Week Three and the Promise of KTV

We are halfway through week three here at ICA. Everything has been a whirlwind so far, but each day is getting easier and easier. Thank goodness for the support of wonderful coworkers and friends here in Taiwan and the endless words of encouragement from my family and friends back in the states. Without these things, I’m not sure what I’d do.

I love my classes. I see a group of ninth graders first hour for Literature class and then I see a group of eighth graders fifth and seventh hour for Literature and Language Arts. The great thing about my schedule is that I can plan fifth and seventh hour as a block period. This means that whatever we don’t cover in fifth hour can be pushed to seventh hour. Thank goodness for this because every day is different with that group. Some days they want to work very hard and other days it’s like pulling teeth. I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to see them twice in one day because I can guarantee that the important lessons and activities will be covered.

The hardest part about my classes is the range of students I have in each class. I am not alone in this struggle as these groups of students travel together all day, so all of the teachers have this challenge as well! Because of this, there is such a sense of community across the departments. I meet with the math teacher almost daily to discuss our classes. 

The fact that an English teacher and a math teacher can coordinate plans that benefit both classes and all students is absolutely amazing. I feel really bad for any teacher out there who feels they cannot approach a teacher in another department because of the content covered in each class.

I have also been given the amazing opportunity to teach my very own ESL class! It consists of five of the eighth graders I see twice a day plus one other eighth grader who is in the upper-level eighth grade classes. For the last couple of weeks we have been playing English games and getting to know each other and getting more comfortable with the small group. This week, we’re going to be diving into vocabulary skills. I've contacted their content teachers and have collected vocabulary and assessment plans so I can incorporate that information into my class with them. 

This is where cross-curricular coordinating and communication plays the biggest role because I have to communicate with seven different teachers for this group of six students. Whew!

Break dancing has been very fun as well! I only have four students in the club right now, but I have been assured from a number of people that once varsity volleyball ends, I will gain four or five more boys who were in the club last year. The four I have right now are very hard working and extremely talented. We have a teacher come to campus to teach techniques and tricks and combinations and all of the students are picking it up so fast- I’m so proud! I love interacting with them and joking around. I am looking into local competitions for the spring and possibly getting off campus to do some performances at nearby facilities (elementary schools, The Down Syndrome Association, etc.) to get the school’s name out there and to get my dancers something to look forward to!

Other than that, the teachers have been spending time together in and out of school to get to know each other better. This last weekend, I went hiking at the Dakeng Scenic Area trails. It's a twenty minute scooter ride to get to the parking lot up in the mountain and then the trails took us three hours to complete. My calves are still screaming (and yes, I've still worn my heels to work each day) but the view and the work out were completely worth it. 

A few friends did this trail during summer, so rumors of these trails have made their imprint in my brain. I've wanted to do this hike for a long time now so I feel a true sense of accomplishment and I can't wait to do it again!

This is the view from the top of Trail 5

This is halfway up Trail 2

This is the trail/stairs we used for the entire 3-hour hike. Sometimes the ground was right below the logs, sometimes it was a steep decline to our death. But the railings were reinforced (Carrie) and we didn't die.

Tonight, I have been invited to go to dinner with some English teachers to a dumpling restaurant! Supposedly it is one of the best restaurants in the world so my expectations are quite high. And there was the promise of a KTV cab ride on the way there, so that raises the bar quite a bit more.

Learning from What I'm Missing

In the first six weeks of being here, I have missed a lot of things back home that I have never missed out on before. Besides two close friends' weddings, I have missed out on even closer friends' birthdays, Irish Fest, State Fair, family vacations, a great summer job, Milwaukee summer nightlife, and countless other things. These are things that are traditions, things that my family covets and have truly taken to heart now that my brother and I are old enough to appreciate them as adults.

The hardest part, by far, of being here is not spending time in Presque Isle with my family. This is the first time in 15 years that I will not be going up north to the beautifully secluded Presque Isle Lake, but, fortunately, I will be able to return next summer when I am home for a few months.

I've said before that I define myself by the people in my life, friends and family, and the adventures we share. Reminiscing about past events, those being from years ago or escapades from the night before, have helped me become the person I am today. I have also said that I have to change my priorities and define myself by what I do with my life and who I encounter on these new adventures. I have been trying really hard to do this, and so far have been successful, but I also don't want to let go of what has gotten me here today.

