2 months in and the awkwardness just gets better!

My friend Joyce, a fellow ETA, has a saying"It's not awkward unless you think it's awkward." To a certain extent, I can reason with that statement. Like when you're alone on an elevator with a complete stranger and its 40 seconds of silence and you're thinking "Oh my god, this is so awkward!" It's not awkward. It's just silence and you deal with it!  But sometimes the awkwardness hits you right smack dab in the middle of your face, you can't help but to acknowledge the awkwardness. And if you're like me,  awkward situations just happen to follow you (or rather you unintentionally create them), so you learn to roll with it and just embrace it.

Now, it's officially been more than 2 months since I've been in Taiwan. And naturally, I've had my fair share of awkward moments. Like the time I was locked in my hostel room and had to throw my keys over a balcony so fellow ETAs could catch them, and subsequently free me from my hostel prison. Or all the times I've been out with my White friends and people mistake me for their translator (despite the fact that my White friends know vastly more Chinese than me.) But this instance last week has got to take the cake.

My fellow ETAs, Iris, and I had just finished a long day at English camp (more about those in another post), and decided to head to a nearby cafe to hang out and unwind. This particular cafe, although having multiple floors, was fairly compact and luckily had only 5 people inside, including our barista. Perfect, we thought.  Now we can talk and be able to hear each other. But only minutes after we sat down, we hear this ear splitting:

EEEKEEKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK.

We all exchange puzzled glances. Our barista also swiftly exits the cafe, leading us to wonder "Is this a drill? Is there a fire? Did she leave us here to die in a fire we don't know about?" Luckily, a few moments later, she comes back with a man, as they attempt to figure out the source of the noise. Meanwhile, we are almost on the verge of screaming trying to talk and hear each other. "Whaaat? What'd you say?"A few minutes later, it seems like the barista and the man have give up hope of ever stopping the noise and the barista begins to continue with job.

By this point, the terrible EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKEEKKKKKKKK sound has been going on non-stop for about 10 minutes. I glance around the cafe and it seems like other customers have decided to continue with their lives as if they don't notice this jarring terrible noise. How is that possible?! Tired of trying to shout over the blare, we decide to finally leave the coffee shop without ordering since we never fully decided what to get. The barista shoots us an apologetic look while stating "Sorry, sorry!" As we get up, I pick up my backback and swivel around to head towards the door. Suddenly, the noise alters ever so slightly. I swivel again and the noise shifts. In a matter of five seconds, I go from saying "Hmm, I think the noise is coming from my backpack" to realizing"Oh dear god, the noise is coming from my backpack."

Sure enough, I reach into my backpack and with everyone in the cafe looking at me, dig out my microphone and speaker set used for camp, which is blaring louder than  ever. Now, that is awkward. Aside from being completely embarrassing, we all had a good laugh.

In other news, my roommate, Sarah, and I stumbled on a celebration welcoming Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea, around midnight at a nearby temple. From what we could gather, volunteers from different temples were embarking on a pilgrimage and stopping at different temples. At each temple stop, volunteers from that temple would take over and begin walking to the next site.The celebration was complete with dancing, music and nearly three blocks of firecrackers.

A few of us also went to an event filled with paper pandas. So cute!

Till next time!

Chia 

Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting!

Recently, I've been assigned to help out with the annual English singing competition. At the end of October, schools from all around Taichung will perform song and dance numbers in the hopes of winning 1st place. This year, we are singing portions of the songs "Stand" by Rascal Flats, "Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting," "We are the Champions," and "Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now," which will all be used to illustrate the story "The Old Man and the Sea."

Imagining a group of Taiwanese children singing English songs is pretty dang adorable. But the weeks leading up to the competition are actually quite rigorous. For the 5th and 6th graders participating at my school, the singing competition means a month of hour long practices starting at 7:35AM a few days a week, as well as rehearsals during nap time on Tuesdays and Fridays. Talk about dedication--they're missing nap time for goodness sakes!

And if you've ever heard me sing before, you'd realize I'd normally have no place helping out for a singing competition--I'm off key, oblivious to rhythm, and have a voice that's remarkably high-pitched, deep, and nasally all rolled into one. Luckily, my role is really to help students with their English pronunciation. My first day, I was instructed to merely recite the lyrics as loudly and clearly as possible to the students and have them repeat. I had to stifle some laughter as I enunciated the lyrics"THERE WERE FUN-KY CHINA MEN FROM FUN-KY CHINA TOWN" and heard a group of roughly 30 kids monotonously repeat that back.

