The conclusion of English time (and other tales)

The lack of writing can be attributed to a variety of reasons that all boil down to one main concern--there's only so many times one can write about getting lost without sounding pathetic.  That having been said I will share a rare story of success.

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?

Kid: It's Chinese time.  No more English time.

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.

Love truffles and train station agents.

The train station agents of Songshan station have taken the top slot of people I'd like to punch in the face.

This past weekend, armed with a plan of action involving an old street and a giant buddha statue, we set out for Changhua.  Securing breakfast(s) and milk tea, we headed to the information booth of Songshan station to double check our travel plans and what train to take.  Using the map on the counter and the few Chinese words we know that were applicable to the situation, we confirmed the 10:30 train as our means of travel; off to the ticket booth to ensure seating.  The 10:30 train had no available seats, and instead of standing or getting moved from chair to chair for three hours we opted for the later train to Dounan at 10:48.  It is important to note that in confirming this train as our means of transportation we checked to be sure we'd have seats, we pointed to Changhua on the map, we located Dounan was on the map and we, again, pointed to Changhua on the map.  The elderly agent confirmed that this was the train for us.

It was not the train for us.

An hour an half into the journey (and far too long after enjoying our breakfast(s)) we were asked to move from the seats of a new passenger.  Showing our tickets to prove that we were authorized to sit there, the woman informed us that we had missed our stop--the train was just beginning to pull away from our station.  The timing seemed off, but we had faith that we had stated our needs clearly to the agent--he wouldn't fail us.

He failed us.

The station that he had given us tickets for was only half of the distance we wanted.  Bottom line: We got handled...again.

We got off at Miaoli and began to wander, reflecting upon our luck during planned explorations in Taiwan--our poor, poor luck.  A co-worker, acting as spontaneous tour guide via phone, read that Miaoli was home to the art of wood-carving, and there was a museum to commemorate the work.  We couldn't find the museum (though we weren't looking too hard) and instead walked up and down the main drag of Miaoli--correction, the deserted-what we assumed to be main-drag of Miaoli.

The only establishment that has come through for us consistently in the last six months has been Carrefour, and its presence in this city was no different.  We took a jaunt through said establishment where we made friends with a man dressed as an Easter bunny.

 
 Beyond this photo, exploration Changhua was deemed a failure.

***

Note: 'Linsanity' may have puttered out in the U.S. (or so the grapevine/internet has informed me), but Taiwan hasn't gotten the message.  There remains to be a great competition among the students for whose team name gets to be the 'Knicks' or 'Team Lin' in classes.

In case you are unable to see it clearly, that's Spike Lee on the bottom left.

***

On a different note: I have an admirer in my level two class.  Last Friday night I received a box of truffles, for no particular reason.  Innocently assuming that these truffles were to commemorate the end of level two (the following week), or a teacher appreciation of some kind, I accepted with enthusiasm.  It wasn't until after the lesson that my co-teacher informed me that Wayne likes me.

I'm hoping to get more chocolate out of the kid before I have to break the news to him gently.

***

Random photo:

It's so much more than just a latte; it's a life message.  Thanks for the reminder, Hi-Life.

And our reward was a sandwich.

The sunshine was hard to deny, so we rented bikes.  The ride lasted forever (I estimate about twenty miles) but the end result was sandwiches, and thus, totally worth it.

This was the sunset on our way back:

A museum's worth of art.

Last week was chalk full of quizzes...and the inevitable student artwork that happens when they finish said quizzes.  I'd like to take the time to share some of my favorites.  Bottom line: I need to devote more class time to art.

I'm highly concerned with what's happening in the chest region, but let's not ignore the problem of my haircut.

This doodle was found on the phonics section of the quiz; I responded with my own.

Teacher Lindsay goes 'formal'.

I may have broken my leg in this photo, but I'm still winking like a pro.

Notice: my snakeskin dress; also, that snake has pigtails.

Influenced by the zombie-craze, this student nailed the likeness of my eyes and ears.

This kid has created his own "Angry Fish" game; he drew a cast of characters for me.

