Jenny Lao Shur!

Those of you keeping up on your Weekly Mandarin already know that this entry is about teaching--specifically, my first day at my school! I'm going to be working with Sing-Sheng Elementary School in the lovely city of Yilan, co-teaching classes for 2nd, 3rd, and 6th graders with my partner teachers Hopkins and Angela. Everyone at the school is GREAT. All of the teachers and administrators, despite a sometimes wide language-gap, are unbelievably helpful. We're talking help switching apartments, walking me through my scooter purchasing and riding, help finding ballroom dancing classes in the neighborhood, and the suggestion that, really, the vegetarian lunch is much better than the meat.

And the kids run the gamut from precious to precocious in the not-so-good ways. Here are some of the best questions I heard during my self-introduction:

• Are you married?
• Are you rich?
• Is it fun to play in the snow?
• How big are the bugs in America?
• Are you pregnant? (Misinterpretation of the belly-rubbing gesture for "yummy")
  
• How old is your boyfriend? Is he rich? (By the way, sweetheart, they decided you were cool.)
  
• Do dogs in America listen to commands in English? (This is a sign of higher-level thinking, seriously)
  

One class started off by guessing I was 35 years old. No, I only feel that way after having 5 classes today.

Baby, I was born to ride

(Just for my wonderful Bruce fans at home in New Jersey)

But check this puppy out:What you can't tell from the other side of the Pacific Ocean is that the decal says "Fever" and my awesome helmet with the pink visor says "Sprot" instead of "sport." And the license plate is WUG.

I'll try to get some video of me driving my scooter. I must have spent a good hour on it today between school and running errands. And it is very fuel efficient! The bad thing is that the drivers here are pretty nuts. So left turns scare the living daylights out of me; so rather than turn left, I turn right at a stop light and turn around so I can go straight later. Maybe once I'm more comfortable with driving in general I'll do some real left turns by choice.

Of course, the day I get my scooter is the day the city starts tearing up streets to repave them. The new pavement is great, the gnawed up pavement-base is a nightmare. But don't worry, I drive fairly slow, always wear my "sprot" helmet and I have insurance.



I'm seriously considering trying to get a vespa back in the States:)

Vroooom Vrooooom

I have my first motor vehicle license! I can legally drive a 50 cc scooter in Taiwan! The scary thing is that all I needed to do was pass a test. I don't even know how to turn my blinkers on but I can drive legally. And to pass the exam, you needed to get an 85.... guess what score I got: 85! Fear not, I will wear a helmet.

Tomorrow I'll go to purchase my first motor vehicle--- and I am sincerely hoping for hot pink. It would make Brian feel extra special when he's forced to ride behind me on the seat during his visit. And it would make me feel extra special all the time.

Pictures to come!

What Used to Be the World's Tallest Building

This is Taipei 101. It used to be the tallest building in the world. The entire 5 bottom floors are filled with designer boutiques, mostly from Western fashion lines-- I now know where to find the Tiffany's in Taiwan if I'm in the market for some bling. But, more importantly, I found a shop on the map named Piaget. And I got to joke, with someone who understood, that it would sell developmentally appropriate toys... like water glasses that pour into each other, or things that temporarily hide. We thought it was funny and it proved that I am not alone.

In Taipei, we also...
... watched a super cool underground-esque Tap Dance show. It had tappers with an attitude from all across the world. My personal fav was "Summertime," that's right, from Porgy and Bess.
... stayed with a hostile hostel-er. He cursed. A lot. And made me stay up most of the night wondering if I would be slaughtered in my sleep. No, I was actually safe considering it would have been one against nine.
... ate superb American breakfast... complete with French toast.

Weekly Mandarin:4

4th Edition: Xie

Today was my first contact with real live Taiwanese students. To be honest, they were the winners of an English language speech contest, so they were about twice the proficiency of the average student, but they were awesome kids. Considering that today began sick, rainy, an-hour-and-a-half earlier than most days, and with a classroom lesson that was fairly rough around the edges, today was also awesome.