Later, my co-teacher asked me to shut the door and the windows and had me recite lyrics into a recorder. These files were later burned onto a CD so all students could listen and practice from home. It's a strange feeling to know that 30 Taiwanese kids will be listening and practicing to your voice.

A few days after that, I was busy lesson planning while my co-teacher and the music teacher were discussing the competition. Suddenly, I hear my co-teacher say "Chia, it is time to record." I took this as a sign that I needed to record again and instinctively shut the door and windows, pulling a seat right next to my co-teacher, who has the recorder in hand. My co-teacher then says "Now, with music," as she pulls up the instrumental music of "Everybody's Kung Fu Fighting" and presses play.

In my head, I'm thinking Oh, shoot! Now I have to sing! As the music starts, I timidly start to sing, trying my best to keep up with the beat, although admittedly not fully aligning with the rhythm since I sang portions too slow or speed up at parts.Meanwhile, the music teacher is counting "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3" to the rhythm of the song.  Halfway through though, I start to build some confidence, and really get into it, growing louder in volume and even trying to hit the high notes as I sing"kickin' from the hip!" When it's over, I look over at my co-teacher and the music teacher, hoping to see signs of approval. Instead, I see my co-teacher and music teacher exchange glances and discuss in Chinese. After about 30 seconds of confusion on my end, my co-teacher says to me "Maybe we can do one without singing." In true Taiwanese fashion, they had been too polite to interrupt my singing and tell me they simply wanted to record the music with the music teacher counting the beats.

All my singing gone to waste! Actually, I am pretty okay with that. Despite my new found confidence in singing, I'm pretty sure I still sounded like a bag of kittens being thrashed against a wall.

Till next time!
Chia

Let's talk trash, temples, and weddings!

This past weekend, my roommate Sarah and I were finally able to dispose of the nearly ten bags of trash we had accumulated over the course of two weeks. You might be wondering "Dang girl! Why did you let all that trash pile up?" Unlike in the US, where you throw your trash in a communal dumpster or wheel your trashcan out every week, Taiwan employs a slightly different method. Instead, a garbage truck and recycling truck will drive around at certain times of the day blasting classical music (similar to an ice cream truck albeit with less delectable treats inside). When you hear the music, it's your cue to head out and hurl your garbage or recyclables into the corresponding truck. At this point, I should mention that recycling here is pretty intense; I have 4 separate bins: paper, plastic, food waste, and general trash. If you miss the truck, you're out of luck and have to wait till next time.

Unfortunately, I had to learn that lesson the hard way. Last Saturday, I was awakened by the distant cry of classical music, which only means one thing--trash time! Not knowing which direction the music was coming from, I jumped on the bed and craned my neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of the garbage truck. As I saw the garbage truck approach, I rushed down the stairs with bags of trash in hand, only to see the truck driving off. Disappointed, I reassured myself there'd be better luck tomorrow. Only to realize the garbage truck doesn't come Sundays. Hence why we had trash piling up for two weeks.

Luckily, we were able to dispose of our trash this past Saturday! The good vibes continued as a few ETAs, Iris (our coordinator), and I headed to a temple in Taipei to attend a Buddhist memorial service for victims of natural disasters. Once there, to our surprise, we were treated as guests of honor, bestowed flower pins by nuns, given a box full of sweets, and whisked away to sit in the second row. The ceremony commenced with the highly revered Master Di-Chiao, the Head Abbess of the temple, who gave a short speech, followed by a series of speeches from other guests of honor, including the Ambassador of Tuvalu, (apparently the world's 4th smallest country). Dance performances and chanting proceeded. We were even asked to be a part of the flowers offering ceremony, where we went up and bowed three times while holding a ring of flowers. Halfway through the service, a nun approached us and asked if we wanted to attend a wedding banquet. Naturally, we just had to say yes!

The dance performance

After the service, we got the opportunity to speak with Master Di-Chiao, who gave us health advice based on her research and cautioned us against eating microwaved food. We then were ushered into a van and arrived shortly at a complete strangers' wedding. Once arriving and seated at our table with nuns and attendants from the memorial service, the ETAs and I received a short introduction as "the Americans" and were asked to stand up and wave. Somehow, amidst conversations with the nuns, we also ended up promising to perform at the temple's annual performance show. Later, we were served a series of tasty vegetarian dishes and even took some pictures with the gracious bride and groom. I don't think any of us expected to end up crashing a Taiwanese wedding when we started the day, but I'm so grateful to get the chance to experience that!

With the beautiful newlyweds!

With the Head Abbess

Here's to more unexpected adventures!

Chia 

It's school time!

