Middle School Christmas Concert 2020 (Your connection has been restored)

After some technical delays, I would like share with you a couple of remarkable performances from Christmas morning 2020...at school.  To Soleil's chagrin, we did not get this day as a holiday, much less 2 weeks of vacation.  However, the whole school attended a morning show led by the school principal in a wizard's robes and his administration team dressed as Santas.  There were some public service announcements about recycling and health during the "winter" season, but largely it was a chance to share some of the student talents and celebrate the joy of Christmas.  It worked for me, I hope you feel it too, despite the fact that we're nearer to Easter by now. 

Donxing Middle School Orchestra!

Our principal and his bearded associates.

The crowd awaits the prize winning answer....

and the winner is.... Justin!

Congratulations!  Here's every 7th grade boy's dream --- an extra large bag of tissues!  '

(There was also a significant amount of candy shared generously throughout the day)

 And to close the show, the Dongxing Drumline.  Yes, these are middle schoolers as well.  Now listen.

Mid-Term Testing, Holidays, New Job and EARTHQUAKES!

A couple of weeks ago on Thursday and Friday we had our second round of mid-term testing. Last time, I had only been going to Dong Xing Jr. High for 3 weeks so I only took the english and math tests. The math one was difficult because I wasn't familiar with the vocabulary terms in Chinese yet. This time I'm giving myself a challenge and I have decided to take the science test as well as English and Math. I asked for extra time to complete the math and science tests because my main problem is that I read Chinese much slower, not that the content is too difficult. Therefore, I will be taking the science and math exams on Monday. I spent most of today and yesterday studying in the school library with the assistance of my parents and google translate. 😆 This time around I improved significantly on my math test and got a score above my initial goal in science. Yayyy! 🥳

This year for Thanksgiving our celebration consisted of a non-traditional semi-Chinese/Taiwanese meal including my mom's famous mashed potatoes! Mmmm. My dad made cranberry pumpkin cookies, and I made apple sauce. 

Speaking of holidays... I convinced my parents to get us a Christmas tree! We bought a plastic tree for the first time at Carrefour. It was NINETY-NINE DOLLARS!!! That's actually $3.50 USD. It's a little dinky tree that reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. At church to get into the Christmas spirit, we decorated gingerbread cookies. Mine was very tasty. 😋

Several weeks ago I started a new job! My dad's colleague asked me to come to her house and play with her kids in once a week in english as a sort of tutor. She has two sweet boys who are about 3 and 5 years old. We play with play-dough, sing english songs, and I read english books to them. 

At our church my mom is teaching an english class to the kids and I am her TA. We sing songs and read books. Last week the theme was "Animals" so we read a popular book called "Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type". I loved this book as a kid, and I still do!

A few minutes ago we had an exciting event happen... AN EARTHQUAKE!! This is the second earthquake that has happened since we got here in September, but this one was much larger by comparison. It felt like a giant pulled the building out of the ground and shook it around. 

This picture has nothing to do with the rest of the blog. I just like it. It was taken in front of the Zhubei (竹北) public library.

Ok I have lots of homework to complete now. 👋

~Soleil Huang-Dale

The Reading of the 500

 This is not my first rodeo in Asia, so I have a few bull breaking techniques for starting the year.  However, this year, unpredictable as it is, started off with a tumble.  Joining class over a month into the first semester, I faced 17 different classrooms and encountered over 500 new faces. I had to hit the ground riding. 

On the suggestion of a colleague and inspired by the 7th grade curriculum book, I decided to introduce myself with a few postcards from home.  Here's a couple I used to introduce myself.  Each had a short text about the picture and what it represents for me.

These postcards were great prompts for where, who, what, how and even why questions!  Then (as any teacher would) I asked my students to return the favor with a postcard about their lives; and if they chose, more questions about me beyond my postcards.  Here are some highlights of what came back, along with amazing insights into their lives and language.

Language in action!  The errors don't even bother this teacher.

Images and explanations give me a glimpse into life in Zhubei and surrounding area even before I have time to travel!  Taiwan's blue butterflies, persimmons drying in the autumn sun and a pictorial exegesis of the national flag!

Some kids ran with this assignment and made works of art, revealing much more than just their names and hobbies!  I had to ask this boy all about the pictures he drew and his vast knowledge of Taiwan's fauna.

Reading and responding gave me the chance to recognize them individually.  I never tired of their questions and had a few myself in reply.

