She let me listen to their songs and practiced the drumming styles for me at school and I was really interested in what she was learning. She arranged for me to come and take one class with her on a Friday night in April.

The class was from 7 to 9 pm and involved two parts, which each lasted one hour. The first part was drumming and the second part was dancing. The first part focused on the kassa drumming style and was taught my an older Taiwanese man. Everyone sat in a circle and followed the teacher. Shuting played her big djembe drum which I took a picture with:

And I played a miniature version that she brought for me.

After an hour of drum beating we took a break and then the class split up so that half of us were drumming and half of us were Kassa dancing. The dance instructor took over to teach the dance while the other class members making a beat for us to dance to.

After some web research I learned that Kassa is a harvest dance. Kassa is important during the harvest time when workers migrate far from their homes to harvest crops and live in makeshift camps. During the day drummers play Kassa beats to support the workers in the fields.

About a month after my initial visit, Shuting had a performance that I went to see. She was chosen to be one of the dancers, while the majority of the class held the beat and sang call and response style lyrics. I posted a video of her performance here:

http://www.dropshots.com/kaitlynmcg2#albums/African Drumming

It is also because of her drumming experience that I recruited her to be the drummer of our dragon boat team!

Class Leaders:

Students get to and from classes with the help of a class leader. The class leader is very important. The students walk in organized lines of two, maybe boy or girl. The class leader leads the line, stopping periodically to make sure everyone is in formation/paying attention. The class leader calls out “attention” and the rest of the class responds with “one, two”. They repeat this until the whole class is together. These class leaders have a lot of responsibility and also power. Each student in the class is given a class number and the class leader writes students’ numbers on the board at the beginning of class, if the students are not behaving. The class leaders can report these students to the homeroom teacher and also bring messages from other teachers to the homeroom teachers.  The class leader is also responsible for dismissing class. For example at the end of my classes Shuting or I would say, “Ok, everyone stand up (they stand), push in your chairs (they push in their chairs), straighten your desks (you get the idea) and check your drawer.” Then we would say “class leader”. The class leader would signal the class with a command and the class would bow and say “Thank you Teacher Kait”, and then bow again and say, “Thank you teacher Shuting”.

Student cleaning squads.

The schools do not hire janitors to clean classrooms, hallways in Taiwan. While they do hire janitors to come maybe once or twice a week to clean bathrooms, the rest of the cleaning is done by the students. Each student or class is assigned to a different area of the school to clean, including the classrooms, school yard, hallways, etc. There are cleaning periods built into the school day, giving students time to get the cleaning done. They arrive early and clean in the morning, then again in the morning and in the afternoon. Some students sweep up the leaves outside the school gates and in the playground, others sweep the office, etc.

Somehow I failed to take a picture with my classroom cleaners, so I included this picture Grace took with hers, they have cleaning tools in hand!

Microphones:

Teachers in Taiwan use microphones.

I really like this feature. I would often come close to losing my voice after English Village because I spent two hours yelling at students. In my classroom, I didn’t need to yell. Despite that classrooms are lined with open windows to cool the room, the students can still understand the pronunciation of words/letters combinations.

School day schedule.

The Taiwanese school day is very different from an elementary school day in the US.

These key differences were a shock initially and I remembered this when teaching my fifth grade classes a unit on classes (“What classes do you have on Monday?”, “I have math class on Monday.”), we showed the students two school schedules: an American one and a Chinese one.

ABC Elementary (in the US):

Versus

Taiping Elementary School (in Taiwan):

So what is the difference?

-Break Times- in between classes students have ten minutes to do what they will. They can go out and play, use the restroom, finish a homework assignment, etc.

-Cleaning Periods- cleaning time is built into the schedule. Every cleaning time four girls would come to our classroom and sweep the floors, wash the chalk board, wash the desks, take out the trash, wash the windows, etc. Other students would sweep and wash the hallways and stairwells near our classrooms. There are also students assigned to clean the faculty lunch room after lunch, the office, the other extra classrooms, and the main office.

