Chinese New Year

Taiwan ETAs had a few weeks off for Chinese New Year in late January-early February. This was really a much-needed break…we hadn’t had any significant time off since beginning the school year. So by the end of January, we were ready!

The break started off with a 4-day teaching conference in Taipei. The days were long, but it was worthwhile to share experiences and get inspiration from hearing about other ETAs’ successes in the classroom. Fulbright scheduled the majority of the conference at the Great Roots Forestry Resort and Spa, a hot spring resort in the mountains just south of Taipei. It was spectacular! I visited the hot springs, hiked the trails on the resort property, and got up early one morning to go on a breathtaking run on the mountain roads nearby. It was breathtaking because it was beautiful, but also because the roads were so steep 🙂

After the conference ended, my friend Leigh and I flew from Taipei to Singapore and spent several days exploring. I had been curious about Singapore ever since I used Singaporean math curriculum in elementary school called Singapore Math. It was full of word problems like, “If Mrs. Chen has 15 durians, and she sells them at $5.50/3 durians, how much money can she make selling all 15 durians?” In Singapore, I got to see durians up close (and many other awesome things!)

No durians in this pic, but check out these cool citrus fruits!

We stayed in the Chinatown neighborhood, which was extremely convenient and easy to walk around. Since it was Chinese New Year, it was also quite busy, and there were hordes of people there in the evenings. The neighborhood had some typical Chinatown-type shops you would see in American Chinatowns, but it also had many different types of temples, including a Buddhist Temple that supposedly houses a tooth of the Buddha and a Hindu Temple. We visited the Buddhist temple while we were staying there, and it was fascinating to see the tooth relic (which is still growing and is the size of a small human foot at this point…) and the orchid garden on the roof of the temple.

No photos allowed of the tooth itself, but the temple was beautiful!

The first day we were there, I hopped on the subway from Chinatown and met Leigh and her friend Anna in Singapore’s Little India neighborhood. Anna is studying abroad at the Yale-National University of Singapore campus, so she kindly showed us around the city. First stop was a delicious vegetarian Indian restaurant, where we ordered several platters (way too much food for the three of us), but we weren’t sorry because it was so delicious.

After lunch, we walked around the Arab Quarter, where there is a beautiful historic mosque, and came back to our hostel to see a special glowing pig statue to welcome Chinese Year of the Pig.

Sultan Mosque and Arab Quarter neighborhood – ate my first hummus in 6 months there! 🙂

IMG_6190 (1) — Year of the Pig Chinese New Year lights

It’s been a few months since this visit (I’m behind on keeping up with this blog), so I can’t remember exactly what we did each day. But while we were there, we went to an amazing western-style bakery, Tiong Bahru Bakery, where I had the most amazing grilled veggie sandwich. The food is delicious in Taiwan, but sometimes I miss really good French bread, and the bread at this place was delicious! It was so delicious that I went back to this bakery two more times in the five days we were in Singapore.

We also explored the Gardens by the Bay, a set of huge modern greenhouses. One has a botanical garden inside. The other has a man-made rain forest, with walkways at various levels of the forest you can access by escalator. While we were there, we ran into Catie and Katie, two other ETAs who are teaching in Taitung. They were in Singapore for a few days en route to the Philippines. We enjoyed walking around the simulated rain forest together and sharing notes on what we had seen in Singapore so far.

I loved the succulents in the garden…made me miss my succulent collection at home. Thanks for taking care of it, Mom!

I also really enjoyed visiting the National Museum of Singapore. The historic building was beautiful and built in 1887, while the exhibits inside were quite up-to-date, interactive, and engaging. What a perfect combination for a museum! I learned a great deal about Singapore’s history – pre-colonial, colonial, and recent. If you are interested in history, I highly recommend it!

National Museum of Singapore – I need to go back when I’m not hungry and see more of the exhibits.

One of the last days we were there, Anna took us to St. John’s Island, an island off the coast of Singapore. It was beautiful – and there were cats! We had a lovely day at the beach together, and I even got to eat another Tiong Bahru sandwich for lunch. Yum! Singapore was amazing – I would love to go back.

December Visitors

Back in December, I was so lucky to have both my future sisters-in-law Stephanie and Jen and my fiancé Matt visit me here in Taiwan. I can’t believe it was already 3 months ago. I still think about their visits and what fun it was to host them and catch up with them. This year has been so fascinating…from one perspective, it’s been refreshing to live in a new place, meet new people, experience a new culture, and learn a new language. From another, it has been challenging to be so far away from the people and places that are familiar and dear. Luckily for me, my parents just told me that they are hoping to visit at the end of the school year (June), so I’m really looking forward to that!

When Stephanie and Jen arrived the week before Christmas, it was just amazing to see them and to get to share my life in Taitung with them. They spent a few days in Taipei while I was working, and then they made the trip to Taitung to see where I am living and to spend some time with me. I was so grateful that they were able and willing to make the trip all the way here! Taitung is amazing, but it’s not the easiest place to get to from America, which made it even more meaningful that they actually came.

While they were visiting, we went to Zhiben National Forest (which I wrote a previous post about visiting on a school field trip.) We were a little disappointed that we hadn’t seen any monkeys during our hike, but just as we were finishing up our walk, we spotted a whole group of them. They were jumping down from the top of a tree, one after another, and it was surprising and fascinating to watch!

