That's Tagalog for Christmas time is here. Too bad I don't remember how to say it in Mandarin...in other words, Merry Christmas everyone.
At our school we had a Christmas Pagaent. The theme for the pagaent was Christmas Around the World. The Eagles(my class) did a song in Tagolog. I attempted to choreograph the dance and my co-teacher taught the words to the song. In the end it all turned out pretty well. All the parents really want to see is their kid in a cute outfit and a white person dressed up for Christmas teaching them.
We had a pretty good Christmas here. Bethany and I both got stockings and gifts sent from home so we were able to open some on Christmas morning, and I made cinnamon rolls. We went to a cocktail party on Christmas Eve and a dinner party on Christmas day. Needless to say, I had to keep reminding myself it was Christmas. And now here I am, the day after Christmas, at work. Se la vie.
On a different note, I have taken on some privates the last couple weeks. On Wednesdays, I meet with an ex-coworker, Alice to teach her Spanish for an hour in exchange for her teaching me Chinese. Its a fair deal to me...I get to learn Chinese for free and practice my Spanish. On Thursdays, I teach a little boy named David English. He is very shy, and not very good at speaking English, but all I have to do is talk to him for an hour and a half and I get paid about $25. It gives me something to do at night and the extra money doesn't hurt.
Bethany and I leave for the Philippines on Friday night!!! I am so excited. I am happy here in Taiwan, but I think we really just need a break from it all...yay! I'll let you all know how it is when I get back with my tan!
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
A much needed getaway
In two and a half weeks, Bethany and I will be here:
That's right, when you're celebrating New Years in the cold, think of us. We're going to the Philippines. I hope it actually looks like those pictures....
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Culture Shock 101
In our training, they lectured us on the stages of culture shock. It seems like such a big deal before you actually realize you are going through it. Then, it is frustrating and manifests itself in weird ways.
I’ve mentioned before the celebrity status white people seem to have in Taiwan. That got old really quickly. A couple of weeks ago, Bethany and I went to RT Mart, which is a big store that you can buy anything (comparable to Wal-Mart), to buy groceries. We had to buy some French bread for a friend’s birthday party. She had requested 6 rolls. That doesn’t seem to odd, right? We also wore some warm hats because it was cold outside. The majority of the Taiwanese in the store found the combination of 2 white females in hats buying 6 french bread rolls to be utterly fascinating. We had people actually stop what they were doing, point, stare, and laugh. Not just a few people, but about 60% of the people in the store.
I keep thinking how weird it will be to go back home and not be a minority. I experienced this when I lived in Guatemala, and I remember being frustrated by it then as well. As a child, I had Guatemalan children staring at my eyes and saying that it was weird my eyes were blue. Here, my students call my hair “yellow” and often ask me if I have a baby in my stomach because I am bigger than most of the Taiwanese women!
It will also be weird to go home and not be able to talk openly when I am in public because I know the people around me don’t understand what I am saying. I think I will have to get out of the habit once again of commenting openly on weird style preferences.
This is the point in my stay where it has become a little harder to find positive aspects of my time here….mainly because I would like to be home right about now, seeing as it is the holiday season. There are still things that I love about Taiwan and that I have found to be beautiful about this place and this culture. Those things are not as exaggerated as the negative things, but I’ve been told that this will pass.
I’ve mentioned before the celebrity status white people seem to have in Taiwan. That got old really quickly. A couple of weeks ago, Bethany and I went to RT Mart, which is a big store that you can buy anything (comparable to Wal-Mart), to buy groceries. We had to buy some French bread for a friend’s birthday party. She had requested 6 rolls. That doesn’t seem to odd, right? We also wore some warm hats because it was cold outside. The majority of the Taiwanese in the store found the combination of 2 white females in hats buying 6 french bread rolls to be utterly fascinating. We had people actually stop what they were doing, point, stare, and laugh. Not just a few people, but about 60% of the people in the store.
I keep thinking how weird it will be to go back home and not be a minority. I experienced this when I lived in Guatemala, and I remember being frustrated by it then as well. As a child, I had Guatemalan children staring at my eyes and saying that it was weird my eyes were blue. Here, my students call my hair “yellow” and often ask me if I have a baby in my stomach because I am bigger than most of the Taiwanese women!
It will also be weird to go home and not be able to talk openly when I am in public because I know the people around me don’t understand what I am saying. I think I will have to get out of the habit once again of commenting openly on weird style preferences.
This is the point in my stay where it has become a little harder to find positive aspects of my time here….mainly because I would like to be home right about now, seeing as it is the holiday season. There are still things that I love about Taiwan and that I have found to be beautiful about this place and this culture. Those things are not as exaggerated as the negative things, but I’ve been told that this will pass.
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