-Napping Time- From 11:50- 12:30 the students each and clean up lunch. Then from 12:30-12:35 a Chinese song about brushing one’s teeth plays and the kids brush their teeth. Then they go to sleep until 1:20, when class resumes again. At first I was resistant to this napping time. It did not take long for me to lay out on the couch in the corner of the office J

-Flag Raising Ceremony- Every Wednesday and Friday from 8:30-8:35 there is a flag raising ceremony in the school yard that all the students attend. The band plays the national anthem and a group of students raise the flag.

When presenting my students with these two slightly different school schedules their reactions were very cute. “no, napping time?” “Aren’t they tired?” ”No break time?” They were quite surprised.

Birthdays!

I was showing my mom pictures and this picture popped up.

“What is this from?” …”Oh this was the time my school turned 90”.

Yes, the children are in battle formation because the entire school was performing a choreographed, practiced dance to celebrate the school’s 90^th birthday!  To see the full dance routine go to:  In Taiwan schools (elementary, junior high schools, senior high schools, etc.) celebrate their founding days, “birthdays”, with elaborate day long celebrations.

On your school’s birthday there will be:

1. a blow up castle

2. lots of fun balloon creations

3. birthday cakes

4. belly dancing

i did not feel particularly comfortable putting a picture of this one, but I assure you I saw my fourth grade girls shake it on the track.

5. dragon dancing

6. speeches

on more than many occasions I am called upon to make a speech..thank goodness most people do not understand English, hehe

7. VIPs

this is the head of the bureau of ed, he was nice enough to come out for our school’s birthday on a Saturday (pretty cool I think

8. Periwinkle Uniforms:

9. babies in cheerleading uniforms:

10. Relay Races…serious business

thats all for now!

“Well.. what did you do when you got back to Taiwan from America?”

Shuting answered, “Well, I came home late, so I went to sleep. Then I woke up and went to get my favorite food, a rice ball.  I really, really missed rice balls….Come to think of it, I guess I want to know what food will you eat first?”

She followed up quickly by saying, “Taiwanese always miss food the most, hehe”.

This conversation as well as my experience living in Taiwan for a year made one thing very clear: food is very very important to Taiwanese culture.  They love eating food, talking about food, bringing you copious amounts of food, etc.

On another cultural note: Taiwanese people LOVE taking pictures of their food. I have always been curious…what do you do with these pictures? Now I feel silly because I don’t have pictures of all the food I want to talk about..haha

Anyway onwards to talking about food:

Likes:

Spring rolls- These are made from fresh vegetables and thin tortilla like rolls. The only downside is when they come a little tooo sweet because they put peanut powder and confectionery sugar in them. They are made at stands like this (in traditional markets).

I always ask them to not add confectionery sugar and to add only a little peanut powder.

Sweet potatoes- It is like living in a dreamworld sometimes because there are many vendors who make great business by simply selling baked sweet potatoes along the side of the road. It is really convenient, let me tell you. You never have to anticipate that you want a sweet potato and throw it in the oven, etc, you just walk a few blocks to a vendor, who has a bunch of baked sweet potatoes hot and ready, choose which potato looks good, buy it, and go along your way.

this is not my picture, because I never got a chance to take a picture with my favorite sweet potato lady, who sold hot, baked sweet potatoes one block from my apartment

Fresh Soy Milk- way better than any soy milk available in the US. On my way to work I stop periodically to buy a cup of room temperature soy milk from the sweetest lady. She knows me, my order, and the usual time I arrive so she is always ready with my milk. Really convenient, not to mention how sweet the saleslady is

Tofu- Tofu is so cheap and readily available here. It is also a lot easier on the stomach than meat.  I can buy a bunch of tofu, at 7 eleven,  for only 30 cents.

Dan Bing- Vegetable Omelet pancake. There are a number of chain breakfast restaurants. In my restaurant unit blog I mention some foods that are popular for breakfast in Taiwan including omelet pancakes, sandwiches, and soy milk. Luckily on most days breakfast places remain open until 1pm so I can get a breakfast for lunch. I observed them making my omelet pancake one day so I could explain it better. First they put an egg on the grill and break the yolk, then they put veggies on top and let the egg cook, finally the put a thin tortilla on top of the entire thing. Finally they roll it up and slice it. You can put a thick soy sauce like condiment on top or a mildly spicy sauce on top.

