This past Wednesday we were given a holiday in honor of "Children's Day" and sure, I had to make it up on Saturday morning, but Green Island adventure time! Maddie and I headed to the small island of Ludao, or Green Island, about twenty miles off of Taiwan's eastern coast; we read that a six hour train ride, half hour's bus ride (listed on the website as the 'DingDong' bus) and an hour on the ferry should get us there. Knowing (and embracing) full-well our less than stellar history with planned trips (please see previous posts) we did the research and headed to the train station the night before to purchase tickets for a 6 o'clock train ride (though our primary concern was finding breakfast so early in the morning).
"No seats. Too crazy." Really, not one seat? It's a six hour train ride, and we're twelve hours early! "Come back in the morning." I don't want to sound too paranoid about the Songshan's ticket counter intentionally sabotaging our plans, but it felt like they were intentionally sabotaging our plans. Nevertheless, we decided to heed the advice and try for seats in the morning.
Wednesday morning didn't feel any different than other days, but in retrospect I now realize that the sun did shine a little brighter, and the birds seemed to sing with more passion than usual. We were granted tickets with seats, the cafe inside the station was open (coffee and doughnuts were obtained, easing our breakfast concerns), and the train conductor reopened the doors for us when we took too long picking out said coffee and doughnuts resulting in a mad dash for the train. We were on our way. And we were winning.
Cut to eight hours later: We made it to Green Island. The hostel owner picked us up at the ferry, "You want scooters?" Yes, yes we do. She points to two scooters and hops on a third, "Follow me." We must have hesitated too long--she could tell. "How many times have you ridden?" We smiled sheepishly; Maddie held up one finger, while I just shook my head. "Oh, um, you need an international license. Sorry." As if the admission of our inexperience wasn't enough, we had to ride on the back of her scooter--for everyone to see. A long explanation via translator informed us that she would not rent to us if we didn't know how to drive (logical enough), so we wandered down the street to find another place from which to rent. Four shops later (we were convinced she was warning everyone via text that we were coming for them) we were given a driving test. Maddie passed, while I (promptly) failed. The man was very sensitive to my misgivings, and felt bad about denying me the transportation--I hopped onto the back of our lone scooter, and we were on our way.
NOTE TO READER: I did, in fact, master the art of scooter driving once the initial testing nerves abated.
The rest of our day and a half on the island was filled with cruising around, taking a million pictures of the same beautiful rocks, snorkeling (where fish ate bread out of our hands) and enjoying an early morning visit to the hot springs.
And the goats. There were so many mountain goats!
Mid-week adventure: success. It's hard to pretend like Taiwan didn't owe us one.
***
The following is a Friday afternoon conversation I had with a kindergarten student (whose name I cannot remember) that is not in my class:
Kid: Goodbye, Teacher Lindsay.
Me: Are you going home?
Me: Are you going home?
Kid: It's Chinese time. No more English time.
Scene.
Scene.
***
And now a story with kids who are actually in my kindergarten class. Edward was pushing in the bathroom line, so I pulled him out to the "Crazy People Line":
Me: Is pushing ok, Edward?
Edward: (silence)
Me: Is it ok to push your friends?
Peter: (barreling out of the bathroom, with his pants around his ankles) No pushing! Dangerous!
Me: So is running with your pants down; go wash your hands.
And scene.
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