Dear friends,
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope my family and friends around the globe are celebrating with their loved ones and giving thanks. My family traditionally celebrates Thanksgiving by inviting my extended relatives and grandparents to our house for a feast. Well, two feasts--one for lunch and one for dinner.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because the whole family gets together and we'll sit around chatting, laughing, and watching movies.

For Thanksgiving this year in Taiwan, all of us went to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to eat a delicious, Thanksgiving meal. It was a feast complete with green bean casserole, fruit salad, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, and carrots. Some of the Fulbrighters helped bake chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and apple pie. For dessert, I had fruit and my favorite dessert of all--pumpkin pie! On the car ride home with one of the local English teachers, she commented on how there actually weren't that many dishes, which is true according to Taiwan standards where they'll have anywhere from twelve to twenty dishes at one sitting. I thought it was pretty funny, though, because the dishes we had are considered plenty according to American standards =D

While I missed spending Thanksgiving with family this year, it was very nice to spend it with new friends in Taiwan.  I'm thankful for my wonderful local English teachers Chia-Ling & Ashley, my students, my school, my friends, and my family. I love y'all!

Dear friends,
The Kaohsiung City basketball tournaments were held at my school, Hua Shan Elementary School, all last week. It was an intense three days of schools coming from all over the city to play basketball. The teams used our outdoor and indoor courts.

Fans sitting on the sidelines

The boys basketball team of Hua Shan Elementary School were the tournament champions! I was so excited to watch them play. They were ALL so good! The girls did pretty well, too; they took third place. Everybody could really move around the court quickly. These little boys and girls are so much better than I ever was at their age! This was the final tournament of the fall semester. There will be another tournament next spring, too.

CONGRATULATIONS, Hua Shan's Basketball Teams!!

Dear friends,
I went to Sandimen Village, an aboriginal town in Pingdong County (Southern Taiwan) on Sunday. The aboriginals are famous for their artistic talent--singing, dancing, painting, and making crafts. They are characterized by darker skin and larger eyes. Up until this point, I thought there were only Han Chinese living in Taiwan. However, after seeing more and more aboriginals at my school and during this trip, I can begin to tell the difference between the two sets of people.

I went to Sandimen with Joyce, a co-worker from Ling Zhou Elementary School, her family, Kate, and Billy. We began the day by first heading to the Dragonfly Beads Art Studio, a particularly famous location in Taiwan because of its handmade beads. There are only a handful of these studios in all of Taiwan. The aboriginals use heat to melt the glass beads, which when cooled, are used to make jewelry. Each bead has a special meaning attached to it. One of their necklaces (pictured below) was used in the famous Taiwanese movie Cape No. 7. 

Above: The Pearl of Eternal Love (August)

There is a pearl for every single month. When we were at the Dragonfly Beads Art Studio, I decided to make the pearls pictured below for my family. I did not choose the pearls based on my family members' birth month, but instead chose the pearls based on aesthetics and meaning.

Top: The Pearl of Delicate Happiness (December)

Middle: The Pearl of Green Rich Harvest (March)

Bottom: The Pearl of Industrious Mind (November)

One of the artists helped me make the beads. She was part of the tribe, Paiwan, that specializes in making these glass beads. The population of the Paiwan is somewhat above 82,000. According to a brochure from the Bureau of Cultural, Park, Council of Indigenous Peoples, the Paiwan are the best at handicrafts. Apparently their expertise in handicrafts is a result of their heirarchical social structure; the nobles have a lot of time to refine their artistic skills because they do not participate in the daily-life productions. The Paiwan make a variety of objects, ranging from tools to architectural parts (i.e. wooden beams, pillars, etc.).

After making our beads, which took about 8 minutes to make and 40 minutes to cool, we headed to the Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Culture Park. There, we saw the tribe members of Paiwan dance and light firecrackers. The costumes they wore were very beautiful and brightly colored. We took a bus to the indoor Naluwan Theater within the park and on the way, saw many beautiful scenic spots.

