somewhere in sansia

new blog

2009-11-16T23:49:00.001-08:00

http://bamboo-butterfly.blogspot.com/

Twirling through Taiwan:)

2009-07-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

I was going to use this title as the name for my new blog but it sounds so cheesy so I settled on another name instead. The link is at the bottom of this long post- so to all my avid readers back home, make sure you save it!:)

Yes, I am starting a new blog...my time is Sansia is coming to a close. As I mentioned in another post, I'm moving to a city called Hsinchu, which is known in Taiwan as "The Windy City." Kinda ironic since I come from the Chicago area.:)

I will miss Sansia but it's close enough that I can come back to visit. I've decided to forgo a detailed explanation of what went wrong at the school. All I will say is that it is not the place for me and some of the practices at the school are questionable. I'm proud of myself for being assertive and not letting guilt control my actions (as I have a tendency to do), quite amazed actually. This experience has definitely helped me become more of an "adult" and I believe it's part of the reason God brought me to Sansia first. :)

I was a little sad at work today though. Knowing it was my last day and that I'll probably never see the kids again was a little heart-wrenching. I did not spend a long time with them but I will never forget them. Some pictures of my Kindergarten class..:/ and a cute video.

Teacher Rhonda, Boris, Yuki, and Timmy :) (I will not miss the ugly work uniform and feeling/looking haggard all the time!!):D

Yuki(the one in the middle) always wanted to hold my hand every morning on the way to class:) We aren't supposed to have favorites but he was one of mine:)

Tina:)

Vic was another one of my favorites~ He couldn't speak English as well some of the other children but he was always trying to talk with me, brought me candy a couple of times, and always wanted to share his toys with me during toy time.:)

Tina and Jasmine:)

In between classes today I had a break for a few hours and Joey took me to Banciao to this place called Bravo, famous in Taiwan for its pizza and plethora of imported beers. I'm not normally a big beer drinker but I had (one) delicious apple beer and we shared a tasty salmon pizza. Was fun:)

He also brought me to a place in Sansia where I could find some Traditional Chinese Medicine for my persistent illness. I told him I don't want to take Western Medicine for awhile, it's not working.

I am amazed (like I was back home when I had acupuncture sessions) how quickly the TCM doctors can tell what is wrong just by checking your physical appearance (skin coloring, eyes) and pulse. The doctor could not speak English but told Joey I had too much cold in my body from the air conditioner (which sounds obvious, lol) and it's part of the reason I have this bad infection. I received packets of ground up not-so-nice tasting herbs that I must put in warm or hot water and drink 4 times a day. I have no idea what they are and the prescription is of course indecipherable to me. Joey said he could not explain, told me the powder contained "hundreds of herbs" which of course was probably just a grammatical misunderstanding.:)

I am going to miss him and Rachel as well. I know I'll get to see them again but it's been nice making friends here and I hope my friendship with both of them continues.

I forgot to mention that I now have a Chinese name...based on my first, middle, and last name. It doesn't sound so pretty so Joey gave me another one. Lol. But, for legal purposes I will have to use the name on my ARC and it is kind of funny. I now have a bank stamp too. In order to open up a bank account here you need to have your Chinese name made up into a stamp. People do not sign with pens on transactions. Must use stamp!:)

I showed the stamp to the junior high kids before I left tonight and they went nuts. They wouldn't stop saying my Chinese name and they were so happy when I stamped their workbooks with it.:) They're big brats but I suppose I will miss them a little.:)

Anyway...Sunday I'm leaving Sansia. So the new blog is...

Taiwonderings: My Musings from Across the Planet

Will start writing in it tomorrow!

finally made it to some hot springs:)

2009-07-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

My day didn't start off the greatest...I suppose I will just confess now that I do not like my current place of employment and I am moving on. I will be moving to Hsinchu on Sunday and I cannot wait. It's still close enough to Taipei that I can make a trip out here for the weekend if need be. And I will be closer to the ocean!

I've been having some trouble with the management at my current school but hopefully that's all about to end soon.

I have to say, my favorite kids at present school have to be the babies as I mentioned before. They are truly adorable. I will miss them. Took a few photos today and a short video:D

I told my local friends I will be leaving and I've been trying to hang out with them. Joey, my friend who owns the shaved ice stand, took me out to a lovely lunch today in Yingge. We also went to a hot springs spa tonight, and it was magnificent! Quite a few springs with different water temps, I feel soooo relaxed. I think I need to go to a place like that at least once a week!

Jenny and Auntie Mary- he has a girlfriend and we are strictly friends! No comments!

Some pics:

I think I'll switch to Traditional Medicine...

2009-07-28T05:45:00.000-07:00

So I woke up this morning still coughing up green chunky stuff (sorry to be graphic). Some other teachers suggested I go to the local hospital in Sansia. Teacher Jason, one of the newer teachers, was having an allergic reaction to some antibiotics he had to take for cutting himself and his tongue was changing colors.

So we decided to go to the hospital together. It was pretty funny, I think they thought we were together and invited us into the room at the same time, which of course we declined.:)

Ok, so I'm confused. The healthcare here is very affordable, which I love. But I don't understand why they give out so many pills!!! I received 6 different pills and a bottle of liquid opium ...what do I need all of this for??!!!! All I wanted was an antibiotic and he said I didn't need it. My diagnosis did list "acute bronchitis" but I think I might have the viral strain. I know antibiotics aren't the best to take but I thought maybe I needed one.

I had a feeling I was getting better and I prob should have just waited it out. The whole hospital visit plus the medicine cost only around $25 US but when I got home and looked up the medicines online, I felt the trip was pointless. I only ended up taking one pill tonight...the rest are mostly painkillers and one is used to treat vertigo? Why was I given that? He also gave me an anti-histamine. I just shoved half a bar of dark chocolate into my mouth and now I probably won't be able to sleep!! I'm worried about taking so many medications at once.

I've decided that I am going to try Traditional Chinese Medicine next time I get sick. To be honest it's better I don't know what they are giving me, that way I can't look up the names on the internet and question everything.

While we were waiting to go to our appointments we walked down the street and went into a Vietnamese restaurant. Jason had some noodle soup that came out with huge chunks of blood (I think it was pork blood because that's what the meat in the soup was) and at first he thought it was liver. I told him it looked like the duck blood soup I had the misfortune of having previously, except the reddish squares were enormous in his bowl. Gross. I am trying to be very open minded when it comes to eating here but some things I cannot tolerate. Like chicken feet, chunks of blood, and creatures with eyes and legs still attached.

I ordered some shrimp...we basically had to point at pictures on the wall. My shrimp came out in their shells with legs still attached. I ate some but found many still had toxic veins in them so I focused on the greens and spicy sauce instead. Things are so interesting and different here. Sometimes I don't understand and I grow frustrated, but I'm not experiencing as much of the negative culture shock that I've heard others have had.

I thought about it today...whenever I go back to the United States I think reality there will be much more shocking. We are extremely spoiled and gluttonous back home.

In some ways, things make more sense here. In other ways things are so completely alien that I can't even begin to explain. It is an amazing place, though it is not without its ugly realities as well.

" And they were happines."

2009-07-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

I taught a reading class for the last time tonight and I thought I'd share some of the stories/drawings. The kids range in age from prob around 9-13. Every Monday I have to read a short story with them...we have to do the same story for two consecutive weeks. Anyway, the last three stories we've read have been about the Bermuda Triangle, Thanksgiving (in July, crazy) and an animal story coming from Canada about a bear stealing the sun with a ladder. What I like to do is take new vocabulary words from each story, write them up on the board and explain them, and then have the kids make up their own stories. Today I asked them to write a short paragraph, the first sentence starting with "Long ago..."

Some of the words I put up tonight...feast, ladder, animals, wolf, monster, sky, spider, zebra, dinosaur, mermaid, magical, fairies, Bermuda Triangle, and some others. Then I asked them to draw a picture underneath their paragraphs. Here are four short examples of what they wrote:) (click on the pictures for closer view)

"Long ago there were many animals, have dinosaur, spider, wolf, and zebra. They lived in the Earth. One day,they climbed to the sky by a ladder. They saw the mermaid by the ocean. The mermaid looked for them and she jumped into the water. Suddenly, a monster appeared by the ocean, He tried to catch them. They ran, but the monster was very fast. So, they climbed down to the ground and take over the ladder. The monster died."

-turned in without name

"Long time ago, there were some animals in the bermuda triangle. they were so fat. The monster went to eat them. The animals saw the ladder went to the sky. They go up the ladder and took out the ladder so the monster can't eat them."

-Jolin

(I love this next one!!!) :D

"Long ago, the dinosaur lived in Earth. There have many grass. One day the dinosaur was look a mermaid and the dinosaur liked the mermaid. The dinosaur and the mermaid were marry.
They have a big feast, they so liked to eat.
In feast have meat and pizza, fish, popcorn and they were happines."

-Jerry

(obviously he was probably trying to say, "And they were happy." But I thought how great it would be in real life for two people to "be" happiness together. *sigh*

"And they were happines." If only fairy tales came true.:)

(this one is cute as well. Obviously, some of the kids copied off each other!)

"Long ago, the dinosaur lived in earth, and they have a feast, the feast is delicious, the feast have many food have a seafoods, waters and samll dinosaur meat, the dinosaur ate finished, and they ate apple. One day the sky have one ladder, and they climbed up, They have see mermaid ned a help. And they help her, and the dinosaur marry the mermaid, and they have four baby."

-Jack

Earthquakes and visit to Yingge

2009-07-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

There were two more earthquakes today. I did not feel one of them, slept right through it. The other one struck around 2 pm when I was talking on the phone with Holly...my couch and the heavy marble table started moving back and forth. It wasn't that big of a deal, I just don't like the feeling. Guess this one measured 5.1-not as bad as that last one.

Later this afternoon Rachel and I went to the lovely town of Yingge (pronounced INGA). It's a great, artsy place. I loved it there! Lots of pottery and art shops. So many pretty things to see. We walked around for a little while and I bought a thing or two, had a fresh watermelon smoothie (so much better than the sugar-overloaded stuff we have back home) and then ate dinner. I had a very tasty sweet and sour and spicy chicken dish. Hopefully the spice will help kill this annoying infection, I'm still coughing quite a bit.

After we ate dinner, I noticed this little bicycle carriage contraption sitting outside, and of course I couldn't resist sitting on it and having my picture taken. A girl had tied her beautiful husky dog to the table right next to it, and at first I let him sniff my hand. Well, he decided to come closer and jump up onto the carriage with me...only then did I start to get weary. He stared at me with wolfish eyes and a lowered head and I knew- it was only a matter of moments before he lunged forward and sank his teeth into my leg. Quite swiftly (but gracefully) I removed myself from the carriage and away from the dangerous beast. :)

Here are some pictures- (though the dog images are blurry)

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After Yingge, we hopped back on the scooter and it started to rain. I didn't mind though because it felt nice:) It was my first time wearing a dress on a scooter though and it was quite the experience trying to sit properly.

We stopped at the night market in Sansia and I took some pictures of strange fruit. Many people were staring...most of the time when they make comments I feel embarrassed. One woman told Rachel how beautiful I was...others just gawked. I can't get used to things like this...back home I'm just your average American girl. It's not that the attention is bad, like I said before-it's just I don't see what the big deal is, lol.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the strange fruits. I hope this cough goes away soon, it's driving me nuts. Hope everyone is having a marvelous weekend!

3rd visit to Hsinchu

2009-07-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

I went out to Hsinchu again today...to do some business.:D All shall be revealed next week.

On the bus ride out there I saw some interesting things when we stopped at lights. One thing made me really sad. Outside of some bling bling jewelry store there stood a large, plain, ugly wire cage. Fighting valiantly to escape was a large and gorgeous Toucan. The poor thing seemed frantic, biting the wires with its huge colorful beak...seeing such a beautiful creature trapped in such an ugly enclosure was awful.:(

As much as this place is growing on me, there are many things I don't understand. At another light there were these big tropical plants growing on a cement island in the middle of the highway. A man in a face mask stood there collecting the alienish looking pods that were sprouting from the center of the plants.

A big cultural difference to note:

I was told today that in America golden tans are admired. Many people in America view tans as gorgeous and a status of someone who has the time to be leisurely and relax on the beach.

In Taiwan the common line of thought is that pale white skin shows one's class status as well...if one is tanned that means they are a labor worker and they're outside all day. Someone with ivory skin must be well off because they get to sit indoors all day and not have to work like the peasants. *ROLLS EYES*

Although I'm worried about skin cancer the older I get, I welcome the sun with open arms. People can stare at me all they want here as I bask in the glorious rays with my bare shoulders peeking out of a halter top!

