Tsengwen Youth Activity Center

Ni Hao! For our last three days in Taiwan...we are camping in the Tsengewen Reservoir. Before we came on this adventure I was prepared to sleep in a tent but ended up in 4star hotel room! I'm not complaining the teachers know how to camp in style better yet comfort! It's amazing to see an education system that has such long hours for teachers and students, give them an opportunity to connect in a fun experiential learning environment. I'm following their motto "sleep, eat, bike, monitor, eat, sleep". I did a little rock climbing today with Emily's class and laughed at James yesterday after he pulled a muscle during paint ball. His strategy to roll a large steel garbage can on the ground and continuously shoot his gun's paint balls into Nick's neck seemed to pay off. He ended his mission successfully with an orange flag in his hand! As for Nick he had the bitter taste of paint near his mouth.

This place resembles an outdoor education centre in Canada with several high and low ropes elements. Part of me feels like I'm having flashbacks of previous work experience in Jordan, Ontario lol! School spirit and dance are strongly encouraged. The twins were hilarious during the afternoon dance battle. BASE has officially entered the dance competition that will take place tonight. Several classes from Kaohsiung High School have been practicing for weeks. Our youth have been joining in non-stop and learning new moves and Mandarin.

Hot Pot

After a long day of school yesterday (7:30-5pm)...Sylvia and I came home to a traditional Chinese/Taiwanese winter meal called "hotpot". The weather has cooled down since we have arrived and has dropped from 28 to 16 degrees. So I feel like its Vancouver weather minus all the rain.

I have tried hotpot once with a friend (thanks Mo) at a restaurant but having it home cooked by Echo made it taste so much better. Everytime I went into this large bowl I ended up finding more delicious vegetables at the bottom! The corn on the cob was a sweet touch with a variety of mushrooms, seafood, and tofu. I will have to get her secret sa cha sauce before I leave. This side sauce gives the meat and seafood added flavour with a combination of ginger, garlic, green onion. It would make an ideal marinate for cooking chicken or beef on the BBQ. As a side appie...I tried gwa bao (version of a Taiwanese burger) for the first time. The hint of a sweet peanut sauce with braised pork stood out for me...may be a notch higher than a typical western roast beef sandwich. All this typing of food is making me hungry. I wonder what the camping food will be like for the next 3 days? Are you free Echo? I think I 'm going to miss your home cooking.

I'm not good at thinking of titles

LONG DAY TODAY.

Or so it felt. I woke up late today...I woke up at 7:10 and somehow made it to school on time. I spent most of my day watching and participating in the dances for camp and it was fun, until I fell asleep AFTER nap time and I had trouble waking myself up after that.

Today, a random student said hi to me and started conversing with me. After a couple minutes I said something in Mandarin and he didn't notice until I said another phrase. He looked up incredulously at me and said, "YOU CAN SPEAK CHINESE? OH MY GAWD" and then started speaking rapid Mandarin with his classmates about how I could speak Mandarin. I find it amusing, actually. Because I can't speak very well and they seem to think it's good. During naptime, I learned how to write a few words in Chinese...as well as disrupt a few students from their nap.

I have a picture of poop on my camera. How...can someone possibly miss the toilet? Gross.

NEVER AGAIN WILL I WANT TO WATCH THAT MOVIE WE SAW TODAY.

Sorry movie theatre...for stealing a pair of your 3d glasses...I didn't realize we had to return them.

Huzzah INTERNET!

Sadly for the entire trip, my internet access was almost non existant.

Moving on, TAIWAN is so awesome.

Although their men seem to have problems with their control with their eyes. Of course I am referring to the many incedents that have happened to me on our many night market adventures. I guess in a way it is how Canada is so different from Taiwan, especially when it comes to what is considered normal temperature wise. At 25 degrees, in Taiwan we see fur jackets and people shivering, whereas I was sweating and wearing light clothing.

Culurally speaking, their customs here are quite similar to the Chinese way of life, that I live. The one thing that I didn't like or nessicarily understand was the abundance of deep fried foods here. For example, at McDonalds their Apple Pie is DEEP FRIED. I can see that deep frying is a quick and easy way to prepare food, but health wise, we can see the downsides. Living in Taiwan for a week has caused me to break out due to the sudden rush of fatty foods. It's a shame because their fruit is excellent and I only ever see it in bubble tea.

A downside to being in Taiwan is that physically, I am not suited to live here; my body temp is constiantly higher than that of anyone in any country. I can say that I'm unfortunately a furnace that never shuts off. As well, not being built like a average Asian makes life horribly difficult when it comes to shopping anywhere in this country. I am sad to say that our small/ medium in Canada is Taiwans Large/ Extra Large. It takes a tole of one's spirit when one sees clothes one believes would fit a child, made for fully grown adults.

