I'll start with last weekend's activities. On Friday night my roommates and I headed to a nearby night market for some good food and browsing. Shana and I were on a mission to find T-shirts, and that's exactly what I did! One shirt is light pink and features a cute little girl with a stack of hamburgers on her head. The background says "I eat 2 hamburgers every day." I'm a little worried that wearing it will only reaffirm the popular belief that a staple in every American's diet is hamburgers, but oh well. The second is a little yellow shirt with a darling young girl shyly holding an envelope sent from her love with a cute little mailbox in the background. I thought I'd mix it up a bit with the third shirt, a grey T with an uber cute robot. I'm pretty excited about them. I would post pictures but I couldn't wait to wear them this week so they are currently in my hamper :).
On Saturday I couldn't wait for my play date with Claire, my newest friend. Claire and I met on a website where you can find local friends and language partners. She is a cardiovascular nurse and works odd shifts, so it's hard to find time to meet. We've been chatting for a few weeks and we finally agreed to meet for this first time this past Saturday. It was such a great day! We have a lot of similar interests and clicked right away. She held my hand right away, something that would probably seem odd in America. It was unexpected at first), but it was also kind of nice, since hand holding between women here often symbolizes close friendship. We went to see Cape No. 7 since Claire had not seen it (and I clearly didn't mind seeing it again!). After the movie we went to a great Japanese restaurant for dinner and then made our way to a Latin American restaurant where they were having a party with salsa lessons. A lot of the ETAs were also there since the owner of the restaurant teaches one of my roommates Spanish, and we chatted and danced with them for a while. Diego, a native of Columbia, taught us how to move our feet and shake our hips :p. I was doing okay until I got to the turns and then I needed a little one-on-one time. Shiela (with whom I was dancing with for that lesson) and I finally got it, and it seemed like a great victory. Soon after, Claire's friends arrived and we went upstairs for drinks and chatting. I met her friend Tim, who is from Canada and pretty involved in volunteer projects concerning the environment and animals in Taiwan. He passed on information about some of their events, and I'm really looking forward to going sometime when I'm free. It was nice to meet a few other foreigners outside of the ETA group. Even though it was also my first time meeting Claire, it wasn't uncomfortable at all--in fact, they thought we had been friends for much longer since we got along so well :).
On Sunday I went on a biking trip with my host sisters and their aunt, cousin, and grandmother. We met for lunch near their house, and then rode on their bikes over to a store to rent one for me. I rode their grandmother's bike, thinking it would be no problem to carry Kayi on the back. Wrong! It took me a while to ride smoothly, learning how to balance both her weight and my own. She is quite the funny girl--she told me that it seemed she needed to pray to Jesus while she was riding on the bike with me! We had fun saying things like "watch it, dude" and "hey, man" to each other while we rode next to parked cars and scooters drifting dangerously close to us (or maybe I was drifting toward them...). We rode from the Mega Department Store over to Fisherman's Wharf , rode along the Love River and a bike path with the others participating in the trip, and then rode back to the Wharf for some iced tea. We stopped for dinner along the way home, and then I came home to prepare my Halloween costumes for this week.
I stopped at the stationary store and bought a plain cat mask along with some paint and the supplies to make a furry tail. I figured I had better think of another costume so that I 1. didn't get bored dressing as the same thing every day, and 2. didn't run out of clothing, so I also bought light lime green butterfly wings and a butterfly mask to paint for my other costume. I also bought M&Ms and Snickers to give to my students in class, and witch hats for this morning's Halloween performance. Every Wednesday morning Wen Fu has it's school-wide student assembly. I was asked to introduce Halloween and I decided last week that I would enlist the help of one of my trickier (if you have any questions about what this means exactly, send me an email), classes to help plan the program. I taught them the song "Ten Little Witches," derived from "Ten Little Indians," and when more than 10 students wanted to participate, I found roles for the others and asked them for their own suggestions. Julianna translated the history of Halloween at the beginning, and then I spoke simple sentences about how we celebrate Halloween today in the U.S. and had students introduce key words in phrases in both English and Chinese. It was a little stressful to prepare since the students were so excited, and therefore "trickier" than usual, but it was a lot of fun to watch them perform. Lynn filmed the performance and I hope to upload it soon for you all to see.
After the performance, Julianna, Lynn, and I walked around to the 5th and 6th grade classrooms all decked out in our costumes to hand out candy, wish the students Happy Halloween, and teach them the rhyme "Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat..." They all got a big kick out of the "I'll pull down your underwear" line. Ha. On Friday, we'll go around to the 1st-4th grade classrooms and make Jack-o-lanterns using orange balloons and black markers.
Although this week has been a little more stressful than usual, it's been pretty fun. Yesterday in English Village at Wen Fu we sang "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and watched part of The Lion King. It's been forever since I last watched it; I forgot how incredibly funny and witty it is! I was definitely able to appreciate the more advanced humor that went right over my head as a kid, as well as the brilliant lyrics to all of the songs.
This weekend my apartment is planning a Halloween party for all of our host siblings and little kiddie friends. I am really pushing for bobbing for apples, but the others don't seem to be too thrilled, so I think we might opt for eating donuts off a string instead (so much more practical?!). We plan to show Hocus Pocus and play lots and lots of games.
Alright, I must admit...I'm a little homesick. I am having a great time here, but I am really starting to miss fall. My screen saver is currently one of my favorite pictures ever--a picture I took of Main Hall last fall at Lawrence while walking downtown with Justine. I miss all of the smells, sights, and sounds so much that I went online last weekend to see if Yankee Candle would deliver to Taiwan--no such luck. Last fall, Justine and I used to lug all our books to Starbucks and drink gingerbread or pumpkin spice lattes as she read and I attempted my chemistry homework. We both got so excited when they put up their Christmas decorations and started to play the holiday tracks. I heard the other day that it was snowing in Minnesota...we don't even have changing foliage here and it's still 80 degrees! The weather is getting a bit cooler, and I can see a change in the lights and feel it a bit in the air, but it's still not the same. I'm starting to begin preparations for Christmas now that I realize it will take quite a bit of work to carry it off. The other day I bought Home Alone 2. My next stop is Costco for a ridiculously large fake Christmas tree. I have yet to figure out exactly how the presents part will work, but I'm sure I'll think of something.
I will leave you all with something that I can't help but share because it was written so beautifully:
"I fully appreciate you missing the sensuous delights of the changing of the seasons to fall that are so much a part of life here in Maryland. I absolutely love fall, my favorite season, because of those very smells you "miss;" the visual pleasure of watching the the greens change to vibrant oranges, yellows, and reds and then fading; the subtle sounds of the crisp leaves falling to the ground and the distinctive rustle/crackle when a person or creature ventures through them during their travels; the sounds of crows "cawing" more insistently about their "issues;" the smell of fires burning; the display of pumpkins at roadside stands and in the stores, the artsy "indian" corn and turkey displays; the "crispness" of the air. The senses are filled abundantly by all of these changes. I wish I could send these things to you so you would not have to miss them, being on the other side of the world."
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