Kung Fu!!!!!!!!!

When we moved to Taiwan I made a list of goals that I wanted to accomplish while living here.  They were:

1. Learn Chinese
2. Study a martial art
3. Write
4. Exercise regularly

Well, this weekend I finally took the first step to crossing off my final goal.  Marty and I had our first Kung Fu class Saturday with Shaolin Master Shen Wen.  How utterly cool is that? 

A few weeks ago at piano class, Marty did a sketch of the piano teacher and one of the girls.  It was subsequently hung up in the window, and from that one sketch, he has had several inquiries about teaching private art classes, and most importantly an invitation to join a local kung fu class.  I was not going to be left out of this one, so I tagged along to check it out.  It started at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning in the park beside our apartment.  I thought I was going to have to drag Marty out of bed, it being so early and all, but low and behold he was spry Party Marty at 7:15.  When we arrived, the girls hopped on their bikes and rode around the park during the class.  The master was a small man with bright eyes and an infectious smile.  It was difficult to tell how old he was because he was in such great shape, but I will guess somewhere around 45.  His English was about as good as my Chinese, so that made explaining things like movement of Chi, Chakras, and alignment of acupuncture points quite entertaining.  It was a 1-½ hour class that involved intense stretching, flowing movements, and deep breathing.  We didn’t exert a lot of energy like in an aerobics class or anything, but try holding a slight squatting pose for 5 minutes with your arms stretched out in front of you… it was no picnic, I assure you.  He was a fantastic teacher and after the class he spent 30 minutes examining our fingertips, palms, and spines telling us in which areas of our bodies we had health issues.  Apparently, my right side is weaker than my left and a broken thumb that never healed 18 years ago was probably exacerbated by Marty’s old turf toe injury.  It just goes to show you that you never know what you might learn unless you get out of bed early and try new things.   After the class was over, one of the girls asked why we didn’t practice actual kicks and jabs.  Marty had to explain that just like in the Karate Kid, we first have to master ‘wax on and wax off’.  Oh yes, she understood that analogy right away.  

That day, I felt more focused and calmer.  Perhaps it was because I deemed it ‘be lazy and do nothing all weekend’ weekend, but I would like to think that the class had something to do with it.  Ooohhh, I can’t wait for the next Kung Fu class.  Wouldn’t it be dreamy if I didn’t have to work and I could just spend my days studying Chinese and Kung Fu???

Master Wen waves hello!

Speaking of dreams, Taiwan just released the new national lotto numbers… keep your fingers crossed for me!

Lotto you ask? Most every receipt you get in Taiwan has a lotto number printed on it.  So essentially, if you are a consumer, you play the lottery.  Each month, they release the numbers for the previous month so you dig out all of your old receipts and check the numbers with bated breath.  Like most lotteries, the winnings range from a few dollars to several hundred thousand.  I figure between the amount of money we spend at 7-11 and the ‘more often than I care to admit’ time spent eating out, we have a pretty good chance of hitting the jackpot.  And the best part is, you don’t feel like you are throwing your money away and there is no gambling guilt involved.  I am merely doing my part to help out the Taiwanese economy. J Like I said… keep your fingers crossed. 

The science park also had yet another festival this weekend.  I don't quite know what they were celebrating this time, but it was certainly child centered (except for the gun shooting station) and it involved a lot of delicious free food and loud entertainment.

The girls and I on a functional piece of public art 

I say one can never get enough gun shooting exhibits at family fun festivals

At least we don't stand out in crowds

Notice the new doo with bangs

No Turkey in Taiwan

Thanksgiving has past and unlike Halloween and various other commercial American holidays, Thanksgiving does not seem to be celebrated in Taiwan.  Actually, it does not appear that turkey exists here, except of course at Subway.  Yes, we do in fact have a Subway in Tainan City, but the turkey looks more like space turkey than actual good ol’ white breast meat from the U.S.A. (For space turkey visual think NASA in a package turkey).  

