Bloggin' Taiwan

THANK YOU!

2010-06-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

Once a language is spoken, it is no longer foreign.

Once a culture is understood, it is no longer alien.

This past 11 months has truly been a journey for us...with “the foreign” becoming familiar and “the alien” becoming appreciated. Our time here has broadened our view of the world and opened our eyes, hearts and minds to the diversity of life. We cannot thank you enough for taking the time to follow our blog. It has meant a lot to us to have so many people with us on this adventure. We are looking forward to seeing many of you very, very soon!!!

Signing off,

Annalicia and Phil

P.s. For those of you who don’t know, we leave Taiwan in the morning of June 30^th. From there, we’re spending a few days in Seattle. We’re scheduled to arrive back in Minnesota in the afternoon of July 2^nd.

"YOU DON'T SEE THAT IN MINNESOTA!" (Round Two)

2010-06-28T22:46:00.001-07:00

As some of you may remember, we posted a list like this way back in August. Since our time here is coming to an end, we thought it would be appropriate to make another list of more things we’ve noticed throughout the year that are different than what most people are used to in the States (rural Minnesota in particular). Just like before, we want to emphasize again that these are simply observations, not judgments of good or bad, better or worse.

Just a taste...

--Donuts and chicken foot eaten together as a morning snack

--The use of Taiwan’s national year in documents instead of 2010 (Taiwan’s current national year is 99, because the country became a nation in 1911)

--Throwing toilet paper in the garbage instead of the toilet

--Rolls of toilet paper outside stalls that you must grab before going in to use the bathroom

--Oftentimes no toilet paper at all in public restrooms...you must bring your own

--Toilet paper used at home that looks like this vs. rolls...

--Most parents paying for everything (they want their children to focus on studying vs. working)

--No "umms" or "oops"..."nigga" (we were kind of taken aback when we first heard this all the time...it sounds a lot like an inappropriate English word...until we figured out it’s just the equivalent of their “umm”) and "aisle" instead

--Pig's blood soup and pudding (literally pig’s blood)

--Everyone being super good at doing fancy twirls of their pen

--119 instead of 911

--Having to place your key at a hotel in a device like you’ll see below in order to get the electricity to work

--Masks wore often (to prevent the spread of disease), so often most people have their own fashionable one

--People burning cars for loved ones who have passed away (some people believe this will allow their loved ones to have a car in the afterlife)

--People thinking we’re absolutely crazy to be married “so young”

--Voice tones giving words meaning vs. just for expression

--Pizza Hut delivery scooters

--A sealed plastic tops on drinks (kind of like Saran Wrap)

--Tea and drinks usually consumed after a meal vs. during one

--Soup with almost every meal (regardless of how hot it is outside)

--People brining their bowl or plate of food right up to their mouths and shoveling it all in

--Everyone using their parking brake whenever they park their cars

--Everyone putting their cars in neutral as they wait at stoplights

--The idea that the farther you nose goes out, the more beautiful you are

--Scooters and bikes allowed inside areas like this...

--People answering cell phone anywhere and everywhere (we’ve seen them answered by teachers during class, by employers during interviews, in the middle of movies at the theater, etc...)

--Assigned seats at the movie theater

--The ability to bring in whatever food or drink you’d like into the movie theater without hiding it (we have literally seen people bring in their own personal bowls of rice and veggies from home)

--Required military service by all men

--Gardens in unexpected, miscellaneous places

--Funerals at the home of the deceased

--Wedding rings exchanged but not always worn (if they are worn, there’s no particular finger they’re suppose to go on)

--People burping anywhere and everywhere (burping seems to be regarded as sneezing...it’s no big deal...it’s appropriate...it’s not impolite...no one even flinches when some lets a loud one go during a meeting or in the middle of a conversation)

--Carts locked up...you must put in a coin, kind of like a deposit that you get back if you return them

--Using cash to pay for almost everything (rent, water and electricity, etc...)

--An absolute love of gelatin (in everything...drinks, desserts, cakes, on it’s own)

--Trouble ending words with a consonant (for example, Skype = “Skypee”, book = “booka”)
--Things constantly sticking to your skin because of humidity, all year round

--Numbers based on 10,000 instead of 1,000 (for example, “wan” = 10,000 and “san” = 3...so, 30,000 = “san wan”)

--Little chairs or strollers folded up on scooters for kids to ride in

--When you meet people in the street (on foot, bike, scooter or car) you don't always go/stay to the right...actually, you rarely go/stay to the right...often you stay to the inside and then merge to where you’re supposed to be...navigation in the streets here feels a lot like playing a crazy video game...same strategies :)

--Hand gestures for numbers (for example, when the thumb and pinky finger are extended and the other fingers are down, that means six)

--Hospital workers using bikes to transport papers and other things around the building

--No time appointments at the doctor’s office, numbers instead

--Garbage bags sometimes put over babies if it’s raining and they’re riding on scooters

--Families renting tombs for their deceased loved ones, then digging up bones after 7 years, and burning them

--Buns and other pastries almost always containing surprise fillings

--People very rarely using lotions or chapstick because of the humidity, year-round

--People watering fruit trees with cow's milk

--The love of yogurt drinks

--0:13 = 12:13 am

--People taking naps in public

--Different level flooring all the time....all. the. time. :)

--People getting the English words “floor” and “ground” mixed up because there’s just one word for both in Chinese

--The use of two calendars...a western one for business-like matters and a lunar one for holidays, farming and sometimes birthdays

--So many different types of moving vehicles (scooters, cars, bikes, motorized wheelchairs, people’s own inventions :) occupying the road

--Little old ladies driving scooters like pros

--Laws against having affairs

--Shops often located in the first floor of people’s homes

--Charcoaled food, such as charcoaled bamboo (apparently it’s “good for your health”?)