Red Bean Everything- I love red bean as a flavor. It is usually sweetened and used in desserts.

this is red bean shaved ice

Xiao Sen Tao and Red bean soups- Red bean soup is a hot sweet soup, with red beans and fen yuan (sweet rice balls). The soup below is Xiao Sen Tao.  The soup/broth is made of grass jelly (brown sugar like) and it has red beans, pieces of taro and sweet potato, rice balls, and bubbles. Both are served hot, and usually only offered in the winter time in Taiwan.

Red bean Popsicles- Kristin and I take a trip to 7-Eleven at least once a week to grab a Popsicle, especially on hot evenings.

Taro Anything: Taro is like a potato and usually served in semi-sweet things. There are taro flavored rice balls, taro and shaved ice, and even taro milk tea. Taro is a purple color and it looks like this in it’s natural form:

Dou Hua-

this is not my image, but it is a good picture of duo hua

Mo chi-Glutinous rice balls filled with a number of sweet flavors. You can get red bean inside of mo-chi, strawberry, taro, black sesame, etc. I love mo chi.

Shaved Ice:

Fruit-

I love the fruit in Taiwan. I wake up early each day to go for a run and then to an early yoga class. On my way back from yoga I walk through a small market of farmers that set up around the cultural center only in the early morning. I stop and buy fresh guava, wax apples, bananas and other fresh, yummy fruit.

Yellow Kiwis: They are so good, not as sour as green kiwis!!!

Guava- I love because it is not overly acidic or sweet and filling

Persimmons- not in season anymore but I loved them back in December/November. They look like tomatoes, but they are much tastier to me

Mango!

Papaya:

Lychee: they come inside little armor shells!

What a colorful salad!

Bananas- a staple

Wax Apples- really light and sweet. They are airier than other fruit. Not nearly as thick or overwhelming as a normal apple.

Dislikes:

I have had some trouble with food here. This is usually because of my poor digestion and weak stomach (always a problem with me!)

Fuzzy meat- I have commented on this earlier. It is called pork fiber or fish fiber and usually is mixed into rice porridge. Another ETA, John, jokes that pork fiber is the ultimate dehumidifier because eating it makes you so incredibly thirsty. It is not as dry when in wet porridge, but still not a favorite of mine.

Sausage- way way way too sweet.

BBQ- never sits right with me, I think because of the sauce. It is cool though, you pick whatever you want and they bbq it for you and serve it to you.

Assorted Fried Night market snacks: corn dogs, corn dogs covered in French fries and then deep fried, and the dreaded fried oysters.

Stinky Tofu- it smells as bad as it tastes in my opinion, but everyone here seems to love it. I think it is safe to say it is an acquired taste.

Indifference:

Hot Pot- I am indifferent to hot pot because it is so fun to do, but not really may favorite taste. I would say you have to really be in the mood for hot pot to enjoy eating hot pot. However it is always fun to cook hot pot.

I want to finish this blog and not let it drop off.   Reading through my posts over this year I realize that I have let a lot slip through the cracks. Long story short: there is a lot I still want to say.  I think I will take advantage of my early morning wake ups (ohh the jet lag) to record those things I missed the first time around.

So, I am still writing, although I am indeed back in the USA.

Taiping is famous for its basketball team. There are three classes in each grade and in fifth and sixth grade 1/3 classes is a special basketball class. The students are put in new homerooms each two years.  So a teacher and a class stay together for two years (ie. your teacher and class are the same in first and in second grade). Before entering fifth grade students are tested and placed in classes in terms of athletic ability so that the boys and girls basketball team members are grouped together in their own homeroom class.   They spend two years learning and practicing together. I teach all the third through sixth graders and the sixth grade basketball class is one of my most enjoyable classes.

