Day 1: Friday, June 25-26th
I woke up Thursday morning at 6:30 to embark on one of my biggest adventures, teaching underprivileged children English in a foreign land, haha, alright, so the kids are far from underprivileged, but I am definitely in a foreign land.
Dad came home from ‘firemans’ to take me to the shuttle on Main Street. We left the house around 7:00am to catch the 7:30 shuttle to Vegas. Guess who was on the shuttle with me? …Sister Sheets from our ward, how random. We chatted almost the whole drive until I caught a little shut eye before hitting the big city. I also met another man, Tim Clarkson, who graduated from the Marriott School at BYU; we talked about business for a few minutes and then the shuttle arrived at LAS.
The plane to L.A. was a short one, just a little over an hour. It seemed that right after take-off one of the flight attendants gave an announcement telling everyone to prepare for landing. The fight wasn’t that full so I was able to stretch out a bit. The lady sitting to my right was with a group of singers who perform with Arethra Franklin….then to my left was the guitarist from ‘The White Tie Affair.’ His band just did a gig in Vegas for Wet Seal and they are starting Warp Tour on June26th. The band members were easy to spot with their Mohawks, skinny jeans, and retro fashion. Sean, the guitarist, told me to find him on MySpace (he doesn’t use Facebook) so we could keep in touch and I could tell him all about Taiwan 9I have yet to do so).
When I arrived in L.A. I met up with Tabbi in the Jon Bradley International Terminal. There, I had to check in again with the cutest Asian flight attendants, they were so nice! When I found Tabbi she had already made friends with a pastor who is originally from Tucson, but fulfills his church responsibilities in Taiwan. He belongs to an independent church, Potter’s House…kinda crazy but him and his family were very nice. Tabbi and I were able to sit by each other on the flight, but because we both had window seats we were ok with the situation.
Oh my, the plane was huge! It even had an up stairs, unbelievable. Our flight to Taiwan was a total of 14 hours, but it didn’t seem that bad. I took two Tylenol PM and got knocked out pretty fast. Before I took the meds I could tell the guy sitting next to me wanted to chat; I guess it’s the American in me….he knew I could speak English. When I asked him where he was from he said, you’ll never guess it, Provo Utah!!! So crazy to be flying all this way and sit right next to someone from Provo. I guess his parents moved to the states for better working opportunities. Joseph is his name, he is 17 years old and going to visit his grandma in Taipei for two weeks. He was so nice….he even helped me with my Mandarin a little bit. He laughed at how I pronounced some phrases, but was very patient overall. He said I could try working on my 3rd tone just a little more, man oh man, if I ever understand this language it will be a miracle. After my mandarin lesson I decided to sleep. Luckily there was a space in between Joseph and me, so I could lie down over the two seats. I slept most of the way, but woke up for the last three hours of the flight. I didn’t want to sleep the entire flight because we arrived in Taipei at 7:40 Friday evening (it feels so weird to have skipped a day).
After I got off the plane Tabbi, Joseph, and I exchanged some money (1:33 ratio. Every $1 in U.S. is about $33 Taiwan Dollars, very nice), went through immigration, grabbed our bags, and went looking for our ride. As Tabbi and I were looking for someone holding up and ILP sign we heard our names over the loud speaker….they found us! I was so thankful because I have no idea how to communicate. Our ride took us to the city where we will be leaving for these six months, Changhua, about a two hour drive from Taipei. It was really dark along the drive so I couldn’t see the city very well. When we arrived to our destination, our driver showed Tabbi the address he had been following to make sure we were in the right place. Tabbi and I both looked at the paper in utter confusion, it was all in Chinese characters, we just started laughing (this was about 11:00 pm Friday). We had no idea whether we were in the right place. It was dark and dirty, and the streets looked really run down. Our driver just stopped the car and started saying jibberish. In dismay I mustered, “what?” and he exclaimed in the little English he knew, “You home!” Finally we spotted some Americans walking toward us—luckily they were the other teachers! We had found our new home!
Our place is a three story apartment in, what seems like the slums, but when you walk out of our front door (two sliding glass doors) you are in a nice courtyard. We even have security guards working around the clock. The bishop of the Chinese ward and the missionaries live in these same apartments too.
