Would you rather have all the stressful events in your life happen on one day or divided up so a whole week is bad, but more manageable?
I would’ve loved to have been asked this question last week, but sadly I don’t make any of my schedule at the moment. Therefore, Wednesday was it. If I forgot a date for something important I’d assume it was Wednesday the 21st. Bright and early on Wednesday I arrived decked out in my new Fulbright issued polo for the School presentations. Over the summer we were told to prepare presentations and powerpoints introducing ourselves with no context to who would be in the audience. I loaded my slides with photos, little words, and possibly a sarcastic comment here and there. I had assumed the introduction powerpoint was for my fellow ETAs in Taitung. Boy was I wrong.
We were to be giving our introduction powerpoints to our ETAs, coordinators, LETs (Local English Teachers), and to the prinicipals and directors of our future schools. After a little changing and some added English notes just in case people had limited English skills my powerpoint was ready to be sent off. I think the plus of being more worried about the scooter test later in the day made my presentation and school choosing that much easier to sit through. I’ve been a public speaker before, nothing can beat the time I choose to rap a Student Council Presidential Speech to my class for my campaign. On top of that who better knows me than me?
It was however, interesting to see everyone’s slides on what they value and their decision to come to Taiwan. So many of the ETAs have studied in China or Taiwan. It does intimidate me a little, but I guess we all ended up in the same place so I can’t be that bad. A lot of my group was also pretty surprised to hear what I did during my gap year before Fulbright. Minus the fact that I try to take my camera with me when there is no chance of rain (which is only like 10% of the days here), not many people knew I was in film. Its already been decided I’m editing the mid-year conference culture video we have to make.
After everyone gave their presentations, it was time to get our schools assigned. The stress and anxiety was palpable in the air. I saw multiple people with their fingers crossed in our group and almost everyone was fidgeting. We were sitting in the order we would be told which had its perks, I was sitting fifth in line. I wouldn’t have to wait long to be told. As the powerpoint presentation of our schools was pulled up I audibly laughed. The whole ceremony was Harry Potter themed, complete with a wizard’s hat for sorting. Following our coordinator’s quoting of the Sorting Hat song, the reading of our schools began and soon enough it was my turn.
Ina, my coordinator milked the moment for all it was worth. Making “hmmm” noises as if she was the hat as I sat there impatiently. Sure enough though, when she opened her mouth she said my top schools: Dain Guan & Kan Ding. I am so excited to get these schools, but I also know how much of a challenge I have accepted by having placed them on the top of my list. Dian Guan has a 12 teacher to 10 student ratio, all aboriginal students, and incorporates Environmental Science into classes. I have never visited Kan Ding, the partner school, but so far I've heard they are pretty similar in their teaching approaches. On the downside, the schools also mean I am now living an hour outside the city, there are a lot more bugs here, and I just transitioned to living in the city and now I have to get used to the countryside. I’m trying to keep in mind that I accepted this grant to learn about myself and experience true Taiwanese culture. Living in the city surrounded by the other English speaking ETAs definitely wouldn’t give me the close relationships and culture immersion I am interested in building like Guan Shan, my new town, will.
I was lucky to meet both my schools’ directors, Tiffany and Sam. Tiffany knows some English which is helpful, while Sam knew none. I felt like I wasn’t enough as I tried to talk to him using awful grammar structures. It was painful as he tried to comprehend what I was saying especially after some of the ETAs in my group incorporated speaking Mandarin into their presentations. On the bright side, my coordinators told me after the fact that the ETA that was at my schools last year knew no Mandarin before starting to teach. Completely good news for me because at least I am of similar ability to their previous co-teachers so they weren’t expecting someone fluent.
As the celebration came to the end we all made our way to our bikes with instructions to be at the DMV by 1, giving us an hour to get lunch and make it there. Me being the person who hates to be late went straight to the DMV, skipping lunch too eager and anxious to take the tests. First up is a written test which sounds easy, but when there is no rule book to study the only way to prepare is to constantly take practice tests and memorize the answers. The second portion of the test is the physical driving. This tests consists of driving straight from one section to another and taking longer than 7 seconds to go across, a pedestrian cross walk and turn, a hook turn, merging, a u-shaped turn, and last but not least a railroad crossing. I used almost the complete 30 minutes checking and rechecking my answers on the test coming out with a 96%, way over the 85% needed to pass the test. After getting my stamp of approval I went back downstairs to the driving course. We waited till everyone had taken the test before one by one we were able to drive. I was hyped up on so much adrenalin. I can’t even remember being that nervous for a regatta than I was to fail this test because if you don’t pass you have to wait an entire week to try to retake it. I passed with flying colors. Although I did notice that the supervisor was definitely not paying that close attention to us. We did also have a crowd of people from Taitung that showed up to practice, but ended up just staying to watch us all take our test as entertainment. All in all, I passed along with everyone, but one person.
I am now the proud owner of a blue scooter with a snazzy helmet. Don’t worry Mom and Dad the safety video did enough to make sure I am the safest driver ever.
Comentários