Then, we went to the nearby Zhiben hot springs and enjoyed a lovely soak while chatting and admiring the scenery around the outdoor hot spring. We also went to my favorite restaurant in Taitung (which my friend Leigh and I refer to as “Renba Vegetarian Restaurant” after the road it is on, even though that’s not its real name). The next day, they were able to head up the coast to check out a famous baozi (steamed bun) shop and the bridge at Sanxiantai .

Unfortunately, I had to work on Friday, but I enjoyed showing them my favorite scallion pancake spot and trying out a new noodle restaurant with them. That night, we went to the evening market at Tiehua Village to look for souvenirs to bring home. We met up with my friend Leigh and had a fun time chatting at a bar nearby for an hour or two. Thinking about their visit still makes me happy!

Me, Jen, and Stephanie and a bar near Tiehua Village in Taitung. Millet (local Taitung product) is in the background

Then, a few days later, Matt was able to visit me over his Christmas vacation from school. The first full day he was here was Christmas. Poor Matt. I “made” him come to school with me, and introduced him to all of my students. He helped me teach them about Christmas and lead them in decorating gingerbread cookies. He wanted come and enjoyed meeting my students and coworkers, but he was exhausted from his trip. Huge thanks to my friend Shih-Ting and her family for helping me make the gingerbread cookies and icing a few days earlier and for letting me use her oven and baking tools! The lesson was a success, and my students were very curious about Matt. I think he enjoyed meeting them, too.

Shih-Ting and her kids generously helped me make gingerbread cookies for my school project

Decorating gingerbread in class on Christmas

After Christmas, I took a few days off from work, and we also visited Sanxiantai and had a super hike (although it was the windiest day I have experienced in Taitung.) I took Matt to Zhiben hot springs as well, which I think he really enjoyed. It was also great having the chance to introduce him to some of the other ETAs and my dear friend and Chinese teacher Shih-Ting and her two kids over dinner at a local pizza restaurant. Both of us were pretty worn out (him from working hard at school, a long trip, and jetlag and me from falling while running and bruising my ribs badly a few days earlier.)

Trying red bean matcha shaved ice with my friend Leigh

Matching sweatshirts – thanks Jen, Stephanie, and Mark!

The following weekend, we took the 45 minute flight to Taipei, and spent a few days there. It was rainy most of the weekend, which was disappointing, but we still had a super time. We ate lots of ramen, visited the National Palace Museum and saw beautiful scrolls and jade artifacts. We went to an upscale seafood bar that also had wine and sushi and visited the weekend jade and flower markets. We drank lots of coffee drinks and ate sub-par bagels and walked around the city and went running together. We worked on planning our wedding and added books to our book club list. It was a fantastic weekend. I’m so glad he was able to come.

Wine bar at Addiction Aquatic Development – foodie paradise

Matt enjoying some sort of matcha ice cream concoction

Saying goodbye was tough, but luckily, I had planned to come home for a week and a half over my Chinese New Year break in January. So it was a short-term goodbye.

Sanxiantai

Last month, my wonderful Fulbright advisor, Dr. Tang, invited me to take the bus from Taitung to visit Sanxiantai bridge with her. Sanxiantai (三仙台) is a beautiful bridge in the northern part of Taitung County, about an hour and a half drive from where I live.

I had heard it was picturesque but thought maybe it was one of these places that is disappointing when you see it in real life. When I got there, I realized this was not the case. The water is so blue. The pebbles on the beach are so round. The bridge is so elegant. The island on the other side of the bridge is so wild (it even has wild pineapple plants!)

Dr. Tang and I explored the pebble beach on one side of the bridge and found some beautiful shells, rocks, and pieces of coral! Then, we crossed the bridge to the small island and hiked the trail that goes around the island and up to a lighthouse. The views were sublime! Hoping to take my fiance Matt here when he visits – I can’t wait to go back!

Walami Trail Backpacking

In early November, my friend Kelly coordinated a backpacking trip on the Walami Trail in Yushan National Park. A few other ETAs had done the same hike a few weeks before, and I was eager to check it out and finally use all the camping equipment I brought with me to Taiwan!

On Saturday around 8:00 am, I hopped on a train from Taitung City to Yuli Township with all of my backpacking gear. Yuli is in Hualien County, the county directly to the north of Taitung County. We weren’t sure if there would be anywhere to get water along the trail, and none of us had a pump for purifying water, so I had eight liters of water in my bag for our two-day hike, and it was quite heavy!

My friends Katie, Michael, Leigh, and Kelly met me at Yuli Station on their scooters. Mae and Konny, a sweet couple that works at Kelly’s school, and their daughters met us there and kindly gave me a ride to the park entrance. They are avid hikers, and they generously helped us figure out how to apply ahead of time for the permits we needed to camp inside the park.

It was about a twenty-minute car ride from the train station to the police station near the park entrance, where we stopped to give them our passport numbers and contact information and received our permits. I was surprised to learn that it was free to enter and camp inside the park! Then, we continued to the trailhead, about a ten-minute drive beyond the police station.