--The use of straws for almost every drink

--A huge wedding/engagement photo shoot before a couple gets married (minimal pictures on the day of the ceremony)

--Fried squid

--Small ceremony and wedding traditions taking place at the bride and grooms home vs. at a church or temple (couples usually have a larger reception after the ceremony at a restaurant)

--People thinking it’s incredibly strange (so strange in fact they feel the need to take pictures :) to eat raw carrots

--People breaking off the third prong of a plug-in if it doesn’t fit into an outlet

--Tomatoes eaten and regarded as fruit/dessert

--Bike parking towers...really cool!

--Almost never peeling oranges...always slicing them

--People being flexible about the way they read their written language (people can easily read Chinese from up to down or from left to right)

--Checkbook registers not written in, instead updated electronically at ATM machines

--“Final Countdown Party” vs. “New Year’s Eve Party”

--Men sometime cleaning the women’s bathroom without closing it and visa versa...urinals clearly visible from the outside of restrooms

--Recycled paper turned to blank side, bound and made into homemade note pads

--No canned olives, only fresh or dried ones

--Q: “What does a cow say? A:”Maaaaa.” (not “moo”)

--Q: “What does a dog say?” A: “Wap.” (not “woof”)

--A pinky pointed down at some = an offensive gesture

--Chickens being butchered and hanging out on streets

--Strict photo ID stipulations (no smiling, must see ears etc...)

--Dog running into classrooms every once and awhile while teaching

--Guys carrying their girlfriends’ purses

--no pretzels...thought it was dog food

--Eggs not refrigerated

--Random animals seen in unexpected places

--Oranges eaten with salt sprinkled on themk

--People often describing things that don’t taste good as, “NOT delicious!”

--Tea eggs

--Confusing conversations, for example: A: “This is good, what’s it made of?” B: “Yum.” A: “Yeah, it is really good. What’s in it?” B: “Yum.” A: “It is yummy. What are the ingredients?” B: “Yum.” (Only to find out it was made of yam! :)

--Seatbelts in cars (particularly taxis) for looks vs. use (oftentimes they’ll just have the belts and nothing to lock the belt into)

--Teachers slapping students’ hands, heads and behinds as disciplinary measures

--Firecrackers used as decorations (for Chinese New Year)

--Grilled snails

--Events (celebrations, funerals, etc...) held in streets, with tents taking up a bunch of room and no one controlling traffic

--Showerheads often just placed in bathrooms, sometime simply connected to the sink, with no curtain or door...just a drain on the floor

--People letting long hairs grow out of their moles (apparently this is good luck?)

--People peeling their grapes before eating them

--Ordering “smoked” salmon only to find out it’s raw

--Desserts that look like this...

--Teachers finding and paying (out of their own pocket) their own substitutes when they have to be gone from school

--People sometimes touching babies stomachs to decide whether or not they’re hungry

--People always saying “yeah” instead of “cheese” during pictures (and putting up the “peace sign” which actually just means “happy”...not really peace...to people here)

--We’ll let the rest of these pictures speak for themselves...

SAYING OUR GOODBYES

2010-06-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, Phil and I leave Taiwan this coming Wednesday (June 30^th). With this being said, our last week or so has been filled with goodbyes...goodbyes to our students, co-workers, foreign friends and local friends. We’ve been attending dinners and giving speeches, accepting gifts and giving gifts. It’s been really nice. This past Saturday, we had a little farewell party outside, at a café. It was wonderful! We are so excited to see our family and friends back home, but sad to leave the wonderful people we’ve met here.

"HEAVEN LAKE"

2010-06-24T23:33:00.000-07:00

We just got the book, "Heaven Lake" by American author, John Dalton from another foreign English teacher. The reason it was passed on to us is because (part of) it takes place in Douliu.We have literally only read like eight pages of it, but the picture the author paints of our city and its people is eerily familiar to us. We just thought we'd pass on the book title in case you need something to fill the void you'll inevitably be feeling once we're back in the States and you no longer get news feeds about Taiwan/Douliu! :)

THE SUNNY SOUTH

2010-06-20T23:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Phil and I headed down to the southern tip of the island for some fun in the sun! We stayed with our friends, Andi and Peter, down there and had an absolutely wonderful time! Andi and Peter both went to Concordia in Moorhead and before coming to Taiwan, Peter had met a Taiwanese guy named Wade who at one point was an exchange student at a high school in Fargo and who now goes to NDSU. It’s a small world!

Wade is back in Taiwan for the summer, visiting his friends and family. So, he came down and hung out with us all weekend too. It was fun to have him around and so weird to have a house full of people on an island in the Western Pacific Ocean who were all very familiar with the Fargo-Moorhead area. :)

Andi and Peter leave Taiwan this coming Saturday. So, this past weekend was their last chance to visit some of their favorite places, eat at some of their favorite restaurants and hang out with some of the people they’ll be leaving behind. Phil and I were lucky enough to tag along for the ride!

On Saturday, we took a hike alongside a river to a relatively remote area where we were able to cliff jump into the base of a waterfall! The setting was absolutely beautiful. It was probably one of the coolest experiences we’ve had here! It was pretty surreal! We were lucky enough to do some snorkeling on Saturday as well. And, on Sunday, we just took it easy and hung out at the beautiful Baisha Beach.

