Yilan Trip Pt. 2

You know how irritated you get when you have a tune or song stuck in your head and you can't for the life of you remember what it is? That's how I've been feeling for the past several weeks with one song in particular. And I don't really have anyone in Taiwan that I could just sing it to and have them recognize it. I suppose I could sing it for Steph tomorrow and see if that helps. The software that has you sing into it so it can recognize and tell you the name of the song doesn't work for me. Apparently I sing too crappily.

So after the concert at the water park, we rushed out so we could get to the Luodong Night Market before the evening rush set in. It was about a half hour bike ride into Luodong from Zhongshan and when we finally got there, I was hungry. We split up and I went to many brightly lit areas and stores, so don't worry about my safety. I'm one of the hyper-paranoid types who would scream at the top of her lungs if there was an attacker. Besides, the place was packed, so there would be witnesses.

Anyway, one of the biggest lessons I've learned here is that you should never release me into a night market unsupervised if you don't want me to be dazzled by the sales and spend all my money. Everything here is so cheap that it's easy to be blinded by the 100 kwai sales (3-4 US dollars) for clothes and dirt cheap food. The only thing that reigned me in was the thought that I was somehow going to have to get all those bags home and I didn't want to burden anyone else with my crap, so I stopped after a while and wandered back towards where we were meeting up.

One thing I thought was funny happened when I was ordering food from a vendor who knew a bit of English and she started asking me if I wanted "paper" with my food. I had no idea what she was talking about or why I would want paper on my baked potato or whatever it was I was ordering. It wasn't until she held up a jar of pepper that I realized what she meant and corrected her. Apparently, this is a common mistake because Yu has had a hard time distinguishing between "paper" and "pepper" in American restaurants. English vowels are tough for the Chinese as Chinese tones are tough for us Americans.

Most of what I bought was exercise clothes and socks since I've recently started going to Tai Chi in the mornings (if I can drag myself out of bed anyways) and I wanted something comfortable to move in. By the time night fell, the streets were so crowded that I had to move with the crowd to avoid getting overwhelmed. So, I finally ducked out and made my way back.

Several street views of the night market.

Down this way there was a rock concert going on at the blue stage.
So many lights. @_@ At least there's a McDonald's to light the way even if I can't read the one million signs in Chinese.
In this picture, there is food on your left and a sexy lingerie store to the right of where I am standing. Yeah, that's all in good fun.

After that, all that was left was to go to the train station and go home. We got back at around 10 PM, just about time to go to bed.

Before I end this post, I want to say a few words about the night market that we have a couple blocks away from our apartment. It's a lot smaller than the Luodong night market or the one in Taipei, but it has really good food. I've made it my goal to try every stall there at least once, no matter how disgusting the food may sound. Most of it has been delicious so far. Also, our night market sells mostly food with a small arcade area and a stand that sells hair ties, unlike the Luodong market which was a low-scale mall. Maybe that's for the best; I won't be so tempted to spend all my money in one place this way.

This is a stand where you can pick and choose ingredients to put in a small basket that will then be cooked up. I haven't tried this particular place yet since when I go it usually has a huge line. :(

A very blurry picture of onions over fried squid balls. They are sweet and very good.
A view of one of the aisles of the night market at night. On a weekend night, it will be so crowded you won't be able to see the signs.

The cook making the squid balls.

This fruit stand is a favorite of Steph and mine. Their juice is always fresh and good. It's weird that they aren't more popular. They have samples out in front and everything. Oh well, shorter lines mean more for us.

Yilan Trip Pt. 1

This is going to be another doozy of a post. There's a lot to talk about here. On Saturday, Steph and the family of one of the Chinese teachers went to Yilan, near Taipei, for a mini vacation. I love looking for things to do during Saturday. Usually, I just sit around staring at the internet unless it's cool enough to go for a little bike ride and try to find something interesting. It would help if I could read a little more Chinese.

Our train to Yilan left the station at 5:20 AM, so Steph and I had to leave our apartment at 4:30. It's the earliest I've had to wake up in months, so I slept like a rock during the train ride. We were taking our bikes with us since we planned to ride along Zhongshan river from the train station to the festival. There was a Children's Toy Festival going on in the Zhongshan River water park. The bike ride was very pleasant as it was cloudy and still pretty early so the day hadn't had the chance to heat up yet.

