Today is my second day of teaching. Yesterday my first class was a little rough. I am taking over another teachers schedule so it is a guessing game for me to figure out how much English the kids know and what I need to teach them so they can pass their tests. The curriculum here is set and on a very strict timeline. I have to get into the swing of things very quickly. The kids are extremely cute but are exhausted by the end of the day.
This past weekend was a little sketchy. At one point our house was in chaos with nearly everyone changing rooms and two Aussie's moving in. The same day we had no water and no internet! That evening I had my first experience of being lost in a country with no one around who can understand English, me not knowing where I live or how to get home. How did I get in this situation??? It was innocent enough. It was quite late and I wanted to go home so I got someone to call me a cab. The driver got the instructions to my house in Mandarin, said he understood and drove off. Soon after I realised he had absolutely no clue where to go and I immediately demanded to get out of the cab. I fisted my keys and began to wander around until I found a landmark I recognized. I was definitely nervous. I knew I would eventually find my way I just didn't know how long it was going to take or who I would run into along the way. It ended up not taking too long and really the only thing I encountered was a pack of wild dogs. I just looked past them and kept on walking. Whew. Now I carry a business card with my address on it in English and Mandarin.
A great part of my weekend was a trek that Stephanie and Sonja went on. We busted out of Ilan by train and caught a rickety bus to a fishing village near Keelung. This is where many hikes start and where some strange geological formations are located. The hike was short but very steep. We were rewarded with a gorgeous scene at the top. The cut rolling mountains looked like the hills of Cinque Terre in Italy. Rich coloured water smashed the rocks, a pair of goats perched precariously and happy families wandered around enjoying the scenes are their time together. It was a great break from the pollution and noise of Ilan
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Taiwan 3
Yesterday was wild...
For me Taiwan is a place where everything seems to change very quickly. High highs and low lows....
I will post more details tomorrow.
For me Taiwan is a place where everything seems to change very quickly. High highs and low lows....
I will post more details tomorrow.
Taiwan 2
March 1st
Yesterday was my hardest day yet. I believe the excitement of coming, then being here began to wear off. A somewhat daunting feeling sunk in. How will I manage to be happy in a country where I only know 10 people that speak English?? Also, half of the people I know are leaving in 2-6 months. Another thing that made me uncomfortable was my ugly, hateful room. Perhaps it is the bat shit on the wall or the huge wide metal slaps that block out most of the sunlight. I somewhat resigned myself to living outside my room and not getting too attached to people…. not the best feeling. Some things in my life (I’m sure in yours too) remedy themselves quicker than others. I decided that a) I can make my bedroom good and the common room great and b) I need to learn as much Mandarin as possible. I do feel better now.
As I write this I am sitting at my fave coffee shop. It has some of the best coffee in Yi-lan and the guy behind the counter is sweet and accommodating. Lots of the teachers hang out here. I rode here on my new bike and am waiting to go on a hike or to the hot springs with Sonja and Stephanie. I discovered that 7-11 sells English newspapers ( I am a bit of a news junkie) and that eating a friend egg with chopsticks is a little tricky. The shop I am in is directly across from the National Ilan University.
This past Thursday I had the hilarious experience of going shrimp fishing. I’ll set the scene: we scooted away from Yi-lan in a gang like formation and drove for 15 minutes. We showed up at a large industrial size building and sauntered inside. There we rented polls and fished for shrimp in a pool sized area. We baited our hooks with chicken hearts then waited and waited. The experience was the opposite of riveting and just plain funny. In one hour we caught 4 shrimp for the 7 of us. The Taiwanese people looked so serious when thehy were fishing. We just chatted, waited and giggled a bit. At the end of the hour we grilled the 4 shrimp (I caught the biggest! woot) and ordered two buckets of prawns, one big fish, general tao chicken, fried shrimp with pineapple and a sweet sauce + the shrimp folk threw in about 3 dozen shrimps cooked with chilies. I literally had shrimp on the brain and in my tummy as I dreamt of shrimp fishing that night.
