Happy Sad Anniversary

One year ago today, I walked home from my last undergraduate final exam and opened my inbox to find the most important email of my life: the email announcing I had gotten the Fulbright. I was blown away.

Or, technically, what the letter said was that I should call Jonathan Akeley at my earliest convenience to discuss the status of my Fulbright grant; and, technically, what I was was frozen stiff, then spurred to frenetic energy as I dug through my drawers looking for older correspondence, and then frozen stiff again. But you get the picture.

I don't know if I've mentioned it on here before, but I was actually an alternate to come to Taiwan. That means that in April, when everyone else here was getting their life-changing letters, jumping up and down with joy and calling their friends and family to share the good news--and believe me, they all remember the precise moment they got their letters, we've compared notes--I got, instead, the deflating news that I had gone from "recommended candidate" to "alternate." That was all the information I was given--that I was an alternate, and that, if someone backed out or they got more funding, I might get to go. There was no mention of the likelihood of that happening; nor did they tell me whether I had a dozen people before me on the alternate list, or if I was the first.

As it happened, the latter. But the not-knowing that plagued my April-June was one of the biggest testings I've faced so far, and the pay-off was easily the best. One year later, I cannot fathom what my life would have been like if today had passed like any other, consigning me forever to the phantasmal status of alternate.

I suppose it's fitting, then, that today featured our unofficial LET-ETA Farewell Potluck. One year ago today, I learned that I would have the opportunity to come to Taiwan and meet and work with hundreds of wonderful people; today, I began to learn what it is to say goodbye to them.

The existence of the potluck, and the number of people who came, actually says a lot about our group. See, we had had an official farewell dinner planned for all the ETAs, LETs, and host families. Then it got cancelled, thanks to budget cuts. At our last Wednesday workshop, they gave us the microphones--and all anyone could talk about was how much we wanted a real goodbye, funded or not. So potluck it was!

And I'm so glad it was. For a strictly voluntary event on a weekend night, a huge number of people showed up--and, Taiwan being Taiwan, way more than enough food. I spent the night shifting around the room and chatting, and in addition to chilling with the other ETAs (which we've done surprisingly little of this year) and with Maggie, Alison and Patty (ALWAYS a pleasure), I got to catch up with several of the LETs, like Kiwi and Karen, with whom I'd loved to hang out back during orientation, but hadn't been able to see much of since then. And, of course, I ate myself sick.

Foooooooood

Pictured: Patty succeeding in getting Analicia to try the duck blood rice. Brittany is still being persuaded. I held strong.

Lovely people!...many of whom I didn't know were in the picture until I uploaded it. In a crowded room, pictures grow as soon as you start posing!

I love these people so much!

I can't help but think how perfect the timing was that our potluck should be today, exactly one year after I found out I was coming here. What a perfect way to celebrate, and to remind myself of the possible outcome of a period of intense uncertainty--which, incidentally, is also what I'm dealing with right now in regards to the coming year.

Today ushers in a new year for me, one with many goodbyes to be made, but also many hellos which I don't know about yet. And, as sad as the goodbyes are, and will be, the best possible way to look at them is in light of the fact that they can be made--that I met all these wonderful people in the first place. Thank you all for a fantastic year, and thank you, Fulbright, for changing my life with a single email sent one year ago today.

Back to Normal

Dan and Danny left this morning sometime after I did, and I was instantly plunged back into my occasionally unrelenting (oxymoron, I know) schedule. And today was one of the unrelenting ones.

I've often meant to detail my schedule on here to give you a glimpse into my actual day-to-day life, and I suppose I have done that in snippets so far, but now let me just give you the timetable I follow every other Wednesday.

