I'm.... cold?

Yes people, I'm cold, in Taiwan. I'm embarrassed for myself.  Ashamed that a true Midwesterner can't handle the mild "winter" weather of a subtropical island.  But really, it's worse than you would think!  And what's winter without bitching about the cold?

     I was told that the coldest it gets is around 50 F, which is nothing right? Thus far it probably hasn't been much lower than that, but I'm not sure, I don't carry a thermometer.  But pair that with wind, constant blowing rain, not having a car and always walking outside, being damp alllll the time, and living in an apt with tile floors, did I mention there is no such thing as heat here?  Ok that's a slight lie, some of the larger department stores have heat, but the schools? No way. I get to school, after walking outside in the wind and rain for generally at least 20 minutes, and there's no heat inside.  I go into my classroom, where all of the children are wearing 5 layers of clothing, minimum.  Seriously.  It's insane how many clothes the kids wear, like 3 long sleeve shirts, a sweater, their uniform, a vest, a jacket.  At least their parents are just trying to keep them warm!  But then they bitch about it being hot all the time.  Hello! I'm not hot, I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, the warmest thing I packed!  They generally get their way though as it's part of some Feng shui belief that with so many children in a room the windows must be open to circulate all of the energy and balance things out.  Fine, whatever, but I'm COLD! I don't want to have all of the windows open to create a constant breeze chilling me even more.  Eeehhh.

     Am I complaining? Yes.  I'm also being a bit over dramatic. but it is an issue.   Trying to sleep sometimes I shiver and shiver.  So I bought another blanket last week and some big thick sweatpants, it's much more comfortable to sleep now.  I know of many other foreign teachers who have bought space heaters, and even heat fans, so I'm not alone.  Don't judge me! You don't know!  Ok, I'm done with that.  Now onto Christmas Season!!

      As you may or may not recall, the school that I work at had a Halloween Haunted House for Halloween, we decided to do a similar activity for the Holiday's.  People know what Christmas is here, and they somewhat celebrate it.  It's mainly popular because the Taiwanese people love bright and shiny and flashy things, so naturally Christmas holds many attractive qualities to them.  Many stores had lights and Christmas trees blinged out with gold and red garlands and all sorts of things.  It was impossible to buy a string of lights that didn't flash around and blink.  At least we were able to decorate our apartment!  We also decorated at school and got things ready for Christmas House.

      This time I was in charge of the Story Room, where I had to put together a few story boards with the help of Cindy, one of my Chinese Teachers.  I decided to use the story from one of the old claymations "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" to tell them about how Santa came to be.  I think it was a hit, a lot of the kids seemed really into the story and we told it quite dramatically, so that was fun.  Other activities we had for the Christmas House was a balloon game, cupcake decorating, and they watched "Frosty the Snowman."  It took place on Dec. 24th, Christmas Eve.. which was kind a bummer cause I had to be at work til 4:30, but it wasn't so bad.  

  Little decorations a bunch of kids made for Christmas to hang on the walls! 

Cindy with one group of kids after our Story

 Me with another group!

Santa and Mrs. Claus handing out candy after the kids sang.

I'm an Elf, with the beautiful tree I made...

Santa and one of the Elves!  My "pin" says Santa is Coming!

      After the Christmas House I took the bus back and was home for 15 minutes before heading off for more Christmas fun.  Nate, my friend from college who lives here too, is dating a Taiwanese girl, named Rainy.  She is from Jhongli, where I live, and she decided to put together a big Christmas meal for Nate with a bunch of her friends and family.  They invited Anthony, Greta, and I to come along, too!  It was really nice to spend Christmas Eve with some other familiar faces.  We had a huge meal with chicken, roast beef, mashed potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, pasta, salad, soup, apple pie, strawberry pie, wine, whiskey.  It was good. After eating and hanging around we came home and ended our Christmas Eve watching some Dexter, did I mention I'm addicted to that show now?  

Most of the food at our Christmas Eve Feast

      The next day, on actual Christmas, we opened presents in the morning.  Santa found us all the way over here!!  I feel so lucky to have gotten so many packages from home!! It was lovely.  The 3 of us also exchanged gifts and I received a lovely clutch from Greta and an awesome new touch screen camera from Anthony! My camera had an unfortunate ending about a month ago, and although it still functions, the screen is completely cracked in.  Then Greta and I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and walking around.  When we came home we had a supper of chicken pesto with spicy bratwurst.  Then we went to the park to takes pictures of the pretty Christmas lights they put up. 

     It was a pretty fabulous weekend, although we were all really missing home and our families.  Good thing for Skype, we were able to see Julius and Toby show us all of their thousands of Christmas presents, it was so cute.  And being able to talk to everyone was really great!  Welll I think that's all for now.  Next time you hear from me will be next year! ha, haha! 

Christmas morning, Santa was here!!

The glorious park with beautiful lights and people :) 

