Chapter 21

Monday, October 9th

You know, living thousands of miles away from home, away from face-to-face interaction, with those people who are closest to you, makes a person become somewhat dependent on alternate forms of communication. My roomies and I were discussing the fact that we are continuously wondering where the time goes…oh there’s never enough time, is there….well, we found the culprit…say hello to Mr. Computer, mainly google chat, skype, and of course, Facebook. We made a vow as of lunch today that none of us will check Facebook for one FULL week. If we cheat, we owe each roommate $2.00—cheap bet huh! Well, we’ll see how we do. Although we don’t feel as though we spend outrageous amounts of time on Facebook, it has become a constant time-filler in our lives.

Jimmy and Scott just get cuter everyday. Their new thing is waiting on me hand and foot, literally. Before entering the gym to play games, each child must politely ask to take off their shoes. Upon doing so, they take their shoes to the shoe rack where they are gently placed. Me on the other hand, I just slip my shoes off next to the door, leaving them at the entrance. Jimmy will have none of this. Today he stopped class to open the gym door and neatly place my shoes on the shoe rack with the others. It wasn’t until he came back into the gym that we could begin to play. Scott is also funny. I am always carrying around a bottle of water; today, Scott came up to me, grabbed my water and set it in the cupboard with all my other things. He then proceeded to close the cupboard door, making sure my water and other things were safe. Again, it wasn’t until he was finished that we could start playing. I can see these acts becoming another one of their daily rituals. Oh these boys.

Wait, there’s more…So, I reward my children using the point system. When they’re good, I give them points. When they get points, they get a prize…easy, right! Each day I write the kids’ names on the board and very cheesy-like, I say, “Who’s in Teacher Tanier’s class?” They reply, “Jimmy’s in Teacher Tanier’s class.” The kids also like to mention me, Teacher Tanier—“Teacher Tanier’s in Teacher Tanier’s class.” To be visual, I always mark points by their names. After the usual routine this afternoon, Scott and Jimmy ran up to me, they grabbed the marker out of my hand, and wrote one trillion points next to my name! They kept writing zero after zero after zero. Like I said, it’s a reward system…excuse my lack of humility, but I hope that means I’m a good teacher!!!

Tuesday, November 10th

Now that I don’t teach much on Tuesdays, I’m lacking in the ‘funny story’ area—not much here today.

When I walked out of my apartment this morning, I strolled over to the bike rack as usual to unlock my bike and ride to work. Unfortunately, my back tire was shot…yes, dead flat! There’s no way I was riding on that lumpy, bumpy, flat tire. I had to walk to work. Luckily, Tabbi walked out the door right about the same time; she was nice enough to walk with me! It’s nice people like her that make me smile! Sherry, my boss, said I need to bring my bike to school so Uncle Joe can fix it. That will be fun, walking my bike to school. Alright, I’m being very facetious, it shouldn’t be that bad. We just live about 15 minutes from the school—walking anyway.

Lady Business tonight! We did some very intense comparison analyses (not really, but sort of), and we’ve decided to cut out Penang and Langkawi. After consulting with our Malaysian travel agent, Tyson (he served a mission there), we realize that we won’t be missing out on much, and, so far, it’s just plain easier to fly using the inland Asian flight companies. We found a $35 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket on Asia Air—it’s a done deal, flying it is! Saves time and hassle, maybe not the green backs…..but, time is money!

Wednesday, November 11th

Teeth! So, I don’t know what it is, but the kids’ teeth around these parts are NOT so hot! As much as I enjoy their smiling little grins, I try to refrain from looking at their dreaded teeth. I don’t think half of the little ones brush their teeth on a daily basis. Their pearly whites, aren’t very pearly, nor are they white; rather, stained, snaggled, and rotting! Hanna has one student, YoYo, who may not even own a toothbrush. His teeth are horrible…nearly everyday, Hanna has to hand him a tissue and ask him to do a rubdown. Poor Flora, she almost looks mal-nourished, and her fangs, well…they’re basically slivers. I guess the parents are thinking their children will lose their baby teeth, so it doesn’t matter? I’m not sure.

Well, today, Jimmy had a wiggly little bugger that was ready to be pulled out! He kept moving it around with his tongue; it was kind of grossing Tabbi and I out. We decided something needed to be done. We called for our former Dental Assistant, Hanna, to help with the operation, AKA, teeth pulling. She grabbed a tissue, and while I distracted Jimmy, she ripped the sucker out…the tooth popped out rather willingly and Jimmy was such a big boy. He didn’t even cry. After the pulling was done, his eyes became wide as if he were in shock or something, but he bit on a tissue for a moment and was fine. I think Scott was more grossed out than Jimmy. Jimmy kept running after the boys carrying his tooth in hand, Scott wasn’t enjoying it. All Jimmy wants for Christmas are his two front teeth!

