Merry Christmas, Nanao!

Me and some of the other Yilan city folk trained it down to the rural aboriginal township of Nan'ao (where 3 other Fulbrighters live) on Christmas morning to celebrate the holiday and a double birthday!

At a tiny elementary school nestled in the mountains, we partied it up with BBQ, sweet breads, cookie dough truffles, mulled wine, as well as homemade rice whiskey and raw boar meat - both local aboriginal specialties.  

Here are some pics I stole from my friend Jenny's blog (again).

Party spot!

Chillin in the pavillion

Mmm BBQ!

I assumed that after camp ended this summer, I would never do archery again... WRONG!  We played with the school's traditional archery equipment and shot at a drawing of a boar mounted on plywood.  I hit that sucker in leg.  Not dead, but at least crippled.  It's comforting to know my chances of surviving in the wild / a zombie apocalypse just went up a little.

A few of us stuck around late into the night (9pm) singing KTV and drinking shooters of Taiwan Beer.  We were invited back for beach ATV'ing and all future BBQs.

Life's really different down in Nan'ao.  It's an incredibly beautiful, incredibly rural area surrounded by mountains and the ocean.  Drinking is a big part of the culture and many people speak the native aboriginal languages outside of school.  While I don't know if I, personally, would be happy living in such a secluded area, I definitely plan to make many more visits to Nan'ao in the coming months!

Merry Christmas from me and some English Village kids!

Christmas Gaiety

It's Christmas (well, technically Christmas eve) at Gu Ting today!

Since we're not having a Christmas performance this year, Stacia and I threw Christmas parties with our two English classes!  In her 6th grade homeroom class (English is usually taught by a different teacher, but not in this case), we had a gift exchange party!  I traded a Spongebob candy-cane and Christmas tree ornament for a Spongebob plush toy.  Spongebob's translated Chinese name, by the way, is "Sponge Baby."

I've received a ridiculous amount of AMAZING cards from students (most of whom I don't even teach!),

 along with five slices of pizza (two seafood, three Hawaiian), 5 packs of Yilan specialty cookies, a crystal tree, delicious chocolates, a pencil case, and a very special pair of earrings...

A Milky Christmas Story

The featured star of the Christmas video I made for my parents, a boy I accidentally renamed Milk, loves me.  He not only confessed his love to me several times, but dropped down on his knees yelling "THERE'S STILL HOPE!" when I told him I wasn't married.  He drew me an awesome Halloween picture, then preceded to throw it at me and run away screaming "MIIIIIIILK-UH!"  Ahh, to be young again.

Milk's English is not that great but he is one of the funniest and most creative kids I have ever met.  Usually he just speaks English-sounding gibberish at me, with the occasional "MILK-UH!" thrown in for good measure.

For Christmas, he presented me with a very delicately wrapped package in front of the whole class.  Inside was not only a very beautiful pair of earrings but also the best Christmas card I have ever received.

I'm not sure where he learned the word "gaiety," which makes me like this even more.  I think I'm going to get it framed.

Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad!

One of my 6th grade classes helped me make this Christmas video for my parents!

Merry (early) Christmas!

Finally!

Yilan is an area known for its fantastic hiking and gorgeous natural beauty.

Dante and I have been vowing to go since August.

Today was finally the day!

Well-rested and full after a pre-Christmas dinner party at my house, we headed out bright and semi-early to explore the Caoling Historic Trail that runs from the north of Yilan county to Taipei.

 
(dinner party photos courtesy ETA Jenny's awesome blog)



The hike starts at a temple behind Dante's school.  After hiking for about 3 hours, we reached the tallest point in the Northeast Region, with 360 degree views of the ocean, mountains, and surrounding counties.  The weather was 70 degrees and breezy, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day!

Here are some pics, more are posted on Picasa.

We tried to do as the Taiwanese do, and pose for pictures at every possible location.

We finally reached the top!

Mountains to the west

Fulong Beach to the north

Dali and Daxi to the south, Turtle Island to the east

Poker Face

Today at English Village, Teacher Jenny and my 6th graders had been talking all morning about how excited they were to get in the EV Dance Studio and dance to Poker Face by Lady Gaga.

