Si' Down! I'm 85.

Road trip! Couple weekends ago I had the opportunity to hop in a car for a family road trip. Rest stops, Gas Stations, Stretching after 3 hour Jogs. All key parts of a road trip were involved, such that little of it, other than signs in Chinese, could have taken place anywhere. The whole weekend was accompanied by a comfortable feeling of familiarity, one that I attribute to the family experience. Many travel pictures, monuments and places, have a cold feeling for me; I'm sure this is doubly so for someone in another part of the world reading this. The sites from this weekend were heightened by a constant reminder of family.

Saturday morning, I left from Yilan in a small four-door reminiscent of my old Geo at home (except equipped with a much better stereo system - perfect for A-Mei or the Birthday Song on repeat).

****The Family****

Host Padre, James was in charge of driving (the whole time, all weekend, a would-be stressful task on some of these roads, completely taken in stride: Kendra tells me "he is used to it now, because I like to travel a lot. He always has to drive. He is used to it." See, marriage can train you to deal with anything.)

Mother is in the front seat, sings a good A-Mei, and keeps up the occasional conversation with James.

Cliff's a quiet (initially) 6 year old. He's got a Bo,Po,Mo,Fo study book, a Chinese picture book about the different colored shapes as they make their way to school, a deck of Pokemon cards (the game is: Dale throws a card, no matter the value, Cliff or Katie lay a card and it defeats my card, which is picked up by Cliff, and the other returned to Katie. I think I must not have understood the directions), some Concentrated plum candies to prevent car sickness, a pen, and that's about it. Amaaaazingly calm for 6 years old and 6 hours in the car. Of course there was lots of hide-and-seek, plenty of shifting around, the gradual tearing of all the pages in the Bo,Po,Mo,Fo study guide, and one exploding package of floss-picks, but overall a star in the car. We're fast friends and buddies by the end.

****He followed suit with me and took pictures the whole trip****

Katie and I get a window, and he sits in the middle. She was delegated to hold most of his toys and books, while I just had to lose the Pokemon card game. I think I got the better deal.

3 1/2 hours gets us to Taizhong for lunch (whoops, meat in the Mushroom pasta; sorry Katie), and a walk around DongHai University. It's a beautiful campus with a notable chapel on the grounds, and was perfect for a stretch of the legs.

****DongHai University 東海大學****

****Cliff stretching his legs and lungs****

****The Luce Chapel at DongHai U****


****Kendra resting on the wall****
****Family enjoying the afternoon****

We met Kendra's younger brother, young daughter, and wife, who recently had a baby. The mother is staying at a Month Long Rest Home for recent mothers. It's traditional for mothers or siblings to take complete care of recent mothers, either directly caring for the newborn and mother, or taking care of previous children to give the mother plenty of time for rest. The rest homes are available for 3000NT a day (less than 100USD) and offer hotel like services (internet, television, comfortable quarters) as well as complete nursery/baby care for the time. I'm surprised these kinds of facilities are not available in the US. If they are, I haven't heard of them. There is a great emphasis on family in Taiwan, and subsequently a large degree of support for new mothers. They know they aren't alone.

****Cliff and his Cousin (the not-so recently born one)****
****中科月子中心： month-long rest center****

Leaving the new mother at the center, the family went to a Batting Cage/Game Center in Taizhong. Pocketful of jingling tokens and I tried the slow-pitch softball, fast-pitch softball, and 140KM fast-pitch baseball. I was sore two days later still (amazing how that twisting accesses little used muscles. maybe more amazing how little I ever work out). I did manage to hit one foul ball in the 140KM round. Not an easy task. Miniature scotch-bowling, target practice, and air hockey were also included.

****Katie in the Batting Cages: "I can hear my dad's voice, 'choke up on the bat, Katie...' " ****

The drive continues for a few more hours until we arrive in Nantou, for dinner with Kendra's mom, dad, and sister. All You Can Eat Hot Pot is a staple in Taiwan. Return as many times as you like to the shelves of vegetables, meats, and seafoods. Supplement with dumplings, salads, and 小吃 or "small eats" and finish with (more than one) dessert. Gluttony has a place for 6-7USD.

We spent the night at Kendra's younger brothers home, where grandpa and grandma are staying to help take care of the young one while mom recovers. Kendra's father is a wonderful and impressive (I can't stress this enough) nature photographer, and we spent a couple of hours over tea looking at three books he brought from a library full of photo albums at home. Absolutely gorgeous! Almost as pleasing as the photographs (nightscapes, mountainsides, waterfalls, lotus flowers, Alishan cherry blossoms) is the chance to talk camera-shop, all in Chinese. I managed to exchange about aperture settings, shutter speeds, intentional blurriness, composition, etc. with only minimal moments lost in translation. It's amazing how a language will work for you when you are in a natural setting and really interested in communicating.