Today was a Weird Day.. Let me Tell you About it

      It began pretty normally, Anthony and I just joined a gym at SOGO, a huge department store with a fitness center on the 9th floor located conveniently right across the street (maybe you already knew that).  So my alarm went off and we decided we were too tired to go.  Give me a break we JUST joined and have already gone twice! So we went back to sleep, got up an hour later, got ready for work, and out the door.  Today was filled with lovely bouts of rain, so we walked to to work with our umbrellas and splashing water. By work I mean the branch in Jhongli that Anthony always works at and the place were I meet my ride every Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon (rough morning huh?) We arrived around 11:15 though because Anthony had a lot of homework to grade and I needed to run some errands.
      So from there I went to the post office (please read the updated post of We Won... to hear about this bit) then I came back, we got lunch, and then I met Helen and Daniel and we were off to YangMei (where I work).  As we were en route to YangMei we came to a red light.  A plastic bag man (I say this because when it rains, everyone wears huge ponchos (I'm having deja vou that I've written about this before.. somewhere?) (Why am I using so many damn parenthesis!) so the ponchos, they are large and look like big sacks draped over the scooter riders, I feel like they're just gonna blow away right off the scooter)))))   So I noticed this man waving his arm, at first I thought he was just another weirdo trying to wave at a foreigner (I swear I'm not conceited) but then he kept on.  I mention to Helen that I think this man is trying to convey a message.  She rolls down her window and they begin a back and forth and I gather something about the tire on her car.  She thanks him ( I can understand at least ONE thing!) and tells us that yes, the man let her know that her back tire is very flat, almost no air.  "How are we still going?" Helen asks, and then adds "Taiwanese people are so kind, he kept calling me 'may-may.'" This means little sister, it's a thing the Taiwanese have with calling complete strangers endearing names like this.  "May-may" I actually knew, too!  I've decided this kind stranger probably figured the tire was flat from the 2 fat Americans slouching down the right side of the vehicle (me in front, Daniel in back).  Helen thinks we should stop quickly for her to get the tire inspected, so we do.  We pull into one of the thousands of mechanic garages on the street and someone comes up to speak with her, fills all the tires with air, let's her know that her tires are worn down rather thinly and she should replace them soon, and we're back on our way to YangMei!  Yay. 
      The fun has only just begun.  We arrive to our school in YangMei and I'm enjoying the twenty minutes of peace until Uncle (this is what all of the Chinese Teachers refer to the bus drivers as, there are 2 in YangMei, both are "named" Uncle.  Yea I have no idea what their real names are, maybe it really is Uncle?  That's what I refer to them as) pulls up with a bus full of screaming children that will start to run a muck around begging for candy and treats and screaming and laughing like lunatics.  Shortly after these joyous children that I teach arrive, I notice Helen in a dispute with a man near the door.  At first I figure he's just a parent, you know trying to get a free HESS water bottle or sticker book.  Then their voices get louder and quicker and I decide he's just an angry man fighting with Helen about some other issue.  They go back and forth for a few minutes, and one of the secretaries joins in, Helen walks away and makes a phone call.  Then both Uncle's are there, and I start to piece together that something happened between the man and one of the Uncle's.  I figure maybe Uncle was driving like a maniac (I've been in the bus before, sans children and he takes turns quite sharply)  and hit him or he ran into the bus or who knows.  By bus I actually mean more like an extended mini-van, no where near to the size of an actual school bus from the US.  So the 3 men go outside and are inspecting the back of the bus.  I was right!  
        By this time Helen comes over to me and explains that the man is upset because at some point he ran into the back of the bus and broke a light or something, and Uncle charged his 500 NT (like 15 US dollars) and now he's come back because he thinks it's too much and he doesn't want to be screwed over.  Hm.. The next thing I know, the police have arrived!  There were 3 or 4 of them there, all staring at the back of the vehicle.  Then they moved inside and more yelling commenced.  By this point I had gone into my classroom (which is on the 1st floor and you can see the main lobby/front doors from my door window) and was trying to keep the kids from all staring and running out to eavesdrop on the unfolding drama.  Although perhaps I should have and had them translate for me!  Now the next time I check on the action, there's another man there.  Helen comes into my room to explain that this is the man's father.  Oh of course, it makes sense that he should be there.  It's now a big argument with the secretaries, the Uncles, the police, the man and his father.  WHAT IS GOING ON?!  I turn back out to look a few minutes later and now the original angry man is sobbing, trying to blubber out his Chinese sentences.  What a mess.  They are all gathered around the video cameras in the corner and apparently one of  the secretaries wanted to show the man's father how angry and rude he was when he first came bursting into our school.  I guess he was ashamed of himself now for such actions.  The last glimpse I caught of this story was the man and his dad walking away down the street with the father tugging at the man's arm and he seemed to be scolding him.  The man was at least in his 30's I'd say. Off they went into the rain.  Helen's last comment, "He is definitely crazy."  
     
      I started my class soon after this.  TreeHouse 1, with kids around 7 years old.  One girl who's a real treat was staring at me today.
"Teacher my are black and you are blue"
"What?"  
"Your eyes, I am black, yours are blue"
"Yup, they are"
"Your eyes are broken teacher."


Then during break time today- this same girl has become the sugar mama with treats during break time.  The story is, she used to never listen to me and one day she came in to class and threw her book at me.  I took her books and threw them out into the hallway and told her she could leave if she was going to be rude to me.  Then the whole class started chanting for her to leave.  (I don't think I could quite fit the standards of teaching in America, they slightly encourage yelling at the kids here)  This just so happened to be the same random day that her grandma decided to show up and bring her a snack for after class.  Well she arrived to find her crying and they had a talk and now everyday her grandma brings her snacks.  Since this encounter we've gotten along much better.  Anyways during break time today she was passing out and sharing her snacks with the other kids and said to the naughtiest boy in class "You see you have to be good, more people give you candy." She should take her own advice!  

    After this class I went out to my desk area and there were two boys sitting in the seats next to me.  They are brothers, and I have them both in classes.  At first they were just goofing around, laughing and looking at me to tell me how crazy the other one is.  Then it escalated into some heavy pinching and hair pulling and before I knew it one of them had gotten all of his items together and left the building.  Apparently he was running away or something.  One of the Chinese Teachers called him back and once he was inside again he went over to his brother and started pounding him in the arm and more with the pulling of the hair and they were going at it.  She pulled them apart and was talking to them, again in Chinese.. I can only infer what was going on.  Well the end result was the one who tried to leave ran upstairs crying and the other sitting next to me still was also crying.  They are 11 and 12, oh boys.  I got to witness my first mild Asian school fight. 