I do however think the times are changing; the younger generations here are beginning to reject the old ideas and are also starting to welcome the sun.

Frankly, I admire the people here who don't care and they let their skin turn a lovely shade of brown. I even heard something ridiculous like people who eat white rice are wealthy and people who eat brown rice are poor...

Don't get it. But it is interesting to learn about these differences and try to understand why people think the way they do.

After my visit to Hsinchu I decided to go into Taipei to get some sour cream to make dip and also wanted some salty chips. On my way to Jason's in Taipei 101(the ONE store I've found that sells sour cream) I snapped a picture of the Statue of Liberty that stands on the corner adjacent to 101.

Jason's is a wonderful grocery store but it's a chore going there and lugging the groceries back. It takes me about 15 minutes to walk back to the MRT station. Then I have to take the blue line all the way back to Yongning station (which takes around 30 minutes) and then I have to walk to the bus stop and wait around for the 916 to take me back into Sansia (which takes another 20 minutes). Then I have to walk home. So that's why I'm loading up on garbage food tonight. I do too much walking here and my jeans are ALL too big now...they are literally held up by the hips.:D

Here's a picture inside of Taipei City Hall station, pretty empty which is unusual:

I've even been a little lazy and started taking cabs more lately but it's not helping. Eric, you were right...they must put something in the food here. I can eat pastries, pasta, cakes...and still not gaining weight! Not going to complain too much about it though. I'd just like to gain about 5 pounds back.

I found a giant pear in Jason's tonight. It cost me almost $6 US which is crazy but it looked tempting and so I will eat it for breakfast tomorrow...

So now I'm going to eat a whole bowl of dip and then curl up with a book.:) Hopefully my plague ends soon.

Everyone have a great Saturday!!:)

bronchitis...

2009-07-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

I called off work today and my friend Rachel went with me to see a local doctor here in Sansia. I was in and out very quickly and handed a bag of strange looking pills and two bottles of liquid medicine. The doctor didn't speak much English but Rachel told me he said I had bronchitis.

The total cost of the visit and medicine: 12 US dollars. Amazing. I love healthcare here!

However, I am nervous about taking the pills. I told Rachel next time I will try traditional Chinese medicine. I'm sure I will get better soon, I just feel like I'm fading away right now. I haven't weighed so little since I was 18 years old! I guess that can be good though, depending on how I look at it.

There is a lot going on right now. I'm trying to get a new job and my school is acting very sneaky. Don't want to blog about it at the moment but I will be soooo happy if everything works out and I successfully secure this new job. I feel like God is directing my path and pointing me in the right direction.

So since I'm feeling so poorly I will try to boost my spirits by listing more things I love about Taiwan:

* I love how random people come up to me and upon finding out where I'm from, tell me excitedly how they have a relative in California or New York:D

* I love the fact that due to the overpopulation of dogs on the island, many people give away purebred puppies (like Yorkies) for free. Yes, Rhonda is thinking about adopting an animal sometime in the near future...;) (They apparently also give away monkeys for free, I've seen numerous ads showing baby monkeys for free adoption) Perhaps it isn't a great thing but it's still amazing that one can so easily have a wild animal as a pet here. On the same website I saw ads for baby tigers and a chimpanzee as well.

* I love the noodle shop down the street. Even though I will be moving, I will never forget how I ordered my first meal in Chinese at the little noodle shop with the hot pink overhang and heart shaped chairs.

* I love vegetarian dumplings with Thai chili sauce

* I love being surrounded by mountains, and being so close to the sea. Even if I have to stand on a bus for two hours, the ocean is so much closer to me than it was back home.

* I love the fact that I'm really starting to settle in here...and the thought of being forced to leave right now makes me very sad...

* I love listening to the sound of a hundred foreign voices (to my ears anyway) when I'm sleepy on the MRT. It's strange that this same sound was so unnerving when I first arrived here.

With all this said, please realize that I REALLY miss all of you back home very much. Right now, I'm in great need of some hugs. Wish I could hug you all but a virtual one will have to do!!:)

*hug*

Until next time...

feeling ick:(

2009-07-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

Time to start drinking the straight apple cider vinegar and taking garlic. I feel terrible...chills, sore throat, aches, horrible cough. It really hit me suddenly. I found some bortsch in a can the other day and drank that tonight, hopefully it helps. I miss my mama's cooking. I remember when she used to make big pots of bortsch and chicken soup when I was little...

My favorite time at the school is road to reading with a kindergarten class. Every Monday I read them a story and then have them color a page that I draw and photocopy relating to the book. They love it and are always so excited to see me. It's one of the classes I really, really enjoy and I also love sitting there and coloring with them. They always say "Teacher Rhonda, you share with me" and offer me their chunky brightly colored crayons.

One of the Chinese teachers complimented my drawing skills today and told me I should write and illustrate children's books...hmmm...a sign? :D

I hope I can sleep tonight. I've been so overstimulated, thinking about everything and all the changes taking place.

wanting to write again...

2009-07-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

Went out earlier today and printed some pictures, went to the store, and then spent most of the day in bed. I am fighting this infection with soup, garlic, tea, and juice.

I find my desire to write is coming back. I'm seriously wanting to write children's books and perhaps here I will find my inspiration.

I am going to try to sleep now. Here are pictures of some interesting snacks I saw at the store today. I have had the jellies a few times. I have a hard time with the little fishes though. They tend to put them in many things here...salads, snack mix. Random buffet items. :) I even found them in my eggplant once.

some happy pictures from before the incident

2009-07-18T23:42:00.001-07:00

An interesting day...

2009-07-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

So I suffered utter humiliation earlier today but I'm slowly getting over it now. I didn't even want to blog about it but I will confess to my supreme blondness of the day and tell what happened. I was walking around Sansia early afternoon and I ran into my shaved ice friend. After I did some shopping, I went back to have some shaved ice and my friend asked me if I would like to learn how to drive a scooter. Since arriving here I have become much bolder I suppose. I didn't even hesitate.

So I hopped on scooter and he drove around looking for a place to teach me. He kept insisting on practicing on a side street, which considering what events transpired, I'm glad I had enough sense to object. Finally we found a parking lot that was surrounded by a chain link fence.

Well everything was going pretty well. He even hopped off and I proudly maneuvered the bike around the lot, quite pleased with myself. What confused me the most was stopping...you'd think if you pulled back on the handle and brakes it would stop the bike. Wrong. On this bike, pushing forward on the handle and pulling back on the brakes stopped the bike. So that was giving me trouble. He hopped back on and decided we needed to practice right turns. Unfortunately disaster ensued.

I gave the thing too much gas, he tried to make us turn right, the bike propelled forward...and crashed into chain link fence. A security guard standing nearby witnessed the whole thing to my utter dismay. My friend told the security guard something in rapid Chinese, which I found out later was "New learner."

Luckily no one was hurt, other than my bleeding toe from when I scraped my foot against the pavement trying to stop. The bike was not damaged other than a scratch. I felt terrible though. I kept apologizing and after he freed the bike from the fence, (which now has a gaping hole) I stood there dumbfounded and decided that I will need much more practice before I get a scooter of my own. He wants to take me out practicing again but I'm going to wait awhile.

After that ordeal he dropped me off and I doctored my foot. Luckily the day got better.

I've been wanting to visit the teahouses in Maokong and I asked my friend Rachel if she'd want to go with me. We also invited Teacher Jonathan to come with us. Unfortunately, the Gondola is temporarily shut down so no cable car ride up the mountainside tonight. We took the MRT to Muzha and then took a bus up into Maokong where there are over 100 tea shops/restaurants.

Since we went later in the day, I wasn't able to take many pictures of the beautiful drive up there but it was really gorgeous. The winding roads were kind of scary but it was another adventure.:) I will have to go back sometime during the day and take pictures.

We found a little restaurant that had seating on the roof where you could eat, have tea, and relax while watching the lights of Taipei below. Had some interesting food and an unpleasant surprise in our big pot of chicken soup...Jonathan pulled out a giant chicken foot which was hideous looking. I dared him to eat it and later he did. He took a video so maybe I'll post it tomorrow. It was pretty gross and I had to turn my head, but I give him props!:D

The ride back down the mountain was very scary as it was dark and we were inches away from the dropoffs and the bus driver was a maniac. Rachel said I'll get used to the driving style in Taiwan.:)

After that we hung around in Taipei for awhile and I plan on sleeping in most of the day tomorrow. I feel like I'm getting a bad respiratory infection. Hopefully it's not consumption...or some exotic illness. I don't want to fade away like some pitiful, frail woman in a novel.

2009-07-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

*guess that earthquake wasn't so little after all...measured 6.3!

:/

2009-07-13T11:12:00.001-07:00

It is 2:12 in the morning on Tuesday here and I was woken up by the sensation of my bed jerking back and forth. Earthquake #2 strikes!

This time it lasted a little longer though. Hope I can get back to sleep...

2009-07-12T08:22:00.001-07:00

Hung out in Taipei for awhile today, some shots of the city at sunset!:)

a little piece of paradise...

2009-07-11T18:02:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I woke at 5 in the morning and was at the train station by quarter to 7. All seats on trains for the east coast had been booked. They gave me a ticket but I had to stand the entire time, almost 2 hours because of all the stops...crazy. Guess on the weekends in the summer here it's best to book trips way in advance.

I didn't go all the way to Yilan but went to Toucheng, which is in Yilan county. Had a cab take me down to the beach...made good use of a very convenient map my roommate left here. It has all the cities written in English and Chinese. I believe the beach is called Wushih beach although on the map it says Toucheng Resort beach or something like that. Anyway, wow, it was beautiful there. The beach has black sand, which is strange and interesting. There's also an island located straight out to sea called Turtle Island. It's government protected but if you book in advance you can actually take a tour boat out to the island and explore it for the day. I'll have to go back and do that sometime.

I had read that the beach was a big surfing beach but wow, was I in for a surprise! Hundreds of surfers, most of them male, dotted the beach. Met a few who spoke very good English, they thought I was a surfer girl:) A ton of surfing shops lined a street in back of the beach...in many of them you could rent a shared room for the night. I thought about doing this but one of the girls showed me what the room looked like and I saw 6 bunks, five of them filled with surfer boys napping. I know I would have been very uncomfortable sleeping in the same room!

A slummish looking array of other shops/hostel type places also lined the same area...I did find a room where for about ten minutes I tried to speak with the landlady in English and very, very limited and simple Chinese. Another woman came to help and eventually they tried to con me into renting the room for the night for $1,000 NT, which was MUCH too expensive for a place like that. The surfing shops were renting rooms for $300. At a hotel prices usually start at $1000 NT and up. I told the women that the room was too expensive in Chinese and they got really offended, waved me off, and said "Bye, bye!" A surfer on the beach offered me a room in the back of his shop (sharing of course, with others...he insisted other females would be present but from the laughs of his friends I doubt it) but I ended up just relaxing on the beach for awhile and then wandering further down the coast.

I found a pretty secluded section of beach where the waves crashed against giant rocks, it was my own little piece of paradise for a little while.:) I loved it.

Further down the coast, I found the strangely vacant welcome center and a fishery. After spending a little time poking around, I decided to make the journey back to Toucheng city center by foot. Not a good idea. After about a half-hour of wandering down the highway with the blistering sun beating down on me and hearing incessant catcalls from men zooming by on scooters, I wimped out and hailed a cab.

I don't know how much I walked yesterday, but it was ALOT. I got sunburned badly, esp my nose, which of course attracts even more attention from the locals.

On the train ride home I snapped some pictures of the beautiful mountains:)

Since I didn't stay at a hotel last night I decided to treat myself to dinner at Gordon Biersche's in Taipei. It's the place where I had the hummus and pita bread before and it's also a popular place among locals and foreigners alike. There was only one seat available and strangely enough it was next to a couple who upon first glance I thought were Canadian or American. I was delighted to learn they were from Russia however, and we had a great time chatting. After dinner they invited me to come drink some Russian liquor with them in the parking lot and we had a fun time. My body isn't used to drinking that much anymore though so I tried not to overdo it.

Anyway, my new friends are brother and sister and they're from Siberia. I was going to go visit some tea houses in the mountains later but I think they would like to hang out again. I'll probably go even though I had planned on having an anti-social weekend to do some thinking.

I'll try and write more later!

traffic jam in superstore

2009-07-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

I will never again complain about how crowded Wal-mart is in the United States.
A new Carrefour opened very conveniently in Sansia. Very close to work. Anyway, I went there a little while ago to pick up a backpack and some other items and it was pretty overwhelming. I understand it was grand opening day but it was a little insane. Hundreds and I mean hundreds of people. It was probably one of the few times I've felt more than a little uncomfortable since being here-not just because of the crowd but also because of all the attention I received. People stared, some laughed, some pointed. One kid literally had a mini freak out and started pointing at me and speaking in rapid Chinese to his mother.:/ I know it's not necessarily bad attention but it was a little surreal. I don't think I ever want to be a celebrity.