Some people have asked what I have been eating:
Chicken curry with pasta and shrimp
Veggie packed burritos with peanut sauce
Fried onion bread
Leek dumplings
Lots of bananas and salad
Soup with every possible ingredient
My school provides a very nice free lunch for the kids and the teachers. This week I tried rice with steamed veggies, perfect tofu and a chicken or pork stir-fry with veggies. It is very nice to have a home cooked meal to break up the teaching day. Kids here definitely eat healthier then kids in Canadian elementary school lunch program.
I think I figured out why the Taiwanese can be so emotionally flat.,…. I believe they are exhausted. They definitely work really hard. For example, the school I work at is in addition to their elementary school program. This makes for a very long day. It is inspiring to see people work hard and to be so dedicated however I think they could take a bit more from the Italian lifestyle, as in life should be pleasurable. To each their own though!
Yesterday was my hardest day yet. I believe the excitement of coming, then being here began to wear off. A somewhat daunting feeling sunk in. How will I manage to be happy in a country where I only know 10 people that speak English?? Also, half of the people I know are leaving in 2-6 months. Another thing that made me uncomfortable was my ugly, hateful room. Perhaps it is the bat shit on the wall or the huge wide metal slaps that block out most of the sunlight. I somewhat resigned myself to living outside my room and not getting too attached to people…. not the best feeling. Some things in my life (I’m sure in yours too) remedy themselves quicker than others. I decided that a) I can make my bedroom good and the common room great and b) I need to learn as much Mandarin as possible. I do feel better now.
As I write this I am sitting at my fave coffee shop. It has some of the best coffee in Yi-lan and the guy behind the counter is sweet and accommodating. Lots of the teachers hang out here. I rode here on my new bike and am waiting to go on a hike or to the hot springs with Sonja and Stephanie. I discovered that 7-11 sells English newspapers ( I am a bit of a news junkie) and that eating a friend egg with chopsticks is a little tricky. The shop I am in is directly across from the National Ilan University.
This past Thursday I had the hilarious experience of going shrimp fishing. I’ll set the scene: we scooted away from Yi-lan in a gang like formation and drove for 15 minutes. We showed up at a large industrial size building and sauntered inside. There we rented polls and fished for shrimp in a pool sized area. We baited our hooks with chicken hearts then waited and waited. The experience was the opposite of riveting and just plain funny. In one hour we caught 4 shrimp for the 7 of us. The Taiwanese people looked so serious when thehy were fishing. We just chatted, waited and giggled a bit. At the end of the hour we grilled the 4 shrimp (I caught the biggest! woot) and ordered two buckets of prawns, one big fish, general tao chicken, fried shrimp with pineapple and a sweet sauce + the shrimp folk threw in about 3 dozen shrimps cooked with chilies. I literally had shrimp on the brain and in my tummy as I dreamt of shrimp fishing that night.
Some people have asked what I have been eating:
Chicken curry with pasta and shrimp
Veggie packed burritos with peanut sauce
Fried onion bread
Leek dumplings
Lots of bananas and salad
Soup with every possible ingredient
My school provides a very nice free lunch for the kids and the teachers. This week I tried rice with steamed veggies, perfect tofu and a chicken or pork stir-fry with veggies. It is very nice to have a home cooked meal to break up the teaching day. Kids here definitely eat healthier then kids in Canadian elementary school lunch program.
I think I figured out why the Taiwanese can be so emotionally flat.,…. I believe they are exhausted. They definitely work really hard. For example, the school I work at is in addition to their elementary school program. This makes for a very long day. It is inspiring to see people work hard and to be so dedicated however I think they could take a bit more from the Italian lifestyle, as in life should be pleasurable. To each their own though!