A few miscellaneous things to note about the weekend...

-- Phil tried grilled chicken heart!

-- Phil and I were able to rent an awesome scooter for the weekend. In terms of scooters, it was probably one of the most sporty/macho ones out there. (The guy we rented from was all out of scooters at his shop, so we’re pretty sure the scooter he let us take was his own...we saw him riding a bicycle Saturday night...people here are so nice!) Wade ended up going to a different scooter shop and got a pink scooter with flowers on it...it looked pretty cute next to ours! :)

-- We were able to capture some video of true Taiwanese KTV in action. A lot of times people go out and do KTV for fun or it’s done at parties and celebrations, but often it’s done just the way you’ll see in the video...while people are relaxing in their shops or homes.

TAIPEI

2010-06-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Phil and I headed up to Taipei to meet up with a bunch of our foreign friends. Most of these friends were people we had met at orientation last August. This was kind of like our final reunion. The weekend was planned because a woman who is part of the group put together a Dragon Boat racing team named “Wily Waigouren”. (“Waigouren” meaning “foreigner(s)” in Chinese.)

The Dragon Boat Festival was yesterday (Wednesday, June 16^th) and during the Dragon Boat holiday season the Taiwanese have Dragon Boat races. The teams who enter the races are usually really serious about them...they are often professionals and practice extensively. Our team was new to the sport and had no practice time logged! :) Take a look at the (rather humorous!) e-mail one of our foreign friends got from one of her Taiwanese co-workers:

"I can't believe you are going to roll a dragon boat! Wow~That's really something beyond my imagination. I mean I myself dare not roll a real boat and would never imagine myself rolling a dragon boat. (After you see the keen competition of a race with NT30000 prize, you will know that a boat can really fly.) It is indeed a game of teamwork, and for Taiwanese dragon boat teams, they allow only the professional to be aboard. Traditionally, women are forbidden to even step in a dragon boat. It would be a laborious task to pull yourselves to the goal if you are not trained in advance. And if you don't roll together in the right tempo as a team, your boat might end up circling right there or even moving backward in the middle of the river, not to mention to fetch that flag far away!But I think that would be the fun for your team (which I supposed to be special team for foreign friends?)!"

Well, she was right! The competition was keen and our team was unable to place high enough to move past the first race. The first race took place on Friday and Phil and I weren’t able to take the day off of school. So, we didn’t get the chance to experience it. It was okay, though...we still had a great weekend!

Instead of racing, we spent our time just hanging out with everyone. We were able to watch some World Cup games, which was a pretty cool experience! Like most Americans, we had never experienced the international CRAZE surrounding the competition...people around the world love it! It was fun take part in the excitement!

Aside from that, we also got the chance to tour the Museum of World Religions. This museum was founded by a Taiwanese Buddhist order with the intention of promoting peace and understanding between people of different religious backgrounds. The museum was designed by the same person who designed the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. It was pretty cool!

Well, we hope you all had a Happy Dragon Boat Festival yesterday! :) We did...we got the day off of work! A big part of this festival is making, giving and eating rice dumplings. The picture below is at a store in Douliu, preparing for the festival. What you see pictured is the rice dumplings (sticky rice of different seasonings and with different fillings, wrapped in bamboo or banana leaves). If you’re interested in learning more about the Dragon Boat Festival you can visit this website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival

P.s. As I was writing up the stuff about Taipei above, I realized we never posted pictures from the last time we visited Taipei in March. During that visit we went to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. It was pretty cool, so I thought I’d just include a few pictures of it here...

TOURING YUNLIN

2010-06-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had the opportunity to tour our county. We haven’t done much of this in the past because it’s hard to do without a car, but we were lucky enough to have some people willing to show us around. On Saturday night, one of my (Annalicia’s) co-teachers, Nancy, took us to the outskirts of Douliu with her family. They showed us some fruit, vegetable and rice fields.

We also went out to dinner with Nancy and her family. They brought us to a restaurant located on the campus of a university in Douliu. The pond at this restaurant was completely filled with huge water lilies. It was gorgeous! We had never seen so many water lilies and we had definitely never seen water lilies that big!

On Sunday, Adelaide (our local friend who owns the English cram school) took us on a 13 hour tour of Yunlin! We started with breakfast at a café on the nearby, “Coffee Mountain”. From there we headed to Gukeng Township where we were able to take in some spectacular views of the area we’ve called home for the past 10 months.

After that, we went to the “Green Tunnel”. This is a road covered by trees (hence the name). On the weekends, vendors set-up on the road and it becomes a nice destination for families to get away from the crowded cities. Check out the bugs in the cage. Apparently kids like to buy these at pets!

A bee museum was located right by the Green Tunnel, so we checked that out as well.

From there we headed to Huwei Township (where Phil’s school is located), and went to “a famous” towel museum. (A lot of things are “famous” in Taiwan. :) Apparently this towel museum has been a family business for many years, but about 10 years ago it had to make some changes. I guess, their competitors started cutting their prices around that time because they started outsourcing their labor to the Philippines and China. Instead of doing that, this place decided to use creativity to stay in business. So, now they make their towels into different shapes, such as cakes and lollipops, and sell them as gifts.

From Huwei, we went to Beigang Township in southern Yunlin. We found out this township has one of the “most famous” Mazu temples on the island. (Mazu is their god of the water.) We spent some time touring the temple and shopping around the area. Check out the huge pig someone donated as a sacrifice! We had never seen that before!