Buying the bare necessities here (shampoo, soap, etc) can get pretty expensive. It's odd. A bottle of shampoo can cost more than a new outfit. I only bought a few things and ended up spending almost $90 US. Of course, I have to remember it's an island as well. And eating out and low housing costs make up for it I suppose.

At checkout the guy tried to card me for purchasing a bottle of wine which was pretty flattering since the drinking age here is 18.:) Of course when I showed him my US ID, which is all I had on me, he just waved it off.

So maybe I'm not aging as much as I thought...or maybe he was just following guidelines.:)

Before going to Carrefour I had dinner at this little noodle shop down the road that one of the other teachers told me about. SOOO good. Got a giant bowl of noodles with vegetables, chicken, and Thai sauce for a little over 2 US dollars. On the way to the store I also noticed a bunch of upscale apartment buildings that I'd never seen before. Some delightful sculpture pieces dotted the sidewalks in front of them, posted a picture of one below.

I think I'm going to the Yilan area tomorrow. I'm hoping to find a nice beach and a place to stay for the night so I'm going to get up really early and head out. Hope everyone back home has a great weekend and know that I'm thinking of you!

yummy noodles

whimsical sidewalk creations

The ocean's calling...

2009-07-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Note to self: make sure to shut off air conditioner when leaving apartment. Which I've been pretty good at doing...but still, got an atrocious bill in the mail yesterday. Not happy.:(

I'm going to be bold(er) and take a train/bus ride out to the east coast this weekend. I need to see the ocean. I'm hoping that if everything works out like I want it to I can eventually move closer to the coast while I'm living here. But, whatever God has planned.

It should be interesting as I want to stay in a hotel or hostel and I'm not booking anything online, I'm just going. I haven't even booked my train ticket yet, I'm probably going to do it tomorrow after work or just get up bright and early Saturday and hope there are seats available. Armed with a backpack, a few notecards, and poor pronunciation, this should be very interesting.

It's very common to see solo foreign men here but I have only seen one or two foreign women out and about alone. Most of them travel in packs or with local friends. On the bus to Hsinchu the other day I met a local woman who was shocked that I was traveling alone.

In some weird way, I feel good about this. It's part of the reason I came here...to prove to myself that I CAN conquer fear. Of course, I know there are certain places I probably should not travel alone...like tempting mountain trails leading into the forest...

Will let everyone know where I'm going before I leave tomorrow or Sat morning.

Wan an!!

A Good Day

2009-07-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

I had a lovely day today taking a bus ride into Hsinchu and meeting with some people there. Sometimes the politeness of people here makes me want to cry. I've read online where some claim the Taiwanese are rude, but I have yet to experience this. Other than in MRT station of course, where everyone is pushing and shoving in line.:)

Met a handful of wonderful human beings today though, foreigners and Taiwanese alike. Every day I'm more thankful that I have this opportunity. I am truly blessed in many ways.

whirlwind

2009-07-06T05:05:00.000-07:00

Another week begins. The older we get, of course time goes by more quickly. Here in Taiwan, the days are flying by faster than they were at home. It's unbelievable. It's a whirlwind of days, one colliding into another.

Not too much to report today...

Had some trouble at school towards the end of the day but I don't feel like blogging about it.

On the way home, I decided to try some asparagus juice. I really enjoyed it!:D The first sip was a bit strange though.

I dropped a glass bottle of ketchup in the kitchen tonight and it missed my foot by a smidgen, thank God. Glass shattered everywhere and even shot into the living room.

Then I went on a mini-cleaning rampage. Going to try to get to bed early tonight!

Falling in love with the Ehru; found Indian food in Taipei!:)

2009-07-05T03:47:00.000-07:00

So I have decided to try winging Chinese on my own until I figure out exactly where I'm moving and what I'm going to do. I was on a mission today: I had to find Practical Audio-Visual Chinese book 1. Asking another teacher for advice, I first went to Taipei Main station and got out, looked around. Could only find a bookstore where all the books were in Chinese. So I got back on the MRT and went to the Taipei 101 area.

Twas like a monsoon when I stepped out of the station...I braved it and haphazardly made my way (streets are slippery in rubber flip flops when the rain is pouring down) into the nearest mall where I could wait out the plum rains. I was looking around the food court area in the basement when I could not believe my eyes...
I found a little Indian restaurant in the corner! I was soooo happy, as Indian food is of course, one of my favorite things to eat. I haven't seen naan in a long, long time. Happily, I ordered a chicken dish and ate to my heart's delight.:)

After lunch, I ventured upstairs and saw that the plum rains still were coming down. Nevertheless I went outside and found the bookstore in 101 that sold the literature I needed. On the way back towards Yongning I stopped in Ximen. There is this blind musician there, I googled him when I got home and discovered his name is Hsu Quingmen. I've seen him once or twice before and he plays this magical instrument called the Ehru. I love, love, love this instrument. It's so beautiful, and watching him play is especially moving. I posted a short video below.

When I arrived at Yongning station and was waiting in line for the bus, I met a lovely woman. She came up to me and started speaking very good English, asking me questions, asking if she could sit next to me on the bus.:) Her name is Martha Su Fu and she works for the government here. She's 64 years-old but you wouldn't know it!:) She told me how she studied in the United States for many years and has many scholarly articles published. Suggested I google her, and she gave me her contact info in case I ever need anything. She thought I looked French and told me I was beautiful and I should be careful with the men here. Lol. She also told me that America was one of the most beautiful countries in the world and she loves it there...I told her I thought Taiwan was beautiful.:) All the talk of beauty!! I found it funny too she made a point of telling me she was Catholic and that's why her name was Martha.:D

At the end of our bus ride, she made some suggestions about fellowships I could eventually get studying Chinese here and it definately sounds like something I will check out. I love random meetings like this, they are part of what makes living here so exciting. I never know what wonderful people I will encounter on a given day.

I finished my script for school even though I'm not overly thrilled with it. Hopefully they don't want me to rewrite the whole thing!

I'm so excited about the coming week because I have a friend coming to visit.:)

Until tomorrow...

4th of July

2009-07-04T05:48:00.000-07:00

Kind of strange not to be home for 4th of July, but then again, I experienced the same thing in Ireland. At least I talked to my mom a little while ago, was so nice to hear her voice.

Some teachers are having a party but I'm resorting to my anchorite ways and staying inside...again.:) Sometimes our bodies just tell us maybe not everything is right and we need to relax...I really think that's going on with me. I think my body is going into some kind of culture shock or something physically.

Anyway, it's fine because I have a lot of work to do.

I showed the new teacher around town a little today and we went inside Zushi Temple by daylight which I haven't done yet. Was pretty cool.

It's still interesting to me how much hip hop I hear while walking around shops...as I said before it seems many people here are big into hip hop and R&B. Which shouldn't be that surprising. Anyway, it makes me feel a little less like I'm on the other side of the world and brings back fond memories of dancing with my friends back home.:)

However, as irrelevant as it is to anything of importance tonight I just want to say how much I love the song "Would You Go With Me?" by Josh Turner. I haven't heard any country here, but before I came over I heard the song on the radio and recently watched the video. I don't know, there's just something about this song:)

Would You Go With Me lyrics - Josh Turner lyrics

Would You Go With Me Video - Josh Turner Music Videos

Music Videos by VideoCure

Duck blood soup...

2009-07-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

I'm running on three hours of sleep so I don't know how much sense this blog will make.:) Haven't been able to sleep at all lately, plus my bed is hard as a rock. I need to eventually see if I can find one of those egg cushion things.

Feeling like zombie right now and I have to get up early and show the new teacher around town...don't mind, I offered. But tomorrow night I am staying in and writing the script for the play and doing absolutely NOTHING. :)

Because of the summer session, I have a couple of new classes added and my schedule was switched around. I still see my lovely junior high students 4 days a week, but now I have another class of children similar in age late Monday afternoons. I taught them today because of the schedule change.

The class has to do with reading so it's not too bad and everyone knows how much I love that subject.:) Today we had to talk about the Bermuda Triangle and after explaining where the triangle was and discussing the short story, I had them draw pictures of what they think happened to the planes and ships that vanished. We talked about all the possibilities...black holes, aliens, fairies, whirlpools, giant dinosaurs...lol. I kept one of the drawings, I'll have to post a picture of it tomorrow.

I asked Rachel if she would show me some new places to eat around Sansia. There are so many little places that I'd like to try but because everything is written in Chinese, it's hard.

She suggested this noodle/dumpling place and when she was reading me the list of choices off the menu, I thought the sour/spicy noodle soup sounded good.

When they brought it out, I noticed large reddish/brown shiny chunks floating around in it. At first Rachel didn't want to tell me what they were but she admitted she forgot the soup contained chunks of duck blood. She told me her mother said duck blood is good for the body and gives body more blood.:D

Everyone back home knows I used to be a vegetarian so looking down at the coagulated chunks I could already feel my stomach churning. I asked Rachel if it would be rude if I didn't eat them and she said no. I honestly would have rather eaten a leg of pork than those things. I really was going to try, but I knew the results wouldn't be pretty.

But the noodles were good and the soup was interesting...somewhat good after the initial taste of duck blood flavoring. :/ I must have looked pitiful trying to eat my noodles with the chopsticks though because a woman who worked there brought me out a shiny new fork.:)

After that we walked around Sansia nightmarket and Rachel, remembering I asked about avocados once, pointed out some gargantuan avocados in one of the stands. Overjoyed, I bought one. They are extremely large and shaped differently than the ones we have back home. And it cost me less than $1.

Of course, we stopped at the shaved ice stand on the way back. My scooter friend wasn't there and normally he starts talking to me in English right away. So I had the opportunity to learn/practice Chinese again tonight. I asked Rachel how to order the shaved ice topped with chopped bananas covered in chocolate and she had me repeat the phrase a few times. When I stopped laughing like a 13-year old girl, I bravely ventured forward and opened my mouth. Amazingly, the girl behind the counter understood me and didn't laugh! I was so proud of myself. I know I have to work on my pronunciation though. I know I'm not hitting the tones and it's difficult remembering things, probably because of the lack of sleep. But I don't want to keep making excuses, six months from now I hope I can at least hold a basic conversation.

I wonder if getting a headset and listening to Chinese phrases while I sleep would help?

Sleep is sounding so good right now...

Duck blood soup...

Monster Avocado

2009-07-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

*Note

I created another blog a few days ago specifically for poetry and stuff that is not necessarily Taiwan related.:)

Haircut

2009-07-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

My junior high kids have decided the play they want to do is "Night at the Museum." Fun, fun. I went out and rented the movie on my lunch break (Yes, I now have a video rental card in Sansia, hooray!)and I was allowed to show the first half of the movie to them the second hour of phonics class this afternoon. Now I get to condense the movie into 10 minutes and write the script this weekend. The plays for all classes will be put on at the end of August...

They told me they weren't allowed to watch Lord of the Rings, which I'm not too sure I believe.:) I wanted them to do Kung Fu Panda then, but they weren't too thrilled. So Museum it is, though it's going to be a lot of work!!

I feel like I'm falling apart physically over here...aside from losing weight and hives and palpitations, my bad knee has started acting up again and retaining fluid. I feel like an elderly woman, complaining about afflictions.:/ But on to happier things...

Like tea and haircuts. I had some interesting grapefruit green tea today. The combinations of things here are remarkable. One day I had tomato plum juice.

So I went and met with the hairstylist in Taipei tonight, he did a great job!! Didn't get too much cut off. He did lecture me about my highlights though because underneath my hair is like three different colors! Insisted I must have it done professionally next time. Lol. He was like "You can tell alot about a person's lifestyle by their hair" and when I asked what he thought about me he said "I can tell you are very adventurous!!" :)

He gave me some tips on treating the dryness of my hair as well, and how to eliminate the weird orangey color it's been turning here. He claims certain chemicals are put into Taiwanese shampoo and I'll have to go get some "Silver" shampoo to strip out the brassiness. Anyway, the place is great...you get a nice head massage when you get your shampoo and they will serve you tea or coffee as well. I will go back!

Ok, enough about that. Glad tomorrow is Friday.:)

Haircut...(not sad, just tired!) :)

More thoughts on Kindness...

2009-07-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

There is this construction worker I see on the way to work every morning. He's middle-aged and he's blind in one eye. To some he would look scary.

Every day since I've been here he nods and smiles at me, without saying a word. This morning he said "Hello" and it kind of melted my heart. Later in the day I saw him again on a scooter jetting down the road...he said "Bye bye!"

