September Adventures
September has absolutely flown by. After a month (or two) of working at it, I finally feel like I am getting the hang of things. Teaching, scooter driving, navigating, eating, understanding minuscule amounts of Chinese... you name it! I've gone on a lot of adventures so I thought I would share them with you.
Orientation Weekend
Every Fulbright program is a little different in how they train their ETAs. In Taiwan we spend a month in our specific counties training, and then after a week of teaching go to Taipei for an orientation weekend. We had some lectures and trainings, but mostly it was about meeting other Fulbrighters, government officials, and staff. We met people from the American Institute in Taiwan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which helped us to learn more about Taiwan itself from a governmental perspective. Fulbright even gave us the option to stay an extra day if we wanted to explore the city a bit more.
Mid-Autumn Festival / Moon Festival
The highly anticipated 4-day weekend (turned into a 5-day weekend because of a typhoon) happened on September 15-18. This fall celebration includes eating mooncakes, making pomelo hats, and gathering with friends and family to have a BBQ. The Fulbright crew got together for a BBQ at one of the apartments we live in in Taitung City. Our coordinator Vivi made sure that we all got pomelo hats to wear, which I was thrilled about. Apparently it is "good for your hair" - but I think people just say that so you will wear a fruit rind on your head for hours on end.
Daylily Mountain
Throughout most of the mid-autumn festival we had to stay inside because of poor weather. Even after the typhoon left and the rain subsided, roads weren't the best. I was thrilled that on Sunday I was able to persuade Jordan to head over to Zhiben to see the famous daylilies with me. They bloom mostly in late August through September - so I didn't want to miss it! The ride there was stressful (13km up and down the side of a mountain via scooter), but the view was worth it!
9/21 Earthquake Preparedness Day
September is basically Earthquake awareness month in Taiwan. Earthquake safety was a weekly assembly theme this month at Nang Wang. At both schools, they spent the days leading up to 9/21 having earthquake drill practice. They were effectively preparing for preparedness day. On September 21, 1999 there was a huge earthquake in Taiwan that injured and killed thousands of people. It made people homeless, shifted the political landscape at the time, and caused over $10 billion USD in damages. This prompted the government to improve training in earthquake safety and is still practiced today.
Typhoons
In the past 2 weeks we have had 3 typhoons come through Taiwan. Meranti, Malakas, and Megi. Some impacted Taitung more than others. We had a "typhoon day" -which means no school - on the Wednesday before mid-autumn festival, and two typhoon days for Megi happening right now. Living in San Diego and Phoenix my whole life, I was ill-prepared for a typhoon, but it really wasn't too bad. You just have to stay inside and prepare some food in advance. Fortunately, Taitung was not hit too badly by any of these typhoons, unlike Nepartak from July.
Other Pictures
Thanks for reading friends! I am doing very well over here and I hope you're doing very well wherever you are! Much love <3