Thursday, November 12th

The joys of working at a cram school, we seldom have to work in the wee morning hours; however, we hardly take advantage of our mornings. Instead, we stay up late and end up sleeping in. Ah man, I wish I was more of a morning person.

Today, Tabbi and I decided to use or morning doing something a little more worthwhile than the usual. Joseph, our friend who teaches English at Feng Yuan, has been telling us about this amazing waterfall for months. Yes, he’s been telling us since we arrived in Taiwan, but we just haven’t been able to get there yet. You can only get there by car or scooter—seeing how Tabbi and I have neither, it’s been a bit difficult accomplishing our ‘waterfall’ goal. Well, today was the day.

We woke up early and left the apartment around 7:00 am. We met Joseph and our other friend Fenny at the train station in Feng Yuan—both of them were waiting there for us on their scooters. Before jumping on the scoots and taking off, we saw an older Taiwanese woman in the distance. She had a big grin on her face, but NO front teeth. Again, what is it with the teeth! She could have very well been a transient. Well, we made eye-contact. She kept nodding as she walked closer and closer. I finally made a little gesture by waving my hand toward her. It was at that moment that she raised her arm straight in the air, waving it back and forth. There was no mistaking that she was coming for us. When she got closer, she started jabbering in Chinese. Tabbi and I both nodded in agreement with whatever she was saying, and here and there, we muttered the few phrases we know. Fenny, who is Taiwanese, helped us translate. The woman asked us whether we were American, and then she carried on about how American’s are soooo SMART, haha! This lady was hilarious. When I hopped on Fenny’s scooter, she kept motioning for me to hold on to Fenny around the waist. Heaven forbid I hold onto the back of the scooter….I guess that isn’t permitted.

The drive to the Siannyu waterfall was a long one, probably 40 minutes. We went from Feng Yuan, into the city of Taichung, and then onto Tai Ping, and up the mountain. You can always tell when you reach the mountains…the air is clean and brisk, very different from the polluted cities here. I could also tell we hit the mountains when the paved road turned to dirt and I suddenly felt as though I was riding on a four-wheeling trail; yet, I was not on a four-wheeler, just a little scooter. Joseph, who happens to be an OVER-aggressive driver, was hauling up and down the narrow trail on his scooter. Fenny and I were struggling to keep up. The road began to get bumpier, and less well-kept. Our path became muddy and rocky. As Fenny drove through the mud, her back tire slid out beneath us and our scooter began to slide. With her quick reflexes, she was able to regain control, but it was at this time that I began feeling a little uneasy about the path Joseph was taking us on.

After going through the mud, we came to a rather large, rocky hill for a little scooter to go DOWN….I asked Fenny whether I should hop off, but she insisted we were fine. We began our descent…slowly, but not slow enough because Fenny’s breaks weren’t exactly working. We came to dead-man’s curve and we were down for the count. Yes, it’s true…it’s official…you can now say I am a true expat…I’ve been in a scooter accident. Coming around the turn, Fenny’s scooter couldn’t manage to stay up and we both went flying as the scooter went sliding to the ground. Tabbi heard us scream, when she turned around to see what was up, all she could see was Fenny and I, scooter position, lying on the ground. I’m sure it was a site to see. Luckily we were going slow enough that there wasn’t too much damage, just a little scrape here and there. Fenny rubbed her knee pretty good, but she didn’t want to loose face, so she wouldn’t show us and we couldn’t help her. Basically, we picked up her scooter and kept on a movin’!

When we arrived to the waterfall, we had to climb down into the canyon a bit. It was really cool—great big rocks, green trees and vines, rushing water…I loved it! We even saw a fellow catching his business for the day. He was using fish nets and the like to catch some fish and crawdad’s…pretty sweet!

The waterfall was smaller than usual (according to Joseph), but it was still beautiful. At the bottom of the fall is a great big pool of water, probably the cleanest you’ll ever find in Taiwan, it is fed by a spring straight from the mountain. Tabbi and I walked up and down the canyon a bit, and then Jospeh showed us the good spots to go cliff jumping—oh yes, we went cliff jumping!!! There was a 20 footer and a 35 foot cliff to jump from, exhilarating! I made Joseph jump first, but I did it! I jumped from both the 20 and 35 foot cliffs—it was so FUN!!! …maybe it’s a little scary looking over the edge, but you can’t psyche yourself out, you just gotta do it! Unfortunately for Tabbi, she psyched herself out. She wanted to jump, so together we went over to the cliff. She made me jump first. After jumping, I stayed in the pool below trying to coach her through it all, but the moment she looked over the edge, she couldn’t muster enough courage to jump. I probably counted to three 5 times trying to get her to go, but she just couldn’t make herself do it. She still wanted to jump so we found a solution—we called Joseph over and the two of them jumped together. Yeah for us, we both did it! Good job Tip!

We had a good time going to the waterfall; however, we barely made it back in time for lunch at the school, but we did…after getting off the train, we went straight to the school for a little grub, THEN we headed home to shower and get ready for a day full of teaching!

