A Windy (but not White) Christmas

Merry Christmas from Taiwan

Zhubei is a windy city and that is especially apparent in cooler weather.  Riding my bike to school can be a challenge in the morning when gusts of 20-30 kmh rush between high rise apartment buildings and threaten to blow me into traffic.  This last week as I read about the snow and ice storms crossing the US, I was grateful that all we had to deal with here was rain and wind.  Numerous friends and colleagues in their down parkas, have asked me "Are you cold?"  I usually tell them that it feels like autumn here not winter.  Most can hardly imagine temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

While you make your homes cozy and warm for the holidays we want to send our greetings to all of our friends for this Christmas season.  Wishing you the best through even the most difficult times.

Recitation Contest

There was a recitation contest at my university on November 27.  Greg posted this video he took of my performance at the contest.  I will put the speech here in English and Chinese in case you want to read it.  Contestants could pick any text we wanted and read it in Chinese.  I wrote my own on the topic of Redesigning People. I had to shorten it quite a bit to fit it in under the three minute limit.  The contest was for foreigners who are learning Chinese. Students from four universities were invited, but since it was held at Chiaotung University, the university I attend, most of the contestants were from there.  There were three categories of contestants: beginners, intermediate/advanced, and overseas Chinese.  I was in the second category and got first place.  I won an instant camera that spits out film and develops it on the spot.
Below is the full original article in two languages.  And below that is the shortened version in Chinese that I used in the contest.
If you scroll all the way down, you will see a seven-year-old artist's rendition of the redesigned person.

He's holding his teeth. And there's a good reason why his belly is so big.

The first Quarter at National Chiaotung University

These pencils were long when I got to Taiwan but I've studied them down to little stubs.

Hello! It's Jenny here, remember me? You haven't heard much from me because I have been too busy studying these past few months. But now that mid-term exams are over, I am taking the time to update you on how my studies are going. First, how did I choose this university where I am studying?

I got this nine month Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study Mandarin, paid for by the Taiwan Ministry of Education.  Greg had been accepted in a program for foreigners to teach English under the auspices of the Taiwan Ministry of Education.  After applying to three other universities in Taiwan, and then discovering that Greg's program didn't have teaching positions for him nearby, I chose National Chiaotung University in Xinzhu.  Greg could get a teaching assignment near Xinzhu at two Junior High Schools and I could attend the intensive Mandarin study program offered by NCTU's Mandarin Language Center. (There were lots of teaching positions for him all over Taiwan and lots of universities for me, but very few of them were near enough for us to live together as a family.) Along with my applications for the scholarship and for admission to the universities, I submitted a history of my previous Mandarin studies and time spent in China, and a study plan.  I also checked their online course list to make sure the university had intermediate and advanced Chinese courses for foreign learners.

Here is what happened after arriving in Taiwan.

We arrived in Zhubei in mid-August. It is within communing distance of NCTU in Xinzhu, and of Greg's jobs. I hadn't heard much from NCTU other than that I'd been accepted. So I called to see when the placement test was and when classes started.  That's when I found out there wasn't a placement test because the intensive Mandarin study program that I applied for does not exist for intermediate or advanced learners of Chinese.  It is only for beginners. Despite all the investigation and application materials, the woman at NCTU I had been communicating with by email, just assumed I was a beginner in Chinese.  She said they don't always offer all the courses listed on the website. They do have a limited selection of intermediate and advanced classes but they don't have a formal intensive program for this level.  

I asked the Ministry of Education to transfer me to another university but this isn't allowed if I want to keep my scholarship. So I'm at NCTU.

The intermediate and advanced courses I am taking now are meant to be for foreign students who have had an intensive year of Chinese study but are now in a degree program in some other subject area such as science or technology and only need one or two language courses to keep improving their Chinese.

So this semester at NCTU I am taking six different Chinese courses at various levels from the Mandarin Language Center.  Some are too hard for me, one is too easy, and several are at the right level.  I also take a calligraphy course from General Education (regular courses that Taiwan students take).  Plus I attend two tutoring sessions a week and a bi-weekly Chinese Circle where we are supposed to practice conversation. (Sometimes we do converse and sometimes we just listen to the teacher lecture. It depends which teacher is in charge that week.) I also have recently started attending a weekly tutoring session led by a volunteer teacher.  This is a very heavy course load, way too much, actually, when you add it all up. But I need to take a certain minimum number of course hours to fulfill my scholarship requirements.  