The other teachers are so nice. There is Sarah Lilly (our head teacher from Texas), Hanna Postma (who is from windy city, Hurricane, Ut), Rebeckah and Adam Orton (The married’s from Oregon and Washington), and Leslie (from Arkansas). Sarah and Hanna are staying for another six months while the others are taking their adventures back to the states. The old teachers are with us for another week or so, which I am thankful for so they can show me the ropes. I guess when the girls arrived back in January all the previous teachers had left, the apartment was full of trash, and they had to figure things out on their own. I am so glad these girls aren’t like that. Our first night and they took us to Food Street to get a bite. Everything is fried or boiled here, but it is all very cheap. I had some fried chicken for maybe a $1.00 (I hope that doesn’t become a habit, I don’t need Alabama and 10 more pounds again).
After Food Street we came back to the apartment, which the girls had cleaned up nice. I would say our place is one step down from an EF tour apartment, but it is nicer than I expected. Mom got me nervous when she started talking about the bugs, but I’ve only seen one cockroach and it was outside, so no worries. I have seen a few mosquito’s but nothing too bad. I think I can survive this. On the plane coming into Taipei I had some time to think and I started thinking, “What the heck am I doing here, ha,” but the girls here are more than welcoming and good news, we can flush our toilet paper and brush our teeth with the water, thank the heavens! Something else that is kinda funny, there are absolutely no trash cans anywhere. If you try to find one, you won’t. The Taiwanese recycle everything! Our garbage is sorted just so with different bins for plastic, paper, and the unrecyclable.
So, tomorrow we are going to the morning market and clothes street! At the moment I am completely directionless and just trying to soak everything in. The girls think I am sooooo quiet. It’s kinda funny, if they only know how I am back home! I’m sure they’ll get a taste of my chatty self soon enough! Well, it’s about 3:30 in the morning here in Changhua, about 1:30 pm at home in the states (I learned a trick for everyone back home, just add two to the time in Utah, and change from AM to PM visa versa and you know what time it is in Taiwan, cool, I knew you’d like to know that). Alright, I’m off to bed (which by the way, the beds are super hard….no more comforts of home). I never thought I was high maintenance, but I’ll say…..this adventure will surely settle any speculation. Goodnight! Love you all!
Day 2: Saturday, June 27th
Despite the fact I felt that I was sleeping on a concrete floor, my Tylenol PM helped me sleep somewhat through my first night. This morning I took a shower in our little bathroom that doesn’t have a shower curtain, very interesting. Just like Alabama, nothing ever dry’s. So, my new style, straight granola. Ha, I decided it was a total waste to bring my blow dryer and flat iron. I didn’t even try doing my hair. I just let it go curly—it’ll have to work for the six months I’m here. For breakfast we went to food street and got some yummy real fruit smoothies for 25 NT (New Taiwanese dollars), which is less than a $1.00 in the U.S. The smoothies were just like Orange Peel, so yummy. Some of the girls also got a ‘Hit Cookie’ for breakfast. A ‘Hit Cookie’ is a grilled tortilla sandwiched with your choice of egg, bacon, or cheese….then they hit that cookie….haha, I tasted Tabbi’s and it was pretty good. It kinda tasted like an Egg & Bacon McMuffin from McDonalds or something.
After breakfast we went to Morning Market a few streets away from home. Oh my, I felt like I was in Chinatown again in NY…..only better. Mom, you would love the morning market, they have lots of shoes, purses, clothes, fruit, and anything else you can think of…you can get it dirt cheap too! As we walked through morning market I just kept thinking how I packed too much and how I would love to buy a new pair of shoes or a fun shirt, but I’m trying to be good, I didn’t buy anything. From morning market I rode with Hanna on her scooter to Baguasan (where the big Buda stands). We didn’t walk up to it but just drove through and stopped at the 7/11 to get some water (I was feeling a little dehydrated). 7/11 is quite the place here, you can always find it open and the 7/11 employees must have a college degree. Hanna and I had fun on the scooter—everyone drives scooters here, you’ll even see whole families riding on one scooter, they all cram on together…..scary! You’ll see little kids latched on like Koala bears with no helmet, I fear for them—I guess that’s just how they do it here. The roads are very crowded so you have to be an aggressive driver. Hanna just told me to hold on tight and keep my knees in so I wouldn’t hit anything when we went through narrow allies (ugh, YIKES!). So, before I came to Taiwan everyone told me to watch out for the traffic, I don’t feel that it’s much different from Europe, only here in Taiwan, if you get hit the people will pay you so it’s in their best interest to stay clear of you.