Today marks week two of living in Fengyuan and teaching! My mornings start at 6:15AM and I'm out the door by 6:40AM. I then bike 10 minutes to the bus station; I never rode on the streets in Lexington, because I thought it was too dangerous. Never did I imagine I would be biking alongside cars, buses, pedestrians, and scooters without so much as a bike lane in Taiwan. The first day of school, I biked in front of a bus that was just about to turn. The only images that flashed in my head were those of scooter drivers being run over by buses, as I imagined a similar skull crushing fate for myself (thank you DMV class for instilling permanent fear). Although I initially would sweat buckets biking down the road out of sheer terror, I now feel every so slightly more comfortable on the road. Then I catch the 7:05AM bus and take a 30 minutes and arrive at San Ho.

On one of the first few days of school, I accidentally got off at a unfamiliar stop only a few blocks away from school. I decided to sit down on a bench right outside a huge warehouse and whip out my google maps on my phone to figure out how to walk to school. After a few minutes, I thought I finally mastered the art of map-reading. I thus set off unwittingly in the opposite direction of the school for about 15 minutes. Finally realizing my mistake, I headed back in the direction I came from.

As I start walking towards the warehouse where I initially sat down, I began to see men one by one popping their heads out of the door to look at me and retreating back inside. As I drew closer, a group of about 15 men circled up outside the warehouse and all stared at me. Confused, I stared back and realized one man was waving me over. I hesitantly walked over and the man kept asking me "Did you lose your wallet?" Of course, it takes a few blank stares before I realized what he was asking, and then insisted "No, it's in my backpack." But the man continues to ask whether I lost it, and finally, to prove to him I indeed did have my wallet, I dug in my backpack and realized that no, my wallet wasn't there. The man chuckled and proceeded to head into a room, coming out with my wallet in hand. I thanked them profusely and found all my credit card, receipts, and money untouched. This is just one instance of the immense kindness of the Taiwanese people --to notice a unattended wallet, stare and flag down the complete stranger that owns it, then convince said stranger she lost her wallet before returning it to her.

Luckily, most mornings are not as eventful. At San Ho, I teach a total of 15 classes a week of 1st, 2nd, or 3rd graders, beginning at 8:35AM and ending around noon every day. From 12-4PM, I eat lunch, take part in the school wide nap time (a truly magical time!), and lesson plan. Admittedly, I was incredibly nervous my first day of teaching, but am slowly getting the hang of it. Part of it is trial and error. In order to get students' attention, I tried a clapping method, where I clap a certain rhythm and students will imitate the clap and ideally fall silent. Instead, the kids seemed confused about why their teacher was clapping and then proceeded to clap unendingly. My co-teacher and I ended up settling on another tactic. Part of it is also my three great co-teachers that I work with. I am given a lot of freedom to plan lessons and choose my own topics, but still get good input and suggestions from them. I'm learning a lot from them now and hope to share some new ideas with them as well.

I only see each class once a week for 40 minutes, so I'm looking forward to getting to know them and sharing more stories!

Till next time,
Chia

Hello there!

I can't believe I've been in Taiwan for almost a month now. It simultaneously feels like I've just arrived a few weeks ago but also like I've lived here for a couple months. Yesterday was our last day of training, so today we all went to the DMV to either take the written test (which allows you to drive a 50cc scooter without taking the driving test) or the written plus the driving test, which is necessary if you want a scooter more than 50cc. Since I have no intentions of buying a scooter, I opted to take the written portion just in case I ever have to rent or ride a 50cc scooter. The DMV in Taiwan turns out to be pretty similar to DMVs in America. In short, it was not very exciting and pretty crowded. I took my electronic test, which consisted of 40 questions all about road signs and road safety. I gotta admit, they threw in some tough questions and I was pretty nervous that I would fail. Luckily, I passed, and headed along with HKSG members to take a 90 minute course, all in Chinese, on scooter safety. Our teacher was one tough cookie; she started the class by separating all the HKSG members and then listing a set of rules, like no talking, sleeping, phones etc. I ended up breaking one of the rules when I nodded off and closed my eyes, in which she abruptly shook my shoulders to wake me. Out of fear of this woman's wrath, I stayed awake the rest of the class. I couldn't understand anything the woman was saying, but we did watch a series of escalating and terrifying real life scooter accidents. So if I took away anything from the class, it's that scootering can be very scary. And that most people in Taiwan aren't following proper road protocol.

