Shiela Lee
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"Learning without thought is labor lost, thought without learning is perilous." ~Confucius

Dragon Boat Festival

5/27/2009

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At the start line. We're in lane 2

Dear friends,
I competed in the annual Dragon Boat Festival race this past Monday and Tuesday. Right after two full work days filming our Kaohsiung project over the weekend, I was exhausted when it came around to finally competing in our dragon boat. We practiced a total of four times, about an hour each time, and were ready to  be as quick as lightning--although, we've never had a full practice with everyone there. You may remember my earlier post about dragon boating here. You should probably read about our dragon boating experience in the previous post so you can grasp my full experience.

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Some of our teammates posing for a picture before we row (I'm in the first row, left)
Because not everyone showed up for practice, when I first sat down in the boat, I thought we were going to flip over because the boat was so close to the water. This was because we had never had such a heavy boat! Everyone finally showed up to row the dragon boat. While  it was the day of the competition, at least everyone came!

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Competing at night. All races were held at around 8pm
Although I forgot to bring my goggles the first day of racing, I definitely remembered to bring them the next day of competition.

Like I predicted in a previous post, we did not get first place. We did not get second or third, either. We got fourth place (out of four competitors) in our bracket. It was a lot of fun, despite how slow we were =).  On Monday's race, our time was 4 minutes and 39 seconds. We were so close in beating the Oxford team. We were only two seconds behind. Oxford was also slow that day. But the next day, they were very quick and were not in a close race with us in grabbing last. All our competitors that second day of racing had a score of 3 minutes + something seconds. We were the only ones who had a score of 4 minutes and 18 seconds. Well, although they beat us in speed, we beat them in having the coolest name, "Hamburger Breakfast!"

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Everyone smiling for the camera after our first race
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Our logo for our T-shirts drawn by a Fulbrighter
Actually, our program coordinator was a little embarrassed to put down our name "Hamburger Breakfast" so they put down "Fulbright Hamburger Breakfast" as our name, which they ultimately shortened to "Fulbright."

Zhong Shan Da Xue (Zhong Shan University) took first place with Wen Zao taking second and Oxford taking third. All in all, it was a really fun experience and we all had a good time.

Check out some very cool pictures here.

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Hot Springs, White Water Rafting, & Driving on Green Island

5/18/2009

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An excellent photo of all the twelve Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) right after eating hot pot! (For the original photo, please contact me)

Dear friends,
On May 15-17, the twelve Fulbright English Teaching Assistants of Kaohsiung, Taiwan went on an adventure to eastern Taiwan. This was my first time to this part of the country. We took the train to two different destinations and later took a ferry to reach our third destination.

 Our first destination was Ruesuei in Hualien county. It was a pretty hectic the day we left because I had to teach in the morning and then frantically run to the train station to catch the noon train. The train ride was four hours long with one stop over in Tai-dong. So, you can imagine that by the time we reached Ruesuei, I was ready to relax.

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Some of us in the hot springs
At Ruesuei, we stayed at a hot springs hotel where they had three outdoor springs at different temperatures--cold, warm, and hot. It was very soothing. Ruesuei is known for its "rustic" hot springs, as my guidebook tells me, so I'm glad we got to experience that. The hotel is nestled at the top of a mountain so it was quiet and secluded.

The next day, we got up early to go rafting in another part of Ruesuei. The rafting company we chose had rather old gear (old lifejackets, old rafting boats, old spongy helmets), but they saved us at least NT$300. We rafted for five hours, going over 23 rapids, and over a distance of 25 kilometers. A few of us fell out of the raft a couple of times, but nobody got hurt. We also had some pretty excellent water battles with neighboring rafts, where we used water buckets to throw water at each other. Of course, we're not supposed to do that, but it was still pretty fun because it turned into a battle between the Taiwanese and Americans; the Taiwanese would yell "Welcome to Taiwan!!" And then they would throw some water at us while we would yell back "No honor! You just said 'Peace'!!" It was a good time. This rafting trip would not have been possible without Gered & Rebekah, two of our Fulbright ETAs, organizing it, so a big shout out to both of you! Thank you for organizing the trip!