Even though I don't understand why many motorists will hit and run a person and creep around a stray dog, I will continue to say the kindness of the people here is truly amazing. The security guards make it a point to say "Hello, how are you?" There is one elderly guard who always gives me the thumbs up sign and tells me "Beautiful." He chews betlenut though because his teeth are always red!!:D

A little toddler ran up to me in the apartment lobby today and said "Hello!!!" I wonder if his parents put him up to it.:)

There are numerous tea shops in Taiwan, which of course, I love. There's one right down the street I've visited a few times. The menu is in Chinese characters with small English print underneath and the woman always comes around the stand and waits patiently while I point at my order. :/

Today as I was looking, another customer almost immediately started asking me questions in English and telling the woman what I wanted...little things like this, so unexpected. Once again I wonder if people would be so kind to a foreigner in the United States. The harsh reality is of course, no.

My friend Rachel told me people are so nice because I'm "special" here...meaning it is rare to see foreigners in Sansia. In the melting pot of the United States, we are so used to foreigners coming in and out. Again, I am proud to be an American but I am not proud of the superiority complex so many of us are guilty of back home.

I had a terrible time sleeping last night because of heart palpitations and fidgeting and woke up with hives again today.:/ But, hopefully it was just a fluke. Teacher Rhonda must be strong!:D She will be strong!!

I felt bad during teaching jr. high kids today because I kept trying to reprimand one kid and kept calling him the name of another! I don't know why, but it happened a few times and the kid who wasn't doing anything at the moment said "Teacher, you are so bad!" Usually both of them are acting up, it's probably why. That and the lack of sleep.

Had a new kindergartner start today. He seems pretty well behaved. One of the girls in the class kept getting in trouble though because she was extra bossy today and threw a pencil at him as well. She tends to get reprimanded the most, I have a feeling she's pretty spoiled at home. But, other times she can be very helpful.

Tomorrow I am going to get my first haircut since arriving! If it turns out ok, will post pics:D

Everyone have a beautiful Wednesday!

First real pangs of homesickness...

2009-06-30T03:52:00.000-07:00

School was ok today...junior high kids were unruly again. But my class size is dropping down to 9 for the summer so that's a relief. Although of course, the naughtiest ones will still be in class.:)

After work today I changed out of my uniform in the bathroom and put a sleeveless top on. My kindergartners happened to see me as I was leaving and could not believe it. They were pointing at my top and saying "Teacher, you took your shirt off!" It's like they go into shock when they see us out in public in normal street clothes.:)

One of the girls grabbed my shirt and would not let go.

I am already tired of eating white rice everyday and it's not the greatest healthwise. So I went out to the RT Mart in Yongning. I have to take the bus to Yongning every time I go into Taipei, because the MRT station is in Yongning. I took a couple of somewhat boring videos of the bus ride, you can see them below.:) Pardon the noise and they aren't the best quality. I need to get a real mini cam soon!

I'd been to the RT Mart once before, and it has pretty much everything one needs. Except mayo and sour cream.:) Anyway, I bought some new facial cleanser, some olive oil, a three dollar pair of flip flops, some boneless chicken breast, and a package of frozen edamame. I also walked around the meat section and took pictures of the ultra fresh poor little creatures waiting to be eaten. See pics below.

Too lazy and worried about the chicken to take the bus back into Sansia, I got into a cab and had a pleasant conversation with a middle aged man who could speak pretty decent English. He told me all about how the springs in his Taxi needed to be replaced, how long he had been driving a cab, his rich brother in Atlanta who owned a Mercedes Benz and a Porsche. He complained about the humidity and pollution in Taiwan and asked me about traffic in Chicago. Then he told me how his daughter was getting married soon, to a professor.:) When I meet people like this it only makes me feel MORE ashamed I can't speak the language. You know, living over here I realize how uneducated many Americans really are. Go to other countries around the world, and it's made a priority for children to learn a second or third language from an early age. In America, only recently have schools begun to place importance on acquiring a second language.

When I arrived home I was pleasantly surprised to find a letter and some pictures from my mom. Of course I was happy, but the card and pictures made me feel really homesick for the first time. I wish I could hug everyone right now.

Seeing how big my nephews are made me realize how fast they're going to grow while I'm over here...I'm not planning on leaving anytime soon but it's probably not going to be as easy as I thought living in Taiwan for the year. However, I'm determined to unlock the mystery as to why I'm here.:)

It's so quiet here with my roommate gone. Normally I prefer being alone, I enjoyed living alone before. But it was nice to have her here to chat with and just knowing that someone else was here in the middle of the night helped. But I knew that in coming here I was going to experience intense bouts of loneliness and I also believe that being in complete solitude helps us grow more connected to God. This is all part of the journey.

Monday, Monday

2009-06-29T04:14:00.001-07:00

I thought my skin would do great here, since it's always glowing when I come back from Florida. I was wrong! Never having problems with pimples before, the humidity here is causing my skin to break out a little. (That, and the greasy food:)

Some days I feel like I'm stepping into a sauna. :)

My junior high kids told me I looked 45 today. Wow, I hope Taiwan isn't aging me that much! lol. Though some days I look in the mirror and I'm seeing the signs. I don't think it's the fault of Taiwan, I am going to be 30 before I know it. Time to start applying all those face creams.

But then, earlier today one of the kindergartners I teach story time to said "Teacher Rhonda is beautiful." So I guess I'm not looking too hideous. :D I will take the opinion of a kindergartner over the opinion of a 12 year-old any day.

I hope I don't in trouble for saying a Chinese phrase in my junior high class today. It just came out...I said "don't want" and the class went crazy. They wouldn't stop talking about it, and I'm hoping they don't go home and tell their parents new Teacher spoke Chinese during class. It's already enough that one of the managers came down into the class five minutes before it ended because (I'm assuming she saw them on the cameras up by reception) they were going crazy and not listening to me at all. Standing up and throwing a football, beating one another, etc. I had no control today.

Prob because I spoke Chinese.:/

Lesson learned.

Mini-Earthquake and Giant Snails

2009-06-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in bed and about ten minutes ago I felt like my body/bed was swaying back and forth and I noticed the chandelier in the living room swaying as well. My heart is finally slowing down but I think I just experienced a small earthquake, unless I'm going crazy. The weird thing is I told my roommate we were probably going to have an earthquake as soon as she left. I really have to stop joking around about stuff like that.:/ She left early this morning. She prob won't believe me when she finds out.

I'm starting to realize that Taiwan has many hidden, interesting places. Wandering around another part of Sansia today, I saw an odd little building up on a hill, past a temple. When I got to the location after darting across the street, I found this stair:

So I climbed the staircase and then I found a grave. The graves here in Taiwan are mysterious, they're very elaborate and built into hillsides. Here's a picture of one that is less elaborate than others I have seen. I just wish I knew who this important person was...I'm assuming it must have been someone important because there was a little shrine or something next to the gravesite. I tried googling for the information regarding this and the temple and statue I mention below, but I had no luck.

After staring at and walking around this site for a little while, I walked down the street up another staircase to visit the temple I had passed. Another example of hidden treasures...behind this beautiful temple was a park, complete with cutesy gazebos and whimsical little trails that led into the forest. And a life-size statue of some man whom I can only assume is a prominent historical figure. Had a lot of fun poking around and saw a couple of enormous snails (see a pic below) a strange caterpillar, and some giant elephant ears. A disgusting jumping spider tried to pay me a visit when I was taking a pic of the elephant ears but it got away too fast for me to capture on camera. I found an oh-so tempting pathway leading into the forest. So I crept along on the muddy little ledge and started to make my way along it but had a very creepy sensation when I realized I was basically heading into jungle like conditions--alone. So I chickened out. But one day I may go back and see where the trail leads.:)
Tonight I need to practice my Chinese. Hopefully earthquake will not come back:(

Plum Rains

2009-06-27T07:11:00.000-07:00

It appears that the plum rains have started/come back to Taiwan. On my way home from work yesterday there was a torrential downpour. I had to hike up my pantlegs while holding my umbrella in one hand as I trudged through the puddles. Even though I was afraid of the lightning and wicked looking clouds, I started laughing, esp when people were staring at me with amused expressions on their faces.

Last night a group of us went out to this place called Capone's in Taipei and we all forgot our umbrellas. I had to buy another one in Sansia today.

Some of us went out for hot pot in Sansia earlier tonight for dinner. It was my second time trying hot pot in Taiwan and I enjoyed it, though I ended up spilling on myself trying to use the slippery plastic chopsticks. I made a child-like mess on my placemat. I felt like such a little kid, hiding pieces of spilled food in my napkin wad on the table.

For those of you who do not know what hot pot is:

Well, first you have to order a main meat/seafood dish raw (I ordered chicken) and also a type of soup you'd like to cook this meat in. The waitress brings out the soup pot and sets it in place on the table. Every person at the table has temperature control settings for his/her own hot pot. Not only does the main meat go into pot, but there's a buffet with an array of vegetables and other meats you can also add to your pot. Free drinks, salad, fruits, and desserts included.

The first time I had hot pot at another place, I ordered Miso soup to cook everything in. Tonight I ordered an ultra spicy Thai soup which cleared out my sinuses and caused me to drink three containers of apple milk:D Very tasty.

After dinner we walked around Sansia and took some lovely pictures near the Zushi Temple bridge.

I haven't blogged about it yet because I'm trying to be careful with what I post online, but my roommate is heading back to the United States. It will be strange being in this apartment without her, since she was here right when I arrived. I wish her the best of luck when she goes back home and as I told her, at least she ventured here and had some wonderful new experiences. She tried. We all have to do what we feel is best for ourselves, regardless of what others think and even if we don't understand why things didn't turn out as expected.

As for me, so far my time here has been at times stressful and completely uncertain, but also very wonderful. There may be some changes taking place in the coming months but I still strongly believe that I am here because it is God's will. Healing from the past and looking forward to the future, I believe I will find my way. There is the saying wherever you go...there you are. I know that in being here I am forcing myself to take a good look at whatever needs fixing internally, even if I may want to run away from what I see. I suppose in everyone's life there comes a time when they have to face their fears and take an in-depth look into their own personal soul mirror. On my own and across the globe, my time is now.

Happy after hot pot

Mermaids and Monsters

2009-06-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Nothing too eventful happened today. I played the "Spider game" with my kindergartners, which they loved. It's this game I made up a long time ago. I had all of them put their heads down on the table, covering their eyes. I hum this goofy song and have the spiders (my hands) walk around, hovering above the kids until the music stops and the spider says "bloop" and lands on their heads, promptly tickling them. It took up some time when we finished their workbooks early.:) If anyone gets out of control, the spiders run away into the cave (hide behind my back) and don't come out until it's quiet again. The game works pretty well for young children as a great bribing tool.:D

The older kids were very wild today. Had to send one out in the hall twice, the second time pulling him by his arm when he refused and held his chair up to me like a shield. Must have looked great on the cameras.

I was dubbed a new name by them today- "ugly mermaid." One of the girls called me a mermaid and then the boy who I later had to send out into into the hall said "Teacher you are ugly mermaid." Pretty soon a few of them were saying it. So I said they were monkeys, to which they laughed.:) I really don't take it to heart, I know they are at a weird age. It's just frustrating at times, because there are some students who really want to learn and the others are very distracting.

There are a few men (they are all called "uncle")who drive buses for the school as well as take care of the building, guard dogs, etc. So when I teach my older kids, one of them is usually sitting in the little lobby downstairs near the kitchen.

Today I threatened to send the loud ones out into the hall to be with him. I told them he'd make them go into the kitchen and cook. They either did not understand or were being goofy because then they started to say he was going to cook them and eat them. Later, I tried bringing "Uncle" to the room to show them who I was talking about and perhaps be kind of threatening. I gestured at "Uncle" from the hallway (momentarily forgetting that crooking the index finger in a "come here" manner is seen as an obscene gesture in Taiwan).

The whole thing backfired. He stood in the doorway and said something to them in Chinese, causing them to burst into hysterics as he walked away. When I asked them what he said, they told me he said "I don't know what she wants me to do, I don't speak any English."

:) Go figure.
It's going to be interesting writing that play for them this weekend.