And a few cards made my heart swell to know... kids are growing up with love for family, learning and the strangers of the world that they chance to meet in this brief, beautiful life.

Try Something New

Try Something New          by Jenny

Some of the things we have eaten here that we never knew existed.

 Now we have tried... Fried Oyster flavored potato chips.

See the happy Potato 先生 on the package?

And we've tried Grapefruit Pineapple Pizza. Whoever thought to put grapefruit on pizza was... imaginative.

菱角 líng jiǎo

I actually have eaten these before and really like them. So back in October I was glad to see a street vender selling hot língjiǎo in bags. They are shaped like bats or buffalo heads. I always called them jester hats. But I just looked it up and apparently they are called water caltrop in English. You peel them and eat the starchy nut inside. They taste something like chestnuts. It's a fall treat, just in time for Halloween. 

Flying bat from Woodland Romances; Or, Fables And Fancies by Clara L. Mateaux (1877). Original from the British Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel. Public Domain CC0 Image

 

百香果 bǎi xiāng guǒ passion fruit

These have orange juice inside with many crunchy seeds. The soupy stuff on the inside is a little bit sour. I've been eating it with plain yogurt. Soleil loves this fruit and sometimes orders passion fruit bubble tea.

They say the fruit is very nutritious but it is often used to flavor jello, candy, popsicles, and beverages.  I'm guessing you wouldn't become healthy eating passionfruit candy. The picture on the right is of passion fruit plants growing in the garden of the church we attend.

We remembered a restaurant we went to seven years ago called Chubby Bunch 'n Burger, or maybe Chubby Bunchenburger. I don't remember how it was spelled but I know how we pronounced it, because how can you forget a name like that?! We went there again recently. They've since changed their name to Chubby Brunch & Burger. Soleil was so excited to see western food on the menu (and plenty of vegetarian options) that she said, "We should come here again and again and try everything on the menu!" I didn't object until I read the kid's menu, which contains some unappetizing things I'd never pay to eat.

I've noticed that a lot of the vegetarian food around here tries to look and taste like meat. A couple weeks ago we tried a vegetarian restaurant about two blocks from our apartment. Their specialty is this meal including a fake chicken leg. It comes served on a popsicle stick where the bone would normally be. It was pretty good. We discussed gathering the fake bones and taking them home to boil down for soup stock. But we didn't.

This vegetarian chicken leg has the clever name of "G腿," which sounds exactly like 雞腿 jītuǐ, which means chicken leg. Now I'm wondering if an uncooked G tuǐ can be used as a prosthetic for injured chickens who meet untimely disaster when crossing a busy road.

What new foods have you tried lately?

The results are in!

 The results are in!                by Jenny

While you are waiting for the US election results, we do know what animal two groups of Jhubei kids favor.

A few days ago I asked some kids if they knew what was happening in the US that day. Many knew there was a presidential election and some could even name the two most popular candidates. (I doubt many children in the US could name the current president of Taiwan.*) They asked who I supported in the election and I explained that I voted for someone they'd never heard of as my first choice and one of the two main candidates as my second choice. Some kids were audibly surprised that I could vote for more than one candidate. So I explained Ranked Choice Voting, which the state of Maine now uses for many elected offices. 

The Candidates

I asked the students if they were to choose one pet for their class what would they choose? I put up five candidates: fish, hamster, mouse, spider and tiger. Then the voting began. For the sake of comparison we voted the traditional way, where the one who gets the most votes wins, even though they may not reach 50%, and then voted again using the ranked choice system. Hamsters turned out to be the most popular pet. So we won't be bringing a tiger to school after all.

A video explaining Ranked Choice Voting:

A Maine absentee ballot

*

Tsai Ing-wen 

President of the Republic of China She has been president since 2016.

The School Band celebrates an Anniversary

 Students at Zhaomen Jr. High have been practicing their cheers, their relays, and their salutes for the  51st Anniversary celebration of their school.  The 8th grade school band has also been busy preparing to play for the ceremony.  In my free period at the end of the day last week I sat in on their rehearsal and was amazed at their skill and coordination after only a year of practice together!  Their teacher is no doubt a marvelous coach, but the student showed real joy and commitment to their art.

This chamber orchestra has a mix of Chinese and Western instruments (see the cellos and bass in the back) but I was surprised to see the group fronted by a hammered dulcimer!