View from near the beginning of the trail

The Walami Trail is part of the longer historic Batongguan Trail, which was built during the Qing dynasty and widened by the Japanese between 1895 and 1945 during their colonization of Taiwan. The trail connected Japanese police stations, and we passed the ruins of three of these stations during our 14 km hike to the Walami Cabin. I’m not completely sure how to feel about the trail, because it was incredibly beautiful, well-maintained trail with stellar views of the valley, yet its history reflects the oppression of Taiwanese people by the Japanese.

We started our hike around noon, hiked up a gradual incline, passing the site of one Japanese police station within a few kilometers, and taking a lunch break next to this beautiful waterfall.

Towards the beginning of the hike, we also crossed two large, sturdy suspension bridges. They were fairly long and extremely high above the rushing water of the river below. I was proud of myself that I was able to appreciate them…the bridges themselves were elegant minimalist, not detracting from the natural beauty of the park and the valley below, and the views looking out from the bridge as I crossed were stellar. I’ve always been terrified of heights, so I’m not sure how I got across these without panicking. I looked out at the gorgeous mountain and valley scenery, but I made it a point not to look down – it was a long way!

After hiking for about an hour, we realized we would need to hike a bit faster if we wanted to make it to the Walami Cabin, where we had planned to camp, before dark. We picked up the pace a bit, still stopping to drink some water and have a snack every hour or so. I was very motivated to drink my water because it was so heavy!

By the time we got there, it was about 5:30 pm and getting dark. Luckily, I had the wonderful two-person tent that my dad gave me, and it is very easy to set up, even without much light. We snacked on trail mix, enjoyed packaged instant kimchi noodles that tasted amazingly good, and made s’mores over my uber-portable backpacking stove (another gift from my amazing dad. If you’re reading this, thank you, Dad!)

We also met a large group of friendly Taiwanese backpackers, who were staying inside the Walami cabin that is at the Walami campground. They had brought real food, as well as large pots and pans for cooking. They were celebrating one person’s birthday, and were all in a jovial mood. It was really nice talking to them a bit while we all sat in the dark eating at a picnic table.

Before we knew it, it had gotten completely dark and most of the people had gone to bed. When we looked up at the sky, we realized we could see many constellations, and even the milky way! I couldn’t take a picture of it, but it was something I’ve never experienced before.

The next morning, we hiked back to where we started the day before, but this time we were hiking downhill and carrying much less water. It was great getting to see the things we couldn’t see well in the dark the previous night. On the way back, we saw a large snake – not sure if it was dangerous or not, but it definitely surprised me.

Throughout this trip I could not believe the natural beauty all around us or how comfortable and perfect the trail was for a weekend trip. I’m definitely eager to go back – and perhaps continue past the Walami cabin to the next campground if I have time!

Grabbing lunch at a delicious vegetarian restaurant in Yuli before heading home!

Roselle Run Weekend

Last weekend was one of those weekends you don’t realize is going to be busy until it’s happening. I had thought, “I’ll be home all weekend, so it should be relatively quiet.” The weekend was wonderful, but it did not turn out to be quiet at all. My plans to volunteer at a local orphanage on Saturday afternoon from 2:00-4:00 expanded to fill a good part of my Friday night and Saturday morning, between planning, shopping for supplies, and getting to and from the orphanage on a bike.

I’m adapting to the fact that it takes longer to take care of commitments and errands here, mostly due to not having a car and not having Amazon prime. If I need anything, I go out on my bike and pick it up. I don’t mind things taking longer…I have a lot more free time this year than I’ve had the last few years, and I enjoy getting exercise. I also seem to notice more things about my surroundings on a bike than I do in a car, and the scenery is spectacular!

The mountains 🏔 I can see from Fong Yuan

The mountains that surround Taitung on one side are breathtaking, especially in early morning and early evening. The ocean surrounds the city on the other side, and you can see it as you bike along Zhonghua Road or peeking out at the end of many of the smaller cross-streets downtown. On a bike, I am more aware of the light and the weather, and more inclined to notice small restaurants I want to come back and try later.

Most of the ETAs were out of town this weekend for the Pride parade in Taipei, but my roommate Peter had stayed behind in Taitung as well. On Saturday, he invited me to a breakfast place I had not tried that is quite near our apartment. I orderedshao bing– a flaky sesame bun filled with scrambled egg – and dou jiang– sweet, cold soy milk. I drink soy milk daily in the United States, but the flavor in Taiwan is stronger and more earthy, perhaps because it is fresher or less processed. It is much more common to drink soy milk here…many breakfast restaurants offer it sweet or savory, warm or cold, and they will even put it in a to-go cup for you!

After breakfast, I spent some time making example Halloween masks for a craft we were doing at the orphanage later in the day. I’m a pitiful drawer, but one of the things I enjoy about teaching is that it gives me an excuse to do fun crafts. Around 1:00, I headed to the orphanage on my bike, riding towards the edge of Taitung City, over the Riguang Bridge and up highway 9. My fellow ETA and volunteer partner Katie described the location of the orphanage as “inside the green tunnel”, which is a great description. After crossing the bridge and making a left onto the highway, I followed the road for a mile or so through a somewhat urban area with restaurants and businesses lining the road.

Suddenly, the businesses disappeared, and the road widened, incorporating separate scooter and bike lanes on both sides of the highway, with a medians separating the scooter lanes and car lanes on each side of the road. The many trees planted in the median had grown over the highway, surrounding drivers with lush green leaves and long roots exposed above the ground. I did feel like I was biking through a magnificent natural tunnel.

