It's All Relative

Sorry, the Patterson in me couldn't let the opportunity escape for a bad pun. In other news, I met my host family today! They are absolutely wonderful, and I already feel blessed to have them in my life.

"But wait," you say. "Bekah, you live in an apartment. Why do you need a host family? Are you moving?"

No, I'm not. But, as it turns out, living situation has very little to do with the idea of a host family. Fulbright connects every ETA here in Taiwan with a host family to serve as, well, a family, someone to spend holidays and go see the country with, much as a grown child might do with their biological family. They give us another person to turn to if we're stumped with what's going on around us. And, of course, the added benefit is that of cultural exchange: they teach me Taiwanese culture, and I teach them American culture. Saying that since I live on my own I don't need a host family is roughly equivalent to advocating dumping your biological family once you're self-sufficient: even if you don't live with them, you still need a family!

We went to Banana Pier for the official family-meeting-reception, and got there just as the sun went down. It was gorgeous.

Yes. Unedited.

(...and oh yeah, this happened...)

And, once inside, we got to meet our families and have a delicious meal! My family consists of Margaret, an English teacher in Kaohsiung who has had an ETA before and who reminds me somewhat in her looks and mannerisms of my Aunt Marlene; her husband James, who smiles constantly and is keen to teach me Chinese and show me around his hometown of Meinong (so excited--gorgeous place!); and Emily, their daughter, who is a sophomore in college studying English, and with whom I have quite a lot in common. They're fantastic!

Seriously though , US family, doesn't she look like a Lindstrand?

 Other highlights of the night included everyone being forced to give impromptu 2-minute introductions of themselves, which were occasionally adorable..

Karina's family's son introducing them in Taiwanese--SO cute

...but more often slightly awkward. And then there was 'fun time,' which involved the ETAs writing their answers to a series of questions and seeing if the new host families could guess. In the first round of six questions, we got zero right, giving us the ignominious position of last place. We rallied in the second round, pulling out with four matches (one of which was obtained by kind of cheating...), but were still consigned to the bottom of the stack. We didn't care, though--it was just funny. Also, we're pretty sure that Andrew, who got 100%, cheated more than a little to get there.

By the end of the evening, my cheek muscles were aching from too much smiling, and I was 100% optimistic about the coming year, as James and Margaret want to show me around and Emily told me she's excited to have a traveling buddy around her age. I could not have picked a better host family! There's nothing better than when things just click.

And that's been happening in other areas of my life lately, too.

My colleagues at Han-Min and I had a great week; one of the great things about Han-Min is that, because it's a big school, the subject teachers all share an office. This means that, at every break, I am surrounded by my LETs and a third English teacher, Fiona, with whom to chat and hang out. And they're fantastic--as of today, we're planning to go see an Alphonse Mucha art exhibit sometime in the next few weeks. I'm not going to lie, I hadn't heard of Alphonse Mucha before today, but I'm excited to go see his works if only for the fantastic company!

Another moment of adorable clicking today: one of my students, Peggy, saw me studying Chinese and took it upon herself to come in on all of her recesses to help me, pointing to different words and having me repeat them after her, correcting my characters as I wrote them on flashcards, and then, in the last recess, bringing in flashcards of her own that she'd made for me during her last class. So. Cute. A little annoying when I was trying to work quickly, but the thought did not go unappreciated.

Incidentally, Peggy also made me this card for Teachers' Day:

Human connection is just so wonderful when it falls into place, and you don't realize how little of it you have at first when you move to another country where you don't speak the language. But today, in three separate instances, it fell into place, and reminded me of the joys it can offer. It's not a full-blown web of support, but it's a great group of colleagues, students, and now a family, and in a city where I used to know no one--it's all relative.

Teachers' Day!

Today was Teachers' Day, which is, as you may have guessed, a day honoring teachers. Apparently there's one in the US, too, but I had never heard of it before 10 seconds ago, when I searched it on Wikipedia. Not possible here!

