I took advantage of staying in Taipei and the access of the HSR, 高鐵 (the high-speed railroad), this winter break. The HSR, although it may cost more than the regular train, can make any county on the west coast accessible for a day trip from Taipei. Sadly, living in Taitung I don’t get to have access to the HSR because it hasn’t been developed for the rural east coast yet. Nevertheless, it has provided boundless opportunities for me to see different counties’ cultures in Taiwan.
Following my participation in the Fulbright conference and a fun weekend in Taipei I had to return to Taitung for a couple days to assist with the new ETAs. I helped Megan, a TEFL advisor (TEFL standing for Teaching English as a Foreign Language), as she led a workshop of activity planning and instruction. Megan distributed a pamphlet of games and activities that can easily be adapted to textbook material. After a brief example session where Megan put to work how to integrate some of the games and teaching techniques in the classroom, she gave the new ETAs a chance to try it out themselves. My role in the workshop was to answer the new ETAs’ questions during their planning sessions and to provide feedback as they taught their cohort. The workshop made me reflect on my own orientation experience learning how to teach. Going into Fulbright orientation for the first-time last year I remember expecting my students’ English level to be relatively high. During the workshops that enabled us to have a chance to teach the class of other ETAs, I remember getting halfway through the instructions of a game I wanted to play only to realize I was explaining it as if to a group of high level native English speakers instead of the elementary students I had last year. It was fun to see the new ETAs this year catching themselves doing the exact same thing and restarting their instructions.
Over the course of the 3-hour workshop, I saw great changes as each group presented activities to the class. I felt stronger in my role as a second year ETA in assisting with this workshop. Although I played the devil’s advocate some, pointing out ETAs lack of instruction in some places or forcing them to explain aspects of the grammar structures they intended to teach by answering in incorrect statements, the ETAs were enthusiastic for me to join.
Following the workshop, I assisted yet again with their scooter training. When I say “assisting” I mostly stood and watched with the group of ETAs waiting for an open scooter as I answered their questions of my experience in the classroom. Now with experience of their own trying to instruct a class of other ETAs their questions were more direct. I have never felt more helpful than when I could compare my different school environments and experiences. By now I have worked in three different schools of varying degrees of English skill level and age. My participation in their workshop as well as teaching them how to scooter has made me approachable and I now find myself getting many questions about their new Taiwanese life from the cohort on a daily basis.
With just a few days back in Taitung, I was back on the train to officially begin my winter break. I don’t know how best to write about my break as it has been filled with many days of relaxation, trips, and new friends. I took a step away from blogging to spend more time outside leaving me now with 3 weeks of trips to talk about. In order to cover everything, I decided to rely more on my photos and small stories of the days.
Tainan
My first day trip was to the old Taiwanese capital, Tainan. I have previously visited the county and city before, but took the opportunity to join 5 of my friends there for a day. I took the train in and met them for a quick breakfast before heading off to the Hayashi Department Store. Why would I choose to go to a department store for a day trip? Well, Hayashi Department Store is the first department store in Taiwan and dates back to the Japanese occupation. Not only is the store reminiscent of its Japanese roots in its architecture and its products, but it also has the first elevator that Taiwan had. If you are adventurous enough you can still take the refurbished elevator that allows you to see all the gears and buttons dating back years.
Hayashi Department Store rooftop and inside the store with the antique lighting
Of course, when going to Tainan we had to also visit at least one temple. Tainan is a county of temples. You can’t go farther than 3 blocks without seeing another one. We went to a large Confucius temple with beautiful gardens before heading off to lunch to get 肉圓, a steamed dumpling that has a translucent, chewy coating made out of rice and served with a gravy-like sauce. In our group one my friends is vegan so we split up with half of us getting 肉圓and guava- passion fruit smoothies while the other three people got seaweed dishes.
With only a couple hours left before my train ride back to Taipei we decided it wasn’t enough to make a trip to the Tainan Fine Arts Museum worth it. Instead, we went to Shennong Old Street. A street (who would’ve guessed) lined with coffee houses, art stores, thrift stores, and souvenir shops. More importantly, the street is lined with lanterns leading to a temple at the end of the road. I loved the relaxed feeling of just wandering down the street with my friends and trying the different street foods. Shennong Street also supports the arts and so the crosswalk leading to the entrance of the street is painted to look like the 3D blocks floating in air similar to Mario Brothers. Tina, a past Fulbrighter, joined me for some shaved ice while the rest of my friends returned to their hotel to rest before finding dinner. Thank god for Tina because she is a wiz at hailing cabs as I raced back to the train station to catch my train to Taipei.