So, we worked on Thanksgiving Day and all of the American teachers looked a tad forlorn.  We missed family, friends, and of course stuffing.  In an attempt to not let the day pass by completely without recognition, we trekked into the city and had Indian food with friends. We even went around the table taking turns expressing what we were thankful for.

Thanksgiving dinner photo with P

...and without P

On the train ride home, we passed a fancy downtown hotel with an enormous fake Christmas tree in the lobby.  Oh yes, I thought, it is almost Christmas.  To be quite honest, when your environment is devoid of cold weather, holiday commercials, flyers, and oversized food displays reminding you it is the holidays, it is quite easy to forget.  There is no Christmas music being piped in everywhere you turn or displays months in advance coaxing you to become stressed out about gift giving and BLACK FRIDAY.  For several years now, I have been moving away from the gift giving aspect of the holidays and I must admit that while I do miss the nostalgia of Christmas in my youth, it is not that bad.  I will no doubt break out the Christmas music folder on the IPOD soon enough and we might even string up a few lights around the house if we can find some.  I strive to have the girls love the holidays for all of the right reasons and not have it be about the gifts.  So far so good, but perhaps it will pop up in therapy years from now, along with a myriad of other things J. 

Other than that, life in Taiwan is beginning to seem more normal and less like we are on an extended vacation.  The girls talk non-stop about how much they love school, and they had their first soccer tournament last weekend and won first place.  Pili scored the only goal!!!  Of course, two of the four teams did not show up so we won the entire tournament with that one game, but we were excited nonetheless.

Sportsmanship before the game

Rejoicing over her first ever GOAL!!!!!!!!!!

Insert theme to Rocky here

Mommy, is this trophy made out of real gold?

AND...today was Sport’s Day PART TWO for the elementary school.  Despite the fact that I couldn’t wait for the madness to end, the kids had fun running amok and I roamed around trying to watch events for 4 different grade levels. 

P and her classmate get ready to smoke the regular department kids in the 60 meter dash.  They came in 1st and 2nd.
 (The regular department kids are in the uniforms.)

The 'Fun Game' race

I would love to write about an amazing adventure we have had, but alas we are settling into normalcy Taiwan style.  For the Chinese New Year three week break, we plan to roam around the island and get into as little trouble as possible.  Mr. Gao is renting an art studio starting December 1^st, so I can’t wait to see what he starts producing.  More importantly, he can’t wait to have his ‘cave’ to escape to.  He says the girls and I are only allowed to visit on special occasions, but we shall see about that.  I feel that it is only fair that I get one measly evening alone to contemplate the mysteries of the universe…so much negotiating to be done, so little time.  Wish me luck!

Happy Black Friday and May your sleigh bells ring!

運動會 – yùndòng huì – a.k.a. Sports Day

The much-anticipated Sports Day has come and gone, and like most things in Taiwan, it was quite extraordinary. I had been hearing about Sports Day since before school even started, and the regular department kids had been preparing for three months now.  I had a feeling it would be memorable, I just had no idea how much.  Sports Day also happens to be held on the school’s birthday, so they are able to kill two birds with one stone and turn it into a true annual celebration.

Imagine, if you will, 2,500 students grade 1 to grade 12 marching in a parade around a regular sized track with no bleachers.  Picture half of them walking by a stage of important community members and waving, and the other half stopping for three to five minutes to perform dance routines, one being “I’m So Sexy” where a group of boys rip off their t-shirts to expose black muscle shirts and then proceed to dance a tad too provocatively for the head principal and businessmen from the science park.  J

The bilingual department’s turn to walk past the stage looked as if it was going to be less than spectacular (we were just going to wave) until low and behold, here comes Mr. Gao dressed as the Statue of Liberty standing on top of a rolling cart holding a torch made out of a plunger and mopping supplies.  Amidst the barrage of cameras going off, he hands the principal his torch as a gift, and is rolled down the track waving to his adoring fans. That man never ceases to amaze me.  He and the girls’ class kept it a secret, and the entire bilingual department reaped the benefits of his nuttiness. As hard as it is to believe, he made us look good.

