There and Back Again: A Tale of a Friendship

When I was offered a teaching position in Taiwan, I had one potential conflict on my calendar. My friend Sarah's wedding was in July. I was supposed to leave for Taiwan the last week in June. Six months earlier, she had sent me a painted mug asking if I would be a bridesmaid in her wedding. My bridesmaid dress was already hanging up in my closet. As a new teacher, the first two months are considered probationary and leave is not granted. So before signing the contract I did the only thing I could do. I asked if I could have leave to go back for the wedding, because it was never a question of if. It was always a question of what. What do I need to do to be able to attend this wedding?  They allowed me the leave and this past weekend I answered the what by taking an uber, bus, two planes, and a car ride back to Minnesota. It was worth it. 

Sarah, the Glinda to my Elphaba. "I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason. Bringing something we must learn and we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them."

Before I left, some of the other teachers asked me: Whose wedding are your going back for? The implied question was: Who is so important that you are willing to travel half-way around the world to spend just a couple of days for? The answer to both questions was: my best friend Sarah. I met Sarah when I was about 11 years old. We met in the locker room at swim practice for Med-City Aquatics.  We appreciated each other's quirks. We both loved getting mail, so we would write letters back and forth to each other (even though we lived in the same city.) We shared hotel rooms at swim meets, named pennies we found and kept a log of them, and enjoyed crafting together. We have remained close friends despite frequently being geographically far apart. Sarah is one of the most caring and loyal people I know. She always asks about how my family is doing and puts in the effort to keep in contact with friends and family.  Going on trips with her, I learned how to make friends with everyone. She would ask waiters, hotel staff, and random people meaningful questions about their lives. She did it in a way that was non-judgmental and caring. In a way that people immediately opened up and shared personal stories with her. She now uses these same strengths in the field of psychology. 

Gnomeo also attended the wedding. 

It is her loyalty as a friend that made it essential for me to put in the effort to go to her wedding as she married Ben. The wedding was lovely. The room was decorated with beautiful white flowers. The humanist minister who officiated the wedding made the ceremony very personal by adding quotes and anecdotes from Sarah and Ben. Sarah looked especially beautiful. Another wedding guest commented, "Does Sarah know how gorgeous she is? How do I ask that without it coming out weird?" The surf and turf dinner was delicious. Everyone had a great time. 

My friends Herbie, Sarah, and Drew representing Med-City Aquatics. 

As I got on the plane, I had quite a bit of time to reflect over the wedding and my short visit home. What I reflected on most was friendship. I stood up by Sarah's side at the ceremony with her other best friends. (As Mindy Kaling said, "best friend isn't a person, it's a tier.") I talked for a long time with my friend Herbie, who I don't see very often (another swim friend). I caught up with some others that were also at the wedding. Those invited were in all stages of friendship with the bride and groom. There were friends that the bride and groom had known since they were very little. Both the best man and the maid of honor were childhood friends.  Then, there were friendships that were relatively new. How many people do we meet in a lifetime? How many of those people do we see once and never again? There are friends that I have made by proximity or because we had a commonality. Some of these friends have eventually slipped away once these things are gone. Still others I have managed to hold onto despite distance and busy lives. It is a rare and special gift to find a true friend. That is a friendship worth traveling across the world for and holding onto tight. 

The bride and groom sharing their first dance. 

 So, I give my best wishes to Ben and Sarah! My hope for you is that your friendship, as well as your love for each other, continues to grow daily. 

Get Into the Groove

I have been in Taiwan for almost a month now. I have been in my apartment for two weeks now. My roommate, along with the majority of the returning teachers, went back home for July. So, I have had the past couple of weeks to be independent and figure things out on my own. So far, I can . . .

•  navigate to several places around my apartment building including IKEA, the grocery store, another teacher's apartment, restaurants, and the park. 
• ride the bus to and from work
• walk around without getting hit by scooters or cars
• kind of order food. I need to eat at restaurants with either English or picture menus, so I can point and say "I want one." I also play some charades with the waiters. When they ask me questions, I just smile and say "ok."   
• kind of order tea. There are some kinds I do not know how to order yet, and again either English menus or pictures. 