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Click to enlarge the above pictures
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The river we rafted on (picture taken from inside a car)
After a day of rafting, we went to Tai-Dong in the evening by train. There, we stayed a night at the aboriginal culture hotel. We didn't do too much exploring in Tai-Dong because we arrived so late. The next morning, we went to Green Island (Ludao), an island off of Taiwan.
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At the 'Little Great Wall' on Green Island (Ludao)
We took the ferry to go to Green Island and unfortunately, I threw up multiple times. I don't usually get seasick, but this ride was 40 minutes long and I already had a slight headache in the morning. So, the combination of those factors culminated in a not-so-pleasant experience. Anyway, I digress. When we finally arrived on Green Island,  we realized that we couldn't take a tour with the glass-bottomed boat like we originally planned because it wasn't running on that day, which happened to be a Sunday. At that point, we had to decide if we wanted to ride golf carts around Green Island, which is only 6 sq miles, or 16 sq kilometers around, or rent a car for about $30 for three hours. We chose the latter.

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Rock to the left = Dog, Rock to the right = Sleeping Beauty (Yes, those are the rocks actual names)
Green Island was formed after a volcanic explosion. It is famous for many things including oddly shaped volcanic rocks, a prison for political dissidents (or that's what I hear), and lush green mountains. We saw all of that and much more in the span of three hours. We were very efficient with our two rented cars.

All in all, it was an excellent trip and I'm glad I got to see eastern Taiwan. You should check out more pictures in Taiwan Photo Set 35!
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Hold. Ready. Go! 1,2,3, Go! 1,2,3, Go! (Dragon Boating on Love River...)

5/13/2009

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Dear friends,
As you may know, the annual Dragon Boat Race is upon us in a couple of weeks. The competition is divided up into "Locals" and "Foreigners." In the foreigner teams, you must have at least 10 foreigners rowing; the rest can be Taiwanese. The grand prize is a golden dragon worth NT$60,000, or US$1,764.

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To form a team, you must have thirty people, twenty of which will be rowing, one will be steering the boat in the back, one will be drumming, and one will be sitting on top of the dragon's head to reach for the flag; the other six are backups in case one of us falls into the water during practice.

So, I'd like to say that we're a pretty serious competitor, but I'd be pulling your leg if I wrote that. Let me clarify our place in this competition:

1) Our team name is "Hamburger Breakfast." This name was chosen because so many Taiwanese think that foreigners love to eat hamburgers for breakfast. But in fact, more Taiwanese eat hamburgers for breakfast than foreigners. Instead of trying to dispel this myth, which we've tried, we've decided to embrace our "foreignness" and name ourselves after this misconception.

2) There are seven competitors in the foreign division of the race.

3) One of our competitors is the Kaohsiung World Games Dragon Boat Team.

4) Another one of our competitors has practiced for nearly twenty years.

5) We will practice three times for one hour each until the actual competition...

6) When we practice, we have three rowing strategies, Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. Here is the pattern of drumming for each Plan:
  • Plan A: Beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, beat, and beat! [At each beat, your paddle should enter the water]
  • Plan B: [Where the dashes mean lift your paddle for a few milliseconds] Beat, --, --, Beat, --, --, Beat, --, --, Beat, --, --, Beat, ... (etc.)
  • Plan C: Beat, --, Beat, --, Beat, --, Beat, --, Beat, --, ... (etc.)
For Plan B & C, we have some chants that we yell. With Plan A, we're too busy trying to catch our breath to chant:
  • Plan B: [Three syllables]  "Ham!" <row> "Bur!" <row> "Ger!", ... (etc.)
  • Plan C: [Two syllables] "Break!" <row> "Fast!" <row> "Break!" <row> "Fast!", ... (etc.)

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7) At our first practice, nine out of twenty-four people showed up.

8) At our second practice, twelve out of twenty-four people showed up.

9) Maybe by our third practice, all of us will show up?

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Here we are with twelve people in our boat practicing. Notice the gaping hole in the middle =D
Now, when you're dragon boating, there a few things to keep in mind. First, you're rowing on Love River. In the past, people have said it used to smell so foul pedestrians would throw up walking near it. People did not love the Love River ten years ago. However, things have changed now and it's not nearly as stinky as it was ten years ago. I--sitting at the front of the Dragon Boat and splashing myself with water because I don't know how to row--have tasted the Love River and I'll tell ya right now, it's salty and stings the eyes if you're not wearing goggles. So, to prepare yourself for the race, we suggest you wear:
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Goggles and a face mask! (Thank you Dani & Billy for demonstrating above)
I hope this has given you a little picture into our experience dragon boating.

