My new job

So, after more than a week of casual lunchtime conversation, guided small-group discussions, and real-live speed dating, we all finally sat down earlier this week and wrote some epic paragraphs about who we liked, disliked, and probably would be okay working with-- while the local English teachers sat in the next room doing the same thing. I was fortunate enough to get my first choice school! So for the next year, at least as of now, I'll be working at 復興國小 (their website is here, but don't bother visiting it unless you can read Chinese). The school is known for having especially strong baseball and badminton teams. Apparently the teams might even be in their own classes... if I'm lucky enough to teach them, I'm hoping that regaling them with my stories of Phillies games and being in Boston for the Red Sox wins will make them like me. Or at least make them listen a little bit?

Anyway, I'll be at Fu Xing teaching for 16 classes a week. It looks like my schedule will be teaching all of Monday and Thursday (about 8-4), a little bit on Tuesday afternoon, and a little bit on Wednesday morning. I'm spending Tuesday and Friday mornings working at the Fu Dong English Village, and there are no classes on Wednesday or Friday afternoons at primary schools here. I'll be working primarily with a teacher named Susan, but also some with a teacher named Amy. Both are very nice, fun people, and I'm looking forward to working with them! In fact, I know Susan reads my blog... Hi, Susan!

Here are some pictures I took at my school visit yesterday. There were students there because it was "preparation day," but they were only with their main teachers, not specials (English is a special subject) so I　didn't have anything to do but verify my schedule. Fun fact #1: elementary schools here don't really seem to have custodial staffs. Teachers and students work together and take turns to clean up the areas in and around their classrooms. Fun fact #2: the design/layout of schools here is very, very different from schools back home. If it's not evident in these pictures, I'll be sure to take more in the future.

Here are some pictures from the front of the school:





And a few from our classroom, pre-cleanup and decoration...


(We have a lot of work to do to make this an exciting place for kids to learn English...)

Finally, I'll end with a picture of my co-teachers and me, taken the day we found out we'd be working together. Susan left, Amy right.


This should be a great year, and I'm really excited to start teaching. I'll be going to a few meetings next week, but then I'll start teaching "full-time" on Monday, September 8th, after we get back from a Fulbright conference in Taipei. I'm happy to say, though, that orientation is finally over, and soon, the teaching will begin.

Wish me luck!

Orienting for you and me

I realized I haven't actually addressed a lot of the basic details of what I'm doing and what my life is like here yet. So how about we try that? I'll try to make things sound way more interesting and entertaining than they actually are, to make for better reading.

For the month of August, I'm in orientation. Orientation is basically serving to get us acquainted with the city, the education system in Taiwan/Kaohsiung, our fellow Fulbright ETAs, teaching English at the elementary school level, what our positions will entail, and the local English teachers with whom we'll be placed. So far we've covered all but the last one (arguably two) of these items. We're probably meeting with some of the local English teachers (heretofore referred to as LETs) starting next week, and once we meet them, we'll have a much better idea of what they expect from us.

So for the time being, I am in orientation from about 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. My weekends are totally open (save for the plans made by my very motivated peers), as are my nights. Once August ends, I have absolutely no idea what my schedule will be. We've heard that we'll be working anywhere from 20-35 hours a week at our various schools. I'll be working with a specific LET (to be selected through speed-dating-esque interviews next week) 3-4 days a week, working at an English Village on Wednesday afternoons, and hopefully sleeping at least 8 hours a night.

What's the English Village, you say? So glad you asked! There are various "English Villages" throughout Kaohsiung (in different elementary schools); they are basically micro-stores/malls/airports/banks/what-have-you. Every 5th grader in Kaohsiung goes to an English Village at least once a year to practice "every day English." At first I thought this kind of thing was a huge waste of money (whatever happened to writing 'POST OFFICE' on the board and going from there?), but after seeing the English Village at Ling Zhou Elementary School, I decided that having such elaborate "pretend" locations would be incredibly exciting and motivating for kids. I know that I'm looking forward to spending Wednesday afternoons playing the role of an emo barista, disgruntled postal worker, or inept bank clerk.

Because no blog post is complete without pictures, and because the English Village is really that impressive, I present you with these images from the Ling Zhou Elementary School English Village airport.

Fake flight schedule. Elaborate, eh?



Oh no! Billy lost his bags at baggage claim. Again!

In the fake airplane. I told you this was elaborate. (Shiela, Dan, Shana, me... pic courtesy of Shiela)

There's more to be seen and more to be told, but you'll have to wait until next time!

Welcome to Apartment C!

There are twelve Fulbright English teaching assistants (ETAs) in Kaohsiung this year. The twelve of us were randomly divided into three different four-bedroom apartments. We drew our room numbers from a bunch of pieces of paper on a tray. I drew room C-2.

And it was good.

Apartments A & B are just a few blocks away, in the same apartment building as each other, but Apartment C seems to be in a world of its own. We've had trouble putting a description of our apartment into words. Where apartments A and B are decently furnished with modest decorations, Apartment C was furnished to look like a combination of a beach house, college dorm room, and garage sale.

This can only be illustrated in pictures.

You walk into the door, and what greets you?

Observe: drying rack, odd fish/shells-glued-onto-mirror aquarium (complete with a coral sculpture), Hello Kitty bowling pin shrine. Also in the right bottom corner, you can see the head of our "guard dog," a random stuffed dog in our doorway.

Turn to the left, and you see the most out of place decoration:

Yes, that's a ~2ft light-up Santa Claus, holding a beer flag, underneath a carving/weaving of teddy bears. Um, what?

Continuing through the common room, you see our luggage and shoes corner, along with the closest thing to artwork we could find:

And a final shot of our actually very spacious, comfortable common room, showing off the interesting rug combinations, and my roommate Dani holding one of the pillows (note the lovely pillow covers...)


Now, I didn't want to barge into my roommates' rooms and photograph their dirty laundry, but trust me that theirs are equally hilarious. Vicky lives in a room with a Japanese-style tatami floor (see this link if you're not familiar) and a Hello Kitty closet; Dani has a pink flower chandelier, bright pink closets, and a lampshade consisting entirely of stickers; and Dan (the token guy) lives in a child's room with a small twin bed and miniature desk, and everything is decorated with Tweety Bird stickers. He's a basketball player, so watching him sit at the tiny desk is especially hilarious.

My bedroom is actually the most tasteful/stark of them all. The funniest part is the light, which is bright and surgical-like, and it takes about 15 seconds of serious blinking to turn on or off. Here's a quick snapshot of my room:


And finally, I'll finish the post with a few pictures of the view from my room. Look forward to more description of what's around in future posts... but for now, enjoy these shots in and around my new home!



So there you have it. Enjoy the pictures, leave some comments, and look forward to many more posts!