This is a freeway bridge connecting to Taipei. Apparently, you have to pay 45 kwai (about 2 US dollars, to cross it every time you use it).

Inside the train station at Yilan, we could hear the electricity buzzing through the wires overhead as well as these cool looking mechanisms. It sounded pretty dangerous, though.

We got to the park just as the doors were opening so we could get a good spot near the water. At that point, there weren't as many people, so we had the chance to try a little bit of everything, including a water slide, tandum bike paddle boats (floating on the water on top of buoyant platforms made out of water bottles), a little row boat, and three giant water beds with water splashing all over them that you had to try and balance on or else you would be trampled by everyone else.

I thought that last one was the most fun because even though more and more people were coming into the park and getting into the pools, the water beds didn't have a line, you could jump on whenever you wanted. It wasn't like the water slide that had gargantuan lines later on in the day, even though it had two lines (one a regular standing line and the other a rope tunnel that you either had to be a kid or be crazy to go through and enjoy). I spent most of my time on the water beds and playing volleyball with giant balloon balls.

At around lunch, we headed to the toy buildings to look at the cool stuff they had. Most of the toys were random stuff, but they also had some exhibitions for older kids and adults that were pretty fun.

Among the games in the toy building was a version of Dance Dance Revolution on Steroids. Rather than the standard four arrows, you had nine going in all directions to keep track of. Adding to that, you had the option of holding a large green mask that you could shake to race your score while your feet moved. It was purely a distraction, but it was still pretty cool. I wonder if it's supposed simulate a tribal dance or something.

Dragon masks on display.
Mind you, these next couple of pictures are of giant kites. The old man stood as tall as me!

This was a unicycle area where you could try your hand at balancing on a unicycle. I didn't try it, but I thought it was neat that you could have your picture taken in front of the murals to make it look like you were actually brave enough to be riding down a bike path in a scenic area.

I have no idea what these are supposed to be. All I know is that some of them lit up and some of them made noises when you kit them. Some didn't do anything at all. Weird.

A pretty blue tunnel. The reason I'm still in my bathing suit is because I didn't have enough time to change into my regular clothes after we got out of the pools, so I wound up traipsing around in my suit most of the time. I wonder what the Taiwanese people looking at me must have thought. They probably think that all Americans dress the same way.
A cork gun that you could use to try and hit tickets off the wall for prizes. Try as I might, I couldn't get my aim right to hit the tissues holding up the tickets. I swear the guns were rigged.
In this area, they were making lollipops for kids. They were pretty elaborate lollipops too! The kids blew through a straw while the sugar was still hot in order to make a bubble that the artists could decorate like fish or plants. In hindsight, I kinda wish I'd got one. :(
Puppets from one exhibit.

Me on the head of a dragon boat, the same kind they ride on rivers for the Dragon Boat Festival. They're the long kind with lots of people rowing to the beat of a drummer, like on Ben Hur. I wouldn't mind being the drummer, personally.

Ummm...it's an ostrich sticking it's head into a bomb? Is it trying to bury the bomb or hide from it? I'm so confused.
Omg! Robots from the future! Actually, I think they are robots from some Chinese kids show.

We attended a performance where several countries were giving folk dances. We were only able to see the Republic of China and Poland before we had to go. I wanted to see the group from Africa perform. :(

While we were leaving, we encountered two giant kitty mascots. I was able to catch one and get a picture.

This was a fog vat that had lights directed downwards. The lights turned red if they located your hand. The trick was to put your hand under the mist so the lights couldn't detect it. Pretty cool!

Part 2 of this trip will come tomorrow.

A Rose by Any Other Name...Would be Just as Freakin' Hot in Taiwan

For some reason, I never thought I would find a rose around here, but lo and behold, there was a single, tall flower growing in the middle of a garden. Don't they normally grow on bushes? Where are the other flowers?!