Friday, November 13th

It’s Friday, it’s Friday, my favorite day of the week! Mr. Cluff used to sing that over the load intercom every Friday morning at Woodward in 6th grade…his words are ringing true right about now! Weekends are sooooo good!

Tonight after work, the girls and I were all eating in the kitchen. We went and got gratin for dinner—you know, the Chinese casserole. We started talking Lady Business and Hanna realized she’ll need a new backpack for the trip, so with no prior plans for the evening, we decided to hit up clothes street to see what it had to offer.

Three chicks on a scooter! Instead of debating who got to ride with Hanna on her scooter, we tried our luck with three girls on a scoot: me, Tabbi, and Hanna. It was hilarious. I wish we would have gotten a picture; we may have to reenact the whole thing for pictures sake. Tabbi was sandwiched in between Hanna and me, good thing too, because she was the only one without a coat, and it’s starting to get chilly…it was freezing! …let’s see, I had both arms clutched around Tabbi and Hanna just to hold on…classic.

Hanna did find a bag she likes, but no purchase yet. Tabbi and I looked at all the new shoes coming out for the season…boots, boots, and more boats! Only $12 too…I’ll be gettin’ me some of those before I go home!

When we got home, Hanna and I watched ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.’—one of my favorite chick flicks. Hanna’s room has become quite the hangout these days…there’s talk of moving a couch into her abode, but it hasn’t been executed yet!

Saturday, November 14th

Let’s face it, my time in Taiwan is quickly winding down, and now is the time to be thinking of souvenirs. Where to get souvenirs….LuKang’s the place. LuKang is known for its many ancient temples, yummy Taiwanese food-sea food, aged architecture, and of course, traditional souvenirs! It’s pretty easy to get to LuKang, you hope a bus and in less than 30 minutes, you’ve reached your destination. LuKang is so small you can do everything in just half a day.

We got to LuKang around 2:00 pm and strolled throughout the old alley ways picking up little traditional trinkets here and there. I found the shop where I enjoyed Almond milk with Evance’s family months ago. I introduced the treat to the girls, but they didn’t find it quite as yummy, neither did I actually, but we still drank it all up. Grinding our own sesame to sprinkle over the top of our beverage was fun though. We also tried cows tongue…I know what you’re thinking, YUCK! No worries, it’s only a pastry—called cows tongue because it looks like a cows tongue—sure doesn’t taste like one. Cows tongue: basically sweet, flavored bread, sometimes with a filling inside. You can get strawberry, taro, or regular…we tried all!

Oh my goodness, as we were peaking our heads into each store, we found ourselves in another little wood shop. The lady behind the counter greeted us with a warm hello, but then she suddenly burped right in our faces. Ugh! She didn’t say a word, but just kept smiling as if nothing had happened. I looked to the other girls, trying to tell whether they had heard what I had heard, without being rude. Sure enough, they were just as surprised as me. We kind of chuckled to ourselves, and then…there the store owner went again, another burp. When I looked back at the owner, she was just still smiling. Is this for real? I thought. Again and again, she kept burping; yet, every time we looked back, she was smiling—I feel as though she had burping turrets…maybe the hiccups, eh, it’s iffy. Manners here are just a bit different than those in America.

We all found some great souvenirs. We got ourselves some fans, lanterns, bags, and other trinkets I’m sure we don’t really need.

Sunday, November 15th

At church today we had the stake come and speak to us. It’s always interesting when the stake comes to speak because the messages have to be translated. Sometimes the translation comes across a little different than you would expect, so we always enjoy a good laugh. Oh dear, our branch keeps getting smaller and smaller. It’s basically just the teachers in the congregation now. Every time I walk into sacrament meeting, the place is barren. I kind of wonder whether they’ll keep the branch going or not. I mean, we hardly have any elders. The missionaries pass the sacrament each week. The senior missionaries help out tremendously. If it weren’t for us ILP English teachers, there wouldn’t be enough people to fill all the needed callings. Sad.

It was the Dowse’s last Sunday today. I already miss them, but Tabbi and I are planning our road trip to American Fork to visit them when we get home. We joke that we’ll be standing on their doorstep, spoons in hand, ready to lick the cookie bowl that Sister Dowse has prepared for us. The first time we had dinner with the Dowse’s, Sister Dowse was whipping up some chocolate chip cookies, she held up a spoon for each of us and said, “Are you these kind of people,” asking whether we were bowl lickers or not. Sister Dowse didn’t need a verbal answer because Tabbi and I were both licking the bowl before she had time to hand us a spoon. The Dowse’s are such a cute couple—they will be greatly missed!

After church Sarah, Tabbi, and I decided to walk to the train station instead of busing it. It took us about 30 minutes, but now that the weather has cooled down, it's a fun little walk.

Well, well, well….I think that’s enough journaling for the week….until we meet again!