Christmas in Kaohsiung

Now that I've gone over my classroom activities, I can tell you about the "traditional" Christmas I managed to pull together in this land without any apparent Christmas tradition.

Every Christmas since I can remember, I have been in Berwyn with my family. We go to church on Christmas Eve at 11pm, where we sing Silent Night in candlelight. Christmas day, we wake up in the morning (or afternoon, in recent years) and open presents and stockings together under the tree. "We" of course is my mom, dad, brothers, usually grandmother, and more recently, Cressy, our high-school-days' foreign exchange student from China. Then we have an extended family Christmas dinner, either at my family's house, my grandmother's house, or my cousins' house nearby. We call family further away, and then occasionally my brothers will run off to a movie and maybe invite me along, too. Or we'll all fall into turkey-and-sugar coma and fall asleep.

I was more than a little bummed about being away from home for Christmas. Right after Thanksgiving, my roommates and I decorated our apartment with a small (fake-- duh) tree, lights, and even some stockings. We found all the Christmas movies we could get our hands on, but that's all we could do.

As Christmas came closer, though, it started to seem a little more real. I was angry about having to be here, I tried to pretend it wasn't Christmas, I got sad about it, and finally, I got over it. I managed to find an English-speaking (in fact, foreigner-run) candlelight service on Christmas Eve, with Silent Night and readings from Luke and everything. We ordered a turkey from a hotel nearby, and some Fulbrighters even made some homemade mashed potatoes. So those Fulbrighters around brought a dish, came to our apartment, had a Christmas dinner, and watched Christmas movies. After our guests left, my roommates and I exchanged presents under the tree. It wasn't home, but it was something.

My roommate Dan, carving the turkey:

Decorating gingerbread cookies, care of Nicki:

Christmas revelry. You can see our decorations in the background:

After the gift exchange. Vicky is "that kid" who has to wear every gift she receives...

After watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" over a dozen times last week, I finally had to learn my lesson...

Christmas Day is in our grasp,
So long as we have hands to clasp.

Katie 老師 and the mooncakes

So, I'm writing this at the end of my first two days of classes, my first two days being called "Katie 老師." Because I'm not yet familiar with the students' ability levels, how a class here should run, etc., Susan ran the class and then had time for 外國老師 introduction and open questions. For some classes this lasted a few minutes, but in most of the classes this took almost the full 40-minute period. As a 22-year-old, it's hard to believe how distanced I am from the major interests and preoccupations of elementary school kids. For example, I haven't really thought about my favorite colors, animals, sports, movies, moviestars, or foods in quite a while. Between that and cultural differences, I had to make up a good number of answers on the spot that were at least mildly true, and also understandable to students in their first, second, or third year of a rather infrequent, un-rigorous English program.

A lot of the questions were basic, but many were really strange, and I can't imagine an American elementary school student asking them. In both cases though, I had fun, and the kids had fun, and I hope they learned something. I should note-- Susan translated for them. If they knew how to ask all of these questions and understand the answers in English, I don't think they'd need me.

So, here are some fun examples from my two days of questioning...

First, what you'd expect from a kid.

• What is your favorite color? (green and orange)
  
• What do you like to eat? (牛肉麵 and pizza)
  
• What sport do you like best? (baseball)
  
• Do you have any brothers or sisters? (two older brothers)
  
• What's your favorite animal? Why? (I like fish because they are pretty and quiet)
  

Second, what a lot of people ask me here.

• Why did you want to come to Taiwan? (it is pretty, the people are friendly, I want to learn Chinese)
  
• What did you study in college? (linguistics)
  
• How do you like Taiwan? (I like it a lot)
  
• What do you want to do when you go home? (I don't know, maybe become 美國的總統)
  

Third... Are you trying to ask me out?

• What's your sign? (Scorpio for zodiac, Ox for Chinese calendar)
  
• Do you have a boyfriend? (yes, he is in America) ...and lots of follow-up
• Why aren't you married? (I am too young)
  
• Do you have children? (I am too young)
• Why are you so pretty? (thank you)... not throwing that in to boost my ego... they basically think anyone western-looking is beautiful/handsome.
  

Fourth... um, what?

• Why is your hair yellow? / Why are your eyes blue? (I was born that way, everybody looks different in America)
  
• What is your blood type? (O, I think)
  
• Does America have more trash than Taiwan? (Some places have trash, some don't)
  
• Do you come from a broken home? (My parents live together in Philadelphia, where the Phillies play!)
  

So, yeah. That was basically my first two days of class, meeting all of the students and having a Q+A with Katie 老師.

The fourth grade class was particularly endearing. One of the girls asked during the Q+A, "Does Katie like to eat 月餅?" Not really knowing what they were, I said yes. Later, during my last class of the day, a troop of 4th graders lined up outside and presented me one by one with mooncakes that they had made... somehow... in the hour since I'd seen them. So adorable.

Here is a picture of the ten mooncakes they gave me yesterday:

And a close-up of one:

Now, because the Moon Festival is coming up this weekend, everyone is exchanging mooncakes like there's no tomorrow. As far as I can tell, the Moon Festival is something like a Taiwanese Thanksgiving, in that you gather with family and eat a lot. My roommates and I have all accrued a massive amount of mooncakes. I'm happy to say that the little handmade mooncakes from my students are far superior to the expensive packaged ones given from school faculty... though maybe I'm biased.

To conclude, here is a picture of all the mooncakes in our apartment so far (most are still in fancy boxes). And just think... the Moon Festival isn't even until Sunday...

Addendum: I guess I should tell you what's in a mooncake. So far, we've had taro, red bean, egg yolk, some meat-flavored thing, and a good number of unidentifiable substances. We've heard that some have things like coffee, fruit, or chocolate inside. I guess we have until Sunday to find out for sure.