Dragon Boated

As promised, here's the post-race Dragon Boat update!

Post-race victory photo

First of all, it's H-O-T today, 90 with high humidity, and it's beginning to feel like summer again. We arrived scooter-gang style at Dong Shan River park around noonish and were given chicken lunch boxes, another summertime favorite (not).

Since we weren't allowed to practice at all, we watched the other teams row for a bit before it was our turn to hit the water.  Dragon boat rowing is a big deal in Taiwan and most teams practice daily for months ahead of the big competition... but not us!

Professionals

Also professionals...

The boats seat 18 rowers (2 rows of 9) plus a steerer at the back and drummer and flag-grabber at the front.  A few weeks ago, I volunteered to be the flag-grabber under the false assumption that "flag person" meant I wouldn't have to be in the boat and instead would be doing something similar to waving a flag from the shore... I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Flag person" (aka flag-grabber) actually climbs up on the front of the boat and leans off in order to grab the flag for their team.  This is just as difficult and bizarre as it sounds:

Hang 10!

I wasn't too sure how to actually get my body onto the dragon's face, so I just kind of dragged myself up there as far as I could and leeeaned!  It turns out the good flag-grabbers will hop onto the dragon's head with their knees and then lower their bodies down parallel to the water.  Now I know for next time!

The best part about being flag-grabber is that you don't have to do too much until the very end of the race except cheer your team on and, if you're me, take videos of them!  My video uploader software isn't working at the moment, but I'll get them up ASAP.

Action shot!

My team ended up getting last in our heat, but only by a few seconds -- which isn't too bad considering it was all of our first time even setting foot in a dragon boat!

Now it's time to eat shaved ice and cool off.  Tomorrow is my big singing performance, wish me 加油！

The beginning of the end

I have only 10 days left in Taiwan -- I honestly can't believe this year's gone by so quickly!  While I am definitely sad to have to say goodbye to this beautiful country with its lovely people and delicious food, I'm eager to get back stateside and into my very own classroom!!

This is how I imagine next year. 

I'm glad to say that this year has solidified my love of teaching.  Although I've become a skeptic of the organization I'll soon be working for, Teach for America (TFA),  I do whole-heartedly support their mission of eliminating educational inequality in America.  However, the topic of TFA is one for another day (or another blog -- see the end of post for deets!) and I'll be sticking to Fulbright business for now.

I've been busy lately trying to tie up lose ends before departing to the good ol' USA.

Thanks to the hard work and creative genius of fellow ETA's Andrew, Jill and Glen, we were able to pull together the best surprise roast Taiwan's ever seen.  We got to spend Friday afternoon in the company of all 16 ETA's who were literally crying with laughter at how flippin' funny the four of us are how well we've gotten to know each other over the past 11 months.  Jokes included fake middle names, superlatives, and celebrity personae.

In case you're curious, I was crowned something similar to "Most likely to learn 7 languages 'just for the hell of it' while teaching full-time and maintaining a perfect South Beach tan" and my celebrity personae were a Jersey Shore groupie and Audrey Hepburn (talk about flattery!  I hope it's because I always look fresh.  For a definition of "looking fresh" watch this clip at 1:20).

Afterward, we had the final Friday family dinner at my apartment with oh-so-delicious salad, soup, and pasta prepared by none other than Eric, Brittni and my roomie Harry.

Tomorrow, we're all rowing in the Dragon Boat festival which is going to be hilarious because the government won't let us practice before the actual race.  I'll post an update after I've recovered from the post-embarrassment shock.

And so begins the packing and cleaning...

Hiking Ren Shan

Today, I was invited by my friend Stew to accompany her and her Chinese teacher, Zhan Laoshi (with whom I also went to the Miaoli Lantern Festival) to go hiking at Ren Shan Mountain.  The springtime weather was absolutely gorgeous again today and ended up being perfect hiking weather.

We left in the afternoon and spent about three hours hiking and exploring the gardens atop the mountain.  Sounds intense, but there's a big difference between Taiwanese / Chinese-style "hiking" and American-style "hiking."  In Taiwanese-Chinese "hiking," going uphill is not necessarily involved at all -- it pretty much just means walking around outside.  Sometimes, like today, there are lots and lots of paved stairs involved.  I experienced "hiking" like this in China as well at the Great Wall and Huang Shan.   Once, as we were "hiking" around a flat lake, my co-teacher asked me, "I hear that in America when you go hiking you have to use your HANDS??!!"

After the hike we drove to a mountain temple to eat ice cream, a much-deserved post-hike treat.

The views from both the mountain and the temple were incredible!  We could see all of Yilan county and even Turtle Island off in the distance.

Mountaintop garden

You could smell the trees!

Stew sippin' on the holy mountain water

Inside the temple

Stew teaches us how to tell if your lion statue is male or female

Oh...

Green Expo

The best days of school (for the students, at least) are always always always FIELD TRIP days!!!

This Friday, all four 6th grade classes -- about 120 kids -- packed up and went on an all-day field trip to the Yilan county garbage / recycling center and the bigger (and understandably more popular) Yilan Green Expo.

This was my first time hanging out with my kids outside of school and it was awesome!  They were all very well behaved and we had a good time walking around in the sunshine.

The single highlight of the garbage and recycling center was this GIANT claw machine that picked up bunches of garbage to be dropped into a trash compactor.  I was pretty creeped out by it (reminded me too much of all those futuristic machines you see destroying the human race in movies) but the kids all thought it was awesome.

Next, it was off to the very well-publicized Yilan Green Expo.  There are posters all over NE Taiwan advertising the Green Expo and its "Return to Nature" theme.  The Expo doesn't open to the public until next month but for now only hosts special visiting tour groups and schools.

I spent my afternoon walking around the Expo with a group of 5 lovely girls.  We looked at cool fish, played on a bootcamp-style equipment playground, looked at cute animals, ate ice cream and sushi, and rode on a railroad cart -- just like in Donkey Kong!  

Despite all the press, I didn't think the Expo was all that great.  From what I've heard, last year's was a lot bigger and better.  However, it was in a beautiful location and we couldn't have asked for better weather or more ice cream.

DK-style!!

Sports Day!

This Saturday, my school hosted its annual Sports Day to celebrate its 75th birthday!  It was the hottest day we've had in a while and we were all hot, sweaty and exhausted by the end of the morning.

There were lots of awards presented, games played, and popsicles consumed.  The kids had been practicing all week for their performances and competitions, they looked so cute in their costumes.  I also met a lot of my kids' parents, which is always interesting!

Here are some pictures from the morning!  There's a lot more in my Picasa album, so ch-ch-check it out!

4th grade drumming performance.  My school's really big on music.

4th graders take the field

All the students at Gu Ting!

1st grade dance

Kindergarten kids posing with Mr. Policeman

I'm not sure what this number was... Two 4th grade girls and a group of middle-aged women danced to Aqua's 1990s hit "Barbie Girl"

The older grades ran food and game tables as class fundraisers

The 6th grade 3-legged race competition was fierce!

And here are some portraits of my babies

This is Mr. Milk.  He's the one responsible for all the awesome drawings ("Christmas Gaiety")

An interesting point of difference between Taiwanese and American schools:  you will not get in trouble if you bring a toy gun to school in Taiwan.  All children also have boxcutters.