A few days ago, a some ETAs and I were asking each other what things we have done here that we normally wouldn't do in America. I've done a lot of things in Taiwan that I normally wouldn't do back home, like eating out everyday, talking to strangers on the bus, using public transportation, etc. But overall, I think being abroad pushes you to do things outside your comfort zone, which sometimes leads to sort of bizarre events. A prime example of this is when we all went out to try some Vietnamese food, and ran into a Vietnamese-American man named Danny, who was super nice and spoke great English. He gave us his card and suggested we visit his restaurant. A few days later, we call him and ask whether we could stop by his restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately, Danny's restaurant is only open on weekends, but he suggested we meet him and he would show us another Vietnamese restaurant. So we met up with him and follow him into this large semi-run down mall. It's one of those places that seems like it would have been hopping back in the day, but is now sort of past its prime. We went up on the elevator and step out into a huge area where most of the stores were either closed or barred up. Immediately, we're also hit with loud Vietnamese karaoke coming from afar, which was slightly eerie considering there was no one there in sight. In the end, the pho we had was delicious! Looking back, we essentially followed a stranger into a large fairly deserted building. I probably would've never done that alone, but it makes for a good story now!

Among other things I normally wouldn't do in the US is grueling tough workouts. The Hello Kitty Scooter Gang recently started doing Insanity workouts. While I'm doing the workout, it feels like I can vomit at any moment. That being said, I enjoy working out overall and it sort of helps balance out the multitude of sugary teas and desserts I've eaten so far. Sometimes, if we exercise in the school's playground, we even get a crowd of adults and kids watching and making comments like "Oh, that one is slowing down." Sometimes, they even mimic our movements, which is sort of really cute! As the saying goes, the group that sweats together stays together!

Getting fit on the playground

We also recently went to visit Rainbow Village, which consisted of really cute buildings all painted by one man.

I start classes on Monday (EEEKK), so till next time!

Chia

And the school goes to...

Greetings friends!

I finally found out last Friday what school I will be teaching in for the rest of the year. That morning started off with everyone buzzing with anticipation and excitement. Normally, our mornings begin at 9AM with a (relatively) silent hour of reading our assigned book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” However, that day was an exception—hardly anyone was reading their book and instead busily chatting with their neighbors as different school representatives filed into the classroom. After brief presentations introducing ourselves, the big reveal was finally about to come! In a rather dramatic fashion, Iris opened up the envelope that contained one individual’s school placement and read it aloud, Academy Award style. Luckily, I was called first, so I didn’t have to wait too long. I’ve been placed in SanHo Elementary, which has approximately 900 students! I’ll be working with 3 local English teachers teaching 1^st-3^rd grade.  One of the most prominent features of SanHo is its focus on the arts and language—the school was decorated with  an array of students’ impressive artwork. My school placement also determines where I will be living for the remainder of the year. I'll be living in Fengyuan, a more suburban area of Taichung. At the reveal ceremony, I got the chance to meet one of my co-teachers, Christine, and the dean, Crystal. They were both very welcoming and friendly, and I'm so excited to join them at SanHo and start teaching!

(From left to right) Iris, our Taichung coordinator; Dr. Liao, our academic counselor; Crystal, the dean of SanHo; Christine, one of my co-teachers.

This past Saturday, Iris took the Hello Kitty Scooter Gang (HKSG) and I biking on a very scenic trail in Fengyuan. The bike ride started off really nicely, a soft breeze brushing by us, as we admired the beautiful sites. 10 minutes in, however, a downpour of rain hit us. Although many of us initially took shelter under a bridge, we finally decided to keep peddling ahead, despite the rain.  We ended up getting pretty soaked, but the rain stopped after about 20 minutes, so we eventually dried albeit feeling a bit sticky. Regardless of the rain, it was really fun and it felt good to engage in physical activity again (although I ended up being the slowest one again)! I’m hoping since I will be living in Fengyuan, I will get to bike a lot! Later, we stopped by the night market in Fengyuan. A few of us stopped to get some noodles and this delicious mango shaved ice dessert. To this day, I still think of that mango shaved ice. I think we deserved a sweet treat, especially after our 24 km bike ride!

Our group loves jumping photos. This is right before I landed and just fell to the ground. Obviously, I need more practice with jumping photos.

The group jumping photo. Why do I always look so scared?!

Joyce and I can't wait to eat the mango shaved ice!

Last week, one of the ETAs, Diane, and I also traveled to Taipei to visit her Taiwanese friend, Kevin. The morning started off pretty darn early—about 6 AM, since we bought tickets for the 7:20AM train. It was about a 2 hour train ride and they ran out of seats, so we would have to stand for the duration of the train ride. For the first hour, Diane and I were able to sit on the floor and chat (we sat near the bathrooms, so perhaps not the most delightful place to sit, but since nevertheless, somewhere to sit). As more people piled in, we ended up having to stand for the duration of the trip. When we finally arrived in Taipei, we were greeted by Kevin at the train station. Kevin was gracious enough to show us around Taipei and took us to Tamsui, a district of Taipei near the water. There, we went to the day market and bought some street food. I finally tried stinky tofu, although I am admittedly not the biggest fan of it. Diane and I also went floppy hat shopping, since the sun was pretty darn bright. The floppy hat has turned out to be a pretty good investment, and has helped it out quite a bit since then! Later, we biked along the waterfront, and wound up touring Fort San Domingo. All in all, it was a pretty great trip!