Happy Sounds Make Happy People

       The garbage system in Taiwan is pretty.. interesting.  Although I didn't actually realize it at the time, we lucked out with the apartment we chose because there is a trash room in the basement.  Taiwan has gotten really into recycling, and you are only allowed to throw garbage into approved bags, which you need to buy.  That means no using left over Target bags as trash bags.. if there were Targets here anyways, tear :(  In our trash room there are a bunch of labeled bins to direct you where to dispose of such items.  So to recap, taking out the trash for us isn't difficult, we just go down to the basement, toss our shit, and we're out.
       For many other people and places, however, it can be a bit more of a challenge.  Often times you are left to run out after the truck to deliver them your trash bags.  How do you know when the truck is coming, you ask? Excellent question.  Well, rather conveniently, there is a catchy tune associated with all of the garbage trucks around here.  Most often it's Beethoven's Fur Elise or sometimes Maiden's Prayer, always classical music.  This songs plays as the truck drives around so that everyone can hear it and know when to run out to dispose of their waste! Yahoooo! But yea I don't have to deal with that, I just get to enjoy the splendid tunes all day!

Here's a picture of one of the many trucks rolling down my street!
And here you can check out an actual video to see it in action....   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=L55JJAavSe0

     In other news, the buses also play some good stuff.  Not as they drive around to the public or anything, but to the passengers, before they leave.  No boring eeeerrrrrr to announce your departure.  Usually it's a lovely arrangement of dings and notes that play together.  I want to say it's a song of some sort... but I can't quite put my finger on it.  And generally each bus is different.  All the buttons on the side of the bus light up in unison then too to the beat of the music.  They're happy tunes and it pleases me when someone pushes the button, unless of course the bus driver is feeling owly and stops the music right away.  My bus card just makes a lame beep though, no fun there.

We Won! .. Just a Little (but not really)

Turns out there were also 2 more three-digit numbers released this month that can be found anywhere on any of the receipts that will yield you $200 NT each! I found these three digit numbers on 10 different receipts!  Equals $2,000 NT, around $65 US!!! That's the most I've ever won in the lottery before, so exciting.  Since it's all of our receipts jumbled together, we're gonna cash in our winnings tomorrow and buy some things to decorate our apartment for Christmas! 




UPDATE::


Alright so side note. Turns out I'm stupid and we didn't actually win :( Veerrrry disappointing I know.  I went to the post office which is where you are to redeem your winnings.  And on the back of each receipt you need to fill in your information, well the space for your address is sooo small I couldn't fit our address so I figured I'd just let them write it in Chinese because the characters are smaller.  They sent me to this lady to have her help me with it, after she had written like 2, she turned it over and began inspecting the numbers.  
      She had all the winning numbers on a list next to her, and started shaking her head and waving her hands around pointing at it.  She spoke zero English and I tried to point to the numbers we had matched and then to the receipt she was holding, but she kept flailing about.  Then she picked up a pen and underlined the last 3 digits.  Ohhh I got it, only the last 3 I asked her?  More waving and pointing from her.  Welll that's that I thought, and went to grab for the rest of our receipts that were now useless pieces of trash (recycled trash though, right?)  This lady wasn't having any of that though, she went looking through the rest of them, laughing and throwing down each one as she deemed it an un-winner.  I know, I know I tried to tell her.  But now we had created a bit of a show and others were all staring and she was rambling in Chinese, probably about how I was such a stupid foreigner.  Once she was finished I took the papers and ran away. Uh, humiliation! 
      Oh yea, did I mention that while I was sitting there, before the woman discovered my error, someone came over and bumped into to me to say hello?  Yea, that was the manager from my school.  Good thing she got to see and hear all of it! What are the chances of her being there at the same time! And since this was before I knew that we didn't actually win, when she asked what I was doing there I proudly told her about how we had won some money at the lottery! Oh siigghhhh.  Well the web site for sure doesn't say anything about the bonus 3 digits having to be at the end of the receipts, at least not in English!  Foiled again, by Chinese.  

The Lottery

The 25th of every odd numbered month brings much happiness.  This is the time that the lottery numbers are released!

Don't be alarmed, I don't have a gambling problem.  It's an interesting little system they have here in Taiwan.  I'm not sure how long it's been going on, but years ago the government had trouble getting shops and stores to keep track of their sales, for tax purposes and what not.  So they implemented the lottery of the receipts.  Now, every receipt you receive has a lottery number printed at the top of it.  This includes receipts from all convenience stores, most clothing stores, restaurants, pretty much everywhere!  There are a few places that don't give you receipts, but they are usually small little shops, I don't mind.  The government thought this was a smart idea because since the receipt is essentially a lottery ticket, then the customers would demand them, therefore forcing all businesses to keep track of their sales and records! Pretty smart, huh?

All of our tickets sorted by the first number!

Between Greta, Anthony, and I, we accumulate quite a pile of "tickets."  The way it works is they release the winning numbers every other month (odd numbered months) for the previous 2 months.  So a few days ago, November 25th, they just put out the numbers for receipts collected during the months of September and October.  New numbers will be released January 25th for receipts given during November and December, and so on and so forth.

I get really excited and when it's time to check our number and I even pre-sort them so it's easier to manage.
The prizes are as follows:
The Special Prize of  $10 million NT    (just under $330,000 US)
The Grand Prize of $2 million NT        (around $65,000 US)
   One 8 digit number is given for each of these prizes
Then there are three different 8 digit numbers to get you the First Prize of $200,000 NT   (about $6,500 US)

From there are the 2nd - 6th place prizes which come from matching any of the last 7-3 digits of the three First Prize numbers.  These winnings range from $40,000- $200 NT  ( around $1,300- $6 US)

Sadly, this month we didn't win anything :(  But there's always January to look forward to!!

