Hamburger Breakfast: A Dragon Boat Adventure

The past few weeks, many Kaohsiung Fulbrighters and I participated in the 端午節 festivities by forming our own 龍舟. We were competing in the foreigner division against the likes of full-of-giant-Germans 中山大學, the very European Wenzao University, and the International World Games team, to name a few.

Anyway, when I first heard about dragon boating back in the fall, and found out there was a drummer who kept the beat, I knew what I wanted to do. So as early as possible I "called" the role of 鼓手... after all, I have rhythm, and the boat wasn't really missing out by not having my rowing arms.

I can't speak for the rowers, but I had a fantastic time as drummer. The rowers were supposed to follow my beat, so I had to give them a steady and doable pace while also aiming to be competitive with the other boats. It was basically my job to bang a drum and scream. What could be more fun? Maybe the guy who got to sit on the front of the boat and grab the flag at the end, but then again, he almost fell into the not-so-sanitary Love River.

Our boat consisted of 20 rowers (half Fulbright, half Taiwanese friends), the drummer (me), a steerer/tiller (Chris, our Bureau of Education liaison), and a flag-grabber (Henry, a military worker at Ling Jhou English Village). We had a total of four practices that were about 45 minutes each before we raced, and as the practices were in the afternoon, we never got to practice with a full boat. So, we may have lost in the end, but I'm incredibly proud of our team. The first time we tried the full length of the course (500km), it took us over seven minutes. On our final race, we clocked in at 4:18. Not a technical victory, but a moral one. Plus, those Germans were huge.

Our team name was supposed to be something intimidating. We chose "Hamburger Breakfast." Why? Because Taiwanese people think that Americans eat hamburgers for every meal. So I frequently led the team in a motivational chant: What do we eat? HAMBURGERS When do we eat them? FOR BREAKFAST!

As I was actively drumming and screaming throughout practices and the competition, I couldn't take any pictures. But here are some pictures from Fulbrighter Shiela and Jo (from San Min English Village).

Warming up before practice:

An afternoon practice with a less-than-full boat:

Getting geared up for our first race, in uniform:

Rowing into place for our first race:

Maya got some great photos of our races here. Also check out her video:

Anyway, Hamburger Breakfast was certainly a positive experience. Drumming for the dragon boat was one of the most fun things I've done since coming to Taiwan, and I hope I get the opportunity to do it again someday.

I should include that our fantastic team t-shirts, courtesy of the design styles of Fulbrighter Gered, include our team name, all of our names, some great designs, and my suggested slogan of "Your Ass is Dragon." Ten points if you can name that literary reference :-)

My Big Break: A weekend to remember

At home, it is Memorial Day weekend. At home, people will get tomorrow off. At home, my high school friends are having their annual week(end) in Strathmere, New Jersey, and this is the first time in six years that I'm not there. It would be an easy time to feel homesick. But I haven't really had the time to think about it.

In Taiwan, we get next weekend as a long weekend (four days, in fact-- though does it really count, if you have to make one day up the following Saturday?). This weekend, the Fulbrighters and I were busy working from 9am-7pm on our Fulbright Kaohsiung project. The concept of our project changed (thanks to external forces) from an educational website to an educational DVD a few weeks ago. Since then, we've been scrambling to think of content, write scripts, and hire a film crew. So both days this weekend, we were at the Tai-Ping English Village filming our video (a great bonus of English Village is having your own private restaurant/airport/subway car for filming things).

It was pretty professionally done. The cameramen were concerned enough about noise that they wouldn't allow us to turn on fans or air conditioning in the small, windowless rooms where filming took place, and in late May in Kaohsiung (90+ degrees mid-day with high humidity), you can imagine how fun this was. But we pushed through it, we recorded all twelve scenes + vocabulary/grammar segments + self-introductions. Now it is in the hands of the film crew, until they give us back a version we can subtitle and approve.

So, it's not how I've normally spent my Memorial Day weekend, but it is certainly a weekend I'll remember. And if I ever forget, I can just watch the DVD. Someday, you might be lucky enough to see yours truly dancing the Hokey Pokey or playing the role of ambiguously-aged teacher Miss Cooper (the easiest to pronounce of my family names, and a tribute to the other [former] teacher in my family).

I only took a few photos, and they were all during the elaborate birthday party scene where I played 'girl who gave birthday boy a T-shirt and is also holding a camera.' I think it will give you an idea of what my weekend was like, though.

The camera crew:

Setting up our scene in the English Village restaurant:

Voila, a real-looking birthday party:

My head is still spinning from the craziness that has been the last few weeks, but I have a feeling things will stay rolling until I leave. Now, I should get to bed... our first dragon boat race is tomorrow!

Trip to Eastern Taiwan!

Sorry folks, I've been a little short on time lately thanks to (1) co-leading the Fulbright Kaohsiung project and (2) drumming for the Fulbright Dragon Boat team. More information on that is forthcoming.

So last weekend, the twelve members of my Fulbright group all went on a trip to eastern Taiwan. Our primary destination was Rueisuei, which is known for rafting and hot springs. We did both. So Friday afternoon we took two trains for 4.5 hours to get to Rueisuei.

The pretty train ride:

We got to the hotel and relaxed in the hot springs. What are hot springs? Basically a murky, unchlorinated, "natural" hot tub, and very popular throughout Taiwan. Sorry, no pictures. Then we tried to find a restaurant and settled on hot pot. I had milk hot pot, which was a first for me (though I later heard that milk is a specialty of Rueisuei). It mostly just tasted like fish.