In the first six weeks of being here, I have made friendships that will never be replaced or forgotten, I have seen things that some people have only seen on the Travel Channel or on the internet, I have taught in my own classroom for four weeks, have made connections with students that some only dream about in their methods classes, I have become even more independent in a new country where I barely speak the language, and I am so proud of myself.

On top of being a first year teacher, which is hard in and of itself, I am thousands of miles away from my family. The furthest I have ever been from them is two hours by car (my trip to London doesn't count because I was coming home in a week.) During my last year of college, when classes were overwhelming or I just wanted an escape, I would pack up the car with my laundry and my homework and head home for a couple nights. I was able to relax, turn off my brain for 48 hours, leave my phone in my bedroom, and be completely secluded from the stresses and responsibilities of methods classes and student teaching.

I don't have that luxury here. If I want to be by myself, I lock myself in my "apartment/dorm room," which will soon be surrounded by hormonal teenage girls 24/7. My second option is to go for a drive on my scooter and find a place to relax and read in the city, which so far has been a wonderful escape and I plan on continuing this during the regular school year whenever I can. There are amazing book stores here where people sit on the floor just to read a new book. The atmosphere is wonderful and the selection is mind-blowing so I can see this becoming a weekly escape.

In the next couple of days, the rest of our teachers will be returning from their trips and we will all be reunited again, everyone ready to exchange stories and inside jokes that were created on our different adventures. In less than a week, orientations and meetings commence with returning teachers- department meetings, time to lesson plan, house meetings, floor meetings, everything a teacher has to go through at the start of the new school year. I will have the privilege of being a part of two different departments- English and ESL/Student Services. I can't wait to see the differences between the two and use the strengths from both to progress into an even more helpful and well-rounded teacher for my students.

Every struggle that we face in life helps us become the person we are meant to be. Some of us go through different struggles at different times in our lives, or different struggles altogether, than the people sitting next to us. It's important to not let those hard events define who we are, but rather help guide us to be a better person who has a better, more well-rounded take on life. I have grown so much since moving to Taiwan, as an individual, as a friend, and as a teacher, and it's only been five weeks. I can't wait to see where my experiences take me in the next ten months.

Four Weeks in..

Today is the four week anniversary of being here in Taiwan. I love it here more than I imagined; the people are wonderful (both who I work with and the citizens), the landscape is breathtaking, the school is up-to-date, the students are hard-working, and the fruit it to die for. Oh and the bubble tea- probably the best part of being here is the bubble tea. It is black tea with milk and tapioca pearls. Basically delicious.

Coming here has been the best decision I've made thus far in life. At first, I wasn't sure how everything would work out, if I would get along with my coworkers, if I wasn't ready to be a teacher, or if I wasn't strong enough to live this far from my family.

But being here for four weeks has changed my perspective on a lot of things, which is surprising because I thought I changed a lot during my semester of student teaching. During that time, I learned how to prioritize and focus energy on things that mattered. I am very thankful for learning how to do that because I have to practice this on a daily basis here in Taiwan. Turns out I am definitely strong enough to live here, definitely ready to be a teacher, and definitely get along really well with my coworkers. But all of those things don't take away from the fact that I miss my family more than words can describe. Like I said, I can prioritize. And until now, I have been so busy teaching and getting to know my new friends that I really didn't have time to miss home. Unfortunately, summer school is winding down and now I have more time to think about the people and things I left behind.

I miss being able to call my parents whenever I want just to talk about silly little things that happened during the day. We are making it work with the thirteen hour time difference but it was just such a habit when I lived in Wisconsin that sometimes I still reach for the phone like I'm going to call or text them and then have to put it back down. It's a hard habit to break.

I'm extremely fortunate that I have the relationship with my parents that I have. Sometimes they take on the role of friends rather than the role of parents, but when the time and situation calls for it, they step up and resume the role they were meant to take. My parents are two people who were brought into this world to raise a loving and supportive family. It's in their DNA. Both come from loving and supportive families so having one of their own is natural and easy.

It's because of them that my brother and I are so close. E and I can talk about anything and hang out for hours and pick up right where we left off after not talking for a couple weeks. I love spending time with my brother because, once we both got to college, we were able to stretch out and become our own people. Amazingly, we didn't spread too far out where we didn't have anything in common anymore. It's like we spread apart but still moved forward parallel to one another so our close relationship hasn't changed, just who we are individually, all for the better.

