"Travel brings power and love back into your life." -Rumi

The quote I found for this blog entry is one of my new favorites.

Taichung is a much cleaner city then I would have guessed, as far as trash goes. It is surprising because you can never find public trash cans. Recycling is very big here, they will even charge you $3NT for each plastic bag you need. Also, every receipt you get after a purchase is a lottery ticket. You just enter the code online and you could win. Haven't entered any yet but that's only because I don't know that website.

There are tons of dogs here. The smaller ones are very nicely groomed and are always being carried by their owner. There are also bigger dogs that seem to just roam the streets (even wild dogs up in the mountains).
I am finally getting used to going barefoot in school, the hardest thing to get used to is not flushing any toilet paper, to be honest I forget more often then not.

 These shoes are gorgeous!

The 3 Chinese lessons we had were a bit helpful, but not much if we don't take the time to study outside of class. The phrase "Do you speak English?" I put to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," which helped all of the girls remember. The phrases I use the most have been, "Hello. How much? I am a teacher. I am American. I'm sorry/Excuse me. How cute."

 Year of the snake, also the year I was born!

Few fun facts; Baseball is the biggest sport in Taiwan. Here, we English teachers, are getting paid the same as what the doctors get paid. When Taiwanese women have babies, they buy presents for other people. The insects are huge, spiders with bodies as big as your fist and cockroaches the size of your index finger. (I've seen the roaches, not the spiders...yet). I haven't seen a single insect bite me, however I have about 15 bites on my legs. :-( There are 7/11's on every block it seems. Beautiful temples, parks, and schools all over the place as well.

A group of us went to a 90 min yoga class on Thursday. It was held in a small intimate room, very peaceful and serene. The instructor was Canadian so he spoke English, which was nice. He was caught off guard by the group we came with and said we were a "Caucasian invasion." Haha. I hope to go again with a much smaller group, it felt great to calm my mind from how fast paced this first week has been.

Friday night we went to KTV, a karaoke bar where you can rent out a room with your friends for 3 or 4 hours. The room had its own bathroom, couches, tables. You were allowed to bring in your own drinks and it also included a buffet upstairs with ice cream! In the room, there was a huge screen that played the videos of the songs requested by anyone in the room. We had 27 people in there.

A group of the Asian teachers came out as well, it was really fun to see them singing songs in Chinese and having a good time. I sang, Shania Twain, "That Don't Impress Me Much." Later on I requested 'Poker Face' by Lady Gaga, let me just say that Lady Gaga was a HUGE hit. Another artist that had everyone up on tables and couches was Backstreet Boys, that made me feel right at home!

Saturday, rise and shine. I woke up, took a short bike ride to the train station with a few of the girls, hopped on and took the train right outside of town. ChiMing (local friend) was taking us hiking up on the DaKeng Mountain. It was only 1.5 miles to the top of the mountain, it felt like 5. ChiMing said the trail we did was only a level 2 out of 5. There are log steps most of the way up to the top, a few times the logs seemed to be going up at a 60 degree angle.

The view cannot be captured in a photo.

Every once in awhile there was a place to sit and rest, or better yet, have tea. There are many natives that will hike up the mountain with pots, burners, and all the necessities for tea and snacks. They will haul it all up to spend a morning or afternoon up on DaKeng. Twice we were invited in by the older natives who were having tea and fruit. They played the harmonica for us and we conversed as best as we could.

After the long trek down the mountain we had a feast of all sorts of food. I have tried many things without knowing what it is I am eating, only once have I run into something bad so it's usually worth the risk. We met another great group of Taiwanese students who had just graduated college.

Later that night, Kelly, Laura, and I went salsa dancing with ChiMing and his friends for his last night in Taiwan. I am not the best salsa dancer, but it was so much fun. I did notice that I danced better with some men more than others. I think the ones who were stronger and more confident in their leads were the ones I did much better with. The Asian women here are so beautiful and they look so young (maybe it's the pale skin). It was an exhilarating night, but I was more than thrilled to crawl into bed after such an eventful weekend.

 Kelly and ChiMing 

Sunday, America Day in Taiwan, we finally moved out of the hotel! For one month I will be living in the Palace, then I will move to my apartment with Kelly. The Palace is gorgeous. The pool is basically a huge grotto and we are close to tons nice restaurants and shopping centers. I pay 5000 NT per month, which is $166 in the US.  We will have other small bills as well, security, cable, internet, and electricity. We do have a washer, although we have to hang clothes to dry. There is AC in every room and two patios. The trash has to be taken out daily so we don't get maggots or any other bugs. Having my own room and not living out of a suitcase makes it seem much more real that I am permenatly here. They say it takes about 3-6 weeks for homesickness to kick in. I will say it's almost impossible to get in touch with anyone back home with the time difference and it has been quite frustrating. I do think the week in the hotel helped us ease into this drastict change in our life, plus we were all able to form bonds now that we are split up into two campuses.