At Fort San Domingo

Picture right before trying the stinky tofu!

The HKSG also went to sing some karaoke last Sunday at a place appropriately named Party World. Karaoke here is no joke-- Party World's interior was super fancy and grand, similar to a swanky hotel. We had our own private room (which was nice considering I was one of the rather tone deaf singers) and a buffet! Throughout the karaoke, we had some breakout stars and boy, did we sing our hearts out! 4 hours of nonstop singing in fact, with everything from Britney to the Backstreet Boys to TLC to Michael Jackson. Okay, so maybe the karaoke place didn't have the most up to date American tunes, but it was great fun nonetheless!

Till next time!

Chia 

The Hello Kitty Scooter Gang starts training.

Hello friends!

It's been a few days since I've posted, so I figured I would fill you all in on a few things we have been doing!

Last week was our first week of training. We usually start around 9AM and end around 4PM, followed by an hour of scooter training (which I will talk more about too). Each training day focuses on different aspects of teaching. So, Wednesday, we had one of our TEFL (Teaching English as a foreign language) instructors, Emily, come to give us a TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) overview. I learned a few new strategies to encourage participation and we ended up doing a mock teaching session. We were given instructions on how to teach different skills. In my case, I had to teach two other ETAs how to clip two paper clips together without touching the paper clips. It was a pretty neat trick, so I'm going to stash that trick away and whip it out at the next time I'm at a children's birthday party. But that activity just shed light on just how important clear, concise directions are. Teaching English, especially to foreign speakers, is also a rather deliberate conscious effort, where you really have to think about word choice and clarity. Now that we are in the midst of training, the fact that we are going to be teaching students is starting to feel more and more real!

Then, there was the day of training where all we did was play games. Needless to say, it was awesome! We played games that were familiar, like what seemed like the German adaption of Jenga and Twister. But we also played games I've never heard of before, like Ugli Doll and Halli Galli. But it wasn't all fun and games, because we then had to brainstorm ideas for how to adapt these games for English learning. It's pretty neat to see and experience all the ways of English learning!

Trying not to make the building tumble! It was a success!

As I mentioned before, after training, we normally have an hour of scooter practice. I'm not going to lie--riding the scooter for the first time was, to put it lightly, mildly terrifying. I was incredibly nervous getting on the first time and let out quite a yelp when taking off. Iris was even chasing after me to make sure I didn't crash! The following scooter practices have been better; I'm less nervous and getting the hang of it, but I'm pretty sure I won't end up investing in a scooter since it's pretty dangerous. And as someone who once fractured her toe trying to do a cartwheel, let's face it--I'm not the most graceful gal.  I will just have to appreciate this aspect of Taiwanese culture from the confounds of a parking lot!

First day of scooter practice and nervous as a clam! Luckily, Iris is only a few feet away for moral and physical support!

But that brings me to what one of my fellow ETAs, Chris, has lovingly named our group the Hello Kitty Scooter Gang! We even have our official symbol -- a gentle pawing of the face not unlike something the glamorous Hello Kitty would do. Considering my preexisting love for Hello Kitty, I'm pretty happy with our name. We will probably even purchase official Hello Kitty Scooter Gang T-shirts (pictures to follow when that imminent day comes)!

On Friday, we toured 6 different elementary schools and we tour 6 more elementary schools tomorrow. In a few days, we will rank the schools by preferene and then be placed in one of them! Although I was initially nervous about what school I would be placed in, after touring the first 6, I can honestly say I think I would enjoy any of the schools. Each school had incredibly warm and welcoming staff. It almost felt like we were celebrities; we had our private bus, and were showered with beverages and snacks while staff members snapped candid photos of us throughout our tour. Although there were slight differences in the school size, location, and extracurricular activities, each school shared one thing in common -- they were all genuinely devoted to providing quality and well rounded education to their students. I feel so fortunate to work in any of schools, given how incredibly inviting the staff are and the pride each school took in caring for their students.

On the next post, I'll have to talk about my weekend trip to Taipei and karaoke. Hopefully, I will know my school placement by then too!

I'm going to hit the hay!

Chia