BASEBALL

Last Sunday (December 6^th) Phil and I met up with some other foreign English teachers in Taichung for a baseball game. The game we went to wasn’t a normal Taiwan Major League game, it was a charity game. So, players from different Taiwan Major League teams donated their time. The players were mixed and split into two teams. The manager of one team for this particular game was a Taiwanese MLB player (either for the Detroit Tigers or the New York Yankees...ask Phil). :)

The actual game wasn’t taken too seriously. For example, at one point, one team had their catcher pitch. There was also a lot of additional entertainment. One of the teams performed the “Sorry, Sorry” dance...that was fun to see! If you’re interested you can watch it below.

There also was a big surprise...one of the players proposed to his girlfriend. At first we thought this was pretty cute, but we came to find out that this was his third time proposing to her (she had refused twice before). So, we’re hoping he wasn’t intentionally pressuring her by asking her in front of thousands of people...maybe he was just really certain she had changed her mind??? :) (There’s a video of it below.)

It was definitely a new experience for us to go to an outdoor baseball game in December!

THE YIEV OPENING CEREMONY

Last Wednesday (November 25^th) marked the Opening Ceremony for the Yunlin International English Village (YIEV) at my school. This ceremony was a very big deal to many people. As a result, the presentation of the event was taken very seriously. Presentation, in situations like these, is extremely important to most Taiwanese people. Phil and I were absolutely blown away by the many aspects of the event. There were flags, balloons, blow up things, tents, a stage, flowers, food, mascots, etc...















We were also amazed by what was done with each theme classroom prior to the ceremony. In our opinion, the classrooms have always looked great...we thought they were ready to be “shown off”. This was definitely not the opinion of most people here, though. Tons of decorations where added to the classrooms the week before the event. I’ve included a few pictures (some are before and after ones) of some of the classrooms below.

Yunlin County government officials and people from other schools were invited to the ceremony. The event started with dancing, musical and Kung Fu performances by Yunlin Elementary School students. After their performances, many people gave speeches and different plaques were awarded to a variety of individuals.

Then it was time...the YIEV officially opened!

After this, people were led through the theme classrooms for 30 minutes where they were able to observe demonstrations of potential dialogues that could be taught in each one. So, for example, I was in the Yunlin Airport acting as a check-in clerk with three 6^th grade girls (who we had “trained” ahead of time) acting as travelers. We demonstrated some airport dialogue for each group that came to that classroom.

People at my school asked Phil to help with this event as well. Originally he was supposed to be in the Airplane Cabin, but people at my school were afraid guests wouldn’t see him enough there. They decided he needed to be in a more visible place. When they were discussing this, I kept thinking, “Are you serious? He’s not that good looking!” :) (Just kidding, Phil!) As a result, he ended up being in the Bank, working as the “handsome banker”.

After the 30 minutes of demonstrations where done, guests were given 30 minutes to go to the classrooms again, but this time they could participate in the experience of each theme. For example, in the Bank they were allowed to use the ATM machine to withdraw (fake) money.

From there, refreshments were served. My school even hired to coffee club to come and make very unique, fancy coffee for anyone interested. It was an impressive display of food and drinks.

The experience was a great example of how much value the Taiwanese people place on making sure their guests are taken care of.

OUR LUCK HAS CHANGED!

Like I’ve mentioned before, because of Typhoon Morakot, my hospital stay, the earthquakes and us losing our camera, some people here are concerned about our luck. I’m happy to report, though, that our luck has changed! This past week we won 400NT (about 12USD) from the Taiwan Lottery! :)

To win money from the Taiwan Lottery you don’t have to buy a ticket, you simply have to save your receipts. Every receipt in Taiwan has a lottery number on it. We’ve been told the government decided to do this in attempt to motivate merchants keep quality, accurate records of their sales and in an attempt to keep people from throwing receipts on the ground. Regardless of the reasons behind this lottery, we think it’s pretty fun!

(If you’re interested in more details about the Taiwan Lottery, you can visit this site:
http://www.tealit.com/article_categories.php?section=living&article=lottery)