Chapter 8

Chapter 8 is here....just few late, sorry! ...and yes, I should have posted Chapter 9 yesterday, I will do my best to get it up this week, so you're all up to date! Enjoy!

August 10th – 16th

Monday, August 10th

Rest assured, I am safe and well after being somewhat quarantined to my apartment due to the recent typhoon, Morakot—the deadliest typhoon to hit Taiwan in recorded history. I had no idea the impact of this typhoon. All of us roomies were hoping for another day off work, and then we realized just how much damage Morakot had caused in the south and southeast. Now I’m thinking what a blessing to be back to work because it means I’m safe in Changhua.

Typhoon Morakot was pronounced as a Category 2 Hurricane. Morakot had winds reaching up to 100 mph and torrential rain pouring for a week straight. Pingtung County received over 100 inches of rain, causing severe flooding and mudslides, one of which covered a whole village. It is estimated that 153 people have died and about 600 people are still missing, most presumed dead. The estimated cost of damage to Taiwan is $3.3 billion US. Animals drown causing disease and the cost of meat will dramatically increase. Homes, businesses, roads, and bridges have been completely washed away. Some villages are practically islands and reconstruction alone, just to get a train up and running to the small cities, will take up to three years to rebuild. ….And for me, life is back to normal in Changhua, nothing but a tropical storm. I feel very blessed. Pray for those who lost loved ones and livelihoods.

Tuesday, August 11th

We finally had a clear day….it’s nice, but with no rain, the pollution is much more noticeable.

Us teachers started language exchange today. So gooda! Sherry set it up for us. Every Tuesday after class, all the English teachers and some of Sherry’s friends, or the kids’ parents, come for one hour of language. The first half hour is English, and the second half hour is Chinese. I really liked the exchange because we were able to study and work together one on one. I worked with Mimi’s dad, Nick.

Nick speaks a little English so it was nice that he could at least understand me. However, me trying to understand him was a different story. I asked Nick what he wanted to learn and basically, he just wants to be able to hold a conversation, especially in a work setting. He began by telling me his line of work. He’s a quality control specialist for a certain product, ‘bidets.’ Never heard of ‘em huh? Well, I hadn’t either….Nick went on in full detail describing to me the product his company sold. I was so confused because I had never heard of a ‘bidet’, but he assured me his company exported its products to the United States. After a somewhat graphic explanation, and becoming quite acquainted with the game gestures, it finally clicked. Nick was right with the bidet, but in English….this would be called a ‘be day.’ Haha, you gotta love the English language. A word that is pronounced like ‘be day’ is spelled like ‘bidet.’ Interesting.

After crossing that bridge, Nick and I were able to have a great conversation. He taught me how the number system works in Chinese, as well as say some of my favorite phrases, “Wa’ shan yao eiga dun gua nio ni, nio ni shao edien, dun gua doe, jaw jen ju” Haha, no worries if you can’t understand that, I don’t know pinyin so that’s my own gibberish, but at least it gets me my new favorite drink—winter melon milk with the bubbles, light on the milk, heavy on the winter melon. I love when I take a phrase like this to the smoothie shop….all I have to do is ramble off my phrase in a rather fast manner and the people think I’m fluent in Chinese. Alright, I wouldn’t go that far, but really, just knowing one phrase gets you a lot of Chinese back in your face. The Chinese will always respond in Chinese, of course right, yet they continue to try and hold a conversation with me. ‘Ting bu dong, ting bu dong,” I reply, meaning….’I can hear you, but I don’t understand.’ ….and then we all go back to the game of gestures, it’s a great cycle.

Wednesday, August 12th

Not too much happened today. The kids are definitely starting to warm up to me. They wouldn’t stop hugging me. They just kept hanging all over me, “Teacha’ Teacha,’” they all say. It may have taken them a little while to actually pierce my bubble, but now that they’re in, they definitely don’t hold back….all personal space, gone!

In kitchen today we were supposed to make caramel apples, but due to our lack of resources we improvised with a little maple syrup. Maple syrup on apples?
Interesting. The kids were complaining, but I made them try it…yet, I wasn’t so sure of it myself. I found some peanut butter in the cupboard, which I thought to be a much better snack. Nonetheless, I still made them try the maple syrup, haha, they hated it. They kept saying, “Too sweet, too sweet…it tastes like medicine.” They wouldn’t touch it, and then there was me who kept licking maple syrup off my fingers because I’m dying for anything sweet. The Asians don’t care for much of anything sweet—dessert often consists of fruit.

Tonight after work, I stopped by the Noodle Lady to grab some dinner. Oh the Noodle Lady, she is soooo sweet. I saw her the night before at the track, but I didn’t say hi because I couldn’t put my finger on how I knew her…well, it both clicked for us when I strolled up to her cart tonight. We both started playing gestures…I know you, I saw you at the track last night, but it was dark I wasn’t sure who you were. As we were somewhat communicating, I said something in Chinese, and once again, as it always happens….she started speaking really, really fast…’ting bu dong’…then a man (Chris) spoke up helping me translate. My word, so many people know English here, I am amazed, the Asians are just afraid to speak up (they all learn English in junior high or high school).

