No, David!

Yesterday, my all-time favorite school activity took  place for the first (and last) time this semester: first grade storytelling.

If you don't know any first graders personally, they are THE BEST!  And the real best thing about the first graders is that they LOVE me.  They would passionately and unquestionably follow me like little lemmings off the edge of a cute, Hello Kitty shaped cliff.  They are my groupies and I am their fearless, awesome, super-tall rock star leader who speaks funny Chinese.

We read the story "No, David!" which is about a little boy who never ever ever in a million years listens to his mom when she tells him, "No, David!" or "Not in the house, David!" or "That's enough, David!"  ***Spoiler alert*** But in the end, after David breaks the beautiful flower vase while playing baseball in the living room, his mom gives him a hug and confesses, "Yes, David.  I love you."

Here are some highlights from yesterday's lessons:

A picture of David's naked little butt shows on the screen.  All children scream and cover their eyes.  While writing the worksheet, most children write that the book was "funny" but one little boy writes that it was "a kind of porno."  Whoops.

~~~

FG1 (to me) : "MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO ... are you from America?"
FG2 (to me) : "MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO ... good morning!"
Miss Zhao: "Miss Zhao is over here"
FG1 and 2:  "Ohhhhhhh noooooooOOoOOOoOoo!!!! MAAARIIIIAAAA!!"

~~~

Me: "Can we all say, "No, David!"?  Go!"
FG: "NO, DAVID!"
FG Kevin: "NO, KEVIN!"
... pause ...
FG Kevin (to everyone):  "I said, "No, Kevin!""

~~~~

Me: "Why does David's mom say "I love you" even though David is not a good little boy?"
... silence ....
Miss Zhao: "Maybe because she is still his Mom.  Would your mom would hug you at night even if you were naughty?"
FG 1: "Once, my mom locked my little brother outside for a whole day!  Until it was night!"
Miss Zhao:  "Wow.  Did she hug him at the end of the day?"
FG 1:  "No, she spanked his bottom!  Bam bam bam!"

Fire Cupping part 2... the aftermath

Cupping aftermath

Great Balls of Fire

After having suffered from back problems for years thanks to an unfortunate playground swing set mishap as a teenager, I've been trying to make the most of Taiwan's National Health Insurance coverage to help my problems while I can afford to.  I've been going pretty regularly to a Traditional Chinese Medicine clinic for $5 subsidized acupuncture and massage treatments, which have helped my back a lot!  

At my last visit, my massage therapist man who, after calling me out on all my bad habits based solely on my involuntary flinching and pained facial expressions: "You didn't go to sleep until after midnight last night, did you?  Your stomach's been upset recently, drink more hot water.  Stop sleeping with your hands by your head,"  suggested that I try the traditional Chinese treatment of FIRE CUPPING on my next visit.

If you have never heard of fire cupping, you're in for a treat!  

Fire cupping is when a practitioner sticks a flaming torch inside a glass cup for a split second -- just enough time for the fire to suck the air out of the cup -- before sticking it to the patient's skin.  The cup creates a vacuum and suctions to the skin, sucking it up inside like a big disgusting looking boil.  After applying 10-15 cups, the patient is left "relax" for a while before the cups are removed.

Before getting the treatment, I wasn't too sure what it was supposed to do... and afterwards, I'm still not too sure!  I think it has something to do with acupressure points on the body, qi, and increasing blood flow to certain areas  -- kind of like the opposite of acupuncture.  It is supposed to leave the patient invigorated and detoxed.

And now, I am a marked woman: the cups leave big, dark hickey bruises that are supposed to last about a week.  Supposedly, the darker the bruise the more off your "qi" is.  

The procedure wasn't really enjoyable at all.  It felt really weird, like a lot of pressure and skin stretching.  It was actually really uncomfortable.  I couldn't move or do anything, so I just lay there and tried to relax.  In all its discomfort though, it did provide a kind of weird stillness that I think can only come from voluntarily putting oneself in such a position.  Mr. Massage Therapist Man recommended that I come back and get the cupping done again within a week before the bruises are gone... not too sure how I feel about that, but I'll keep you updated.

I have aftermath photos, to be posted soon!!

If you want more info / gross details, here's a link to a Wikipedia article and one to a more graphic YouTube video of the cups being removed.

Newsworthy x2

You can watch the video version of our rice planting on YouTube here!

Newsworthy

That's right -- I made the front page!

Here are some other news briefs:

Now you may be wondering, how does one go about planting rice?

Well, now the farmers have machines that they drive around the paddies and do everything automatically...

But traditionally, it's basically exactly what you see in these photos.  Starting with a chunk of rice, you break off 5-7 stalks and stick them into the mud.  

Wade in the water

Many of th Yilan ETAs, myself included, teach in the rural townships of greater Yilan County.  While farming is the traditional way of life out in these regions, we -- along with many of the younger generations of Taiwanese kids -- are pretty removed from it all.  I've watched the crop rotation throughout the year in the fields surrounding my school but never had the chance to get down and dirty in the paddies myself...

Until this morning!

To give us a better perspective on the daily lifestyle of many Yilan residents, Fulbright Yilan arranged for the ETA group to take part in some good, ol' fashioned rice planting!

After admiring the specially-made banner and being christened with traditional farming hats in front of the local news media, we kicked off our shoes and got down n' dirty in the paddies!

To add to the ridiculousness of it all (a bunch of foreigners wading around barefoot in a rice paddy at 9am) we got into the spirit by singing some good ol' fashioned gospel songs, led by one of our resident Southerners.  This was also documented by the local news media.  Wade in the water, children.

  

Showing off my handiwork.  The local news media encouraged us to smear mud on our faces while in the field.  While I was a little hesitant at first, it was all very tasteful and classy.

Farmer Man plows his field before planting.  One of my fave pics from the day.

Sandhya's "hatting" was documented by the local news

As was Brittni's towel crowning

Then we sat around like this for a while

Then we were each given a chunk of rice and got to it!

We all had a fun time playing in the mud and then were treated to a lunch of rice porridge and our own freshly picked cherry tomatoes!  We also got to keep the hats, win!

More (not as magical) lanterns!

And the lantern madness continues!

This past weekend, Zhan Laoshi (Dante's awesome Chinese professor) drove Dante, Parker and I to Miaoli, a small city on the northwest side of the island.  Miaoli was hosting its own Lantern Festival which apparently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most lanterns in one place.  While I'm pretty sure no festival will ever compare, at least in terms of magical mystery, to the PingXi Lantern Festival we went to last week, this one was cool in it's own way.  Granted, we went during the day time when none of the lanterns were lit up

The majority of the lanterns were hand-made by students from Miaoli.  Highlights included:

Totoro Lantern

Cranes

Dueling dragons

Dante's uncanny likeness to the spider lantern

As well as double-jointed flying horse #1

And magical flying horse #2