My homeroom class... notice I only have 7 students!

Mr. Gao and the kids

Notice the line of classes wrapping around the track waiting to perform

...wrapping around the other side

The regular department kids performing for the principal and guests

Mr. Gao, a.k.a The Statue of Liberty

The girls and their classmates

Next, conjure up the image of all 2,500 students standing in a muddy field for two hours while they wait for all of their fellow schoolmates to inch their way around the track, listen to speeches, sing the national anthem, and watch more performances… and all before 10 am in 85 degree heat packed with humidity.  The fact that this could be pulled off without a hitch is in and of itself amazing, but watching 2,500 kids stand for that long and not fall apart was even more jaw dropping. 

As I look to the right

As I look to the left

Yes, when it was all said and done, I truly felt my age… my back hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurt… but I was honestly impressed with these kids. 

Time and again Marty and I hear that the students who attend the regular Taiwanese schools are not as creative as they could be because of the educational norm of rote memorization and stand and deliver methods of teaching.  That cramming for the all-important test and then the fierce competition to get into a good high school and university leave little time for artistic endeavors.  What we see, however, is the direct opposite.  In the art classes Marty teaches at the regular school, they constantly raise the bar, and today at Sports Day they threw caution to the wind and had a blast.  There are so many things I have yet to learn about how things work here, but I never cease to be amazed at what these Taiwanese kids are accomplishing. 

The rest of the day was a typical sports day with track and field events.  Competition was fierce and under the coaching tutelage of Mr. Gao our bilingual department kids won many firsts.  I have never seen kids so surprised and ecstatic about winning relays! During the 18-man relay Marty was literally running back and forth across the field taking pictures and giving pep talks before the handoffs.  When our kids won first place, it was certainly a glorious ending to a fun-filled day.

Next year I will be more prepared… and I dare say, so will Mr. Gao!

And the winner is....

A few weeks ago a couple of our teacher friends 'babysat' the girls while MG and I had a day to ourselves. This was the project they worked on and it won second place in a video contest for the Science Park.  Oh the things we do for entertainment around here!  Needless to say, the girls want to know when we are going on another date so they can hang out with their new favorite "babysitters."

Test Stress – Taiwan Style: Time to Relax and Smell the Flowers

The week of mid-term exams is finally over, and I must say I have come away with much knowledge about the insanity of academic pressure here in Taiwan.  I have learned that the pressure comes not so much from making the best grade you can, but just NOT making a LOWER grade than anyone else.  This competitive attitude seems to start at home and is infused into children from a very early age.  I heard from several children that their parents did not care if they got a 100, they just better not get the lowest grade in the class.  I even had a 9 year old tell me he felt suicidal because of the pressure from his mother.  Here, it is the norm for local teachers to call out grades in front of the entire class to ensure that students know where they stand in competition with one another.  The pressure to get into a prestigious high school in the 10^th grade is such that students study until terribly late every night, attend classes all day on Saturday, and basically look like exhausted, stressed-out, over caffeinated, extremely focused college students starting at the age of 10.  When helping my older students study for mid-terms this week, I found that they could recite definitions word-for-word from their books, but when asked to tell you in their own words what it meant, or if the definition was stated to them in a different way, many were completely lost.   Forget the essay questions that asked them to synthesize the information!  Of course, I have a few truly brilliant children who blow me away, but many of them are so steeped in the rote memorization culture, they have no clue there is any other way of learning.

One of the many reasons I wanted to teach abroad in a public school was to explore the differences between the educational systems in the U.S. and other countries.  In an era of insane standardized testing and high-stakes accountability, I was hungry to see another way… a way that leads to motivated children and the return of real teaching for real knowledge.  Many days I ponder our system of education in the States and I realize that while it is riddled with numerous faults, there are many, many things that we do well.  The practice of differentiated instruction, or actually teaching children the way they learn best is a big one.  Here I rarely see anything but stand and deliver.  If you don’t understand what I am teaching you, perhaps either you don’t belong here or you need to go to a bushiban. 