6:45am -- Wake up and get ready for the day, assuming I remembered to shower the night before (otherwise, the alarm is set for 6:20am)
7:20am -- Leave for Han-Min, on the expectation that it will take a good 10 or 15 minutes longer than a normal day, as I will have to fight through the morning rush all trying to get to Siaogang by 8am
7:50am -- Arrive at Han-Min, with any luck
8:00am -- Begin Morning English! I switch off teaching this with Alison and Maggie, and we teach 5 classes of a single grade every week; by the end of the semester, we will have seen every class once and we'll start over again. Today Maggie and I taught a new dialogue for our first "middle grade" group of 4th graders; first times always have a few bumps, but overall, it went pretty well.
8:30am -- Begin the awkward hour break before my next class, usually rendered un-awkward by a coffee/tea trip with Maggie and/or Alison. Today it went by really quickly, thanks to a few great conversations with both of them and the fact that we used the time to plan for our Halloween lesson plans. Going to be great, by the way!
9:30am -- First *real* class of the day; all adorable 5th graders with Maggie on Wednesdays.
12:00pm -- Lunch. My last class of the three I teach on Wednesdays bring me my lunch in the teachers' office, where I thank them in English and they, without fail, giggle a response and run away. Love it. :) Another highlight of lunch is always sitting and talking with Maggie, Alison, and Fiona, the other English teacher at Hanmin; our desks are close together and we just sit and chat and teach each other new vocabulary. It's fantastic.
12:30pm ish -- Lesson plan time! Alison and Maggie and I plan for next week
1:00/1:30pm -- Go home to pick stuff up if I have time (I did today); if not, straight to Sanmin for our massive LET-ETA-Fonda-Alex-Education Bureau people-Dr. Sun meeting!
2:00pm -- Here begins our meeting.
4:00pm (if we're lucky) -- Here ends our meeting. Nothing much of importance happens in between.
4:25pm -- We (ETAs) finish our post-meeting meeting with Fonda and Alex, and either quickly run home for stuff if there wasn't time before (this option would make us late) or run out for food at the local market and/or 7-11. Oh, the nutritious dinners we eat on Wednesdays...
5:10pm -- Chinese class begins. "Surprisingly," we make horrible students on these days...
7:10pm ish -- Chinese class ends.
7:40pm ish -- Rachel and I reach the gym (if we coordinated and have managed to conquer our exhaustion--which didn't happen today)
8:40pm ish -- Rachel and I head home, where I drop exhausted onto whatever flat surface I see first.

I know that, in writing this, I'm inviting comparisons from people who routinely work 14 hour days etc, and I have no answer for that. I'm just sharing my day.

Discoveries

Tonight, Karina and I decided to go check out Kaohsiung International Church--you know, the one which we tried to find the first weekend, only to have a doorman at an apartment building where we were trying to ask directions tell us that we weren't in Kaohsiung anymore. (He was wrong.)

This time, though, we went by scooter (first time driving with someone on the back--discovered I could do it--success!), and looked up and wrote down directions ahead of time. Only parking was an issue, since the street the church is on is under construction and I fail, in general, in getting my scooter into parking spaces. But, even with that little drama, we ended up in the church five minutes before service began.

And service was good! In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Springfield Faith Center, where I attended while growing up--the pastor's name was even the same, Dave, which I thought was a funny coincidence. And the people were friendly and fairly outgoing; it turns out, several of them live near the Cultural Center, too! One guy, Mike, had on a Mariners shirt, which got me excited for a minute, but turns out he's not from there. Dave, on the other hand, is!

It was a good mix of people (age-wise etc), good preaching, and decent worship (though I'm not going to lie, at moments I wanted to run on stage and grab the bass sitting there unused to get their rhythm back to where it should have been). Basically, still no City Church, but I felt like I could learn and belong there for a year.

After service, one of the girls, Katie, invited Karina and I to get dinner with them, but we had to get back to write our weekly reports (and, in my case, blog), so we declined and went to Mosburger for a quick bite instead--one which turned out unexpectedly fishy and slightly stomach-turning (looked like a burger in the picture! Shoot!). Next time, I'll join the church group.

On the way back, we saw a little bit of the area, which is technically in Sanmin district, and loved what we saw! First of all, clearly a fairly Westernized area--Mosburgers, McDonald's, Starbucks, and Blockbusters dotted the scenery--and it was also a very young area, with young people wandering everywhere. Also, from what I can tell, it's near the Love River! Definitely a very nice (and probably expensive) place to live, and definitely a nice district discovery which I will have to explore more in the very near future.

So, one successful church visit down, I dropped Karina at the MRT station and scouted out a flower shop I'd seen on Guangzhou the other day to buy a bunch of flowers for my lesson tomorrow, "Where are you going?" We're using realia to help reinforce the vocabulary, and I volunteered to supply the material for flower shop--and as a bonus, get some lovely flowers in my apartment after we're done with them! (Assuming they survive tomorrow, that is.)

