12 Things I've Learned So Far About Living in Taiwan

It's hard to believe that I have been in Taiwan a week. Already, I have learned a great deal and look forward to learning more. Below is a random list of some things I have learned so far from living in Taiwan. 

1. The weather is very hot. Constant sweating ensues.

2. I was expected tea, but the tea I was thinking of was hot tea. Everyone frequently gets iced tea and there are so many different kinds. 

3. People try to be healthy and clean. Shoes are taken off at the door. People will also wear masks when they are sick to try to prevent spreading their illness to others. 

4. There are many Taiwanese superstitions. Some of them include: No swimming during a Ghost month,. Do not write someone's name in red because that means you wish them dead. Do not place chopsticks straight up in the rice.  Do not point at the moon. The number four is bad luck. 

5. White rice tastes so good. It tastes way better here than in the United States. 

6. Most meals involve cabbage.

7. It is fashionable to be as pale-skinned as possible.  Darker skin implies blue collar work/lower class. To stay as pale as possible, many of the skin products have bleaching in them. Many also use an umbrella when outside or avoid going out when it is sunny altogether. Guess who is the fairest of them all?

8. It is cheaper to eat out than to cook. 

9. There is a great deal of pressure to do well in school. Students work hard and spend long hours at school or studying. As the 6th graders said, "it's a hard knock life."

10.Restaurants are not open as long. Some are only open during the morning, while others only open at 8 pm. 

11. There are other ways to communicate when you don't know the language. 

12. It really is a small world. It is amazing, even half-way around the world, finding connections that I have with others. 

Out and About in Taichung

On Friday night all of the new teachers ventured out to a nearby mall. It was the first time on our own in Taichung and our first time truly dealing with a language barrier. In the basement of the mall was a food court, where we found a fast food Hibachi to eat at. The staff at the restaurant spoke little English, so we found ourselves relying on charade-like gestures to order. We each pointed to what we wanted on a menu with English and shook our heads when we did not want something. In return, the waitress would pretend to wipe her face and point to where the napkins were.  We could mostly understand each other without speaking. It was still a little concerning when someone is trying to tell you something and you have no idea what they are saying. 

Picture from Teacher Scott

I've had people say that I will pick up the language and come back knowing Mandarin. I won't. It is a very hard language to learn with five different tones. One word, depending on the tone, will have five different meanings. The teachers who have been here for a year to know how to order tea and to varying degrees other phrases. I also spend the majority of my time teaching English and speaking English with other English speakers, so I am not fully immersed in Mandarin. I am so glad that I took a community education Mandarin class before I left. I didn't think I would remember anything, but I have found myself remembering phrases and being able to hear the tones. I hope to learn as much Mandarin as I can. 

After Hibachi, we took a cab to an arcade/bowling alley. Most cab drivers do not speak English, so we showed them the address that had been written down for us in Chinese. At the arcade, we played games and bowled. A friend had warned me that in some places in Asia they have toilets that are a hole in the ground and you squat over them to use the bathroom. At the arcade, I experienced my first squatty potty. It was also BYOTP (bring your own toilet paper). Toilet paper is also often thrown in the garbage instead of flushed down the toilet due to plumbing issues. 

Who needs to go to the gym when you can do squats in the bathroom?

On Saturday we went to a graduation ceremony for the kindergartners and 6th graders. All of the pre-k/kindergartners performed a song and dance and it was adorable. It was a big deal for many families to have a student who was graduating kindergarten. Many families brought huge bouquets of flowers or presents for their student. Each student also got a diploma. Get ready for some adorableness.

The staff performing their own dance number. 

Some students performing a reader's theater.

On Saturday night we went out to do karaoke. The karaoke place mostly had songs from the 1990s and early 2000s, which are my jams. It was a great time.

I Have Arrived

I made it! On June 21, I left for Taiwan and I arrived at about 6:00 am on June 23. The flight to San Francisco was very empty. I was the only person in my row. There would have been nearly enough for everyone on the plane to have their own row. Landing in San Francisco, I had a layover of about 4 hours. At that point I did not have a ticket for my next flight. I debated going out to the airline kiosks on the other side of security or just staying at the gate and waiting for a flight attendant. It stressed me out to think that a flight attendant might make me go out to security at the last moment, so I went to the airline kiosks. Besides, I had plenty of time I needed to kill. The line at the airline was very long. Many people had several packaged boxes to check. I asked a worker if I could move to a different line because I did not have any baggage to check. He directed me to a person without a line. 

The plane to Taiwan was the biggest and nicest airplane that I have ever been on. I was sitting in row 62 and there were probably at least 15 more rows behind me. The bathroom streamed classical music throughout the flight. I had a window seat and felt guilty for almost immediately asking the two men sitting next to me to get up so that I could use the bathroom. Before take-off a flight attendant came up to me and asked me if I was travelling alone. I was easy to spot because I was white and there was only one of me. She asked if I would be willing to switch seats with someone in the exit room who did not feel comfortable sitting in the exit row. I gladly agreed, because then I would not feel guilty about disturbing the two men beside me to use the bathroom. It was a good choice, I had more room and was right next to the bathroom. During the 12.5 hour flight, I watched some movies and slept for a couple of hours. While waiting in customs I ran into the woman that I switched seats with. She has been living in Santa Clara (where my parents recently lived for six months.) When I got through customs, someone from the school picked me up. The seven new teachers and I drove about 2 hours to reach Taichung. We checked into the hotel that we are staying at for the week. We then went to one of the school campuses to have lunch and meet with the other teachers. We got to see some of the students, who were adorable.

