Day 4: Freedom and Arrival

Finallyyyy...the last day of training has arrived. My awesome possum C 1-1 group conquered the demos. We wanted to go first but going mid-last wasn't too bad because groups before us didn't have ingenious ideas such as ours. It went really well...better than I expected. And for the first time, I wasn't nervous when I got up. Usually I'm all chill before but right when I'm on the spot, I breakdown. So yay for that. The best part was how we realized we didn't have candy on us to throw to the audience, so Alice ended up running down to the lobby and taking handfuls of the free but not the best tasting candy. ^^ Oh well, everything tastes better when it's free. I hope the other AID volunteers don't hate us for being cheap Asians.

Roomies! :) 

Our awesome checker-upper counselor, Selina. :) 

Elle, our table teacher for 三民國中.

Closing ceremony

After closing ceremony, we anxiously awaited our release. Our group had the latest train ticket so we wanted to go out to Taipei and explore the city because it was pretty sad how it seemed like we've been there for a week and never step foot past the Chientan gate. The people at the top didn't want us to leave due to safety precautions...but seriously? What did they expect us to do? We can't stay in our rooms because of extra fees...and the lobby area is dead including its WiFi. Finally they gave in and we were able to lug ourselves and our luggage out in to society! The sucky thing was that we had to heave our duffel bags to the MRT station (about a 20 minute fast-paced walk) but at least it was better than having to take ALL our suitcases (they had already shipped it to the school).

Lunch pack.

Lugging 10 lb luggage to the station.

We all had major bruises all over our shoulders...but at least this proves we put the "men" in "women"?

Waiting for the train.

Living it like a local, minus the shirts that automatically label us as noobs.

Lost...?

Found.

Eeek.

Performances.

SO MANY CAKES! Ashley's probably in lalaland.

Consumerism...sigh.

Korean food.

Katsu, Chris Choi's favorite.

Okay, I'm going to write a bit of a Debbie downer...the food I tried wasn't too great. The displays set my expectation way too high. The dining ambiance was wonderful. Everything was so new, bright, shiny, and clean...but my dish just didn't cut it. My Taiwan expert group mates told me that oyster pancakes is a famous dish so I decided to give it a shot. But man, it's nothing like those Korean vegetable pancakes...that' what I expected the texture to be like. The dough wasn't even though...it was all gooey, gelatin like...and I also found out that gelatin made out of animal bones...that definitely didn't help me enjoy the dish. I don't know...it just didn't taste like what food was suppose to taste like. :( But window shopping at all the other foods made up for it!

Fancy.

Cake tower!

任光晞!

So Ashley's hooked on Autumn's Concerto and Guang Xi (Vanness) now. :p June, Velinda, Alice, and I are such bad influences. :p

 巴黎! From left to right: Nancy, Ashley, Velinda, June, Alice, me, and Elle.

Posh. If I were to design a hotel dining area...it would be like this with an aquarium! ^^

Beard Papa smells UHMAAZING in Taiwan.

Window shopping.

Massage with knife cleaver: http://www.stopgettingsick.com/templates/news_template.cfm/2916 

No pictures allowed at 7-Eleven. :3 Whoops.

Nomz, papaya milk! ^^V 

After window shopping for a couple hours, we had to catch our 5:00...I mean 17:00 train. :p So this was the craziest part of our adventure. We ran everywhere in the station/mall trying to find our luggage lockers and then trying to navigate through the shops to find somewhere to buy bread for dinner, and then 7-Eleven for drinks and then back tracking to our lockers before the time ran out on the timer. And after successfully beating the timer, we had to beat the clock and get to the waiting area for our train. We had like one minute to get there but luckily the train came a bit late. The most exciting part was when we were referencing to Harry Potter and Platform 9 3/4...there was ACTUALLY a sign that Platform 9 3/4. Too bad we were in such a hurry, I couldn't snap a shot of it, but I shall if I see it again. My team can witness that it is indeed a true a story!

Ticket to 牧場, 瑞穗.

Dropped bun for 30 NT$...pretty worth it. I thought it would be the codfish bread I like but turns out it was some chocolate one so I wanted to put it back...but yeah it dropped in the process. So Ashley and I, being the foodies we are, still ate it (minus the outer layer...we're not that kind of pigs...but we are pigs. :p)

Scenery.

Seaside!

Changing in public transportation. :p

Arrival in 牧場, 瑞穗.

Welcome to 牧場!

Late night market run!

Necessities.

Stray dog chilling in the market.

Our router in the ceiling...lol.