Soon, I reached the orphanage and met Katie there. Our wonderful advisor, Dr. Tang, surprised us by coming to help us teach and translate. We had planned a Halloween lesson, introducing words like “pumpkin”, “jack-o-lantern”, and “ghost.” The six students at the orphanage were extremely cute first through third graders. They attend a local elementary school, and are just starting to learn English. They were so excited to get to make masks and dress up as scary monsters and cats! We also had them make spooky snacks (banana chocolate-chip ghosts, anyone?) Katie led them in a creative paper strip jack-o-lantern activity, and they trick-or-treated with their masks and jack-o’lanterns.

Paper jack-o’lanterns!

Dr. Tang kindly brought candy to share, and when students got restless ten minutes before the two-hour class was over, she helped us turn Halloween freeze dance into a fun competition to win candy. That kept the kids excited! Overall, I loved volunteering at the orphanage. The students were incredibly sweet, Katie was a wonderful collaborator, and it was a joy to share English words and one of my favorite American holidays with them! I’ll go back again in a few weeks.

On Saturday night, Peter and I stayed at some other ETAs’ apartment in Zhiben, a nearby town. They were in Taipei for the weekend and generously let us stay in their rooms for the night. We had planned to do the Roselle Run (Peter the half marathon and me the 12K) the following morning, and the start was in Taimali, a small town a ways from Taitung city but close to Zhiben by train.

The next morning, I took the six o’clock train from Zhiben Station to Taimali Station (only a 10-minute ride), and then we took a shuttle from the station to the race start, a few miles away. It was a small event, with maybe a few hundred people participating in the 5K, 12K, half marathon, and marathon combined. There was very little English information online about the race, so I’m still not sure of the name of the place where the race started or the details about it (thank goodness for the shuttle that took us directly there, and for Peter’s Chinese ability!)

The race started next to a bridge that crossed a small river in a valley in Taimali. We ran along the side of the river for a half mile or so, then crossed another bridge back to the same side where we started. We ran through small neighborhoods on winding roads up into the hills and then down to sea level going towards the ocean. For large parts of the run, you could see the ocean stretched out in the distance, sparkling in the sun. It was amazing!

As we ran down, down, down, I thought, “This a lot of downhill! How are we going to get back to where we started?” Then, I saw the first person turn around and realized that we had to go back up the way we had come. I also realized that I was (I thought) the first woman at that point in the 12K race, which motivated me to run faster. Who would have thought I could ever win a 12K?! I ran away from the ocean, up the hills we had just descended, down one last hill, and to the finish line. I felt strong! This was my first 12K, so I did not have a personal best to beat, but I met my goal of completing it in an hour or less and finished in 59:03.

Peter was the first finisher in the half marathon, so we both got trophies in addition to our medals. I was exhausted by the end of the weekend, but I will remember it for a long time, so it was worth it!

Interesting Things

This week is off to a good start! I’m starting to settle into a work routine, and I have been getting to know students and teachers at the school, which I’m really enjoying. It’s still hard because I can’t communicate well with my poor Chinese, but I am starting to feel more comfortable at work. Maybe I am just getting more used to not being able to communicate, or maybe I am understanding a tiny bit more Chinese…or maybe both! Either way, it feels good to get to know people, fall into a routine, and understand what I am expected to teach!

In my previous post, I wrote about some of the things I love about Taiwan. This is sort of a follow-up post, because I want to share some things I find interesting about life in Taiwan. Many of these are everyday tasks or activities that are performed differently in Taiwan than in the U.S. Just a note that I don’t intend to make any kind of value judgement when making comparisons.

I just want to share some observations I’ve had as I adjust to living in a different culture.

1. Sending Mail

In Taiwan, the post office and the bank are the same entity. This is pretty convenient! It’s also extremely affordable to mail things to the U.S. from Taiwan. To send a postcard costs 11 Taiwanese dollars, about the equivalent of $0.30 USD. A card is 15 Taiwanese dollars, or about $0.50 USD. When you want to send mail, you go to a post office/bank, and you take your addressed envelope to the window. They give you postage for that card only, and you attach it. Envelopes and stamps do not have adhesive on them, so you use glue to glue the envelope shut and the stamps onto the envelope.

There is a post office/bank half a mile from my apartment (or less), and it’s on my way home from school. Fulbright also helped us set up bank accounts there. There are ATMs outside the post office/bank where you can withdraw cash or check your balance. There is also a way to transfer money using the ATM to another person who has an account with the post office, but I am still figuring that out!

2. Trash Collection

In the United States, most people have a “garbage day” when the people in a neighborhood haul trash cans to the street and the garbage is picked up by garbage trucks at a designated time. In Taiwan, garbage is collected almost daily at a specific time of day, based on address.

At our apartment, the trash is collected at 7:15 pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday (I think). Recycling is collected around the same time on Thursdays and Saturdays. In a way, this is very convenient! The only catch is that you cannot just put your trash can out and leave it on the street. You have to be home when the truck comes by, and you have to run outside with your garbage and throw it into the moving truck.