Tired Teacher:)

2009-06-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

Today some of the teachers took their Kindergarten classes to the splash park in Taipei. It was pretty fun, even if Teacher Big Eyes wanted to take a nap after. I wish I had worn my bathing suit so I could have taken the kids down the water slide (The teachers had to wear their ugly school uniforms and shorts) but wading around and having my students shoot me with squirt guns was fun enough:)

I took a couple of short videos from the outing, posted one below:)

One of my junior high students is starting to develop a poor attitude during class. He doesn't want to participate and today I was not feeling like dealing with his attitude. I gave him a choice of either participating in the game or going out in the hall and writing his vocab for the week 100 times. He wouldn't budge. When I asked the co-teacher in the room for assistance, she just looked at me like I was crazy and mumbled something to him about why he wasn't participating. It's hard to maintain a level of respect with these kids because they know can get away with everything. It's strange because the co-teachers discipline the kids from time to time. But when it comes to report cards or relaying bad behavior to the parents, we have to act like all the children are angels at all times. I'm sure the kids are aware of this. Some days I really don't feel like I'm in a real school, I feel like I'm teaching daycare and babysitting. I hope this changes.

Still lovin' Taiwan though.:) And I do enjoy working with the younger kids.

:(

2009-06-22T05:11:00.000-07:00

Did not have a good day today and now I'm worried about dying from some disease because of the gross incident that happened at work.

There is a rule at work that we aren't supposed to throw toilet paper into the teachers toilet. Signs are posted. We are supposed to throw all toilet paper into the garbage can next to the toilet, even after using. It's pretty disgusting. The bathrooms at school are in general, disgusting.

Anyway, I wasn't thinking about it since I ignore the rule because it doesn't make sense and threw some in the toilet and of course, the toilet had to clog. And started overflowing. And I didn't have access to the janitor supply closet to get plunger nor could I just go and tell my manager I threw toilet paper in the toilet and overflowed it. I did not know what to do. So stupidly, I panicked, grabbed a bunch of toilet paper and tried to fish out the other toilet paper (from the top of toilet, not sticking hand all the way in) with the wad of toilet paper in my hand (dumb blonde moment)...got toilet water all over my hands and spent five minutes scrubbing them vigorously. I am vaccinated against hepatitis A but now all sorts of horrors are crossing my mind. Never again will I do something so stupid, I'll just suck up the humiliation and confess.:(

It is pretty disgusting and I would say it has to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever done. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid.:(

Other than that, nothing else to say really. Just not a good day in general, kids were very naughty today. I'm sure tomorrow will be better.

Chinese lesson number two

2009-06-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

So early this afternoon I met with my tutor for the second time. By the end of the lesson I felt a little like crying, but of course I will not give up. He went a little fast and just when he taught me something new, he erased what I just learned off his whiteboard and made me put the sentences together using words he had taught only moments before. It's frustrating but the fact that it's so challenging makes me want to learn even more. I went out and bought a bigger notebook tonight so I can practice this week. He also said he would order me the book he teaches out of and I can pay him next weekend. I thought it would be very useful since it comes with a CD.

After my lesson, I met my roommate who had managed to get a tanning membership at one of the only tanning salons in Taipei. It has exactly one stand up bed. Now, back home I used to think tanning was superficial but then during the depressing winter months I had started to go because it improved my mood. Then I'd stopped, afraid of getting wrinkles and skin cancer. Well as there has been no sun here and I'm starting to look a little Casperish, she offered to let me use one of her tans. So I did and the experience was a little traumatizing. I got burned bad, the heat lamps on this bed were much stronger than anything back home. From now on it is natural sun, fake lotion, or paleness. Prob paleness will have to suffice, seeing as it's hard to get bronzer or anything like that here. Oh well.

We also went to the Jade Market and the Flower Market in Taipei. Jade Market had some beautiful jewelery but I'm not one of those women who go gaga over stuff like that. I did see some beautiful pieces though and a collection of Tibetian antique knives that my older brother would have loved.
My favorite was the Flower Market. I bought a little bamboo plant and I saw some enormous Bonsai trees, hundreds of beautiful orchids, and many whimsical little fountains and trinkets.:D

Went into downtown Sansia tonight to eat and develop some pictures. While I was waiting for my pics, I went over to the shaved ice stand and sat down with some watermelon shaved ice. After I was finished, I stood up too quickly and dropped my umbrella in a puddle. Unfortunately, it made a loud splatter and sprayed a woman decked out in evening wear who was walking by with her friend. They both said something loudly in Chinese and looked at me, affronted. Of course, I stupidly said sorry in English and couldn't remember how to say it in Mandarin. Humiliated, I grabbed the umbrella and headed into a store nearby. For a fleeting moment I felt sorry for myself and doubted my capacity to learn Chinese. And I wondered what I was doing here. But that quickly cleared and I shrugged it off.

I saw one of my kindergarteners in town tonight. She acted all excited when she first saw me and then hid by her mother when I tried talking to them.

Wan an to me, zao an to those of you back home.:)

Giant bonsai in Flower Market

Beetle update...

2009-06-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, so perhaps I should not have been so harsh in reference to the stag beetle I saw today in the beetle store. Even though I love many of God's creatures, I still would not want one of these for a pet! However they are interesting and I guess they aren't really dangerous. The worst they can do is a pinch and a bruise. I guess...

All about Taiwan beetles:

click here

And here is a charming picture I found on the internet...;)

Palaces and Piers

2009-06-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday night and I'm pooped. I decided to visit the National Palace Museum in Tapei today and then headed up to Danshui. The museum was very cool, I especially loved the ancient paintings (scrolls, tapestries) and books sections. Couldn't take pics of the artifacts in the museum but the scenery outside the palace was beautiful. I also took my first cab ride alone... there and back from Shilin station. Which went perfectly fine. :) Here is a pic taken near the palace. There are more pics if you visit my Taiwan images.:)

After I went to the Museum, I decided to take a trip up to Danshui.
I loved the city, very cool as well. I didn't get a full view of the Taiwan Strait but I could see the place where the river met the sea from a distance.:) Lots of shops and a cute boardwalk. Lots of stares.:D There's much to see that I missed so I will have to take a trip back soon. I was happy enough to smell the sea on the breeze, sea-side towns are so magical. *sigh* I also found a beetle pet store...some of the beetles here are hideous. I know you'd like them Nathan!
Here are some pics from Danshui:

Danshui River

Where river and sea collide...:)

Goose on the boardwalk

Huge vicious looking beetle in cage. Will have to do research to see if they are really dangerous.

boardwalk!!

The foreigners here (Americans, Canadians specifically) are starting to irritate me. Most of them seem very rude. It's crazy how they will not look me in the eye, or one another for that matter. From what I've gathered, expats who've been here for some time tend to develop a superiority complex. Today I smiled at a few different foreigners and was either ignored, scowled at, or met with a blank expression. Occasionally there will be a faint hint of a smile so I know they're all not rude. I feel I'm much better off sticking to making friends with the locals.

A few months back I developed a mysterious case of chronic hives. Happily, they have been gone for a few weeks. Then I got bit by something.:/ On the way home today I noticed both legs were breaking out again. *sigh* I really hope they aren't starting back up. :(

But, I had a good day and I'm meeting with my Chinese tutor tomorrow. I really want to go to these tea houses in the mountains not too far from Sansia but I'll probably wait for another weekend.

Numbers

2009-06-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

Have not done anything tonight except sleep and I did talk to mom and Jenny on the phone, which was nice. It's now after 1 am Saturday. Was maybe going to go hiking tomorrow but perhaps I'll try and find a beach instead. Kind of in the mood to be alone, overdue for some deep pondering sessions.:)

So I think I mentioned I'm trying to learn my numbers in Chinese. I have to ask my tutor about pronunciation but I was every proud of myself today. I attempted to write the characters for 1980 and here is what it looked like:

It wasn't that difficult so I shouldn't brag.:) I pulled off a list of characters and rules for writing numbers from the internet last week, wasn't too difficult to figure out. I think it will take some practice though, because as you can see, you cannot just write the symbols for 1-9-8-0. From the right: The first character means one, the second means 1000, the third means 9, the fourth means 100 (this one I messed up on, it should not have those long leg looking things on it), the fifth character means 8, and the 6th character means 10. So it translates to something like one thousand, nine one hundreds, and eighty tens. I showed it to a Taiwanese co-worker and she said it was correct, except for the legs on the 100. I also showed one of my managers and she asked me how I knew how to write Chinese and if I learned in school. lol.

Ok, so anyway, it's really not a big deal but I thought I would demonstrate. I'm sure most Chinese speaking people would laugh at my boasting.:D The real challenge is going to be learning how to speak and eventually write words. The characters look very complicated, but beautifully artistic.

Another week winding to a close.:)

Hummus in Taipei

2009-06-18T06:39:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Taipei with roommate. We wanted to try out this place called Gordon Biershes that the other teachers were talking about. So good!! I had hummus there, which I miss so much. Took a few more pics tonight. Also asked for the bathroom in Chinese two more times tonight. I need to practice more phrases, getting bored with my meager vocabulary.:)

The past few days I've eaten so much. Now if only I can find a gym where I don't break the machinery or hurt myself.:)

School is crazy. They assigned all of the teachers a class or two and we have to write individual plays based on whatever movie we wish. The classes we were assigned will perform the scripts at a museum in town on August 22nd. Usually I love writing but since I'm being forced into it and they combined two classes of the older kids, I'm not too thrilled. I'll probably write a Lord of the Rings script, I'm sure they'll love that.:) Maybe Star Wars??:D

We also have a spelling competition coming up for the kindergarteners, lots of work. But I'm not going to worry too much about all of this, we'll see what happens.

I'm upset because my mom didn't get her birthday package yet, I sent it out over two and a half weeks ago.:( It was strange not being there for her birthday. Hopefully she'll get the package soon and it's not lost.

Last night I had a dream I was carrying around a baby tiger. I think it was speaking Chinese to me but I can't be certain. Then I dreamnt a bunch of criminals were after me, I think they were members of the Asian mob. I remember jumping into the Pacific ocean and thinking "This way I'll be closer to California..." :) It's the first time I can remember my dreams since arriving here.

Happy almost-Friday to everyone!!

Standing in apartment lobby...striking a pose. Rhonda is a huge nerd.

Hummus and flatbread!!!!

A little piece of Ireland in Taipei...*sighs dreamily*:)

Pampered pup in buggy. From what I've gathered so far, you either see extremely spoiled dogs here, or dogs that are neglected and running around town scrounging for food.

Fun with words...

2009-06-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

Today was an ok day. My kindergarteners decided not only am I Teacher Big Eyes, I am now Teacher Big Tail too...have no idea.

I mentioned before that every day for a half hour I meet with the youngest kids at the school for circle time. I love them! I feel so pleased when I teach them a new word and they remember it our next visit. Today I took a very quick video on my camera while I was dancing with them. Until the co-teacher in the room started yelling at them in Chinese. They get yelled at all the time, for no reason. All they have to do is breathe.:/ Anyway, it's very short and ignore the ridiculous way my voice sounds.:) You can watch it below.

Older kids were TERRORS this afternoon. After doing some workbook pages I decided to put up a bunch of word magnets (a former teacher left them in the office and as they were up for grabs, I decided to claim them!) and have the students make sentences on the board. Now before class, I saw the word teacher in the pile and thought fleetingly about removing it. But I decided to leave it in just to see what they'd say.:)
So I put up about 70 or so of these little word magnets and called them up two at a time to form sentences. Some sentences the little darlings decided to create through the course of the activity:

"Teacher is pig."

"Teacher plant cake."

"Teacher is pig and have monkey."

I pretended to act offended when they called me a pig and said "What if I make a sentence that says 'Students are monkeys?' " This made them laugh. We did another page in their workbook and one of the students told on another student for saying "Teacher is crazy." I demonstrated how a truly crazy teacher would act. I jumped wildly around the room, which caused them to laugh and say "Teacher, you so bad."

At the end of class I made them all go up to the board and attempt to form one huge sentence. Which was a disaster and ended up with kids leaping over desks and beating one another. I feel like a glass of wine tonight!!

But I will go get some shaved ice with Rachel instead. If anything eventful (like pigs riding scooters) transpires, I will be sure to post an update later tonight. Below I've also posted some pictures from when the teachers went out last weekend...before going to dinner we walked around inside Taipei 101 building. We found out that drinking and shopping at the same time are allowed in Taiwan...who knew? Although I hate most beer, I decided it was another adventure and enjoyed one whilst trekking through the mall area.:)

From left...Rachel, me, Jonathan, Rebekah

A Reminder...

2009-06-16T06:16:00.001-07:00

Not too much to report on tonight. School has been ok the past couple of days. Kindergarteners are fun as usual.:)

Junior high kids love doing word searches of their weekly vocabulary. And Teacher Rhonda loves making them do it because it gives her a big break.:D
It's always a fun day when I have to explain new words to them. Today I had to talk about words such as remains, fossil, metal, and drowned. Surprisingly, they had no idea what drowned meant so I had to draw a stick figure drowning in the water on the whiteboard. Nice. :/ As it is, many Taiwanese people are afraid of the ocean, or so I've heard.