Taiwan 1
Feb 28th
My first days in Taiwan have been enjoyable but tiring. I have been busy shopping, observing my classes, meeting other teachers and somewhat desperately trying to figure out where I am in Yi-lan. So far I know how to get to a good grocery store and where a great coffee shop is. Today, Sonja (my new friend) scooted me all over. We had a good lunch at a pasta shop ( I had a yummy chicken curry ), then we strolled around a lovely park. There a river cuts through the green area and the mountain hills stand gorgeous in the background. There is also a common area for people to grow a small garden. The vegetation here is vast and varied. There are big trees, little trees, some with huge leaves others are tiny, long, narrow, short and wide. The mountain hills looks impenetrable as the trees are very luscious and dense. As we walked random people told us we were pretty, others practiced saying hello and army boys shouted as they jogged by.
People here sometimes seem somewhat sedated. I can’t figure out if everyone is just incredibly calm or stressed.
Last night was a hoot. I met up with the other teachers at a bowling alley, played three games and then I played poker with the boys at a local bar. Most of the teachers seem very friendly and seem to answer some of my questions before I ask them. Not speaking Mandarin could make this country a very isolating place so having fun and wise crowd of western friends is great. Last night someone said to Sonja, “ Laura is great, I would even hang out with her in real life”. I laughed hard when the message was passed on to me. I guess all the teachers hangout as we have to have someone to talk to. Its nice to know some friendships are genuine, not forced. My friends Sonja and I clicked in two minutes flat. We spend a lot of the day talking and she has been invaluable to me learning the “ropes” of Taiwan.
Things here are cheap, but not ridiculously inexpensive. I am sure some western teachers go home with little savings.
My students here are mostly adorable. There are some obnoxious wankers, but I can deal with them. Everyone calls we teacher Laura or teacher Roara. ☺ Some of the Taiwanese teachers are rude but I can handle them too. I think they may resent us because we make way more money then them. This isn’t really fair so I can see why they are frustrated.
I haven’t busted out my camera yet. I need to start teaching first and then I will begin shooting.
My first days in Taiwan have been enjoyable but tiring. I have been busy shopping, observing my classes, meeting other teachers and somewhat desperately trying to figure out where I am in Yi-lan. So far I know how to get to a good grocery store and where a great coffee shop is. Today, Sonja (my new friend) scooted me all over. We had a good lunch at a pasta shop ( I had a yummy chicken curry ), then we strolled around a lovely park. There a river cuts through the green area and the mountain hills stand gorgeous in the background. There is also a common area for people to grow a small garden. The vegetation here is vast and varied. There are big trees, little trees, some with huge leaves others are tiny, long, narrow, short and wide. The mountain hills looks impenetrable as the trees are very luscious and dense. As we walked random people told us we were pretty, others practiced saying hello and army boys shouted as they jogged by.
People here sometimes seem somewhat sedated. I can’t figure out if everyone is just incredibly calm or stressed.
Last night was a hoot. I met up with the other teachers at a bowling alley, played three games and then I played poker with the boys at a local bar. Most of the teachers seem very friendly and seem to answer some of my questions before I ask them. Not speaking Mandarin could make this country a very isolating place so having fun and wise crowd of western friends is great. Last night someone said to Sonja, “ Laura is great, I would even hang out with her in real life”. I laughed hard when the message was passed on to me. I guess all the teachers hangout as we have to have someone to talk to. Its nice to know some friendships are genuine, not forced. My friends Sonja and I clicked in two minutes flat. We spend a lot of the day talking and she has been invaluable to me learning the “ropes” of Taiwan.
Things here are cheap, but not ridiculously inexpensive. I am sure some western teachers go home with little savings.
My students here are mostly adorable. There are some obnoxious wankers, but I can deal with them. Everyone calls we teacher Laura or teacher Roara. ☺ Some of the Taiwanese teachers are rude but I can handle them too. I think they may resent us because we make way more money then them. This isn’t really fair so I can see why they are frustrated.
I haven’t busted out my camera yet. I need to start teaching first and then I will begin shooting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