This past weekend they had a big basketball tournament and they invited me to come watch them play. I went with Kristin to watch the girls play on Saturday and then I met Shuting (my co-teacher) Sunday to watch the boys’ game.

Let me tell you, I was impressed. They play so well, and they are only in sixth grade. The girls played hard, but lost Saturday. The other team was vicious, which resulted in a lot of injuries.

The boys won Saturday and were matched up against the returning champions on Sunday. The team they played had three huge boys on their team.  They were 180 cm in sixth grade! Despite their lack of height, the boys played really clean and showed their skill. They lost in the end, but they kept the score really close the entire game.

I think the best part of watching them play was watching them interact so positively with one another. Although sixth grade is an awkward age, epecially in terms of boy-girl friendships, the girls team was so excited and supportive of the boys team and vice versa.When I first arrived the girls greeted me and they exclaimed ”the boys are winners!”. After the girls’ game began the boys watched the girls play, and took turns taking pictures and videos with the school’s camera.

Here are some pictures from the game:

Although they lost, they did a wonderful job. We are hoping to use basketball in English class as a dictation exercise. We want to play a game with English commentary and work on decoding it together. They could then write commentary for a video of themselves playing…actually there isn’t enough time probably, but I think it is a good idea.

This semester each ETA spends four hours working in a Kaohsiung City English Village. English Villages simulate real life situations for using English. The English Villages have real looking restaurants, airports, airplanes, subways, supermarkets, etc.  This way students can practice buying a banana, while holding a banana- it makes English seem more practical and also fun. All students in Kaohsiung City public schools get to attend an English Village once for two hours. While at the English Village they travel in groups of eight or nine go to eight different stations. They get a stamp in a “passport” and after completing each station they receive a stamp in their passport. They are also scored secretly at each station. At the end the winning team gets pinned by the foreign teachers (Kevin and I in this case) while celebratory music plays in the background.  The marching music at the end is my favorite part- partially because it is so obnoxious, mostly because it means EV is over. Most stations have English games (matching vocabulary, etc.), but two stations have a foreigner, who simulates a real life dialog with the students.

The dialog goes like this:

Student: How much is this ____________?

Clerk (me): The _______ is  __________ dollars.

Student: Ok, here you go.

Clerk: Thank you, have a nice day.

Student: Thank you, you too.

What is important to realize is that while each fifth grader gets to have one conversation with each foreigner, the foreigner teachers get to have the same conversation with different fifth graders over 64  times in one English Village day and over 6656 times over the course of one year.

Understand why I was happy?  hehe Below are some pictures of the FuTong EnglishVillage staff and I after our last EV.

Gigi, Vicky, myself and Eddy

Each EV has two managers, volunteers and usually the school’s military workers helps out too. (all men have to do one year of military service in Taiwan).

This is a picture of Kevin and I. Ordinarily Kevin is my EV “buddy”, but he already departed Taiwan to start a masters program in China. This was our farewell “EV buddy” shot.

As I close this post I would like to say that although I do not think my skills or my BA degree in English was utilized to its full potential, I would like to highlight the benefits of having a foreigner at English Village. Although I did not do innovative work with the students at English Village I believe that having a foreigner at English Village does generate an interest in English for students. I have had really fun groups of kids at EV, who are really excited to practice English and be in the new environment.

Well my friends I did just that. This semester I attended at least one three hour rehearsal with the Kaohsiung City Chamber Choir each week. Until the beginning of June all rehearsals and emails were in straight up Chinese.As you expect, I was not always entirely sure what was going on all the time.

While my lack of comprehension was frustrating to me at times, overall the experience was unforgettable in the most positive way. True to my interaction with most Taiwanese people, the choir was  incredibly kind and welcoming to me. People would often translate for me, offer me food, compliment my long eyelashes, etc.

Aside from the social experience, I also realized how much body language and demonstration is involved in directing a choir. I say this because although I could not understand what was going on sometimes, I generally understood what sort of feeling or dynamic the director wanted by watching her face, her hands, and her general body position. We also sang repetoire in a variety of languages, none of which were Chinese. Therefore the music was telling the story for all of us. Essentially we all learned the songs together.