The music teacher tunes up a zhong ruan.  It's an alto/tenor range 4 stringed instrument played with a plectrum, sounds a bit like a mandola.

Momo is one of the top English students in our school, and loves her sheng (a harmonica like blown organ instrument with bamboo pipes).  Listen to her solo just before the cello in this next video.

9th graders practice their class cheer and choreography.  They compete for a school spirit award.  This class won!

For the 50th anniversary of the school last year they printed a photo book of highlights.  One of my colleagues pointed out that my picture, along with 2 other foreign teachers that taught there in the last decade, appeared on a page about their English program.  Although I wasn't able to attend the ceremony due to teaching at my other school, I felt proud to be a part of their history too.

8th Grade: Taiwan vs United States

    Three weeks ago I started attending the 8th grade at Dong Xing Junior High (東興國中). Even though I have already completed 8th grade in Maine, I am not going to 9th here because in 9th grade students spend most of their time studying for a big exam that determines what high schools they can attend. We decided that it would be better for me to be in 8th grade because my main focus is to study Chinese and the 8th grade do more learning and less studying for exams. 

    Immediately there are many differences I have noticed from 8th grade at Molly Ockett Middle School in Fryeburg and 8th grade here at Dong Xing.

1. The number of people in the 8th grade at Dong Xing is larger than all of the students at Molly Ockett Middle School (5th-8th grade). There are 22 classes and each class has 25-30 students.

2. School hours are drastically different. At Molly Ockett I was at school from 7:30-2:30 on a typical day. School here runs from 7:25-4:40 M-Th and 7:25-3:40 on Fridays. I am still getting used to this new schedule. I am usually exhausted when I get home.

3. Students at Dong Xing take 2-3 tests a day, one on the morning after cleaning (打掃 dá sǎo), and other tests during class. I take the english tests and sometimes math, but the other ones I have trouble reading the questions, so I usually try my best to answer 2 or 3 questions in the time that is given, using my dictionary to look up words. In Maine I took about 1 test a month per class at most.

4. I wear a school uniform at Dong Xing. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we wear our sports uniforms and Tuesday, Thursday we wear our formal uniform. At Molly Ockett there is a dress code but you may wear the clothes of your choice.

5. I take a larger variety of classes here. I have a scouts class where we learn how to tie different types of knots, a home-economics class, dance class (I like that one!), workshop, and computer programming along with all of the other more typical classes. I had math, science, english, health, PE, music and art at Molly Ockett.

6. We have two times a day at Dong Xing that we clean the classroom and bathrooms, when we get to school, and after lunch. There are janitors at Molly Ockett that do that kind of stuff.

7. Kids eat lunch in the cafeteria in Maine. Some students bring their own lunch and others get school lunch served to them on a tray. Everyone here brings their own dishes and utensils and eats the school lunch in our classroom. I go down to the second floor to get my vegetarian meal.

8. After lunch we have a 30 minute rest time where we lay our heads on our desks and nap. This is my favorite part of the day. In the US we went to recess after lunch, which I felt was unnecessary in 8th grade. Most students stood around waiting for it to be over.

9. Everyone is part of a club at Dong Xing. Clubs meet during period 7 and 8 on Wednesdays. I joined the ukulele club because I already can play a bit. At Molly Ockett clubs and extracurriculars are optional, but there is much more time to participate in them because school ends earlier.

10. Each class I had at Molly Ockett had a different group of students, and students moved from classroom to classroom each period. At Dong Xing almost all of my classes are in the same classroom and they are all with the same students. Teachers move from classroom to classroom.

School here has been challenging for me, but I appreciate that my classmates and teachers are very helpful and want support me in learning Chinese. I hope that by the end of the semester my Chinese will have improved enough to understand what the teachers are teaching in class.

~Soleil Huang-Dale

Who is my neighbor?

 Typhoon season hasn't come this year to Taiwan.  Like many climate changes worldwide, water seems a critical variation, maybe even more than temperature.  Taiwan is facing a major drought and beginning to take measures to limit irrigation and home use until rains return and refill the aquifers and rivers.  Luckily the country's electric power is not tied to water.  Energy sources are mostly wind, on the increase, and nuclear, aging and going offline.  

Taiwan feels like a modern well-developed country in most ways.  High rise apartments and high tech devices.  Traffic jams of BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus and Teslas waiting at well timed signals.  Convenience stores fully stocked with packaged food, ATMs, and photocopy machines. Coffee shops outnumbering tea rooms.

