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@etakh1213
Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
Gustave Flaubert (via epikhi)
A spider I spotted on one of the hiking trails around Sun Moon Lake.
After our English camp ended, Scott and I met up with Christine to go to Sun Moon Lake. Sun Moon Lake, a big freshwater lake tucked away in the mountains in the middle of the country, is one of Taiwan's most famous destinations. It used to be the favorite retreat of Chiang Kai-Shek, and it's now a popular spot for honeymooners and vacationing families. It's also hugely popular with Mainland Chinese tourists, but it's also controversial because an image of it was published in the latest version of China's passport, implying that the lake, and thus Taiwan, was part of China. Sun Moon Lake was first discovered by the Thao tribe when, according to legend, Thao hunters chased a white deer who led them to the lake. Nowadays, Sun Moon Lake has a wide variety of attractions, ranging from nature hiking trails to museums about the aborigines and Chiang Kai-Shek.
Christine, Scott, and I spent the great majority of our day biking around the lake, which added up to about 18 miles. Did I mention that the lake is situated in the mountains? Not only was it the longest I've ridden a bike in one go, but it was also the hilliest one I've ever done, and near the end, it started raining. So, not the most relaxing of days, but it was a beautiful ride and we got to see a lot of nature and some historic sites. We also experienced some interesting food items - we had stir-fried muntjac (a small species of deer) meat for lunch, and I bought an apple banana at the end of the day. The apple banana was huge and red. It tasted and smelled kind of like an apple, and the texture was banana-like, but a little more crisp.
No trip to Taichung is incomplete without a visit to their famous night market, 逢甲夜市. It's the largest night market in Taichung province and possibly Taiwan. Most of the food items are the same as the ones you'd find anywhere else, but we found two things there that I had not seen anywhere else before. The first was 炒麵麵包, a treat that my students in Kaohsiung had first told me about. I was skeptical at first. Fried noodles in a bun? That sounds like way too many carbs to be tasty. But in fact, it was absolutely delicious. Scott and I waited in line for at least twenty minutes. He got a Thai-flavored one, while mine was curry-flavored. The fried noodles bun came in a plastic box and was accompanied by one plastic glove - that's how messy it was to eat. Unfortunately, we devoured these too quickly for me to take a picture. But I did get a picture of the second unique item - penis cakes! I hear these are available in Taipei too, but Fengjia was the first and only place I've seen them. Apparently, they are very popular, because when we stopped by, they only had one variety left. It was a light fluffy cake with cream inside and strawberry frosting on top. Vulgar, but tasty. Also embarrassing to consume.
Two of our students at the English camp lived way up in the mountains. One evening, our professor offered to give them a ride home, and he invited us ETAs along. Why? Turns out, the students' mom, Denver, owned a beautiful little cafe / resort up in the mountains. We enjoyed an amazing view as we ate a delicious dinner and chatted with the students and their mom. They had actually lived in Canada for a short period of time, so we switched back and forth between Chinese and English with ease. If you ever happen to be in their neck of the woods, I highly suggest a visit. You can reserve a nicely furnished room and enjoy the sunrise over the famed "cloud sea" 雲海.
若茵農場 (Roll In Farm)
台中縣和平鄉中坑村雪山路1號
Just When I Thought I Was Done...
At the end of my Fulbright grant, I and three other ETAs volunteered to go to Taichung for about a week and help teach a summer English camp there. I wanted to go because I had not gotten a chance to visit Taichung, and doing this camp would give me an opportunity to live there for a couple days - and not even have to pay for it. However, when we first started getting information about the camp, I was not sure whether I had made the right choice. We were given very little information about the camp, and the information we did get made it seem like the camp was poorly planned and managed.
When we arrived in Taichung, however, an entirely different story emerged. Turns out this was the seventh time the camp would be taking place, and the camp was run by a capable group of students from Zhengzhi University in Taipei. They actually planned the great majority of the activities for the kids, and we ETAs only had to teach during English class. The rest of the time, we assisted the college students with the activities they had planned - things like making paper zongzi, dancing silly dances, and relay races.
These college students volunteered their free time during the winter and summer breaks to run educational camps for students at Zhongkeng Elementary School in rural Taichung. How rural? Well, it took us an hour of driving from the HSR station through winding mountain roads and farmland to get to a village so small, it had only one store. There wasn't any place for us to stay, so we actually stayed in a neighboring town, which had a hotel - one hotel. The thinking was that rural students do not get the same advantages as kids in more populated areas, so offering a free camp for these kids would foster their interest in learning (especially English) and give them an opportunity to come in close contact with role models. At the same time, the college students would learn more about education, planning large events, and cooperation.