Here in Taiwan, Teachers' Day is a really big deal--according to Maggie, Kaohsiung used to give teachers $5,000NT each on this day, and according to Alison, they still give New Taipei teachers $1,000NT. (We didn't get money, though, for the record.) Here, Teachers' Day celebrates the attributed birthday of Confucius, he of the hundreds of wise sayings and seemingly the wellspring of all Chinese wisdom. Basically, he's a superstar--and a superstar at teaching. Which means that we, as modern-day teachers, are by extension superstars as well!

Teachers' Day celebrations actually began earlier this week. On Monday, I arrived at Han-Min to find this sitting (not bitten yet, of course; that was me) on my desk:

It's a rice bun filled with red bean and (a single) strawberry! Quite good, actually.

I think it may have been from one of the other teachers or from the administration (all the teachers in the Subject Teachers' Office had one), but still.

And not to worry: you can't say students don't know how to appreciate their teachers here in Taiwan! Later that day, I witnessed this wonderful little moment:

No, your eyes do not deceive you: that's a student rubbing Alison's shoulders while another waits behind her--they were literally in line a second before I snapped this; a second before that, they were fighting over who got to give her the back rub. Would this happen in America? I think NOT. (Incidentally, the boy in this picture is named Louis; he's a total teachers pet and especially loves Alison. The girl, however, is just there to rub her shoulders.)

And that wasn't even on the day.

Today, after teaching Morning English, I found, first of all, that Alison had bought me coffee. (She is so sweet!) Second of all, I discovered that I, like all other teachers, was a temporary rock star.

(Of course, all it really takes to make me feel like a rockstar is this, but still...)

Anyway, today, in addition to the carefully-scripted "Laoshi hao" and/or "Good Morning Teacher Bekah" in the halls and in the classrooms (where either greeting is accompanied by a group bow), I heard "Happy Teachers' Day!" more times than I could count. And they were genuinely excited about it! This could be evidenced by the growing pile of stuff on my desk that students gave me--I think this was the bulk of it, sans a couple candies I ate.

Worth noting: the flower was from the school

Not pictured is one of my favorite cards, a handmade postcard showing the beach, an umbrella and a big cloud cut out against an inexplicably yellow sky. Actually, now that I'm looking at it again to describe it, you've just got to see it:

Sorry--webcam quality.

I love this card all the more because two girls came literally running up to Maggie and I today while we were on our way to class to deliver it--they were that excited to show us their appreciation. And, terrible teacher that I am (or, you know, just teacher-with-540-students-I-see-once-a-week that I am), I couldn't even tell you their names. I know that they were in class 5-01, so I know I taught them yesterday, and I know that they are super sweet, and made me the best card ever! Yet another reason I need to take individual pictures of my students holding their name cards or something--I can't stand not knowing simple stuff like this!

Aherm--back to topic. Another fun discovery today was that my name has apparently changed its spelling without my knowledge: the standard attempt was "Bkka," which I guess sounds about right if you sound it out, and especially makes sense given that there is no "eh" sound in the Chinese language, but it was a bit funny to see written out over and over.

And once on a crane!

Then there was the absolutely adorable card Alison and I got from a student named Madeline:

Outside...(It reads "Lead; Knowledge; Kind; Humorous; Inspirit; Likes Playing; friend?" Last three are my favorites. :)

And the inside: melts your heart!

But the most extravagant, wow-this-is-fantastic moment came in the second class of the day, when Maggie and I walked in to find...this:

 It was beautiful! All over, it read "Happy Teachers' Day" in two languages, plus "I love teacher" and "You are beautiful" in Chinese. I had forgotten my camera, but instantly ran to get it. This was not a board that could be erased before being captured forever!

The artists and their creation.

Had to get a close-up, too, to capture the vividness!

Feeling very honored as a teacher (and very awkward to be having my picture taken--Maggie's idea)

 We did, of course, have to erase it for the lesson, but the kids didn't seem to mind. They actually did it themselves, going at it with a gusto I thought amazing, given the time they seemed to have put into making it. But they were enthusiastic, and we then had a great class!

After class: even the home room teacher got in there! Can you spot the adults?

Feeling very blessed to be here in Taiwan, and to have the co-teachers and schools that I do. And not just because they give me stuff on Teachers' Day--they are genuinely some of the best people I've ever met, and I just love spending time with each of them!