One more thing, one of the ETAs thought up of our slogan, "Your ass is dragon!" because it sounds like "Your ass is draggin' " as in "You're too slow!" We'll get T-shirts that say this so look out for pictures later!

Happy Rowing, Team! Go Hamburger Breakfast, Go!
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Kaohsiung Basketball Champions!

3/20/2009

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Dear friends,
Hua Shan's basketball team just recently competed in a citywide tournament. The girl's and boy's team each took first place respectively. CONGRATULATIONS!!! They are number one in all of Kaohsiung City. Next competition is in Taipei for the national championship.

The Girl's Team, #1 in all of Kaohsiung City (above)

The Boy's Team, #1 in all of Kaohsiung City (above)

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Biking, biking, biking!

1/18/2009

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Dear friends,
I went with my host family biking all around Kaohsiung today. They just bought new collapsible bikes. We rode them from Love River to Dream Mall to Qijing island. To get to Qijing island, we rode the ferry with our bikes. At Qijing, we ate squid on a stick and basked under the warmth of the sun. It was very cool weather to ride bikes today, the weather was probably around the mid 70s.

You can find more pictures from today in this album: Taiwan Photo Set 30.

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An afternoon of basketball!

12/5/2008

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Dear friends,
1. Hua Shan's Basketball team is really good.
2. A fellow Fulbrighter, Dan, loves to play basketball.

So, as you can imagine when #2 met #1, playing basketball was bound to happen. This afternoon, Dan came to my school to play with the students. The kids were pumped and excited to meet him. We stretched and warmed up for about 15 minutes then jumped straight into a game.

The kids were so excited, they blocked Dan!

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Three other teachers joined us to play, Shang Ping Lao Shi, Teacher Watson, and Zhong Jian Lao Shi (I don't know all of their English names). I played against Shang Ping Lao Shi on the girls team and the two other teachers played against Dan on the boys team.  It was a lot of fun and everyone wants to do it again. So, you'll see more of these posts later =D. You can find more photos here.

Over and out,
Shiela

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Champions of Basketball!

11/30/2008

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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.

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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!!

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Go! Go! Go! - Hua Shan's Relay Race Day!

11/7/2008

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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.

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Korfball Semi-Final World Game

11/6/2008

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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.

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Taipei Elephants vs. Tainan Lions (Final Game of the Season)

10/30/2008

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Dear friends,
I went to the final baseball game of the season last Sunday. The Taipei Elephants Brother were up against the 7-11 Tainan Lions. The Taipei Elephants Brother (yeah, the name has some weird plural thing going on) colors are yellow and black. The Tainan Lions colors are true to the 7-11 colors, orange and green (they took out the red).

You can find more pictures of this event and the people I went with in this album. The Taipei Elephants Brother lost this time by one point.

The stadium we were seated in is the largest in Taiwan. It holds 20,000 people, which is fairly small compared to U.S. sports stadiums. Some differences between American baseball and Taiwanese baseball:
1) There is no 7th inning stretch like in America,
2) Taiwanese snacks include hot dog, bento box (basically rice + meat + vegetables in a box), shrimp chips, and an assortment of Taiwanese snacks,
3) The fans' cheers are all very organized and lead by some people in the front,
4) The fans are incredibly loud, and
5) There are cheerleaders to the side unlike in America where baseball usually has no cheerleaders

Thank you Coach Bao for getting all of us tickets to the game. Selena, Katie, Kate, and I went with around 10 other people from my school. It was fun to watch the game and to also see my co-workers cute little kids!

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The Opening Ceremony of the National Athletic Event

10/25/2008

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A few of us outside the arena stadium (see inflatable teletubby-look-alike behind us?)

Dear friends,
Yesterday I went to the opening ceremony of the Taiwan National Athletic Event. It was very interesting because the mascots for the Athletic Event look like teletubbies. These inflatable teletubbies were hilarious. They bounced around, bumped into each other, and if they fell on the floor, they flailed their arms and couldn't get back up. Although the dancers during the ceremony were pretty cool, I  think the highlight of the event was just watching these little teletubbies bounce around. Some couldn't get through the arena doors and some even deflated! And of course, the event wouldn't be complete without flying teletubbies...

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Yep...flying teletubbies that seemed to only be held by their costumes

The National Athletic Event was a little bit like the Olympics because these teletubby-like things escorted the athletes into the stadium and then they all lined up in the middle like so:

And then, there were fireworks:

The Kaohsiung Arena Stadium

You can find more pictures in this album here. After the opening ceremony ended, all of us went to eat and dance at a Mexican restaurant in Taiwan.