 After lunch, we went to the hospital to get physicals, so we can be approved for a work VISA. The hospital made it clear that we were in a different country. First, we had to strip down and change into a hospital gown to do a chest x-ray. The man operating the x-ray did not speak very much English. It took us several people through to figure out he was asking us if we were wearing a bra and if we had a baby." We filled out forms and waited in an area for them to call our names. Then, we did different rotations at a long table in the waiting room. They weighed/measured our height, did an eye test, took our heart rate and blood pressure, and listened to our heart. My blood pressure was high, which makes sense because I had just been on a plane for 16 hours. Also, I was paranoid that I would not pass my health exam and they would kick me out of the country.  They had me sit down and told me they would take it again in five minutes. They took my blood pressure again and it was still high. The nurse asked if I was nervous and I told her I had just gotten off a plane. She told me to just get some rest and exercise.  

The preferred method of transportation in Taiwan is by scooter. They are everywhere (see below). 

Drivers are a little crazy. 

Traffic laws in Taiwan. 

In the evening the other teachers took us out for pizza and shaved ice. We got to experience our first scooter rides. It was very nervous. It reminded me of when we went on ATVs on the sand dunes in Namibia (which you can read about here http://enternamibia.blogspot.tw/2012/02/xtreme-weekend-in-swakopmund.html). I held on very tight on the way there. By the way back I was wanting a scooter of my own. 

I'm Leaving On A Jet Plane

Travel Itinerary:

Start in Rochester, MN

Drive 1.5 hours to MSP Airport

Depart 7:55 pm

Arrive 9:58 pm San Francisco Airport

1:40 am Depart

6:00 am Arrive in Taipei

Catch you next time from Taiwan!

Stuff I Did When I Wasn't Here

I leave in less than a week! The reason I have not written in awhile, is that I have been doing a lot to get ready. This week when I wasn't here I . . .

• had my last day of school with my second graders (gonna miss this group)
• cleaned out the classroom 
• Figuring out VISA stuff. 
• went to my last meeting with my writer's group (shout out to Monica, Katrina, Claire, Ashley, and Jon)
• went hiking/camping on the North Shore (See Gnomeo pictures below)
• Spoke on a writing panel about writing YA at Barnes and Noble's B-Fest (one person came)
• Wondering what the non-mosquito, itchy, red bumps on my body are from 
• Tried not to itch the red bumps
• Tried to convince my mom that it is scabies (#teacherproblems)                              Mom: See I have them too, so I don't think it is scabies.                                            Me: That just probably means I gave you scabies. 
• Cancelled Century Link                                                                                          "Person" on the phone who was probably a robot: I'm sorry to hear that you are cancelling your services. Have you considered bundling your account to save money?      Me: I'm moving out of the country                                                                Robot: Oh. Well let's cancel your account then.                                                              
• Dentist appointment
• Packed all my stuff while listening to Hamilton
• Goodwill donation trips
• Moved out of my apartment in Minneapolis
• Listened to Hamilton some more
• Watching Hamilton perform at the Tony Awards
• Tried to convince my parents how amazing Lin-Manuel Miranda is                       Mom:You mean he wrote the music, book, and stars in Hamilton?                             Me: Yup. I know, right?!!
• Talking to MNSure for an hour to cancel.                                                               MNsure person: I'm going to ask you some personal questions. Did you come to Minnesota from North Dakota for senior housing?
• Bought some stuff at Target
• Ate tater tot hotdish

Needless to say, it has been a little busy and there is still a long list of things I need to get done before I leave. One thing that I have done very much at all is writing. I wrote a young adult book and am currently in the process of revising the second draft. A first draft is getting the words out and telling yourself the story. The second draft is shaping the story when it feels like this huge, amorphous, blobby thing. It's really hard and there is seemingly less gratification than seeing the word count grow as you write the first draft. With the revision it feels like, I worked on this chapter and it maybe got better?! These past couple of weeks it has been a lot of I could revise or I could binge watch Netflix. Or I could revise or I could take this BuzzFeed quiz to see which Scooby-Doo character I am (Daphne, but I question the validity of this quiz. I am so obviously a Velma). I could read the Or I could write a blog post. (Unlike revising, blogging has instant gratification. It is quick to write, publish, and there is almost immediate feedback in Facebook likes and view statistics). Even though revising feels like a slog right now, I know that eventually there will be a pay out with it getting better. I have hired a friend who is a manuscript consultant to read it and give feedback. I told her I would send it to her before I leave. So in addition to all the other things that I still need to do, I'm hoping that my next list of stuff I did when I wasn't here will include sending out my manuscript. 

Here are some pictures of Gnomeo at the North Shore. 

At Temperance River State Park

Also at Temperance River State Park

On the shore of Grand Marais.