Anyway, here they are--cost me all of $150NT, or about $5US, so a bit steep for around here but I didn't feel like bartering with a nice older lady when I could barely speak the language anyway and I was her only customer.

Please note that they are currently sitting in an aluminum thermos. In other news, I need to buy a vase.

So, things I discovered today: a good church; that I can drive with someone on the back; a great area to hang out; that I shouldn't eat seafood at Mosburger; that flower shops here are open on Sundays; that I need to buy a vase. Obviously some discoveries are worth more than others--so I should really go buy that vase now. :)

Brain Lapse

Again with the two-days thing. Today was actually worse--Wednesdays in general are going to be rough, really. My brain is fried.

My day today began with Morning English at Hanmin at 8am, meaning I had to be out the door here by no later than 7:15 or so. After that I had (and always will have) an hour break (in which I get coffee; this morning Maggie and I went out and brought back some for Alison, too), and then taught from 9:30-noon. Then, after eating lunch, I lesson planned with Alison and Maggie, then set out for Sanmin for our biweekly Fulbright meeting, which began at 2pm. It was interesting at times, but the general mood of teachers (LETs and ETAs alike) was exhaustion. When that finished (10 minutes late), the ETAs had a chat with Alex and Fonda, then had about a half hour to go grab a snack (奶茶--milk tea--and 7-11 garlic bread for me) before Chinese classes started at 5:10. Then we had class for 2 hours. When I got home, around 7:45 (after a brief detour to Chialing's with Emily and Lydia, where we were disappointed to find her closing up already), I took the opportunity to run some errands: pick up flashcards from the stationary store (more on that later), buy pineapple and nectarines from a fruit stand (dinner), and pick up some milk.

So around 8:30, just over 13 hours after I left the house, I sat down to a nice relaxing evening of painstakingly copying foreign characters and building a stack of unknown words the height of Taipei 101.

Why, you may ask?

Well, the title refers to more than just my present inability to think straight, or my inability to remember the first part of my day--on the drive from Hanmin to Sanmin I decided I was going to write my scooter rant today--traffic inspired me--but that rant is lost now--though that does of course play a part.

But it also refers to Chinese class. Maybe it was a function of the long day, but today in class I was absolutely worthless in anything related to Chinese. Usually pronunciation can be my saving grace, even when my memory fails (often), but tonight, I couldn't even get that right. When we met up with Chialing, she asked me what we learned today, and I couldn't remember a single thing to tell her. The word "zai" (4th tone--在/ 再) popped into my head--it means either "located" or "then," depending on context/character--but that was it. One word, from an entire lesson which included pretty much everything about how to ask for/give directions.

Crap.

The kicker was that I had spent all of my breaks at school today studying--going over old vocabulary, studying the dialogues we would be doing tonight--all for nothing. This may seem like the most self-evident statement in the history of the world, but Chinese is hard!

Also, today while ordering 奶茶 with Karina today, she told me I've been saying "you" (有)  instead of "yao" (搖) when ordering recently--telling everyone that I have whatever I'm ordering, instead of saying that I want it. The one phrase I thought I had down. And the worst part is that I know the difference between those two words! Yet even this failed me today. 

So now I have a freakishly tall stack of cards with the Chinese character and a picture on one side, and the pinyin (phonetic Chinese) and English translation written on the back. I'll be staring hard at these puppies on a daily basis, and adding to them, too, which my writers' cramp-y hands are not looking forward to right now.

On a positive note, I received my official invitation to the 10/10 celebration in Taipei next month. It's kind of a big deal.

You can tell by the envelope. And, you know, the return address: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

So yeah, all the Fulbright scholars this year are invited to celebrate the Republic of China's 100th Anniversary, in the capital, with the president, as the guests of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The invitation states that "national dress or western style dress" is required (time to break out my silk from China!), and "guest pass is enclosed and required for entry."

Of course, ours didn't have the guest passes--Vivian, a Fulbright coordinator in Taipei took them for us so we don't forget them--but the prestige of the invitation still oozes forth. I am so excited, humbled, and blessed to be in Taiwan at such a great moment in its history!

If you were curious, here's the invitation itself.

Perhaps I should have mentioned at the beginning of this post that I don't have school tomorrow, thanks to Cing-Shan's students' 6th grade trip. This is, after all, the only reason I'm still up at 3am local time: no set time frame tomorrow. Which means that I will (try to remember to) hit up the gym and then shut myself up at Brunch Cafe to finish my application, which is due Friday, Seattle time.