I attempted to go to the tiny gym in my apartment complex earlier tonight. After about fifteen minutes and nearly killing myself on two machines (seat fell off bicycle while I was riding it, sit-up machine flipped me upside down and I didn't know how to control it), I left and went for a walk with my ipod.

Feeling a little unsettled today, don't know why. As I was walking tonight I came across the song "Praise you in this storm" by Casting Crowns. I remember I added it to my ipod because it relaxed me so much and helped while flying. Tonight, it gave me the chills. I was reminded that God is indeed with me...wherever I may be. And I need to trust (and keep telling myself) that everything in my life will work out according to his plan.

To listen to the song, click play on the video below.:)

Randomness

2009-06-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

Met with Chinese tutor today. I would say it went pretty well. Lots to practice and memorize but I know if I apply myself I will be ok, though it will be a difficult language to learn. What makes me more determined is the fact that I feel like it's only respectful to learn the main language...I'm in this country and the sad thing is most people expect Americans/Canadians not to learn the language...the locals will go out of their way to try and speak English to foreigners. I felt terrible again today when I was at this pasta place "The Tomato" and the lady called her friend on the phone (who spoke English) to help me with my order!!!!! Talk about humiliation. And amazement. Would we be so kind to people in the US? Living here, I realize how unaccommodating the states can be for foreigners. And it makes me a little ashamed. Like Rachel told me yesterday...most Taiwanese people will go out of their way to help, even if they cannot speak one word of English. Would most Americans do the same? Our attitude back home is "Learn the language, or get out."
My perspective is definitely changing.

Lychees are my new favorite fruit. Picked some up in Sansia market today. I cannot exactly describe what they taste like...I know you can get them in the US but they're hard to find. So sweet and tasty.:)

Below are some random pictures from the past few days. And a quick video showing part of Ximen district where I met my tutor today.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!:)

Tasty soup

First Sushi I've had since I've arrived:)

Weird store in Ximen:)

Lychees!!:D

After I sat down to eat at "The Tomato" a very nice local came in and she pulled this puppy out of her purse at her table. Of course, I had to take a picture!

Now I know everyone is wondering..."What is Rhonda wearing?!" I had to model a typical Taiwanese outfit one would see on many young (and perhaps even old) women walking around in Taipei or Sansia. Outfit consists of sparkly hat, standard peace sign, short shorts, and knee high stockings. All I'm missing are the kitten heels and sparkly bling bling necklace. Yes, it is slightly scandalous. But pretty tame compared to some other attire I've seen. I will have to take a whole bunch of pics to show what the fashionistas wear here. Will I wear this out in public? prob not.

crazy scooter adventure

2009-06-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

It's almost 1 in the morning on Sunday but I thought I'd write a little about my Saturday.

So I was walking around in Sansia today looking for some bed linens when the guy who works at the shave ice stand comes by and says hi. I just met this individual last night but he was very nice, speaks pretty good english. He told me he would see me later. Two minutes later, no kidding, he pulls up on a scooter and asks me if I would like to go see a hill down the road. I did not know what to say. You must understand...traffic is insane here. Scooters, people, and cars all come within haphazardous lengths of one another. Plus, it is not typical Rhonda behavior to go off with strange people she doesn't know.

So I said maybe some other time and of course, he insisted. I was conned, I swear. Anyway, throwing caution to the wind and deciding I am in my own choose your own adventure book, I get onto the back of this scooter and he hands me a helmet that is a size too big. I told him "Ok, but I do not want to die today."

Thinking this hilarious, he laughs and zooms off and I'm clinging for dear life, praying to God that I just did not make a moronic decision in more than one way.

I will admit it was great fun, though I was petrified at one point when he turned a corner and we darted between a bunch of moving vehicles. The helmet almost blew off my head a few times because it was so big. Many people were staring at the foreign blonde girl today.:)

Anyway, he took me up to this hill (which consisted of driving up a huge hill and winding road) where I could see great views of Sansia. Said I should call him Joey.
After about ten minutes and an icecream, we get back on the scooter and then he dropped me off in front of the store where he found me.

It's nice to make another friend, though I know perhaps my decision was stupid. However, I survived.:)

This evening Rachel, Rebekah and I went out with some of the other teachers. We were going to go to Shilin but instead we went to this all you can eat (and drink) buffet in Taipei. It was fun but I ate so much I feel like I can't move. And I had unlimited glasses of wine. I will have to post some pics tomorrow.

Until then...

Friday night update...

2009-06-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

So I just got home from trying some delicious shaved ice. My roommate and I went out with that nice local girl Rachel and she showed us this place we've passed numerous times but didn't know what it was. Gourmet shaved ice with lots of fruity toppings to pick from. Awesome.

A not so awesome thing...

I have failed to mention that cockroaches love Taiwan. And they especially love when it gets very humid. When I was eating my shaved ice an abnormally large one was staring at me from the vent beneath my feet...inches away from my toes. :/

So...after roommate and I arrived home she yelled and said a cockroach ran under our couch. Now the thing is, I was just saying earlier that I'm glad we don't have cockroaches in our apartment. We had to move the couch and she stomped on it wearing her flipflops. Disgusting.

I'm wondering if the unwanted visitor came from my new plant that's sitting in my room...next to my bed...:(

Some teachers are moving and right before we went out they offered to give us a tree...which reminded me of the corn tree I so loved that I had to leave with mom when I moved.

I hope that this is not the case.

Another day in Taiwan, drawing to a close.

Pig on Scooter...

2009-06-12T04:00:00.000-07:00

I had an inkling feeling I should have grabbed my camera!!

My roommate and I went out to find something to eat in Sansia a little while ago and I saw the cutest thing!

There was a couple on a scooter and they had a black and white pig (not pot-bellied) sitting between them! Pig's snout was resting on the guy driving the scooter and the woman kept patting the pig's head. Amazing. They sat for awhile at a stoplight and I know it would have been a one in a million shot. Never again will I leave my camera at home when venturing out into the streets of Taiwan!!!!

:)

Not doing anything tonight. Ate too much for dinner and prob going to take a nap and then do some writing.

Happy almost-weekend to everyone back home!!

A few of my favorite things...

2009-06-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

The past couple of days have been a little emotionally trying but today was a better day. Before I get into that, I just wanted to list a few of my favorite things about Taiwan so far:)

-I love it how I can buy fresh pineapple on the way home from work everyday
-I love it how I can go to the doctor and spend $40.00, when in the U.S the same visit would have cost around $400
-I am starting to like the sound of the musical garbage trucks
-I love the friendliness of most people I encounter
-I love how willing people are to help (like the guy who helped me find the doctor the other day. He read the directions that I had my manager write in Chinese and insisted on walking me across the street, directing me to the right building, and following me inside only to hit the elevator button:)
-I love it how in the early evening I can walk alone down the street or in downtown Sansia and feel completely safe, greeted with twenty "Hello, how are you's" from people even if that's the only English they know
-I love how easy public transportation is here
-I love the the natural beauty of Taiwan, or what I've seen of it so far
-I love it when the children yell "Hello teacher Rhonda" from down the hall or quickly in passing
-I love the food!

So yes, I am really starting to love the country in itself. Even if there are still many things I do not understand (like why pieces of jelly are put into many things, including canned drinks):)

As for the emotional stuff...

Just been having some issues at work and not so sure I'm cut out to teach at this particular school...seeing as I'm such a quiet personality and they seem to want more of a bubbly, jump around type. But, I'll just try my best and see what happens. The awesome part is this whole thing is a learning experience and no one is forcing me to stay in the country, let alone stay at a certain school. In reality, I'm free to leave whenever I want...and somehow that makes it all easier.

So today even though I was feeling under the weather, I put forth my best effort and ended up having a good day. My kindergarten class was awesome, the kids were very playful. My junior high kids kinda were naughty and wild again so after we reviewed for their quizzes I made them write me another letter about Taiwan and things they like in general. Great souvenirs:D

The kids seemed happy enough to do it although they insisted that "Teacher cannot read out loud to class and must keep to self." :) Which of course, I agreed to. They also said when I learn Mandarin I must write them a letter about Chicago using only Chinese.:)

There was drama in class today when one of my more hyperactive kids started stomping around and acting extremely angry. I asked him quietly to come in the hallway with me and tell me what was bothering him. He avoided looking at me as his eyes started welling up with tears and I encouraged him by telling him that he was not in trouble and teacher also wanted to be his friend. He told me he would have a hard time saying it in English but I told him to try his best. Turned out one of the most attentive students(and also the one who tattles the most) made fun of him in front of the other students (which I did not hear). I told him I would talk to her after class, which I did, and she looked like she too was about to burst into tears. It's amazing what happens when the loudest students have to talk to teacher alone...they act subdued and I realize how young they really are. And it kind of melts my heart and reminds me of my purpose...to help better their lives. Even if I don't end up staying at this location, I hope whatever time I spend with them leaves a positive imprint on their lives.

Manyueyuan

2009-06-07T05:15:00.000-07:00

Woke up bright and early this morning and went to Manyueyan National Forest with some of the other teachers. Had a nice time, though I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow from all the hiking.:)

The main trails all had guard rails and steps leading to some of the waterfalls. No swimming allowed but they were still so beautiful to see. Had to dodge a couple of strange looking insects, but saw some beautiful butterflies.

To get to the park we had to take a cab there and a cab back...let me say that we had a CRAZY cab driver on the way home and I semi-feared for my life between him dodging in and out of traffic on winding roads and looking like he was going to fall asleep at the wheel. And no seatbelts in the backseat.

But, I survived. And I had another great adventure in Taiwan.

Teacher Big Eyes

2009-06-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Went to the Sansia night market again yesterday and bought more fruit. And some cherry tomatoes. A couple of guys tried to get my roommate and I to buy fish and snails out of plastic buckets. One of them told me I was beautiful and asked if I could speak Chinese, while the other tried selling me live snails for 5 nt each. It was entertaining.

I keep thinking how fantastic it would be if only I could wake up one morning and suddenly be fluent in 中文 zhōngwén. :)

Had to work today because of the Dragon Boat Festival last week. Exhausted, but the week went by fairly quickly. Think I'm going to do some hiking with some other teachers tomorrow, even though I'd just like to stay in bed.

So today during our Phonics class one of my kindergarteners said "Teacher, you Teacher Big Eyes. We call you Teacher Big Eyes," and all the kids started laughing. Very cute. They had the monthly school birthday party today and once again I am dreading when it is my turn to play emcee. Not going to be fun. But the party itself was fun, got to dance around with the kids and play games.

If only my junior high kids were pleased so easily. They've been very bad the past few days. Talking back and not putting forth effort. Typical 13 year-old behavior but irritating nonetheless. I created a huge word search puzzle and cross word puzzle out of about six chapters of their vocabulary words and made them do that most of the class today. We took a break between the puzzles to talk about consonant diagrams again. When I put the letters SH up on the board and asked them to come up with as many words that began and ended with SH as they could, one of the girls said "shit." Trying not to laugh I asked where she had heard that word. Some of the other kids starting repeating and one of them said "Teacher, we saw it in movie." Funny, they sometimes don't understand the meaning of words like statue, value, or ledge, but they know what shit means! :)

Not feeling 100% tonight so I hope I'm not getting sick. Think I need some sleep.
Well, hopefully I will have magnificent photos to show for my mountain escapade tomorrow.

Until then...

Rain, rain...

2009-06-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

It's been like a monsoon all day! But I suppose I need to get used to it. Just got back a little while ago from the RT Mart and another little shop because I had to venture out and attempt to find dark blonde hair dye for my roots. Because I messed up my highlights today. And because the water here turns my hair orange. Not sure how to fix that. Anyway I found exactly one box of blonde hair dye and dark blonde at that. It helped but not much...

Oh well.:) The rain... even with an umbrella, my jeans got soaked through. The front desk people were probably thrilled when I walked into the apartment complex.

Earlier today I went to the university post office and mailed my first package back home. Hooray! Was pretty easy. I forgot my cell phone there and realized it an hour later. Hoping humanity was good, I went back and asked. The clerk pulled it out from behind the desk. Now if that was in the United States, some criminal probably would have taken it the moment they noticed I had left it.

The second time back to the post office I passed a group of college students singing the most beautiful song at the university bus stop.

I have to say, even though I haven't been here quite one month yet, I'm now pretty happy with my choice. I know I had been pondering California for various reasons but I realize that even if I had moved there, I would have always wondered what Taiwan would have been like. I don't want any regrets in life.

It's a strange feeling, slowly settling into a place that is not your home.

It's all about the journey...