Yay for small victories! I have gotten used to my daily schedule. I have a couple of go-to restaurants to eat at for dinner. Dare I say, I have gotten into a groove? There is still so much to explore though. Everytime I walk around I see something new. My teaching schedule will also change in August and then again in September. Slowly, I am starting to figure things out though. The actual teaching part has been probably the easiest adjustment. 

This week at camp, it was Olympics-themed. We had a great time! I am really enjoying working with these students. Their English is very good. It is way better than my Chinese! Most of the students have gone to my school since pre-school, so it makes sense that they would be very fluent. As I teach though, I realize more and more how hard it is to learn English. I love both my groups of kids for different reasons. My younger group (grade 1-3) are very sweet and are so excited to learn and try different things. My older group (grade 4-6) is very funny. They love music and will sing/dance along to songs during worktime. I sometimes feel like I am teacher/DJ, because I will get requests for music.

"Teacher, can we hear 'What Do You Mean?'"

"Teacher, can we skip this one?"

On Monday, in groups they had to create their own country. This included naming their country, designing a flag, and writing a cheer for their country. Then we had our own version of the opening ceremonies. Below is a video of our torch relay race. Sorry it is sideways. 

On Friday, we competed in track and field events. I showed my older kids videos of different track and field events. They were most impressed with the polevault. Here are some pictures from this week. 

Next week, I am going to go back to the United States for a couple of days to be in my friend's wedding. I am excited to have a part in her big day, but it is going to be hard to leave Taiwan (even for such a short time). 

The Typhoon Day

This week was my first week of actual teaching. I taught summer camps at one of the school's campuses. It was exciting to teach summer camps again. It is something that I did when I worked at the Iowa Children's Museum. I teach at the smaller campus, so I taught all grades except pre-school and kindergarten. In the morning, I taught a class of 1st-3rd graders. Then in the afternoon, I taught a class of 4th-6th graders. We studied African animals and had a great time. I really enjoyed working with the students. The students work incredibly hard, so I wanted to plan some fun activities.  I played many games with them to show that it is okay to be silly.

Monkey bar silliness on the playground during outside play. 

Early in the week, one of the other teachers messaged us to see if we would be interested in taking a trip to the east coast of the island. The east coast has fewer major cities, plus beaches! We all heartily agreed that it would be a fun way to spend the weekend. Another teacher commented that we might want to watch the weather, because a typhoon was coming. It wasn't just any typhoon, it was already declared a super typhoon. The news also said that it would possibly be the biggest typhoon in fifty years. We decided to watch the weather to see if it would still be okay to go. I looked up the weather (below). Below is also the satellite picture of Typhoon Nepartak. 

Super #TyphoonNepartak Spied from Space https://t.co/jMHrJQazDF pic.twitter.com/g6xDyvKS7N

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) July 8, 2016

In Minnesota, we would get snow days off when the roads were unsafe to drive on. In Namibia, students would have rain days. During rain days, students would be let out of school early so they could walk home before the rains came. In Taiwan, they have typhoon days. Whether or not their would be a typhoon day was talked about throughout school by both teachers and students.  There was also The Taiwanese staff told me that I should stock up on food, just in case. The foreign staff told me that it wouldn't amount to much where we were. Taichung in on the west side of Taiwan and on the other side of mountains from the ocean. I was eating dinner when I heard that Friday had officially been declared a typhoon day by the government. That meant that all government buildings (including schools) would be closed. Many other businesses would also choose to close. I went to a FamilyMart close to my apartment to get some supplies, just in case. We had already decided to cancel our weekend trip to the east coast. 

Here are my typhoon supplies. 

The typhoon was supposed to hit Taichung at about 3:00 am on Friday morning. On Thursday night I went to bed, not sure what I would wake up to in the morning. I woke up to cloudy skies, but it was not raining. The weather was calm. I stayed in my apartment waiting for the winds to pick up and the rains to start. I waited. And waited. And waited some more. It rained a little, but not much. The typhoon ended up going south of Taichung. 

All is calm. 

 The eastern and southern parts of Taiwan were hit a great deal harder (watch video below). 

WATCH: Super #TyphoonNepartak unleashes its fury on #Taiwan https://t.co/K0Q1EncN2o pic.twitter.com/com0X2Ngt7

— TODAY (@TODAYonline) July 8, 2016

So my typhoon day ended up being pretty uneventful, which is maybe a good thing.