Typhoon Talim is coming!

I know the US news is all about Katrina right now (I can't believe people are looting in New Orleans, as if there isn't enough damage, stupid people). Anyway, we're about to get our own hit, Typhoon Talim is currently brewing off the east coast of Taiwan and will make land fall sometime tonight. And when it hits the island, it will completely cover us. So if you were to be looking for Taiwan from space, you would see a big swirling cloud mass where the island of Taiwan once was.

No boats are running between the islands, flights are being cancelled, and currently soldiers are helping farmers pick crops before they get destroyed. And the government is telling us to stock up on lots of drinking water. Eep. And to add injury to insult, there is another typhoon that is on the same path about a few days behind this one. Wish us luck. I have a feeling we will be eating a lot of instant noodles for the next few days.

I am hoping that after these two, no more typhoons will come until after the 21st when we have left. Although I doubt that.

Peekaboo

"Andrew?"

"Rowr rowr rowr."

"Um, Andrew, where are you? All I can see is a pile of paper."

"Rowr rowr rowr essays grrr essays."

"You okay?"

"Can't... breathe... paper all around me... can't see any light..."

"Ok, I'm going to go have fun now because I'm done and you're not and you're stuck doing your application essays."

Such has been my life for the past month. Well, in a sense. I feel that my time has been spent doing little more than going to work, coming home, relaxing or writing essays. Compareatively, we all know Mei is done, and while I am happy for her, I am also quite jealous! But it is payback: all that time where I laughed at her for having to get up early has come back to slap me in the face. But it helps me, too: she has been doing a FANTASTIC job planning for our upcoming monstrous vacation AND editing my essays to make them actually respectful (as opposed to the piles of garbage they are before they reach her editing desk).

I've seen Todd a few times: once he came to my area on scooter and we had lunch, and another time he came by scooter to our HOUSE, and we had lunch with Mei. If I have one regret about my time in Taiwan, it's that I wasn't able to see Todd more than I did, or DIDN'T. I know our schedules aren't exactly lined up, and we aren't all THAT close, but I could have made more trips on sundays. But as he put it, we saw each other more than when we were in college (oregon and cali), which is true. But still.

So we have, what, 18 days left here in Taiwan. I think now would be a fantastic to say the pros and cons of leaving!

First, the cons:

-The sweet, sweet food! Sushi, teppenyaki, danbing, street vendors, hot pot, oh wow. Oh wow. The quality is excellent, and it's cheap. And I'M GOING TO MISS IT!! I'll have to have sushi for a week straight before leaving. Like Madagascar, "The pussy cat likes the sushi..."

-The rock-star persona surrounding me being me. Being a foreigner is good and bad. There is good publicity, including wanting your picture taken with strangers, and respect just for being white. There is also bad publicity. There is what must be a 13 year old in this internet cafe who just stalks us and is incredibly annoying, then the people in the street who stare at you for being white, or those high schoolers who are anti-foreigners. Regardless, I won't get this treatment in the States.

-The Asian culture. I'll miss leaving a place that just has so much respect. Elders are respected, not neglected. Traditions are respected, not discarded. And ancestors are respected, not forgotten. It's nice. It'll be a shock going back to America, where I just sense the respect is less there.

-Not having anyone understand what you're saying! Another good and bad thing. At the stores, I can manage my own, usually. Sometimes I cannot. But walking on the street, I can say absolutely anything and not worry, beucase really, the English level here is on average minimal.

-No transportation and/or place to stay! It looks like after traveling not getting our taxes back for 6 months, I might be purchasing some cheap-o car and temporarily living at home until I am assuredly on my feet again. WHICH BRINGS ME TO MENTION: IF ANYONE KNOWS OF A CHEAP, GOOD CAR FOR SALE, OR IS LOOKING TO SELL THEIR OWN, OR WHATEVER, LET ME KNOW! AND IF ANYONE NEEDS A ROOMMATE FROM NOVEMBER ON IN THE BAY AREA, ALSO LET ME KNOW!