Before I left, I was asked "Why are you moving to Taiwan?" more often than I care to admit. The question wasn't because they were interested in my answer; they couldn't understand why I would ever want to do something so drastic with my life. When I got here, and started posting updates and photos online for friends and family to see, the support from back home was overwhelming. I pride myself on not caring what people's opinions of me are, but to know that I have a support group back at home cheering me on is a feeling no one will understand unless they do what I am doing.

I started writing this post as a sad, I miss my family a lot, pity party, but have come to the realization that this is normal and it is going to happen. As of right now, my parents are planning on coming to visit me during my spring break and, honestly, that week cannot come soon enough. 240 days!

Ordering Pizza

Overall, everyone I have come into contact here is so nice. I have been out and about quite a bit for only being here two and a half weeks, but there's definitely truth to the fact that a smile goes a very long way. 

When walking on the street, people automatically stare at us because we don't look like them, but by simply smiling at them and saying "Hello, how are you?" ("Nǐ hǎo,") and "Thank you!" ("Xièxiè"), not only do we get a smile in return, but sometimes they will keep talking to us in Chinese with a huge smile on their face!

We quickly had to learn how to say "Sorry" ("bào qiàn") and "I don't know a lot of Chinese," ("Wǒ kěyǐ shuō yī diǎndiǎn zhōngwén") and then they say something back to us, still smiling, and then we wave, and then they smile and say more things, and then we slowly turn and walk away, still smiling of course. 

For all we know, they're saying "How could you come here and not speak the language?!" But everyone is so nice here that they mean it in the nicest way possible because they physically can't stop smiling at us.
Another great thing about living here with the people I live with is that two of them are very tall. This is a short man's country. Tall people are hard to come by in Taiwan. When we went to Carrefour last week, the children could not stop staring at our tall ones. I'm pretty sure people have already taken pictures of them while we have walked on the street.

And the cherry on top is little kids' reactions to seeing any of us in public places. Groups of them will run up to us and say "Hello!" and then we will exclaim "Hello!" and then they will run away giggling. 

We are basically celebrities.

Until we have to order pizza... then we are the worst people in the world.

Last night, a group of us were craving pizza, and in denial of the cafeteria food, so we went over to the apartments and attempted to order pizza online. I navigated to the Domino's webpage but when I got there, I had no idea what it said, obviously. My Chinese-reading ability extends to "you," "one," "two," "three," "he/she," and "exit."

So, after staring at the screen for about fifteen minutes and making guess-clicks on pictures that looked delicious, we decided it was in the best interest of the group of we had someone who spoke the language do it for us.

We called one of the R.A.s on duty and asked him to go to the main office and have one of the secretaries call us so we could ask her. It sounds very confusing, but at the time it actually worked. Tina called us and we asked her to order 5 large pizzas for us, one cheese, one pepperoni, and three sausage and pepperoni. She made the call and told us that she would give them our number to call when they had arrived at the apartments.

Jeff's phone went off about 30 minutes later. We had the total amount ready to go so Shannon and Chris went downstairs to make the exchange. When they came back upstairs, they had two medium pizza boxes, three small pizza boxes, and one miniature box filled with chicken wings. And a 1.25L of Coca-Cola.
Apparently, the delivery boy wouldn't take 400NT of our original price so Shannon and Chris came upstairs with change, which we happily divided among the group.

About 25 minutes and six full bellies later, Jeff's phone rings and he answers. Domino's wanted their 400NT back. Unfortunately, the man on the other end of the line didn't speak English and Jeff only knows "Bù" ("no") and "bào qiàn" ("sorry") so those words kept flying all over the place. The phone calls didn't stop there. They kept calling and calling and calling until the last phone call was another teacher who was letting us know that our delivery boy was downstairs with our pizzas. 

I took my phone and went downstairs and he basically said that we owed him 400NT. After agreeing that we did not get the order that we asked for, we still had to pay him.**

**THIS IS NOTHING LIKE AMERICA. IF THE COMPANY MAKES THE MISTAKE, THE CUSTOMER HAS TO PAY THE PRICE AGREED UPON.

Culture shock at its finest, folks.

While Shannon went back upstairs to get the money, I talked with the delivery boy for a little bit about his English, which was very good, even though he said it wasn't. The poor kid; he was just doing his job and we did not make it any easier for him. 

Oh well; you live and you learn, and we're learning something new every day! Sometimes it's really hard, but being with some really cool and supportive people makes everything completely worth it.