We ended our day eating a very nice Hong Kong style dinner.

TEMPLE ACTION

2010-06-02T23:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, we live really close to a temple. What was so surprising to us at first (but seems “normal” to us now :), is how many noisy events and activities take place there. It is very common for us to hear drums, gongs, firecrackers, fireworks, songs, loud speakers, parades, etc... coming from the temple grounds.

These events, this noise takes place at least once a week, at various times and on various days. It is not uncommon for us to hear a parade go by at 6:30 or 7:00 on a Saturday morning. At the same time, we are not surprised anymore when fireworks and firecrackers keep us up past midnight on a weekday. To give you a taste of the action, we’ve posted a few pictures and videos below.

FOOD AND FUN

2010-05-31T20:55:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, Phil and I and another foreign guy, Mike, took some Chinese/Taiwanese cooking lessons! A local friend of ours, Adelaide, who owns an English cram school (where Mike works), invited us over to have her mom show us how to make some dishes. Her mom was so kind. She showed us how to make six or seven different things. We were all stuffed by the end! Her mom didn’t speak much English, but occasionally she would throw in comments like, “So easy...you can do it!” It was so cute!

(These are pictures of Adelaide's school. It's located on the first floor of their house. This is the case with most shops and businesses in Taiwan.)

After our cooking lessons, we all went to a Taiwan professional league baseball game. Phil and I had been to an all-star/charity game before, but we had never been to an actual game. It was fun and interesting. At baseball games in Taiwan, there is noise constantly. We weren’t used to this. Fans have organized cheers they do with noise makers, drums, instruments, etc... throughout the entire game. It’s crazy! There are a few videos of some of the cheers below.

There weren’t many people at the game, so Phil, Mike and I really stuck out. We got on the scoreboard screen at least three times and had multiple people tell us the next day at school that they saw us on TV a bunch of times. Only in Taiwan! :)

POTLUCK

2010-05-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, we spent the evening at one of Phil’s co-worker’s house for a potluck. We had a fun time hanging out, eating and singing KTV (of course). There were a few things that we found interesting and some that really made us chuckle.

First, we found it funny how different Taiwanese potlucks are compared to American potlucks...

Second, we were fascinated by how much Hello Kitty stuff his co-worker, Roro, had. Roro was so proud of her collection and urged us to take a lot of pictures! :) She told us, compared to a lot of other Taiwanese women, her collection wasn’t that big. Roro is married...notice their bedroom...poor guy! :)

Third, whenever you enter a Taiwanese person’s house, you are asked to take off your shoes and put on “slippers” (which are more like sandals). Take a look at the ones we wore all night...we felt pretty hot...

Finally, we were lucky enough to capture some video of little girl, Wendy, doing KTV, singing “Twinkle, Twinkle” in Chinese. Too cute!

OUR MISCELLANEOUS MONTH OF MAY

2010-05-23T23:33:00.000-07:00

We haven’t been doing much traveling this month, we’ve mostly just been hanging out in Douliu. So, our May has been filled with a bunch of small, yet memorable, miscellaneous events and activities, starting with a...

Mother’s Day Celebration

On Saturday, May 1^st, my (Annalicia’s) school hosted what was kind of like an open house/carnival thing. The intention behind it was to try to promote the school and get more students interested in coming to Yunlin Elementary.

My students put on a program in honor of Mother’s Day at this event. All the songs were in English, but most of them had nothing to do with moms. :) There’s a video below of part of the Kindergarteners’ song and dance. These Kindergarteners are so good at organized dance, it’s unbelievable! This song was about McDonald’s and Pizza Hut (notice their costumes)...I cringed a little at the promotion of these American entities, but the kids were so cute, Phil and I couldn’t help but thoroughly enjoy the performance! :)

“Ice” Hockey

We found out a few weeks ago that, in the words of a Taiwanese friend of ours, “Taiwan has ice hockey!” Ice hockey? Hmmmm...we were surprised. We went to check it out...it was roller hockey...that made more sense. :)

Hard Rock

Taiwan continues to surprise us. One night we were walking and came across a hard core, heavy metal band performing in the park. This challenged our perceptions of the Taiwanese. We were used to most people here loving things that are “so cute”, like the Hello Kitty stuffed animals (even as adults) and singing love songs on KTV...not screaming into microphones. It was a good reminder for us of the diversity that exists within cultures and the potential danger involved with generalizing. There’s a short clip of the performance below. Believe it or not, the “singer” was a cute, petite woman. :)

Night Market

Douliu’s Saturday night market used to be right by our apartment. Awhile ago, though, it got moved to a different location. Since then, we hadn’t been. So, we decided to hit it up a couple times this month. This night market is the biggest one in Yunlin County and draws a huge amount of people in every week.

Mike

One of our Taiwanese friends owns an English cram school in Douliu. Awhile ago she found a guy from Ohio to come work as a foreign English teacher at her school. His name is Mike and he just arrived in the beginning of May. He lives in an apartment right down the road from us. His schedule is opposite of ours (he works at night), but it’s been fun to hang out with him on the weekends. It’s been weird, but good to have another “foreigner” around in Douliu.

Mobile Library Opening Ceremony

Yunlin County granted my school a large sum of money to be the host of a mobile library. Basically what our mobile library consists of is two trucks filled with books and other things. There’s a team here at Yunlin Elementary who brings these trucks around to other schools in the county (mostly in the countryside), who do not have libraries of their own. Kind of a cool idea! Of course, none of this would be official without a proper ceremony to mark its beginning! :) I think I’ve been to more opening ceremonies during my time here than most Americans will ever go to throughout their entire lives!

