The Busiest Two Weeks
Hello my loyal readers (mom, dad, and jojo, particularly)!
The past two weeks of orientation have been some of the most busy, exhausting, trying, fun, and exciting in my life. My time has been absolutely consumed with workshops (aka how to teach sessions), scooter practice, school visits, and trying to explore Taitung. Most of our free time was spent studying for the scooter test, which is fortunately now over! On Thursday all of the ETAs received their school and apartment placements, which marks a new chapter in our Fulbright time already. Since these past two weeks have clearly been jam-packed, I will give you the highlight reel.
Birthday
It was my birthday on August 9th! I turned the very important age of 22. This year it also happened to be the date for Chinese Valentine's Day. You can read more about that here; it is sort of a mix of Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, and an immortal Ox. I wasn't looking forward to my birthday this year because I had only known the other Fulbrighters about a week, and I was worried it would just be awkward. However, everyone was so wonderful and nice... I should have known! After a full day of school visits and scooter practice, my new friends asked what I wanted to do for dinner. When I said "pizza and beer" they went all in and we had ourselves a little homepa. Homepa is slang for house party here. I'm learning so much Chinese.
Scooter Test
Ahhh the scooter. My greatest love and worst enemy. In 2011, there were a registered 15 million scooters in Taiwan, which is nearly enough for 2/3 of the ~23 million people. I'm sure that number has only gone up in time, as scootering is such a wildly popular form of transportation here. Those of you who know me, know that I am not a good driver. But I also try really hard at whatever I do. Thus began my great scooter struggle and eventual triumph.
To get a license you must pass both a written and a driving test. The written test involved mainly memorizing a lot of questions with questionable translations. It was interesting to see the difference between the driving culture in the U.S. and Taiwan. Here there is more emphasis on helping other drivers if they are injured, and the responsibility of everyone to keep the roads safe and help the environment. At the same time, however, if you cause an accident in which less than 14 people are injured then it is not considered a major accident. Important to know!
The driving test is a serious challenge. They made it exponentially more difficult, starting in JUNE of THIS YEAR. Great. It involves a lot of turns, driving slowly in a straight line, and other things that seemed impossible at first. Fortunately, we had some great teachers and a lot of time to practice and I eventually passed BOTH parts of the scooter exam. I was so nervous because you really need a scooter to live well here, and the pressure was pretty high. I wouldn't say that I am out tearing up the streets of Taitung now, but I definitely still practice and have the need for speed.
The DMV
Yes, the DMV gets its own section. The partnership between Fulbright and the DMV is one that I was not expecting. They helped us "foreigners" by letting us practice on the course after-hours and on weekends. Also I think we got to work around some rules regarding the required amount of time for practicing? The whole thing was unclear, but I was definitely not fighting it. The partnership was so important that we ended up in the newspaper.
On the day of our scooter test the two biggest newspapers in Taitung showed up. It was hilarious and distracting. The reporters wanted to interview us, but at the same time they were "too shy" to talk to us. They took a lot of photos and videos, and I will try my best to find the article when it ends up in the newspaper. In particular I really want to see the photos they took of us in the computer testing room holding up aggressive peace signs and thumbs up - and my personal favorite - when they asked 10 of us to jump and smile. Only in Taiwan.
School Placements
We visited ~25 schools across Taitung county. Most ETAs are placed at a pair of schools, and 5 are placed at one school. This is because generally schools are small enough that they share a LET (Local English Teacher) and ETA. Every ETA filled out a preference form in which we ranked schools from most to least preferred. The decision is then revealed in a ceremony with all of the ETAs and many school representatives. Schools are grouped into three location categories: Taitung City, Zhiben, and Guanshan. Zhiben and Guanshan are beautiful, but farther away from the city center. There are trade-offs for every school and location, but generally the schools were welcoming, beautiful, and probably would be a pleasure to teach at. I was hoping for schools in Taitung City.
I am very excited and fortunate that I received my first choice school pairing!!! These schools both had such welcoming environments and programs that are very interesting. We actually met the schools' LET briefly and she seems so nice... I am very excited to work with her. I will also be living in Ren Ba, the apartment I was living in for orientation, with my friends Britanny, Adelina, and James! It's going to be a great year :)
Fun Fact: On the $500 bill here there is a picture of kids playing baseball. It is a common joke that you will tell people "I am working hard for my kids" - which really means you are working hard for the money. The kids on the $500 went to Nan Wang elementary!
Thanks for reading, friends :) I'll leave you with some pictures of random things I have been up to the past two weeks. Love y'all!