My arrival and first day

It's 2:45 AM and I can't sleep for a couple of reasons- 1. jet lag and 2. my air conditioner has been dripping water since yesterday afternoon. I looked it up online and there's some hose that's supposed to drain the condensation out of the unit... Looks like I'm putting a request in maintenance's box tomorrow! As for the jet lag, I went to bed at 9:30 after a very long day so I thought I'd sleep through the night. Now that I'm awake, I have a few options of what to do with my time.
1. Unpack
2. Read the summer reading circle book for my class of 8th graders, A Symphony of Whales
3. Learn how to work my new phone
4. Watch Japanese television with Mandarin subtitles
5. Watch Mandarin television without English subtitles
The options are truly endless.

I will do the secret 0. option and sit on my computer and write about what I've done so far.

We got into Taipei around 9pm on Wednesday night. We essentially lost an entire day while flying from Minnesota to Tokyo- literally flying with the sun the entire trip. While the lights were off on the plane, if someone opened their window (for whatever reason) heads would snap in their direction as if to say, "Close that window!"

I have never seen anything more beautiful than Taipei at night from an airplane. Yellow and white lights lined the coast and seemed to be pretty close together because as they got more inland, they became more spread apart. I haven't seen the topography in the daytime, but I can only assume that there was some sort of mountain right off of the coast.

Not only were the lights on the land amazing, but there were fishing boats in the water that were lit up too. It was as if they had a giant light bulb under their boats and it was shining into the water. It was absolutely incredible.

So when we made it through customs and got all of our bags, we made our way outside to the nice man who was there to pick us up and take us to the school. We loaded our belongings into the bus and were on our way! When I say loaded, I mean stacked and crammed every piece of luggage into each corner of the bus. Like we had to climb over the seats to get to an empty one because there were suitcases in the aisles and when all of us were in our seats, the driver barricaded us in with more suitcases.

Anyway, two hours later, we arrived. We got into our rooms in the dorm (three of our group went over to Rainbow House to the apartments were they are living). Sarah and I got our stuff up to the third floor and when we got into our room, it was a blast of cold air that we hadn't felt since... February. At least that's what it felt like. It was awesome.

Jeff, Sarah, and I went exploring a little bit because we couldn't sleep but then we decided to call it quits and hit the hay. We had to get to work right away the next morning.

In typical Katie-fashion, I woke up three minutes before my alarm went off. After getting ready and picking our super cute first-day dresses, Sarah and I made our way downstairs to the lobby for breakfast and greeted our fellow teachers, a couple of them were just arriving because their original flight was delayed eight hours.

We had orientation all morning about the school and our headmaster, who's a super cool guy. Sometime in the afternoon, we got the low-down of summer school. I have been assigned middle school listening and speaking, middle school literature, upper school listening and speaking, and upper school literature. Those classes are Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, I have two sections of SAT prep for the upper school students.

Also, once a day for thirty minutes, they have a class called Reading Circles. Every teacher, no matter the subject area, leads one of these groups. I have been assigned the 8th graders and we are going to read A Symphony of Whales. I checked all of them out from the library and have one in my room but haven't opened it yet.

After dinner, a group of us decided to go on a bike ride around town. We were all exhausted but needed to stay awake for a little longer before going to bed. We had also been inside all day and needed to be out in the open. ICA has a bike rack full of mountain bikes so we each picked one and went on our way.

Jeff led us to what we can only imagine is some form of downtown Taichung. I thought the U.S. was over-stimulating with ads and lights... holy cow! It could also seem like a lot when one doesn't know what any of the characters mean... Anyway, we made our way down the stretch without getting hit by any cars or scooters! P.S. scooters don't follow traffic laws. They're supposed to, but don't. Like if cars are sitting at a red light and they think they can dodge the traffic and make it through, they do. They don't stay in one lane either. If they can fit between two cars, both going 40 mph, they squeeze their way through. So six Americans riding bikes on the side of the road was probably a funny sight for the locals.

At one point we decided to go down another busy street and we came across a night market! We parked our bikes and made our way through the crowd weaving down different paths and looking at the different things to buy. We could have came here with nothing and would be able to buy everything at this market, including underwear. But only if you're a size zero and a half. There was also gambling and carnival games and this tiny ride for little kids. It was the cutest thing: ten Taiwanese kids, probably between the ages of three and five, sitting in these little cars each holding a balloon on a stick. Freaking adorable.