I'm glad we live where we live. It is indeed a humble abode. I did expect a lot at first because Elle kept describing it as a house...so I imagined something like Fuyumi's house in La Corda D'Oro...and I was quite scared that it'd be such a big house with long corridors and such. But turns out to be a very simple, little dormitory. But judging from Elle's reaction to the presence of a refrigerator and washing machine, it was quite luxurious. I guess this is what it means to have a lot in America. Yao also kept commenting about how lucky we are to have air conditioning...East Coast term (Nancy) "Air Con." Yeah, we are pretty lucky...usually it's expected in America...but in Taiwan you just deal with the weather. I'm really glad we're not at a hotel or something and that the school actually has provided us a place, but nothing over top, but a place that is the best of what they have for themselves. That in itself is giving so much and we get to experience, even if it's just the surface, of what they live through everyday...and what things they "lack" but can make due with out.

Meet Geico the gecko.

Lover's Toilet Tissue

Ashley sanitizing our desks with body wash.

Refrigerator feels full! ^^ 

We have so many visitors today. 

Fuzzy.

Click to enlarge this screenshot:

Pigs can fly.

Training: Day 3

YAY! I'm back to normal. I didn't wake up at such inconceivable hours.

I love Asian breakfasts...even if it's repetitive. 

Last meal with my awesome table.

Training today showed me how close-minded and stubborn I've been with my teaching plan and how much bigger the world really is (in terms of its wealth of knowledge). I thought I already had a pretty good idea about teaching English because of my experience with Jumpstart and other various teaching positions...but today the guest Professor opened up endless possibilities on how to implement different teaching techniques, strategies, and aids...especially with music. It was really awarding because now I have all these tools at my finger tips to help the students improve as well as something that could help me improve with how I learn.

Another late-night...

So my teaching group worked on a teaching demo for the assembly the next morning. It was quite frustrating at first because we weren't all on the same comfort levels about performing in front of audiences, but in the end we decided to go all in. I really believed that we could do it and blow all the important people's socks off. Our topic was body parts and we had a lot of fun activities to implement that topic with our skit such as Tooty Ta and Simon says...and throwing out candy is always a plus. I was pretty gung-ho about going on stage and getting to perform in front of everyone and important people because college has really taught about seizing these sort of opportunities in order to grow as a person. I know not everyone has that type of mindset because we come from all different walks in life but I really hope everyone got a lot from that and conquering fears. To be honest, during practice I was all "no fear" but I had no guarantee that I would be in that exact state when I'm on stage. It's a whole different story. So we'll see what happens tomorrow!

Chilling with some Frog Eggs (boba) and watching AMERICAN DRAGOOON...in Chinese! Jake Long finally speaks his native language!

Lol...Secret Garden.

YESS, Phineas and Ferb. 

My TV watching experience in Taiwan (don't judge me):






Playful Kiss!

I like my roomies MUCHO. We have so much in common and so much not in common but there's always something that can bring us together. It's like how music and sports (despite rivalry :p) brings countries together. The worlddd is a rainbowww (referencing to Team Sharks' Jumpstart inside joke :3). ANYWAYS, Asian dramas ftw even if it's in a different language. I think that as long as it's not an addiction, certain dramas really bring up good discussions about life and such, but ja. :)

Roomies late-night TV...and Autumn's Concerto. :p

Training: Day 2

OKAY, SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY UP WITH THE WATER HERE IN TAIWAN, because I woke up again at 6 AM without an alarm and not wanting to go back to sleep. If this happens again tomorrow I’m going to have this reported! Ohmaahgoodness.

So I’m sitting here in the lounge trying to blog however this lame internet REALLY is NG (no good) that I have to type everything onto a Word doc and upload this all later when I have better connection.

Sigh. There’s so many connections available but none offer internet access…it’s like my previous blog (if you read it) how you can’t have 3981479141894 friends and expect to have a good connection with them…like so, these internet connections are WEAK! Gahaha I’m so witty.

Okay it’s almost 8 (I spent most of my morning recapping on Day 1), I shall update later on.

In lecture right now...
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Internet is so hard to connect to and stay connected too...so my blogs might be choppy.

Breakfast, simple but always ze best.

Jay Chou saaay whuut?! Yea, NO SMOKING.

Convenience store...:o A whole new world!

Wan in Chinese.

Eat your veggies!

Sort your waste! Commendable.

The outside world we rarely see during training.

花蓮縣 三民國中 老师!

Lunch...cornbread nuggets and salty pears and weirdly shaped...stuff in soup.

蘿蔔 and chicken nuggets...?

My dining table is hilarious...whenever there's some exotic looking dish, boys are always first to go. Then there's always some completely random joke that comes out of it. That's what she said...we're so immature. Eating is such a social experience. I love how we barely knew (b/c now we know) each other...even names...lol (we had to go around a couple times saying our names before remembering) but are completely at home with eating out of the same dish with our chopsticks. Family style ftw. Yeah, there are spoons, but we use chopsticks to eat our tatter tots!

Btw, elevators and water dispenser machines talk to you in Taiwan. :3

Ni hao ma!

College all-nights relived.

I shall continue blogging later about Day 2 training. x_x Even though today is Day 3. >_>
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Okay back to blogging about Day 2.

