Meinong Hometown

Today, I had the privilege to explore Meinong as a hybrid cross of tourist and native.

How, you may ask? Through the wonderful perspective that comes from being an American with a lovely Taiwanese host family, and whose mother just so happens to be visiting.

First of all, some perspective. My mom and I got into Kaohsiung this morning after 29 and 10 hours of travel, respectively, at around 5am and, as my mom settled into my bed and I settled onto the floor, we managed a fitful 5 hours of sleep before the alarm rang at 10am.

At 11am, my host family came to pick us up, and, a short 7-11 trip for coffee later, we set out for Meinong.

Let me just say, I love my host family. My host mom, Margaret, had prepared a dual-language itinerary  which she gave to both my mom and I, complete with a note at the bottom welcoming my mom to the country. We all had a wonderful chat as we drove out of the city and the towering buildings gave way to greenery-enfolded hills and long stretches of banana, coconut, and betel nut trees. The Portuguese were really onto something when they named this island Ilha Formosa, which translates as "the beautiful island."

First off, we went to the Meinong folk village, an adorable cluster of buildings built in traditional style and boasting a paint-your-own umbrella station, koi pond, traditional Hakka house and furnishings, a tea shop, where we drank traditional lei (ground rice) tea, and a glorious view of the surrounding mountains.

...and also this ADORABLE baby on an old-fashioned rocking horse.

Then it was off to the paper umbrella making shop, where we did a little souvenir shopping, the end results of which for secret reasons we cannot display here now. ;)

Next was a SCRUMPTIOUS lunch of Hakka-style noodles, lotus stems, Fu vegetable, pig knuckles, peanut tofu, and stewed cabbage. Hakka-style cuisine remains my favorite I've tasted in Taiwan, for sure.

Then we went to James's house! Yes, that's right, turns out James is pretty much related to all of Meinong; we drove past his old school and through dozens of houses they announced were inhabited by distant relatives to get to where his mom still lives on their old family farm, a gorgeous space awash with greenery which has, over the years, grown over old tobacco buildings and other out-buildings to create a gorgeous contrast of wild and domestic.

We met James's mom, brother, sister-in-law, and several other relatives, and got to stroll through their garden, plucking orange cherry tomatoes off the vine as we went. Before we left, she insisted on giving us a bag full of tomatoes, fresh green dates, bananas, wax apples, and papayas. Her generosity was as overwhelming and beautiful as her garden itself.

By the time we pulled ourselves away from my host family's home, I felt like I had entered a new level of host family-hood. I now have not just a host nuclear family, but a host extended family, now on both sides (I met Margaret's family a while ago). It was lovely.

A soft rain began as we headed past a quick stop at a lotus growing field and to our final destination, in Margaret's family's hometown of Chishan, where we visited Chishan's traditional street and ate delicious iterations of banana shaved ice. (Mine was also lemon; my Mom's was red bean, pineapple and plum; James's was just red bean; Emily's was red bean and some other unidentified fruit and ice cream; Margaret had hot sticky rice, instead.)

Soooooo good.

After that, it was time to load our (very weary, in my mom's and my cases) selves back into the car and head back to Kaohsiung to await an hour at which it was normal to pass out for the night. (Easier for me than for my mom, for obvious reasons--hence I'm finishing this blog at 11pm as she's been asleep for an hour.)

Driving back, sitting in the middle seat with my mom on one side and my host sister on the other, I was reminded just how blessed I am to have two such great families supporting me as I live here in Kaohsiung. I left with a bag weighed down with goodies from my host family's hometown, and headed inside to enjoy them alongside goodies from my hometown. Hybridity can be a very good thing.

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.