Thanksgiving: The Duck Edition

     There is Thanksgiving in Taiwan. In the sense that the last Thursday of November still takes place. Obviously they in no way celebrate it, duh! But being Americans, we wanted to celebrate it by still cooking a big meal and eating. Last year Anthony and I hosted the Holiday at our little apartment in St. Cloud, this year it would just be Anthony, Greta, and I, and Abe- one of the only other fellow Americans we work with, the rest are Canadian, Australian, South African...
     So we planned our menu and got our ingredients to the best of our ability. It was impossible to find cranberries or gravy, so we had to miss out on one of my favorite parts of the meal, and got creative to make our own gravy with cream of mushroom soup, onions, and asparagus! It was quite nice actually.  Stuffing is also missing from the shelves in Taiwan, so we decided to make it completely from scratch.  Greta spent 3 hours on Wednesday night preparing it, and it was definitely worth it! Sooo delicious, so now she can spend 3 hours on all of our next Thanksgivings making it, cause I'm not going back to the box (even though I do enjoy the taste of boxed stuffing).  We also had mashed potatoes, that I made without a masher... really not as hard as you might think, just a luxury to have a masher I guess.  We bought whole sweet potatoes, cut them up and made a glaze to cover them in, super delish.  Greta made the glaze and slightly burned it though, and I realized after that I should I have been the one to make the glaze seeing as how I have such experience in making karmel coating. There was corn too, and THE DUCK!
     Being in Taiwan, finding turkey I think is not an option.  We pass this corner shop that has ducks hanging up every day on the way to work, so we decided a while ago that we would get one of those ducks to act as our Thanksgiving turkey.  We weren't sure if they would speak English or not, so I had Helen write me a note in Chinese saying that we wanted a duck, without any of the gooey insides (since they love to give you all that shit here) and cut up into pieces.  Well, they didn't speak English, so good thing I got the note, and when I showed it to them they gave it an odd stare, but got to work on our duck.  I really wanted to capture the time he then spent cutting apart our duck, but decided I probably shouldn't.

The place our duck came from, and what got us our duck!

        First, he chopped off the head, with a huge cleaver.  It totally reminded me of A Christmas Story.  He delicately shaved off the sides with a knife and layered the meat onto a plate, when that was finished he then hoisted the carcass up and kinda wrung it out over the plate of meat, to let all the duck juices fall on top.  Then he flipped her over and kept chopping, all the while scrapping the chopped up bits into a tray.  Later, they took this tray and cooked it up with some sauces and vegetables and spices and handed it to us in a sack, along with our plate of meat.  We also go some sort of bread/tortilla thing.. not really sure what it is or what we are intended to do with it.  We got all of this for $430 NT, about $15 US dollars.

      Not only did getting all the crap to make our meal prove to be difficult, but doing so with NO oven, 1 pot, 1 pan, and 2 stove top burners, proved to be a bit of a challenge, especially in keeping everything warm by the time we were ready to eat.  Did I mention we also lack a microwave?  Well it was a fun time for Greta and I to cook and discover our abilities to make such wonderful things, especially not from a box!
   
      The best part!? I didn't have to miss out on pumpkin pie! Our first idea was to make a "no bake" pumpkin pie, but we couldn't find the things to make it.  Then Greta tried a few bakeries but no luck.  Thanks goodness for a fabulous teacher we work with, who got us one from a Costco in Taipei!  She doesn't even like pumpkin pie, and is from South Africa so she doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, but I'm thankful that she went out of her way to help us get such a delicious necessity for the holiday!!

It's amazing how photogenic we both are, really. It's a wonder we aren't in magazines.. :)

      Right now for everyone back home, Thanksgiving is just getting started, although I'm sure my mom's been up for hours working on the turkey, it's drawn to an end as it's now past midnight in Taiwan.  I missed being with the rest of my family, but we had a great meal over here!  Now.. onto Christmas!
     

Oh yea, Gertlebee and I made chocolate turkeys that we brought to our Treehouse kids on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  They were a huge hit with the children and teachers alike!  Yes, you're supposed to use candy corns but Taiwan doesn't believe in that.  So we improvised with M&M's! It was beyond adorable to see my little 7 year old's snarf them down and then walk around with chocolate smears all over their faces! It made up for some of my hatred toward their insane behavior.. slightly.

Thursday's with Wu

       Every Thursday I teach at my main branch in YangMei until 6 30 and then have a class in Jhongli that starts at 7. Usually when I take the bus from Jhongli to YangMei it only takes about 20 minutes, but going from YangMei to Jhongli, the bus never comes at a set time, so I usually have to wait around 20 minutes alone to catch the bus going back.  Therefore, I simply cannot take the bus from YangMei to Jhongli or I would be rather late for my class.  
    Originally I had planned on getting a scooter, buuuut after seeing the insanity of the drivers here, and the fact that it rains, alot, and is windy as shit, I've decided against it.  So my school pays for a taxi to come pick me up at 6 30 and take me to the branch in Jhongli so that I may get to work on time, usually I get there right at 7, but am still sometimes late as traffic can be crazy or there are accidents blocking roads and all sorts of shenanigans going on.  
     Each Thursday the same taxi driver comes to pick me up, I like being able to tell stories and say "my taxi driver."   It's like I have my own private car to pick me up! And really it kinda is, because he doesn't come in the normal yellow cab with the sign on top.  Although there are plenty of those around, there are also a lot of cars that just look like normal cars, but are actually taxis.  Sounds a bit sketch, but they still have all the tags and ID numbers inside.  
     So on Thursday at 6:30, Wu, my driver, comes to pick me up.  He is always waiting on the bench outside, and when I see him he goes over to the car and opens the door for me and I get in.  He doesn't speak much English, but he always tries to speak with me, at a least a little.  The first few times was just questions about the radio and A.C.  Then he would say "Long time no see," when I got into the car.  This is a phrase I actually learned in Chinese, so the next week I tried it out on him, and he understood! It sounds kinda like "how show booo shee en" if you want to imagine what I said.  He must have been excited that I tried speaking Chinese with him, because periodically during the rest of the trip he would point things out to me and try to explain what they were, in English.
     A couple of his key points of interest to me were some of the Betel Nut shops.  Betel Nut is the Taiwanese form of chewing tobacco that many people indulge in.  Perhaps for the wonderful taste (I have no idea actually, maybe I'll try it one day) but what may entice them even more is how you get the Betel Nut.  Now, I have seen some old ladies selling it on stools on the sidewalks, but more commonly are the Betel Nut girls that sell the product.  There are tons of stores with big front clear windows, just a shelf, and then a pretty Asian girl sitting at the shelf making the Betel Nut and selling it.  Most times they are dressed quite provocatively.  When I first started noticing these places I thought they were like front advertisements for a lingerie shop, then I thought sex shops, maybe I wasn't so off.  
     From what I've heard anyways they really aren't prostitutes, they just dress skankily so that men will want to come to their shop and buy the Betel Nut from them again and again.  Sometimes I see girls wearing sweaters and pants, but often times it's little dresses and heels. 
     Anyways, Wu pointed to one of the shops with a hoed out girl and did a motion of putting something in his mouth by his lips, chewing, and spitting.  I said "Ohh yes, Betel Nut.  Do you have it?"  He was quick to shake his hands "No!  5 million people, die a year," he continued, and did the little finger motion for death.  (In Taiwan, if you put your hand palm up and curl just your index finger toward you, it means death, which is something I found I do more often than I thought, it frightens the children.)  Wu also added " Bikini girl,"  Which is a common phrase that I hear my older students use a lot too, I think they use it to mean something like sexy girl.  We kept driving along, and he pointed to another window and said, "There, no Bikini girl!"  and laughed.  Oh Wu. 

