It’s taken a couple days (more like a week) to get used to the idea that the Taitung group is no more. Our family of 6 with our Sunday night dinners have ended and in turn we now have 14 other people that have come with vastly different backgrounds and personalities. In this new group I find myself in a different role. No longer am I the one that can bow out of making plans choosing to go with the flow. Instead, I am the one calling for reservations, translating menus, and ordering people food. I guess it is in tribute to my mandarin skills up till now or that the new ETAs trust me unconditionally and think I know everything. Regardless of the reasoning, I have been spending a lot of my time helping the new ETAs get situated and feeling at home in my county.
Of the 14 new ETAs, two of them, Harmony and Sean, moved into the Fengrong apartment as my new roommates. They both happen to be from New York (one from the city and the other upstate) and really excited for everything. It's a departure from the homelife I have become accustomed to with Augie, my past roommate who has moved to Taipei. Our schedules never really matched up leading both of us to spend most of our time in our rooms rather than socializing with each other. The new ETAs brought up our relationship when we scootered them over to a brunch to get to know each other. The new ETAs were surprised that we were catching up so much on what happened in the past week. Sean, my new roommate, literally outright said “you guys seem like friends, but you are catching up just as much as we are with each other.” Augie and I had just laughed owning up to the fact that school keeps us pretty busy, but that we were always friends.
Now instead of a quiet, common area where the lights are rarely turned on, I typically always turn the light on, welcoming the newbies to come down and chat while we work on our different projects. After months of almost dreading their arrival and not really understanding the impact their presence would have on my schedule, I am excited for the semester to come and already upset it’s just for 6 months. Harmony even enjoys photography and is currently making a vlog of her time in Taiwan. What is the luck that not only is my new roommate interested in photography and has my exact camera as well, but other ETAs share her love. Aaron, a new ETA from Skokie, even brought a drone with him that has the capabilities to follow a person whether they be walking, running, or on scooter. Can you even picture how beautiful that footage could be? I think once they get over the fact that I am a 2nd year, that I will fit right in with some of the group.
Other than showing the newbies around the main responsibility us 2nd years undertake is helping assist during scooter practice. You heard that right. The person who avoids driving at home is teaching others how to scooter and I’d say my scooter lessons have been a success thus far. I felt almost like a helicopter mom as I didn’t want any of them to fall on my watch especially on the first days learning. The newbies laughed as I would slightly job next to them during their first practice so that I could be there if they needed help. Many of the new ETAs went into our practice very apprehensive saying they felt more comfortable sticking with a bike for the entire semester. Luckily our discussions on the scooter-less limitations and our support during scooter practice has not only encouraged all, but one to keep trying to get their license, but they actually seem to be enjoying it. I keep telling the new group that they are catching on faster than my cohort did, leaving out the fact that we had more ETAs, less practice scooters, and therefore less practice time before our tests. Whatever I can do to make them feel comfortable with their progress driving.
Ray (our new coordinator assistant), Kendra, and I returning from moving the practice scooters around the city.
As the new ETAs got to know each other this past weekend, Kendra, Amanda, and I tried to give them some space to bond and discover the city together, but at times had fun right alongside them.
We attended our coordinator Ina’s first guitar performance. Cheering loudly in the back row enough that the event photographer took notice and took countless photos of us.
Kendra, Amanda, Ina, and I scootered over to Zhiben to a cute cafe we enjoy. Not only do they have 洛神花茶 (a local Roselle tea that can be pretty sour) but also a new puppy that’s around 3 months old! It’s currently in the biting stage so every pet is followed with a playful nip from Peanut. Surprisingly it only took me a year and a half to actually stay in Zhiben for dinner. There are pretty much only two restaurants in the area and typically I wouldn’t label either as being worth the trip at night. However, we planned a movie night at Kendra’s apartment so it only seemed worth it if we got some dinner locally and joined the new ETAs that just moved into Zhiben as well. I got a dish that we all were confused on what it was. We understood the characters, it was a soup noodle dish, but the descriptions on the menu don’t go farther than that. The dish’s noodles actually differ immensely. Instead of the long noodles commonly found in soup, the dish had short, stubby noodles. I wasn’t a fan of the dish and the fish floss on top didn’t make it any better. Fish floss is a garnish at times and is dried shredded fish.
Apart from taking new ETAs out to restaurants and leading scooter practice, I have been preparing a lecture for our Fulbright conference. A Fulbright Conference typically marks the beginning of an ETA grant. All the counties come together for the first time to mingle and learn. Topics like ETA expectations, cross-cultural communication, and home-sickness are all addressed along with interest groups and teaching lectures. I look forward to these events because I love the fact that I can see others from different counties and hear a little bit about their experiences in the classroom. With COVID the mingling of the entire group of Fulbrighters - around 130 people- seemed like a big red flag. More than a hundred of the participants would’ve just gotten out of quarantine having traveled abroad and Taiwan is on high alert following a few cases of local spread in a hospital in Taoyuan. The conference was then changed from an in person event to completely online, asking presenters to take the trip to Taipei to give our speeches in the “Fulbright Studio.” The new format didn’t lend itself that well to discussion based talks like those on culture shock and interest groups, but giving my teaching lecture online took away a lot of the pressure while adding new stresses like an inability to read the crowd.