In the Chinese courses the teachers mostly just march through the textbook in a very traditional Asian teaching style.  We learn grammar patterns and long lists of vocabulary words from a dialog or text.  We do workbook exercises at home and take dictations in class.  Most classes are predominantly teacher-centered. I'm familiar enough with the Chinese education system, so this was no surprise. I do have one teacher whose teaching methodology is more student-centered and interactive, and I appreciate that. But generally speaking, we are not using the type of teaching methods ACTFL recommends: three modes of communication, the 5 C's, having students reflect on the learning process, goal setting, performance indicators, etc.

Since I am taking so many courses, there is a lot of material to be responsible for at a time.  Most of the teachers introduce the dialogs, vocabulary and grammar in class but there isn't time to practice these in class.  That's why I do a lot of preview before the class is taught and a lot of follow up to practice outside of class.  Also, the work study students who serve as tutors and the volunteer teacher are great because they don't introduce new material.  I ask questions about what I've been studying and they help clarify. Occasionally we practice with the material but there often is not enough time for that.

I hope next semester I can take fewer classes and do a more thorough job of mastering the material I am studying.

Although the study conditions are not ideal, the good news is that this year I am finally getting to do some serious study in Mandarin.  This is something I've wanted to do for many years now.  So I am working very hard and making the most of it.

One cool thing about my classes is that I have classmates from all over the world: Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kiribati, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, France, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Holland, Thailand, Paraguay, Canada, USA, Burkina Faso and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

In the next blog I'll let you know about the two contests I took part in at my university in November.

Global Citizens Walking Together

Dear Readers,

Our family is really enjoying the challenges of living abroad, learning to communicate and learning to appreciate our differences.  But we also have our moments of exhaustion and discouragement when things don't go smoothly.  At these times we tend toward homesickness and a perception that "home" in the US would be much better.  Knowing that we can't go home however also gives us reason to persevere.  We are thankful for your support and encouragement and we are ever grateful for people here who have taken us into their hearts and lives to make us feel comfortable.

You have already read about some of these folks - my colleagues at school, our church friends and the relatives that have come to see us from afar.  In this month we are thankful for this warm welcome and hospitality.

Earlier this year we were guests in two other countries, Guatemala and El Salvador.  The three of us traveled with the Sister Parish board experiencing welcome and loving care from our friends there working for justice and peace in their corner of the world.

This weekend marks the annual meeting of our Sister Parish board in the US.  Although I remain president in name, I am not resident, and therefore unable to join my colleagues in our annual Walk in Solidarity.

Here's a clip from the beginning of my Walk in Solidarity 2013 - a crowd of supporters leaving the High Court House in Guatemala City after the genocide case against Efrian Rios Mont was suspended on April 19th.  Mayan people from the Ixil triangle led an impromptu march proclaiming the right to truth and the end to impunity of former President Rios Mont.  It was a remarkable day and left a deep impression.  Here you will see Sister Parish delegates, David Martin and Vicki Schmidt from Fargo, ND, Sarah and Mark Jerde from Rochester, MN, Rick Nelson and Nancy Weins from St. Paul, MN and Linda Williams from Danville, CA all walking as we took over a main street artery in downtown Guatemala City.

I will continue my 2013 walk in solidarity this weekend in Taiwan.  It is definitely time for us to come together internationally to address many injustices and imbalances in our social structures, our economic disparity and our environmental degradation.  As news emerges from the Philippines about the "largest typhoon in recorded history", I am asking myself, what can I do better?  And the answer is clear that it cannot be me alone, but me, my family, my church, my school and our wide network of Sister Parish churches working in solidarity to make the world better.

Please walk with us this weekend for our 25th Anniversary celebration.  And if you unable to walk, you are welcome to contribute to my walk fundraiser at http://www.razoo.com/story/25th-Anniversary-Walk.  Click the link or copy and paste it into your browser.

Many, many thanks!

Greg

A Most Frightening Halloween!

