Venturing Around Nearby Places

Last weekend Matthew and I decided to try and fix up some old bicycles that have been abandonned at our place. We got them cleaned up and in working condition, well, as long as you don't want to change any gears that is. We cycled around Erlin, and mostly ventured in the direction away from the downtown core. We came across a lot of green. I was actually a bit surprised at how many farms there are, and how many different types of crops people seem to grow. Some of the stuff I could not identify, but they each had some pretty intricate looking irrigation systems. I am sure there was a bit of trespassing on our part, but I feel like no one really cares too much about that here. I do not know what kind of plant this is, it's not very tall, I was crouching down when I took the picture, but there were quite a few farms with these crops. You wouldn't be able to tell that there are so many farms from our place. We live pretty close to the downtown core (and within a week or two will be in the downtown core), but a 5 minute bike ride will get you to farmland. It's as if someone decided that the apartments and townhouses would stop at a certain pointt, and behind them would be farms. It's a bit odd. We get the noise associated with city life, yet, a bike ride 5 minutes away will get you the peaceful sound of nothing. We didn't see any cows or big animals. Most of them seem to only have crops and a couple had some chickens. We did find one farm that specialized in raising duck and one for frogs, but other than that we didn't see any traditional farm animals, so the smell of poop wasn't really a factor, excluding the chicken ones.

We continued to venture towards the outskirts of the township and we found a cute little temple but it was closed. I am not sure if it is still in service, it was located in the middle of nowhere right beside a river. It wasn't too far from a deer farm we found. The deer farm was depressing though. Essentially, it's a place where they raise a lot of deer, pen them up in tiny cages; they don't have enough room to move, just stand there in the same position all day, and then kill them. They kill them for meat but they also make some kind of drink from the deer as well. I have no idea what kind of drink or whether it is alcoholic or not. It is of a light brown colour and is sold in bottles that resemble wine bottles. We didn't stay long there, just long enough to realize what the place was about.

Our bicycle ride came to a halt when people were stopping traffic and loud music was playing. We thought it was parade, so we figured we'd wait and watch it. It wasn't very long, but there were big drums, costumes, fireworks, the whole nine yards. At one point we thought perhaps it was a funeral because of some of the traditional things they were doing, like burning paper money. When someone dies, or when you visit their grave, you bring offerings so they can have these things in heaven. For example, you would leave some fresh fruit at the grave, or you can buy this paper money that you burn so the deceased person will have money to spend in heaven. During this parade, they made a big pile of this money in the middle of the intersection, and then they set it on fire and left it there! The only thing that made us doubt the funeral idea was that everyone looked too happy. We watched it all until they turned down an alley, and then we continued onwards. We came across a huge space of rice fields and when we were almost home we found a temple that looked fairly new. It is very small and hidden between small traditional houses along narrow roads. The sun was starting to set so we decided to head home and Matthew was very unsure how much longer his bicycle would last; we almost didn't make it.


The next day we headed to the nearby city of Changhua. I had wanted to see the big Buddha, also known as the Buddha of Baguashan; it is 100 feet tall and you can walk inside of it, climb to the top and get a beautiful view from the eyes and ears of the statue. We took a bus to Changhua, and walked to the buddha, there was a little hike involved as it is located atop Mount Bagua. I got quite the exercise that day as well as a ton of mosquito bites. I do not understand how I can be that much tastier than Matthew, he seems to have gotten none. There were a couple of temples to see and a great view of the city. The weather was nice, it was a little overcast, but no rain. The buddha was huge and within it were some gods you can pray to, as well as some statues depicting some scenes of Buddha's life. We kept climbing narrow staircase after narrow staircase as I had told Matthew that we are supposed to be able to get a breathtaking view of the city from the head, as according to National Geographic. We were both surely disappointed as the top floor was closed off. No view from the eyes and ears for us that day.

We headed back out the buddha and looked at the nearby temples. Matthew tried to set up a picture with us standing at each of the elephant statues located near at the entrance. He didn't want to ask someone to take the picture for him, so he set up his tripod and everything. He shoots with film, so we never know if the picture was a good one or not. He put the camera so far away, because he wanted to get the whole temple, that he had to run like mad in order to be next to the statue before the shutter went. He tripped on the first attempt and totally botched that picture; the locals got quite a good laugh out of that. And so we had to try a couple more times, as we didn't hear the shutter click the next time. Eventually we got it. After exploring the temple, we found a koi pond, and in case you didn't know, I seriously enjoy feeding fish. It's kind of weird, but I always have lots of fun feeding them; so simple.


After I had my fill of fish we headed back down to the city and went for Teppanyaki; you sit down and they cook in front of you. It is considered Japanese fast food here and it's pretty cheap. Matthew is obsessed with it and he hasn't found a place in our town, so anytime we our elsewhere we have Teppanyaki. After being stuffed with chicken, beef, cabbage and beer, we hopped on the bus and headed home.

Coming to the End of Training

The first two weeks of work are over, which is almost all of my training. This week I've begun teaching with an assistant and I must admit, I've been a little nervous. It's not that I get nervous talking in front of people, because that doesn't really bother me; it's more about the students. It has been a weird experience being here as there seems to be mix responses about me, everyone seems to know that I'm a foreigner, but a lot of them are constantly asking me if I speak any Chinese. The only time I am mistaken for a Taiwanese is when I am standing next to Matthew; maybe it's my eyes. The school is interesting. The classrooms are for the most part small, but then again, there doesn't tend to be too many students to a class; I think 15 has been the maximum number I have seen yet.