Bushiban is huge in Taiwan.  I’ve decided if I want to hit the jackpot, all I have to do is open an English bushiban and incorporate my bag of teaching tricks.  A bushiban is basically a tutoring school that holds classes in the evenings for students who need extra help in regular school.  There are classes in all subjects, and the price is not cheap.  In the States, teachers kill themselves all year long tutoring their own students to make sure they pass.  Here, it is the parents responsibility to get the kids extra help if they need it…. and most of them need it.  I find it odd that the most obvious question does not seemed to get asked…

If the school and the teachers are doing their job… why do all of the students need to go to bushiban???

Don’t get me wrong.  I love it here.  There are many amazing qualities in each and every aspect of society.  I suppose I was just hoping that I would find this magical school system that not only encouraged children to excel, but also fostered a love of learning and knowledge.  Perhaps it is just a wake-up call.  (I have those a lot lately.)  I want that utopian educational system where parents are made to be involved in their child’s education and teachers are encouraged to be creative and innovative, not merely judged by test scores.  I want a cap put on worksheets, and I want the high performing students to be challenged, not ignored 80% of the time because their teacher knows that they will pass the stupid test even if they sit in the back of the room the entire year doing nothing. 

I constantly tell my girls that no one is perfect… nothing is perfect. Everything has flaws and it is up to us to make the best of what we have.  You cannot imagine how many times I find I have to remind myself of this.  I keep wondering when it will become lodged in my brain and become a part of my existence. 

Perhaps I need to go to the ‘Positive Thinking - I am All Right with my Universe’ Bushiban

I suppose that is why I ended up with Mr. Gao.  He is my daily reminder that I need to relax and smell the flowers.  Perhaps one day soon I will learn.

The Shanhua Friday Night Market

Last night we went to the Shanhua Friday night market with a few of Marty’s students from the regular High School.  They wanted to show us around and make us try many of the local foods they love.  We met at the high school and rode our bikes to Shanhua.  You could smell the food in the air from about a mile away, and as we approached the market, the streets began teeming with hoards of people.  It was almost like being in the food section of a carnival, but with about 100 vendors to choose from making everything from giant vegetable filled hot pots and roasted duck heads to fruit bowls and tea with ice cream floats.

 We (and I use the term ‘WE’ very loosely here) tried stinky tofu, ducks blood, roasted octopus, taro root doughnut balls, spring onion pancakes, bacon wrapped spring onions on a stick, fish balls, bubble tea, and lemonade with jelly. 

The girls agreed to try the octopus in exchange for ice cream, and said it tasted just like the steak sauce (A-1) at Nana and Pop’s house.  It was great hanging out with local kids and you could tell they were very proud to be able to show us their home.  I love the fact that kids here pick their own English names to use with foreigners.  The boys call themselves ‘Snoopy’ and ‘Linus.’  (Insert Charlie Brown theme song here.)

Mr. Gao with Snoopy and Linus

Here comes the octopus!

Taro root doughnut on a stick

Noodles, Noodles, you are a girl's best friend!

Fun at the Shanhua night market!

It is finally Saturday again and I look forward to spending a little quality time with my family.  No Chinese homework makes me one happy camper. 

To all of my fellow teachers out there, relax and smell the flowers.  I know I will try… once again!

Dreaming in Chinese

Preparing for the Grade 1 Chinese mid-term exam has had adverse affects on the ol' brain.  I wake up in the middle of the night singing songs about Ball Ball the Snail who loves running.  My Chinese vocabulary is certainly expanding, however it is that of a seven year old.  I suppose it is better than nothing.  When I bust out my vocabulary on zoo animals, my students clap and yell, "YOU KNOW CHINESE!!!!"  Oh, so many kids to amaze, so very little time.  Enjoy the fruits of our labor....