"Angry Fish": Level One

I don't know who the cook is, but I appreciate that all of that food only costs $50.

Childish games and nine vacation days left.

The break can be attributed to the twelve days I spent over-stimulating my baby nephew in South Carolina at the end of January.  As a result of said over-stimulation he can now play air guitar to Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock".  I firmly believe he is much better equipped for life with this particular skill.  But back to Taiwan I went, and the following is what has happened to me since I arrived:

• I poked a kid in the eye yesterday.  I didn't mean to, obviously, but in the heat of an intense game involving rolling a dice I gesticulated wildly and got him with my pinkie.  I felt terrible, but he was a trooper; I couldn't tell if he was more upset that he was blinded in one eye, or that he missed his turn to play (he seemed quite annoyed that he was made to sit-down).
• My wild and crazy class got into full swing after a two week break.  It was fun to see the kids again, but they didn't get any more tame with a break; I can feel my raspy throat happening already.  My goal of containing the craziness, whilst playing awesome games geared toward English learning and keeping the children's crying to a minimum is a continual challenge.  I am determined to perfect the art!
• In addition to the adorable shoes that I purchased at Hilton Head's Target, the best purchase has been the children's book Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom.  A classic from my childhood, I brought a copy back to the kindergarten class; it has become an instant favorite for them, as well.  The kids shout out, "Chicka chicka, boom boom!!!" when I cue, and they point out which letters of the alphabet their classmates' names start with.  It has become a fun daily activity and despite my attempted rotation of books during story time they request this one every time.  Success!
• Last weekend I attended Taipei's Lantern Festival at Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall.  The warm and sunny weather was a nice teaser of the Spring that is to come--staying inside was not an option.  Around the grounds of the hall there were floats of all things related to the year of the dragon (a badass year to choose to live in Asia, just sayin'); we walked around exploring, and I even got a flip-flop tan on my ghost-white feet (hopefully an omen of successes to come in the tanning department).  When we stumbled across a small child in a folded paper dragon hat that lit up, our mission became quite clear: secure possession of awesome dragon hat.  Ready, break!  We found them.  We wore them.  Mission accomplished.

• I've been teaching for four months now and, as it is a favorite word in my vocabulary, I have been calling my students "buddy" for as long.  Two days ago one of my students raised their hand and asked very seriously, "Teacher, what is 'buddy'?"  Perhaps I should address my other classes to clear up any confusion that this mysterious vocabulary word may have caused.  Poor kids have probably been so puzzled that I've been calling them all the same name.

The downside to smart students.

"Teacher, you wrote your 'k' carelessly."

~Treehouse student, a day after learning the adverb 'carelessly'

The great injustice of 2012 and a toilet bowl lunch.

I won a flat screen television at the year-end banquet this past weekend.  However, unbeknownst to me, there was a tiny box at the bottom of the raffle ticket I was supposed to check in order to officially win my prize.  So they put the ticket back.

What.  A.  Bummer.

I've tried to trick myself into thinking that a flat screen television would be a burden, and that I'm better off without it.  I'm not fully convinced yet.

***

Sunday afternoon.  Day of rest.  What better way to spend it than at 'Modern Toilet: the Restaurant'?  Please cue epic music.

The whole restaurant was decorated in bathroom decor, right down to the porcelain thrones we sat on.

Picking out what to order was a challenge, but everything came as a combination with a drink and some fro-yo; for an extra NT$30 (US$1) one's drink would be served in a take-home urinal...so that happened.  I didn't order the right thing, though.  The food was fine, but it arrived in a sink (observe my urinal, complete with bendy straw).

The other lunches arrived in style.

Who wouldn't want their chicken served in a black toilet?  Riddle me that.  While the side of rice came covered in a ceramic pile of dung, the hot beverages were served in toilet mugs.

The amount of security cameras around made one wonder how many times the dung-covers had been involved in attempted abduction.

While dining at this restaurant our group became "those Americans"...but we were too easily entertained to care.  So many poop jokes and, yet, it still didn't feel like enough.