View from my apartment!
Tomorrow is the first day of teaching my 2nd-4th grade class, as well as my 7th grade prep class. I think I have a bit of first day jitters too. It is Summer School for them, however unlike back home where Summer school is a form of punishment for not doing well throughout the school year, here the kids go to get a head start on the upcoming year.

Coming back home to teach will be so different. Here we get a two hour lunch break every day which they provide, 10 hours of paid prep time per week, they buy most any resources you need, there are field trips quite frequently, plus they really trust you as an educator to do want you feel is best for your class. -- Thanks for reading-- I'll do my best to keep up as teaching begins!

"The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page."

On Sunday we were invited to a formal brunch at a 5 star hotel in Taichung. The restuarnt was on the 13th floor and had an amazing buffet style line up of all types of food. The new teachers and I introduced ourselves to the staff and we were supposed to share a fun fact. The one I shared with the room was not very "fun," however it led to a great table conversation with the older teachers. Then is was time for the more important part, the goodbyes of all the leaving teachers. Again more tears.

Later in the evening, my mentor Sarah, took me to a great pizza place. Getting western food is not as hard as I was told it would be.  Really you can get anything you want, just not all at one store like back home. Another plus, to the already cheap food, is that tipping is not allowed. It is even thought of as rude, or they would be very confused by it.
Sarah also took me to the Jade Market. It was very neat and very clean. All sorts of things to bargain on from fans, tea pots, Buddhas, jewelry, wall art, salt rocks, and more. I purchased two bracelets with dragons on them. Two dragons together mean 'luck in wealth.' You never want to get one dragon alone, it is some sort of evil symbol.

The Taiwanese are very superstitious. Blonde hair, blue eyes are usually thought of as ghosts and the streets in the markets are full of random steps because ghosts are supposedly not able to use steps. They will also wear jackets and use umbrellas a lot to hide from the sun. The paler you are is a sign of high class. When you are tan, it usually means you work in the fields all day.

Kelly, my roommate, also has a great mentor named Holly. Holly showed us where we would be living since for now we are still shacked up in a hotel room sharing a bed like a married couple. We ate at a great little place were they cook the food up in front of you, only $4!! I did make the mistake of eating something red that was in the sprouts, it was so hot that I was in pain for almost 5 minutes afterwards. Holly shared all the wonderful places she has visited during her first year in Taiwan. Her favorites were Cambodia and Bali, she did not recommend the Philippines . I have put riding elephants in Thailand, the Great Wall of China, and Bali at the top of my to do travel list.

Monday night I went with Laura (from Chicago, lived in Spain), Angela (whose from South Africa), and Brittany (Indiana) to spend an evening with ChiMing. ChiMing is a friend of Laura's, he is from Taiwan originally, but will be leaving us to go to Duke University. ChiMing took us to another amazing restaurant in the "green mall," a few of the mentors nicknamed it that because there are beautiful green plants growing all the way up it. Again our meal was only $6, when in the states it would have easily been $20+ tipping. We walked over to the "people's park" and listened to some live music, watched children dance, and enjoyed the dogs running around. The two men playing music asked where we were from and then played three songs for us.

We ended the night by going to Feng Jia, the largest night market in Taichung. We walked around for over an hour and did not even make it through the whole place. Taiwan is very colorful, tons of people, lights, food, clothing, ads, jewelry, and definitely a lot of smells, good and very bad. Most things are very cheap at the market. I plan on getting a whole wardrobe before moving back to the states and I'll only spend 1/3 of what it would be back home. 

I've tried many different types of teas, including a bubble tea that originated in Taichung. Today I had mango over shaved ice, mango is in season right now so it's delicious. One of the best foods I have ever eaten.

Tonight a group of us decided that after school we would ride our bikes till we were good and lost, find a place to eat and then make our way back. It was such an adventure. It can be scary though with so much traffic, huge buses and no stop signs in some intersections. I think it will be the best way to learn the city though.

The people here are so beautiful and beyond welcoming. They are so fascinated with foreigners. They rush to greet us at the hotel and bow every time we come and go. I get compliments all throughout the day from random people in the streets. They would go out of their way to help you and there are no parts of town that we have to be worried about. Nothing is ever locked up and nothing is ever stolen. It's incredible.