Saturday morning, we were up bright and early to get driven to several mystery locations before finally ending up on the bank of a river with life vests and helmets, where we joined what appeared to be a high school or college graduation trip on a big rafting adventure. My proudest accomplishments from the day were not falling in and not getting sunburned. Long shorts, a hat, and SPF 55 sunscreen are my friends!

A man took our picture and sold it to us afterward. I'm the one in the back with the hat and sunglasses :

After a day of rafting, we took the train to Taidong/Taitung, a major city on the east coast (which is generally not very populated). We wandered the city, had a nice family-style dinner, and discovered there wasn't much else going on in Taidong on a Saturday night.

Sunday, we took a ferry to Green Island. Of all the places I've visited in Taiwan, I think Green Island was my favorite. We only had a few hours on the island, so we rented some cars and drove around to see the sights (the island is so small it takes 30 minutes to drive the whole thing-- and has one paved road, so no getting lost!).

Green Island is about a 40-minute ferry ride from Taidong. It is where they used to ship pro-independence political prisoners during martial law. We tried to drive around the old prisons, only to find out (after getting some dropped jaws from the guards at the gate) that one of the prisons is still quite active:

Some pictures of why I loved Green Island:

Then Sunday afternoon we rushed back to Taidong to get the 4pm train to Kaohsiung. There were no seats left. Oops. Fulbrighter Kate and I had a really comfortable ride on the little space between the last seat and the wall:

And the weekend was followed by one of my more exhausting weeks in Kaohsiung. But as I said, more on that later. I'll be home in less than six weeks... but I have so much left to do!

Rafting shoes + Friday pants + Taipei pedicure

This past weekend, I went rafting in eastern Taiwan. I don't have the time, energy, or group photos to write an appropriate blog post yet, so until then, you just get this picture.


Matching shorts, sandals, and pedicure courtesy of Taiwanese fashion.

Just don't tell my middle school self how much bright pink I've gotten into as an adult.

A trip to Danshui

Last weekend in Taipei, we found ourselves with a few empty hours between lunch and dinner plans. So we took the subway to the end of the (north/blue line) to Danshui, where we spent an hour wandering around this ocean/bay area that reminded me of boardwalks on the Jersey Shore.

First, we ate at the only Dunkin Donuts I've seen in Taiwan so far (so, the first Boston Creme donut I've had since July):

Walked along the boardwalk and played a carnival game:

Took a picture of the pretty water:

And rode the subway back downtown for dinner:

Not a very eventful trip, but a pleasant one nonetheless, and a nice place to visit if you're ever in the Taipei area.

Did you know there's a Hello Kitty Bakery and Restaurant?

Because there is. In Taipei. And I went there.

My Hello Kitty hamburger:

The Hello Kitty decor:
To quote Dani's friend Alex, "I feel like I just walked into an eight-year-old girl's bedroom."

Hello Kitty pastries:

Even a Hello Kitty Bathroom:

Oh, and Hello Kitty says "Happy Mother's Day!"

Laptop on the fritz...

My big blue Dell laptop may be on its last legs. At least, when I attempted to turn it on several dozen times (and only succeeded hours later on attempt#severaldozen+1), I began to realize that a new laptop might have to be in my very near future.

So, do any readers have advice on a new laptop purchase? Or a tragic story about a laptop crashing at just the wrong time?

This post also serves to tell you that I may be light on blog entries if my laptop doesn't turn back on next time. I do still have baby laptop, but I only have so much patience for typing and photo uploading on something that tiny.

Anyway, I'm off to 台北 for the weekend, but after that, I may be spending my free time on 建國二路, the technology hotspot of Kaohsiung, as I go from shop to shop trying to bargain in Chinese for a laptop I want and can actually afford.

Mother's Day Celebration...

...also known as the best "school day" ever.

When I found out I had to work on Saturday, I was less than excited about it. Those of you who know me know I like to sleep for 75% of my weekend hours. But the tradeoff was no school Monday, and Saturday wouldn't even be a full day of work. So, I woke up at 7am and was at school by 8:15, wondering what this special "Mother's Day" workday would entail.

First, there was a 90-minute assembly. A few classes from each grade performed a 台語 or 客家語 song and dance. As I don't understand either language, for me, this was mostly an exercise in smiling and nodding and taking pictures of the shiny costumes.

A sample:

A third grade class wears traditional Hakka clothing:

A sixth grade class ends the show with "We're going to Hawaii" in Taiwanese. Needless to say, the boys in grass skirts and coconut bras were a big hit:

The crowd looks on at a fourth grade performance:

After that, it was out to the carnival held in the school courtyard:

Each class had its own booth, where they sold food, drinks, or wares, or held a carnival game. Here I failed miserably at the very-difficult ring toss hosted by one of my classes:
Not pictured? Me successfully knocking the cans over at two different throw-a-thing-at-the-cans booths.

My fourth grade sports class chose to sell worms (that would later go into cocoons, that would later grow into moths). I tried to buy something/somehow participate at every booth, but this is one where I had to decline:

Some fifth grade students try to sell their products to Susan and me.

I was easily persuadable, but I made them use at least a little English to sell it to me, and promise to work hard in English class, before I handed over the money. As a result, I ended up with two popsicles, a Slurpee, a cell phone charm, two bottles of bubbles, a soda (with a marble stuck in the bottle?), french fries, some lollipops, and countless other small pieces of candy. I don't think I'd had that much sugar since I was in elementary school.

All in all, the chance to interact with my students as just young, fun people, instead of having to stand in front of them trying to tell them what to do in a language they don't understand, gave me a whole new dimension to them. And it wasn't bad for a day of work, either; in typical Taiwan fashion, working Saturday meant getting the day off today.