A new semester begins

Well, I'm back from Poland, mostly recovered from jet lag, working full-time again, and I have a giant pile of laundry waiting for me. So, what better time to do a blog update?

Before I start to fill you in on all my Krakow goings-on, I want to do one post on the last day of the first semester.

On the last day of the semester, I attended my first all-school assembly. Every student and teacher gathered in the gym/auditorium on the top floor of the school. Here, the principal gave out awards to various groups for their accomplishments throughout the semester. And many groups performed.

An aboriginal song and dance group; they won an award at a citywide competition. These are a handful of the aboriginal students at Fu Xing, most of whom are on the school's baseball team. The baseball players are pretty much the "coolest" kids in school, so you can understand why they're a little less enthusiastic to perform in costume at an all-school assembly:



Also, a group of Tae kwon do students:

Along with these groups were my Reader's Theater and Storytelling teams, a little flute ensemble, and some extracurricular groups I didn't even know existed.

The last (and longest) part of the assembly was one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed in any school, anywhere. A Taiwanese (language) teacher at the school was retiring. The principal and directors all said something about him. And then, one by one, class by class, every student in the school lined up to give him a card they had made and shake his hand (or hug him, or, as the last class chose to do, pick him up and carry him across the stage). There was, of course, sappy music playing in the background the whole time.

(you can see the retiree, center-stage, in blue.)

And thus ended my first semester at Fu Xing. After almost a month has gone by since the last day (19 January), it seems like kind of a dream now. What exactly did I do? Did anything even happen? It's a good thing I took pictures. But I'm determined to work even harder this semester, and truly make the most of my time left in Taiwan.

Happy Birthday, Madeline!

I know you've all been yearning for a Krakow update, but between my schedule and the slow internet, I haven't had time for one. But you'll see lots of pictures of my Krakowian adventures soon, I promise!

In the meantime, it's my cousin Maddie's 11th birthday. Happy birthday from Krakow, Maddie!

A picture of a Krakow staple:

A modified Zywiec label. Wearing traditional Polish clothing: left, my cousin Madeline; right, "High School Musical" star Zac Efron. (Not sure if he's the current heartthrob, but that's what the internet tells me...)

Happy Lunar New Year!

I am of course in a land of few-to-no Asian people, but I must remember it's lunar "Chinese" new year.

I may not be in Taiwan to partake of the holiday, but here are some photos from when I went New Year shopping with my host family. And I thought Christmas shopping at the King of Prussia Mall was crowded...



Shopping for Chinese New Year, as I learned, is not shopping for presents or even really decorations, but it's shopping for little snacks and other food items. I brought some with me to Krakow, and I'll certainly have some in celebration tonight. Too bad I won't see any fireworks...

Intro to Krakow

My flight landed in Krakow yesterday morning. After being yelled at a lot in the Munich airport (apparently I look very German), and getting that precious E.U. stamp in my passport, I got on that final flight to Krakow. Twenty hours of flying, four in-flight meals, one new friend (an old Taiwanese woman who got her PhD in machine translation in Germany), and several miles of airport later, I arrived in Krakow.

As I headed from Munich to Krakow, I saw the sunrise.



And when I landed, it was snowing. How much have I missed snow, and being cold in general? A lot.

When I arrived in Krakow and met Jonathan, I realized why he'd been afraid to go out and explore the city much since he got here (four days ago). Unlike in Taiwan, we look enough like we live here and speak the language (which we don't). So, on the walk from the train station to the apartment, I took out my camera and started taking pictures of everything. This was half because I found everything beautiful and wanted to capture it, and half because I wanted to confirm to all who might be wondering that we are (non-Polish-speaking) tourists.

The pictures I took were largely blurry and low-quality because I was literally waving the camera around to take them, but here's a good preview of the beautiful city where I'm spending my winter vacation:

Oh, and Jonathan was happy to see me. Yay.

I spent my second day in Krakow inside, icing the muscle spasm I earned from walking through miles of airport with a heavy backpack, catching up on sleep, and reading, as I waited for Jonathan to get back from lab. But now he's back, and we're headed out to brave another dinner where the waitress will inevitably address us in Polish. More updates to come!

'Tis the Season...

... for holidays! Finally, winter break in Taiwan has come. And I'm leaving for Kaohsiung International Airport within the hour. Kaohsiung to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Munich, Munich to Krakow. See you on yet another side of the world!

Also, since it's finally the holiday season here, check your mailboxes. For those who didn't get their addresses to me on time, though, here's your virtual Taiwan holiday card!


Yes, that's my (female) roommates and me in matching reindeer outfits, and Milo in a sweater.

Happy lunar new year, and 寒假快樂!

台灣加油!

In my random internet surfing, once again having its pervasive tune stuck in my head, I tracked down the video for the Kaohsiung World Games theme song. If you're curious:



Two things strike me about this video.

First, of all the landscapes and scenic spots shown in the video, I can identify and have been to about 90% of them. I'm not quite sure I could say that for a corresponding Philadelphia video.

Second, almost all of the comments (in Chinese) say something along the lines of "Kaohsiung has really progressed!" One (presumably) Kaohsiung local even says how he is filled with emotion and tears come to his eyes when he watches the video. As someone who never saw the Kaohsiung of before, I cannot relate to how much the city has changed; I can relate, however, to how much the city impresses me now.