Sidewalk Chalking

One day I was talking to one of my co-teachers and somehow we got on the subject of sidewalk chalk. I came to find out that, after discussing if for a few minutes, he had no idea what I was talking about! (That happens a lot here! :) Apparently sidewalk chalking is something most Taiwanese people have never done or even heard of.

After I explained it to him and showed him some pictures online, he asked if I could plan a lesson around sidewalk chalking so the kids could experience it. What a good idea! So, that’s what I did. There are some pictures of my students chalking below. They are so cute! Usually right at the beginning of the lesson, they all just sit there because they don’t really believe they can draw on the ground. :)

A Field Trip to Phil’s School

Last week I took a day off of work at my school to go with Phil to his school. I had been to his school twice before, but both of those trips were way back in August. And, on those past trips I didn’t get to meet any of his students or ride the bus with him. I decided I wanted to see what a day was like for him, with his commute and everything, and his students kept telling him they wanted to meet me.

We had a great day! I definitely appreciate, even more, the hour long (one way) bike, bus, walking commute he does everyday. And, his students were really fun to interact with. Their English is so much more advanced than most of my students’ English (obviously)...so, I could actually have conversations with some of them! In one of his classes, students decided they wanted Phil and I to sign our names on their folders and then they drew hearts around our signatures. :)

It was fun to spend time with his co-worker too! We had a lot of tea that day! :) We spent about 45 minutes having tea with his principal. He played three different Chinese instruments for us and ended up giving us a Chinese flute/recorder as a gift! Fun! (There’s a picture of Phil’s principal below.)

ROAD CONSTRUCTION

2010-05-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

Road construction in Taiwan is definitely much different than it is in the States. Oftentimes there is no indication that you are approaching a construction zone...suddenly there it is...a lane is closed....no one’s directing traffic. Phil and I call these the “Just Figure It Out” construction areas. And, amazingly enough, people usually do! Here are two examples:

Our absolute favorite aspect of road construction here are the little guys they dress up, holding flags. We’re not really sure what this is about. Is it a way to get people’s attention? Are the construction companies unable to hire an actual person for this position? Whatever the case may be, we find them pretty humorous!

ENLIHS SPELING AND TRANSALTOINS

2010-05-04T23:52:00.000-07:00

When we first arrived in Taiwan, we were surprised by the amount of English we saw on signs, t-shirts, etc... We are so thankful the Taiwanese have taken the extra step to label so many things in both Chinese and English. This alone has made our lives here 100 times easier. One thing that always makes us chuckle regarding this, however, is the spelling we see. There are many things that contribute to their sometimes confusing letter choices and arrangements.

First, sometimes the Taiwanese are trying to spell out Chinese sounds/words. For example, we’ve seen the name of the city we live in depicted eight different ways in English: Douliu, Douliou, Dou-Lui, Dou-Liou, Touliu, Touliou, Tou-Liu and Tou-Liou. Because English sounds and Chinese sounds don’t correlate exactly, it’s often hard for the Taiwanese to choose just one English spelling in situations like this.

This issue was very confusing for us at first, especially when the same organization spelled things different ways. For example, the Taiwan Railway Administration spells Douliu one way on their website, another way on their automatic ticket booths and a different way on their signs. At this point, however, we’ve thankfully gotten a little savvier.

Secondly, it seems a lot of people throw English on their signs or menus without getting it checked by a creditable source. Now, we have absolutely no problem with this...we are obviously not in a position to be upset or annoyed about it...it just really surprised us initially. Apparently we had the assumption that if businesses, schools and organizations were going to spend a significant sum of money on products, they would make sure everything (Chinese and English) was correct on them. Well, that assumption of ours has been challenged. :)

When it comes to translations...often times they’re humorous. Sometimes their titles are vaguer than ours and sometimes they’re much more direct and literal. Oftentimes the word choice is interesting. And, in many cases, the translations are simply confusing.

With the intentions of helping you understand and hopefully passing on some lighthearted humor, we’ve posted some pictures below. (Hopefully you can read the words in them...we made the pictures a little bigger than usual.) Allow us to emphasize one more time how much we appreciate all the English we see here, regardless if it’s correct or not. :)

Just a taste...

ABOUT CAMPUS

2010-04-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

So, last night Phil brought a document home for me to look at. It was something some of his students had given him to correct. The document is intended to be a script for a PowerPoint presentation about Dongren Junior High School. They’re going to be giving this presentation to some English-speaking people visiting next week from New Zealand.

Today as I was thinking about it to myself and smiling, I decided I couldn’t resist posting it to our blog. My intention behind doing this is not to make fun of his students in any way...their English ability is so advanced compared to our Chinese. And, we always admire the students here who are willing to take risks and make mistakes. I simply think this is a great example of some of the confusion that’s involved with our life and work here. Enjoy! :)

(Needless to say, Phil decided he needed to schedule some time to work with these students on the presentation before next week!)

Here it is...unedited...

Dong-Ren

Junior High School

About Campus

Facing the sun door

Exactly face the sun

The first, teacher kidness building

The teacher of part and offices all again this, so take teacher kidness building.

I am the second to spread Xi Yuan.

Spreading the Xi Yuan is the place that the student learns.

The third international building.

Our English village at the third, so take for the international building.