I have grown to embrace their school life. two words : NAP TIME. Today was my first time experiencing such glory. In Canada, the class after lunch is filled with students nodding off or simply skipping to rest. Nap time is the smartest idea I have ever seen in my life. As well, the camping aspect of their school lives is much more inclusive as compared to our schools due to the fact that only special programs get to participate in such activities. Witnessing every class working hard to make up and teach dances to their peers was inspiring. I'm sure anyone could have seen the energy that was excreeted from our bodies when we joined in.

All in all, I'm just extremely grateful for this oppertunity to be given to us and that through meeting so many individuals in Taiwan, it has opened my eyes to the amount possibilities there are. Just from seeing students' english ability grow in such a short period of time from talking to us gives a sense of accomplishment and just glee for me.

Campings tomorrow. I can't wait! Eventhough I heard we wil be crawling in holes .......

You know you are in Taiwan when you make little kids want to run away and cry.

I do not know whether to laugh or take in personally that I made a little girl cover her eyes and try and get away from me today. For a second I thought she was going to cry and I am sure she would have if her mother wasn't there to "protect" her. White people are pretty common here, or common enough not to elicit too much attention for the most part, but we are definitely still an oddity for some...especially for young kids. I have gotten used to eliciting attention from curious teens as I walk down the hall and lots of random kids saying hi and starting random conversations...actually this last part has become one of the endearing things about Taiwan-the kids are friendly and genuinely interested in talking to you. These moments also give me a chance to try out some of my Mandarin..mostly for comedic effect rather than actual communication...sometimes I feel like its more of a comic routine than anything else. For example: Wo bu shi meiguoren...wo shi Jangaren (forgive my bad pinyin). This translates into I am not American. I am Canadian. Another one is Wo jiao James..My name is James. But by far the most important phrase I have leaned by far has to be: Keyi ni gaye wo kafe ma?...Can you give me a coffee?

There is one other curious thing about being a cultural minority: the white guy/girl nod.(Actually the existence of the white girl nod is more of a theory as I have never actually witnessed it. So far the phenomena seems to be limited to the male sex.) I am slightly perplexed why other white people who I do not know and may not even speak the same language as feel the need to give me the nod on the street based solely on the fact that we share the same color skin. Yes, honestly, I do look when there is another white person but I do not feel this is grounds for some kind of relationship or bond.

Though I have already said it once, I will say it again, the people in Taiwan have been nothing but friendly and enjoyable to be around. Now that we are coming to the end of the trip I realize it will be the relationships I have formed here and not any of the tourist destinations that will stand out in my mind and as well as the test of time.

First day of school

I feel like a gr 8 all over again, writing "first day of school" as the title.

School was extremely interesting... It's really strange how the teachers move around, rather the students. Class sizes are bigger, there's a sink outside the classroom, students have NAP TIME, they have 8 classes a day and lunch is served to their classroom in buffet dishes and they have to bring their own bowls. It's all very new to me and it's an interesting perspective. It makes sense in a way...It's environmentally friendly and it saves money. Maybe our school should learn to do something like that, seeing as the cafeteria is losing lots of money (haha).

Mandarin class is boring...just like at Tech. But Andy and his friend "Tongue" made it very entertaining! Tongue introduced me to the highlighter crayon, which I bought 3 of at 9x9 today. SO COOL! He was amused at me being amused at his crayon. Their English book reminds me of our French workbooks. I was flipping through Andy's English book and I found something funny.

First, the example said
Animal: Shark
Problem: Sharks are being killed unnecessarily
Action to take: I will stop drinking shark fin soup

This is what he filled in for his:
I laughed REALLY hard on the inside because I didn't want to disrupt the class. Apparently if I do I will 死 (die) because the teacher doesn't allow eating or playing with an electronic device or anything out the ordinary...of which my buddy was doing the first two.

9x9 was AMAZING. $8NT pens and pencils...at home those would cost $120NT. I did some school supplies shopping and now I am good to start school again : )

It's about 10PM right now, I should finish my Grad Transition assignments. See ya'll tomorrow! : )

Pretty interesting day

Mango

After our journey back from Taipei, I had "Mango" on the brain. It was a mango kind of day Lol. I enjoyed a mango yogurt smoothie, dried mangoes, and tried mango cashews for the 1st time, followed by some department store shopping at Dream Mall. It is the largest mall in Kaohsiung...one stop shopping for every consumer. I ended my evening with some well deserved shopping at a store called "Mango". A new store to me since we don't have one in Vancouver. It is a Penelope Cruz and sister clothing line. What a way to wrap up a long day of travel with some second wind at the mall. Definite soft spot :)

HAPPY V-DAY!