midsummer days

i've had a few people remind me that i haven't updated my blog lately. i think it's just that i'm settling in and finding a rhythm--and loving it--so i haven't been as diligent about posting updates. but this is a good thing, right? ;-)

as i thrive on new experiences, and even on doing things that scare me a bit, every day here has been immensely satisfying. i am finding out which grocery stores i like (where i can find indulgences like american granola bars or "laughing cow" cheese wedges, or salad dressing) and finding out which things (like fruits and some vegetables) are much better when bought from the street markets. i've tried new fruits like custard apples and lychees, and they're not bad! i've checked out several coffee shops and know how to order an iced latte with not much sugar in mandarin. a few times a week i go to Taipei and take yoga classes at the studio where i bought a membership. i did some research about vegetarian restaurants in Taipei and copied down the addresses in characters. tomorrow, after my yoga class, i will show a taxi driver my carefully drawn characters and hope he can read them! some nights i go for a run, when it's cooler and less polluted. there are many people out late at night, walking around the park, doing stretches and exercising. it's a wonderful, laid-back, safe community. after i run, i go to a pagoda in the park and do some stretching, or hang upside-down from the monkey bars (which is great for your back!) i stay up late chatting with my floor-mates or catching up on e-mails and looking at pictures of the floods in Iowa. i'm getting to know my (Taiwanese) co-teachers better and am blessed to have some really good ones who are helpful in and out of the classroom. i met an English-speaking Indonesian woman at a little clothing shop who wants to take me to her Indonesian restaurant and hang out sometime. another woman who owns a restaurant across the street from where i live ordered a textbook for me so that i can start learning some Mandarin. i'm planning on checking out some nearby Taiwanese churches. although i enjoyed the English-speaking Filipino church that some of my friends go to, i want to have more interaction with Taiwanese people and see how the local churches are. although i won't understand much, it's a good way to learn language too--by immersing yourself within a context that you know about. for example, by going to yoga classes in mandarin, i've learned how to count and the words for "inhale," "exhale," "up," "down," and so on.

so many things every day! things that are bewildering, shocking, hilarious, sweet, frustrating... but i love experiencing all of them. today after teaching i went downtown and did a little shopping, and then sat in a park with some iced coffee. it was so beautiful. today wasn't as humid as it has been (my hair is a complete disaster here; i've given up on it) and there was a lovely breeze. with my eyes closed, i could hear cicadas singing and birds chirping, children laughing and basketballs bouncing. i felt like i could have been anywhere in the world. as fascinating as our differences are, as diverse our cultural norms, as impossible as it can be to communicate across languages, we are also very much the same. our souls have longings that are universal, and need no language or symbols. this is comforting to me. while i feel isolated at times, i never feel alone.

that being said, i DO miss all of you, and ask that you continue e-mailing me when you can and sharing your lives with me, as i am with you. xie-xie ni... thank you...

"What's your father like?"

In the classes I teach, every week the students learn a new "QA." They learn several possible answers, and then they have to repeat the question and answer several times, individually and as a class. They write them in their notebooks with the translations in Mandarin, and I go around and check to see that their English question is written and punctuated correctly. At the start of each class, we review some old QA's and play a game.

One of their questions is "What's your father like?" They know just a few possible answers... and they regurgitate, "My father is tall and strong" or "My father is handsome" or "My father is generous and nice" and sometimes, "My father is short and fat." (hehe)

If I was asked, "What's your father like?" I would not be able to sum up my dad's qualities in two or three adjectives! There would be a long, long list--including:

devoted
sacrificial
hard-working
wise
hilarious
light-hearted
adventurous
gregarious (no pun intended)
intelligent
studious
responsible
fair
creative
entertaining
hungry (all the time, i think)
conniving (in a good way)
righteous

...and on and on. My students don't know any of those vocabulary words yet! But when I hear their voices chant in unison "My favver ("th" is difficult for them) is _________ and _______," I think of my father, and am thankful that he is not just "strong" and "handsome."

Dad, happy Father's Day. I miss you and wish we could meet for iced coffee at Stomping Grounds. I'll go find a coffee shop this afternoon and have one alone, but I'll be thinking of you.

I love you!

My dad enjoying dinner at The Spice on his last birthday! :o)

snippets

this is durian fruit. it smells like dirty feet and tastes even worse. it's even banned from several hotels and stores because of its awful scent. but now i can say that i ate it, so i never have to again! i did, however, acquire a free package of freshly cut pineapple at this shop, "no money, for very pretty girl."

















this is where i walk every day from the bus stop to school in Long Tan. when it's clear you can see the mountains...






















a little further down the street, there are fresh fruit markets, where i sometimes stop to get fresh mango juice or watermelon juice.


















here's where i work! plus some road construction. it was lovely to read lessons to the rhythm of jackhammers in the street... but i think they're finished now.

when you're having fun...

...time flies! i can't believe i've been here for a month!

on top of the world!

i had an excellent weekend! it was a national holiday--Dragon Boat Festival--so everyone had a whole two days off (that's a long weekend here). i didn't end up making it to the boat races on sunday because i was too worn out from lots of fun on saturday!

two of the other teachers, kirsten and kyle, and i took a bus to downtown taipei--it's about 45 minutes away. we went to the sun yat sen memorial hall and looked around. it's a very cool building but i don't know a lot about sun yat sen, so it didn't mean as much as it could have. he's the first president of the ROC, but also did a lot of other good things. (as i found out later in the day... keep reading!)

Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall

Sun Yat-Sen

then i went to a workshop for yoga teachers at Pure Studio in the afternoon, and kyle and kirsten went to a park. the workshop was pretty good, and i signed up for a monthly membership so i can take unlimited classes there... it will make me get out for class as often as i can! i'm excited... it's a gorgeous studio. see: http://www.pure-yoga.com/en/taipei/studios/studio.php?location_id=8

after the workshop kyle and kirsten met up with me and we went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. it was so nice to have some comfort food... kirsten and i split an incredible salad and bowl of fettucine, and i indulged in some warm apple pie for dessert. then we made our way to Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper in the world! it has a huge mall in the bottom; we checked out the bookstore, which has a big english lit. section and some english magazines. then we bought our tickets for the ride up to the 91st floor! the elevator ride--which is the fastest in the world--absolutely tortured my ears, but it was worth it when we got to the top. it was night, so we could see taipei all lit up and dark mountains in the distance (of course, with a lovely misting of smog over it all)

(ouch... much worse than taking off in an airplane)

Sears Tower comes in 3rd place!

this huge ball hanging in the middle of the tower is supposed to balance the building in case of--when--there are earthquakes. hmm. they're called "damper babies."


me with "lucky red" the damper baby!

yay! i'm in the tallest building in the world!

we took the MRT (subway) back to the bus station, but on our way, in the MRT, we were approached by a Taiwanese missionary named Moses, who took the opportunity to tell us about Jesus and how He saved us and that we needed to accept him as our Savior. he also told us that Sun Yat-Sen was a christian and that he set "Double Tenth Day" as the national holiday (October 10th) because the Chinese character for "10" is a cross. good to know! but unfortunately, Moses couldn't speak English very well, so he kept poking people around him and asking them how to say something in English. it was very crowded so everyone in the whole car could hear him and he was so exuberant (not common in public places here) that people were turning away to cover their laughter. it was very cute, but it was hilarious, and he went on and on for a good ten minutes until we got off, with the people around us nearly in tears from laughing so hard.

that was just one of the crazy things that happened, but everything else, when i think of it, wouldn't be funny unless you were there. let's just say that my abs hurt from laughing so hard, and it was a great time! sunday i slept in--much needed rest as i'm feeling a little sick--and then explored downtown Jungli and went to starbuck's. perfect.

he just couldn't hold it.

tonight, in the second of my three classes--mostly 7-8 year olds, a kid named mickey (we call him mickey mouse) was being EXTRA squirrelly. it was strange--i've never really had much of a problem with him before! he would not stay in his chair and i had to tell him to sit down several times. then i noticed that even when he did sit down, he was squirming. finally i asked him if he had to go to the bathroom. he nodded enthusiastically. i said, "go!!" even though there were only five minutes left of class, i don't think his bladder had that long. he stood up but only took one step before saying "uhhh-ohhh," which is apparently universal for "i just peed my pants." sure enough, a small pool was forming on the floor beneath mickey's legs. quiet giggles rippled throughout the room and i did my best to contain myself, but i reeeeeally wanted to laugh, loudly! my co-teacher escorted mickey (who didn't seem embarrassed at all--he just felt much better) to the bathroom and came back, minus mickey, plus a mop. ahhh...

after classes i went with some other teachers to a barbecue restaurant, where you pick out your vegetables and meat (or tofu) on sticks, and then sit around your table, which has a little fire pit built in to the top. it was nice and relaxing.

time for bed! i'm going to taipei tomorrow for a workshop for yoga teachers at Pure Studio, and also the Taipei Zoo! pictures to come soon, i promise...

6.0

my first earthquake! (see news article below) last night i was laying in bed watching the season finale of Lost on my iPod. it was a really intense scene--a ship exploded and a helicoptor had just taken off from the ship, so the explosion was shaking the helicoptor even though it was in the air. and then, right on cue, my bed was shaking! for half a second, i thought maybe the power of the island (if you watch Lost you know what i mean!) was sucking me in to my iPod and i could feel the boat exploding! AHHHHahahaha... such a vivid imagination! then i realized that it had to be an earthquake. my room swayed for a few seconds and then stopped. i went out in the hall, mentally reviewing my disaster preparedness checklist. tornado? go to the basement. blizzard? flashlight, blankets, matches. hurricane? board the windows and drive away from the coast! earthquake? umm... i have no idea! another teacher opened his door and said it was no big deal, and told me to go back to bed and imagine that i'm being rocked to sleep! yeah right. i stayed up for another hour, imagining aftershocks, but nothing happened. i've always wondered what an earthquake feels like. it wasn't much of one, but i can check that off my list and i'll be fine if i never feel one again!


Strong earthquake hits northern Taiwan

Posted 8h 38m ago

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Officials say a 6.0 magnitude earthquake has struck northern Taiwan, rattling buildings, but causing no damage or casualties.

The Central Weather Bureau says the quake struck 12 miles (20 kilometers) north of the northeastern city of Ilan at 12:59 a.m. Monday.

Ilan is about 44 miles east of the capital of Taipei.

The CWS says this latest quake is not related to the 6.4 magnitude temblor that struck in the Pacific Ocean off of southern Taiwan on Sunday.

Earthquakes frequently rattle Taiwan, but most are minor and cause little damage. A 7.6-magnitude quake in central Taiwan in September 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.