Even without going inside the Tainan Fine Art Museum you know it's good
Shennong Old Street
Random Sidewalk Art
Yilan
Having come back from Tainan so late on Thursday, I decided to postpone the day trip I had planned for the following day in lieu of going to a cafe and editing. With a nice relaxing day spent inside on Friday and Saturday (great because it ended up being quite muggy), the nice weather of Sunday was a good change. Sean and I got halfway on our walk to breakfast when my side comment of it being good surfing weather had us turning around. That’s right. I love that I live in a place that now at the drop of a hat I could literally just go surf for the day. We walked back home with Sean ordering breakfast delivered, while I picked up some beach snacks because there isn’t great food on the beach in Yilan. Within 30 minutes of changing our plans we were on our way to Yilan’s Waiao Beach, a black sand beach.
I have grown to love surfing although my love of the sport doesn’t match my ability quite yet. It took a couple of waves to get used to it again as it’s been a couple of months since the last time I went surfing. We stayed closer to shore too as there were less people out in the water and nobody was watching the water as they usually do from shore like in the summer months. Later in the day Sean retired to the sand, choosing to watch me continue to surf instead because he didn’t want to be sore at work the next day. After catching a wave all the way in to shore, I was carrying my board back to Sean to see if he saw me. While walking in someone called my name. Now Taiwan is a small island, but being so far from home it’s not common for me to run into people and yet Amanda, my friend and fellow 2nd year ETA in Taitung was there with her boyfriend walking along the beach. I had no idea she was to be in Yilan at the same time. The best part was that her boyfriend, who I have met on a couple of occasions, was the one that recognized me. He kept asking her if that was me and she kept denying it till I turned around when she called me. After seeing me surf a little longer, Amanda now is open to coming to Dulan, a city up the coast of Taitung, to surf with me soon!!!
Jiufen
Jiufen is just a quick bus trip away from Taipei. As close as it might be to the city, it is like a trip to the past. With hanging red lanterns full year, Japanese style tea houses, and amazing views, Jiufen is a beautiful sight. It is said that Jiufen might actually be the inspiration for the Studio Ghilbli movie, Spirited Away.
Jiufen has been on my bucket list of locations for a while, but because it was so close, I always pushed it off thinking I had more time to go at a later date. With last year’s quick termination of my grant, I realized there is no time like the present. I was joined in my day trip with Corrina, a Taitung ETA this past semester. In order to beat what we thought would be big tourist crowds because of Chinese New Year, we left on one of the earliest buses getting to Jiufen before any of the shops were opened yet. I wasn’t too bothered by the stores not being opened yet, my only plan for the day was to walk around and take pictures of the lanterns. The weather had other ideas.
It started sprinkling early on and while the tea houses and souvenir shops began to open the skies did as well. To escape the rain for a little bit, Corrina and I headed to a well-known tea house. It was empty except for us and they seated us outside under an awning to watch the rain fall. We stayed at the tea house for hours. There is nothing calming than having tea, talking, and watching the rain without getting wet. The tea was also quite good and grown locally in the area.
Being the only guests in the tea house at the time and surprising the staff with having pretty good Mandarin skills, we kept being gifted new snacks to try to compliment the tea. Typically, in a Taiwanese tea house you can get small cookies (green tea/matcha), edamame, and dried fruits. We had all of the above while making the tea. Making the tea is also a performance and custom while in a tea house. There is a small fire in the middle of the table with a large kettle on it. The tea leaves are poured into a ceramic bowl/plate and then transferred to a smaller tea pot made out of clay. Then the water can be added. When the staff was explaining the process, we understood we had to wait x amount of minutes for each batch of tea (you can reuse the leaves for up to 3 times or until the flavor is lost), but I had a tendency to forget to look at the clock when we poured the water. Sometimes we would wait 3 minutes other times it was 10 minutes, so we had a variety of very strong and bitter tea as well as a more subtle tea.