To make things easier, the garbage trucks play a specific song very loudly as they drive around the city. It sounds a lot like the ice cream truck! This is a good reminder when

the truck is nearby, but for a while, my roommates and I kept thinking the truck was outside when it was actually a block over. Or we would hear it and run outside with the garbage, and then realize that it had made a U-turn before it reached our street, so it would be coming back to our street at some point later in the evening. A few days ago, during the typhoon, I ran outside with the recycling in a hurry so I wouldn’t miss the truck, and forgot to bring my keys. I ended up getting locked out, but luckily, my roommates were all at the cafe only a few streets over, so I was able to run over there and borrow their keys. Also, luckily, the rain and wind had stopped by then, so I was not stuck outside in a downpour!

3. Going to a Coffee Shop

Coffee seems popular in Taiwan. In our neighborhood, there is a (very expensive) Starbucks a half a mile away, as well as numerous small coffee shops and restaurants that serve coffee. I’ve been so excited to check these out, and have discovered two near our apartment that I really like! One of them, Deep Coffee, has kind of a European feel to it, and has super fresh-baked brownies and delicious coffee and mixed drinks. The other, Susu Guest House, is a combination used book store, coffee shop, hostel, and cat cafe. They have some English books, and they also have a lot of neat cards and maps for sale, as well as snacks and coffee drinks. I think they also have movie screenings and musical performances there sometimes. It is a really fun place to hang out!

Most of the coffee shops are open from 3:00 pm-10:00 pm or 3:00 pm to 12:00 pm. This is interesting because in the United States, we normally think of coffee as a morning drink. Let’s be real, I normally want to drink coffee during most of the day (If you know me well, you know that despite being a pretty healthy eater, I’m a choc-a-holic and a coff-a-holic.) I am interested in drinking coffee at the following times: early morning, mid-morning, noon, early afternoon, and late afternoon. Sometimes, if it is the weekend and I don’t have to get up early the next day, I will have a cup of coffee with dessert after dinner. But the one time I generally do not drink coffee is in the late evening, because I have a very hard time sleeping.

I guess it’s kind of ironic for me that the one time that I normally don’t drink coffee is when the coffee shops are open. I think I just have to adjust to thinking of a coffee shop as more a place to read or get evening work done after dinner as opposed to a place to stop on the way to work. And maybe I need to teach myself how to order a decaf coffee in Chinese… 🙂

4. Driving and Commuting

I opted not to get a scooter because I failed the driving test, and also I am terrified of them, they are expensive, and I enjoy biking. So, I have been biking almost everywhere! I have been getting a taxi to my Chinese class, because it is at night and you have to take the highway there, but I have been biking everywhere else. Mostly, I love it! I get a little bit of exercise in every day (but not a ton…I normally still have energy for jogging, which I really enjoy!)

The city is not that big, so it is pretty easy to get around on a bike. It’s pretty much a mile and a half or less to get anywhere I want to go in the city. I don’t currently have a scooter helmet, but I’m thinking about getting one so I would have the option of riding on the back of someone’s scooter for a weekend adventure. Not sure how comfortable I am with that since all of my English teacher friends are brand new scooter drivers, and I’ve heard that the person on the back of the scooter is normally hurt more badly in an accident. I guess I’ll have to think about it…

These are pictures from my commute yesterday.

5. Naptime

At school, naptime follows lunchtime for both students and teachers. For about an hour after lunch, everyone rests, and a lot of people put their heads down on their desks and sleep. It is amazing! I am not a big napper, but I have really enjoyed having an hour in the middle of the day to relax and read a book quietly.

I just finished reading Best American Travel Writing of 2008, which I picked up at a used book store in Richmond a few months ago. What a steal! It was perfect for naptime reading, and I looked forward to reading it every day because each article in the collection took me to a different place. During lunch time, I enjoyed “armchair traveling” to China, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Tonga, Easter Island, England, Dubai. Singapore and many more places with this book. I need to find the 2018 edition now!

Starting today, I will be reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt at “naptime.” This is a re-read for me, because Matt and I are reading it for our “book club.” It is one of my favorite books, so I am thrilled to read it again! It is super suspenseful and involves art, travel, and mystery – some of my favorite things! Highly recommend if you have not read it already.

6. Eating and Cooking

Eating out in Taitung is incredibly affordable. For about $3.00 USD or less, you can easily get a filling, healthy meal. I have mostly eaten out since I have been here, since the food is so cheap and delicious. Lately, I have been missing cooking at home a little bit, so I am hoping to start doing that at least from time to time. I’m coming to the conclusion that eating out is easier and cheaper, though.

We have a coffee maker, a toaster, and an electric kettle, and we bought a nice hot plate and a pressure cooker (instant pot?) for our apartment, but we do not have a typical stove top, microwave, or oven. We also only have a few tupperware containers for storing leftovers. It also seems like buying food from the grocery store is only slightly cheaper than buying food from the grocery store in the US. So, even though I like cooking, and I think I will do it sometimes, I will probably eat out more regularly.

My roommates and I are going to try to cook dinner together weekly, so I’m looking forward to that! Last Sunday, we made a stir fry/tofu/noodles dinner with spicy sesame sauce, and it came out well!