After I got my yummy noodles, I was walking home when I was stopped by one of the regular street kids, Gena; she was with one of her friends, Steven. Steven was so cute….he came right up to me, gave me a firm handshake, and with his best English he introduced himself with his name, age, school he attends, and city in which he lives. Ha, he asked me what my ‘English’ name was. I thought that was funny. I told him Tanier, and he just thought it was the most beautiful name he’s ever heard. He went on to ask me if I had a boyfriend and the like…I kept thinking, my goodness boy, for a 13 year-old, you are quite curious. Every little kid, even my students, ask me whether I have a boyfriend….ALL THE TIME! I just tell them yes and start making up stories about all the boyfriends I have in America.

Thursday, August 13th

My students have learned that I speak a little bit of Chinese so they always want me to show off my skills. “No Chinese in school,” I tell them. They literally drag me outside of the school just so they can hear me count to 10, they love it! I laugh, they laugh, and it makes for a great time. Sometimes I mutter off a phrase and one of my students will say, “Ah, I know what she just said!”

I taught my SPE’s (the little ones), the nose game. You know, the one where you tuck your thumb under your index finger and say, I got your nose! The kids just giggle and get all excited….oh, they are so easily amused. Now Evence always tries to ‘take my nose’, it’s cute.

Sarah and I went to ‘GoGo for Her’ tonight. It’s a fitness club for women. I told Evence’s mom, Verona, I enjoyed working out, so she invited me to go kickboxing—Sarah came with me and we had a great time! I absolutely loved it. I was a little worried at first, thinking the class would kick my trash, but it wasn’t that bad at all. I learned some new great moves. In addition to kick boxing, we even did a little Tai Chi…oh I wish I could show you my new moves (that will have to wait till I’m home). Our instructor was jumping all over the stage. By the end of the class, we were all pretty sweaty—I kept slipping as I was trying to do my push-ups, I know, kinda gross. During our cool down we all had to slap our bellies, the Asians love to slap, I dunno what it is, but they love it. Just slap it off, we say…

On our way home, Sarah and I stopped at CarreFour to get some snacks. We met another Foreigner, Becky. She’s from Washington State and she’s been here for a little over a year working at another cram school. I love the ‘foreigner way’….whenever we see one another, we always stop each other to talk, it’s like an unspoken code. We get the usual information, “How long have you been here?” “Where do you teach?” “Why did you decide on Taiwan?” …and then we’re on our way—we foreigners gotta stick together.

After CarreFour, I convinced Sarah to stop at the night market with me…finishing an intense work out calls for a nice glass of coconut milk. We also got some dumplings for dinner and walked around looking at cheap goods.

Friday, August 14th

All of us teachers went to dinner with the secretaries (Emilie and Penny) after work tonight; they took us to the coolest restaurant, it was so authentic. When we first arrived to the restaurant the hostess showed us to our room, yes, we had our own room. The room looked like it was designed for little people, like hobbits! It was truly Asian style. The table was about two feet off the ground and there were cushions surrounding the table for us to sit on. It was so much fun! We had to take off our shoes before entering the room, and then we sat on the floor and ate with our chopsticks! The food was amazing. I got gratin—the Asian style casserole….meat, mushrooms, cheese, and noodles all baked together.

When we were finished eating we just sat around and chatted. Tabbi pulled out some American money; Penny and Emilie were in awe. They were so intrigued that they just kept holding the green dollar bills up to the light, feeling it, …and holding it……and feeling it…and folding it.

The roomies and I hit up Clothes Street after dinner. Sarah and I found a great shoe sale! I got the cutest new shoes for just $6.00 US. They are tall, black and turquoise stilettos, very strappy with a zipper at the back of the heel. I’m not quite sure where I’ll be wearing them here in Taiwan, but they sure are cute.

Saturday, August 15th

What a FUN weekend! Sarah and I went to a young single adult conference. Hanna and Tabbi felt a little sketch about the whole thing, thinking there would only be matchmaking going on, but I was in for the experience. Of course, there was a lot of matchmaking, but I met the coolest people!

So, Manti picked Sarah and me up from our apartment around 7:30 this morning. We drove for maybe 45 minutes until we reached our destination and checked into the conference. We’re staying at an old American air force base. The air force left about 10 years ago, and the base has since been turned into a conference/convention center. We are staying (sleeping) in our own little houses, which actually aren’t that little because they’re totally American style. They are equipped with a full kitchen, family room, master bedroom, guest bedroom, and bath. Besides the size of the homes, the first thing I noticed was the soft beds! YAY….one night in a soft bed, so glorious.

