Farewells

It's currently Saturday-turning-Sunday. I'm leaving Kaohsiung early Wednesday. I lose my internet sometime between now and then.

I know I have many unblogged stories. Those things that I said I'd blog about back in September, well, I still remember them.

And the month of July, when I'll be sitting on my couch waiting for my employed friends to get off work, will be a perfect time to write those blog entries.

For now, though, unless I get simultaneously creative and bored of packing, don't expect any new entries. Never fear, though. I will probably continue writing about this Taiwan experience for as long as there are new and interesting things to write, so this blog is far from over.


Goodbye and thanks, Fulbright. Taiwan, you've truly touched my heart. Kaohsiung, well, I think I'll miss you most of all.

A nice card

I'm down to nine days left in Taiwan, so the goodbyes and thankyous are starting to happen. It's a rough time. I made a card for each of my 350-some students, and today I received a very nice card from a fifth grader named Vicky. It's all in English, which is no small feat. I hope you'll appreciate it as much as I did:

Katie teachers: a year to get along with you, we are very happy! Unfortunately, you want back to the United States, and if you are free to come back to see us oh! Something we all look forward to you coming back! I will often send mail to you the! I wish you happiness, youthful beauty, the right to marry as soon as possible! Married to tell us oh!

2009.6.22.
5-year
Vicky

These kids will be very hard to leave. But hopefully, someday, I will get to come back to see them.

Graduation!

In Taiwan, elementary schools run K-6. Even though most kids continue to the same junior high school (grades 7-9), graduation is a relatively big to-do. While I do remember having an 8th grade graduation, I do not remember having a 4th grade graduation... and I don't remember shedding tears about either situation.

I wasn't able to attend Fu Xing's graduation ceremony, as it was held on Tuesday morning when I had to work at Tai Ping's English Village. I don't teach any 6th grade classes anyway, so at least I didn't miss out on any serious goodbyes. Instead, though, I went to see my host brother Kevin graduate from his elementary school on Wednesday evening. I sat in the back corner, so my pictures aren't great quality, but it should be enough to give you a sample.

The graduates (10+ classes of 6th graders-- Yang Ming is one of the biggest schools in Kaohsiung) process in...
The teachers put on a dance performance. Fulbrighter Rebekah, a Yang Ming English teacher, danced in the middle:
Representative students symbolically and literally "pass the torch" to some fifth graders:
I did manage to sneak to the front to get a picture of Kevin with his class (he's the one smiling and looking at the camera):

At one point, a younger student started talking to Rebekah and me. She had her pet pigeon with her. Not really related, just amusing:

I caught up with Kevin afterward and we got a picture. I'm leaning over a little, which is why he looks so much taller than me... but yes, this kid has grown at least five inches since I met him in September!

Kevin exits through the ceremonial graduate gateway... as Rebekah is a "retiring" teacher of sorts, she got this honor as well. I should note that she does not always have heavy makeup and hair glitter, but was made up like that for her dance performance:

After the graduation, I took Kevin out for a nice sushi dinner to celebrate his graduation. (See the rotating sushi restaurant chain described in my last post.)

Some fun facts

I was going to take some of my own recordings of this stuff, but why do that when someone else has?

Fact #1: Crossing the street in Taiwan is way more fun than it is in the US.


Fact #2: If you hear a singing truck, it is not ice cream. In fact, it is trash. And if you don't live in an apartment building where trash is centrally collected (which I do), you are expected to run out and meet it with your properly-sorted garbage.


Fact #3: In Taiwan, I have come to like... or love... sashimi. Contrary to most of my food habits and principles relating to fish, I can't get enough of that raw fish on rice stuff. Fortunately for me, there's a chain of rotating sushi restaurants all around Taiwan where you can get a plate of sushi for 1 USD. So, eating until you're absolutely full costs up to $7. Fantastic.
Remember: not my video. Not my commentary. But it is from the same chain where I eat regularly.

Monkeys and home theater

So, the English textbooks used in Taiwanese elementary schools are, across the board, weird. "Hello, Darbie," the book we use for my fifth graders, is overall pretty good. Except that I just had to teach and explain this story to my students:

1. Tarzan is going to the bank.
2. He sees many monkeys, lions and elephants on his way.
3. Now he has some money. He is going to the department store.
4. The TV and the CD player are on sale. They are only one hundred dollars.
5. Ten monkeys are helping him.
6. Now he has a home theater. All the animals can see the movies with him.

I don't know about you, but this is certainly one of the first things I hope to learn when studying a foreign language.

Note: I didn't know how to say "home theater" in Chinese until today.

A strange encounter

Today I convinced Dani to try shopping at my new favorite store, 光南. I've been raving about how this multi-floor store seems to sell everything, from shampoo to socks to digital cameras to DVDs to stationery to greeting cards to hair things to cell phone ornaments. Anyway. Dani and I approached the store around 3:30 to find that it was packed. Passing this off as just a Sunday shopping craze, we forced our way into the store.

As we were stuck in what seemed to be a line up to the second floor, we saw a lot of people coming down with the same CD in their hands. On the stairway, someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was my fifth grade student Charlie. We said hello, high-fived, and then I asked him why there were so many people. He said, "有明星." I asked who. He said, "潘瑋柏." The name didn't ring a bell, so we soon said goodbye to Charlie and pushed past the autograph/celebrity madness on the second floor. It wasn't until later when I saw a poster and recognized the music playing that I realized, 潘瑋柏 is a guy named Wilber Pan. Who's Wilber Pan? A Taiwanese popstar, rapper, soap star, and/or musician. Oddly enough, of the three Chinese-language pop CDs that I own, Wilber Pan is one of them. (The others are Jay Chou and Liang Jingru, or "Fish Leong"-- all recommended to me by a teenager in China in 2006.)

So anyway, the guy was only there for fifteen minutes to sign autographs, and Dani and I only bothered to catch a glimpse of him from across a crowded room. But I suppose this counts as my closest encounter with a famous Taiwanese person. That, and attending the same reception as Taiwan president Ma Yingjeou on 10/10.

PS: Turns out the guy is American-born and can't read or write Chinese. Perhaps he would've liked chatting with an English speaker who had actually heard of him. Next time...

The things you can buy for 一百塊

When I am at a night market, particularly 新崛江 in Kaohsiung, I am rarely looking for anything specific. (Though "funny t-shirts" is a permanent item on my shopping list.) However I often come home with at least a few items. But... I'm so cheap! And my salary is so nonexistent! How can I afford such behavior?? Here's your answer: almost everything I buy costs one hundred Taiwan dollars, roughly equivalent to US $3 (give or take a quarter, depending on the exchange rate).

So, the question is... What can you buy for 100 dollars?

Answer: Ridiculous handbags.

Answer: Colorful hats.
(...that you can make your boyfriend wear!)

Answer: Graphic T-shirts with bad English.

Answer: Multiple face masks to protect you from SARS, swine flu, or industrialized air.
Answer: Cloth or (p)leather belts of any color.

Answer: These sunglasses, or any of the others that I've purchased since I got to Taiwan.

Answer: This watch, or many others like it.

Answer: A USB-powered keyboard vaccuum cleaner?

So this, my friends, is how things like fanny packs, orange t-shirts, and neon pink hats happen. Remember this when you see me (and what I'm wearing) back home.

PS: Let this also be a catalogue for you of the many souvenirs I could bring back for you from Taiwan. Because with my salary, I can't afford much more. If you don't believe me, you can look in my neon rainbow-zippered wallet.