2009-06-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight I found a little Italian restaurant in Sansia. Twas near the Sansia market. The menu was entirely in Chinese but the girl behind the counter produced a piece of paper with some English words on after a few moments of talking with me. I lamely pulled out my notecards and tried to explain that I didn't want meat in my pasta since I thought they only had beef. Anyway, I ended up with DELICIOUS chicken pesto pasta. Gourmet style...for around $4.00

Great deal:D

Another woman took my money after I ate and I summoned up the courage to ask where the bathroom was in Chinese. I've been worried that people will laugh since every time I say thank you or hello everyone thinks it's funny. Don't know if it's because I'm saying the words wrong or it's because I'm a blonde trying to speak Chinese.:) But, I have to learn.

I must have said it fine though because she didn't laugh and directed me to the toilet promptly.:)

After I ate I walked around the Sansia market a little bit. I bought a bunch of bananas. There are lots of interesting fruits...I'll have to post pictures of some of them soon.

School is getting easier...planning my own lessons now. Lots of work but not too difficult. Just have to remember many things. Had to bribe my G5 junior high kids with candy yesterday and today threatened them with a trip to see Teacher Jonathan (who works upstairs with the G1 class. No one wants to go back to the baby room. Forcing them to write extra vocabulary for homework works as well.:)I do feel sorry for them though...I know they don't want to be there learning English after being in school all day.

The kindergarten classes are a lot of fun. Sometimes random kids I don't even teach will run up to me and say "Hello Teacher Rhonda!" Yesterday a little boy ran up to me in the bathroom and attached himself to my leg. Then two more kids hugged me and I couldn't break free:)

Tomorrow will be my first trip to the post office. Think I'm going to try to get to bed early tonight, been averaging about 5 hours of sleep a night and looking haggard.

Until next time...

Adjusting

2009-06-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

Very, very tired tonight. Just wanted to say I had an amazing weekend. Fulong was beautiful, want to go back for a weekend.

I loved the beach and think it would be nice to work in an area like that eventually. I've heard though the jobs are harder to get in the coastal cities.

Went out to a bar with some of the other teachers and had a lot of fun. Met some very nice people, including a boy who must sadly go back to the US. Ironically.:) But, I've gained a new friend. We did some sightseeing and took a bus into the mountains the other day and it was very nice.

I know in my heart that God placed me this side of the world for a reason...the feeling keeps growing stronger. I feel as if I'm just about to turn a corner and unravel the mystery. The getting there is challenging but exciting.

Happy day to everyone back home, goodnight to me.:)

Day in Taipei

2009-05-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day. A bunch of the teachers got together and we went into Taipei (via MRT, which I'm getting more used to) to see the Dragon boat racing. It was pretty cool. Did not really understand who was racing who but I posted a couple videos and a boat pic below.:) I had some really tasty vegetable dumplings and some not so tasty stinky tofu. Guess it really does matter where you eat the stinky tofu.

I met a very nice local today through one of the other teachers. She's really cool and hopefully we can hang out sometime. Also saw quite a few foreigners at the races but as we are learning, it seems that many foreigners who have lived here for some time often ignore other foreigners.

After the races we took the MRT to Ximen district, another part of Taipei. It was nice, lots of places to shop and eat. I've lost more weight since arriving so I'm trying to stuff myself with more fattening fare...had some pasta.

I think in a week or so I'll be ready to take on exploring Taipei on my own...the MRT routes are color coded so they should not be that difficult to navigate...esp. if I bring my trusty Taiwan guide.:D

I ventured out into Sansia again a little while ago. I had yet to see San sia old street or Zushi Temple so I walked around and found them easily. I took a couple pics but I'm going to go back tomorrow and take more by daylight. Loved both old street and the Temple. People were pretty friendly tonight. I'm starting to get less nervous walking down streets with cars and scooters swarming around me though there is one intersection where there's not a crosswalk and pedestrians pretty much have to take matters into their own hands.

Bought some toilet paper on the way home and the cashier tried to have a conversation with me. I smiled politely but it makes me shy...really want to understand!

Each day that passes, I'm liking it more here.

A book about the past two days...:)

2009-05-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

To start off, I will say that after school yesterday I felt much better about things. I'm starting to warm up to the kids, even the junior high children who can't sit still and who constantly hit each other. But all my classes went well yesterday and next week I think I'm done being observed, which will make me feel alot more relaxed. I'm still nervous but I think I can do this.

In my G5 glass (the junior high kids) I had to give a quiz and then read them some new words and teach them about consonant diagraphs. Fun times.:) At the end of the class they had to write a paragraph about a city using three new vocabulary words they just learned. Lots of complaints but I coerced them into it by asking them to write a paragraph telling me about Taiwan and Sansia. I was expected to correct them right away as the observer was in there still. The problem was, when I was correcting papers, the kids that were not sitting with me were beating on each other and causing chaos...next time I will have something for them to do while I'm grading. Anyway, the papers were really sweet. They said things like "Welcome to Taiwan, our beautiful country." They told me about "Chung fu" bridge which I must see, because it "used to be ugly and now it is very beautiful.":)

This morning I had to go down the street to the computer store because my new laptop keyboard suddenly stopped working the other day!! Right now I'm typing on the usb mini keyboard that I bought. It's sitting on top of the other keyboard. I will eventually try fixing it when I get more comfortable around the area. On my way to the store I passed these two elderly ladies in straw hats that seem to stand on the corner with large signs (in chinese of course) every morning. There is also an elderly man that stands on an island in the intersection holding another sign. All three of them stared this morning and tried to speak Chinese with me. I smiled, said hello in Chinese, and headed to the store. When I came back, the man kept gesturing at me and so I approached him. He handed me a piece of Wrigley's gum with Chinese writing on it.:) The women in the straw hats pointed to my bare arms and back (was wearing halter top) and then at the sky, implying I would burn. I said "I like sun." They just smiled.

Some interesting things: The women here do not sit out in the sun. They don't like water either.:) If a drop of rain hits the ground, a plethora of umbrellas suddenly emerge. It can be drizzling lightly and almost every Taiwanese person in sight that is walking outdoors will have umbrellas produced immediately.

Rebekah and I went into downtown Taipei today. On our way into the MRT station which would take us to Taipei City, these two giggling girls approached me. They both started talking at once but then explained that they were doing a language project and needed my help. They whipped out a voice recorder and asked me to read this sentence about a blue kangaroo twice. I did and then they wanted their picture taken with me.:)

I do not care for the MRT. But, I'll have to get used to it unless I want to take a million buses or pay 1200nt for a cab to take me into Taipei City. It really isn't that far, it's kind of like the distance from Bloomingdale to Chicago. Anyway, on the MRT ride going we saw another foreigner get onto the bus and he came and sat down next to us. After talking to him for awhile (he was an older man) we learned he worked for AIT (basically the American Embassy) in Taipei. He handed us a piece of paper with his number on it when he left and said if we need anything while we are here, to contact him. He seemed nice enough but I don't always trust people. If he was legit, that's a great contact to have. Who knows though.

You'd think that people would stare at us more in Sansia, since there are hardly any foreigners, but when we got to Taipei City we realized that people stare at foreigners much more there, even if they are more likely to run into them. :) The reason we were stared at so much today probably had to do with the fact that most foreigners we saw were guys. And even then there weren't that many. We didn't see too many foreign women walking around. Anyway, Taipei 101 building was very cool but the sky was overcast due to the rain and we could not see the beautiful mountains. Will have to go back.

Later, we went to Shihlin Night Market. I had been looking forward to it ever since I saw Andrew Zimern go when he did his Taiwan special on the travel channel. It was exciting, unnerving, and claustrophobic at times. Rebekah and I were like exotic animals on display at the zoo. :) Now I know what people on those Taiwan forums meant when they told me I would be stared at. I tried staring back with a big smile on my face. Some people smiled, others just kept staring blankly, and still others scowled. Sizewise the market was smaller than what I was expecting. The market had everything from food, to clothes, to books, cds, and somewhere..pets.

Something I had to do...I had to try that Stinky Tofu I saw on that travel channel show with Zimern. After Rebekah and I had a foot and leg reflexive massage (where the masseuses tried to teach us Chinese and this little old lady getting her callouses done would laugh and nod whenever we repeated a phrase) the nice guy who gave Rebekah's massage offered to take us to the Stinky Tofu (I had asked him about it). He led us through the market and to the stall where a bunch of people were lined up. He told the chef what I wanted, gave me a piece of paper written in Chinese, and directed me where to stand. There were three or four people working and all were staring at Rebekah and I. Some even started taking pictures of us standing in the line. We were led to a table and when my food came out, all of the workers (chefs) were staring at me through the glass as I held the first piece of stinky tofu precariously in my chopsticks. I bit into it and to my delight and relief I was lucky enough to find the good kind of Stinky Tofu. I gave the thumbs up sign and all the workers smiled and went back to whatever it was they were doing before I appeared amid throngs of Asian people. :) I heard that at other places the tofu can be downright disgusting. It did have a slightly fermented aftertaste and the whole stall smelled like a barnyard but I am very pleased with myself. Rebekah even tried a piece and liked it.

It was nice to have so many people say hello today...whether it was "Ni hao" or in English. And though I am still very nervous, and I still can't believe I'm on this island so far away from those I love, I am starting to feel that maybe I will be fine after all. And that no matter where we are in the world, people are all the same. We may have different cultural norms, but we all enjoy being appreciated, accepted, and knowing that there are other human beings out there who have
decent hearts. People who are willing to try to understand any differences among us.

Outside the temple at Shihlin Night Market

*When Rebekah and I boarded the bus to go back home to Sansia, a little scraggly stray terrier jumped on board too. He walked around for a little while, and then curled up and went to sleep. He stayed on until some people (somewhat meanly) coerced him off the bus. But here is the picture:)

Confused

2009-05-21T04:06:00.000-07:00

Only had to teach kindergarten and the baby class today. Tomorrow will be another busy day, lots of classes. I felt terrible grading those quizzes from the junior high students. First of all, no one explained to me how the grading system works. I tried asking a Chinese co-teacher and then I tried asking one of the head teachers/supervisors to explain to me but I don't think she fully understood. Anything less than an 85% and the kids have to retake the quiz. 6 out of 16 will have to retake according to how I graded. Not to mention, I have never taught pre-teens and teenagers before. I feel extremely confused and I think I will have to rely on teachers who have been here longer to get any questions answered. Frustrated yesterday and today, I wonder again what I'm doing here and tears come to my eyes as I contemplate going home. But home...to what job? No, I have to do this. This is what I wanted. God brought me here for a reason. Though I'm not sure what it is.

I know I will find my way.

To steer away from negativity...

Something funny and yes, confusing. The garbage trucks here play these bizzare songs over and over again. I've already heard them numerous times since I've been here. I have no clue what the music is for other than perhaps they are like the ice cream man; the trucks let people know they are fast approaching. So all the excited humans can come running forward with their garbage? Ahh, yes. Just googled it. The trucks play the music so certain establishments can hear them coming and dump their garbage. I took a video when one passed me on my way to work this morning. See below!

As I left a convenient store today and the doors opened and closed, the same garbage truck song was playing. Stranger and stranger.

Glad tomorrow is Friday.:)

Beetles, Busyness, and a Belgian Bakery

2009-05-20T07:22:00.000-07:00

I will start off this blog by talking about mr. beetle I found on my walk to work this morning. I've noticed these beetles everywhere, most of them squished on the street. This one was on the sidewalk and I could not tell if it was dead or alive, but I wanted a picture. Whipping out my camera, I crouched down and snapped the photo below as two guys walked by and stared at me like I was nuts. Not sure if we have these back home but they are pretty:) Pretty large too!

Ok, on to other things. Busyness. Wow, school was stressful today. I survived my first day of teaching, but barely. Let's just say I had props missing for the lesson plans (the head CT's do the lesson plans for new teachers the first two weeks) and feel like I did not do a good job teaching the kindergarten class. They have to learn so much in such a limited time. I think once I'm not being observed by the higher ups, I will be ok. I also taught that toddler class for a half hour today and that was pretty easy and fun. Sang songs, talked about animals, made them find their eyes, noses, ears, etc. Danced.

My Junior high class wasn't too bad though I have to teach it for two hours on Wednesday. Lesson plans for that were messed up as well and I had to give a quiz, which no one explained to me how to grade nor what the grading process was. I still don't know, but I have a pile of quizzes on my bed right now that need to be graded in a day or so. Anyway, I improvised with those kids and while they are giggly and somewhat wild, I think I'm going to have fun with them. If they listen.