Ecosystem pool style style lake

There are a lot of plants inside our styles style lake, can appreciate.

This road is very beautiful and be like similar in the garden.

Yunlin Dung-Ren International English Village

Our foreign teacher

The son of our foreign teacher he’s name is phill, he is all very good to everyone, also taught many of our things and make our English better progress.

Our restaurant

This is the restaurant of the village of our English, is also the one of them of our teaching location, we all learn restaurant rite here.

Our store

Here am the store in the village of our English, we learn here how to make use of English to buy the language of thing and response clerk.

End

Thank’s everyone, our introduce this to end.

CHANGHUA

2010-04-28T22:50:00.001-07:00

Phil and I spent this past weekend in Changhua County, which is just north of Yunlin County. We hung out there with another foreign couple, Andi and Peter. Changhua City is home of the largest Buddha statue in Taiwan, so we went to see that. The temple that hosted the statue was located in a beautiful little park reserve that overlooked the city.

On Sunday, Andi and I participated in a 10.9K race in a small town in Changhua County, on the coast. The race was put on to raise money to help “Save the Sousa”. Sousa is a type of dolphin in Southeast Asia. Peter and Phil were troopers...they came with to cheer us on even though we all had to be up at 4:00 am to catch our shuttle bus! Thanks guys! The last part of the race was probably the best part...for multiple reasons :)...we ran on the top of a large concrete wall, right along the ocean. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it was nice!

VISITORS!

2010-04-20T00:05:00.000-07:00

Phil and I were lucky enough to recently have some visitors! My family and some family friends, the Abrahamsons, arrived on March 28^th. My family was able to stay until April 9^th. The Abrahmsons flew out earlier that week. Our schools were very understanding of our situation and allowed us to take almost two weeks off of work so we could travel around the island with them.

It was really great to see them all and fun to get the opportunity to show them around! It was funny to listen to all their comments regarding Taiwan’s culture. They were many of the same comments we made when we first arrived...many of the same things we found interesting or strange...but their comments were often about things that seem “normal” to us now. So, it was great to be reminded of all those things again. :)

Throughout the time that they were here, Phil and I traveled to places we had been before and also went to new places and did a lot of new things (even in the places we had been to prior). The eight of us pretty much utilized every form of public transportation you can imagine. We were very busy. Our itinerary looked like this:

Day One - Wulai (northern Taiwan)

Day Two - Taipei City (northern Taiwan)

Day Three - Sun Moon Lake (central Taiwan)

Day Four - Douliu and Huwei (west-central Taiwan)

Day Five - Little Liuchiu Island (southwestern Taiwan)

Days Six and Seven - Kenting (southern Taiwan)

Days Eight, Nine and Ten - Taroko Gorge (east-central Taiwan)

Day Eleven - Northeast Scenic Area (in..you guessed it...northeastern Taiwan :)

Day Twelve - Jiufen and Beitou Hot Springs (northern Taiwan)

Day Thirteen - Taipei City (northern Taiwan)

Although our time with them was really just one highlight after another, here’s a few things we thought were particularly memorable:

-- Singing KTV (karaoke) at our hotel in Wulai.

-- Having my family and the Abrahamsons experience Taiwanese food and smells. :)

-- Strangers wanting to take random pictures with us (especially the younger boys, Grant and Brett).

-- Getting foot massages at a night market that were extremely painful, tickly and pleasant all at the same time.

-- Having my family and the Abrahamsons visit our schools. As you may have guessed, Brett and Grant were pretty much rock stars with Phil’s junior high girls. :) Phil still has students ask him when “his family” will be back to visit. And, apparently, quite a few of his students created all English Facebook pages so they could be "friends" with the boys. Now they’ll all be up to date on all the gossip happening in the Dassel-Cokato area! :)

-- The minor bus accident on the way to Phil's school.

-- Being serenaded by a Taiwanese restaurant owner while eating lunch in Douliu.

-- Renting scooters from the old woman on Little Liuchiu Island.

-- Watching people light these lanterns (in the video below) and release them into the air.

-- Snorkeling on Little Liuchiu and in Kenting.

-- Staying at Achi’s place in Kenting. Achi is a surfer and renaissance man. He never failed to surprise us by all the things he had done/is doing in his life. He spoke great English and because of this (and his personality) he acted like our concierge while we were in Kenting...helping us set up all our activities. :)

-- Surfing lessons. Most of us just did a lot of exhausting paddling vs. actually “riding the waves”, but it was a great experience!

-- Going to the hot springs near Kenting.

-- Abrahamsons having to leave Taroko Gorge earlier than they had planned because all the trains back to Taipei City (where they needed to get to catch a taxi to the airport) were booked due to the Tomb Sweeping holiday that took place on Monday, April 5^th...bummer.

-- My mom and dad having a relatively large falling rock go right over their heads at Taroko Gorge. This was a bit rattling for us all. To top it off, about 15 minutes after the rock incident, we went on a crazy taxi ride. Needless to say we were thankful when we got back to our hotel safe and sound that night.

-- Seeing wild monkeys at Taroko. I was the only one who saw them, but I swear I’m not lying! There’s a video of them below. You can’t see them in the video, though, you can only hear them.

-- Going to a cute little tea destination (Jiufen).

-- Staying at a hot springs hotel in Beitou (where the men and women facilities were separate because you’re required to go nude...that was an experience :).

-- Going to Taipei City’s flower market.

-- Going to a driving range in Taipei City.