I partnered with a fellow ETA in Hualien. I was interested in sharing my experience and project ideas of task-based learning as a primary method of teaching in the classroom. When I was applying to speak at the conference I hadn’t understood I could present solo, and instead asked most ETAs on the East Coast if they had any relevant teaching experience with task-based learning. Michael had some and was interested in giving a talk and later through our discussions the topic of our presentation became “Increasing the Applicability and Interest of Textbook Material.” For the past month we have had biweekly video calls as we composed our presentation in hopes of giving the new ETAs our best recommendations in how to plan an activity for class that engages their students. I felt so confident leading up to the virtual conference until the day before when Michael and I ran through the powerpoint in a cafe. I don’t think I have ever spoke to that many people at one time before and I was nervous that our activity ideas would not help the new ETAs as they start in their grant in the middle of the school year. My nerves led me to practice and run through my portion of the presentation while talking to my mirror the entire morning of the lecture. I completely lost track of time and instead of getting to the Fulbright office hours beforehand to allow me to get a nice cafe meal, I showed up only 30 minutes before we were set to meet at the office to walk through the studio. That perfect salad I had in mind to prepare me to present turned into some bao from a stall on the side of the street. Tasty as they were, they weren’t my idea of treating myself.
I got to the Fulbright office an hour before start time. Kevvy, the advisor running the virtual conference was adamant he wanted us there if we had last minute changes to our powerpoints or to talk through any technical difficulties. Kendra and Austin, two other ETAs from Taitung and Haulien who were set to give their presentation after us, showed up a little later. Despite already turning in their presentation to Kevvy and following our lecture, both of them received somewhat frantic calls asking where they were and why they were late. Fulbright was taking no chances that the 3rd day of their virtual conference would go off without a hitch.
Other than getting introduced as “Brigg”, our presentation went so much better than I thought it would. My time spent on commercials helped me appear more put together and comfortable in front of the cameras as I knew where best to look to keep me looking like I was staring off into space. My previous worry of being unable to see the audience’s reaction to our material and ideas were unfounded as Michael and I were able to talk as if to friends because Kendra and Austin sat close behind the cameras listening in. We ended right on time, finishing our 30 minute lecture and closing statements as the Fulbright office intern held up the time up notecard. I couldn’t have been happier.
In order to celebrate the beginning of my winter break, Kendra and I joined our friend Corrina at a cafe. It wasn’t just any cafe recommended to me, but an animal cafe. Taiwan is known for having many instagrammable locations and catering to those picture perfect demographics. The Paw Cafe answered all my wishes. After creating a reservations the three of us stood outside waiting for 4:30 when the other guests and us were allowed in. After having taken our temperature and given our order to the front doorman we left our shoes outside and slipped on the indoor slippers. The Paw cafe hostage seemed overly thankful that we understood Mandarin because the cafe had a lot of rules, mind you I probably didn’t catch all the rules they told us, but I got the jist.
The rules were as follows:
Only eat at your table
Keep the bathroom door closed at all times
You can pet the cats at any point as long as they are not eating or drinking
Keep the doors closed
Don’t wear slippers on the rugs
We chatted as a group after being seated and took pictures of the fluffy cats. As much as I love cats, I am still very much allergic and spent a good portion of time reminding myself not to touch my face.
Our food came and we couldn’t help, but laugh. When ordering each person in the group needed to spend at minimum 300$ NTD (~10 $ USD). We all chose our drink and then went in together on the one dish that took us closest to the 900$ mark. We couldn’t make out the entire name of the dish, but knew enough to know we were getting chicken and cheese. As all the other people around us got charcuterie boards and platters of fried food samples like french fries and mozzarella sticks, we thought that must’ve been what we ordered to. However, it was beyond entertaining when instead of getting a cute little snack like everyone else, we got a bucket of 6 chicken legs to split. The chicken was actually unbelievably good and I wish I could see the waitress’s face if we were to ever ask if the restaurant had take-out because the Paw Cafe isn’t known for their food at all.
As we finished up our food and drinks we were taken not only to the outside area that had two real Toucans, but also to a pen with two meerkats. The Toucans were beautiful birds. We learned about their eating habits and ages. The two birds were brother and sister. They gave us each some of its dried fruit to then feed to the birds. I was the last to go in our group and I think by then the birds weren’t hungry anymore. As tasty as the fruit was, Mango took one look at my thumb and thought it looked better. I kept laughing as he attempted to nip at my finger. I thought it must’ve been the way I was holding the food in my hand and started to make it flatter, to no avail. I guess zookeeper is off my list of potential future jobs.
The meerkats were amazing to see up close. Their little hands were so human and could get into anything. We were advised to empty our pockets and take off our earrings before entering the pen. A meerkat took a liking to Corrina right off the bat. Originally I thought it was that she was the only one out of us wearing any color, but we found out pretty quickly that she should’ve considered taking off her necklace because the meerkat thought it was the coolest thing. She was able to take it off pretty fast and the meerkat keeper distracted the meerkat long enough Corrina could put it over the small fence. While handling the meerkats you were allowed to touch them, but couldn’t pick them up. Crawling on my lap they were the weight of my dog when she was just a puppy, but a lot smarter. If I could categorize any animal as a pickpocket it would be a meerkat. They loved my friendship bracelet, tried to take off my bandaid, and were fascinated with Kendra’s phone. I don’t think I could stop smiling.
The following weekend I took a long awaited trip to the Taipei zoo. Every time I have planned to go before this semester has been either too cold, too hot, or rainy. Saturday, on the other hand, was perfect. It was like fall in Philadelphia. I took my camera around to practice long distance focus. The timing of out arrival was amazing because a lot of the animals were just being fed. The formosan deer chewed on their leaves and the monkeys fought amongst themselves. What surprised me the most was that the pangolin, an animal found in the Taiwanese mountains, was actually awake and running around. I've been to the zoo two previous times and have barely ever caught a glimpse of the pangolins. They usually stay huddled in the corner of their cave. I was blown away at how the moved and how ugly and cute they were.
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