that I left for a year in Israel one year ago. I guess in that case it is fitting that I use the same blog for Taiwan that I meant to use for Israel (subject to change).

It's amazing how much can change in a year. Instead of bothering with the 2+ hour drive to New York City, I am flying out of the Philadelphia airport. Instead of going to Israel, a place where I had at least some grasp of the language and was going to be in an established program, I am going to Taiwan, a place where I cannot currently speak the language and will be an official teacher. I have a whole new set of friends to keep in touch with, and another year's worth of memories to make me smile. I didn't work at camp this summer, opting instead to travel so I could see my wonderful friends, the people who over the years have essentially become my family. I have also made the decision to cancel the cell phone line that I have had since fifth grade (about twelve years, for those who are counting). Another big change is that I have a two-year plan for the first time in my life; school never counted as a plan, but since then everything has seemed to be quite up in the air. The biggest change of all, though, is that I truly do not know when I will be coming back to the US. But that is another post for another day.

It is also so interesting how much stays the same. I packed at the last minute while some of my favorite television shows played in the background, which is nearly always the case (also, I fulfilled my accidental tendency to watch Robert Downey, Jr. movies before and during long trips--side note: if someone can tell me how "Only You" ends, I would be forever grateful). Sitting in the airport, none of this seems real yet. The same nervous and excited butterflies I always get while traveling have been residing in my stomach for weeks. I managed to get through security pretty quickly (got to love being the least intimidating person EVER when it comes to border security), even though as usual I was unable to fully check in online. Airplane food is as tasty as usual (I am one of those weirdos who enjoys it once in a while; something about the simplicity of steak and potatoes gets me every time).

On my first flight, from Philadelphia to Houston, I offered to switch seats with a little boy because his dad told me it was his first time flying, and the boy had an aisle seat while I had a window seat. Definitely glad I did, because I slept for the whole flight, unlike the little boy.

I think there should be a program set up for people to meet their seatmates before boarding. Not that they would be able to switch their seats, but people should know what they are getting themselves into before the 13+ hour flight. Then again, I have no idea of what I am doing right now with anything, so we'll see how this all works out.

I slept through about half of my thirteen-hour flight from Houston to Tokyo, which was great. Since then I have been reading Harry Potter and listening to music. I restarted the Harry Potter books this year partially under the misguided perception that I needed more magic in my life, and partially because they are even more fantastic and captivating than I remembered them to be.

As we descended over Japan into the Narita Airport, I noticed something really cool--multicolored roofs in great shades of at least blue, green, and purple. Hopefully I will get to explore these in the future. Also, I just saw an airplane that seemed to be plastered in advertisements, giving it an almost paisley look. The United planes aren't nearly as fun on the outside. There are a few young kids speaking Spanish in the row in front of me on the airplane. They seem to be really excited about seeing the other planes, and it's adorable.

Being spot-on with cliches lately, the first thought that entered my mind when finally sitting in the airplane on the flight to Taipei was: "This is the first day of the rst of your life." That, plus, "Here goes nothing!"

I started to get worried when the stewardesses came around with Customs cards, because I tend to be wary when I am told that I will only need to get my passport stamped and that I will get my ARC (Resident card/number) through the school. However, I arrived in the airport, exchanged money (almost had an issue with a "broken" $20, but I "fixed" it by unfolding the missing piece), got my stamp, found my suitcases within two minutes of waiting by the baggage carousel, followed the arrows to the buses, asked a few transportation officials which bus to take, got my ticket, and went on my merry way. The only real issue I had was when I didn't know exactly which station I would be getting off at in Taichung, but then I found the address of the hostel I had written down in Chinese characters and in English, and was given a map with the correct station circled. This has all been too easy so far.

It's Philly-humid here, except that it also rains, which is nice. I'm sure I will get tired of it at some point, but I love the rain, and after a year in Israel it is *always* welcome.

Got on the bus, read a little bit, took a nap, kept trying to pay attention to hear my stop, but gave up after a while. Luckily the bus driver knew my stop, and pointed me in the right direction (and then quickly found me a taxi when I asked for one). The cab driver brought me two streets away from the bus to my hostel (a woman's apartment building with eight bunk beds and lockers inside), and a really sweet doorman helped me bring my suitcases to the right floor and got the hostel owner for me. She lives downstairs, and came up to show me my bed (complete with Minnie Mouse comforter--I'm in heaven) and keys. As it is only 12:30am, everything went more or less according to schedule. Awesome. Also the hallway smells like my apartment in Buenos Aires, which is quite homey--must be the same kind of smoke.

Goals for this year:
1. Improve my teaching skills! Learn effective classroom management and figure out what kind of teacher I want to be, and how to utilize my students' various learning types to be the best teacher that I can be for them.
2. Learn Mandarin, at least to a certain degree. Communication is key, y'all. Plus I could never forgive myself if I lived somewhere for a year and didn't learn at least some of the language. Even in university I learned a bit of French, although it was easy enough to get around without it.
3. Explore. I will have literally all of Asia at my fingertips (North Korea doesn't count, though I wouldn't turn down a tour of the DMZ tunnel if a non-sketchy person or organization offered). Not taking advantage of that would be insane.
4. Learn new cooking techniques. Learn how to cook Asian foods. Learn how to cook with little more than a hotplate, a toaster oven, and a rice cooker. Learn to cook with ingredients I have never seen before. So, basically, the usual.
5. "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other's gold." (as opposed to "You'll never see your friends again" x4)
6. Have so much fun. But this is a given.