For more pictures of this cultural experience, please see this album: Taiwan Photo Set 19: Sandimen Village.

Dear friends,
My school, Hua Shan Elementary School, has a partnership with a local 7-11 that lets students buy slurpees at a discount as long as they speak English with the clerk. Me, Chia-Ling, & Ashley, all went to school today (a Saturday) to teach students and even some parents how to buy a slurpee in English. We played various games when teaching the dialog and new vocabulary words. The students were mostly from grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. When we arrived at 7-11, I stood next to the cashier and the students spoke English with me and then bought their slurpees with the "real" cashier.

Do you see me wearing the 7-11 uniform?

We did a little "cheers" and then played "7-Up, Heads Up" outside 7-11 before heading back to the school. It was a good activity for students to use English and it was a good day to drink a slurpee =D.

Dear friends,
Last Wednesday, I was invited to Ruei-Siang Senior High School to cook with thirty-nine high school students. This was the second high school I've been to since coming to Taiwan. The first high school I visited was Xiao Gang High School (please see previous posts), where I gave a Q&A session on American life. This time, I made steamed dumplings with the students. The high school not only invited four of us Fulbrighters (me, Billy, Vicky, and Nicki), but they also invited two Rotary foreign exchange students from America and Germany. It was neat to talk to all of these high school students about their experience and life in Taiwan. We also had lengthy conversations about American pop culture. Little did I know that the students were going to put on a singing show for us! One student, Amour (His name is actually "Mo," but the students like to call him "Amour" because it stands for "love" in French), sang a song from the famous Taiwanese movie Cape No. 7 with two other students.

Amour with two other students singing songs from Cape No. 7 (left), Vicky singing with Frank (right)

Afterwards, Vicky (another Fulbrighter) got up and sang "This Moment" by Kelly Clarkson with Frank. All of the students were so talented! I know this because after Vicky and Frank sang, the entire class of 39 students got up and sang traditional Taiwanese songs.

After their singing performances, I taught the students the Hokey-Pokey and Macarena. They were not shy at all! When I taught my elementary students in English Club the Hokey-Pokey and Macarena, they were running away because they did not want to be embarrassed. The high school students, though, were not afraid to shake their bootie =D Cooking and dancing with the high school students was a great way to end a day!

Dear friends,
On November 8, 2008, my school had a huge 10-year anniversary celebration. Many special guests were invited including councilmen, representatives from the Bureau of Education, other principals, previous teachers that taught at Hua Shan, and many others. My school prepared a special ceremony for this special event and Chia-Ling and I were the MCs (Masters of Ceremony).

Awards were given to teachers who had taught for ten years and to some special guests. Each grade did a performance that lasted about 5-10 minutes. The students and teachers worked really hard on the performances, practicing nearly two months before the actual ceremony. I made a video with clips from most of the performances. Hopefully this will give you a glimpse of how outstanding the kids are at Hua Shan. Here is what each grade did:
(In order of appearance)
Grade 2: Pom-pom dance
Grade 3: Hand-clapping dance
Grade 4: Fan dance, martial arts fight, & lion dance
Grade 1: Spongebob Squarepants "I love to take a bath" dance
Grade 5: "We will, we will rock you" dance, drum performance, & flag spectacle
Grade 6: Body combat dance
Yep, Hua Shan Elementary School students are pretty amazing.

After the ceremony, my school held the final "tug-of-war" competition among the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Tug-of-war is one of the competitions for the World Game. As I mentioned before in previous posts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan is hosting the 2009 World Games. So, to honor and have some fun with one of the sports, Hua Shan did its own tug-of-war competition.

Once tug-of-war finished, our school held a 100 meter race. I'm not too sure if it was 100 meters, but it was pretty short distance. The first graders were so cute because one kid lost his shoe when he ran and another kid who was in the lead waited for the others to catch-up so he could run with them--so adorable! For almost all the grades, I was the referee who yelled, "On you mark, get set, go!" I didn't fire the gun, though. A fellow teacher did that because I had my hands full with the megaphone.