Awhile back, I joined this website called Forumosa where people who live in or once lived in Taiwan talk about...Taiwan. Anyway, this Belgian guy on there told me to check out his bakery called Patio 28 once I got here. Asking a few questions on the site, I got a general idea where it was. So tonight I went venturing out after leaving roommate at another store and managed to find the bakery! Yay, I was so proud of myself for not getting lost. :p
Truthfully though, it wasn't too difficult to find and thus far I'm like a scared little kitten and I keep going in circles around the streets and landmarks that I am becoming familiar with. Anyway, the bakery is run by this Belgian man and an American man and I went in and introduced myself as the girl on Forumosa who kept asking where I could find mayonnaise and sour cream in Taiwan. (To make Auntie Donna's Dip!) They asked me some questions about how I like the area, the school. Offered to strike a deal with me because they get mayo and sour cream in bulk for their eatery. So now I know that if all else fails, I will be able to find the necessary items to make the fiesta dip that I love so much. :) I made a reservation (guess it gets crowded) to go eat there on Sunday at 3 with my roommate and partake in some Belgian beer drinking. We'll see how that goes.

One thing I'm not sure I've mentioned is that many people wear face masks here. Sometimes in the school, but mostly when scootering or walking down the street. I can only assume they don't want to breathe in the pollution. It's just a strange sight to see.

After my victory in finding Patio 28 bakery, I went to the little kitchen where I've been eating frequently and heaped my plate with tofu and lots of vegetables. And of course, I had the rice bowl. I used less soy sauce on it than last time because the lady who cooks has been looking at me like I'm crazy and said something in rapid Chinese the other day when I dumped a bunch of it on my rice. So today I made a motion with my hands that I was just going to take "a little" and she laughed.

Two older men came in and looked at me out of the corner of their eyes as I sat at my table alone and shoveled the rice bowl into my mouth with chopsticks like a pro.

When I was finished and stood up, all three of us did the nod of understanding/hello/how are you and I made my way out of the kitchen. The ladies at the front who run the place said thank you to me and I said it back in pretty perfect Chinese if I do say so myself.:)

On my way back to my apartment I got a few more nods and smiles.

So stressful day ended up being alright. I hope teaching gets better though, or I will feel like an utter failure!!! I mean, who can't teach kindergarten??!!

Ok, enough babblings for today.
Goodnight to me, goodmorning to everyone else:)

First day of teaching tomorrow...

2009-05-19T07:23:00.001-07:00

So nervous!! It will be my first day of teaching tomorrow and I have a full day, many classes. The junior high kids make me the most nervous. There is this boy, I believe his "English" name is Wailan. He acted up during Teacher Kate's lesson today. After class I saw him in the hallway jumping on another kid's back and I asked him if he was going to behave when I was his teacher. He said "I don't know" and I said "You must behave or I will take away your points." (The kids all have their names with a point system hanging on the chalk board)

He stared at me and was silent. Everyone wish me luck!!!

School

2009-05-18T05:53:00.001-07:00

School is interesting. Every morning we have to take off our street shoes and put them away in cabinets and put on our "house shoes." These shoes are just flip flops we throw in a bag and bring to the school. As I mentioned earlier, all of the classes have chinese co-teachers. Some of them are nice, like the one I will be mostly working with. Others, not so nice. It is somewhat difficult with the language barrier but it does make the job more interesting.

I'm still in training, my first big day of teaching will be on Wednesday. It is going to be a lot of work but I think it will be fun. My main homeroom class is a kindergarten class I have every morning until noon called the kangaroos. There are 10 children in it and they are very cute. I have a short break in which I am required to dash up to the toddler room and dance around with the babies. THEY ARE ADORABLE!!! There is this pudgy little girl named Sandy that keeps giggling and hiding her face when she sees me. I have to sing songs with them and teach them a simple lesson like shapes, before heading back to my kindergarten class.

On Mondays and Fridays I have 5 afternoon classes with other students, including some older junior high aged students late afternoon. I also have these (older) students on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. They make me a little nervous as there are 16 of them and they goof off alot but I think they will be fun as well. I had to observe their class today and they kept shooting me looks and giggling. All of the kids in all of the classes are very smart. I am amazed at how well many of them speak English and how eager they are to learn. Of course, there are some hyperactive ones that get disciplined frequently but this is to be expected when dealing with children.

Everyday I will teach phonics and math to my kindergarteners. Some days I will also have science, PE, Music and motion, and story time with the other classes. I'm a little upset I don't get to teach art but I get to leave on Thursdays at noon so I won't complain.

The school provides free lunch to the teachers everyday, which is nice.

Though the curriculum seems disorganized at times, I think I will be ok. The only main complaint I have is that it can get really humid in some of the rooms even though most of the rooms have air conditioning. One other complaint is the communal bathroom...boys and girls all share the same bathrooms and the teachers have one private stall. (Male and female teachers share this) The bathrooms in school smell REALLY bad. It's a very germy place and I feel like gagging whenever I walk in it...which is frequently as everyone back home knows how often I have to go.;)

I feel like I've been here much longer than I have. I remember feeling this way in Ireland too though. Every night I have still been waking up around 3 or 4. For some reason I wake up thinking about home at that time, and feeling a little anxious. This experience is changing my life though and I know I have to be strong.

Well, that's about it for tonight.

Plum Wine and stuff

2009-05-16T10:14:00.000-07:00

Ok well this morning started off interesting. Even though I just arrived, I had to attend the Mother's day production and I had to participate. The director messed up what room I was supposed to be in and I ended up introducing myself to a bunch of parents who started taking pictures of me, only to be taken out of the room a minute later and directed to another room where I had to repeat the process. Whenever I said anything the Chinese teacher would translate.

It was kind of nerve wracking and embarrassing at times because everyone was staring at me but I survived.

Rebekah and I walked around Sansia's night market tonight and I saw many interesting things. People seemed really excited to see us walking around the night market. It stank really bad and I had a coughing/wheezing attack from all the putrid smells and the pollution from the scooters, but it was fun. Meat hangs everywhere, brains, dead chickens, sausages. Pretty gross. But there is also an array of tasty looking fruits and vegetables. We went to a couple of shops. I bought a cheesy but cute hat for the hat party a fellow teacher was throwing tonight. I also bought some striped tights I will have to wear on a night where I go to downtown Taipei. It seems tights and short skirts are very popular here. We went to a shoe store and I managed to squeeze my size 7.5 into some cute heels, but barely. Didn't buy them but it was fun to look. Many people stared and waved at us tonight, kinda felt like a celebrity. Some children were afraid and hid by their parents. I wonder how many foreigners come through this town. Many of the people seem very nice and curious. I want to learn the language so much...it's like a secret society:)

As I mentioned above, one of the other teacher's threw a party tonight, it was nice. As anti-social as I am, it helps to talk to others. I did start missing my friends pretty bad though. This guy Jonathan brought some plum wine and I must say it is quite different from the plum wine back home. There were plums in it (yes Eric, I remember you telling me this would be the case) but frankly I tried biting into one and it was pretty nasty. Pretty much tasted like the rotten fruit it was! The wine itself wasn't too bad though.

We went up on the rooftop of our apartment building and some people lit off fireworks. I tried to peer over the ledge and see Sansia. Pretty tired and loopy right now so I think I'm going to go to bed soon.

I think I will be ok here, I just need to give it some time.

Observation Day 1

2009-05-15T05:39:00.001-07:00

So today I went up to the school and I had my first day of observing. I will start out by saying that the children are absolutely adorable, esp the youngest ones. Just like little kids everywhere. Many of them seemed excited to see me, even children from other classes that I passed in the hallway.

I was in for a few surprises though. I'm not going to have as many hours as I'd orginally thought which is both good and bad. Good, because after seeing all that I'm going to have to do today, I realize I'm going to be completely wiped out. Bad, because I'm not going to be able to save as much money as I'd hoped. Still, on Thursdays I only work until noon. I am hoping to find a way to take Chinese classes somewhere.

I will have a main homeroom kindergarten class every day and in the afternoons I will switch and teach three other classes. Three days a week I will also teach the elementary kids from 4:40-6:10 pm. All of the kids except for the toddler class speak some english, some of them can even read and speak full sentences. It looks like it is going to be alot of fun but ALOT of work. The lesson planning for all the classes is going to be exhausting. Not only will I be teaching english, but I have to teach math, science, and gym as well. Absolutely no Chinese is allowed to be spoken in the classroom. I found out that if the director or a parent hears a child speaking chinese in the school, even in the hallway, the Chinese co-teacher of that child's class gets a dock in pay! So basically, the poor co-teacher has to suffer. It makes me feel bad.

All of the foreign teachers have a Chinese co-teacher in the room. My co-teacher seems very nice and I heard from the other foreign teachers that I got lucky with both my schedule and my co-teacher Cindy, whom they all said is the nicest one.
I was taken aback today when I saw co-teachers screaming at, and even hitting the kids. None of the other foreign teachers blinked an eye. I guess it's not a big deal to treat the students that way here, but at home it would be a lawsuit. Interesting.

Everyone was saying it was a tense day because there is this big Mother's day performance tomorrow. I came at a bad time. The kids have to sing and recite a poem for their mothers in english...and the teachers are expected to participate. As the teacher I'm taking over for is leaving (today was her last day) I am expected to join in the festivities tomorrow. Not sure how much they will be expecting me to participate; it's all a little overwhelming.

Rebekah and I walked around downtown Sansia a little more tonight. She showed me the cell phone store so I could get a new SIM card for my phone. Unfortunately, I did not have my passport on me which the clerk said I needed in order to get a sim card? Guess I will have to go back tomorrow.

We went to this hole in the wall buffet for the second time. They have really good food and so far I've been hesitant to eat alot of meat, sticking mostly to tofu, vegetables, and rice, and my chopsticks skills are already improving. :)

I'm eager to explore the mountains/rainforest surrounding Sansia and one of the other teachers, a girl named Liz, said she'd be happy to show me.

can't sleep

2009-05-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

I just woke up from a deep sleep feeling terrified. It's two-thirty in the morning and I am wondering what the hell I'm doing here. Taipei city center is about 45 minutes away. It just dawned on me that if there were an emergency there are not alot of english speaking people around to help. Yesterday at the hospital Rebekah and I kept asking where the "toilet" was and people looked at us without response or just smiled.

I am scared. It's hitting me how far away I am from my family and it makes me feel panicky to know that it's not that easy to just pick up a phone and call them, let alone get home in a short amount of time. I hope I've made the right choice.

:(

Feels like a Dream

2009-05-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well I've finally made it to Taiwan. I should be sleeping as I'm completely exhausted but I thought I'd write this real fast and let everyone know how the past day and a half has been.

It was sad leaving LA, check out my apprehensive expression in one of the photos below. :)

The flight from La to Osaka, Japan was not bad at all. I had two empy seats next to me so I spent some time stretched out listening to ipod. There were these cool screens on the backs of the seats so I was able to watch movies or track the plane, which was fascinating.

Seeing Japan emerge from the fog was a very magical experience. I am going to explore the country before going back to the U.S

The only weird thing that happened was when we landed in Japan a bunch of masked men came onboard and had to do a health check of all the passengers. One of them came up to me and scanned this mini looking light-saber thing over my forehead, nodding his head and saying something in Japanese.

Inside Osaka airport, it was like something out of the twilight zone. We had to go around in circles until we came out on the right side. The whole thing was glass and white walls, very little decor.

Flight from Osaka to Taipei was a little weird as I was the only white person on board and people stared. One man took a picture of me with his digital camera. The women sitting next to me kept yelling loudly in chinese, shooting me a smile every so often.

Immigration in Taipei was a piece of cake, and Rebekah and a man from the school named "Uncle" were there to meet me. Couldn't see much on the drive to the apt but the building itself is nice and seems pretty secure. Rebekah explained a few things to me and I think we are going to get along just fine. Well, I'm pretty tired so goodnight or goodafternoon, wherever you are.:)

Sailing away from the safe harbor...

2009-05-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Right after I had agreed to go on this adventure, I received this quote from the recruiters who placed me with my school in Taiwan:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)

The time has come for me to stop being afraid. Those who know me know that for years I've always talked about traveling to exotic places around the world. Now is my chance and I know that if I don't seize it with both hands, it may never come again.

So here I am, sitting in my hotel room in LA and wondering what awaits me over in Taiwan. I told myself if I could make it as far as LA then there would be no going back. I feel that this is something God wants me to do. So I will wake up tomorrow, scared. And I will wonder if I'm making the right choice. But I will throw caution to the wind and trust that with the help of God, I will rise like the eagle...:)

To my family and friends back home in the US: I will miss you all so much. It was very hard saying goodbye to all of you, esp you mom and dad. Thank you for believing in me.

Toby, thank you for that phone call earlier this afernoon, it meant a lot to me and you will never know how much your encouragement has impacted my life.

Well...next time I write an entry in this, I will be in Taiwan. Keep me in your prayers and remember that I love you all.

**hugs**

~Rhonda