Destination: Penghu!

Penghu: the Hawaii of Taiwan. Or is it the Hawaii of China? The Hawaii of Japan? Oh heck, it's an island (or collection of), it's tropical, it's hot, and I give this weekend destination 4 out of 5 GOLDEN CAITLIN APPROVAL CUPCAKES. I think it's time we moved on from stars and thumbs and embrace what really matters: baked goods.

And I thought Taiwan was all smokestacks and milk tea waste!

This weekend is Dragon Boat Festival weekend. The story goes that a depressed Chinese poet in exile jumped into a river and people tried to paddle out to save him, but alas: he was gone. This weekend, we celebrate the holiday of the suicidal poet, and we get Monday off!

James and I have been trying to get away for a while, so we booked tickets to Penghu last week, knowing that we would leave on Sunday morning and fly back Monday evening - a short trip, but long enough, and all we could find considering its a remote destination where you can only fly in and out (or ferry) from a select few origins in Taiwan.  

Penghu, we read, is famous for a few things: relaxing holiday destination for Taiwanese, sea turtles,  coral beaches, brown sugar cakes and cactus. Oh yeah, wild growing cactus that gets turned into juice, mochi, and of course, ice cream, which really is the best stuff going. It stands right next to Tucker's Zinfindel ice cream, at the top of my "You need at least a cone of this a day" list. How could we resist?

You need at least a cone of this a day.

Sunday morning: Bus to the airport at 6:00 AM. Arrive at the check in counter to check in early, only to find out that James had booked our tickets backwards and effectively, we had no tickets to Penghu on Sunday - we had a ticket to Penghu on Monday and a ticket to Taipei on Sunday. (James later admitted he forgot you put the name of your origin first on the website, then your destination. It doesn't help that everything except the price was in Chinese.) FREAK OUT!

But this is Asia, land of beautiful and helpful-English-speaking flight attendants, and they quickly switched our tickets to some empty seats and within five minutes, we had run to the terminal and sat down on the plane right before they closed the door. It wasn't until we were in the air that we realized we had no flight back, but it didn't really matter. 

A quick plug for Asian airlines: they rock. So far I have used Mandarin Airways and Tiger Airways and they have been helpful, adorable, on time, and always give free tea. You go, foreigners!

Back to the story: arrived in Penghu at 8:00 AM to a burning sunny day. We had booked a room at the Penghu Breeze (last second vacancy) and this included airport pickup. James got off the phone with our ride and exclaimed "Wow, she's awesome. She has such great English!" It turns out, the liason for the Breeze is Ginger, American customer service extraordinare, and she also drives a mean stick shift diesel van. We really got lucky. 

A quick and painless scooter rental later and we were out on the road. We cruised into downtown Magong and were pleasantly surprised with the lack of people and the abundance of old and beautiful Chinese buildings. (I'm not going to lie, I thought Taiwan might look like this everywhere, but out here in suburbia Taoyuan, I think everyone is determined to modernize in an ugly, funky way.) Magong is adorable. There's a big seaside park with a temple, play equipment, grass, and stairs into the ocean where everyone can swim together in the bay. 

How often do you get to stay in one of these?

Pressing on: we drove the main road. We passed everything. The big tree, the windmills, the famous cactus ice cream shop (not necessary, they are everywhere.) We had lunch in a side-of-the-road shop, because honestly, Penghu is not crawling with restaurants. They are far and few between, and if you see one, eat there. Because you will be hungry, like we were. 

It was when we checked into our awesome old guesthouse room on the beach that we noticed: whoops. 4 hours and 2 applications of sunscreen wasn't enough. We were annihilated. We did damage to our skin that only 12 year olds can manage. Oh well. Aloe is cheaper than sunscreen, but that doesn't excuse our behavior. Kids, wear sunscreen, a hat, and an overcoat in the Penghu sun. You'll thank me for it. 

And being so sunburnt didn't make the beach as much fun as it could have been, although it was still incredible. I have been to the Caribbean, Thailand, Mexico and Hawaii and I have never seen ocean water this clear or clean. I have never seen a beach so moderately populated on a holiday weekend. In essence, it was beautiful. Some pre-teens asked me to take a photo with them. Even on Penghu, we're still novelties. 