I've come to the conclusion that even if a child has no exposure to the English language before coming to this preschool, the first word that he or she picks up will be "teacher." Why? Because it's the word the children most often use before, during, and after class when they are trying to get our attention. It's the title that they use to refer to every adult at the school whether it be Teacher Kim, Teacher Annie (which 6 times out of 10 they will call me because they can't wrap their minds around an American teacher being named anything else BUT Amy/Annie), Teacher Jane, or Teacher Stephanie. They use it in the blurb that they say before and after class: "Good Morning/Thank you, Teacher Kim. We love you!"

When they are saying it to get our attention, it will come out "Teeeeaaacchhheerrrr!" This would be cute on its own, but when you have ten children surrounding you all saying it at once, you start wishing for ear plugs.

Animal Day

So on Wednesday, we made it so the childrens' parents could bring in any pets so that the kids could see how they look in real life. The father of one of the boys is a biologist so he brought in a few animals and told the children how to handle each one. He spoke in Chinese so I couldn't understand most of it, but the animals were very cute. But if an animal like a lizard got away from the man, the kids would scream and run away as though the vile beast would leap on them and scratch their face off! They even screamed at the yippy dog (that's what I call small dogs like Chihuahuas and Yorkies) when it got to run around the room. Seriously, they couldn't keep their cool around a little doggy? Imagine how they would fare around a Malamute or a Newfoundland (giant dogs!).

I also planned a game for the kids where they wore pouches around their necks and had to collect mini apples and oranges and stuff them in their pouches like a hamster. The kids that did it had fun, but most of them were still groggy from their nap so they sat out. I wish I had had nap time during school. High school, I mean.

Pay no attention to the guy's face on the right. I was trying to get a pic of the lizard, but he was moving so much I had a hard time getting close.

WARNING: Potentially Disgusting Pics ahead!

This is a beehive that a wasp has been building outside one of the buildings. The school will knock it down soon, but I wanted to take a pic of it beforehand so I could show it to the children next week for the Animal Homes topic.

This is NOT a live spider or I wouldn't dream of holding it. It's actually a spider skin from when the living spider was shedding (I didn't know spiders shed their skin, honestly). This first pic is a belly view and the second is the normal view.

Free Stuff and New Modes of Hauling Things Around

Remember the couple going off to get married in the US? Of course, you do. I told you about it during my last post. Well, the girl of this couple, named Whitney, invited us over to her apartment last night because she had a lot of stuff leftover from the two previous preschool teachers and she wanted to give some of it back to us. Apparently, she helped the teachers to the train station when they left (this would have been a week before I arrived in Taiwan since that's when they left) and they gave her a suitcase full of clothes and bathroom supplies that they didn't want to take with them.

Well that was well and good, but all that stuff has been sitting in Whitney's apartment for weeks. Now, when she's going to be moving out, she doesn't know what to do with it so she decides we might be able to use some of it. Whatever we didn't take could go to the church our some second-hand store.

So, Steph and I went over and looted the things that Whitney was trying to get rid of. At first we were making piles, but when figuring out a way to get it all back to our apartment became an issue, Steph came up with an interesting idea. Rather than having to call someone and make them bring a car over to help us haul everything back to our place, why could we rig up the suitcase to one of our bikes and drag it behind us? The suitcase has wheels, after all. She would pull out the carrying handle and then tie it to the back of her bike, looping a scarf around her seat pole thingie to secure it in place. Can't think of how exactly this works? Don't worry, I took pictures of it.

In my head, I thought it was crazy. How would a bike manage to carry a huge, heavy suitcase around? One of them would surely fall over with the stress during the ride. But then we put it to the test and...well...it worked.

We got all of our new baggage back to our apartment in one trip. I was amazed and still am, quite frankly. We were joking about making it into a business; we would carry people's luggage around for them at a cheaper price than regular companies and we would be making near maximum profit. We wouldn't have to worry about gas and we wouldn't have to pay for the bikes. Well, mostly. I think if one of the bikes broke, we would have to pay for it, but Steph says that since the bikes are rusty, it wouldn't be our fault that they couldn't handle the strain. I can't say I'm completely convinced, but I'm too happy with all of my free stuff to think about it too hard.

If you're curious, whatever we don't use we will give to members of the church. I'm sure someone can use it.