At school, I have come to find out I am the "special case," although others would use a different word for it. In July I will teach a mixed 2-4th grade class and a 7th grade grad class at the Shang An Campus, which means I will also have to live on the other side of town. So for one month I will live in the Palace with two other girls. It is in a wealthier part of town and has an amazing pool. The students will be called the Unicorns and we will learn about street dancing and martial arts. Haha, what a kick. In August, I will move to my actual apartment with Kelly and teach New Ja Ban at Nan Men Campus. New Ja Ban means they are a kindergarten class that has zero English experience, they are called the Beach Babes. Finally, in September I will get my two 3rd grade classes, the Stars and the Skyscrapers (the only name I chose was Stars). I will teach at Little Cornel which is not even a campus at all, it is a small two classroom building which I will share with one other teacher. Whew! So many changes, it's all about being flexible they say. I actually see it as a good thing, now I get to experience a little bit of everything. --Thanks for reading -- KMLS

Open Arms

The first 24 hours of my adventure consisted of  rushing to the airport in Omaha, meeting the gang of new teachers in Chicago, enjoying the 13 hour flight to Tokyo, a 6 hour layover due to a delayed flight, an in and out of consciousness flight to Taipei, a two hour drive to Taichung and finally a 2 a.m. arrival to our hotel which we will live in for our first week here!! Phew! I thought the transition of changing to a time zone 13 hours different would be much more of a challenge, but hardly sleeping for 48+ hours made it unnoticeable. It was 82 degrees when we arrived at midnight so it was a quick, uncomfortable welcome to the heat and humidity that was yet to come. My body was also quick to notice the difference in food I was taking in.

I have been delightfully overwhelmed with the friendliness of the people here and I could not explain in words how amazing the girls I came here with are. Majority of us being from the Midwest, excluding Kelly, my roommate, whose from New York State and Angela who is from South Africa! 

 After another short 4 hour rest we had our first breakfast which consisted of noodles, cabbage, eggs, watermelon, espresso, and other things I wouldn't know what to name. We left in a van that is normally used by the kindergarteners at Cornel, the school we will all teach at. 

We had a busy day of getting photos taken for our ARC (alien resident card), getting a health check at the local hospital, and touring the Nan Men Campus. Cornell consists of two campuses, Nan Men which I believe means North Gate, will be where I will work. During our tour we had our first glimpse into the classrooms and the students. No one wears shoes inside so right off the bat you feel free and also a little indifferent when you think about what you could walk on. Every single one of us already adored the students and I don't believe I've ever met students so excited to meet their teachers. It was such a thrill. The 10 new teachers and I had a lunch with all the teachers from the previous year, whom were all of our mentors, and the administration team. For the limited hours of sleep I had by this point, I felt very awake and every conversation I had I was completely engulfed in to. Immediately I knew these people were incredible and I had made one of the best decisions of my life choosing to teach in Taiwan. 

Our health check took quite awhile. It consisted of paperwork, eye exames, height/weight, blood work, X-rays, and of course more espresso! On our way back to the hotel we were actually pulled over by the police! Yeah, day 1 and already getting in trouble. Sadly the school got a ticket for having "too big" of people in a van made for "little people."

Later in the evening, all of the mentors picked up their mentees on scooters and drove us through town to a restaurant called Banana Man. The restaurant was beautifully decorated after a movie from the 1940s. The menu had some extreme foods like crispy large intestine and pig intestine fried with silk ginger. Luckily, our table ordered sweet and sour pork and kung pao chicken. I also tried some hot fruit tea which was very tasty! Hot tea is very popular here, actually almost any hot drink is popular from water to milk. Our group took up 3 tables of 8 people each. The conversations and stories continued to flow well after the meal. We talked about nightlife, the markets, food, traveling, teaching and more.

My mentor Sarah and Banana Man!

The scooter ride was very exciting and frightening at the same time. I loved it, getting to take in the atmosphere and be apart of everything going on around me, although the fumes and the closeness of all the vehicles is quite intimidating. It will be awhile till I am comfortable driving one myself. Taichung reminds me of an Asian New York City, big advertisements, huge buildings, loud- in your face signs and people everywhere. There are not many rules when driving either, but one or two that will get you in some trouble, or even get you hurt, if you don't obey.

Today we were picked up again in the kindy van and taken to the Taichung Cultural Center for the graduation of Cornel's highest level of kindergarten, Sho Ban, and the 6th grade classes. The ceremony lasted for almost 3 hours, which may seem extreme, but we enjoyed tons of singing, dancing, and acting from the most adorable students and the staff.  