On the flip side, 20-30 year old scooters clog the spaces beside the luxury cars.  Parents ride their kids home in modestly protective Hello Kitty helmets. Sidewalks buckle and cement cracks with the pressures of nature - tree roots, heavy rains and earthquakes.  Rural towns are still populated with mom and pop shops serving homecooked meals.  Rough handed farmers with bamboo hats pick fruit, and the dust on the wind darkens the shiny white tile floor in our apartment.

It's not that these contrasts don't exist back home, it's just that living on the "modern" side of the equation on floor 5 of a building that houses half of my US hometown, heightens my awareness.  That's why, when I upgraded from a bicycle to a scooter last week I felt like I was "moving on up".  

I was happy to have found a reasonably priced electric scooter to use for the year.  Around town I still prefer to use my bike, but the scooter comes in handy for my ride to the country school where I teach two days a week.  Riding it home from the purchase point was exhilarating and as I pulled into the garage the battery indicator read 3/4 charge remaining.  That should last me a week, I thought.

I checked the weather the night before my first ride to make sure I would be riding in the rain.  Only a slight chance of rain looked safe enough.  In spite of  drought conditions this year, the wind continues to be strong in Hsinchu, the crackling sound of browning dry bamboo stands, namesake of this county, seemed to be a agonizing cry for water.  My colleagues at school cautioned me that the wind could also be a factor slowing my ride or worse, a side gust could blow me off the road.  I made plans to leave early so I could slow down and be more careful on my first trip out.

This is a familiar route for me because I taught at the same school 7 years ago and I used to ride a scooter to  Zhaomen Jr. High regularly.  I felt confident as I set off in the morning leaving the tension of city traffic to enjoy an open air country ride.  I headed up the hill and out of town.  I also noticed that the hill caused my new cycle to pull a little harder as other noisy scooters whizzed by me.  Over the hill and out of the city the scooter picked up steam, but not quite as much as expected.  Steadily and silently it revved down.  

The battery indicator now down to half, I began to worry, would I make it.  I looked at the hill ahead I still had a climb, perhaps 7-8 km, through the bustling market town, up into the hillside persimmon orchards and across the ripening rice fields to school.  I was losing power, but I still had extra time.  As I reached town, the ride slowed to a walking pace.  I hopped off and pushed the bike into the narrow street where traffic was tight, but slower, and I began to look for a place to charge.  I also hoped to see a familiar face who could take me the rest of the way.

As I reached the far end of town, I still hadn't find a place to stop or hailed a ride so I pushed on.  Up the hill past the vocational high school, past an open market (not yet open), then waving fields of grain and it seemed like there wouldn't be any more places to stop. I checked my watch and realized that the SIM card in my cell phone had also recently ended a 1 month contract.  I couldn't even call ahead to let the school know I'd be late. A man on a scooter in front of me wore a security vest so I waved and asked, "Do you know where I can charge my scooter?  I'm out of power."  He looked across the street and hollered to a vendor just ending the breakfast rush.  He waved us over.

I crossed the road not stopping to pick up the travel mug I dropped on the yellow line in my rush.  The man in his security vest was right behind me.  He handed me the mug as I explained to the shop keeper that I was a teacher at the school just up the road.  He welcomed me in and ran to get an extension cord to charge my scooter.  I offered him money but he refused.  A customer and her son stopped in and they discussed how we might reach my school by phone.  Time was running short.  "Do you have a phone number for your colleagues?"  Uh, no. I only text them on a messenger app and my phone has no wifi here.  As they puzzled the problem further I decided to hoof it on down the road and waved thanks and goodbye.

It was a beautiful morning and the breeze was not too strong.  I crossed a bridge over a river that was very low and ran past a convenience store at a crossroads traffic light.  I turned the corner toward school and wondered how late I might be.  I had about 10 minutes left to run 2 km. Maybe I could make it.  Or maybe, Taiwanese country drivers would know the hitchhiking signal.  I looked back for traffic and stuck out my thumb.  The second car by was a natural gas delivery truck.  He pulled over, rolled down his window and asked if I needed help, then invited me in.  I gave him directions to my destination and he graciously drove me right to the school gate.  I walked in sweating and nervous.  The teaching affairs office erupted in cheers!  You're here!  You have class in 5 minutes.  I'd made it, on neighbor power.  It was going to be a good day after all.

Why did you want to be a teacher?

