This time last year I was always so confused and unsure of what I should be doing. I hadn’t known my place at my school and was always feeling like an inconvenience not being able to keep up with conversations. I still have many instances of not being able to fully understand conversations at school, but at least this year I have had more confidence to reach out and try. I have one teacher I have lunch conversations with most days in a kind of Chinglish which at times can be more confusing than speaking one language or the other. Every so often he will say a location or activity in English, but if the pronunciation is a little different than what I am used to I have difficulty placing it as either Chinese that I don’t understand or English that I should understand. There is a group of young teachers I still haven’t infiltrated and I don’t think I will be able to until my Chinese vocabulary improves.
School classes have been going well. In the three weeks I have been teaching I’ve gained not only the respect of the teachers, but of the students. I was so nervous that the students wouldn’t regard me as a teacher after many inappropriate comments about dates and whatnot the first day of classes. Most of those students happened to be on the basketball team that I am now volunteer assistant coaching. Spending more time outside of the classroom seems to be helping my relationship with those students. A 7th grade student I had labeled a potential troublemaker to keep an eye on, now feels comfortable asking me questions in class, which is a big improvement from before. One student has even taken to doing a secret handshake with me. I don’t fully understand it, but at least this way he doesn’t sleep in class and at least tries to pay attention a little more. On days I can’t help out with the team, they always seem so upset I won’t be joining them. I think that joining the basketball team was probably my best decision so far.
Basketball has been influential in forming my relationships with a lot of my students. It also has allowed me time to get to know the PE teacher/director. Kurt loves to practice his English skills with me which is great because I hadn’t thought of how basketball terms are never taught in the classroom. I’m out here trying to help explain to the students the next drill and why they weren’t doing it right and all I could do was show from example and say “right leg not left leg.” Somehow, my students, and now athletes, seem to take my comments to heart even if they don’t always make complete sense. I see them wanting my approval as we teach the 7thgraders how to do layups.
On another note, most schools in Taiwan don’t allow for overlap of genders in sports. If a school is known for their baseball team it will be a team of all boys. Although that school may have a coach and a lot of resources, there will be no girls’ softball team equivalent. Despite all this, there are 2 girls that are interested in basketball. There isn’t enough girls for a team, but Kurt takes it in stride. Both 7th graders practice and get the same practice playtime as the boys without ever getting to play in a game. It makes me really happy to be able to help Kelly and Joy with their form knowing that they are there purely for the love of the game. Now, do I still wish we had a rowing team or archery team. Yes. But going back to my basketball knowledge from 8th grade seems to be working out so far. I feel like a wolf in sheep’s clothes when I play on the “alumni” team to run mock games against the 9th grade basketball team. I definitely do not have the same skills, but my students don’t seem to notice.
Having complete control over a class’ curriculum has also given me the opportunity to gain the support of other teachers, primarily the LETs I work with. I am leading the International Communication class for the 8thgraders. There were no guidelines on what needed to be included in the class other than more practice of pronunciation and listening. I took that guidance and ran with it. I think previously I talked a little about my project of taking a fake trip as a class to a country they choose, teaching Travel English along the way. Both classes happened to choose a trip to Japan during winter which is a great load off my plate if I only need to research one country. I was getting a little nervous though in class because sometimes the students look lost like they don’t understand what we are doing. However, my LET has assured me that isn’t the case. On 4 separate occasions, students have come up to my LET to say that International Communication is their favorite class. At parent-teacher conferences I met three parents who knew all about me from their children. I’ve been quite the topic of conversation at the dinner table as the parents were caught up in their “travel plans.” I think slowly my ideas and confidence as a teacher has allowed me to develop a strong presence on campus. I think that if there was an award for favorite teacher, I could compete with some of the others here – at least with the 8th graders.
When my teaching and projects aren’t the topic of conversation my accident might be. This past Thursday on my way home from school a cab hit me from behind as I was crossing the intersection. It was really minor, but still surprised me. When it happened I didn’t really even understand it. There were some scratches to the side of my scooter, but other than that it is alright. The bumper of the taxi on the other hand wasn’t as good. Thankfully, I was able to get in touch with my coordinator who helped call my insurance and gave me instructions on the following steps as I waited for the police. A teacher and 2 students also pulled over having spotted me standing on the side of the road to help me as well. I don’t want to go into much, but I will say i hadn’t expected to spend three hours with the police that night. It would’ve definitely been longer if it wasn’t for the arrival of Valerie, a Taitung County representative that happened to see me after the accident and assumed I would need help with translating the police. She also happened to be the person who was responsible for calling me all throughout quarantine. When she found that out she got really excited. I really owe her a lot as she tried her hardest to make sure I understood all my options and that she understood my story fully. In the end, I accepted a deal with the cab driver in which I was given 2,000 NTD to pay for the scratches to my scooter and a doctor appointment to check my ankle. Thankfully, I walked away with only a few bruises.
Only some slight scratching to the back side of my scooter
Despite the accident being minor, it did greatly impact my weekend plans. I had originally been planning a trip to Hualien to go river tracing in the famous Taroko Gorge. After having been hit, I didn’t think river tracing was the best idea. River Tracing includes hiking, swimming, and at times rock climbing in a river. I thought pushing myself on a regular day it would be hard, but doing it post-accident would just be stupid. Sean made up for my cancelled trip. At midnight the day before, Sean booked me a ticket to go spend a small part of the weekend with him. The last minute planning left me with a 6 hour train ride up to Taipei, but the second I got in we went and had a picnic with toast, cheese, crackers, apples, and pear juice (because that’s a thing here). Post-picnic we headed back to his place to watch the latest episode of The Boys on Amazon, I would greatly recommend this show. We are in the 2nd season and it's like Quentin Tarantino meets Marvel. We ended the night baking a frittata and attending my very first drag show.
I didn’t really know what to expect at the drag show, but I knew it would be an experience. We went with Sean’s friends Sam and Jason, as well as his two new roommates Xiao Ting and Keiran. The drag show was an amateur lip synching competition. There were judges of more well-known drag queens and then the audience got to weigh in as well through their cheers. I am surprised I didn’t lose my voice that night as I cheered for the queens I thought outperformed the others. My takeaways from the night is that drag queens love a good costume reveal (so many either hid their costumes or were able to change it mid song), having confetti is a must (every costume seemed to have a 100 little pockets full of glitter and confetti to pull out at any time), and the queens have such a good makeup game it’s unbelievable. I can completely see myself going again. The entire bar was the most relaxed and accepting feeling. Everyone was having fun and was dancing with everyone.
When it got too late, Sean and I headed back with Xiao Ting. I bonded so much with Xiao Ting, she works at the language school Sean attends in the administration. I expected her to be older or more serious, but over the course of the night she seemed to relax. She’s my age, which always makes me so surprised to find someone my age. She is just a blast to be with. We got back at 3am and what better thing to do then to take showers and cook a late night snack. We watched a little Game of Thrones as we ate mac n cheese (homemade -not from a box because we are saving those), chicken nuggets (Sean found a grocery store with some western food), and carrot cake.
All in all, I had a great weekend. The 20 hours I spent in Taipei were filled with fun. I don’t know how in Taiwan you can always pack so many adventures in such a short amount of time.
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