Tonight we went to a BBQ place for dinner with the secretaries from school and Hanna’s friend Molly. Molly is adorable. She is Taiwanese and helps us girls out a lot. She speaks English very well so she is our go-to girl when we need her. She is super funny and a great translator. At the BBQ restaurant we had hot pot (boiling) and a grill. Basically, the restaurant was buffet style where you could get any ‘RAW’ meat you wanted and grill it to your liking (the Taiwanese don’t worry about cross contamination either….who knows what’s touched what or how long the food’s been sitting, the grill and hot pot cure all). They also have ‘fresh’ veggies too. Tonight we grilled chicken, pork, shrimp (which is a little bit different than the kind in the US, we had to tear off the head and legs, antennas and all, YUCK, but I’m becoming quite accustomed), tempura, squid (I just couldn’t try it yet). The craziest thing I tried tonight was chicken heart….Sara and I choked it down together! I’ve actually had chicken heart at Tucanos, but it’s a little different when you cook it yourself. The restaurant also had a chocolate fountain and ice cream, it tasted a little different than what we have back home, not as creamy, but it sure was good! After dinner we just came home and I went to bed early because I was so tired. I tried not to take a nap during the day to get over my jet lag, so I turned in around 10:00 (haven’t done that since FOREVER….going to bed early felt so nice)!
Day 3: Sunday, June 28
This morning we woke up early to go to the English branch in Tai Chong. Tabbi has a friend who’s been teaching at the other school in Feng Yuan and so she wanted to see him (at the English branch). We caught the 8:30 train to Tai Chong and took a taxi to where we thought the branch was meeting. We crammed six girls into a little tiny taxi (two in front and four in back….and yes, we are rule breakers). We drove for about 10-15 minutes to what we thought was our destination. Our taxi left and we went inside this big building to ask the front desk where church was being held. Unfortunately, church had been moved to a different location (we think it was stake conference). After trying to flag down several taxis, with no success (they wouldn’t pick up six girls), Molly (our Asian friend), went over to talk to a nice ‘church looking’ lady. After a few minutes, Molly beckoned us to come and get into the car, haha, oh we trust anyone here! This lady was so sweet. She wasn’t LDS, but she took us to our second destination, what we thought was church. Once again, after being dropped off we realized we were at the wrong place….there were no Mormons in sight. We asked the front desk lady whether she knew anything (well, Molly asked….I still can’t understand a word) and the lady said church hasn’t been held in the building for over a year; we had an old address book the whole time, haha.
After giving church our best shot, Molly called her ‘saving grace’ friend, Ni Ni, to come pick us up. We had been running around all morning long, church was long over and by this time all we wanted was some food. Ni Ni took us to her house (all the houses here are tall and skinny, they look nothing like American Homes—basically a whole in the wall and then, tada….there’s a house. P.S. you always take your shoes off when you go to a Taiwanese home). Ni Ni and her mom were so sweet. They gave us some citrus drink and guava with plumb powder (the Taiwanese put plumb powder on everything). After Ni Ni’s, the girls were still hungry so we went to a little restaurant where we got tons of different food to share….this restaurant introduced me to bamboo, eggplant, clams, tofu, and more. I was pleasantly surprised with most everything; it didn’t taste all that bad. I’m getting much better with my chopsticks too….haven’t had to ask for a fork yet!
1 comment:
Grandma T! ok i'm at work so i only took a minute to read the first day worth of posting, but sounds like you're having a blast!!! put up some pictures lady,i know you're meeting some fine asians!!! ;)
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