We wrongly assumed that they had just wanted to let loose to a little Gaga... but then, this magic happened (keep in mind that these are 6th grade boys doing this of their own free will):











Thanks a billion to Jenny for being genius and well-prepared enough to digitally capture these wonderful, wonderful memories.

KTV

My friend Vivian, who has worked at the Fulbright Taiwan office in Taipei for a few years now, recently introduced me to Liz Williams, a past Fulbrighter who had returned to Taiwan for a few months.  Before actually meeting Liz, I'd seen videos of her singing on TV as one of the stars of Super Idol (the Taiwanese version of American Idol).  The show is just as glam and dramatic as the American version and the singers are just as talented.

Long story short, a few of us Yilaners ended up going VIP Karaoke-ing (known in Taiwan / China as KTV) in Taipei with Liz and her fellow Super Idol cast-mates.  

Seeing as my usual Karaoke haunts in the states are Pudgy's and Sellwood's own Penguin Pub, VIP KTV is pretty much my life-long dream come true.  VIP rooms are private; stuffed with comfy couches, state-of-the-art KTV technology, a big flat-screen TV, personal waitresses, a bar, and a clean bathroom.

Hanging out with people as incredibly talented at singing as the Super Idol cast-members are, was pretty freaking awesome, to put it lightly.  Imagine your own, private American Idol screening and you've pretty much got the idea.

Check out some of the talent:

Liz on Super Idol

This guy was there, too and was SUPER hilarious... but I forget his name!

This guy, Eric was also there!

Pics stolen from Vivian:

Also available were some of the great hits of American pop music by artists like Aqua (remember them? They sang "Barbie Girl," the bane of everyone's existence), Dido, No Doubt, Blink 182, the Backstreet Boys and of course Lady Gaga.

Carolyn, Erin and Steven hold their own with the Idol crew

Bon Hiver

1. Winter
2. Second grade
3. Holidays

1.

Winter has arrived in Yilan.

Every single adult I spoke with yesterday informed me that, "Tomorrow the weather will change."  I found myself constantly reassuring others that yes, I do own a sweater and yes, it also gets cold in America.

That was yesterday.  Today is definitely colder than yesterday (+1 for the weather bureau) and winter jackets have made their grand seasonal entrance.

And I should mention that by "winter," I mean that the temperature has fallen to a dangerous low of ... ... ... 61 degrees.

While I'm a little disappointed in myself for abandoning the Pacific Northwest tradition of donning shorts as soon as the thermometer hits 60, even I have to admit that it feels really freaking cold out.

______________________________________________

2.

Today, I helped the 2nd graders make Christmas trees using hand cut-outs (think: green Thanksgiving hand turkey dog-pile that sort of resembles a tree).  It was pretty awesome and involved a lot of messy, messy glue.

_____________________________________________________

3.

Lately, Stacia and I have been discussing the differences between the American and Taiwanese education systems which has been incredibly interesting as the Taiwanese system is modeled after the American system, but is very different.  

A more detailed blog entry for this topic is in the works, but one noticeably major difference is the holiday schedule -- also known as Taiwan's lack of any vacation-warranting holidays that fall before February.  That's right: the semester goes straight from August 31 until January 20.  No Thanksgiving.  No Veteran's Day.  No Columbus Day.  No Christmas.  No New Year's.  No in-service days.  Imagine it.

A turkey and a turtle

"When the turtle wears a hat, Yilan people say it will rain.  This method has proven incredibly accurate over the years, as whenever the turtle wears at hat, rain soon falls on the Lanyang plains."

This past Thursday was Thanksgiving.  I have much to be thankful for.  I spent the day working with 7 of my besties and a very complacent group of Luodong 5th graders at English Village, which was followed by a feast of food court sushi and KFC -- deep-fried, non-MSG chicken being the closest we can get to turkey in Yilan.

The holiday wasn't a total bust, though, as Fulbright threw us not one but TWO Thanksgiving feasts in the week leading up to the official glutton day.  The first party was hosted by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT, aka the "not embassy") at a few diplomats' apartment complex in Taipei.  They served us an incredible traditional Thanksgiving buffet, complete with turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.  So wonderful.