Although I attended Chinese run rehearsals for the first  three months the last month had double the rehearsals and all of these rehearsals were conducted in English. Why?…because this semester the choir arranged for a foreign, guest conductor to come from Norway. Karl Hanken, was our guest conductor, and he spoke only English as he does not speak Chinese. The tables turned completely. When the director called out a measure in Chinese, I often took second longer to find it as I was trying to translate quickly in my mind. The girl sitting next to me would often point it out to me, so that I could not miss the entrance. Now I was able to do the same for her! Our repetoire included one song in English and one in Taiwanese. The rest of the pieces were in Latin, German and Norwegian. Two young sopranos who I sat with each rehearsals and I formed a language alliance of sorts. I was  able to help them pronounce the English words in the English song we sang, and they helped me to grasp the sounds of the Taiwanese words in the Taiwanese song. It was a real cultural exchange, as cliche as it sounds.

One Sunday June 20, we performed with the foreign director at the Cultural Center across the street from my house. I sang thirteen songs and wore a blue silky dress.

Below are pictures from backstage:

the woman on the left gave me a ride home every night after choir and the woman on the right sat next to me and was really nice to me all semester

Pei Ying sat next to me, she was so friendly and nice. she helped me with everything this semester...she also did my make-up for me before the concert!

the ladies with Dr. Hanken the guest conductor from Norway

Although the experience of the choir was incredibly special, what was most touching about the evening was that my friends here in Taiwan came to see me. It meant so much that they all showed up and were so genuinely excited for me.  I really have a great support system here. I often do not recognize this fact day to day, but the people I have met here are so wonderful and they mean very much to me.

Fonda, Kristin, Grace, Katherine, Cristina (another LET) and Bekah all came and sent me two HUGE flowers backstage.

A group from my school came, which included my co-teacher Shuting, Justin(my school’s EV manager), MinZ i (another teacher), and ShyenTz (the military worker). They brought me beautiful flowers to, which are sitting on my desk.

Charles and his friend also came, although he was departing the next day to start his journey home to America.

I am truly going to miss everyone here. Saying goodbye in six days will be soooooooooooooooooo hard.

My gift, from my principal to me.

Yes, it is a miniature me, mounted and protected by a glass box.

Never before have I received such a gift and I am not sure if I will ever get something this good again. What will I do with this….I don’t know, any suggestions?

The speech that accompanied the gift made this little voodoo woman I know own even better. He spoke entirely in English, thanking me for my hard work (that was the first thing he wanted to say).  In the second part of his speech he wished that I find success in my future work OR, even better, a good, rich man to marry. He wishes I have a romantic and passionate life full of happiness with my future husband. They will all pray for me that I find this man in America and then come back to Taiwan to visit.  Looking out at the audience, I knew exactly who understands English and who doesn’t. One word to describe this moment: Amazing…

Aside from gift giving, there was a buffet, a bunch of speeches, and also karaoke. My principal really wanted me to sing an English song with him…too bad my throat was so sore, hehe

Sunday June 9, we all got together for our final dinner with just the 12 of us.  We used this opportunity to dress up really nice and take final pictures of ourselves as a group.

After a short photo session we all went out to eat at the Bayou, our favorite Western Style restaurant in Kaohsiung. They have a great selection of really good food and organic ingredients.

At dinner we gave Fonda an 18 month calendar full of pictures from this year. Each ETA will sign a note in the calendar too. We made the calendar online and then had it shipped to Kristin’s sister who came to visit the first week in June and brought it along with her.

Later on in the week instead of our final workshop, we had a final farewell party, thrown by the Bureau of Education. The director of the Bureau was there as well as our co-teachers, school principals, and host families. Each ETA had a table. There were speeches, video slide shows, and awards.All of the ETA’s and LET’s were honored individually .  It was a really nice event. I feel so lucky to have had so much support and appreciation this year.