Conferencing in Kenting

The past three days, I've been at a conference in Kenting. In case you were wondering about my lack of blogging/emailing/calling, that's the reason. As you may remember, I also went to Kenting with Jonathan in October. It is sort of the vacation spot in Taiwan. But it's still January, and it was still a conference, so the visit wasn't all sunshine and beach. Though both played a role.

There's no need for me to describe the conference. It was a conference. Lots of things that are very interesting when presented individually become lost when they are presented one after another, Powerpoint after Powerpoint; though, I think the overall accomplishments of this year's Fulbright group are pretty impressive and certainly worth presenting. In addition to the presentations, there was a trip to the aquarium, some touring of an arboretum-ish area on a mountain, and some good quality beach time. There weren't any other tourists in the water with us, but the water was certainly warm enough for swimming. (The air, on the other hand, wasn't so warm for us running back to the hotel.) To think I went swimming in the ocean and got sunburned yesterday, and will be in freezing-cold Krakow next week with nought but a flimsy fluffy Carrefour "winter" coat... 真奇怪.

Anyway, this conference definitely made me appreciate Kenting's beauty. My visit with Jonathan was during the rainy season, and we were often too overwhelmed by figuring out where to stay or what to eat that we (or at least I) forgot to notice how amazing our surroundings were. This weekend, staying in the fanciest resort I've ever stayed in, feeling less of a need to take pictures and do everything, I finally realized why everyone loves this place.

Now, the pictures. Note: you can click on any picture to see it full-size in a separate window.

A group of high school kids oooh and aaah over the whale shark at the Taiwan National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium:

Our room at the Caesar Park Hotel:

The view from our balcony:

Sites from an arboretum area of Kenting National Park:
(a garden)

(banyan pathway)
(view from the arboretum)

I could probably look at this water all day:

Though, the landscape isn't too bad either:

Thank you, Fulbright Foundation, for all that you've given me, and for all that you continue to give.

Life and Times of a Taiwanese 3rd Grader

Today, as one of my third grade classes was about to begin, a girl named Emily ran up to me.

She quickly looked around, then leaned forward and whispered, "Teacher Katie. Donna like J.J." I laughed a little and started to scan the room for evidence. Emily tugged on my shirt. "Don't say! Don't say!" She shook her head as she ran back to her desk.

Later, at lunch, a boy in the same class came up to me. "Teacher Katie, call me!" I laughed and said OK. Then he started to say numbers. A few minutes later, he gave me a piece of paper with his name, class, and cell phone number on it. With a little picture of a cell phone in case I forgot.

Kids are cute. It's a fact.

Pain.

The perfect punishment for bad posture?

Seven evenly placed mosquito bites along a centimeter-wide strip on my lower back. I guess I shouldn't have hunched over and/or worn that Taiwanese-sized shirt for a whole 40 minutes during a meeting today.

It's "winter" (~72 Fahrenheit), aren't mosquitoes supposed to be gone by now?

Happy Birthday, Fu Xing!

Alternate title: That time I got sunburned on January 1st.

Here in Taiwan, every school has a "birthday" celebration. Contrary to my instincts, this "birthday" does not fall on the same day every year, but instead the administrators pick a seemingly random day in the first semester on which there is normally no school. For my Fulbright ETA colleagues, that was random Saturdays throughout November and December. For me, that was Thursday, January 1st.

The school birthday, also called "sports day," involves the whole student body contributing something in terms of performance or, more commonly, athletic events. From relay races to tug-of-war to potato sack races to cheerleading, there was something there for everyone.

These things are best described in pictures.

To kick it off, the kindergartners did about 15 minutes of repetitive choreography with pom-poms and then parachutes to very, very irritating music. But they are kindergartners, thus, it was adorable:



Then, the boy/girl scouts honored the principal and other administrators with a performance. It started like this:

Why were most kids wearing T-shirts with "FUN" painted on, while some boys stood with black garbage bags? Well, it went from this, to bizarre dance-fighting, and finally turned into an homage to the World Games, playing the ever-present World Games theme song in the background. Watch the video to find out what was under those trash bags:


Then, there were lots and lots of sports competitions. 1st graders with hula hoops, 2nd graders kicking soccer balls around chairs... all the way up to 6th graders trying to throw a Frisbee through a hula hoop. Harder than it looks.

After these "fun" events, the rest of the day was running. Every kid in every class ran a race, and then the fastest in each class formed a relay team, then each grade had a class vs. class relay. Not surprisingly, the baseball/badminton class won in every grade.

Look at these third graders run for their place in the relay:
And the utter domination of the sports class (inner lane), expertly completing the hand-off while everyone else waits:

And like everything else that's good in life, I got a free t-shirt. You'll note in the above pictures that teachers are all wearing light-blue t-shirts. What you can't see is that they have our mascot, a baseball-playing penguin, in the upper corner. Unfortunately you can't see it in this picture either, but Tyler's smile is just too adorable to pass up:

The moral of the story: if you have to work on January 1st, this is probably the best it gets.