-The new Taiwan sights. New things in Taiwan, obviously, compared to the US. Too bad so many of them involve buildings and cities!

-Taiwan friends. I got close to some of the parents here, and also to some of the kids. I'm really going to miss those that I have. One of the parents has taken me on about 3 outings, it's really cool. And some of the kids and I have a great relationship. Sure, I won't mind the stupid crap kids, but those sweet ones... it'll be sad to see them go.

-Cheap... EVERYTHING! DVDs, VCDs, gadgets, widgets, everything. Yaaaaay night markets!

-No more typhoon holidays! Enough said.


The pros!

-Traveling. Leaving here means we are embarking on our travel extravaganza. What's not to like about that?

-Going online somewhere that won't give me cancer. Man, even the smoke-free levels at internet cafe are adjacent to open doors or stairs to places where there IS smoking. Useless.

-Seeing my friends. Todd and Mei are friends. It's obviously greatto see them. But where are everyone else?! It'll be good to see you all, WHEREVER YOU ALL ARE. Shoot, you're spreading all over the globe. So. Cal folks, Davis, Bay Area, SOUTH AMERICA, the Carribean, I don't know how or when or where I will get to you all, but damnit, I will.

-Not getting run over on the sidewalk! Scooters. Everywhere. On the road. Off the road. In the road when they eat it. So many of them. Nightmares.

-(Relative) respect of pedestrians! See above. Except cars are worse on the road.

-Less chance of stepping in dog crap at home. Look down for crap, no, behind you a scooter wants to pass you, no wait, above, air conditioning is dripping on you, oh no, a scooter is coming at you, move to the side! Oh, too bad. You stepped in dog crap. Why weren't you paying attention?! They should make a game like this. Walking here is like Frogger.

-Less likely to get cancer! Living here took off about 5 years of my life. At least. So many people smoke, people live so close to each other, there are so many scooters, so many cars, and the environmental regulations HAVE to be much worse than in the States. So. Dirty. Ugh. I can practically SEE the toxicity.

-The outdoors! Now, I don't remember exactly what this is. But I seem to remember I like it, and am looking forward to rediscovering it when I get home. ANYONE INTERESTED IN A CAMPING OR BACKPACKING TRIP WHEN I GET BACK!?! LET ME KNOW!!!

Graduation Speech

I finally remembered to bring my copy of the Kindi Grad speech. Everything except the last two lines were written by me with the help of Andrew. The last two lines were added by Jennifer. And I forgot to tell you how the graduation trip was!!

Well, we had a big tour bus to accodomate the kids and parents, and first we drove to Yua Mei (?) where we got to play with dough and make our own little flaky cake pastries. Then we had lunch, and got to put together a mini wooden train that serves as a pencil holder. Andrew went marker crazy and decorated about 90% of the surface area on his train. We took a tour of a mini museum that showed how people lived a long time ago, how they ground rice on stones, used cows to pull stuff, wedding sedans, and such. Then there was an area where you could pretend you lived long ago and use the farming tools they did, and a water area with lots of old fashioned squirt guns. We then went to a mountainous area where we were given our room assignments, which were individual mini-cabins. And right before dinner, it started pouring so the people who remembered to bring umbrellas made it down to the dining area first, and then a second run was made to get everyone who didn't have protection from the rain. We had a nice dinner, and then Jennifer realized she left the CD on the bus that had the graduation song on it. So my kids performed by singing it themselves, and they did pretty good, even if they were a little out of tune. Then they read their graduation speech, and the parents clapped and took lots of pictures and recordings.

