First week of teaching

Hi all,

I am excited to announce that I survived my first week of teaching. No one cried or died, and there was only one fist fight! I co-teach 18 classes a week with the most wonderful teacher Rita. The students and staff were very welcoming to me and I appreciate their kindness so much.

Great moments from the first week:

  • On the first day at Nang Wang I was introduced to the whole school. We did a sentence of the week which was "Hi Teacher Maddie! Nice to meet you. I'm ___." Then a school director spoke a bit about me and the students gasped and said "WOAH!" It turns out she told them that I can ride a scooter. That is the only appropriate reaction to hearing that I can ride a scooter from here on out.
  • There was a minor fist fight in 6th grade. 30 minutes later the two students walk into the teacher office holding hands ready to get their punishment. They had to write "I will be good in English class" all over a piece of paper.
  • I named two third graders Scott and Sally (shout out to my parents Scott and Sally), and unknowingly condemned them to a life of English mockery. Sally sounds too similar to "sorry," which will be a joke soon I am sure. For some reason the kids all thought that Scott was just a hilariously unpleasant name. I have no idea why, and neither do my Chinese speaking friends.
  • Great kid names: Dino, Essence, and Yo-yo

There are a million other hilarious things that happened at school this week, and I cannot wait to see what is in store for the rest of the year.

Other great moments:

  • For our culture event the Fulbright Taitung group reunited in Luye, Taitung to visit the Forest Museum. The big attraction is a "walking tree" that is basically one giant tree that shoots off a bunch of roots from its branches to keep growing outward. It was hard because the whole tour was in Chinese, but I still learned a lot about the community up there. We also ate wild boar and went on a hike through the mountain.
  • The school nurse at Nang Wang was deeply concerned about my weekend plans being empty so she took me around on Saturday. We went all over Taitung and it was so nice! She shared the Puyuma village she grew up in and other fun places in the county.
  • My parents favorite: A cashier at 7-11 called me beautiful. Which has actually been happening a lot (mostly students) and isn't a big deal, though appreciated. But then, after a great deal of guessing and miming she said "You look like Princess Snow White!" Yes, my paleness is a huge selling point here. Being pale is actually considered a beauty standard in Taiwan, and stores will sell lotions and other products with bleach in them. Fortunately I didn't have to adjust to meet the paleness standard at all!

Survival Chinese (taught to me by school director): meiwèi - Means "delicious"! I am always trying new foods here and it is important to compliment it!

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…

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!

Meet Your Destiny

We have officially finished our first week as Fulbrighters! In this time I have visited 9 schools, ground my own coffee, shot off a bamboo cannon, gone to a famous hot air balloon festival, and so much more.

The school visits were especially interesting because it was our first real glimpse into the Taitung culture and where we may spend most of our time this year. There are many aboriginal groups in the county, and most of the schools we visited were for aboriginal students. Preservation of the aboriginal culture is a priority in Taitung right now. The schools and facilities were beautiful, and four of the schools bribed us with ice cream/popsicles. Some even homemade which was quite impressive.

At two of the schools there were particularly memorable experiences. One of the very first schools we visited had the kids perform a dance they were working on. It was beyond impressive and special to see this piece of their culture.

The last school we visited was awesome because they had so many activities for us to share in. It is a custom to welcome guests with a bamboo cannon, and they even let some of us try. I was able to do it, which was fun, but I don't have a picture! Sorry mom! We were also able to grind up coffee beans that they grow nearby and make the only cup of black coffee I have ever liked.

It was a special treat that after this long day we were able to stay in Guanshan and go to their famous hot air balloon festival. I had seen pictures of it on Instagram before moving here so I was dying to go. It did not disappoint!

Finally, and most importantly, I started to learn how to drive a scooter. Scooters are probably the most popular form of transportation here, so it is critical to get licensed. I was honestly pretty nervous about this, but it is not that hard and it is a lot of fun.

This picture is actually a pretty good summation of my time in Taiwan thus far. Me, trying something new. Fellow ETA running behind to make sure I don't fall off. Vivi chasing after to take photos of the whole thing. Stray dogs and a small child in the distance, unconcerned by an oncoming scooter. And the sliver of mountain and sky in the corner, because I have not had quite enough time to fully appreciate how beautiful it is here yet.

Vivi, our Taitung coordinator, always says "Meet your destiny!" The extended version is "no matter how far you run or how hard you try, your destiny will find you!" I really enjoy this. To me it sort of means go with the flow, trust the process, everything will turn out for the best. So far this experience has been so fun and enjoyable, it really makes me feel like I met my destiny when I came to Taitung.

Bonus day in Taipei

The past 72 hours have been quite eventful! The flight schedule for me was:

San Diego > Los Angeles > Taipei > (change airports in Taipei) > Taitung

The further along in my travels, the more Fulbrighters I met. Everyone has been so friendly and nice! All travels were going quite smoothly until we arrived at our second airport in Taipei. We all boarded on a small plane to fly to Taitung, our future home, only to hear that the rain was so strong there we couldn't fly. After disembarking the plane we were told to get back on because the weather was clearing up. We all joked about how funny it would be if we had to get off again. Well it turns out that there was a typhoon going through Taitung, so we did have to get off the plane, and it was not funny. Fortunately the Fulbright staff in Taiwan is so wonderful that they took care of everything and decided that we would stay in Taipei for the night and try for Taitung again the next day. 

We stayed at the Look Hotel, which I would highly recommend to anyone visiting Taipei. The facility is lovely and right next to the Peace Park and National Taiwan Museum. After dropping off our bags and taking care of a few Fulbright errands, we were able to spend the time however we wanted. We went to a night market for dinner and drinks. A night market is basically an open air street market that (I think) can be open at any time.

In the morning we had a complimentary breakfast and then a few of us went to grab coffee and walk around the park next to our hotel. We are leaving for the airport soon and hoping for better luck this time! But I don't think any of us would be mad if we had to spend some more time in Taipei ;)

After a delayed flight we finally made it to Taitung and it has been wonderful. We will start workshops soon.

Pronunciation Update: Taitung is really spoken as "Taidong". This was a huge surprise.

Chinese word of the day: xièxie, which means "thank you". I am often confused, lost, and in need of assistance, so this word comes in handy. Next I need to learn how to apologize for being in the way, and how to say "please kill this cockroach"

Getting ready to leave!

Hi there friends and family, and welcome to my first blog post! 

I leave for my year teaching abroad in less than one week. Since graduating from ASU in May I have spent a nice amount of time at home with family and friends, interspersed with a few trips. I had a few goals for the summer: spend lots of time with family, seriously downsize my closet, take the GRE, relax, and pack well for my year abroad.

Packing took a surprising amount of time and consideration because I really only have one shot. 11 months worth of clothes and supplies needed to fit into a couple suitcases, so I was not about to blow it! I have never seen my dad more nervous than when he sat me down to discuss "the form versus function of footwear" for my trip. I would love to think that I am not that out of touch, but the man is pretty perceptive. Shoutout to Kendal for supporting my Birkenstocks transition.

Some summer photos

For my last few days in America I will be doing the usual: hanging out on the sofa, watching tv with the family, walking the dog, and oscillating between anxiety and excitement over the adventure ahead.