-- Finishing our time with my family by eating an American style meal at TGIFridays! :)

MY RING!

2010-03-26T00:32:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I (Phil) decided to play baseball with some students after school. I borrowed a boy’s glove and played a rousing round of catch. So much so that when I took my glove off my wedding ring came off with it. I didn’t notice my ring was missing until I was on the bus home, too late to go look for it. I suppose I could’ve asked the bus driver to pull over because I needed to go and look for my wedding ring, but I figured that would have been pretty hard to communicate.

So, on Friday I had a class during first hour and towards the end of class I told my co-teacher to tell the students that I lost my wedding ring outside somewhere around the track. My students were very concerned right away. They all let out a collective, “Oh my God!!” After they all settled down and adjusted to the fact that I lost my ring I asked them if they could help me look for it if they had time. As the bell rang, all of my students rushed out of the classroom and onto the track. A couple of students gathered around me and started asking questions like; “You need your ring to stay with your wife?” and “Your wife will be so ANGRY?!” I responded yes to both of them because I didn’t feel like explaining that I could just by a new ring if I wanted to and either way I could stay married to “Anna”.

When I was done talking with those students I looked around and realized that more students were recruited to help me find my ring and save my marriage. There were 50-60 students combing through grass and dirt desperately trying to help me keep my wife. It was amazing to see all of these students so worried and eager to help even though my ring held very little meaning to them personally.

As the break time was coming to a close, a student (that I played catch with the previous day) found my ring on a set of stairs. I offered to buy him a bubble tea, thanked him for finding my ring, and assured all of my students that my wife would not leave me now.

LIBRARY OPENING CEREMONY

2010-03-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday (March 18^th), my (Annalicia’s) school had an opening ceremony for our brand new library. They have been working on this library ever since I’ve been here and it turned out absolutely beautiful!

At the opening ceremony, they had all the students line the halls and pass the books from where they were being stored to the new library. It was really cool! I went to watch and take some pictures and ended up being interviewed by three different news camera crews. Only in Taiwan! :)

A few interesting things to note: First, at the ceremony a group of students played, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” on recorders. It got me in the Christmas mood! :) Also, no one is allowed to go in the library with shoes on.

CHINESE YO-YO

2010-03-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

I (Annalicia) got the chance to learn how to play with a Chinese yo-yo a few weeks ago! The physical education teacher at my school put on a little “in-service” for us! He can do some really cool tricks with it. He got first place at a Yunlin County Chinese yo-yo competition!

One of the tricks he taught us was throwing the yo-yo in the air and catching it. Well, the first time I tried it, I threw mine way too high and I could see it was going to hit another teacher so without thinking I started yelling, “Heads up! Heads up! Heads up!” No one moved...they had no idea what I was saying...my yo-yo hit the teacher! (She was okay.) :)

SESAME STREET?

2010-03-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

Phil: That guy just asked me if I worked on “Sesame Street”!?!

Annalicia: What?

Phil: Yeah...do you think they have a Taiwanese version of the show here?

Annalicia: I have no idea!

Phil: He said he knows a lot of foreigners here who work on “Sesame Street”.

Annalicia: Really?!?

Phil and Annalicia: Hmmm?!? (shrug they’re shoulders and let it go easily knowing it’s not the most strange or confusing thing they’ve ever heard, seen or been asked in Taiwan)

(A few days later, Phil and Annalicia found out “Sesame Street” is a chain of English cram schools! :)

"NOBODY"

2010-03-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

You might remember us mentioning a song called “Sorry, Sorry” in one of our entries this fall. Well, along with that song, another song that’s huge here right now is “Nobody” by the Wonder Girls. The Wonder Girls are a Korean music group, just like Super Junior (the artists of “Sorry, Sorry”). As we were looking for the You Tube video of the song, we discovered that they have an all English version of it and it has debuted in the States. So, you may have already heard it.

Anyways, for the past few months here, we’ve heard the song at least once a day when our beloved little blue advertising trucks drive past our apartment and/or school. We have no idea what or who they’re advertising, but they sure do like to use the song!

Our favorite, though, is when we’re out and we hear little kids start singing. When we were on a boat at Sun Moon Lake, we were next a really young boy (maybe two or three) who kept singing, “nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody...” over and over again! It was dang cute! :)

If you’re interested, here’s the original Korean/English version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwf-Lh8QbzY

Here’s the all English version (kind of an interesting video?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA7fdSkp8ds

THE LANTERN FESTIVAL

2010-03-10T23:15:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night, March 6^th, Phil and I headed 30 minutes south on the train to the city of Chiayi. This city was chosen to be the main site for Taiwan’s Lantern Festival this year. From what we know, many cities do things in celebration of this festival, but there’s only one city (a different one each year) that hosts “the main event”.

Technically, the Lantern Festival is held on the 15^th day of the lunar year (15 days after Chinese New Year), but we’ve noticed that many Lantern Festival events/celebrations started before that date and have continued after. We’ve asked people about the significance behind the event and the clearest answer we’ve gotten is simply, beauty. :)

For some reason, Phil and I were expecting the atmosphere to be peaceful and quaint. We were envisioning beautiful lanterns being displayed and lifted off. Well, our expectations were way off! (We have no idea where they came from anyway.) We were not disappointed, though, just surprised. The atmosphere would best be described as...carnival-like. And, we felt “Light Show” might have been a more accurate title for the event.