 Despite my years of teaching, the first days of school always give me butterflies.  It's a mix of excitement and anxiety about meeting new people and communicating effectively, about sharing my love of learning and making the rules of the classroom clear.  It's the first impression of what I hope will go right and how we can correct what might go awry.  

My 3 rules of the classroom are not too complicated - Speak English, Work together and Ask questions.  These encapsulate how I hope we will grow and learn from each other.  

Park space in the center of the school

The world at a glance (Canada is peeling away?)

Library study time during exams

Using English to guess the animal

What are students in Maine doing while we are in school?

This year, more than ever students have asked me "Why did you want to be a teacher?" "Why did you choose our school?" and my responses range, but I've settled on this... 

I love to learn, I love to watch others learn, I love to grow together.

Quarantime and space - Two weeks and 5 floors up

 As we near the end of our fortnight in our new apartment, I thought I'd share a few of the places we've visited and activities that have kept us busy while we (not so) patiently wait to reacquaint ourselves with the outside world in and around Zhubei City.

1. Study the shadows on the wall as you navigate the stairway from bed to breakfast.

After breakfast review your Chinese characters at the dining room table.

Watch the laundry, cook a meal, wash the dishes.

As you return clean clothes to their homes, spend time exploring the walk-in closet.

Gaze out the laundry / office window at the world outside.

Practice a little music and try not to annoy the neighbors.

Needs a little work there Greg.

Covid Control

This is the door I came in through six days ago. And I will not exit for nine more days.

These are some of the things being done to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

Taiwan:

Taiwan required us to get a covid test before departing the US, and it had to be taken within 72 hours of our flight departure. The documentation of the result had to have our name and birthdate (for ID purposes) on it. Mine had my name but not birthdate so Eva Air did not let me on the plane. I had to spend two days in NYC to get a new test while my family flew on as scheduled. Lucky for me I have a cousin and his wife who graciously put me up in their apartment in Flushing and showed me where to get what I needed.

USA:

In NYC the taxi I took from and to JFK airport had a piece of plastic separating the driver in the front from the passenger in the back.

The flight on EVA, a Taiwan airline: 

The airline's ground staff who were in contact with the public wore a lot of PPE. 

Everyone wore masks on the airplane the whole time. It was nearly a 16-hour flight. Each passenger sat in their own row, even my husband and our daughter were seated separately on their flight.

We were not allowed to switch seats even though there weren't many people on the plane. This is so they could figure out who was near whom and contact people in case anyone came down with the virus later.

After landing in Taipei:

After exiting the plane I had buy a Taiwan SIM card for the cell phone and fill out a detailed document stating name and contact info, what countries we'd been to recently, flight info, seat number on the plane, passport number, address of where we were planning to stay during quarantine, names of who was picking us up from the airport, (or in my case, that I was taking a quarantine taxi), and more.  This document was sent to or shown to various officials on my way through the airport. There was one health official at the airport whose job it was to tell me exactly which day my quarantine would end. Although on the day of my arrival I was to go directly to my quarantine location, the period of 14 day confinement would officially start on the next day. Now that I am in quarantine, everyday I have to fill out a form about my symptoms (Luckily none so far) and record my temperature twice daily. Plus I have to answer a daily text message from the Central Epidemic Command Center asking my health condition.

I was given a hotline number to call if I develop any symptoms.

All of us passengers had our temperature taken in the airport. While walking through the airport passengers walked across a disinfecting carpet, which was to clean off the bottom of our shoes.  Passengers and our luggage got sprayed with disinfectant upon leaving the airport. 

I had to fill out another form to get a taxi. This isn't any ole taxi. This is is a special taxi that takes you directly to your quarantine location, no stops along the way.  I was informed that the maximum price for this taxi from the airport to any location in northern Taiwan is $1000 (about $34 USD). And that is what I paid. 

When I arrived at our apartment building the concierge sprayed my hands and luggage with disinfectant.

Soleil and Greg walked up the stairs to our apartment because taking the elevator was considered public transportation.

We (our family of three) are doing our two week quarantine in the apartment that our friends helped us find and set up before our arrival. But if we didn't have that we'd be in a special quarantine hotel, possibly in separate rooms for each person.

Quarantine is serious. We are not allowed to go out to exercise or work or buy food or other essential items. Our friends deliver groceries to us. If I were to leave my apartment to wander during quarantine or take public transportation my cellphone can be tracked and I could be fined up to a million NT$. That is $34,000 USD!