The difficulty we faced while making tea was pouring the tea from the tea pot to another vessel before then filling out cups. I don’t fully understand the need to pour it into another cup before my own tea cup, but my best guess is to make sure the unused tea doesn’t just sit in the leaves while you finish what’s in your tea cup. Either way, the act of pouring from the tea pot into another cup seemed too hard for me to do and ended up with large amounts of tea being poured on the table or dripping down the side of the tea pot. Thank god the staff didn’t come to watch us make our tea because I needed that extra time trying to wipe up the spills before they would come check on us again.
Tea aesthetic on point
After tea we went and got a quick lunch and snack on taro balls in soup and another version of 肉圓, the dish from Tainan, but this time it was vegetable. As nice as the tea house was, I was a little let down by Jiufen. The sights were clouded by the fog and rain. Without good weather, there was no reason to go on the scenic hikes in the area and we were stuck looking at all the souvenir shops which I swear sell the same things with no variation. I’m glad I went, but it definitely isn’t going to be a trip I take more often.
Sun Moon Lake
Finally, after coming home from my day trip at Jiufen Sean was on break from both his work and school. We planned months ago to take a trip to Sun Moon Lake during the first 3 days of his break. The lake is famous for being the Taiwanese equivalent to Switzerland and has become a popular vacation spot. It’s located in Nantou, a county in the middle of Taiwan which is pretty hard to get to from Taitung. We spent five hours traveling by train, bus, and boat to our hotel on the lake. When we checked in to the hotel it was like the manager sighed in relief when he found we could speak Mandarin. I think he was gearing himself up to have to explain the hotel policy and room to us in English while he waited for us to arrive. It’s moments like these that I am thankful that my Mandarin skills have improved while I have lived here.
One of the draws of Sun Moon Lake is its many temples connected by a bike path around the lake. Of course, Sean and I saw renting bikes for a trip around the lake as a great way to spend our first day. What the tourist blogs and bike rental stations don’t tell you is that the path is 37k long, up and down the mountains, and at times the path is just riding on the shoulder of the highway (a super safe option). We were huffing and puffing before we reached the first temple.
The temple was like a compound with many different rooms all connected with beautifully decorated hallways and archways. I have heard a saying amongst some of the other ETAs that if you have seen a temple, you have seen them all. I beg to differ. I love traveling to the different temples because they might share the same god, but are all designed quite differently to suit the needs of the people living around it.
After the first temple the bike path became easier approaching the port city. Instead of riding on the highway, we were able to ride on nicely laid wooden trails. The weather was clear and reflecting off the water. It was only when we returned to the hotel at the end of the day that I saw the future foreshadowed in the clouds of the surrounding mountains in the pictures I had taken. I had spent the afternoon loving those mountains which dwarf all those in Taitung county. Those clouds descended on us when we were three-fourths of the way done with our ride. The fog was dense, obstructing our view of most of the temples and buildings on Sun Moon Lake. The weather did mean there were less and less tourists passing us, so we had a nice secluded bike ride together. That being said, riding a bike in the fog, with no helmet, on a highway in the mountains definitely wasn’t the best choice but we had to get our bikes back to the bike shop we rented from. The lights of the port city we were staying in brought tears to my eyes when we finally made it back to the hotel. I was not in shape enough to ride a bike up and down the mountains for a day. And why is it that the end had to be uphill too?!
Sean and I didn’t really learn our lesson the second day of our trip either. There was a hike to a new suspension bridge in Nantou. It was only about 45 minutes away by car on google maps, so why not make it a day trip. We should’ve known when we were talking with the hotel manager about the trip that it was too far to make it. In theory, we could’ve rented a scooter to drive there, but without our personal helmets we didn’t feel that was safe and opted for two buses instead. Not being familiar with the area I admit my navigation isn’t always perfect and we got off the bus a stop too early which made us miss the connecting bus. Being that we were traveling over Chinese New Year, we were not able to get a taxi. We spent 2 hours in a Family Mart, a convenience store very similar to 7/11, playing cards till the next bus arrived. I personally thought the trip was worth it. Google maps showed us right in the middle of Taiwan. There were mountains taller than any in Taitung. I was glued to the window the entire bus ride.