Kendra's father suggested he take me out to nearby Sun Moon Lake at 4:30am the next morning to catch morning photographs, a most gracious offer that I accepted. The weather was not so great for photographs (a heavy fog all over), but I tried a few tricks (mostly just a tripod and one double exposure) that we had talked about the night prior.
****It was a chilly morning for a swim****

****Cold Harbor Swimming****
****Sun Moon Lake Pavilion****
****Bird on a Boat****
****There were lots of Buddhist monks out in the early morning, the younger ones with smiles****


****Happily borrowed bicycles********Morning Stretches****

****There were also the remnants of some get-togethers from the night before, prior to groundscrew intervention****

The family (minus grandparents) returned to Sun Moon Lake in the afternoon, where we visited the large Confucian Wenwu Temple. It was built in 1938 and is frequented by people praying for luck in things from tests to family health.

****Prayer decorations with personal prayers written on them****

****This animated Terracota Warrior stood guard outside. He leaned over for a thumbs-up as this curious young woman stared on****
****Ladies with Temple Statue****

Lots of nice color in the temple area as well:



****Katie at the Lake****

Sun Moon Lake is home to some of the Shao or Ita Thao people, one of Taiwan's indigenous groups. Kendra's family belongs to the Atayal group, another group found in the NE and Central parts of Taiwan.

****Beneath an Ita Thao sign (set up in the community for tourists). James tells us the picture represents a Thao story about how owls are signs of fast-approaching births, and thus are auspiciously associated with fertility in the community. Note the owl and woman in the background. Also note Cliff and his camera*****

****This woman was happy to tell us of younger days of dancing and singing****
****"Si' Down! I'm 85. I'll tell you a story. I'm 85. 85.****
****"That's me in the picture. That's me. I'm 85. That's me."****

****Demonstration of the Song and Dance miss 85 talked about doing when younger****
****Much of indigenous culture receives a tourist's interest in Taiwan, where rituals and celebrations are held pin public view and supplemented with keychain sales. It is not unlike the attempts of many minority/dwindling cultures to survive****
****Economic hardships and a history of inequality make the recycling bins look like those of Native American Reservations in the US****
****Thao from some years ago****
****1, 2, 3 in Thao****
Post-Sun Moon Lake was simply a few brief stops on the way home, a long enough nap for Cliff to stay up nearly the rest of the way home (11 pm), and the beautiful, drained, return-feeling of a long weekend.

Big thanks and hugs to Katie for inviting me along.

Competitions: English, Easy Go!

****Gong Jheng Elementary 2007 English Easy Go Reader's Theater Group****

Competitions are a major part of school life here. Students are frequently involved in oral speech competitions and presentations of various sorts, encouraged to memorize all their lines and work on presentation, include formal bows and welcoming gestures. Some few it as a chance to intensely learn about one aspect of a subject. For others, it's a personal drive to be number one. Where the drive comes from is debatable, as behind every good speech competitor is a doubly-so fervent set of parents.

I was a judge at a 6th grade public speech competition in my Elementary school the other day, and being a teacher at the same school I was able to see part of the process leading up to the final 3 minute talk. 2 months ago I was asked to write a series of short sample essays based on prompts, so that students could have a sort of rough rubric. I was set to present these to the competitors (2 students from every 6th grade class = 22) and spend part of the lunch break brainstorming additional topics.

Most of the students came armed with complete essays. Most were written by fluent older siblings or foreign cram school teachers. One was printed with a date whited-out up top and a blank for a name in the introductory sentence. I realized quickly that this competition had little to do with writing.

The essays they had were all very difficult, grammatically, and contained a lot of tough metaphorical language. The following weeks were spent memorizing their speeches, which they then tried to reproduce word for word, pause for pause, long vowel for long vowel on competition day.

Asked to speak to the students as a group after the competition, I took the time to tell them that they had excellent pronunciation, and demonstrated a clear ability to use the language from a technical standpoint. Their weakest point was presentation. This applied to to those who dressed up, broadcasted a booming voice, had timed and rhythmic hand motions to accompany words, and even whipped out props like the Elder Wand and Resurrection Stone from the latest Harry Potter. There was zero audience connection, despite all the time devoted to the presentation aspect. I told them that they should think about what they want to convey to their audience, and try to figure out how to win us to their side, make us their friends during their talk. I told them the most important thing is certainly not word for word repetition.

