Dear friends,
This past weekend, I went to Guan Yin Shan (name literally translates into a female saint's mountain) and Chengqing Hu (Crystal Clear Lake) with one of the local English teachers, Patty. You can find the photo album that corresponds with this post here. The hike up Guan Yin Shan had lots of steep stairs and we only made it halfway because we were meeting Patty's daughters and husband for lunch. On one side of the mountain was a rope we could use to climb up. It was kind of like a beginner's course in rock climbing--pretty fun.

Kate climbing the rope

After we climbed up Guan Yin Shan, Patty took us to eat Sushi Bar. It was very delicious and with our stomachs full, we headed to Crystal Clear Lake (Chengqing Hu). We saw a bee farm, a nine-cornered bridge, and a 7-level pagoda there. You'll see all of these pictures in Taiwan Photo Album 5. We also saw a really interesting fish in the aquarium at Crystal Clear Lake. The fish looked like it had a brain.

Anyway, this is Shiela reporting that it has been yet another grand adventure in Taiwan. Tune in next time to hear about the Fulbright Conference in Taipei that happens this weekend.

Dear friends,
Yesterday a group of us went to a little dessert store called "Ice Art" at the Cultural Center. Check out some of the amazing dessert we had! For those of you who don't know I have a "Food Album". You should check it out  =) I usually add pictures of the food I'm tasting in Taiwan every week .

Mango + Hazelnut + Chocolate Swirl Sticks

Strawberry, Kiwi, Mango, and Mango Ice Cream Shaved Ice

Grass Jelly Shaved Ice

Mango Shaved Ice

Doesn't this make you hungry?

Dear friends,
I've been practicing my bargaining skills. Check out the cool things I've bought while in Taiwan:

1) Asus Eee PC laptop- NT$9,600, US$291
2) Wallet- NT$150, US$4
3) Haircut at Dream Mall- NT$100, US$3
4) Yummy noodle lunch at the Taiwanese market- NT$25, US$0.75

I'm going to update this blog entry periodically because I've been finding some great deals. Until next time!

Dear friends,
Since arriving in Taiwan, there have been sightings of the following creatures in our apartment:
1) a white lizard
2) cockroaches
3) and more cockroaches.

While I was prepared to deal with cockroaches, I never expected to see a white lizard the first night I stayed in my apartment. Here's what happened that fateful day. I had just finished taking a shower and stepped out of the bathroom. I thought I heard some strange noise so I looked up and lo and behold, I saw a white lizard about 3 or 4 inches long crawling on the wall. Eek! I didn't scream because it was late at night and my apartment mates were sleeping, but I didn't know if I should kill it or just let it be. I decided to let it be because it was so large that if I killed it, it'd make a mess. Plus, I didn't know how to kill a lizard. Do you just whack it? Anyway, that night was my first night in Taiwan (not staying in a hotel). Let's just say, I didn't get much sleep that night because I was paranoid that a cockroach or...a lizard...was going to crawl into my bed. The next day, my program advisor told me that a white lizard is good luck and it eats mosquitos. So, good thing I didn't kill it!

My first sighting of a cockroach in our apartment was also, again, right after I took a shower one night. This time, I definitely heard a squeaky sound and when I looked down there was a cockroach in the middle of the hallway. Not knowing what to do, I immediately grabbed the toilet plunger and capped the little critter. I didn't kill it. I merely put a plunger over it's head. Since I wasn't in the mood to get the cockroach poison out and spray it (remember, I did just take a shower), I left it there until the next morning.

My whole apartment was wondering why the plunger was out in the hallway. After I told them there was a cockroach underneath, they thought my strategy of suffocating the cockroaches by putting a plunger over them was pretty clever...and hilarious. So now, whenever there is a cockroach, I reach for the plunger and Billy reaches for the poison. Once I cap the cockroach, I lift it up a tiny bit and he sprays underneath. Then we leave the plunger on top of the cockroach until the next morning. We have the whole strategy planned out.

Cockroaches beware! Plunger power!

