My Taiwan Adventure

A sea of umbrellas and hundreds of balloons heralded the unveiling of the new bell tower at my school's 60th anniversary today. All the foreign english teacher's took part in the ceremony too. I'm only glad that nobody from home could see our lip-synching and choreography because we were pretty embarrasing. Fortunately it was all over quickly and we don't get graded on these things!


Crystal clock.

The school gave out gifts on Friday to all the teachers which included a massive crystal heart with a clock embeded in it, some pens and a book on the 60th anniversary. There was also a camera crew on grounds today taking footage for a documentary of the event. The prime-minister as well as the mayor of Taipei were also on-hand to make speeches. There were also visiting dignataries from other countries present to make the day a very special event. I couldn't help but watch the dozen or so cameramen from the news stations that were sent to cover the event and think "I can do that" with some shade of pride.


Why is the lighting always bad in gyms?

My favorite parts of the day included the lion dance, the wide range of drumming performances and the choirs. I admired the dedication of the boys who despite the rain performed a magnificent drum number outside during the convocation of the bell-tower. I particularly enjoyed the singing of one group that came from another school for the event. They dressed in traditional Taiwanese costumes and their lilting voices raised my spirits. I loved their enthusiasm both on and off stage.




Part of the day's festivities there was a carnival where the students were selling food. Teachers were a prime target for the ambitious sales-students. With over 900 eager students in junior high and over 1500 in elementary it was hard to say no to anyone. The school was kind enough to supply us with coupons to buy enough food for lunch and I used them all. To make the kids happy even shelled out some cash for food I didn't want. Maybe it will make them be quicker to quiet-down the next time I ask for attention at the front of the classroom. *laughing* Like that will happen!I'm ashamed by the amount of food I threw out today but, I couldn't eat any more. I wasn't the only teacher who was politely buying but surrepticiously disposing of food either.


Do you want to know where the food goes? Probably not, but here's the skinny on Taiwan's waste program as far as I understand it. Recycling laws in Taiwan are quite strict. All waste must be seperated into three categories: Food, paper + recyclable, and waste. All the food is used to feed the livestock (maily pigs) here. If you think about it you could be eating a pig that ate leftovers made out of a ham sandwich. Mostly the rules seem pretty complex to me about what goes where and I'm glad that I have a housekeeper to take care of that. I've watched as students seperate the trash with long tongs so that they don't have to get dirty. Great for the environment I guess but yuck.

My next concern is getting everything happily arranged and homey for the next phase of culture-shock that I'm beginning to experience. They say that the 3rd month is the hardest one to adjust too. I haven't been too badly homesick for the most part. Usually my unhappy moods pass quickly enough. However, the recent 4 days of rain have put a damper on my cheerful spirit and I'm not even looking forward to the long weekend. I am terribly tired from the move and need to sleep for a while to regenerate myself. I'm praying that my body will heal what it needs to during this break from work. I'm going to also select some paints and start creating to help channel my energy better.

I've added more photos to my www.photographingtaiwan.blogspot.com site. Enjoy!

Just a quick hi..:) I can't belive you've been there for two months..things seem to be going great. Congrats on the new pad and everything, too! Thanks for the occassional comment on the blog, nice to know you're out thre stopping by.

TTYL :)  

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