It was an incredibly fun day. The kids worked so hard on the performance and did so well. I also bonded with my fellow teachers and co-workers because we've been doing so many activities together, from the korfball competition to the relay race to the anniversary celebration! I'm so glad I'm at Hua Shan Elementary School because I get along so well with my teachers, fellow administrators, and students. Hua Shan is a very friendly, warm, and fun environment. I am so lucky to be at this school.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUA SHAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!

Check out more pictures, here!

Dear friends,
I was a co-MC with my dean of academic affairs  for Hua Shan's Relay Race today. Taiwanese Relay Race day is like America's Field Day, except the Taiwanese only have one activity--the relay. Hua Shan Elementary School has a relay race each year and the students race against members of different classes in the same grade. Only third through sixth grade raced today. The first and second graders watched.

The day began with all of us heading to the middle school track and field. My school booked the track and field because ours was too small. The kids walked from Hua Shan to the middle school. The line of kids snaked around the entire block. When the kids arrived at the track and field, I led them in the "Boom Chica Boom" cheer and then they did warm-up exercises.

When the exercises finished, the students got ready for their relay race. During the race, my co-MC, Mr. Sha, would loudly cheer "Jia Yo! Jia Yo!" which literally means "Add Gas, Add Gas!" There isn't a real English equivalent except for maybe "Go! Go! Go!" So, I started shouting loudly in the microphone, "Go! Go! Go!" It was pretty exciting. The kids usually sped up when they passed by the stage and heard us yell.

It was such a fun event. I got a pretty bad tan, though. The sun was facing me so I was pretty hot when I was MCing. There are more pictures of my teachers and administrators in this album.

Dear friends,
Tonight I went with the sports class and Hua Shan's teachers and administrators to the Korfball Semi-Final World Game. Kaohsiung, Taiwan is hosting the 2009 World Games. This was the semi-final warm up game for korfball. If you're American, you're probably wondering, "What is Korfball?" Korfball is like basketball but you don't dribble. The ball looks like a soccerball and you try to score by making a basket. The hoop looks different because there's no net, only a ring, and there's no backboard. You play on a court and each team has four people on each half court (when I say "court," think "basketball court"). It's actually a pretty cool sport.

I had a lot of fun because Hua Shan was basically the cheerleading squad for the China-Taipei Korfball Team. The China-Taipei team played the Russian Korfball team. We were very very loud. The Taiwanese love to use these little plastic horns to blow and to also hit. The cheers are so awesome because everyone is so coordinated. China-Taipei won by two points, which is a lot because other teams that we saw kept only a one point difference with the opposing team.

The kids cheers were pretty cute, too. I recently burned the basketball coach a CD of warm-up songs for tomorrow's field day at Hua Shan and one of the songs I put on there was "Who Let the Dogs Out?" by Baha Men. At the Korfball game, the 6th grade sports class started cheering, "Who Let the Dogs Out? Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo!" They thought the "Whoo" sounded like "Boo" so they thought it was legitimate to cheer against the Russian team. It was so cute!

Fellow teachers and staff at the game (above), Hua Shan students and a teacher (below)

You can find more photos of korfball right here.

Dear friends,
I went to a really amazing restaurant last weekend with my host family. The restaurant was called Wang Steak House.  The food was excellent and so pretty! There are more photos in this album. My friend Margaret B. came to visit me from Nanjing, China so she joined us for the dinner and night out. We had a birthday coupon so we all pretended it was my birthday =D. This restaurant had such great service. They took this picture of us, developed it, and gave us a photo frame to put it in! Amazing, eh?

This post is rather short because I've been really busy gearing up for my school's 10-year anniversary this Saturday. I'll write more about that when it happens! =D

Dear friends,
My school made a display case for me! I designed the layout and wrote the little blurbs.