So I guess I should go to bed now. Time to let my brain recover.

Drenching

It's finally stopped pouring outside right now--but pour it did, for several hours, beginning, of course when I was just getting ready to drive back from Chinese class.

And I discovered several things about the rain:

1. It's absolutely wonderful. It cools you down, the humidity's not as bad, somehow, and overall it just feels like you're sitting in the middle of a perfect waterfall in the middle of the jungle. And of course, given that this is a subtropical region, that's not too far from the truth.

1. It's absolutely inescapable. Remember that waterfall simile? Yeah...that actually applies to force and drop size, it's not just a stereotype of something wonderful. Leaving San-Min, where we have Chinese classes, I wasn't quite insane enough to think I could make it home unprotected, so my first instinct was simple: drive across the street, where there was a 7-11 which, Fonda informed me, would be selling ponchos. Yeah...in the time it took for me to get to my scooter, put on my helmet, stop at the light and drive across the street, I was drenched. As in my white skirt was clinging to my legs, my shoulders were wet through and my sandals were sponging water. Even after I put on my newly-purchased pale yellow all-body poncho, my shoes were under what felt like a running faucet, my face was being constantly smattered with rain, and the small triangle of my shirt left exposed by the poncho was soaked through by the time we made it back to the apartment.

1. When it rains in Taiwan, ponchos emerge out of nowhere like umbrellas in New York or cicadas in their long-awaited season. Everyone expects torrential rain; everyone prepares for it. Everyone, that is, except foreigners. (Well, not quite only foreigners--I was in good company at 7-11, and they had a stash of raincoats by the check-out.)

And, well you know me and my lists. They have 3 items each (a nice round number which happens to be my favorite and into which my thoughts on a subject almost invariably fall naturally), and are usually a sign that I'm tired and/or have been reading too many Cracked.com articles. In this case, both are true. So I'm signing off for now.

Who's Who in Kaohsiung

On special request, and since I did absolutely nothing today other than sit around and watch TV (and Skype with Lindsey for an hour an a half, which was wonderful), here's a brief run-down of the people I mention in my blog.

The Roommates
I currently live with Brittany, Rachel, and Karina, all of whom are other ETAs here in Kaohsiung. We choose schools tomorrow, so living arrangements may change, but I hope not--I love living with these ladies.

The Other ETAs
The other Fulbright ETAs here in Kaohsiung are Analicia, Andrew, Emily, Esther, Lydia, Samia, Steven, and Tiffiany. All wonderful people to hang out with. Right now we all live in the same apartment complex, but as I noted above, that will change soon.

Fulbright people
Fonda is our go-to person for just about everything; I think her official title is ETA Project Coordinator in Kaohsiung. She is absolutely amazing, and her patience with us is immense--I can't imagine having to take care of a fresh batch of full-grown infants every year until they get on their feet, but that is, essentially, her job description. Fonda plans everything and tells us what we're doing; sets up all the official stuff for ARCs, bank accounts, scooter licenses, rent and utility payment etc; provides scooters for us to practice on; checks up on us at home (and takes us to the hospital if we need it); and serves a general liaison for anything and everything that could go wrong. She also takes pictures all the time, which is fantastic.

Alex is the ETA Project Chief Coordinator; he lives and works in Taipei at the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (aka Fulbright Taiwan), I believe, and comes down to visit us on special occasions. He's a great guy, really helpful and friendly, and widely-traveled, which makes for some really fun conversations.

Dr. Vocke is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) and he, like Alex, lives and works in Taipei and comes down to Kaohsiung when he's needed. Unlike Fonda and Alex, he's American, and he's been living in Taiwan for four or five years now. He's wonderful to talk to; he's part college professor (he used to be one; calls himself a recovering academic) and regulation stickler and part grandfatherly advice: the perfect combination.

Dr. Wu used to have Dr. Vocke's job; he's a Taiwanese Fulbrighter from a long time ago, and oversaw the Fulbright program in Taiwan for a very long time. He formerly studied and taught in the US, and he is willing to say whatever is on his mind. He's great.