The base of the hike is in the middle of an aboriginal village which seems to have positively impacted the community and their trade. The grocery stores were bustling and there were food stalls and cafés boasting of beautiful views into the valley packed with tourists making the hike. The hike is also another story. Unlike the scenic hike that was talked about in travel blogs, you find yourself walking up a concrete path on the side of the mountain. The construction didn’t add too much else on the walk up other than markers every 100 meters of elevation. From the bottom of the hike to the top was a 500-600 m elevation. After getting to the top we bought tickets for the bridge that enabled us to walk across and see the waterfall at the other end. Sadly, there were other paths for better views of the waterfall that were under construction and limited our movement on the other side of the valley.
I don't know why I thought standing and blocking the whole bridge would be a good picture
The Rainbow bridge was everything Mario Kart’s Rainbow Road is and more. The suspension bridge moves underneath you fulfilling the kid inside of me’s dream of rocking the bridge back and forth (small movements I swear) which the other tourists didn’t always seem to appreciate. The choice to make it colorful is very Taiwanese and I wish the US took more time on their development projects. Now that it’s beautiful and “insta-worthy” a bridge in the middle of nowhere has become a tourist destination. The bridge always needed to be built for the community there, but now they make so much more money off of charging tickets and selling snacks that they made their investment back tenfold.
After two days of strenuous hiking and biking you would think we would take the last morning and do something more relaxing. Haha…. Nope. One of the attractions of Sun Moon Lake is to see the sunrise amongst the tall mountains and on the lake. Sean, who wanted to give me time to photograph the last two temples we had missed due to the fog, proposed a morning hike to the temple highest on the mountain so we could catch the sunrise. Sounds calming. When I agreed I hadn’t considered having to hike or bike to the top of the mountain to reach the temple and nor the time we would have to start. At 5:00 am the alarm went off. We had an hour to hike up the mountain and climb the stairs to the temple. When we started off it was pretty dark. We had a flashlight in case of animals or cars coming. However, even with the light most of our surroundings were pitch black. Every creak of a tree or rustling would make my jump.
We reached the temple with 15 minutes left till sunrise to climb the stairs looping around the mountain top. The sky was starting to change and the orange mixed with the fading dark blue was beautiful. What greeted us at the top of the mountain wasn’t just the orange sky, of a sunrise blocked by other mountains, but also a sign saying the temple didn’t officially open to the public till 9am. That would be 3 hours from the time we were there. Sean was all ready to go up the stairs and at least poke his head in, but I couldn’t even climb higher than the second flight of stairs to the door. Instead, we took pictures from all around the temple and then headed back down the mountain. On our way back we caught the last of the temples. What stopped us first was the monks’ singing. I have never heard a harmony like their chants were and it rang out from the open windows. So with all things considered, a sunrise hike was a bit much, but the singing monks saved the trip from being a total waste.
Taichung
Last but not least, to return from Sun Moon Lake we had to pass through Taichung. Taichung is a county known for its art on the west coast. When Sean originally bought our return tickets he didn’t want us worried about catching the train home, so he booked us early afternoon tickets leaving us enough time to walk around to different spots in Taichung. Our first stop was to the restaurant that started it all, the Original Bubble Tea Restaurant in the world. The milk tea comes to the table in glasses that look out of a German pub. The downside of the restaurant is that it is known for its bubble tea and not for its food. When two hungry tourists come in and order two noodles dishes and a side, I forgot that the serving sizes might not fill us up. We decided to stop by at my favorite spot in Taichung, an ice cream shop. The line for ice cream was down the block, but that’s how you know it’s worth it. There are 20 kinds of chocolate, which is the typical flavor people get. However, many tourists look over the Taiwanese fruit classics. There are grape options (Taiwan has a grape that literally tastes like wine), lychee ice cream, my favorites Roselle and Mango ice cream, as well as some other unique flavors. After a 20 minute wait we got our ice cream. The best way to spend time before a train I would say.
Yet Another Random Insta-Worthy Street Installation
Back to Taipei
I didn’t want to feel like I was always running around and traveling over break, so the last week was spent in Taipei. I visited with friends. Had hot pot dinners and went dancing. I even got to see Sean’s midterm speech on the Taiwanese salmon given to his fellow classmates in Chinese. Today is my last day and I am sad to return back to Taitung as just in these few weeks I have built my community in Taipei larger than it had been. Now to return to work and my fellow teachers. I can’t wait to hear how their breaks went!!
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