On thursday we had a very surprising earthquake.  I thought it was our washing machine bumping around.    The washing machine was going when the earthquake started.  

My mom told me to stand in the doorway of our bathroom.
 I got really really dizzy after the earthquake.  There are many earthquakes in Taiwan so 
the buildings in Taiwan are built so that earthquakes can not do any damage.  

Camping with Apple and Connie

 This weekend we went camping, 露營 with Apple and Connie in Taizhong 台中.  Their mom, Wei, is  my dad's colleague.    We camped near a waterfall.  We went and swam in it.  Some people were catching fish.  

We played with my play dough too.  We made fireworks 煙花.  We had fun. 

Apple and Soleil 

    

My Grandpa came to visit

My Grandpa came to visit us in Hsinchu.  He taught me the dance Electric Slide and Zorba the Greek.  Today we went to a bike event.  We rode to New Moon Beach.  We went through a very long tunnel.  I got a free YELLOW HELMET!

Ken rides like the wind!

 

Soleil leads the way!

Victory!  11 km in the Windy City

Hakka Haven

Beipu is home away from home for the Hakka people of Taiwan.  The Hakka (or Kejia  客家) people are an ethnic group that migrated to Taiwan from Canton in southern China a while back (perhaps a couple hundred years ago).  Kejia, means "guest families", and is a name given to them by the native hosts.

Carrying with them a culture distinct from the people of the places where they've immigrate,  they held strongly to their language, food and religious practices.  One way they maintained their own ways was to live in a "round house" community together with other Hakka with a central plaza area for markets, temples and other communal events.  Just down the street from us in Zhubei is a Hakka Cultural Center designed like the traditional round houses.  Soleil's new elementary school, Dongxing (Eastern Happiness) Elementary 東興國小 also appears to be designed with classrooms in a semicircular building around a central playground area.

 Last weekend we took a trip with our good friends Louis and Yingying to a Hakka community called Beipu（North Port) 北埔.  Because of weather reports warning of possible landfall of a large typhoon, the streets of this popular weekend destination were not too crowded.  Outside the main temple we were treated to samples of local products like fresh almond milk and ripe persimmon.  

 

Louis and YingYing also treated us to a lovely lunch around a wooden table in a family style Hakka Diner, with agricultural antiques on the walls.  It felt like my favorite truck-stop restaurants back home in Iowa!

Rain Gear for the orchards and fields

Louis, YingYing (Hana) and the irons of Beipu

The weekend we visited was a long weekend thanks to Mid-Autumn Festival.  And an impending typhoon kept the crowds away so we walked around in relative freedom from tourists.  The town however was clearly there to receive more of us as the sale tables were set up outside every store vending consumable goods of all sorts - fresh persimmons, dried persimmons, mochi rice balls, clothes of both old and new fashions, tasty peanuts in a bag, as well as sweet potato or taro biscuits.  We got some of each.

The visit also included a stop by the town temple where the girls were treated to mango and strawberry ice creams respectively.  Then we all walked through the back alleys, called "Ding Dong roads", because the uneven paving stones make a sound as you walk over them.  This is an alarm system developed to alert anyone of an intruder in the dark.  

The girls make cootie catchers on the temple steps.

Temple roofs from the courtyard center.

The small back walk ways led us finally to a quite little tea shop called "The Old Well" where we ground and drank traditional Hakka tea.  This tea usually includes peanuts, sesames and tea ground into a powder and then served like instant coffee from a communal teapot.  

Jenny grinds "Leicha" - traditional Hakka Tea

Bean gladly takes a turn

We left Beipu before any typhoon rains arrived and landed at home pleasantly exhausted from a great outing and great conversations.  Louis told us about his Malaysian origins and how he ended up in Taiwan, and YingYing revealed herself to be a House On the Prairie fanatic.  She has the set of books in Chinese, English and Japanese at home!  We invited her to the Burr Oak museum near Decorah, Iowa next trip she can make to the US.  She was thrilled by the idea.

While Kejia people are traditionally though of as "guests" wherever they go, they make pretty good hosts as well. Thanks y'all!