By the way, I got my hair cut. You'll notice in the pictures that my hair is much shorter. I will say more about my hair cut in another post =D.

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"Take me out to the ball game..."

10/19/2008

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Dear friends,
Last night I went with my school's basketball coach and some Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to watch a baseball game. It was so much fun! This was probably the first time I actually payed attention to a baseball game for the entire nine innings. Back in the States, I usually get bored after the fifth inning and want to leave because the game is taking so long. But this time was much more exciting. I think it was more exciting because at the baseball game, the fans had organized cheers. The teams that played against each other were the Taipei Elephant Brothers (yes, that's their full name) and the Kaohsiung La New Bears. Taipei's colors are yellow and black and Kaohsiung's colors are teal and white. We initially thought we were going to cheer for La New Bears because it was Kaohsiung's home team, but apparently Taipei has a larger fan base.

The crowds had organized cheers and would wave their little yellow horns/sticks that make noise. Taiwanese baseball games are pretty noisy, but I think that's a good thing because then people like me don't fall asleep! I enjoyed the cheers very much. There were a lot of cheers that involved saying "Chuan Lei Da!" for "Home Run!" In the end, the Elephant Brothers (Taipei Team) won by one point.

A popular player on the Elephant Brothers team, #23, scored three home runs at the game prior to the one we watched. #23's nickname is Cha-Cha. At last night's game, we saw one home run made by #52 whose nickname is Electric Fireball. It was pretty sweet.

Outside the baseball stadium after the game

Kate, me, and Coach Pao

Kate, Selena (remember her from my previous posts? Her brother owns the Modern Toilet Restaurants), and me

You can find more pictures of the baseball game here.

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Hua Shan Basketball Cheer Movie!

10/8/2008

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Dear friends,
As promised, here are the basketball cheers I do with the Hua Shan Elementary School basketball team every Tuesday. I practice with them once every week and I finally got the girl's and boy's cheer down. Take a look at the little movie I made of their cheers =D:

Hua Shan Elementary School
Basketball Cheers (Boys & Girls)

BOY'S CHEER:
Leader: He-Xio!
Teammates: He-Xio!
Leader: He-Xio!
Teammates: He-Xio!
Leader: Hua-Shan [our school name]!!
Teammates: Jia-You! [literally, "add gas!" or "Go!Go!Go!" in Chinese]

GIRL'S CHEER:
All team members: Hua-Shan [our school name]!
--Clap--Clap--
All team members: Hua-Shan!
--Clap--Clap--
All team members: Hua--Shan--Guo--Xiao!!
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--Clap-Clap--Clap--Clap---Clap
--CLAP!!

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Hua Shan Basketball!

9/30/2008

4 Comments

 

Dear friends,
As you know, every Tuesday afternoon I play basketball with the Hua Shan Basketball Team. I've been waiting a long time to write this post and have been putting it off because I did not have a picture of them. But, I just got a great picture of these enthusiastic, talented, and cheerful basketball players today!

I'm standing in the way back. Can you find me? You can't really see everyone because we haphazardly had everyone stand together and we were goofing off =D.

I'm planning to go to the Hua Shan Basketball Team's games in November. At first I thought I would not be able to go to their games because their basketball games are during the day, but I realized I only have to work half days during those times. I'm going to try to bring the other Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) to those games so we can all cheer the girls and boys basketball teams. I know the girl's cheer so I know we'll at least be doing that cheer during the games =D. If anyone knows of any other basketball cheers, please contact me. In the future, I'll make a YouTube video of the girl's and boy's cheer, so all of you will know what I'm talking about when I speak so highly of these cheers.

Also, here are pictures of the basketball team's most recent game. They also have a website you can check out. These are pictures of their swim meet.

So when I talk about the basketball team, I'm actually talking about the "Sports class." Hua Shan has a special budget to fund a class especially devoted to sports. These kids do all sorts of sports from swimming to basketball to a 10-person, 11-leg race (like the 3-legged race but more difficult). It's very impressive.

To the Hua Shan Sports Team: GOOD LUCK THIS YEAR IN ALL OF YOUR SPORT EVENTS. KEEP UP THE TEAM SPIRIT AND JIA YOU! 祝你今年好运!保持团体精神!加油!

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    Shiela Lee
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