Is all this precaution worth it? Yes.

Total Covid-19 cases in Taiwan as of Sept 25, 2020: 510

Population of Taiwan: 24 million

Total Covid-19 cases in Maine as of Sept 25, 2020: 5235

Population of Maine: 1.3 million

Soleil's Travel Vlog #3 - A Day In The Life

As we end our first week of quarantine, we are getting a little stir crazy. These are some of the things I do in a day of my life in quarantine.

~Soleil Huang-Dale

Climate Refugees

Transitioning to life in Taiwan has been a bigger challenge than ever expected.  We knew it would be hard, just didn't know to what degree. We expected to follow protocols that have become the norm in the context of a global pandemic, yet were not fully prepared to be delayed for so long nor to encounter roadblocks that our privileged life is normally shielded from.

Perhaps the biggest challenges we experienced stem from the significant differences between how Taiwan and the US are confronting the pandemic.  When Jenny's mother came from California to Maine last May she flew on a full plane of people who were asked to wear masks, but were certainly not 6 feet apart.  She was not required to test before flying and only encouraged by Maine's CDC to quarantine for 14 days after arriving in Maine.  In contrast, the plane we took from New York to Taipei had one person per row of 10 seats.  We were expected to wear masks for the entire trip, and stay in our assigned seats for the sake of future contact tracing. Should someone become a positive case, the airline records could identify any other passengers that may have been close enough to be infected as well.

Our biggest hurdle as it turned out was not a willingness to follow the behavioral expectations, but a simple omission of a birthdate on the Covid19 test results.  

In order to board the plane at New York's JFK airport we were required to show a negative test result from a test within 72 hours of our flight. Jenny scheduled our nasal swab test at our local hospital / clinic and received the results a few hours before we left Maine for New York city by car.  Jenny and I were able to get our results from Maine Med's new "My Chart" online records system.  I printed off our results, then called Soleil's doctor to pick up a hard copy of her results not posted on My Chart due to privacy laws.  Driving to her doctor's clinic added about 30 minutes to our travel time, but we had built in a good cushion for such delays.

A rental car turned out to be the best choice for traveling to New York, a 6-7 hour drive.  We were able to stop at Jenny's cousin's place in Orange, CT for dinner and some lovely catching up.  Another cousin on Jenny's Chinese side called to invite us to stop in Flushing, NY as well, but we were too short of time to stop that late in the day.  We wanted to be at the airport early in case of any other unforeseen obstacles. 

We arrived at JFK airport around 10:30pm and dropped off the rental, hefted our luggage onto the Airtrain to the international terminal. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1:30am so we were still within the 3 hour window.  The airport was eerily empty even considering the late time.  Only a few counters were open for departures as we pushed our lives down the hall to the very last desk - Eva Airlines, a Taiwanese company with direct flights to Taipei.  Though not all the local security were wearing masks, the Eva staff were fully protected, some even in head-to-toe hospital garb with masks and facial shields or goggles.  Of course there were more documents to fill out that we had not been aware of, so we sat on a bench to complete them.  The agent asked immediately for our Covid19 test results and we handed them over.  Jenny's and mine, identical print-offs from our web records on My Chart and Soleil's in an envelope from her doctor.

A few minutes later the agent returned with a question. Does Jenny have a copy of her results with her birthdate on them? We looked at the printout and there was nothing other than her name, her doctor's name and the results "Negative", with a long explanation of how this might not be a true result as time had elapsed since the test and she might have been exposed since then.  Blah, blah... Then, they handed back Soleil's saying this was more what they were looking for.  It was a full page record of medical data with little or no commoner explanation.  How could these have been so different?  

They handed my results back last.  Mine, like Jenny's had no birthdate and no real medical data.  However, we were not treated equally. They explained that due to my "employment" visa, I was not required to take the Covid test prior to travel.  I would be allowed to board with Soleil, but unless Taiwan CDC approved an exception for Jenny in the next few minutes she would not be allowed to join us. My heart sank.  It was late at night, the airport was empty, we were hanging on the hope that CDC would look past this detail.  Time ticked and we finished our paperwork.  Then time ran out.  