I always thought I would prefer to teach older students as they would be less trouble; it would be easier because they would already have the basics down so I wouldn't have as much of a language barrier problem. This is untrue. I have taught two classes of teenaged students and they were not easy. It's not that they are mouthy or unruly or anything like that. They are very well behaved and they are very outgoing with their Chinese/domestic teacher, but when I take over they become very quiet and reserved. At first I wondered if my accent makes them nervous or maybe they don't understand me. The last foreign teacher was from South Africa so he certainly did not have the same accent. I've come to realize that they fear not being good enough with their English abilities only around me. When I was finished with my lesson I sat in and observed the rest of that class, and when their Chinese teacher took over they were back to being social. I should tell you that when I say their Chinese teacher, I mean a Taiwanese person takes over but they teach the students in English, so they are always speaking in English, not in Chinese. The students seem to do fine when communicating in English with the domestic teachers, but not me.

The younger students are actually amazing! They are so enthusiastic and they are not yet afraid of making mistakes so they try and participate in class. This is very good news for me, because I am unable to see how much or how well each student is doing if they refuse to say anything. The younger ones are a bit exhausting though because I have to play so many games with them, they love to stand and run around, but the rooms are so small we have injuries on a daily basis. It's okay though, they're young and bounce back quickly.

This week looks to be my last week of training but my schedule looks like I will be the busiest teacher there. Unlike the others who have specific classes they teach and they always have the same students, I jump around everywhere. Some teachers even stay within a certain age range, so they only ever teach the young ones or maybe only the older ones who are preparing for college. I however, move around all over the place. I only ever teach new vocabulary, and maybe some dialogue or grammar. I never teach the K.K. which is what they call the pronunciation or the sounds certain letters make. I teach all levels of classes all over the place. Some teachers have maybe three classes a day (and that's a lot for them) but then the next day they don't have any and just hold office hours. If my training schedule is anything like my teaching schedule, I will have a minimum of two classes a day. Unlike the domestic teacher, when I make a lesson plan, I have to consult with the domestic teacher to make sure I will not teach something she (they are all women) wants to teach. I am supposed to have 25 teaching hours a week and hold 12 office hours a week, so having a meeting with the co-teacher (domestic) is probably the most difficult task. They are pretty busy themselves and after school hours, they want to get out of there, but I have something to do or at least be somewhere at every minute of the day, so planning a meeting with them tends to happen between something or at the end of the school day. On average I have been leaving work about an hour to an hour and a half after school closing time. I am hoping that things slow down or I may have to get used to a very hectic schedule. At least I only work 5 days a week!

The Move

I had a subbing gig on my birthday in Hsinchu. That was quite the experience. I taught three different classes, all of which had a vast difference in student behaviours even though they were all roughly the same age. It went pretty well though, and it was really nice to make some cash. I must say that some schools here make it very easy to teach. This place had a manual that broke down everything and told me what to do. And I mean EVERYTHING. Like, step one: teach them a basic meaning of the following words and go through spelling as they will have a speeling quiz next Wednesday. Step two: blah blah blah. Step 3: Play a game with them: Pick two students and have one close their eyes and the other describe a student sitting, and have the student with their eyes closed guess which student is being described (that's right, it even said exactly what kind of game to play with instructions). It was so simple. I'm pretty sure absolutely anyone could teach at some schools here. After I got paid, in cash which is super convenient, we went out to dinner. We hit up a proper Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor and it was damned delicious! In case you didn't know, I really like Japanese food and could probably eat sashimi every day of the week. However, this was definitely a splurge kind of meal as that bill alone was significantly more than what we had spent on that whole week's worth of food (but it was worth it)!

The next day we decided to try the lantern festival again. Yet again we did not get to see any lanterns get released into the sky, but we did get to see the massive lanterns that had been submitted to the national contest. Some of them were ridiculously large. I have no idea how long some of these must have taken to construct, like this Gundam Wing character. It was still a pretty interesting night nonetheless.

Sunday afternoon we decided we needed to head back to Taipei to get the rest of our stuff. We stayed at the lovely hostel near Taipei Main Station that we had been to a few weeks prior. All I can say, we spent are night restlessly trying to kill mosquitoes who had woken us from our slumber. Although we killed many, with blood smears on the wall as proof, we still got eaten alive. I have a disgusting amount of red bumps and I also have this terrible habit of scratching them until my skin is raw. After that fiasco, it was time to catch the local train to Yuanlin. The train ride was just under three hours, but it was certainly worth it; beautiful views and the prospect of a job, visa and free accommodations for a year is great. Matthew seems to be in love with Taipei, perhaps because it is the largest city on the island, or perhaps it is because his old high school mate lives there. I, however, must disagree. Everytime we travel south, I like the more southern area better. Erlin is located in Changhua County, just south west of the city with the same name. It's about a 2hours and 45min drive south of Taipei, and a 2hours and 50mins drive to the southern most city. So, we are pretty close to half way on the west coast. The weather has been beautiful since arriving here, nothing under 22 degrees celcius thus far. And this is winter and apparently one of the coldest months; there hasn't been any rain here either (unlike Taipei).

On Monday we got aquainted with our "temporary" dorm room. It was occupied by the last foreign teacher and I swear it had never been cleaned. We also found out that the showerhead was clogged and the water leaked from the bathroom into the bedroom. But don't despair! We got a new room, one floor above it! Matthew spent the day cleaning it but it looks great, and the last tenant (a female) kept it clean and had even bought some things for it, like a wardrobe and a new showerhead. This apartment may also be a temporary one as a newer building will be available on April 1st. It is currently under renovations. I am hoping that it is nicer or at least bigger as this room will probably get to be a tight fit with two people living here. I anticipate we will get in each other's space within the month. This week I have been in training at my job and so far so good. People are pretty chill and super friendly and are always willing to help others in any way.