New Blog for a Different Stage of Life

For convenience's sake, I decided to create a new blog for my experiences in Chicago, while keeping this one dedicated to my time in Taiwan (with some school posts at the very beginning as an Easter Egg-type dealy.) The two recent posts will be on the new blog.

Here's the link to the new blog:

kimchicagostyle.blogspot.com


Hope to see you there!

From Thanksgiving to Christmas

A couple weeks ago, my Mom suggested I listen to the song "I'll be Home for Christmas" every day until I finally leave for America. I found I can't listen to it everyday or else I start bawling my eyes out, but when I do listen to it, I play it over and over and over at least 20 times. I love the version by Bing Crosby the best. There's something about his voice that soothes me. I guess I'm not the only one. He was "the Crooner" after all (Mom gave me that tidbit. I'd never actually heard much by him before now).

On a lighter note, there's only 16 days left before my flight leaves! But before that, there's still a ton to do around here. We have a big Christmas Program on the 17th and everyone is busy with preparations. We've been singing Christmas songs and practicing our routines until the kids are sick of them (and me too, for that matter). But it will all be worth it. Being here was a great experience, but I am so ready to go home. If we manage to find someone to film the program, I want a copy. It will be fun to remember the kids and all their (and ours) hard work.

Steph and I recently went to an ice cream store. She got the giant strawberry and vanilla mound. I got the three strawberry scoops and the cake.

Yesterday, my class set up and decorated the Christmas tree. Very fun times were had. The kids hung up pipe cleaner candy canes we made in class on Wednesday.

One night, I had some free time so I went to a sit-down restaurant so I could get some dinner. I've mostly been staying away because I can't read the menus, but I've been getting better at reading characters, so I was able to find something with beef and rice. When the bowl came pout, it turns out that it was beef curry and rice. Yum! I was lucky this time. A few weeks ago, I ordered randomly from a side stand and I swear I got animal intestines. Blegh!

The three-year-old kids while we were doing an activity to put stuffed animals to bed.

Here are the 4-year-olds.

Last Saturday, I had a friend take me to Taroko Gorge. I did not go up into the Gorge because I didn't have a bike, but I still got to see some very beautiful parts. They were having a celebration for Taiwan's 100th year anniversary with orchestras playing. The best part was when they had 100 french horns playing the Jurassic Park theme song. I admire anyone who can play the french horn. I hear it's one of the hardest instruments to play.

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Trip to Yilan

This Friday, I took a trip to Yilan with Jeff as a vacation and a mental health day from work. I needed it a lot and I definitely was not disappointed. I'm just going to post my pics and describe them.

We went to the National Center for the Traditional Arts, a beautiful set of museums and shopping malls that doubles as a campus for some college students.

Here, I'm wondering what these guys are looking at.

The museum we started in had lots of exhibits with art from the Japanese Meiji Period. Among my favorite pieces were the bronze (copper?) animals. I couldn't take pictures inside the museum, but the employees couldn't stop me from taking pics of their advertisements!

The snake decoration had over 100 small parts making up its body. Each part could be moved from side to side so that the entire figure could move like an actual snake! Actually, the coiled position that it has in the ad isn't the same as the position it had inside, where it was laid out like a relaxing snake.

Here's a booth where you can pretend to put on your own puppet show. Those puppets look simple, but they are heavy and very hard to control!

I learned how to use an old Chinese toy as well. It's a top that you can use a rope to spin. I actually bought one for me and Jeff bought one for Steph for her birthday. They are very addictive and very fun to use, but Jeff said that very few kids nowadays know how to use them.

The main reason we went to Yilan was because of this store that Jeff wanted to see that had several different puppets from a popular Taiwanese TV show called Pili. It is about Chinese folklore and action stories. It started about 15-20 years ago and has continued to this day getting better graphics and puppet designs.

I was amazed when I first saw it on TV and I really wanted to see the puppets up close so I could see their designs for myself. Just looking at these pictures doesn't have the same effect as watching the show and it definitely doesn't come close to seeing them in person. They all have gorgeous designs in face and costume. Apparently, each puppet's eyes, mouth, and hands can be moved individually. On the show, even their fingers can be controlled!

Bear in mind that most of these are male puppets. I'll leave it up to you to decide which ones are the females.

The Pili version of God. I like the feathers and his face mask.

See that brush that this guy is holding? Jeff told me that this kind of brush was used in the old days to shoo away flies and bothersome insects, but the characters in Pili use them to hit each other, haha.

A couple of awesome knives that are modeled after the swords the puppets use in the show.

They also have Pili figures and cartoons made for kids.

They were in such dramatic poses, I couldn't help but join in.

I love eating outside whenever I get the chance, especially when it is raining.

An American style feast laid out for us.

These are from the very first temple that the government built in Taiwan. As you can see, it is big and gorgeous!

These are wish slips. If you buy one, you can right a wish and hang it up on these strings and hopefully God will bless you with success in whatever you wrote down.

A feast laid out for God.

This isn't a real dog, just a very cleverly placed statue. I saw another one in a store later on that day.

A very cute plant pot.

This fish statue was on sale for 75,000$ NTD! That's 2,586 US dollars! Dang!

Two of my favorite displays in the second floor of one of the shops. The first is a drunken man, the second is a scholar in his study.

This bridge looks like something from England, not Taiwan. The fact that it's in a rainy backdrop makes it feel even more like England.

We went to an old-style Chinese house still preserved as a museum. There was lots of cool stuff inside and the architecture is really amazing!

Some old currency. The one on the right looks like a rock. I could just pick up a bunch of rocks and say they were money and no one would argue.

More farming equipment.

I have no idea what this is. Probably farming equipment to be pulled my an ox.

This picture is of an old cheat sheet that a student used on a test. The writing is very small, probably so it could be hidden from the teacher's eyes.

This is the actual test the student would take.

This is in the classroom wing of the house. The desk closest to us is where the students would sit. The other desk is for the teacher. Please note which one is bigger and fancier.

The teachers would teach their students how to prepare a feast for God as well.

These are old style baby strollers and a series of old religious texts.

Pictures from the outside of the old-style house.

These are pictures from an ocarina shop. All the animals, including the giant beetle, are playable ocarinas.

This, my friends, is an ocarina cow. You kiss it's mouth and blow in order to make music. Haha.

These are a couple of pictures we got next to a giant brush just outside a calligraphy shop.

So that was my time spent in Yilan. Definitely a welcome distraction from everyday life at the school.