This is what Betel Nut looks like. After you chew it turns all orange and people spit it all over the streets.
      He also pointed to some stores and said something that sounded like "garden" but after asking him to repeat it three times I gave up and just said "Ohhh" and smiled.  We came across an accident between a scooter and a car, and he turned to me and said "Car kiss scooter." I thought it seemed an accurate description of what had happened.  Go Wu!  
     Wu always puts the radio to an English station while I'm in the car, I think it's called ICRT or something, and since we are together at the same time each week, I'm always just in time to hear the "call out" segment of the show where the host reads and e-mail from a listener and calls whoever they have requested, usually for a birthday or anniversary, and then plays a song for them. One week he called this guy's girlfriend named "Pinky."  Pinky tried to practice her English with the man from the radio station, and he told her she sounded like a Pinky. 
     During the rest of the trip he tried to explain something about going to Hong Kong and I pretended to understand what he meant, maybe he wants to take me on a longer journey?  I wish I had a picture of Wu to share with you, perhaps next week I will snap a photo.  
     
    

A bit about this

    So Saturday came around, I went to get my glasses. I can seeee out of them!! Happy hip hop day. I was pretty excited.  Here I am!  And 3/4 of Anthony's face.  I now feel like I fit in and have the look of a cool Asian Hipster, only they all have frames with no lenses, and I can see their envious faces (un-blurred) through mine!  Haha.

  

This is the store where I purchased my glasses.  I had no idea it was called "Always Best Choice," but I suppose I can somewhat agree with their statement. 

     Moving on, Greta decided we should finally buy a Dragon Fruit and see what they're all about.  It was marvelously delicious, reminded me of  a mix between a kiwi and a mango.  It was white with black little seeds.  Then the next day she got some more.  This time, cutting into it was quite different. 

Bright and beautiful and juicy.  This one lacked a bit of the kiwi flavor, but was equally as wonderful.  Go try it!

     We also made deviled eggs this past weekend! Soooo delish.  We added pickles, onions, and BACON BITS to the mix.  Oh man. Needless to say they are now gone, and I miss them.

  I guess there's some more food I could mention.  One night after work I went to a night market with one of my Chinese teachers (Helen, from the Tea Story), her friend, and Greta.  After a few hours of shopping, Helen said we should get a sweet treat.  Eeerrg I can't remember what it's called now. But we met another one of her friend's at the place and he explained that it translates loosely into "flower soup" I believe.  This is because the base is a white substance, like tofu, but sweeter, it comes from a soy bean though, and now I've lost where flower came from, perhaps a soy bean flower?  Anyways something like that. I'll try to get the name again later. So before we ordered, Greta and I decided to share one, since we had no idea what we would be getting.  It was kind of like an ice cream counter where you got the main bowl of something, and then could pick all of your toppings.  Only instead of chocolate chips and strawberries, were red beans and jellied things.  With the help of Helen's and the lady serving us's recommendations and some random pointing, we had our treat.  Oh we could also choose if we wanted it cold, which is what we got where they added crushed ice to the mix and a cold sugar water, or hot which is minus ice and hot sugar water instead.  It was definitely interesting, unlike anything I'd had before.  I was glad to be sharing it with Greta, and we managed to eat most of it.  Some of the topping weren't bad, I haven't a clue as to what I was really eating though, but all in all not a bad treat.  Probably not something I'd go out of my way to order again though, but wouldn't refuse it.

      Also, here's Anthony at our branch in Jhongli enjoying a lunch box for lunch one day! That's what pretty much all food is called here "a lunch box" even if it's not for lunch.  It means a box with random food shoved together in it and served as a meal.  We like to go to a place called "Taiwan Buffet" near the branch that is like buffet style so you can pick what you want to get.  It's pretty good, and real cheap.

He has some milk tea there beside him too. All the different types of tea and fruit drink stands littering the blocks has got to be one of my favorite things about Taiwan! Not being able to speak Chinese and getting weird jelly drinks... is not.

     Yea, I didn't drink all that.  In fact, I barely drank any of it.  The little circles are tapioca bubbles which I quite enjoy, but the rest just kinda freaks me out.


Oh and here's a picture of the fruit market near out home that we frequent!

Such a Spectacle!