Alright, back to the conference. After checking in, all of the ‘participants’ met up in a huge conference room. Everyone was segregated, boys on one side, girls on the other. How odd, I thought, and then I realized this would be the first matchmaking activity. Before the conference, all the guys and girls ranked certain preferences they have in the opposite sex. Our preferences were then put into the computer for us to receive a computer generated date for the day! Haha, I couldn’t stop laughing, this was hilarious. As we were sitting in our seats, the boys would come up in groups to announce their ‘date’ for the day. My date was Brady, he is SWEET! He speaks enough English that we can communicate, but not quite enough that we can conversate. However, he made sure I was taken care of.

For lunch, we were put into groups with our dates, sent to a home with certain materials, and were told to prepare our own meals. Manti and his group were in my group, YAY…English. When we were told that we had to make our own lunch, I turned to Manti and asked, “Do you know how to cook?” he looked at me and replied, “I know how to eat!” Ha, so typical. Thank goodness we had Benny in our group—she is a great cook and saved us from having a disaster in the kitchen. We made rice, dumplings, sweet potato leaves, spicy tofu, and white carrot and meatball soup. The food tasted great, but my chopstick skills seemed to fail me at the most inopportune time. I went for a meatball, and it shot out from my chopsticks, luckily it landed safely on my lap, but everyone saw, and everyone giggled….so did I, it was funny!

When lunch was over we played some great dating games! Many of the activities were, “tell me about the qualities you want in a future spouse,” as I’m standing in front of a mirror with my partner, Brady. I guess it doesn’t matter where you live, America or Taiwan….the church is still doing its best to get all us singles married!

We also had family home evening tonight. Manti and Stephanie translated for us—so nice. The topic for the night was about realizing our strengths and weaknesses and, once again, the qualities we want in a spouse. We even talked about how to divide up household chores between the husband and wife. The bishop kept asking Sarah and I questions about these topics because we’re the Americans, born and raised in the church. I think he was looking for ‘perfect Mormon’ answers or something, but I kept thinking, Really, I’m from an atypical Mormon family…I’m not the right person to ask if your looking for the perfect, Mormon family answers. Sarah thought the same thing.

After family home evening, we had some ‘exercise.’ We could choose from a variety of activities, Sarah and I decided to go swimming! We were so excited to swim because we came all prepared with our goggles and swim caps—we went and bought them last night! Haha, as I was swimming and chatting with some new friends, one girl, Betty, came up to me, “Tanier, change subject. You look more beautiful with no hair!” HAHAHA, what? The Asian compliments just keep getting better and better. I mean, I know I looked hot in my hot pink swim cap, but I don’t know if I’d go as far to say that I look better with no hair! It was funny!

So we had a Southeast Asian BBQ for dinner tonight. To get into the BBQ, we had to fill out a slip of paper that rank ordered the guys at the conference from 1-10 (1 being our first choice date and 10 being our last)….oh wow…the Asians aren’t beating around the bush anymore. Sarah and I couldn’t believe it. Not only did we have to select the boys of our choice, but also, we had to find out which ones spoke English! Finding their names on the ballet was hard enough considering they were all in Chinese. No worries, my new friend Torry came to the rescue. She speaks really good English and actually went to BYU-I. I told her she has ‘American’ attitude and she just laughed—love her already.

The BBQ was fun. We ate lots of food….maybe too much. Sean came up to me after dinner and asked in his chinglish, “you full?” Trying to figure out what he meant, I replied, “Am I full?”….”No, no, no,” he responded, “you look full. You fat…you have baby?” Hahahahaha, really, can it get any worse? I’m hoping it was the dress. So, I have a big nose, I look better with no hair, and I look full (as to having a baby)! At least I have pretty eyelashes and nice eyebrows (I got that compliment twice today).

Anyhow, at the BBQ we had a lil’ karaoke, some hula dancing, and other fun BBQ festivities. I met a guy named Wayne….he’s sweet and his English is amazing. He lived in the states for just a few months, but picked it up fast—he’s studied a lot. I really liked talking to him because he actually has American humor…so many new friends!

Sunday, August 16th

6:30 am, RISE AND SHINE!!! Our group came over this morning for a little scripture study…we chatted about being frugal and how to enjoy the simple things. Manti translated, thank goodness. At 7:30 we had our mystery dates come and pick us up for breakfast (mystery dates, as in our #1’s on the ballet sheet)….guess who mine was??? Wayne. He’s cool….too bad he lives so far away, about 2 ½ hours. We plan to get together once in awhile at least.

After breakfast we went to sacrament, and then we had a panel of people who shared their experiences with marriage, of course! We had a really nice lunch….I ate squid and abalone—quite tasty! We played some more partner/dating games, watched a slide show of the weekend and called it a day.

Overall, I’d say the conference was a success, despite the fact that this ‘Mormon’ event had NO DESSERT, I was still pleased. I met some rad peeps, and we all plan to get together and hang out often. I’m excited to have some new friends, it’s GREAT!