At the end there was a surprise performance and dedication to Jilda, the women who hired us all. Jilda is retiring from Cornel after 11 years. The performance had many people in tears, including myself. 

I knew I had wanted to teach overseas, however even I am pleasantly surprised with just how happy and changed I already feel being here. The bonds and connections I have made here already are indescribable. I know I will cherish them forever. I have already experienced so much here, including squatting over a hole in a public restroom, that it is hard to fathom what will come next. Taichung is extremely fast paced and it is overwhelming to think that I will be teaching in just one week, though I must say I am truly enjoying every minute of it! 

The West is calling

My grandmother is where my love for travel and many other aspects of my life come from. She has taken me and my other 5 Lamp cousins on multiple trips throughout all of our lives. This Summer, before I head off to Taiwan in 17 days, we took a road trip to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. My younger cousins Riley (11) and Spencer (7) also joined. We left on a Wednesday, drove 518 miles to Cheyenne, WY. Thursday we headed northwest all the way to Grand Teton National Park. The Teton mt. range was described as the energetic teenagers of the Rocky Mts. I would have described them as pure beauty that you'd never believe existed until you actually saw it. We had planned on camping most of the trip, but since we came late May/ early June it was still pretty cold, so my grandma bought a cabin for the night. The four of us played charades for entertainment and it ended up being a highlight of the trip. 

The mountains and the whole area was majestic. I took plenty of pictures, there were multiple signs to be "bear aware," and we stopped at many gift shops. Riley and I were the only ones to hike around the area. Day 3 we took the 18 mile drive north to Yellowstone. We spent the entire day in Yellowstone. We saw Old Faithful go off, drove around the Emerald pool and Sunset Lake, we saw mule deer, big horn sheep, bison, and an eagle. Unfortunately we were not lucky to see any grizzly bears or my favorite, the wolf.

Mule deer

We left Yellowstone through the east entrance, still hoping to run into some bears. Never happened. We drove through the windy roads, high cliffs, and "falling rocks" until we reached Cody, WY. Cody is known for their large rodeos and their remembrance of the legendary Buffalo Bill. In the morning, we attempted to go to Buffalo Bill's museum, but we felt that our money was better put to an hour of horse back riding. Both of the boys had never been on a horse and it had been several years for me. 

At the last minute we decided to put South Dakota into our trip, so we headed off to SD. We made it about 80 miles from the boarder of SD and decided it was nice enough to finally camp for a night. We spent a good half hour trying to get a fire going, when we finally did we roasted miniature marshmallows, cooked chicken noodle soup, and heated up some peas. 

Day 5 we packed up our camping gear and drove 30 miles north to see the Devil's Tower.

On the way up we saw a prairie dog field and had quite a laugh watching them chase each other and jumping up into what looked like a prayer stance.

We hit the road again finally making it into SD. Since Riley and I were the only two to suffer through the 39 degree overnight weather in a tent we fell asleep quickly in the car. 

Next on our list was Mount Rushmore. I had been a few times before, but it was the first time I took the Presidents trail that went much closer to the monument. (It helped to burn off some of the boys' energy).

In the evening, we spent a good amount of time in Wall, SD where the famous Wall Drug is located. I enjoyed it just as much as I used to when my mom would bring us up every summer. It was the boys first time and they liked it at well. If you've never heard of it, the town was made famous by giving out free water to traveling settlers back in the day. Nowadays there are between 2-3 blocks full of shops of all variations; leather, Indian art, glass sculptures, wild life mounts, kids toys, etc. They also have homemade ice cream, many sets/statues to take photos with, and musical singing westerners.

We drove another 20 miles to Badlands National Park and camped there for the night. When the sun set there was a program about the American Black Footed Ferret, how they are endangered and the story of bringing them back into population. After that, they brought telescopes out to look at Venus, Mecury, Saturn, and other star constellations. There was a 22 mph wind that night so we did not stay for that part. 

Monday, day 6, we left the Badlands with the attempt to make it back home. We stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the worlds only Corn Palace! We had drove about 200 miles that day and had another 300 miles to go so the visit was brief, consisting of some photos and a 15 min clip of all the details and history of the Corn Palace's significance and uniqueness.

After a round trip of 2,205 miles, hundreds of pictures, strong memories, and plenty of buttons pushed we made it home at the end of day 6 around 6:45 P.M.

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to go on a trip West with family that I love and to experience so many historical wonders and natural beauties of this country and this planet! 

 -KMLS