Big Pears

We have had some nice visits with relatives recently. My cousin's son Kenny came with his girlfriend a few days ago. He lives in Hong Kong and works in Dongguan, China. Yesterday my cousin Ming (Kenny's uncle) and his wife Chou came. They recently moved back to Taiwan after many years in New York state. Within minutes, my dad (Ming's uncle) arrived. He has been visiting relatives in mainland China. We went out to a hot pot dinner at a nearby restaurant. 

I have to show you these really big pears that Cousin Ming and Chou brought. They are nearly as big as Soleil's head. They are crispy juicy Asian pears.

Find your statue - Find your home

Jhubei 竹北 (Bamboo North), the district of Hsinchu County where we live, is newly rising.  Many locals have told us that it was nothing but rice fields about 10 years ago.  But it's full of development mode now, booming with high rise residences.  Perhaps because it sits between the High Speed Railway station and the Science Park district where high tech engineers work, it has become a hotspot for real estate growth.  Several people have expressed concern that the boom may bust, but so far the only direction things are going is UP!  

Unless you're willing to crane your neck to the skyline you might find it difficult to locate your new home in our neighborhood, as walls of granite transitioning to sandstone and then to marble along the uneven sidewalk pavers.  Addresses don't really help since the streets seem to have all the same name with different numbers:  LiouJia 1st Rd. through LiouJia 7th Rd. were laid out in a hurry as construction companies moved in.

Fortunately, an agreement must have been made among the developers to create a symbolic sense of community for each residence.  Modern abstract sculptures stand outside almost every doorway helping to identify home for the Whale Tale occupants or for Mr. Half Smiles residents, just down the street.

In the next two photos Mr. Half Smiles gazes mockingly at Pregnant Woman Begs for Mercy (or from another angle perhaps Backaches and Babies).  Here you have a choice whether you want to be greeted with agonizing pessimism or whimsical optimism at the end of your work day.

Clumsy Herons After a Long Flight or Cranes Have No Shoulder to Cry On:  Gives the appearance that this apartment complex welcomes all Romans still living in Taiwan.

Trying to outdo neighbors and still remain tragically aloof, this sculpture not only apparently got stuck to another sculpture meant for another building but then the artist (or perhaps the developer) thought it best to clarify this mess with a second statue just inside the door (see the yellow figure 8 inside).  Of course the Infinite Helix statue calling from beyond the Twisted Wreck, suggests that this gated community has much more inside than you could possibly enjoy on the outside.  I wouldn't know, I've never gone in.

  

Just around the corner you can find a pair of sculptures face to face like Zax in their tracks.  Standing as if to avoid acknowledging the presence of the other, White Marble Pants with Nobody Inside Them and Who Stole My Worm Fossil?!  stand guard on their respective corners.

  

  

Although our building is quite new and not yet filled to capacity, two new towers on either side of us are going up with more apartments to sell.  Scattered between the towers are showroom buildings for prospective buyers.  

Just down the street is one such show space with a large lawn dotted with a strange and fantastic collection of creatures.  A WWII era black Mercedes (or perhaps merely the statue of one), flanked by a white unicorn.  Across the lawn standing alone as if shunned by its monochromatic lawnmates is a pig in a coat of many colors.  Some of the attributes of said pig (such as it's coloring) suggest it may be some other creature of unknown origin.  None the less, this motley crew is there to sell you, your new home in Zhubei - a wonderland of opportunity and impossible odds.

At long last, like Harold with his purple crayon finally locating his bedroom window by drawing it around the moon.,. we come upon Twister Man, a squared off mod version of the Greek discus thrower, who seems to be gesturing toward the heavens above the Legoland tower where we live.  We are home -- at the corner of Jiasheng 6th Street Section 2 and LiouJia 5th Road Section 1, Bamboo North.

City School and Country School

Normally at the end of summer I'm a bit nervous about starting the new school year.  It seems like a lot of set up tasks are looming and the process of getting acquainted with new students seems to give me butterflies.  This year has the added complication of lots more students than back home (350 students in Hsinchu vs. 50 in Fryeburg) and English names that students may not even recognize when you call them.  Learning about each other is a big part of what I usually do in my classes.