Now, you may be wondering, "Why the heck don't they just buy cockroach poison food?" Well, here's the deal. We did buy cockroach poison food, but it's really rather freaky what the instruction pamphlet said:

(paraphrased) When the cockroach eats the poison food, it will not die immediately. In fact, the cockroach will go back to its home where the other cockroaches are and will die then. After it has died, the other cockroaches will eat its body and the poison will travel through the entire colony. So, when you happen to come across the location of the entire colony in your home (let's say the kitchen),  you'll find a rather large mass of dead cockroach bodies scattered across the floor.

When my apartment mates and I read this, we were really freaked out by the picture:

Who wants to come home to that???? (Cue to look at picture)

I also saw the logic of cockroach food poison as flawed. Why would you want to feed the cockroaches in your apartment? If there weren't that many cockroaches to begin with, you will certainly increase their numbers now that you've put food out; even if it is poisonous food, you're attracting a lot more cockroaches. I don't want my home to be a site where they die...yuck.

Anyway, I think you've heard enough about the cockroach situation =) When you sleep tonight, don't let the bed bugs bite. I certainly will be wishing they don't.

Dear Friends,
This past weekend, the Fulbrighters and I ended up going to the Love River (Aihe), instead of going to Lotus Lake. There was apparently a heat wave that struck Kaohsiung and it was incredibly hot. So, our Fulbright group decided to sleep in and just take the bus to Love River.

You can find the corresponding photo album with this blog post, here. We took a love boat tour and then walked alongside the river. As we were walking by the river, we passed by a glassblower who was selling lots of cute artifacts.

Since I wanted to buy my friends in America gifts, I bought two glass phone charms that glow in the dark at this stand. Right when I was about to leave, the glassblower stops me and says he wants to make me a gift. The other Fulbrighters and I watched in awe as he made me this:

An Angel! It was a very nice gift and now I have a glass angel watching over me while I'm in Taiwan.

Dear friends,
After a week of silence, I am happy to announce that I finally got Internet installed in my apartment. I am staying with three other people in our spacious 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom apartment complete with kitchen, living room, laundry room, basic furnishings, and a balcony. The apartment (pictures to come)  is quite comfortable despite the occasional cockroach that pops up. Our apartment is right across the street from the South gate of the Kaohsiung Cultural Center. This is an excellent location because it is near Normal University where I can take Chinese classes. There are also lots of events, fairs, festivals, and activities that happen in the Cultural Center. For instance, every morning and evening I see Tai Chi classes and aerobic dance classes taking place in the Cultural Center. I hope to join one of these Tai Chi classes in the Cultural Center when I have a more concrete idea of what my schedule will look like. My current schedule is pretty relaxed; I take the bus to San Min Elementary School every morning and sit the whole day participating in orientation activities. Do not be fooled, though. Things have only just quieted down for us Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs). Everyday of last week was jampacked with activities. From applying for our Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) to waddling in the water at Qijin island, the Fulbright Program Coordinators kept us extraordinarily busy. Let me recap some of the highlights of last week when I did not have Internet.

When I first arrived, I stayed in the Hotel Kingdom with a fellow Fulbrighter. Since this fellow Fulbrighter and I were arriving a day before everyone else, we walked the city. My first impressions were:
1) There are a ton of scooters in Taiwan,
2) Taiwan's stoplights have a timer on them so you know how long you have to wait for the red light (pretty nice),
3) Aforementioned scooters do not pay attention to aforementioned stoplights, making crossing the street extremely crazy,
4) People love to stare at foreigners (well, they don't like to stare at me all that much because they think I'm a local. Then, they hear me speak and they laugh because my Chinese is "ma-ma-hu-hu" (so-so) and are impressed by my Caucasian friends who speak better Mandarin than I. It's a rather funny situation.),
5) There are palm trees lining the streets, and
6) There's a 7-11 convenience store almost every two blocks! At the 7-11, you can pay your utility bill, buy a SIM card (pre-paid phone card) for your cell phone, get hot dogs, umbrellas, etc. The function of the 7-11s here in Taiwan are much more versatile than in the United States.