A few days later, on Thanksgiving eve, Fulbright threw us yet another Thanksgiving feast here in Yilan.  After partaking in a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony, we went to a traditional Taiwanese restaurant for another 10-course meal (quite the norm here, apparently) that was also wonderful, filling, and full of the freshest local specialties.

Today, we attacked another feast of fresh-from-the-docks seafood.  Parker's LET (Local Taiwanese English teacher) Sherri invited us along on one of the season's last tours of Turtle Island, off the coast of Yilan.  It took us about 40 minutes to reach the island by boat and then another 20 minutes to circumnavigate the entire island before disembarking.

The northern tip of Turtle Island houses a giant underwater sulphuric hot spring -- one of only 4 in the entire world.  The hot spring water is bright bright blue especially as compared to the deep blue of the rest of the sea, ridiculously hot and also wreaks of bad eggs.

The light blue hot spring water meets the sea

Turtle Island is also home to a pretty cool military base that's mostly comprised of tunnels and secret hide-outs carved into the island.  It was all a little too "Shutter Island"-y for me, though.

Creepy lookout base

Creepy dock

Creepy tunnel, creepy boys

I was trying to lessen the creepiness...

Pretty unsuccessful.  This tunnel's still pretty creepy.

Creepy spiky ceiling!

Thankfully, I wasn't ditched at the Island in true "Shutter Island" insanity fashion.  After exploring the military base (note: military bases are not conducive to much exploration.  Our "guide" Sherri got in trouble for not watching us close enough after we wandered off), we headed back to shore and were greeted by another 10 course seafood meal, which was more than enough food for the 13 of us Turtle Island adventurers. 

Thanksgiving

I made this little video in honor of Turkey Day in Taiwan.  It's pretty silly -- filled with wonderful people and lots of fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2twEVEUsiw

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!!

I'm in Miami, trick

As much as I hate to mentally associate Snooki with the education of young and impressionable children, I'm excited to say that I have officially accepted an offer with Teach for America (TFA) as an elementary school teacher in Miami, Florida!  I was originally assigned to Atlanta but encountered a major summer scheduling problem after a week of frantic emailing and early morning phone calls, I was reassigned to Miami-Dade. I'm disappointed to lose my placement in Atlanta, I'm getting used to the idea of spending my Saturday mornings lounging on the beach...While Miami-Dade wasn't at the top of my list, it definitely wasn't anywhere near the bottom and, most importantly, I'll be teaching elementary school!  Love me them little ones.

Having the next two years of my life semi-planned is a huge relief.  Now I can relax and focus on life here!

A.I.T. (the "not embassy") hosted a big Thanksgiving dinner party on Friday for all the American diplomats and Fulbright crew living in Taiwan.  The food was, as always, incredible and it was great to see the whole Fulbright group again.  Another Yilan ETA dinner has been organized for this Wednesday night at a traditional Taiwanese food restaurant in town -- meaning no turkey but 10 courses!

A bunch of us took advantage of being in Taipei and went to see Harry Potter 7 in a real theater and IT WAS AWESOME!!! It was especially awesome because Yilan's only got a crappy 4-screen movie theater with sound that's always just a liiittle off, so seeing it in a nice theater made it seem really super impressive (rather than just regular super impressive).

The rumors are true: things mold here.  Not just food, but clothes, shoes, other things... If mold can grow on it, it will.  To counter the mold attack (so far my only casualty has been my backpack, although my purple heels were almost fatally wounded last week) I bought a bunch of little dehumidifiers and some anti-fungus laundry detergent.  I also bought a new backpack which made me realize how crappy my old backpack actually was, silver lining much?

Trick or treat!

Dear Blog,

Sorry I’ve abandoned you.  Please take me back.

Maria



My life in Taiwan has definitely settled into a rhythm - work, tutor, study, sleep.  In between, of course, there’s lots of good eating, talking and cultural exchanging.