The camp turned out to be a ton of fun. The kids and their families were incredibly friendly and welcoming, the college students were fun to hang out with, and the backdrop of hilly pear orchards and cold mountain streams was beautiful. We were asked to teach certain holidays in English, which was great, since Scott and I had a lot of experience running holiday-based English camps, and Brian and Fiona also had a lot of material for teaching the holidays too. Since we recycled a lot of lesson plans, we didn't have to prep too much. The best part was that we were given the opportunity to teach about the fourth of July (which the camp was in session during), and we used the day to teach explicitly about the United States and the diversity of its citizens. It was a topic that I had had very little time to explore during the year with my students in Kaohsiung, so I was thankful for the second chance. In addition, the students in Taichung knew even less about America than students in Kaohsiung, so a lot of the information was new and exciting to them. We covered racial diversity, language diversity, and socio-economic diversity. We ended the day with a fun Independence Day parade (where the students each represented their own made-up country) and... S'MORES! It was not only the kids' first time experiencing this treat, but the college students' first time too. The logistics of preparing over 100 s'mores (especially in a country where graham crackers don't seem to exist) was daunting, but we managed to do it, and the s'mores turned out great.
Just when I thought I knew everything there was to know about teaching English in Taiwan, I got the opportunity to learn more at this four-day English camp. Just because the students were rural didn't make them any less excited about learning English. I thought that working with one co-teacher was enough, but at camp, not only did I co-teach with five or six people at once, but I had fun doing it. And finally, it is possible to drive the point home that not all Americans are rich white people who only speak English. It just takes a little focus. I will never forget the great time I had at Zhongkeng's English camp.
My last day at Chengzheng... Gonna miss my kids so much! I couldn't have asked for a better school - my co-teachers were the bomb, the rest of the faculty was friendly and welcoming, and the students were all (okay, maybe not all) enthusiastic and willing to learn. Goodbye, Chengzheng! I will definitely come back to visit.
Someone got a little too emotional about where you can and can't park on the sidewalk...
(It reads: 你娘禁止停車 / 幹. In English - Your mom can't park here / Fuck)
My sweet kids gave me a lot of little presents at graduation. Aww <3
Only in Taiwan would you find mini zongzi at the local Starbucks. Of course.
(Happy belated 端午節!)
My dance class kids <3 I love them so much. This is definitely one of the coolest things I did this year. I had a lot of misgivings about teaching ballroom at first, since I've never led a ballroom class before and am not really that great of a dancer, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, especially after I realized that my standards needn't be too high when it comes to teaching third graders how to dance.
Scott came to my school for our very last dance lesson and wowed everyone with his moves! Thanks, Scott, for paying us a visit!
Lauren and I went on a Buddhist retreat in early June at Foguangshan Monastery. It was a weekend retreat designed especially for foreigners - all talks and discussions were held in English. It was a fascinating glimpse into the life of a Buddhist monastic. We learned about different kinds of meditation, such as sitting meditation, walking meditation, meditation by copying the sutra in calligraphy, and being mindful in daily activities such as eating, chores, cooking, and making tea. Most of this was learned by doing. So, we ate with the monastics in total silence at mealtimes, only opening our mouths to chant the before meal chant and to eat; we helped them clean the inside and outside of a temple; and we cooked a vegetarian meal for 30~ people. We also learned more about the life of Buddha and Buddhist philosophy through visiting exhibitions at the monastery and long discussions with some of the monks. It was all interesting, informative, insightful (what is this, a Slashdot article?), and done in good taste. I personally enjoyed it a lot because not only did I get to meet great people from all over the world (monastics included! Our guides were from Malaysia, Thailand, and Australia), but I also learned more about Buddhism (which is sort of the faith I grew up in), and I learned more about Foguangshan's role in the southern Taiwan community. If you're interested in participating, the event's Facebook page is here. I highly recommend it!
SO PRECIOUS.
I went to a punk rock concert with my director. It was awesome! We saw the Fire Extinguishers 滅火器 perform at The Wall at Pier 2. The crowd was super excited and there was a huge mosh pit. It was my first time ever actually being in a mosh pit. It's quite frightening. Flip flops do not seem to be the right kind of footwear for this event. Most of the music was in Taiwanese, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Thanks for the fun night, Leo!
Beach sunset at 西子灣.
There are many unique ways to prepare shaved ice in Taiwan. In Pingtung, they have a stand where they make the ice really fine by using power tools. It was delicious!
Got to see my friend perform at the Red Room in Taipei Artist Village. It was awesome. Look at this cool stage setup!