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. 

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?