The night was fabulous. It's been months since James and I have been able to watch a sunset, drink a bottle of wine, and do absolutely nothing. Penghu is good for this. If only we hadn't had to jump on the first flight out the next morning, on stand-by, we would have done it again...and again!

The Jist:

Go to Penghu. Just do it. It's less than $4000NT round trip. It's less than an hour from Taipei, and if you have to do it in 24 hours like we did, still do it!

Advice: 

Bring sunscreen and put it on every hour.

Bring mosquito repellent, mosquito coils, mosquito outdoor spray, and a mosquito net. There are billions of them, and they want you to remember your stay.

Drink water...and then drink wine or beer. It's a tropical island!

Bon voyage!

The Raid, or: How Taiwanese Law Is Surprisingly Unsurprising

It is illegal for foreigners to teach Kindergarten in Taiwan.

It is illegal for me to do my job in Taiwan. Technically.

One of the first things we learned in Taoyuan is that in Taiwan, there are laws, and then there is what everyone does, including the law makers and the law enforcers. Take the process of owning a scooter for example:

1. The law: You must have a license to drive a scooter.
2. The law: You must have a scooter to take the test to get your license.

Conflict: How do you do both?
The answer: It's Taiwan.

So you must imagine how surprised/oddly unsurprised we were to learn that foreigners actually can't teach "Kindy." The Taiwanese teachers' union said NO, and so it was written, but parents wanted their babies to have native English education. And so it is commonly practiced that crazy youth like me end up working under...or perhaps above...government rules and regulations. We were told that it's very rarely an issue, and if anyone ever asks, just play dumb, pretend you don't understand what's going on, and don't sign anything. 

 So you must imagine how surprised/oddly unsurprised we were to get phone calls during our classes on Friday (just as I was about to teach ABC's...), saying "Open Sesame!!!" And my HRT (Homeroom Teacher) Lily starts shouting, "Open Sesame, Open Sesame" at me in her beautiful thick accent and I'm screwing up my face like, "Say what, Teacher Lily?" and all of a sudden I get it: Open Sesame is the code word for "We're being raided for illegal teachers...among other things." So I drop my flashcards, say "Bye bye" to the kiddies and bolt out the door.

Outside in the stairwell are my co-teachers, also panting up to the third floor, where we barricade ourselves in the teachers' room. Supposedly this doesn't happen very often, but everyone seems to know the drill very well. Aside from the third floor hiding the teachers, it seems like another "illegal" practice is being hidden: we aren't supposed to have Kindy on the third floor, either, and so an enormous bomb door (or something to that effect) has been closed and locked to completely eliminate the 3rd floor, as if to say, Sorry, but this floor doesn't exist anymore.

We sit sit sit, and wait wait wait, a bit Anne Frank-ish (not to compare a Kindy raid with World War II - though it made a moderately funny joke at the time) and 45 minutes later start to have rumbling tummies. It turns out the inspectors had been satisfied a while before and left. The office ladies had simply forgotten we were Open Sesame-ing and forgot to call. This was not malicious, I might add, just a little funny. After all, it doesn't happen very often, right?

So you must imagine just how surprised/oddly unsurprised we were last night, Monday, while teaching TreeHouse class in the basement classrooms (6-10 years old after school English), that we hear "Open Sesame!" shouted in the doorway. As the English teachers begin to bolt for the elevator to take us to our safe haven on the third floor, we notice a giant stream of students following us into the garage (where the elevator is.) It turns out the Taiwanese law says that classes cannot be held in the basement, and therefore, the students and the classrooms themselves were also illegal.

My poor class, yanked out of a mind-numbing lecture on the grammar pattern "How does noun sensory verb?" climbing onto me asking "Teacher, what is?" and me getting all Sound of Music on them saying "We're playing Hide and Seek and if you stay very quiet, we'll win!" What an absolute treat! Apparently, the basement also had an enormous space shuttle-esque door that effectively renders it "There's nothing important behind that wall!", and we were just taking precautions. It's not that anyone will get shot, or taken to jail, or even seriously fined.