Why? Because we had a field trip to the Crab Museum! And I thought the day was going to get significantly worse when I was assigned two rambunctious boys from 4th grade as my charges for the field trip. They were bonkers during lunch, and definitely excitable during the guided tour of the Museum. But once we were self-guided with a few discussion questions (which I wrote, but got unfortunately formatted into something that looked like a classroom worksheet), the little guys were sponges of information. They had the most amazing observational skills and I almost burst into tears of joy when the one guy said "Teacher! Teacher! This one is missing a leg," and then continued to synthesize information from the guided tour about how crabs can regenerate limbs.

And that is why this week's word is "xie," meaning crab. Now, put on your critical thinking skills and figure out how to say "crab meat." You'll earn points for your team. I promise. Or a sticker.

Weekly Mandarin: 3

Edition 3: Ji-ro

This week my friend Kate and I had a big milestone: We ordered dinner for ourselves. This wouldn't be impressive except for the fact that neither of us had ever used any Chinese until we arrived here in Taiwan. And I'm picky and she's a vegetarian. But one night this week, instead of relying on someone else to translate for us, we decided to go out to dinner with our trusty Chinese dictionary.

Yes, there were pictures, but there were only generic pictures for the page, not for each dish. And, ok, we only pointed to the part of the menu where it said the name of the dish. But let me tell you, that meal tasted fantastic because it was hard-earned.

So my word of the week is "ji-ro." It directly translates to "chicken meat," since "ro" is the ending added to any animal to indicate that you're going to eat its meat, rather than requesting it as a pet. And I can even independently recognize its characters on menus without checking my dictionary.

The Next Step in Transportation

Grab your helmet and stay off the roads-- I'm learning how to drive a scooter. Unfortunately, I've finally moved somewhere that public transportation isn't amazing, so I have to upgrade my personal modes of transportation quickly. Apparently 42 of the past 42 English Teaching Assistants have purchased and rode scooters and it is very clear, looking at the streets of Yilan, Luodong, and even Taipei that scootering is the preferred mode of transportation. What isn't clear is how people manage not to kill themselves: all of the laws seem "flexible," at best, including which side of the street to drive on or red lights. I guess you just have to be very very aware of others around you.

With their pretty good gas mileage and relatively low maintenance, I may even work on getting a scooter in the States... assuming I can eventually stay on top, turn, and remember which hand is the brake. Don't worry, Vi, I always wear my helmet even when I'm only practicing.

The scooter driving test includes a test for driving slowly, but balanced, stopping at railroad crossings, and a written exam. We'll be taking it at the end of the month, so I'll just have to keep working on the scootering until then:)

Sepat

It's official. The part of the typhoon that freaks me out the most is when the super wind gets into a crevice and makes a sound like a woman screaming her head off.

Despite several false-alarms related to typhoons since we got here, Super Typhoon Sepat is going for it. The rice paddies are flooding outside my window and there is no. way. in. hell. I'll go out today. I can't get any pictures that really convey the spirit of the typhoon, since so much of it is being experienced by the sounds, like that our porch door just might fly open any minute.

"It's not a typhoon, it's a super typhoon"

That's right. We've got another typhoon coming. And it's higher than the highest possible danger rating. For a good chuckle, take a look at this map:)

Current estimates are for the storm to hit us on Sunday early morning, but I'll keep you posted.

First Museum in Taiwan

I realized that I hadn't posted about my first, and so far only, Taiwanese Museum. As a part of our "scavenger hunt" project, we were sent to visit the Taiwan Theater Museum, located right in the heart of Yilan. It is the only Museum that celebrates the art of Taiwanese Opera Theater. Unfortunately, there wasn't much English interpretation available, but the Museum was still a lot of fun and very interesting. It had several stamping stations with images from theater, lots of costumes, and even a place where visitors could try on costumes and act on a stage (the picture here is of Casey, who had her ID available for collateral). There was also a huge puppet that had been made during a school program, which was awesome, but my pictures aren't great. We didn't meet any English-speaking Museum staff, but I might do some digging to see if I can find out more! This Museum is one of 30 in Yilan county which are partnered... my goal for the 11 months I'm here is to visit all of these local museums, as well as some of the more famous national museums. I'll keep you posted:)

Bike Riding

It's the end of an era, folks: I bought a bike yesterday and practiced for 2 hours this morning.