       Before I even got to Taiwan people told me about how cheap the glasses would be over here.  They said the "eye technology" is really advanced, they can make the glasses really quickly, and it's inexpensive. I find it pretty strange how many glasses shops there are here. Just everywhere. Sometimes 3 in one block and all they sell is glasses and sunglasses! So I decided to go give some of these places a gander as I'm in the mood for some new frames.  I looked near my school branch in Jhongli around the train station, I went to about 5 one day, and found that all the frames were still actually pretty expensive, around 200 US dollars... that's not cheap to me for glasses, and for only the frames! I kept looking and finally came across a place that is still really close to work, but much lower prices.  I stopped in one afternoon and found the pair I wanted, but I didn't have time for them to check my eyes, the man there spoke decent English and I said I'd come back later.

     The next morning when I arrived it was only a woman working... and she didn't speak any English, but still insisted on trying to help me, which is always appreciated.  She kept motioning around and speaking Chinese as I stared at her blankly. We went back to the room where she measured my eyes or something with a machine and then printed out the results.  She put some lenses together into a mock pair of frames and gave them to me.  I couldn't see clearly so I shook my head "no." She tried another set, no, another set, no, another set, no. This went on for a short while and I was beginning to think of just leaving.  

    Well she went to get her phone and called some guy who then become our translater over the phone.  His English was ok, but it was hard to hear him.  I told him that the left side was good, but the right was blurry.  She tried something else, still a no. He asked me how I felt and I said I couldn't see out of my right eye, this is where I'm pretty sure they began to think I was blind in my right eye.  He acted very surprised and said something about if I could feel my right eye. I tried to explain that I could see out of it, just not at the moment with the lenses she had used.  I mentioned the word "astigmatism" but that probably sounded like nothing to him as he didn't seem to acknowledge it. They were speaking in Chinese again together and he said something to me about going to see a doctor.  Ok they think I'm blind in an eye trying to get glasses.. after the lady watched me take out my TWO contacts before measuring my eyes. Esssh. 

    It wasn't looking good, but then BAM! the lenses she tried next were it! I could see.  I turned to look out of the store and I seemed to be able to read the signs at the 7-11.  I gave a thumbs up and said yes, yes I can see now!  Ahh they had cured my ailment! What success they must have thought.  

    So we went back out into the main part of the store and she hung up with the man. Nooooo I thought! I need English!  Then these other two people walked in and the woman was speaking with them.  I thought, oh maybe she is just going to use them to translate for me.  Well she tried to explain to me (I'm guessing) something about the price for my blind girl glasses would be higher than usual, and the next thing I know the man who just walked in hands her his phone, she speaks for a second, and then I'm talking to another lady in English on some rando's phone.  She told me that because my glasses were "special" the price would be a bit more, and it would take 3 days until I could get them.  I told her it was fine. 3 days is still way faster than I can usually get them in the states, and everything came up to be right around 100 US dollars! (3,200 Taiwan Dollars). I was pleased. 

     Today is Thursday night so one more day and I shall go retrieve my new spectacles! I only hope I can see out of them... 

Haunted Halloween!

There is Halloween in Taiwan!  Not super crazy or anything like in the States, but it does exist.  The bigger stores carry a small Halloween section, which mainly has a limited variety of children’s costumes, some witch hats, weird glasses and masks, devil forks and broomsticks.  Oh, and the scream guy mask, of course.  They also have some cool decorative garlands and window stickies. 

This past Saturday (Oct. 22^nd) we put on a Haunted House at the branch I work at!  It took some work to get everything set up, with some long, unpaid nights, but I think in the end it was pretty worth it.  We started the process about 2 weeks ago with just light decoration making during down time, and ended with the night before staying until almost 1 a.m.  We made everything, including a coffin, some tombstones, covering the walls in black and so on.  So on Friday night after classes were done at 9 we got right to work. 

One of the girls came equipped with a few bags of traditional fried Taiwanese goodness.  The contents of which the locals I work with aren’t even exactly sure!  I was snacking away at something that looked like a French fry, but not the same taste, when I asked what it was.  Someone said it was a type of fish, and then they started arguing about what it really was in Chinese.  The consensus ended up being that the older one didn’t know anything about what the new cool food is.  Also in the mix was some pig’s blood cake, (yes that’s what it really is) which I opted to stay away from.  I have tried it before, and just knowing that I was chewing on blood cake and swallowing it… made me feel ill, so I think I’ve had my fill on that one.  Then there was some chicken butt on a stick (they eat EVERY part of the chicken, and all other animals here for that matter) and something that looked like sweet potato wedges and tasted really good.  It all made me feel pretty healthy about myself.

So the manager had said she didn’t want us staying very late, so around 10:30 she called to make sure we were on our way out and leaving.  This actually was the case, until my co-workers told me we were just moving to the McDonalds to continue our crafty work so the manager wouldn’t get mad. Yahooo!

I then spent the next 2 hours cutting out ghost after ghost after ghost.  My 32 oz. coke kept me company while the other teachers spoke in Chinese, but they were nice and tried to speak mainly in English for me.  Some other customers seemed interested in what we were doing, and one guy came up to me and asked, practicing his English!  Then the conversation turned to me and he was curious about where I was from, why I was here, etc. explaining that he could tell I didn’t look Taiwanese... good eye on that guy. The night finally came to an end, and we got to go home.  The next day was show time!

The Haunted House started at 5, but naturally I needed to arrive earlier.  I had decided that it was probably in my best interest to get dressed up and in my full make-up before getting there.  I was going as a witch (really awesome, I know but I couldn’t be too creative with these kids).  This meant that I would walk from my apartment to the bus stop (around a 10 minute walk) dressed as a witch, carrying my broomstick and all.  It was definitely a good decision, and I couldn’t help but laugh as I walked down the streets and saw people bend their necks and nudging their friends to get a look at me.  Waiting at the bus stop was really fun as well.

Right before leaving my apt!