People just don't like complications in Taiwan.

Go figure ;D.

Caitlin Versus the Love Motel

Some people say, “Home is where the heart is.” But I like to think, “Home is right across the street from the OhYa Love Motel.” (Which, according to Asiarooms.com is completely booked tonight...for love.) See photo: my very own love motel. Kidding, Mommy!

Now before someone starts wondering what bed of sin I have made my nest in, “Hourly Rate” motels are apparently very common in Taiwan, a country where many married couples share a bedroom wall with their in-laws. It’s all very sensible when you consider that this is also a country where women protect their skin from the sun with umbrellas and recycling is not simply sorted as “Recycling” and “Garbage,” but into paper, plastic, metal, and garbage. Absolutely sensible.

What’s sensible about my new home in Taoyuan? (Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Location.
(Location, location.)
Within a thirty minute walk to school, I can wave hello and give a goofy sounding “Tsao” to about 50 shop owners (dumpling shops, crap stuff shops, mobile phone shops, 7-11s, noodle shops, rice shops, pharmacies.) This country loves to buy stuff, and so there are so many people to say good morning to. Within 30 minutes of bus travel, we can be smack dab in the center of Taipei.
We are >1 minute to the nearest Family Mart/7-11 (though that’s hardly a bragging right. They are literally on every corner.) Two minutes from school is Taoyuan’s most awesome outdoor market, complete with dozens of fish, meat, and veggie vendors (and everything in between) – I will give a full account of the market scene later, but its simply too awesome to fit into this vignette.
We are five minutes walk to the nearest dan bing vendor – Chinese style crepe filled with egg and whatever else you want/they have – I order veggie, which always has canned corn, and the other day had sprouts, iceberg lettuce and cucumber…and hot sauce.

Our rent is less than $350 per month – split between two.
The apartment is on the 6th floor of a nearly new building, with several fabulous security guards, a small pool, a gym, a movie viewing room and a well decorated reading room. At night, the kitchen window is filled with the purplepinkblue lights of the OhYa sign. I love it. It makes me feel like I’m in New York City.
Except way cheaper.
Ohya, and I really like the Japanese sliding door to the bedroom and weird extra room that may become a dining room. And I really like the built in giant desk thing next to the kitchen that I also use to store food and dishes. Ohya, and the enormous closet, and the shoe closet by the door (no shoes in the house, suckah, this is Asia), and the laundry dry rack that lowers down like a chandelier.

Didn’t I come here to work?
Ohya, I guess I did come here to work. After surviving nearly two weeks of 9-6 days sitting in an igloo of a training room, apparently I have enough knowledge to be trusted with dozens of children. What kind of children? Tiny ones, no older than 3 years old. But if their poopy diapers are as cute as their tiny faces and hands and feet, there should be no problem. Plus, how cool will it be to be the one person who will ultimately begin to mold them into bilingual beings? So cool.
I also get to teach older kids, I think in the 6-10 range. The curriculum/teaching methods are chant/song/game crazy, so it will be great to get some sillies out. Plenty of room for creative expansion, plenty of hours in the day to learn and teach. And, no weekend work. Singing songs and playing games with the world’s smartest and prettiest children, paying peanuts for rent and eating dan bing and taro steamed buns (they are purple!) all day long.
It just goes to show that everything happens for a reason. I already feel at home here, for better or for worse.

OhYa.

PS. I am buying a scooter, end of discussion.

Arrival in Taiwan: Caitlin Looks Like Lady GaGa

It's been four days in Taiwan and I have already eaten something I wanted to spit out into my lap (oyster omelette), used a rain umbrella as a sunshield (when in Rome...), spoken unintelligible Mandarin ("bathroom" is a hard word to pronounce!) and been called "Lady GaGa" by a woman in the Taipei hospital. This is going to be an eventful year.

