Still Here...

It's been a while. I'm still here. Still teaching. Still exploring. Still enjoying my time here. These past few months have kind of been a blur in a good way. I can't remember everything that has happened, so I'll give a topical overview of what I'm doing right now.

In December, I started my Chinese course at Feng Chia University. It's been quite helpful. Though I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like to commit to my Chinese instruction, I'm really improving and liking the language. Just last week, we learned "real" Chinese and I've started to memorize some characters. The class itself is really interesting too. I'm the only American. Everyone else is from western Europe, i.e., Spain, France, Germany. The diversity is really interesting and appreciated. The most interesting thing is that everyone in the class knows English. The instruction, (before we knew any Chinese), was done in English. It is a reminder to me that knowing English right now is really important. I asked a classmate when he started learning English (he's not a young guy, mind you), he replied "about junior high school." So knowing Chinese, and strengthening my English skills (particularly vocabulary) has become increasingly important to me and to the world at large.

I've also been exploring more of the area. The picture to the right is of Sun Moon Lake, which is practically in the center of Taiwan. It is a really beautiful tourist spot. We took a small boat around to a few different piers and went bicycling around the town. It was a really fun weekend. I've also been to a small town near Changhua called, Lugang. For the most part, it's the same as any other town in Taiwan. But there is one street with a 400 year old temple and you can give offerings to the God or Goddess of your choice there (God for students and lovers... not the same one).

Last week was an important week for me and the Taiwanese community, Chinese New Year. The way I describe the traffic on new year? It's like Macy's department store on Black Friday. It was crazy. There were people everywhere. I got to see my students without their school uniforms on and families in the parks enjoying each other's company. One of my dear friends, Camy, flew in from the states last Monday. We had a great time visiting Taipei, Taichung, and Kaoshiung. In the northern most part, Taipei it was about 60 degrees, but in Kaoishung it was near 90. We enjoyed every second of seeing each other and the beauty of Taiwan. Last Tuesday, a Taiwanese friend invited us to go to her family's dinner. I don't think we could have asked for a more authentic experience. We ate dinner in Taiwanese fashion with a big lazy susan in the middle of the table: shrimp, pork, beef, and mango pudding for a dessert. Camy got a little taste of Taiwanese cuisine and the Taiwanese way of life, e.g.: trains and milk tea abound.

Until next time.

"How and how much we value our emotional lives..."

So it's been a couple of weeks. I apologize for this. It's been kind of crazy. I've been teaching English of course, been on a few trips and always in deep contemplation about things. For the most part, I've been reflecting on how quickly this year (2011) has gone, and all the wonderful and not so wonderful things that have happened.

The second week of November, I visited a friend up in Taipei. I'm not a fan of big cities, but Taipei has a certain charm about it. We went to a restaurant called the Lavender Garden, which was pretty interesting. Then, we headed to the 101. It was "cold" in Taipei, at least colder than the weather we are used to in Taiwan. Not nearly as cold as say, upstate New York this time of year. I have to admit, I won't miss the snow, especially the tedious scraping of ice in the morning. The picture to the right is taken at the Palace Museum in Taipei. They had an exhibit on Louis XIV, (who is one of my favorite rulers in France. :) This definitely counts as one of those wonderful points of 2011.

This past weekend I went to a town called Jiji with a few coworkers. It was absolutely beautiful. The whole time I was there I was listening to an album by Rebecca Correia. She is an artist from Rochester who I started listening to my senior year of college. I think the frankness in her lyrics fit perfectly with the beauty of the mountains. It also brought me back to memories of senior year in college....

The not so wonderful time of 2011 (and to whom this blog post is dedicated to) was the lost of my dearest professor, Dr. Kiskis. It's funny because just this past week, I told a few of my students how often I correspond with a professor from college. I just couldn't see it any other way. I really enjoy talking with him, and our meeting was mostly because of Dr. Kiskis's death. But doing all this teaching and being in a foreign country brings back the memory of him, I would say, almost everyday. He died in May, and right before I made my decision to come to Taiwan, I sent him an email. The basic message of it was, "What should I do?" He equivocated, as usual, something that I had come to love about him. That and his skepticism about everything.  His response was:

"So.  Both, I think, have benefits.  It will, of course, depend on what you are most interested in at this point in your time as a student and as a teacher.  I won't presume to tell you what you should do.  I think that you will be able to have success at both -- though in different way and for different reasons." 


Doesn't seem like much, but this was the most important advice I had gotten about this decision. And I realized/ am still realizing that education in its barest form or principle should make lives better and more fulfilling. The best teacher is not someone who knows a lot or even has a lot of a experience, but is someone who can take both of those things into the classroom. He was that person to me and, I'm sure, to a lot of others. Teachers can and should be wrong. He was never afraid to admit that. His comprehensive knowledge of English rivaled his knowledge about life.

I hope I can do that someday. I came to Taiwan partly to make myself a better teacher. To get experience to bring home with me, ultimately, to do what Dr. Kiskis did for 30 years of his life.

As always he closed his email with---

"I don't know if that really helps.  But...it's what I can do."