Yummy (huge) vegetarian stew from the Korean restaurant tucked back in our neighborhood

7. Stationery Store

There is an amazing store in Taitung devoted to selling stationery, pens, pencils, erasers, stickers, post cards, office supplies, school supplies, as well as other things like toys, games, cork boards, photo frames, power strips, hooks to mount on the wall, etc. It is five stories tall, and has an amazing selection of cute cards and things to send to people, as well as accessories for work and things for decorating apartments.

I have been plagued with constant stationery envy, because every time I see something cute and I ask someone where they got it, they reply, “The stationery store!” So, I have been keeping a running list on my phone of things I just have to have from the stationery store, and I have been making weekly trips there! I have bought notebooks for work and my Chinese class, pens and highlighters (including two cat pens), cork boards, pastel colored paperclips, a desk container for pens, a pencil case, several different types of cat stickers, cat bookmarks, numerous cards and postcards, and a set of cactus stationery.

Most recently, I noticed that many of my students and coworkers have the same type of white-out tape dispensers that allow them to make corrections to their work super neatly. I just added that to my running list!

I will follow up soon with a blog post about the last few weeks. Until then, have a great week!

Things I Love About Taiwan (So Far)

The last week or so has been exciting and intense, as I began co-teaching/teaching at Fong Yuan Elementary School! Settling into a new job is always pretty exhausting, and I think this has been more so because of the language barrier…unfortunately, I only know some basic phrases in Chinese, and the staff at the school does not know very much English, so communication has been challenging. As I learn more Chinese, and I begin to understand what the school wants/expects me to do, I think this will improve. More on that later.

Today, I want to share some of the things I am really enjoying and finding wonderful about Taiwan so far. There are a lot! I’m sure this list is not all-inclusive. I am constantly discovering new things about Taiwan that make me love it even more.

A friendly and welcoming school community

Even though it has been hard to communicate at Fong Yuan, the staff and students have been incredibly warm and lovely to me. I have been using google translate on my phone to try to ask questions when I cannot figure out how to say something in Chinese, and people have been so patient trying to understand me. One of my new co-workers brought me a box of cookies that are a specialty from Kinmen, an island that is part of Taiwan, but is actually closer to mainland China. Another co-worker insisted that I take home a squash that had been given to the staff by the PTA, even though there were only a few squashes for about 25 staff members.

I am still getting to know the students and staff members, and I’m concerned the process of making connections will take a lot longer because of the language barrier. Then again, I’ve never been so motivated to learn Chinese! Hopefully I will improve a lot and very quickly.

Here are my students playing drums, glockenspiels, and recorders at their weekly assembly on Monday. I want to find out if I can help out with the music program, but I haven’t had a chance to ask about it yet.

2. Beautiful places to run/walk/bike outside

These pictures are from the jogging trail that runs along the river near my apartment. It is beautiful and calm – I am so happy to live near it!

These pictures are from my run today at dusk at Forest Park. This lake is large and man-made, and there is a swimming area where people essentially swim laps early in the morning and in the late afternoon. In the top image, you can see the outer edge of the park – the coastline!

3. Delicious food

Before I came here, a lot of people asked me if I would have a hard time getting enough to eat as a vegetarian. I wasn’t sure, but now I know the answer is, “No!”

I have had so much delicious food here, and I haven’t been to a single restaurant where I couldn’t find something amazing and vegetarian. Okay, so I’ve been avoiding the fried chicken places and places that clearly only serve meat, but nearly every restaurant has had something vegetarian and really yummy.

In fact, restaurant food is so tasty and inexpensive here, I haven’t been able to motivate myself to cook at all since I got here. Yesterday, I was talking to Matt on the phone, and I said, “The only things I’ve cooked since I’ve been here are cereal and toast with peanut butter…” and as I was saying it, I realized that neither of those are really cooking! My failure to do any real cooking in the last five weeks is at least partly due to the fact that it is easy to get a delicious and pretty healthy meal at a restaurant for $3.00 USD or less.

At the school, the principal told me that a parent makes and brings in lunch for another teacher who is vegetarian, and offered that I could have the parent make my lunch as well. So now, for about $20.00 USD/month, the parent makes my lunch every day! The lunches have been delicious so far! Yesterday, she made sushi! I’ve also had pasta with tomato sauce and veggies, vegetarian Vietnamese style noodles, and several different types of rice bowls. I am very happy with my lunches, and it is so nice not having to pack my own!

Sushi lunch!

4. Kindred spirits

I have really been enjoying getting to know my roommates and the other ETAs who are participating in Fulbright Taiwan. People come from different backgrounds, but we share a lot of interests. We’ve found that a handful of us play ukulele or other instruments and like to sing, that we all like to travel, that we all enjoy trying different types of foods, that we all value education and are excited to see the world from a new perspective this year and in the future. Many people are interested in fitness or working out, and I think I have found a few potential running buddies, although I’ve been enjoying running on my own for now. Sort of like I have at summer camp or other intensive experiences where I’ve spent a lot of time with the same people, it feels like I’ve known these people longer than a month. I hope that we will continue to be friends and spend time together throughout the year.