I can now ride for several minutes at a time. I can do straight lines and turns (though I'm not partial to lefthand turns) and I can bike hills. Now I'll just have to learn how to ride in traffic... and how to scooter... and how to drive. But hey, it's progress!

I'll upload a picture as soon as I get my roommate to take a picture of me on my bike.

My bike is bright purple and I'm open to suggestions, but currently favoring "Purple People Eater..." though there have been no pedestrian fatalities so far.

Weekly Mandarin: 1 and 2

I've been delinquent on a section I promised Brian I would post: a weekly bit of Mandarin that I've picked up. Hopefully, I'll start to absorb some more language soon. But here are the first two editions of your Weekly Mandarin. Enjoy.

Edition 1: Ba Ba
As most of you probably know, correct Mandarin pronunciation includes tones as well as consonant and vowel sounds. Tones allow for an individual syllable to have multiple meanings, similar to the homophones of English. I'll save all of you from the tones in my Mandarin updates and will be writing in my own Jenny-Wei-pinyin, so you may want to look them up before using them on anyone:)

One example of this is the syllable "ba," which means "8", or "pa" can mean "dad," though "ba-ba" ("papa") is more common. Because of this similarity, August 8 (8/8) is considered Father's Day here! So, happy belated Taiwanese Father's Day!

Edition 2: Wo shur lao shuh.
You can imagine that I stick out pretty well here. I'm just not Asian enough to blend in. So sometimes, I'll walk into a store, and before I even open my mouth to show that I have no grasp on Mandarin, the shopkeeper will be looking at me and very clearly thinking "what the heck is this white girl doing in my country--let alone my store?!" The sentence "Wo shur lao shuh," meaning "I am a teacher," has explained it all to the folks I meet. People I've met here are familiar with the idea of foreigners coming to teach English, and are extra friendly once that's explained. I also bet my pronunciation is so bad that they know not to continue speaking Mandarin to me:)

Trash Talk and the Typhoon

I know, I know, you at home are thinking “how can she go on all these adventures if she spends so much time writing in her blog.” But I end up writing most of this at night when I've got some quiet time to think back. And, for my biggest fans-- fear not, we're supposed to have internet on Wednesday! One thing that is just amazing about Taiwan, if a bit hard to get accustomed to, is the recycling program. We got a gigantic chart today with twenty different types of materials that are recycled. I am really impressed with how complete the program is and how thoughtfully it seems to have been developed; for example, the food wastes are distributed to pig farmers to feed to pigs or composted, separate from other types of biodegradable materials. It's fascinating! I seriously wonder how a program this comprehensive came into existence and is followed. Apparently the workers who collect the materials are good at explaining the system and check bags to make sure the proper things are being recycled. On the other hand, las cucarachas are something I could do without. The house Michelle and I had been staying at didn't have roaches, but our brand new apartment does. I suppose that's why the trash people come by almost everyday. The tropics. PS-- Typhoon predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, if you are interested in checking up on me, I'm 45 minutes inland, on the North Eastern bit of the Island (Ilan, I-Lan, or Yilan). I'll keep you posted or feel free to check out www.weatherunderground.com and plug in Yilan, Taiwan.

Contact address

Three blog postings today, sorry all, but here's some new info:

Please send any mail to:
Jenny Wei
c/o Foundation for Scholarly Exchange
No. 36, Sec 1, Minchiuan Rd
I-Lan City, I-Lan County 260
TAIWAN

Bike Riding and the Night Market

As some of you out there may know, I never learned how to ride a bike, let alone drive a car. But here in Yilan, scooters or bikes are the way to go. So my roommate Michelle took me outside to learn how to ride.