He always offered that as comfort at the end of an email, encouraging, yet skeptical that he really ever did anything in the first place. We both know that he did. His biggest message was to value our emotional lives and not to turn away from who are---he would think that who we are and our emotional lives are the same.

Anyway, the wonderful and not so wonderful things of 2011 kind of balance each other out in a weird way. I've met new and wonderful people, despite my lost. I've smiled more times than I've cried. I have wonderful and spectacular friends and family that keep me going....

Yes, Chinese! Yes, Yes, Chinese!

I can't believe it's November already. I have been Taiwan for nearly 3 months and it's starting to feel like home. Some days I forget that I am in a foreign country, but it's rainy days like today that remind me. It has been raining for the past two days almost nonstop. But it's actually a pleasant feeling: I've been lounging around watching movies and eating good food. And doing some teaching, too.

 Lately, I've been thinking a lot about my persona as a teacher. I've come to the conclusion that teaching is mostly acting. I make grammar and phonics sound more exciting than they are, even if I really do find them exciting :) To the right is a picture of me as a crazy rockstar on Halloween with one of my youngest students.

I think I am getting plenty of good teaching experiences here. Sometimes, I have classes with younger kids following ones with older kids and vice versa. My teaching certification is for middle and high school but I think that the experience is younger kids is useful, too. The language barrier can be a problem with the youngins' but using body language is a great way around that.

The next few months will be different and rather hectic. I am starting a Chinese language course at a nearby university. It's actually a pretty rigorous course, and I choose to take it because I want to leave Taiwan with a little Chinese under my belt. I can't justify coming to a foreign country and relying on everyone to know English or have others translate for me. If we run into a foreigner in the U.S. we may not even consider that they don't know English very well. Here, though, everyone anticipates  foreigners to know little to no Chinese. Fortunately, when I go to stores, etc. there is always at least one person there that speaks English. Anyway, I'm going to put a lot of work into learning the language here and trying to communicate with the natives as much as I can. It's so easy to forget that I'm still a guest in this country, and I want to be as respectful as possible. This mentality is so different than in my classes. We are supposed to use only English, but sometimes the students slip and say something in Chinese. I made up a rap to promote English speaking in the classroom, "No, Chinese. No, no, Chinese!" Sometimes the students will get lazy and just give me the answer instead of reading the whole sentence in the book. So I made up a chant, "READ THE WHOLE SENTENCE! READ THE WHOLE SENTENCE!" The little kids like it and they think I'm goofy. And they'd be right...

So, I'm told that it will get cooler here eventually. But I  have yet to feel it. It's still miserably hot and humid some days, but I bought two winter jackets just in case. December seems so close and it's still in the 70s and 80s everyday. I'm not complaining. I've always preferred to be hot rather than cool. Despite the rain and wet streets, I'm really enjoying my time here, and I don't think I reflect on this enough. For one, the people here are really great. For instance, when a person in America wants something we usually just say, "can I please have some of your cake?" The person will respond with either a yes or no answer, maybe sometimes making up an excuse as to why they cannot share. In Taiwan, if a person wants something, they try to get the other person to offer it. They may say how delicious the cake looks and smells, ask you where you got it, and ask if it's tasty. Until finally you get sort of frustrated and say, "do you want to try some?" All you can do is laugh because to them this is the polite way of asking, whereas Americans are more forthcoming...

Subtle reminders of Fall

I know I haven't updated in a while, and that's because I'm rather busy, and I think I caught a cold or something. I just feel like sleeping in the mornings and, of course, going to yoga. But even this morning yoga was rough; I didn't really feel like being there.

I can't believe it's the middle of October. Time has really been flying for me here. I miss the nice cool breezes of fall at home, but we are starting to get those here, too. The local establishments (schools, restaurants, etc.) are at least trying to celebrate Halloween. I intend to dress up with a rainbow colored wig and sunglasses, mostly to scare my students. But it's next week already and I have a bit of planning to do. I'd like to tell ghost stories in some of my classes and give them candy. Most of these kids go straight to bed after going to regular school then cram school in the evening, so I try to make it as fun as possible for them.

A few days ago Christina and I went on a short hike/walk through Bagua Mountain, which is home to the largest Buddha in Taiwan. Behind the Buddha are walking trails and nice scenic landscapes. So that was a great experience. I really like it there; it's so serene. There are waterfalls and old men playing mah jong. It's kind of how I pictured Asia after reading The Joy Luck Club  in 9th grade. This book was not only my first novel (over 100 pages) but also, I think, the start to my love of literature. Everything about the book was stunning--especially the descriptions of China. If you get the chance, pick it up. There's also a movie version. Speaking of which, I just ordered 6 new books from Betterworldbooks.com. They ship for free internationally and they are insanely cheap.

After the hiking/walking, we stumbled into the "Shrine of Virtue and Piety." This was an old temple that was about to be demolished by the Japanese when they occupied Taiwan, but they just moved it and now it is restored. We met this awesome man, who was reading The Anthology of American Literature. He told us, "You come back here and I will teach you Chinese." So we made a deal that we would meet with him every Tuesday and he would teach us. I love meeting people with such an enthusiasm for life that they are willing to help anyone they see. That is the type of person I'd like to be eventually. But I'm still young and I'm still learning... always learning. My friend introduced me to a song by Lucy Schwartz and one of the lyrics say, "The only thing that I know is that I don't know a thing." I can reconcile with that right now. I think what she's saying is that she does know somethings but she's humble enough, or wise enough, to admit that she's still learning.