I also asked one of the other judges to translate for me. I'm positive the kids didn't catch the gist of everything I said. The judge consented to me, but conveniently left out the point about memorization and natural connection. My comprehension is lousy, but I can understand enough Chinese to tell whether the gist of a sentiment is passed on or not.

So, that's a bit about competition culture for an introduction. Two weeks ago, Yilan County hosted the Fall portion of their annual English, Easy Go! Competition(not sure about the punctuation on it; never really made sense to me). It is open to all schools in Yilan County (maybe about 35 participants?) and the Fall session includes a Reader's Theater competition and a Song and Dance Competition.

Gong Jheng Elementary had been practicing a Reader's Theater performance for a long time. Again, priorities seemed slightly askew from what I would consider important for Reader's Theater in English. I would have spent the time emphasizing each students individual English ability by offering more complex dialogue and a greater depth in characters (more emotion). Our school rented costumes. "Rabbit and Turtle New Running Race". It was pretty cute though, and the kids did a great job. 3rd place for this part. The school also took 1st in the song and dance competition with "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" (the competition was divided into large and small school heats - 1800 kids makes us a large one). Here are a couple of photos from the event.

****A Not-So-Excited Rabbit****

****Judging***
****Monkey and Turtle-Bride (Kevin was the Bride)****

****Monkey****


****Back on the Bus****

Halloween: Kids and Big Kids

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


So here is Halloween in Taiwan in two sets: Kids and Big Kids.

Halloween isn't really celebrated here except by the expat community and in some English curricula. Most of the ETAs had some sort of commitment with the school to put on a costume and get the kids to say "trick or treat"; Laura, for example, has a costume runway show.

My school is a bit too big for that kind of special attention, but I was part of a now 4 year Halloween tradition. A group of 10 or so student teachers work in different grades throughout the school. All of us assembled early in the morning, costumed up, and began the journey to the classrooms.

8 Periods.
70 some classrooms.
1800 kids.
3600 pieces of candy.

Kids are encouraged to wear costumes and spook us back.

Night On Bald Mountain was on repeat for the larger part of the day.

The process was as follows:
****Get Ready****


****Grab some Candy**** (not my pic)

****Fall in Line****(not mine)

****Sneak Up****(not mine)

****Spook (or in this case, pillage and maim)****(not mine)

****Offer Candy in exchange for "Trick or Treat: Happy Halloween!"****(not mine)

So Halloween here is a clearly simulated process. One example of it's diffusion as it bounces back and forth across the continents via popular media is the appropriateness of costume. In Taiwan, a fan of horror flicks with pale ghosts with black teeth (as is a lot of Asia), Halloween is a time for the spookiest costume. There are a few obligatory fairy wings and of course, Spider-man or the Latest-adapted-to-film-superhero-joe-schmoe costume. However, most people my age that I talked to about selecting an outfit did not have as broad a concept of Halloween Costume as do most people I know from home.

We love to play the nerd. We love to put on a box and say "From: God, To: Women". There is humor in it. There's a lot about dressing as other, donning a new personality for the evening, and being someone unfamiliar even to ourselves.

Here, it's more about being something dead, dying, or just spooky. The kick isn't so much dressing up as other, but dressing up as scary. It's a subtle difference that I noted only in (one or two) failed attempts to participate in the student teachers' planning process. They were all picking out costumes and thinking about concepts, and I realized quickly that suggesting cowboy or nerd wasn't really going anywhere with them.
****Lot about Being Dead**** (not mine)

Best Class to Spook:
5th Grade Girls Dance Team - they were rehearsing in the basement dance studio, a large room full of echoes, mirrors, and only the little half-size windows near the building foundation. Lights off, Night on Bald Mountain on, and they were off and running. Terrified little herds of leotards panicking into the corneres. They'd try to split up and we'd catch 'em in 2's or 3's; sticking together they were doomed to a mass execution in the corner. Nothing but the dust settling in the slivered light from the basement windows. The perfect midday massacre.

****3rd Grade Angel Class - Dance Team****

So, that was Halloween in school for me. Big Kids like Halloween, too.

Here are some pictures from the less-mature of the Halloween celebrations I had this week:
****Spooks****
****Decadent Lifestyle****


****Rawkstar****

Rooftop

****21st floor of my apartment building on a typically cloudy night.****