OmniBus: Taiwan: Training: Day 1

Woke up at 6 AM without an alarm and not feeling tired…that never happens yo! After I got up a few other people started waking up and one of the girls at the end puts on her glasses and starts asking me: “JAIMIE?! JAIMIE?! IS THAT JAIMIE?!” And I was like: “Saaaay whuuut? *Who is that? ._.*” Turns out that it was Jen Der! :p It was kind of crazy, because I heard she was going to Taiwan but I didn’t’ know it was the same trip and then she’s my roommate too! I thought everyone assigned to my room was in my teaching group, so when I saw Jen, I was like wait…I don’t remember any of my teaching mates looking like Jen…and none of us are familiar with each other yet…so there shouldn't be such enthusiasm exuded in our greetings. Bahahaha, but it was nice knowing I knew someone else on the trip.

Breakfast, nomz.

Dining hall is like an Asian wedding banquet.

Our opening ceremony was outrageous. First we had to coordinate # students and faculty into three group pictures and then one ENTIRE group picture. Cuuhhraazzy. And then they wanted us to do A Gahaha, so Asian! But I like it~. Then their emcee prepped us for hilarious chants (view videos) such as “We will rock you.” I’m not going to explain the hilarity of his efforts, but you can see for yourself. It was quite earnest…so I respect that. Haha.

The music was outrageous as well…they wanted to give every important person a theme song and they appropriately choose the Star Wars’ theme song for an elderly lady. Pretty epic entrance I must say.

Then there was a special presentation by a few local children showcasing their Chinese yo-yo skills. Yo-yo seems like a simple enough game to keep children occupied, but when you add in tricks and everything, it’s so much more mesmerizing than watching Inception! I’m NOT kidding! Considering all the time they put into practicing and then syncing it in with the rapid change music genres and having to add teamwork on top of that and spinning 1 pound yo-yo’s around that could seriously knock your face out!!!…*props.

Lunch

After lunch was 3 hours of lecturing which for some reason I actually paid attention to…I think there’s something in the water here in Taiwan…First I wake up at 6 in the morning and now I don’t get distracted! :O Later, my teaching group and I discussed with our teacher from the host school about the children and what to expect. My group and I are going to work with incoming 7-9^th graders and let’s just say Elle kept describing them with the words “outgoing, shy, and “hot.”” “Hot”? Yeah, I don’t know why…but I will see for myself next week. Apparently, the girls at the school are into dancing and singing stuff like High School Musical and I bet Vivian D. To and Edmond would absolutely love that. Elle also said the girls go all out when they perform. They dress up “sexy” and wear short-skirts (lions), panty hoses (tigers), make-up (bears), oh my. I hope I am not traumatized by it when I see it for myself…oh the innocence of childhood corrupted by media. Sigh. Okay, maybe I’m being a little overly melodramatic…but still…well I guess that’s life and puberty? I was about to go on a rant about adolescence…but I think I’ll hold my tongue and keep optimistic and see what happens.

Dinner

Hohoho, my awesome table mates.

At first, I didn’t like how our dining seating was so regulated and that if we were to mix it up with other tables we’d receive a de-merit. Serious “-_________-” moment. There’s seriously two pages worth of de-merit rules. I thought the seating arrangement would stifle interaction with all the other volunteers and really limit our bonded and feeling of cohesiveness with everyone…even if we’re here with the same goal (at least I hope we are ._.) to give opportunities to students with disadvantages. BUT, I changed my mind. I realize you can’t stretch yourself that thin, just like in college…honestly it’s not going to work out if you want to manage 741983247104 friends. As much as you try, even they’re all your friends, you don’t have personal connection, trust, or any of that “I got cho back, dawg.” These important aspects of friendship are really only nurtured through investing more in quality over quantity. Because when you want to hang out with EVERYONE, there’s just feeling of disconnect when you really need someone…ENTERNAL EMPTINESS…“FOREVER ALONE!” Right Joseph? :p Ja…just something I learned in college. But yeah, ANYWAYS, I lalaLOVE my table. It’s just so fun getting to try random Asian “delicacies” which we can’t identify by form or color…I love being adventurous. Suffering together brings together unity. Kekeke. Plus we’re all the late arrivals so we already started bonding since we set foot in Taiwan. ^^V

So as I’m writing my blog, one of the counselors is waiting at the elevator…we’re on floor 3 and there’s only 3 flights of stairs to go down right? And the elevator was at 8 and she waited for seriously 7 minutes for it to arrive because the elevators here are THAT ludicrously slow…and I just can’t comprehend her reasoning. Save the earth and the take the stairs yo!

Team bonding is really great. I’m so blessed to have most of my group in my room and I really think we all clicked. Hehe anime, Asian pop, Jane Austen obsessions ftw! Team meeting planning went over 3 hours, and that really proved how dedicated ON THE FIRST DAY we’ve become to really give our best to these kids. And our team leader is so hip and young and really cares for us. She really wants us to look up to her as an older sister and I think it'll happen. :)

1 thing I learned from today: INTERNET IS SO SLOW HERE! Jk, but seriously it is. :( But okay seriously, something I learned today...You know the saying, "time flies when you're having fun"? Well apparently it flies when you're hard at work and really focused on your goal. GASP. I should try this in college but look at studying as something that will affect the world because I'm going to change the world.

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