Kaohsiung People in Education
Evelyn hangs out with us a lot; she's a total sweetheart and a friend of Fonda's, and she works at Sanmin as an English teacher . She's also a fantastic photographer and has a great smile. :)

Professor Spring teaches Education at National Kaohsiung Normal University; she is super athletic, independent, and fun to be around. She has been helping teach us the basics of teaching--she gave us a year-long course in theory in a single 3-hour session last week--and is helping set people up to play tennis and swim at NKNU. She's hilarious and free-spirited, and is one of the peoplehere in Kaohsiung who will help us with the teaching aspects.

Professor Lee also teaches Education at National Kaohsiung Normal University; she sometimes goes by "Triple L" because her full name is Lee-Lin Lee (I think? Or maybe Lin-Lee Lee?), and she is really sweet, helpful, and fun. She has been helping us with more classroom-oriented practices, and is great at being hands-on herself. She is our other resource for the teaching aspect of our grant.

Dr. Tsai is the Director General of Kaohsiung Education Bureau, the highest education authority in Kaohsiung. We have had the honor of meeting him twice so far.

Joanne, CJ, and Allen all work at Sanmin, and we have gotten to hang out with them a lot over the past few weeks. Joanne and Allen have gone on several of our outings with us (I rode in Joanne's car to dinner the other night, and she was great to talk to; she told us a lot about Ghost Month in Taiwan), and we get to see them every day in their office, which is right outside our conference room. CJ is the military presence at Sanmin; he speaks good English, has a great smile, and is a lot of fun to hang out with. He also lent us his scooter for the first day of scooter practice, which was great.

I'll add to this list as I think of more people; right now, it's late and I have to be up early tomorrow.

Marathon day

I'll be honest, this is mostly a post just so I can continue to say I blog everyday. I'm exhausted. Today consisted of a long string of workshops on teaching theories and practical games and tips which, combined with the fact that I stayed up late last night reading and kept waking up this morning out of fear that my alarm wouldn't go off, means that I am now melted onto my couch. And, incidentally, stuck to it, courtesy of the constant heat-and-humidity combination here that turns my skin into glue. :)

This morning, I accidentally exacerbated that effect because, as I discovered, drinking hot coffee and drying your hair in a rush before going out to walk to the MRT is not the best way to lower your body temperature. It was fun, though, to know that we can now get ourselves to Sanmin unaided--nice little walk to and from the closest MRT stations, but definitely doable. Feels like I live here now!

We passed the morning with the wonderful Professor Spring, who taught us various teaching theories, with help from Tiffiany on a few. One odd effect of our prolonged 3-hour session indoors was that we actually got cold! By lunchtime, we were all clamoring for the heat and humidity, just to get away from the air conditioning.

And we did! After we ate, Karina, Samia, Lydia and I went out in search of fruit juice; after a long search down several streets, we finally found a little fruit stand that also had a blender, but no watermelon. So today, for the first time ever, I tried papaya! I really can't believe I hadn't tried it before--PAPAYA IS SO GOOD! The papaya milk (木瓜牛奶) I had at the stand was beyond delicious, and I got to listen as Samia read the peach labels to the owners, explaining which fruit was from the US and which wasn't, and explaining the "-ty" and "-teen" number endings in English. I love that I can pick up some words I hear in conversation now!

Next up was a long afternoon session on games, taught by a previous ETA and by two LETs, Sunny and Winnie. They were all GREAT, and I'm super excited about all the simple but wonderful games they taught us, but by the late afternoon my lack of sleep last night was not helping me to pay attention. 

After we finished, we started scooter practice! I was really excited, and was one of the first people on one, but I discovered it's not quite as easy as it looks. In fact, my first time on the scooter, I never made it further than a couple feet before stopping again.

Of course, it made it all the more difficult that, not five minutes after we went out there, the playing field in which we were practicing was invaded by school kids, cutting our viable space in half and making us all terrified that we would run into one of them. New drivers + kids used to playing around experienced drivers = BAD idea!

In any case, I blame my initial attempt partially on that; in addition, I tried starting with a turn, which didn't work well, and I tried to balance before the scooter was actually moving--bad idea. It never tipped, but it wasn't great. Fortunately, the second time around, when the kids left and Andrew showed me all the finer points of balance and getting started, it wasn't too hard. Of course, it remains to be seen if I'll ever be comfortable driving it in Taiwanese traffic!

Anyway, I'm tired and I've already written much more than I'd planned tonight. More later.