The next day was TaiChung and the water park. There were slides, kiddie pools, lazy floating on innertubes, beach volleyball, and "the big wave." Basically the big wave was that, they had this gigantic pool, and you waded out into the water (if you had a life vest you could swim out to the origin) and then every so often after some music and chanting, an enormous wave picks everyone up, and moves them back about 10 feet from where they originally were. It looked like a lot of fun, although slightly disturbing because it looked like a tsunami wave. Only people were giddy and cheering everytime they were lifted at least five feet into the air. Andrew and I tried to experiece it, but we kept going at the wrong time. Curse. And you had to wear a swimming cap to go on some of the rides, so we just lazily floated, and enjoyed the cool water. Of course, it started raining, so there was a lot of mad dashing between roofed areas on the way back to the bus. Then we went back to the school, one of the moms started crying when she said goodbye to me, I didn't know what to do so I hugged her and told her we would keep in touch.

It was good to see my class one more time, and I was reminded why I like them, and why I won't be sad to no longer teach anymore. Here's the graduation speech they read last Saturday night:

In one day, we learned new words.
In one week, we learned new sentences.
In one year, we learned new books.
In just a few short years, we have gone from not knowing how to write our own names to reading and spelling big words like "hippopotamus."
Our years at Key West have provided us with the tools we need to succeed both in elmentary school and our lives ahead. Our English skills are being paved now and will continue to grow as we practice and improve every day. We've also learned a lot about math and science.
But we did more than just sit in the classroom. We went to the Taipei Public Library to read new, exciting books. We went to different museums to learn about how people lived a thousand years ago and forty years ago in Taiwan.
We have also grown as people. We've learned more about respect and helping others and the world we live in.
These lessons we have learned and these memories we have shared will stay with us throught out lives. We've had fun at Key West, and we're going to miss it.
Soon we will be packing our shcool bags not with lunch bowls, but with books and pencils for the first grade. This day is not an ending, but simply another beginning to a new chapter of our lives. Our education and experiences at Key West have prepared us well for this moment.
If I have a good future, it's not bcause of English. It's because I had a good education at Key West.

Three weeks of Taiwan left!

Ni hao!

The countdown clock is definitely ticking louder as September approaches. With the help of my wonderful Aunt Julia, we are now officially booked for a four day tour of Penghu, leaving Taipei on the 14th. That's barely two weeks away!!! My goodness!! So exciting!!

So I've been pretty lazy and productive, considering I don't have to go to work, but I have been packing up the apartment, and I'm up to April in the scrapbook! And I've been reading all of our travel books to map out exactly what we'll be doing in each country and possible places to stay so that everything isn't a last minute scramble when we get to the country (although Beijing is in the air because it all depends on how long our river cruise to the Three Gorges will last and when we leave on the cruise). I also got a book on the history of humanity through the eyes of a scientist to keep my mind sharp. The title is either "Guns, Germs, and Steel" or "Germs, Guns, and Steel." It's a pretty interesting read so far.

Andrew is currently on a day trip with Clark, I wasn't sure if I would go to LungTan this weekend, so I politely declined. His schedule goes back to the old one next week because regular school starts in Taiwan next week, so no more early summer classes. And he's definitely excited counting the last remaining days until he is done teaching.

That's pretty much all the news on this little island. I always have my umbrella with me because every day brings a thundershower that lasts from half an hour to two hours with torrential rains and some pretty loud thunder that makes everything shake. Crazy tropical weather! All the typhoons lately have swung by the island, and I know Tokyo is bracing for one headed straight for Japan right now.

Short and Sweet

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post to keep you guys up to date. LongTan was nice and relaxing. Ate lots of home cooked Chinese food, watched a lot of random movies, and celebrated with my family when we got full running water towards the end of the week. Yippee!

Am now back in BanChiao, s-l-o-w-l-y packing and cleaning up the apartment. And I have the first page done of the scrapbook.

This weekend will be the rescheduled from last time Kindie graduation trip. Hopefully it will be lots of fun and not interfere too much with Andrew's essay writing. Since he hasn't posted in awhile, I'll just let you know that he is definitely counting down the days until he doesn't have to work anymore.