While wobbling outside on a bike WAY too big for me, some of the neighbors came by. The little boy spoke English (told us that he was going swimming!), but his family spoke Chinese to Michelle. And they offered to lend us a bike that would fit me better. So we did, after they made a big fuss over pumping it with fresh air. Then another neighbor came out with tips, and spoke to us in passable English about his trip to Washington, DC. And a bottle of ice water which we could not refuse. AND THEN out comes a little grandma, who insisted on lending us her bike, which was even smaller and more my size. It was so sweet. And by the end, I could sometimes go up to 4 pedals in a row before falling off. I'll keep you posted on more progress.




We also went to fabulous Hot Pot dinner last night (all you can eat, self-selected, self-cooked dinner) which was fabulous, and visited the local night market. There was so much activity at the Night Market, which was interesting because besides stalls, it also had several arcades for little kids. And here's a little guy catching turtles at the Night Market. They were for pets, not for snacks;)

Delayed Blog

We don't have internet yet in our houses, so here's a blog I wrote over the weekend:

Things are going fairly well here! My roommate and I are staying a few days at the house of one of the local English teachers, so we haven't been able to settle into our real apartment yet. I still feel in limbo and it's making me a bit edgy. I'm also craving a map which “we'll get later in the week,” but I'm considering subversively finding one myself-- right now we're at the mercy of those willing to drive us places.

In other news, I'm getting adventurous with food (well, adventurous for me). The biggest trouble is not being able to order for ourselves-- we've been supplied basically all of our meals, and I think our hosts are ordering the best of what our seaside region has to offer. Unfortunately, I didn't step out of the plane with a sudden fondness for fish, but I'm trying many of the dishes anyway.

The weather hasn't changed much, but I'm getting used to it. I don't particularly notice that I'm dripping sweat all the time. To prevent dehydration, I drank over 4 Liters of water yesterday, which causes its own problems...

It seemed like everyone I spoke to about going to the Far East had something to say about the toilets:
“Bring your own toilet paper-- pull out the cardboard core to pack more”
“Use the handicapped stalls, they'll have Western style toilets”
“Strap your backpack across the front of you for stability”
“Only one rule: ALWAYS carry your own toilet paper”
I haven't had much time to explore the porcelain of the region yet, but it's all fairly livable. The creepiest thing is having to put used tissue in a trash can, rather than flushing it. Oh, and here's a picture of my first squatter. Thanks for the advice, my friends!

Arrival- Taipei for a Day

I'm in Taipei!

I survived the incredibly long airplane ride on a crummy air carrier-- China Airlines. Apparently, they have so many crashes that if they have another, they'll be discontinued. I'm glad I found that out after riding;) The flight was smooth, except for the bad food (yes, China airlines served seafood paella), unopenable carry-on luggage compartments, and the awful movies shown on the communal movie screen. You get what you pay for and this trip was free for me.

In any case, it got me here, to the slightly overwhelming Taiwan. We met with almost all of the other Fulbrighters here, and the staff from the office. The male-to-female ratio (3 to 9) reminds me of grad school with our token male, Ranald, among 16 women. I guess I should get used to that if I'm planning to stay in the field of education.

The weather here is hot. And humid. As one person describes it, "you will just never feel dry." And it seems true! Hopefully I'll get acclimated.

And I am entirely overwhelmed with the language barrier. About half our group has no Chinese language experience, but I feel entirely at the mercy of our Foundation staff members who do speak and those Fulbrighters who can speak. I can't tell the tones in the different words apart, let alone read the characters.

This has all led to the potential for me to not even be able to pronounce my own Chinese name. Apparently, the character my grandfather has used for our family name is not used in Taiwan, so people would think I'm nuts. But they won't let me not use "Wei" in some way (haha) since it would seem like I'm not proud to be part Chinese. And I had been going to use my grandmother's name, but it looks like that got thrown out the window for a Chinese version of my first name. So the end result sounds like "way tchi-nee." And has something to do with a historic area of China and gold.

On one final note, I'm having technical difficulties getting my browser to display things in English, so any adivce on those lines would be welcome. I've got lots of little boxes, rather than text in buttons or hyperlinks. So it's kind of a guessing game. My computer seems to be trying to speak Chinese with me. I'm glad at least that the characters come up only as boxes-- you can probably tell that I'm finding the characters intimidating and I just might not be able to tolerate such behavior from my lifeline to the States.