We made our way back to the school safely without anyone getting almost hit by a car and went to the second floor to relax for a bit. Then, after a much needed shower (which couldn't be above 75 degrees) I went to bed. And now I'm awake, so that's cool.

A Recent Epiphany

Over the course of my life, a whopping 22 years and 11 months, I have learned a lot of things. Besides the everyday textbook lessons and information that I will never use in my career, there are a few life-lessons that I think about almost daily.

I have learned what my position is on particular political topics and I have learned to not discuss these topics with people I don’t know very well. 

I have learned to focus my passion from what I want to teach to why and how I want to teach. 

Fairly recently, I have learned how to prioritize everything in my life, including work, school, social time, me-time, relationships, and sleep (not in that order). 

Sadly, but rightly so, I learned all of these things the hard way.

But the biggest thing I have learned, in the best and most glorious way, is how much I truly appreciate and love my family, for everything they are. What is this previously-mentioned way in which I learned this wonderful lesson? Getting my job in Taiwan.

This is going to be a short post, because (cliché phrase coming up) words cannot describe how much I love them, but I believed this feeling of overwhelming love and support warranted a post.

I love you, I love you, I love you.

Seminar

Yesterday we had our second English education seminar. They're scheduled to be once a month and all of the student teachers get together in a building on campus and work on some professional development. We upload important documents to our electronic portfolio, work on our resumes and cover letters, and talk about issues or situations we are dealing with at our placements. Overall, the day goes very fast and it's very interesting to hear what my colleagues are going through. Most importantly, it's awesome to see everyone again and we treat it like a reunion.

But something my professor asked us has stuck with me. "How have you changed since student teaching began?" That's a really heavy question because all of us have changed; there's no question about that. But I can't just look at how I have changed because I also have to take the reasons into consideration as well.

For starters, I think I have been able to take a step back and analyze situations and ask myself, Is this worth getting upset over? or can I focus my energy on something else that needs to be worried about? I guess the best way to say this is that my priorities have really realigned. In some ways this is sad.

Still being at school has its drawbacks. A lot of my friends have graduated and are starting their lives as grown ups. It's much harder to keep in contact with those who have left Stevens Point and the friends who are still here are just as busy and exhausted as I am. I love being independent and not having to answer to anyone, except myself, but sometimes it gets hard. I miss having the thriving social life I used to have with my friends because I used to identify myself as part of an amazing group of people who supported one another and would have each other's backs no matter what.

Taking the job in Taiwan is everything I have wanted in my life. I'm going to have adventures, stories, experiences, and friendships that no one else in my life is going to have. Friends are getting married, starting their families, buying houses, having babies, and moving on with their lives. I get to do my own thing and become my own person. Right now I'm still stuck in this weird limbo of still being in college but knowing that I am going to have the time of my life doing what I love in a new country, and that this experience is all mine.

The thing I'm having trouble with right now is holding onto the friendships I truly hold dear. I feel them slipping through my fingers like syrup; I can't get a good grip and I'm just standing here watching everything fall to the floor. I haven't even left the country yet and I'm already feeling this way. This makes me terrified of how I'm going to feel when I'm on the other side of the world and a lot of the people I care about are here growing up together and having experiences I will not get to be a part of. I'm going to miss three close friends' weddings in the first three months I'm moving away. Those are experiences I will never get back and it breaks my heart that I'm missing them. But I do not regret taking this job for one second. As a dear friend told me when I first took the job, "The experiences I'm going to have outweigh the things I'm going to miss here tenfold." She has no idea how many times I have said this to myself over and over again since that day because every day is getting harder. In some ways, this has become my mantra.

My friends and family are my life. I love them all dearly and appreciate their differences because they make up who I am as an individual. I define myself by the people in my life. As least, I did before. I'm starting to think that I need to define myself by the experiences I have in my life, and that I need to let some people go. Ever since I have taken this job, the amount of people who have supported me has been overwhelming. I am so grateful for all of the kind words of encouragement I have heard because this is a new and terrifying experience I'm about to embark on. But there is the reality that some people can't understand why I would ever leave this country or make such a daring life choice because they never would. I don't see how those things have to be in the same thought. Support me or don't, but keep your personal choices out of. I've found that when people take themselves out of the picture and just look at my reasons why I want to move, they are extremely supportive and happy for me. And there are some who haven't figured out how to do that yet.

I have definitely changed since the beginning of the semester. I hope the changes are for the better.