LET IT SNOW?

This snowman was put up last week outside the 7/11 close to our apartment. The 7/11s here seem to offer more things in celebration of many American holidays compared to other places in Taiwan. (For example, they had special Halloween treats and decorations during October.) So, it didn’t surprise us that they were doing things in celebration of Christmas. What did surprise us was the fact that they chose to put up a snowman holding a “Let It Snow” banner instead of Santa. A snowman? Let is snow...in Taiwan? Really? :)

I (Annalicia) have had the fun and interesting experience of explaining the Christmas holiday to my students. When we first got to Taiwan and people here were telling us some of the traditions of and stories behind their holidays, I remember doing a little bit of chuckling in my head. But now, after the roles have switched and I’m the one doing the telling, my perspective on what a “normal” holiday is, has completely changed.

Have you ever tried explaining the story of Santa to people (kids) who have hardly any background knowledge or experience with it? Well, if not, it’s a little more difficult than you may think. As the words “elves”, “magic sleigh”, “flying reindeer” are spilling out of your mouth, you start to fear that your audience is questioning your sanity! :)

Then, when the questions start rolling in (via an interpreter) like, “If he flies all around the world, why hasn’t he ever stopped at my house?” or “Don’t kids think it’s weird that Santa doesn’t care if people see him at malls before Christmas, but he doesn’t want anyone to see him on Christmas Eve?” you begin to see what used to be “normal” as very strange!

So, as you celebrate Christmas this week, I encourage you to see all the stories and traditions through the eyes of a second grader from Taiwan. I can assure you, regardless of what you’re going to be doing, they would see nothing as “normal”...everything would be unique and exciting!

Wishing you a fresh and lovely experience of our beautiful holiday! Merry Christmas!

ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE

We had another earthquake hit Taiwan on Saturday night. This one got our hearts pumping a little more than the last two. The tremors started small, but then got much bigger...we actually felt the building sway versus just shake. The whole thing lasted a lot longer than what we had experienced with the previous two...about 30 seconds. I guess that doesn't sound like a long period of time, but in the midst of the experience it felt long. At the time of the quake, we were in a movie theater. I think being in a public place made the experience a little more intense for us as well (compared to last time when we were in our apartment).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8422472.stm

KENTING

This past weekend, Phil and I and another foreign English teacher (Karin) traveled down to the southern tip of Taiwan to an area known as Kenting. Two foreign English teachers that we met at orientation live down there. So, we all stayed with them. Their names are Andi (Andrea) and Peter. Ironically they’re both from Minnesota and both went to Concordia in Moorhead while we were at NDSU. It’s a small world!

We had an absolutely wonderful weekend! The weather was perfect and the scenery was gorgeous. We started off our day on Saturday by renting scooters and doing some scenic driving.

(Peter and Karin)

(Andi, Myself, Karin)

After our drive, we went to Kenting National Forest and went on a hike. Peter ended up seeing one of his first grade students (whose English name is Ben) at the start of our hiking trail. Ben decided he was going to be our tour guide. He led our group throughout our entire hike, telling us stories in Chinese (that we couldn’t understand) the whole way! :) This kid was so cute! He’d often clap his hands to get us to hurry up, he’d let out big sighs when we didn’t take the paths he wanted to take and there were times he’d turn around and count us to make sure we were all there. It was a fun hike with some beautiful scenery. Before we left Kenting National Forest, we made sure to treat ourselves and Ben to some ice cream!

After our hike, we spent some time at the beach! Not to rub it in or anything, but how’s the weather back home?!?! :)

We spent Saturday evening at a beautiful hot springs resort. We had never been to anything like it before! There were pools of all different temperatures, ranging from very cold to extremely hot. There were pools of all different scents, colors and jet activity. There were even pools of tea to sit in and pools with fish to eat all the dead skin off your feet. It was very fun and extremely relaxing!

We spent Saturday night doing some traditional Taiwanese barbecuing back at Andi and Peter’s place. This is similar to grilling in the States, but the grills are much smaller and it’s a much more time consuming process...it’s definitely meant to be more of a social thing versus simply just a way to cook some food. (In one of the pictures below you might notice a red scooter...this was Phil's pride and joy throughout the weekend!)

We spent all of our time in Kenting on Sunday at the beach. It was a gorgeous day for swimming and relaxing!

FIELD TRIP

Last Thursday (December 10^th) was “Field Trip Day” at Yunlin Elementary School. On this day, every student at my school went on a field trip. Each grade went to a different place. I’ve been told there’s one “Field Trip Day” during the first semester and one during the second semester. The places students went during this first semester were all fairly close to the school. I guess the field trips during second semester are all farther away from the school/Douliu.

I went with the fourth graders to the Yunlin County Police Bureau and to the university in Douliu. The most surprising part of this experience was the fact that the students walked to these places from the school. I guess I wasn’t expecting this to happen because of the crazy traffic here, the lack of sidewalks and the distance between the school and these places. It took the students about 45-60 minutes (each way) and many adults stopping traffic at the intersections, but everyone made it there and back safely.

I’ve included some pictures of the day below. The Yunlin County Police Bureau’s facilities are beautiful. I was told they have the biggest police facility in Taiwan...but not the biggest department...I’m not sure why this is! :) A big part of the day for the kids was being able to look at and touch the guns at the police department. All guns are banned in Taiwan for the average person (there’s no hunting here), so the kids were very intrigued by this. Of course, they had me dress up in all the police equipment for the kids before we left. :)