So I arrived at my branch in YangMei.  They all started clapping as I walked in, they were impressed with me and my outfit!  The manager was there and she busted up laughing, asking wide eyed “Didn’t you take the bus here?!” and hearing my response of yes. 

Everyone was set up and ready for action, I helped some of the other teachers get their faces made up and the kids started to arrive.  The Haunted House was set to last for 2 hours, with 4 different rotations, each lasting 25 minutes:  3 classrooms with games and one as the actual “scary room.”  I was working in one of the games classrooms, teaching the Halloweeny words:  vampire, ghost, jack-o-lantern, bat, pumpkin, witch, broomstick, skeleton, and trick or treat.  Of course I gave them all actions as well.  Then I played just a variety or games getting them to use the words and such.  I think the real fun was to be had in “scary room,” and I heard they counted at least 10 kids started to cry, with one even hitting one of the girls working up there!  She said it was because “she scared her,” well… yeah?!  Overall there were 76 kids that came and at the end I taught them all the chant “Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”  It was a success!                                             

Here's what part of the Haunted Room looked like.
Note the coffin that I helped make!

A view of going down one of the stairways.  Note it was still light
at this time, it did get a bit darker before we started.

My scary monster that I made!
Those are cockroaches in his "heart," if you can't tell!

The classroom I was in for the night. Note the huge eyeball I made! 

My spider buddy chillin' above my desk area.
 He has friends in all of the other rooms as well.

Helen and I at the entrance to the Haunted House

Me and most of my co-workers at my branch!

                                

Korean BBQ

            We recently went to a Korean BBQ restaurant, after trying to eat here a few times over the past month, we arrived early enough to get in right away without a 2 hour wait.  Once we were seated and things were under way, I realized why they must have such long waits sometimes!

                                                              Here it is!

            The first time we tried to go was when my step-mom was visiting, she’s from Taiwan and without her pointing out the place, we never would have had any idea as to what it was.  Not being able to read Chinese characters is a drag.  Our waitress even asked us how we found out about the restaurant. Luckily there was one lady working there who spoke English, and rather well too.  It turns out she had just returned from a summer of living and working at Yellowstone!  She’s the first person I’ve met who when I say I’m from South Dakota, actually knows where it is! Without her help, eating here would have been a bit more challenging, but probably still do-able.  When she came over to our table she told us how they all rushed to get her right away because they were afraid of trying to help the foreigners. 

            They did have an English menu, but having never eaten at this style of restaurant before, we weren’t sure on what to do.  So the Korean BBQ is like you order your meat uncooked, beef, pork, lamb, seafood.  In the center of our table is a little grill with coals that clocked out around 500 degrees, Celsius- the guy who turned it on showed us! That’s just insanely hot.  Our waitress totally recommended the beef, so Anthony and I got a plate of beef, and Greta got some lamb with chicken.  Both plates came with corn on the cob, pumpkin pieces, onions, and lettuce to cook with the meat.  And that’s just the “main” ish course.  It all started out with a salad, soup, rice, and slushie drinks.  Yea, the slushies seemed kinda out of place, but they were sooo good, available in lemon or cranberry!  All of the soups and salads came in a variety of about 4 to choose from.  We tried to get an assortment so we could try a lot of things.

                                                                            I got a tomato "salad" sooo yummy!

Getting hot!

            The waitress showed us how to cook the meat, and explained that it only takes about 10 seconds for one piece to fully cook, and it was true. It was super fast!  The food was so delicious, we ate a lot. Once our meals were done, we then moved to another seating area, kind of like a lounge area, where we were served a dessert and another drink selection of libations such as espresso or milk tea.  Overall a really awesome place.  Of course it was a bit more expensive than somewhere I’d eat every day, but really nice for every now and then.  And now we even know how to order for next time!  

            

                                                                     


         Anthony's dessert had 
      a little message, too bad we 
    haven't a clue what it says! 

What's that you say? Acid Rain?! Can your umbrella handle that?

      So not only do I live in an armpit... I live in a big sweaty armpit that perspires acid!  One of Greta's older classes informed her that there it acid rain's here in Taiwan.  And the largest amount of it occurs in good ole Jhongli! (Yes, that's where I live).  It makes sense once I stop to think about it a bit, tons of factories with pollutants going up into the air, mixing with the clouds, incessant rainfall, BAM. There it is. Acid drops falling on my windoooowww.
       After some looking into the issue, I've also discovered that China is a contributor to our dirty downfall.  This too, makes a lot of sense.  Farmer's crops are dying! Where these crops are located to begin with, I know not.  The normal Ph level of water is around 7, the rain here is usually at about a 5 or less.  
     I wish I were still oblivious to this newly discovered reality.  I quite enjoy walking in the rain every now and then (for a short amount of time), it's also damn near impossible to keep an umbrella alive for an extended period of time over here.  Although I believe Typhoon Season is on the way out, it's still very windy, which is not a friend to the umbrellas.  Anthony has had the same umbrella for SEVEN years, mind you maybe it hasn't had a very eventful life, but after being here for less than 3 months.. it's dunzo.  I brought an umbrella with me as well, it has seen better days.  I'm trying to keep him alive though.  It's been buckled upwards from the wind and half of the metal poles on the inside are snapped, which causes that half to droop down, whatever.  I'm not giving up on it yet though! It now makes sense why there are umbrella's sold EVERYWHERE, like seriously, everywhere you go, even out on the streets, umbrellas!  
     This leads me into another point.  The Taiwanese use umbreallas, at ALL TIMES.  Whether it's raining acid rain, or over 100 degrees ( I was going to try and use Celsius, like they do here, but who am I kidding) the people are all about the umbrellas.  This is because when it's sunny, they don't want the warm sunshine on their skin, apparently it's not a nice feeling for them?  They just don't want to turn brown. It's crazy coming form a culture that is so obsessed with being tan that people have their own tanning booths in their homes, going to a place where they literally sell "whitening" lotion, bye-bye Jergens natural glow, it's all about the pastey porcelain!  The umbrellas start to really piss me off because obviously they take up more space than a person, and they are held around my face area, it's hard to get around them without being darted in the head.  When it's raining, fine, I understand you don't want to be covered in acidity wetness, but when it's just a little sunshine?!  I bet their rates of skin cancer are non-existent compared to the States.  