Below are some photos from the event:

My table: My co-teacher Shuting, Me, My Spirited Principal, and Justin.  I love them all… You may also note the bananas in the center of the table, this is because the event was hosted at the banana pier (famous as the sight of imported bananas).  I have eaten at least two bananas a day since this party.

We all got called up one by one to the stage and had to make a speech. I hate public speaking, so Shuting gave me some essential oils to sniff. She often sniffs them in class to wake her qi up before class, I partake occasionally. Naturally we joke around about  how we “do drugs” in the back at important events like this.

accepting my award from Dr. Tsai (the head of the Education Bureau) and Professor Lee, my wonderful advisor.

all of the ETAs on stage with Alex, Chris, Jim, Joy and Fonda

Shuting accepting her award with Professor Lee.

Finally, on Friday we all traveled to Taipei for the official Fulbright Farewell Party. It was such a nice event. The Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (FSE) rented out an entire restaurant in one of the trendy neighborhoods downtown. The restaurant had two levels for eating and mingling. Dr. Chen and the  Fulbright staff planned and executed a beautiful farewell for this year’s scholars.

Charles and his girls

Kristin and I keeping it classy

Fonda, Kristin, and Alex (Fulbright’s ETA director)

Dr. Chen the director of Fulbright Taiwan

Katherine, Bakah, Kristin, Fonda, Grace in a cosy corner

So after three farewell parties and three departures, I leave you. I now have one week longer to write blog posts and one week longer to enjoy the things in Taiwan that I have grown to love.

Also I would like to assure everyone, that I did indeed grab the flag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I didn’t fall into the love river!!!! Hurray!

I will give you a quick run down of game day. To begin it poured, thundered and lightninged, all day long. Our first race at 4:30 was canceled because of the stormy weather. The bad weather continued and Grace, Kristin and I played hermits all day. Around 6 Fonda told us that the second race was still on. We didn’t believe her, the weather looked terrible. Around 7:30 Fonda left for the love river… I started to think she was being serious. Around 7:45 Charles returned home and rallied us off the couch, at this point I finally realized “we have to race!”. We turned on Lady Gaga (to pump ourselves up) and rushed around the house, putting on VELOCITY team T-shirts as we ran out to door.

We scootered to the love river adorned in our water gear:

We met up with our team and as we lined up into the holding area, we began to realize how small our team’s overall body stature was. National Sun Yat Sen’s Dragon Boat team (our competition and the ultimate winners of our bracket) consisted of all foreigners with muscle. 90% of the foreigners on their team were blond,  buff, trained rowers. 90% of our team was  slender and untrained. Looking around we all couldn’t help but chuckle.

We took to our boat quickly and began rowing out to the start. I was a little nervous to grab the flag. I did get practice positioning myself on the nose of the dragon at the night rehearsal before the race, but I was still unclear about where this flag would be and how far I would need to hang off the boat to grab it.

Below are some pictures of my flag grabbing training. You will see me surrounded by a large group of people. The Taiwanese men are yelling things at me, everyone else is attempting to translate simultaneously. Confusion ensues.

So yes to get the flag I had to straddle the nose of the dragon and reach out. I kept hold of the boat with my legs and also by hanging on to a red rope.

So we lined up, the gun shot went off, and we began to race.

While my team rowed their hearts out I waited until Chris gave me the go ahead and then I climbed over the dragon’s head and onto its nose. I saw the flag, I held on, and I grabbed it! haha

Our final time was not too terrible: 3:21.37, the winning boat got 2 minutes and some seconds, and we were not more than a boat length behind the boat that came in third. All in all, I think we performed well enough.

Below are some pictures of us on game night:

Eddy (my co-worker at English Village) and Justin sport their official dragon boat IDs

Shuting and I told our students about it, they were all very interested in how you go about grabbing the flag, naturally we did a demonstration. My academic dean also told us that he came and cheered us on. We also came to find out that the blow horn we heard in the beginning was him!

Today, Wednesday June 16th is officially Dragon Boat Festival, which means no school and sleep!

Happy Dragon Boat Festival to all!