The night I arrived, I had dinner with just our Program Coordinators (see pictures in Photo Set 1: Arrival & Settling In) and we went to the Taiwanese Film Archive.  The next day, I met all the other Kaohsiung ETA Fulbrighters. Most of them had a layover in Taipei before coming to Kaohsiung so they were able to chat and get to know one another. On that day (the 2nd day I arrived), our program coordinators took us on an AMAZING shopping excursion.

We all loaded up onto this huge tour bus and went to IKEA and Carrefour (a large supermarket) to buy stuff for our apartments. There are twelve of us Fulbright ETAs and three apartments; four people live in each apartment. Two of the apartments are near each other and are in the same security-guarded complex (that's my apartment, Apartment A, and Apartment B). Apartment C is about two blocks from where we live. We all loaded up into this tour bus and went shopping for four people and an apartment. You'll see pictures of us fooling around in IKEA (sitting at desks) here. After buying all this stuff, we moved into our apartments and were utterly exhausted the rest of the night.

The next day, we rested and took a boat tour on the "Love River" and went to Qijin island. It was incredibly fun and I got to see much of Taiwan. On the boat tour, I saw the Hong Kong Navy (I'm not too sure why it was there), and an oil rig. When we arrived at Qijin, a group of us decided to hike to the top of the lighthouse on Qijin island. The lighthouse was closed, but the scenic overlooks were absolutely beautiful. I had yummy barbecued squid for dinner later that day at Qijin. There was also a Taiwanese boy band playing in the open space at Qijin island. You'll see in the pictures a group dancing and holding a boat on top of their heads.

During the next few days, we applied for our ARCs (Alien Resident Certificate) visited Xiziwan Beach, visited English Village (a place where 5th graders and other students can come practice prearranged English dialogs), and ate/shopped at the night markets (specifically Liuhe Yeshi and Zhong Xiao).

Xiziwan Beach was very windy when we went, but the restaurant there was excellent. I've been eating some amazing food here in Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung is a seaport so there's lots and lots of seafood--my favorite!

In Kaohsiung, the government has been spending lots of money on establishing "English Village" sites. These are places where students can go to practice specific English dialogs. Since Kaohsiung, Taiwan will be hosting the 2009 World Games, the government wants the students to be able to interact with English speakers and introduce to them the city's history and people. However, the sites are not exclusively geared toward this goal. The English Village sites have over 20 environments (i.e. hotel, grocery store, airport, bank, post office, etc.) where Taiwanese children can practice conversational English. The English Village we went to in Ling Zhou was housed in a huge building with four levels. The ETAs will be participating in English Village a few hours each week in addition to teaching English at a specific school.

After visiting both Xiziwan Beach and one of the English Villages, the next memorable outing was at the night markets! I really like the night markets because I can practice bargaining. I got a wallet here for NT$150, which is a little over US$4. The food at the night markets were amazing. They had fish balls, barbecued squid (like the kind I ate at Qijin), bubble tea (which I never tasted until coming to Taiwan), and other assorted seafood. Liuhe Yeshi is the tourist night market and Zhong Xiao is a night market by where we live.

We've been very busy these past few weeks and now that I have Internet, I'll be updating much more frequently. This weekend, I planned a day trip for all of us Fulbrighters to go to Lotus Lake (Lianchitan) to visit Confucius Temple (Kong Miao), Spring and Autumn Pavilions (ChunQiu Ge), and the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas (Longhu Ta). It should be amazing and I hope the weather will be nice.

The weather so far has been very very humid and hot. I think it's a little more intense than Hong Kong. Kaohsiung is past the Tropic of Cancer so I wouldn't expect it to be cooler. I was very worried about the humidity damaging my clothes, but I bought so many water absorbers for my drawers and closet that I think I'm fine. My apartment also bought a dehumidifier to help dry our clothes in the laundry room.  If you come visit me, though, be ready to get drenched in sweat from the hot and wet climate.

So far, I am loving Taiwan and am so excited to meet the Local English Teachers (LETs). We meet them next week and depending on who we choose, we will go to their school. The Fulbright ETAs will all be teaching at elementary schools because our Kaohsiung group is the pilot group; the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange wants to be sure that the program is successful before moving it to the middle school level. It has been so much fun and I can't wait to begin the year, meet my kids, and mix with the locals!