Despite my awesome wolf costume ("I am NOT a husky, I'm a wolf!"), my kids weren’t as excited about Halloween as I would’ve hoped seeing as I was feeding them straight-up sugar while talking about zombies.  We watched the Nightmare Before Christmas, ate candy, and learned the three most important Halloween-related words of all-time: TRICK OR TREAT (which is now shouted in my classroom whenever my kids catch me sneak eating the left-over Halloween candy... not that happens very often or anything....).

Lately, I’ve been teaching a lot of storytelling classes -- 40 minute self-contained lessons that I create based on an English language storybook.  I LOVE storytelling classes, I try to make them as fun as possible to encourage the kids’ interest in English.  While I can usually avoid using Chinese while teaching my 6th grade classes, speaking the language really comes in handy when teaching the younger grades.  We draw pictures, act like animals, and use homemade paper telescopes to “Look left! Look right! Look at the sky!  Look at the ground! Look ALL around!”

Since finishing our pen pal project, my 6th grade English club students and I are starting work on our next big objective: Gu Ting TV!  We’re going to be conducting interviews with students and faculty on such intriguing topics as “What’s your name?” and “What color is it?”  It should be fun.  So far, the only worthwhile moment I’ve managed to capture on video is my student, Ting, accidentally tipping over a desk:

There's also this gem of an audition:

The weather has been unusually amazing here these past couple days -- meaning, IT’S NOT RAINING (like it is now. damnit).  Scootering an hour each day in the pouring rain really makes one appreciate 1. anytime that it isn’t raining, and 2. scootering anytime that it isn’t raining.  I am now the proud owner of an Yilan rainjacket -- a full-length GIANT raincoat with an unintentionally 80’s color scheme.  As you can imagine, I look pretty awesome when I scooter.

Typhoon Megi brushed by Yilan a few weekends ago (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/22/typhoon-megi-taiwan-china.html), spurring a 3-day typhoon weekend of flooding, rock slides and general destruction.  While Yilan City incurred some flooding, it was the surrounding farmlands and southern townships that got hit the hardest.  Safe and dry in our apartment, we didn’t realize the extent of the damage until worried calls began coming in from the states - apparently, Yilan had made American news headlines.  

Although the rain was gone by Saturday, many local Yilaners had been evacuated and many were displaced after losing their homes.  The creepiest news to emerge in Megi’s aftermath: an entire tour bus went missing somewhere along the coastal highway and the only clue to its fate was an arm that was later found on the side of the road. AHHHH!!!!!  On a less creepy note, the Yilan ETA crew are luckily all safe and sound.

The rain’s been reminding me a lot of the good ol’ Pacific Northwest.  I’ve been living almost entirely off cereal for 2 weeks by choice.  Yes, I think there is a problem with this.  No, I am not worried.  See what 3 months of rice can do to you?  On especially rainy days (aka every other day), I find myself longing for a good cold microbrew and a hot cup of real coffee.  Ah, all that is good in the PNW.

I’ve been distracted lately with thoughts beyond Taiwan, mainly, “What the F am I going to do after Fulbright ends in June???”

And... I’ve almost arrived at an answer: I will hopefully be moving to Atlanta, GA as an elementary school teacher and Teach for America 2011 corps member!  Even though I’m SUPER EXCITED about my TFA placement in Atlanta, I haven’t been able to officially accept the position due to scheduling conflicts.  So there’s still a pretty big chance I’ll be re-assigned to a new region , but until then, my heart belongs to the ATL.

10 / 10

To celebrate Double Tenth Day (10/10), we got all dressed up and got on the subway!  Classy and environmentally conscious.

The party, hosted by the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was held here -- an old Japanese palace...

complete with red carpet.

The foyer presented a 12' tall model of Taiwan made of fresh fruit.

At the edge of the palace garden...

We schmoozed with various diplomats, drank fancy wine, and ate from the most overwhelming buffet I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing.

Oh, and the President of Taiwan was there, too.

Stuffed and tipsy, we gathered outside for a final group photo before getting back on the bus to Yilan.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

SO you wanna write me letters and send me care packages??? Oh, alright I guess...