The agent asked if Soleil and I would like to board without Jenny we should do it immediately.  Jenny agreed that we should go, but we did not have a plan for her.  I handed Jenny the laptop computer since I knew that I would need the cell phone when we got to Taiwan.  Then we remembered, Cousin Ming in Flushing!  It was past midnight, can he pick her up?  Can Jenny catch a cab?  How much will that cost at this late hour. Soleil found Ming's phone number on our contacts and Jenny scribbled the number into a little notebook. I held out hope all the way to the boarding ramp that she would appear on the plane just before the doors closed.  Then the lights went dark and the plane began to roll away.  Soleil sat directly behind me in row 57.  I reached back to hold her hand as we both sobbed from exhaustion and separation.

As the plane ascended I turned my mind toward gratefulness. She's got a cousin who will surely welcome her.  She's got technology for communication even if she doesn't have a phone.  She's got money. She's got plenty of travel experience, even on her own.  She's survive and probably return to the airport in a couple days ready to pass the test of travel. 

Then I thought of family separation for others.  For refugees who travel without all the privileges of our family.  Without wealth, without technology, without experience, without education, without white skin.  Parents who make decisions to send their children alone ahead of them.  People who know for certain they don't  have the documentation required to pass the innumerable hurdles of human migration.  I thought of them and for a moment I felt their struggle.  

We are climate refugees.  We are fleeing a climate of fear and mistrust in our country hoping for an opportunity to thrive in a place with "freedom" to belong to a whole society.  It is not an easy journey to leave a home we love and a community full of connections, but we also seek something that we can send home, remittances of hope and love.  Thank you all for holding us in your thoughts as we transition.  We are also here for you.

--- Greg

Soleil's Travel Vlog #2 - Miscellaneous Clips

Here is the second video in my "Taiwan Travel" vlog series. These are a bunch of clips on my camera roll in no particular order. 

~Soleil Huang-Dale

Soleil's Travel Vlog #1 - Road Trip to New York

Durning our trip I kept myself busy by filming and editing short vlogs. Here's a little insight on what our trip was like:

~Soleil Huang-Dale

From the Pine Tree state to New Bamboo

 We have waited patiently for a chance to return to our beloved community in Taiwan.  Zhubei, Hsinchu to be precise.  Our friends and colleagues have kept us connected and eager to return and now we are making our way back!  

Our extended summer at Grandma Jane's home in Sweden, Maine has included many of our beloved New England activities.  During the warmest days we swam and kayaked in Keyes Pond at the end of the path through Cathedral Pines planted by Grandpa Ray Gibbons and family back in the 1930s when they arrived here.  Some of those pines were cut last winter to cover costs of updates to the farmhouse that we've been making over the past year or two - solar panels, a heat exchange unit, the new front walk and this fall an emergency generator.  So our summer has also included chainsaw work on the slash left by the loggers.  We've put away quite a lot of fireplace wood for Grandma's winter stay in Maine.

Soleil went to camp with Concordia Language Villages again this year, but it wasn't in Minnesota.  She spent 6-8 hours a day upstairs at the farmhouse online with friends and counselors learning a lot of Mandarin Chinese to get ready for grade 9 in Taiwan.  She also refined her cooking skills with several favorite Asian recipes - scallion pancakes, tomato eggs, and the beloved bubble tea (milk tea with tapioca balls).  Following camp she went on to bake raspberry and apple pies and apple crumble in partnership with Jenny.  Mmmmm.  We are lucky that she likes the kitchen!

Jenny was the only one to spend the summer working as she completed her job at the Fryeburg Library at the end of August and her work on an online Reading Music course for Mountain Top Music Center in early September.  On our shared "off days" we got in several regional hikes that included Grandma at 84 and Kathryn Krupa, a second cousin enjoying her retirement from teaching art in Michigan. Kathryn was also a willing participant in our family games which happened whenever nothing else was planned.

Greg spent much of his time at the Fryeburg Academy gardens, in online meetings or binge watching our family Netflix subscription.  He also took an online American History course with FA colleagues that kept his mind off the wait.  There were also many things to do to prepare for a year abroad and thanks to friends at home and in Taiwan it got done.

We don't have to tell you that 2020 has been an unpredictable, dizzying and anxiety filled year.  We don't expect history to pause while we are away, but we hope a more distant view of the turmoil in our country will help us rest for the future while doing what we can with friends and colleagues in New Bamboo to build a better world for us all.

Thank you Grandma Jane.  Thank you cousin Kathryn.  Thank you Fryeburg friends.  Thank you neighbors, new and old, around the world.  We are on our way.