Hope everyone is enjoying the last remnants of summer, we keep getting rain and possible typhoon warnings.

I'm DONE!

YAY!

It was an incredibly anti-climatic last week. I had one day of teaching left, and then Typhoon Matsa came around at the last second and school and offices were closed on Friday for pretty much all of Northern Taiwan. So I spent the day sleeping, still recovering from my nasty cold (more details later), and just generally feeling that everything was incredibly surreal as the reality of never having to teach kindergarten again sank in. Then Friday night Ted called to say the graduation trip was being postponed due to flooding caused by the typhoon.

I guess I should first rewind and talk about what's happened since Totally Board, or rather, whine about being sick.

The last Monday of July I had a fever, so I took some tylenol, went to school, then crashed when I got home. That night my fever was even higher and I felt pretty miserable, so I ended up taking Tuesday off. I thought I was getting better so I went to work for the rest of the week, with a fever that came and went depending on whether or not the tylenol was losing effect. So I caved in on Friday and went to the doctor after my ears started hurting, who told me I had a really bad cold (thanks Sherlock), it would take a long time to get over, here's a lot of meds. Oh, and no ear infection, just massive pressure build up as a side effect. Joy. So for three days I had to take medicine three times a day, which consisted of at least 6 different pills and 10 cc of a brown liquid that tasted like flat coke. Oh, and two vitamin B pills a day as well. Yay. I still have a cough two weeks later and my ears pop multiple times a day. Yay bacteria and viruses!

Anywho, for class, not much happened, class winded down, I was down to six kids by the end, it was pretty quiet. The last week I spent drilling my kids (the few that were still attending class) on their graduation speech and dance. And they started taking waves of books and art supplies home throughout the week, slowly emptying out their cubbies. Kind of exciting, kind of sad. I think I will have more closure after the graduation trip, 9 of my kids are supposed to be going on it, so I will be able to say goodbye to most of them. One of the kids not going on the trip is Eric, which I am thankful for. I don't know if I could have handled the superficiality of being nice to Eric and his mother when I know they don't like me either.

So today I went to school to pick up the last of my stuff, since I didn't go to work on Friday, and talk to Jennifer about when the graduation trip will be rescheduled for, and if they can wait to cancel my ARC so I don't have to leave the country and come back because we don't leave until Sept. 21st, and you can only get a month extension on a cancelled ARC. She said she would let me know later in the week about both.

And now I am at my family's home in LungTan. And because of the typhoon and the rain we keep getting, there is a water shortage. There's been so much mud and dirt run off into the dam that they have shut down the water purification plants, so yay for turbidity and water rationing! I was hoping to spend a full week here, but might have to go back on Friday, depending on when the graduation trip is rescheduled for.

After that I will be packing the apartment and hopefully finishing a scrap book of our (mis?) adventures in Taiwan. And with that, here is my list of things I will/will not miss about Taiwan:

Will Miss:
Freshly squeezed watermelon juice
Cheap food everywhere
Having Chinese family near by
Night Markets
Practicing my not so good Mandarin
Cheap clothes and accessories
Days off because of typhoon days
Convenience and cleanliness of MRT
Low cost of living
Did I mention cheapness and shopping?
Travelling around, seeing cool stuff, and culturally enriching myself
Blogging about my adventures

Will Not Miss:
Dog crap on the streets, everywhere
Poopy bus drivers that don't stop
Being stared at for being a foreigner and hearing "Hello, Hello!"
Being a Kindergarten teacher
Humidity
Andrew complaining about how hot it is
Not having a car
Not being near good Mexican food or sourdough bread
Horrid pollution/Scooters and buses spewing out black exhaust
Getting sick from little kids
Starting to lose pronouns and speaking Chinese-English, ex) You like sweater? You go, no go?
Smoky internet cafes

I will probably do one or two more blogs while here, and will then try to blog while we travel abroad, but no guarantees on that one. Until next time, ping an! (Peace!)