I hate to be a busy adult woman, but these first two weeks are quite jammed pack, and I will only really be able to dip my toes in the blogging pond during teacher training. Therefore, I would like to simply create an outline of my first impressions today, using my interpretation of the CIA World Factbook as a design guide:

Introduction:

Taipei is a giant modern city with a gagillion motor scooters, half a gagillion traditional Chinese/Taiwanese food carts, 14 million grinning inhabitants, a metro system that runs like a bazillion bucks, and the safest vibe in just about, well, a tragillion years. It's pretty damn fascinating, bustling, and Taiwan strikes me immediately as the friend I never had, and the friend I will not tired of getting close to.

Geography

Taipei is big, but my world exists within my current living neighborhood, Zhongshang, and the tourist destinations reachable via the MRT (rapid transit system.) The buildings are tall, the buildings are sleek, they are covered in bright and rainbow colored billboards, and the streets are very flat. What I love so much? The city is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and you can even see the mountains through the hazy smoggy heat during some points in the day.

Climate
Taipei is a sauna right now. We might as well all just be walking around in towels, because terry cloth might make a bit of absorption difference. It is always hot. The Taiwanese jog after 9:00 PM because a) they are smart and b) only idiots run in 35 degree weather.

People

They may wear doctors' masks in public, but do not fear: underneath that mask is a giant grin that you just can't quite figure out. It's as if everyone's saying "I know it's freaking hot, Caitlin, I know you might be in for a bit of a shock here, but we are going to help you every step of the way." And they do: they love to help, they love to speak English if they can, and they love to play charades if they can't. Sure, there's a bit of a sidewalk-bumping culture (You'd better push and not apologize!), but have you ever been to a country where people actually line up for the subway? Simply breathtaking.

Government

So far as I can tell, my favorite part of the Taiwanese government is the way they handle healthcare. On Saturday we had to go the national hospital for physicals, as is required for all foreign workers, and it was the most amazing process I have ever been through. Sure it took 3 hours (but there were 30 of us, and they kept alternating Taiwanese-foreigner-Taiwanese-foreigner in their number calling): but once you got the ball rolling, they were medical machines. "Number 127: how are you? I will now take your pulse. Very good, now go to the desk. Step on the scale. Sit down. I will now take your blood pressure. While I do that, I will take your temperature. Scoot over one seat, we check your eyes. Excellent, now pay the front desk and get your blood taken. *Slurp* goes the blood needle, great! Now get your chest x-rayed - put on this soft cloth gown in our changing closet! Done." The best doctors' visit ever.

Economy

I love everything about Taiwanese money. I like talking about how much I have.

"I guess I don't need to go to the ATM for a while, I've got, like, 2,000 dollars in my wallet."

"How much for those shoes? $190NT? That is so cheap!"

The Taiwan dollar trades at about 31 to 1 USD right now, which makes this one of the best economic deal I have ever made. Price of a street cart steamed pork bun (around the corner): 9NT = 25 cents. Price of cute black flats Caitlin might have bought: $190NT = less than $6.

It's like living in the 20's, but with internet...

Communications

I don't speak Mandarin. Many, many/most things are written in Mandarin...or Japanese...or any other language I don't understand. But "xie xie" has turned out to be my most useful phrase, because everyone says it so often (of course - it's smiling helpful island!)

I am hopeful for my linguistic future. Stay turned.

Transportation

I have never been more afraid to cross the street in any country, except Taiwan. The lights take about 90 seconds to change, and even if you have the animated WALK sign, cars may still just see it fit to run right on through the intersection.

Then there are the scooters, the elegant, numerous scooters. They scare me too, as a pedestrian, but they are so cool in transit. Everyone seems to know what to do, even though there are so many. I saw a crash the other day, and the rear-enders immediately jump off their bike, pull up the guy they hit, dust him off, and everyone was happy and moved on their way. Just like a bike accident in Davis, I should say, only with a bit more plastic and petrol involved.

I realize I haven't touched on, well, practically anything. But I have oh so much to say, so please, stay tuned. As soon as I become insta-teacher, I will plenty of time to continue my diatribe...and it might as well be exclusively about food. Coming soon!