It never rains in Kenting...

Yes, the title is stolen from the song "It Never Rains in Southern California." Surprisingly, I've been in both California and Kenting when it was raining.... go figure.

Needless to say this past weekend was kind of not what I expected. I left work on Saturday at 8:30 pm, got to the train station and left by 9:30pm. We arrived in Kaohsiung by 12:00 am and got something to eat and stayed the night in a hostel. The next day we took a taxi to Kenting, a beach city about 2 hours south and also home to the most southern point in Taiwan. That seemed like a long ride. Anyway, we got to Kenting and rented scooters to go to Jialeshuei, where the surfing competition was being held. When we got there it was raining a little bit so we got something to eat, then it started raining harder. We all had to buy raincoats and watch the competition in the rain.

That night instead of camping on the beach, we rented a beach cabin and stayed the night there. As I tried to go to sleep that night I heard the rain rush against the window all night. When I woke up the next day, it was partly cloudy with the sun just peaking its head out. We took advantage of that and did a bit of sightseeing. Then we went to the beach for about 2 hours before we had to leave. We had a break of sunshine. It was nice. I played in the sand and water. The waves are different in Taiwan; they aren't as rapid which makes it easier to swim. Also, yes, Kenting is a touristy location, but it's not as commercialized as American beaches; it felt almost like a remote part of the island, even though I knew there were hundreds of people around. Anyway, I think the trip was worth it even for the little bit of time spent on the beach. If I could live near the beach, I would. I'm such a fan of the environment and just sitting back to relax and read. When the sun hit my skin I felt so incredibly happy and, frankly, that's been my mood since I've been in Taiwan---incredibly happy. That's what I wanted most out of this trip and I got a little bit of it. So I'm rather pleased.

The ride home was bittersweet. I wish I could have stayed longer to see Kenting in all its beauty, but I was also happy to come back home to Changhua. I'll probably go back during Chinese New Year with my college friend, Camy, who's planning to visit.





Or maybe I'll just move there....

Teacher

I wanted to post before I left  this Saturday for a trip down south. I'm doing quite well and beating the heat, so to  speak. My classes are going wonderfully. I started a new system for the naughty students where if they get 3 strikes on the board, then they can't play a game at  the end of class and all of my students have been adhering to that. I don't do that for my high school kids (I teach ages 6-18). To the right is a picture of 2 of my students. They are about 6 or 7 and I see them twice a week . We're currently learning the letter "n" and practicing the song, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."

Everyone calls me "teacher" here. It's hard to get used to, I think. The way that we educate here is completely different from how we do it in the U.S. In Taiwan, we are focused on repetition; sometimes my kids will copy everything I say because I am the teacher and  I know everything... or so they are taught. I always tell my high school students that in America kids always fight their teachers and it makes for good conversation. I will ask them, "What are you doing this weekend?" They respond, "Studying." I tell them, "No, no more studying." This attitude is so different from American school students and, I think, studying is integral to not only my students' school lives but also to how they define themselves as people. They find it hard to describe or even talk about themselves, and I try to get them to talk about 'who they are' and 'where they see themselves going.' I think it's important to build a classroom community, often hard, but in one of my upper level classes I give them a writing prompt as soon as they enter class. It's questions all about them, which they're not used to answering, but these questions are important to me. 

More to come...

Hot, sweaty... No fall here!

hey guys, I tend to be posting weekly now, which seems fitting because I mostly work during the week. On the weekends I have been going to Taichung (only 20 mins. by train) and hanging out at the night markets and department stores. Today I took a long bike ride through the country. I went through all of the rice fields and plantations. It was pretty cool. And by cool I mean neat, because it was a stifling 90 degrees Fahrenheit today.  This picture to the right is my Taiwanese friend's home. We celebrated Moon Festival at his house just a few weeks ago.

I have to admit I'm wondering how fall is feeling right now. I seem to have forgotten what it's like to feel 'cold.' It's been hot everyday since I've been here. But I just looked at the weather and we're expecting a thunderstorm this Thursday and Friday. I love rainy days when I can just sit inside drink some nice Taiwanese tea and read a good book. It's wonderful and plus we haven't had a rainy day in almost 3 weeks. It's long overdue. The picture to the right is another view of the rice fields. I should mention that most Taiwanese carry umbrellas (when it's not raining), and their sunscreen has a whitening agent in it. This is because it is best to have a fair complexion here. So so different than what we are used to in the United States. People spends thousands of dollars for tanning beds at home and here people try to look paler. What a world of difference....


Next week I am going to Kenting with a few friends from work. October 10, commonly known as double 10 day, is a national holiday, so we are leaving from Changhua on Saturday night and returning Monday evening. Kenting is best known for its beaches and surf. A common tourist attraction. It's three hours due south. I'm so ready....