What's in a Name?

     A few weeks after to moving to Jhongli we went out to a "foreigners bar" called The River, which is conveniently located just a short walk from our apartment.  Let me tell you, it was culture shock alll over again walking into a place with that many white people speaking English. There really weren't even so many people there, but all together in one place, it was weird. What's more is that once we walked in, I felt like I was back in my hometown at a local bar, had that same kinda dumpy feel to it. (Maya's, for those of you who know it)
     The inside was actually pretty neat.  There was lots of interesting artwork painted across the walls, some pretty strange, and we were loudly greeted by Ginger, who was working behind the bar, along with a "You must be new here!"( said in pretty decent English!) We sat at the bar and ordered the specialty, Taiwan Beer, as Ginger and the other bar tender asked us our names, where we were from, and what the hell we were doing in Jhongli.  That night we didn't stay long, just one drink to check it out.



     A few days later we decided to go back, as after checking out the website I discovered they had an American food menu!  This night was Wednesday, and in true Wednesday night bar fashion, it was "all you can drink." My friends from home will recognize this as "Drown Night" at the Char in Verm. In Taiwan, it is pretty common to come across bars that are actually "all you can drink" EVERY night, sounds scary.  Well maybe because The River is a foreigners bar, they only have it once a week.  So by chance we went there again on Wednesday night, this time there were a few more people, even a D.J spinning beats, like Avril...
      So we order some food, have some beer, and start interacting with the others in the bar.  Not so surprisingly, most of the other people there are also teaching English here.  One guy I talked to has been living in Jhongli for 11 years teaching.  He gave us a bit of the low down on our new city.
     Apparently Jhongli is referred to as the armpit of Taiwan.  What exactly does that mean?  Well, it's smelly? Yes, ok. It's hella smelly here, and the air is thick and white with a presence that is more than what I need to keep me breathing.  There are tons of "small" surrounding towns here with a lot of industrial factories pumping such goodness out and about.  Also, Taiwan is verrrrryyy populated, almost 23 MILLION (all crammed into an island about 1/5 the size of South Dakota!) people live here, most of these people, have scooters, drive scooters, some that leave foggy trails behind them. Adds up pretty quickly.
    The view from our apartment, it's pretty nice, we can see quite a bit of the city, a park, speckled air stained on our windows.  Turns out, there are mountains, big ones, hiding behind the tissued air, more often than not.  We can see them most vividly right before or after a big rain storm.  It's kind of sickening to look out and now know that there are mountains, just covered by the air, that we can't see.  I like seeing the mountains!
    Another, better, reason for our city having such a nickname, is that it's "easy" to go pretty much anywhere in Taiwan from Jhongli.  There's the airport very close, the only international one, a train station which hosts multiple types of trains (local, high speed rail, express), and bus stations/stops galore.  I say easy hesitantly, because trying to actually get tickets to get to said places, proved to bit challenging as someone who doesn't speak Chinese.  We finally got it figured out though, I think?
     Anyways, although Jhongli may have a slightly bad rep, if that dude has lived here for 11 years, I think I can handle it for a while.  Oh, also, it's considered a smaller city, the population is about 370,000 people. Small? Yeah.... not so much to me!

Here's me, Anthony, Nate, Ginger, aaannd I think that guy was the DJ? Ginger insisted we all share a shot of tequila   She said Jose is the only man she trusts in her life. Ohh boy. Also, notice the vibrant wall behind us!
 

This'll Make You Feel Better!

     This past week my throat's been feeling pretty sore and slightly swollen.  I'm sure it's from all the yelling and screaming I do at my Treehouse 1 kids (age 5/6) to stop hitting each other in the face.  Before work one day I go to the 7-11 with Anthony and am debating on what I should get to drink.  Orange juice, tea, just water?  Anthony recommends this tea, it's not very sweetened he says.  I decide to try it.  I twist off the top just outside the convenience store and report that it tastes like I'm drinking a flower.  There is a picture of a white flower on the bottle, accompanied by a bunch of Chinese characters.  So who knows, really.  I step into the branch where I'm meeting my ride, and see that Anthony has the same bottle sitting on his desk.  

"Ohhh," I say to him, "you just wanted me to get this because you're drinking it!"

He laughs and slightly agrees,  "I figured I'd tell you to pick something I've tried, rather than take a poopshoot guess."

                 The 2 on the left is what I was drinking. 

I continue sipping it, and soon my ride arrives.  One of the Chinese Teachers I work with let's me drive with her to the branch that we work at.  While we're in the car, I ask her about the beverage.  

"Helen, what kind of tea is this?"  I ask, flashing her my bottle. 

"Uhmm, green tea." She says

"So why is there a flower on it? Is there flowers in the tea?"

"Mmmh, maybe."  Slight pause,  "It is a drink for weight loss."

.....

I laugh and say "Oh, perfect. Hopefully it makes me skinny."  With sarcasm I hope she catches.

I keep on with the drink once I get to my branch. Although I'm slightly subconscious that the other Chinese Teachers will think I'm on some sort of hoax diet if they see me drinking the tea.  Once my first class starts I bring the bottle into my class and take a sip of it during an activity.  One of the kids up front starts laughing and definitely points at my drink.  I just KNOW he does!  Then of course he starts speaking Chinese and all the other kids, okay maybe only like 2 others, were looking at me.  The smirk on his face is ridiculous. His name is "Mars." He's judging me for sure.  

Now I know only to bring water into my classroom, and to try strange drinks at caution. 

Who knows what the hell I could be ingesting over here.