Above: ETAs at our first bi-weekly teaching workshop brainstorming ways to integrate music into teaching and learning English; My friend Leigh and me trying on lightweight pants at Uniqlo

5. Our apartment

Our apartment is fantastic. It is relatively new and modern and has a great location, just across the river from the “downtown” part of Taitung where the majority of shops, businesses, and restaurants are. It is also only about 2-3 miles from Fong Yuan, so I have been able to ride my bike to work and have not had to get a scooter after all! I won’t need to go on a wedding diet (hopefully) because I have been biking literally everywhere I go! 🙂

My room is on the 4th floor, and I have my own bathroom and even a deck, so it feels like my own little suite. I am still working on decorating, so I will share pictures later!

I’m also really enjoying getting to know my roommates. They are such nice, thoughtful, interesting people, and I like living with them a lot!

Our street…building on the left is a casino…not sure why it is in our residential neighborhood, but it’s okay. You can see the mountains in the distance!

There are many more wonderful things about Taiwan, and I know there are also many things waiting to be discovered in the coming year! I am getting pretty tired now, though, so I think I will wrap it up! Sorry for rambling. Thanks for reading!

School Placements

This week has been intense because we had been finishing visiting all of the school campuses (6 schools per day), we have been practicing and studying a lot for the scooter test, we have had multiple full-day teaching workshops, and we had to fill out preference forms explaining which schools we liked best and why and ranking them from 1-20. Also, it’s a long story, but my computer and kindle got ruined in a scooter practice accident and I’m trying to figure out how to replace them.

The good news is: I received my school assignment yesterday, and it is great! I will be teaching English at Feng Yuan Elementary in Taitung city! It is a beautiful school that is blue and white and has really neat architecture. They have a ukulele club, which I hope I can help with! It will be super convenient, because it is only a 4 kilometer commute from my new apartment to the school. If I want, I can bike there instead of scootering!

This is a picture of me receiving my school assignment with Dr. Vocke, executive director of Fulbright Taiwan, and the school principal. She was very friendly but didn’t speak much English, so we were trying to communicate with google translate. I look forward to meeting the local English teacher I will be collaborating with. The pictures below are Feng Yuan’s campus.

I’m really excited to start working there, and I’m happy the commute is so convenient. My new apartment is also very close to the center of the city, so it will be great for getting to restaurants, Chinese classes, teaching workshops, airport, etc.

This afternoon we took the scooter test. I passed the written test, but unfortunately I failed the driving test. I was so nervous! You have to drive along this long straight line very slowly, and if you leave the line you fail, and if you get to the end of the line before 7 seconds you fail. You get two tries. The first time, I accidentally left the line and set off the buzzer. The second time I finished at some point between 6-7 seconds.

It’s annoying, but I’m not too upset about it at all. I will have to go back and retake it next week, though I am also not 100% sure I even want to pay $1000 to rent a scooter if I can get around the city well on a bike. Honestly, I think part of the reason I was so nervous about the test is that I am terrified to drive a scooter on the road. I think I have gotten a lot more cautious and aware of my mortality in the last few years, and I think that if I had been in this situation a few years ago I might have been less worried about the danger of scootering. But since I feel so stressed and scared about it, I’m not sure if I should be driving one…Anyway, I guess I have another week to figure that out!

In the meantime, we are going on an exciting cultural trip tomorrow to learn about (and I think participate in) indigo dying! And then we have a few more teaching workshops on Thursday-Friday, and we move on Saturday.

I’m going to miss my roommate Leigh, but she will only be living a few blocks away, so we can still hang out! She plays ukulele too, so we can hopefully still play ukulele together! I’m also so excited to finally be able to unpack all of my things (I’ve been living out of a suitcase for almost a month and it’s starting to drive me crazy!)

This is a picture of Leigh (my temporary roommate and friend) and me.

It will also be fun to get to do some cooking for myself again. Food is really cheap here, and none of us have kitchen utensils or anything in our temporary apartments, so we have only been eating out. I’ve had so many delicious meals, but I’m looking forward to cooking for myself sometimes. First meal: Burrito bowls! There is no Mexican food in Taitung (that I know of), and I am missing it! Bye for now! I’ll write more later!

Orientation Month

Wow, I have really gotten behind with blogging! When I read previous ETAs’ blog posts and they said the first month was exhausting, I didn’t really believe them. I knew we would be busy, but I didn’t realize we would be this busy!

The last few weeks have been packed with full day teaching workshops, practicing for the scooter test (think good thoughts for me that I pass it!), visiting 20 elementary schools in Taitung county, and going to Taipei for a long weekend and formal Fulbright orientation.

Here are pictures from just a few of the schools we visited:

We’ve also been able to go to some really neat cultural events, which has been amazing!

This is a picture from Xiaoyeliu, a beach/park in Taitung county that has amazing sandstone rock formations. This past week has also been pretty stressful, but I will write about that another time. Instead, I want to tell you about our awesome trip to Taipei last weekend.

Last week we went to Taipei on Thursday, and we were able to attend an exciting conference-type orientation with all of the ETAs from other sites around Taiwan. Some of the people looked familiar because they had been on my flight coming to Taipei from New York (JFK) a few weeks ago. It was fun to see them and ask how they were liking their sites so far.

This is a picture of the Taitung ETAs posing at the Thursday night welcome banquet:

There were different sessions that were mostly in a lecture format, some of which were interesting. I especially enjoyed learning more about the history of Taiwan, as well as the history behind Taiwan’s relationships with China and the US. I look forward to learning more about history while I am here, because it was fascinating! We also had some other sessions that were kind of typical HR type info you get/have to sit through before starting any new job. That part was kind of boring, as you would probably guess.