This year is the year of the tiger...my year! So, that’s why the main “lantern” is a tiger. For more information on the Chinese Zodiac, you can visit the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac

Despite our crushed expectations, it was very fun event and really interesting! We are really happy we had the opportunity to go. If anyone is looking for an overdose on visual stimuli, this would definitely be an event you’d want to hit up at some point! :)

http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/glue_e/glue.htm

FIELD TRIP DAY...ANOTHER ONE!

2010-03-10T21:41:00.001-08:00

Last Thursday, March 4th, my (Annalicia’s) school had another “Field Trip Day”. And, I got to go with the fourth graders to a small village in Yunlin County, up in the mountains, known as Gukeng. (Gukeng is especially famous here for its coffee.)

A tiny elementary school in Gukeng hosted our students. From what I was told, the government wanted to close this school down a few years ago (because it was so low in numbers), but the school made an agreement with the government instead. They said if they were allowed to stay open, they would host other Yunlin students for educational purposes. So, that’s what we went there for.

We were taken on an ecology tour of the beautiful area in the morning. In the afternoon, we tie-dyed bags. The blue dye we used was derived from the leaves of a tree native to the area. It was very fun! The kids seemed to love it!

TAIWAN'S NATIONAL ANTHEM

2010-03-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

Every Tuesday and Friday morning, all my (Annalicia’s) students and co-workers gather outside on the track for the “Flag Raising Ceremony”. At this time, Taiwan’s national anthem is played. (After the national anthem all sorts of miscellaneous things are done...awards are handed out, students are reminded of certain rules they maybe aren’t following well, announcements are made, etc...)

Just this week, I finally got around to recording the first part of the ceremony. So, if you’re interested in hearing Taiwan’s national anthem, you can listen below!

EARTHQUAKE

2010-03-06T22:59:00.000-08:00

We had yet another earthquake experience here last Thursday, March 4th. This earthquake was measured at a 6.4 magnitude. It caused some injuries and damage in the southern part of the island, but there were no fatalities and we've noticed no significant damage in our area.

At the time of the quake, I (Annalicia) was in a bus, up in the mountains with some fourth grade students for field trip day. And, we felt absolutely nothing. We have no idea how this happened, since even small earthquakes can be felt in moving vehicles, but everyone on the bus was happy to bypass that potential chaotic and nerve wrecking experience. The only thing I felt was an aftershock around 4:00 pm.

Phil's experience, on the other hand, was a bit scarier than mine. He said the initial quake started with just some rattling. The rattling stopped, came back again, stopped and then the building (his school) actually started swaying and felt like it was shifting for about 30 seconds. He hid under his desk. A lot of people evacuated his building.

Here's some more information about it, if you're interested:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/03/04/246807/Magnitude-64-earthquake.htm

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/03/05/246938/64-quake.htm

HOT POT

2010-03-02T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hot pot is a very big part of the Taiwanese culture and one of my (Annalicia’s) favorite aspects of Taiwanese cuisine. When people are enjoying hot pot, there will either be individual pots for each person (this is Japanese style) or a shared pot (this is Chinese style) of boiling broth for an entire table. Vegetables, meat and sometimes various kinds of noodles are thrown into the pot, cooked, taken out, usually dipped in different spices and eaten (most often with rice). Most people drink the broth after the noodles, meat and vegetables have been cooked.

Hot pot is fun and delicious! Phil and I hadn’t heard of it prior to coming to Taiwan and we’re actually really surprised it’s not more prevalent in the States...we think a lot of people would enjoy it! A lot of restaurants here will often offer BBQ along with hot pot. You’ll see that in some of our pictures below. If you’re interested, along with the pictures, there’s a link to more information about hot pot below too.

(BBQ)

(Hot Pot and BBQ)

(BBQ)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot

DID YOU KNOW...

2010-02-25T23:02:00.000-08:00

...pineapples DON’T grow on trees?!? We didn’t know that. We really should have, but we didn’t! Apparently a lot of Americans have that misconception. (Or, maybe they just told us that so we wouldn’t feel so stupid! :)

...water chestnuts can look like the picture below before they are dug out of their skin/shell, cut up and put into frozen Chinese stir-fry mixes!?! :) People here steam water chestnuts and eat them right from the skin/shell. They’re kind of tricky to eat. You have to bite them pretty hard to crack them in half. Then, you use the little horn from one half to dig out the insides of the other half. They taste very different from the ones we were used to eating in stir-fry back at home.

SUN MOON LAKE

2010-02-21T00:32:00.000-08:00

(As you can see, we found a new, much easier way to display our pictures!)

In celebration of Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year, we spent the weekend of February 13th and 14th at a beautiful, nearby tourist destination, Sun Moon Lake. This was our first time traveling to this destination. The first day we were there it was very gray and foggy. The next day it cleared up beautifully, though!

We spent our time at the lake going on some walks, taking boat rides, riding the lake's brand new cable car and visiting the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village. This cultural village was interesting. Along with it being an exhibit venue for Taiwan's main aboriginal tribes, it was also an amusement park. :) We were lucky enough to be able to visit during cherry blossom season. So, all the cherry blossom trees were in bloom...it was beautiful!

The Sun Moon Lake area is truly one of Taiwan's national treasures!

SIX WEEKS OF WINTER

2010-02-16T23:00:00.000-08:00

On December 22nd, the Taiwanese celebrated the winter solstice. We were told this marked the beginning of the winter season. And then, just last week, someone told us it was a special day because it marked the beginning of spring. So, apparently the winter season in Taiwan only lasts a little over six weeks...similar to the winter season in Minnesota! :)