   

In the first few days of introduction I usually share somethings about me.  This year I showed pictures of E.T., the Hulk and Ronald McDonald and asked them which one they thought was most like me. Then they talked to their partner about things they like, reported it back to me and then we did a bit of comparison.  A song ended my first class, of course. We sang a little rewrite of the Inkspots classic, Java Jive.  "I like coffee, you like tea, somethings are different between you and me..." accompanied on a new mandolin I picked up from Nancy's antique shop in Decorah in August.  Thanks Nancy, it's been a big hit!

My classes are 7th, 8th and 9th graders, Jr. High in Taiwan.  I meet with each class only once a week for 45 minutes, but their regular English teacher is also in the room with me.  This creates important continuity for the students as their teacher and I can plan lead-ins and follow-ups to my class period with them.  My co-teachers are really great and it's a luxury to have two teachers in the classroom!

I've also been learning some of the differences between city schools and countryside schools by teaching at one of each.  I was told that city kids would likely have had more English learning opportunities and therefore be more advanced in their language skills.  In fact, I haven't found such a great discrepancy.  What I have noticed is that the country school students are more eager to interact with a foreigner, most likely because they have less contact with foreigners in the countryside.

It's been a busy, but enjoyable first few weeks.  I'm getting to know my office mates as well.  We recently played a pick-you-feeling card and laughed as we shared.  This weekend we're on a 4-day break for Mid-Autumn festival and then head back to school for a longer run.  If you see the full moon, remember we are looking too!

Best wishes to all my colleagues and students back home.  

Have a Piece of Cake

I had two kinds of "cake" on my birthday, but most Americans wouldn't recognize either kind. Within walking distance of our apartment, I happened to walk by a restaurant called 港式飲茶 gong sik yum cha "Hong Kong-style tea drinking", so I knew it was a Cantonese 點心 dim sum restaurant.  So that's where Greg, Soleil and I went on my birthday. One dish was called 芋頭糕 yùtougāo which is translated as taro cake. Taro is a purplish white starchy root.  Another dish was 蘿蔔糕 Mandarin: luóbogāo, Cantonese: lo bak gou, or turnip cake. I believe it is made of daikon radish.  Anyway, these square "cakes" are as dense and heavy like jello... or maybe thick mud.  They taste better than they sound but they are not at all sweet. In fact, you can eat them with soya sauce. They do not come with frosting or candles and they are not even usually a birthday food. You can find them at a Cantonese tea house along with a wide variety of tasty snacks that all add up to a meal.

Turnip cake

Moon Festival 中秋節 Zhōng Qiū Jié

September 19 is this year's Moon Festival.  Chinese people eat moon cakes 月餅yuèbǐng and enjoy looking at the full moon.  Moon cakes are round, like the moon, and have a thin soft crust and a heavy dense filling inside that has the consistency of play dough.  I've never tried sculpting anything with it, though. There are many different flavors of moon cakes.  A common one is sweet red bean paste with a dry egg yoke in the middle.  I have no idea how they dry the egg yoke.  Soleil can't stand the egg part but I love it, especially with the red bean paste. Please enjoy the following delicious picture.

Pomelo and moon cakes

Here in Taiwan people also celebrate moon festival by eating one of my favorite fruits, 柚子 yòuzi,  pomelo. It is a citrus bigger than a grapefruit, and way better.  It is dry in your hands but juicy in your mouth, and it isn't bitter like grapefruit.  Another local custom is to barbecue meat this time of year.  One of my teachers tells me that this is not a traditional habit; it is a modern trend so food sellers can make money.

Eating 柚子 yòuzi during Moon Festival is a popular custom in Taiwan. Foreigners demonstrate wearing the peel on their heads.

7 Eleven

Seven Eleven Convenience Store

by Soleil

Seven Eleven is a convenient store. I like Seven Eleven because when I step inside it is cool. It is very hot in Taiwan.  That is why there is an air conditioner in Seven Eleven.

If you ever go in Seven Eleven you will probably buy a hot dog. Hot dogs are yummy.

If you get a sticker page, like in the picture, when you buy stuff the people at the counter will give you stickers. 

If you collect enough stickers to fill the all the boxes you can get a prize.

I got a cup. It is yellow.

Other snacks are very yummy, too. When I wrote yummy I only used one finger!