So Day 2's lecture was 6 hours...long. :| Longest day of my life...but I learned a lot. Our lecturer really knew her stuff but I felt like a lot of the student volunteers felt offended because she rarely praised any of our work. The lecturers also emphasized a lot about not using our Chinese because our goal is English...PURELY ENGLISH. This was really hard for me to swallow because I guess...out of selfishness, I also wanted to come Taiwan with the intent of improving my Chinese. :3 But we'll see how it goes.

A lot of pressure has been put on my team as well because we were just informed that the governor and people of such high, respectable statuses, were coming to view our performance at the opening ceremony presentation at the school. Also, media and press are scheduled to cover us at the event. ._."

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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Dorm:

A couple of roomies and our 6 side by side beds.

Posh hotel styled bathrooms.

Taiwan's version of Disney Channel. There was even Fish Tales dubbed in Chinese.

Flight

Parentals

My flight consisted of an hour wait for the plane to finally take off. I haven't been on the plane for awhile and it's so hi-tech now. You can access front view and under the airplane camera view from economy seats. :o I'll uploaded a video of it later. So basically the first two hours of my flight I listened to the audio book Daniel sent me Just Do Something...THANK YOU FOR SENDING IT! ^^ (if you're reading this Daniel :p) Then my computer froze so I ended up watching movies. Adjustment Bureau was quite ridiculous...Hollywood's portrayal of love is getting a bit out of hand. But this one Cantonese movie titled Love in a Puff was pretty entertaining. It was like a Hong Kong's version of When Harry Met Sally. Something my Dad would probably enjoy. I also watched Nodame Cantabile 2...It was outrageous like most Japanese movies...with the explosion of glitter and streamers all across the screen and little cartoon characters popping out of no where but at the same time it reminded me about how much I love music and really encourages me to pursue music with no reservations and to always strive for my best and once I reach it, to top that. Okay, I've gone off on a tangent...

Now time for the IMPORTANT STUFF...AIRPLANE FOOD! Yay my favorite. So for dinner I had sweet and sour sauce with fried fish and veggies.

The dessert, blueberry raspberry moose cake...UHHMAAZZING.

I savored every bite. It totally made up for the soggy fish. Their hot tea was really good too. I had like 20 cups at least.

There's so many options on the TV screen for international flights...they even had Mah Jong that you could play against other people on the flight. But sleeping on the plane sucks...luckily my row was three seats and the empty seat was empty...hopefully my neighbor didn't mind that I slept sideways on both the window and middle seat. :3

And here's my environmental rant...there's way too much waste...even for me as one person that kept drinking tea...I always gave them back my original cup but somehow I think they change it every time and sometimes they don't take my cup and just give me a new one...maybe it's health regulations but there must be some more efficient way. >_>

And this what greeted me at my arrive in Taoyuan Airport...

Hehe Fahrenheit...is it hot in here or what?!

Weird statues.

I took so many other pictures like a tourist...NO SHAME!

After we arrived in the Taoyuan Airport, I finally started meeting other AID Volunteers. Bonding is quite easy when you’re delirious from 13+ hour flights. The humid air actually wasn’t too bad...I guess I’m just used it because I’ve been going to those Korean spas all the time. :3 We finally got to Chientan Youth Activity Center around 11 PM. I checked into my room around 12 AM and met my roommates who were already sleeping. Sorry I woke you guys up! L

As I'm blogging this...my parents' first webcam session.

You can access all my pictures on the Picasa Album!

Email

Dear all, Hello, I mean NI HAO! I'm not sure if most of you know, but I will be leaving for Taiwan Saturday (July 2) afternoon. I will be there for the entire month of July teaching English to indigenous students at a middle school in Hualien county...which is basically in the mountains. The area is quite rural and will definitely be a culture shock for me (but something I will definitely learn a lot from). This is not exactly a mission trip, but I hope that regardless of that, I still have a mission. I actually do not know anyone on the trip except an old church friend, Goldie Young, however we won't be in the same group. Also, I do not know if any of the volunteers are Christians, but please pray that He uses me to witness to my fellow volunteers and to the children and teachers. But praise God that He has brought so many different students, from all over the world, that will be impacting the world with their lives, to Taiwan, and that I will have the chance to meet and be a witness to them. Also, pray that my testimony can transcend the language and cultural barriers. In addition, please pray for my health because I don't have the strongest of immune systems...but praise God that in my all weaknesses, He can be glorified. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 Also, if you want to keep updated with my trip, give me tips/advice, etc., you can visit my blog at: http://jmewan.blogspot.com/ Leave a message on the chatterbox!  I will try to update on a regular basis. Please keep me in your prayers and send 加油! ("Add oil!'s" - encouragements in Chinese) my way. Have a wonderful, unhumid summer, if you're not in Asia.  Jaimie