Fulbright generously paid for our airfare to Taipei and back and put us up in a nice hotel on Thursday night. After the conference ended on Friday, we went to a hostel called Space Inn in the Xinyi district of Taipei. It was super! A space-themed hostel has the potential to be pretty hokey, but it was sleek and hip. It had employees dressed up in NASA-esque suits and card-activated sliding doors. Each bunk bed felt almost like your own little space ship and had nifty built-in shelves, lights, and charging stations.

The hostel was not far from several night markets, and I had the opportunity to try some new foods, including dan dan noodles (not sure what they are made of exactly, but it is some sort of sesame or peanut paste that is delicious), spicy scallion pancakes, and mango shaved ice made with fresh mango and sweetened condensed milk (see friends enjoying the mango ice below):

On Saturday, my roommate Leigh invited me to go to Jiufen, the town that inspired the movie Spirited Away, with her and a friend of hers from high school who is in Taipei for the summer. It was an easy, comfortable, cheap city bus ride to get there. It was about an hour by bus, and it was a small picturesque town built into the mountains near Taipei. I think it may have used to have been a mining town…I would like to do more research and go back to explore it more.

Jiufen has many restaurants and tea houses that overlook the coastline, and we were able to have a great meal with a lovely view.

Fellow ETAs at the beautiful tea house! The streets there were narrow and winding (and pretty touristy). There were lots of interesting shops selling street foods and local specialties. I ended up buying an ocarina, or a simple flute that is popular here, in the shape of a panda. There was a store that sold them in all sorts of shapes, and a man there demonstrating how to play them. I haven’t actually had a chance to try playing it yet, but it’s on my to-do list!

On Sunday, I went out for one of my favorite meals here so far with three other ETAs from our group. The restaurant was cafeteria style, and it served soy milk along with a sort of breakfast sandwich. I know, it doesn’t sound that amazing, but it was fantastic! For soy milk, you can choose warm or cold, sweet or savory. I got cold and sweet. For the sandwich, the bread is this delicious, flaky sesame bread. You can get the bread alone, or you can add scrambled eggs with scallions (which I did) and/or a long piece of fried dough. It was amazing! I plan to return there every time I am in Taipei.

After that amazing breakfast, I’m a little embarrassed to say I found a Starbucks and drank a latte while I read my book alone. I feel a little bad going to some American chain just because it is familiar, but I think I just needed some downtime on my own, and it was wonderful. Then, I walked around the city on my own and bought a sun hat (because I forgot to bring mine from home) and a cheap ukulele (because there are a lot of other ETAs here who like to sing/play music together, and I am sorry I did not bring mine from home.)

Luckily, the air travel regulations seem much more relaxed here, and the airline did not mind when I brought a ukulele in addition to my backpack and carry on suitcase on the flight. They also let people go through security with water and coffee drinks, which is 👌 for me! And you do not have to remove your shoes to go through security.

When we got back on Sunday night last weekend, we were all exhausted from a long weekend away, and I was pretty worn out for the rest of the week, but it was worth it!

Sorry for the long post! I will have to write another one soon, because we just received our school placements, and I am excited to tell you about that!

First week

This first week in Taiwan has been amazing, and a little bit of a blur. Because of the long flight and the time change, I have felt a little confused about what day of the week it is this week, but I think I am settling in!

The first day we were here, we arrived at 5 am, and we spent the day traveling from Taipei to Taitung and doing errands to set everything up for living here.

Once we arrived in Taitung, we took a bus around the city and stopped to get our photos taken for IDs, set up phone plans, and fill out paperwork. We also got bikes that we have been riding around the city. Biking is a little crazy here because bikes, scooters, and cars share the road, and people only sort of follow traffic rules…hoping I do not get run over. I’m trying to ignore my tendency to worry about safety!

Our first day, we also got to visit a beautiful park in Taitung called Seashore Park. The sand and rocks were hot, and I burned my feet, but it was gorgeous and great to take a break from running around.We are staying in temporary apartments, and we each have a roommate. My roommate Leigh is super nice and from Hawaii. It has been really fun getting to know her and the other ETAs a little bit. Everyone is friendly, interesting, and very talented.

Yesterday, we had our first day of “workshops”, where all 20 ETAs met at a local university with our program coordinators and a Fulbright advisor. She did and Intro to TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). We got a little bit of a peak into what we will be doing in the classroom, but I can’t wait to learn more. Some of the things she went over were general educational theories that I studied in college, but others were specific to teaching English and new to me! I’m looking forward to learning more!

Things have been vibrant and busy since we’ve gotten here, and I’m really looking forward to next week! We will start visiting schools on Monday, and we will be learning to ride scooters in the next few weeks. We are also going to Taipei for a formal orientation next Thursday-Friday, and a bunch of us are going to stay all weekend at a hostel. I accidentally booked a different hostel than everyone else (the same hostel has two locations…should have paid more attention), so hopefully I can figure that out!

Sorry this is so scattered, but I’m having a great time so far! Below are some other pictures from running around Taitung this week and a music festival I went to with some other ETAs! I’ll write more soon! Bye for now!