Maria Morrisson c/o Kelly Lin
Yilan Teacher's Center
No. 36, Sec. 1, Minquan Rd.
Yilan City, Yilan County 260
TAIWAN    26049

mooncake OD

Lesson Plan (Sunday, Sept. 26)
Warm-up: Why we BBQ on 4th of July (5 minutes)
Activity 1: Moon Festival (15 minutes)
     Objective: Transition from warm-up. Ss will understand the international concept of "unrelated holiday BBQing".
Activity 2: Taipei trip(s)  (15 minutes)
     Objective:  Ss will understand one's potential reasons for going to Taipei.
Wrap-up: Self-Reflection  (5 minutes)


Warm-up
I opened Friday's 6th grade English lesson with the question, "Did you bar-be-cue on the Moon Festival?"  The Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is celebrated with family BBQs and mooncakes - little 420-calorie balls of every flavor goodness. While the "tradition" of Moon Festival BBQ spawns from a relatively recent advertising campaign, it led me to consider, aloud in front of a class of unruly Chinese-speaking 6th graders, why we Americans have 4th of July BBQ.  This led to a translated, super-simplified American history lesson:

"a long time ago, there was no America like there is today.  There were Native Americans and people who came from England.  The English people wanted their own country, they wanted America.  American and England fought in a war.  Who won?  America.  The Declaration of Independence was written and on July 4th, 1776 America became a country.  Now we BBQ steaks, hamburgers and hotdogs, and light fireworks and some people drink a lot of beer."

This led to a Chinese-language discussion on contemporary Taiwanese politics - will there, one day, be a Taiwanese Declaration of Independence?  An interesting idea.  My students, captivated.  My co-teacher, thrilled. Aaaand then it was back to the real world, big-test-based lessons of phonics...


Activity 1
In another wonderful expression of Taiwanese hospitality, Jodi's family threw the Yilan ETA crew a Moon Festival BBQ at their house.  In addition to her mom's AMAZING homecookin', we spent a solid 3 hours BBQing meat and meat and more meat over two open grills in Jodi's driveway, while her grandpa looked on.  Despite being unable to communicate with us (he spoke only Taiwanese), he was so happy to have people over that he stayed up and observed the party from his chair, Taiwan Beer in hand.

To continue the celebration, we ate pomelos (another traditional Moon Festival food) and mooncakes and finished the meal with grilled marshmellows topped with banana.  We ate to the point of bursting.  In other words, it was an awesome night.

 Another Taiwanese Moon Festival tradition is to wear pomelo peels on your head.  Really.

Grandpa posts up beside the party.  (This photo wasn't edited)

The BBQ setup

So what does BBQing have to do with looking at the moon?  Just about as much as it has to do with Mister T.Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence.

Activity 2

This year's Fulbrighters have been officially invited to a VERY formal dinner on 10/10 Day (National Day of the R.O.C.,October 10) to which many very formal and very important people from all over the world will be attending - including THE PRESIDENT OF TAIWAN.  

My immediate concern: what do you wear to dinner with the president???!!!

This led to a group trip to Taipei in search of the arguably best suit-maker (featured in GQ, he's that good) in Taipei, a man named Johnny.  A few of us went up to Taipei early Saturday morning to watch Dante's students preform (on stilts!) at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall.  They totally killed it, despite the billion degree heat.  

 

Dance crew walking to the stage! 

 

SO impressive 

Next, we seriously devoured some much-needed Mexican food before heading out in search of Johnny the Suit-Maker (the search for Mr. Johnny was MUCH easier than the search for Mr. Mexican Food, as it turned out). Johnny quoted me $200USD to have a dress custom made, fitted, and ready to wear by the evening of 10-10, but I need to make my decision by Thursday.  And if you give a girl a formal custom made dress, you know she'll want some ... ... ... NEW SHOES to go with it!  Ohhh the possibilities!

Afterward, the group parted and went our separate paths - mine and Dante's led to the biggest ferris wheel in all of Asia.  Talk about prime scenery.

Wrap-up

I now have a Flickr account, which I'll be uploading photos to as often as I can (still computer-less).  The link's at the top of the page.

Gil's coming to visit on 10/10!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Saturday nights are always poppin' at the ZhongShan apt.  And on Sunday, we listened to Justin Bieber slowed down 800% while watching silent videos of the African savanna and sharks eating seals.