Wait, Class? What's That?

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Hi everyone!



It's crazy how fast a week goes by here. This past Monday marked our first real day of classes. We now have four different teachers: Yu laoshi, Wu (Molly) laoshi, Hong laoshi, and Bai laoshi. We also got our textbooks on Monday, and have been speeding through the chapters. Admittedly, we already know the grammar points from each chapter, but with each chapter we are learning tons of new vocabulary. Last Friday, Yu laoshi had us start with the fourth chapter of our textbooks. Yesterday (Friday), we ended class a little over halfway through chapter 6. Even with four hours of class each day and two hours of study hall/tutoring, we are going at an alarming rate. We will probably slow down soon though, because we chose the more difficult of the two textbook options. Yu laoshi was definitely pushing for the easier one, but we all agreed that we are here, first and foremost, to learn Chinese so a little bit of stress will be okay. (Also we had to pay part of the cost for our book because for some reason our program tuition didn't cover it, and we chose the cheaper of the two. This hidden cost thing has happened twice now, and none of us are a huge fan because it cuts into our cash supply, but oh well, what can you do?) Anyways, I actually quite like the book we are using, because so far the vocab has all been very helpful. Chapter 4 taught us how to mail things, and chapter 5 taught us useful banking terms. Chapter 6 is some more general vocab, and quite a few food-related things. So I feel like I'm learning lots so far! On Wednesday, we all had to go to the post office and send postcards as practice, which was good because I ended up sending six!



The classes themselves are challenging but actually pretty fun. Wu laoshi is very high-energy, and our two-hour classes with her go really fast. She also speaks the fastest out of our teachers, which forces us all to pay closer attention. However, I constantly find myself surprised at how much I am able to understand of what she is saying. While I am definitely not the best speaker out of all of us, I think I tend to catch on to what people are saying the fastest. I doubt it's actually because I can understand more Mandarin than the rest of the group, but I feel like I'm pretty good at using body language and general vocal cues to interpret the basic meaning of what people are saying. It might just be because I don't feel like I need to get each word exactly right and just go for the general meaning, or it might be that watching so many foreign dramas is helping. (See Mom and Dad? The crazy TV shows I watch aren't a total waste of time!) Hong laoshi is probably the most difficult of our teachers. She speaks the least English, so we've had a few instances where rather than clarifying a grammar point or the definition of a word, she ends up confusing us further. She is very patient, even though I'm sure it must be challenging having all of us sitting there totally uncomprehending no matter how many times she tries to explain. Usually we end up clarifying whatever it was with Yu laoshi during study hall, as she speaks the most English out of our teachers. Bai laoshi is our calligraphy teacher, and he is really great. I don't know if any of you have tried it before, but calligraphy is really freaking difficult. We spent our first two-hour class working on two different straight lines: the horizontal line and the vertical line. You'd think it would be easy, because it's just straight lines, but no. Calligraphy is an art form where perfection is key, and you are expected to spend forever drawing one line. Crazy. But really, really fun. Bai laoshi is also really funny, because sometimes he will hover while we are working, and if he hovers over me when I am working, I tend to make a face at him (because there's so much extra pressure if he's just standing there watching) and he will look surprised and like he was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to, and move on. And while he will praise you if you write a nice-looking character, or do part of it well, he is also not afraid to tell you when your character sucks. In a nice way. For example, when he looked at one of Trini's vertical lines, he sat down and made a person out of it, which was actually really funny. He also painted us pictures of fish and bamboo to prove a point about the importance of perfection in calligraphy. Yu laoshi told us that the other teachers sometimes tease him because he would make the perfect wife: he can cook, clean, paint delicate pictures, and knows the art of flower arrangement. (He's also crazy fit and the only male teacher in the department.) In summary, all of the teachers are great in their own ways, and I'm excited for working with these teachers. The one thing I'm not excited for is our 8 am classes. SO EARLY. But I will live, somehow. 😉



On Monday we took a trip to Taichung City Hall. Because Yu laoshi originally forgot about the field trip and we were running late, we took two taxis to town hall. I ended up in a taxi with Annastasia and Rachel, but Yu laoshi was in the other taxi, so we were on our own for the ride. The taxi driver was super friendly though, and when I told him I was American he was like "no, no, you're Chinese." I had to explain to him that I was adopted, which he accepted, but he was insistent about the fact that I was definitely Chinese. But once he realized that we were studying Chinese at Tunghai, he was very excited about teaching us words and street names. Overall it was a pretty pleasant ride, although riding in cars in Asia is always terrifying due to the seemingly complete lack of (or disregard for) traffic laws. Add to that the fact that most people here ride scooters, and the result is way too much weaving in and out of traffic for my liking. Anyways, we made it to City Hall alive and in one piece, miraculously. The complex is basically brand-new, and was very beautiful. Our tour guide had actually just moved back to Taiwan after living in Seattle for a few years, which was neat, and very nice because our tour was completely in English. Huzzah! We learned a lot about the history of Taichung, and ended up crashing a foreign youth leadership conference buffet for lunch. (We ARE foreign youth...)



On Thursday after class we all headed to a cat cafe that KC had heard about from one of her fellow Pac Rim members (KC is a year older than all of us, but in the same level of Chinese because she was away from campus last year traveling around Asia with Pac Rim, a program Puget Sound offers once every four years. I would have gone had it fallen during my junior or senior years, but if I had wanted to go, I would have had to stay at UPS for a fifth year, something I had no interest in doing). Anyways, I had never been to a cat cafe before, but it was everything I had hoped for. They had so many cats just chilling out that it was worth the expensive waffle (NT$150, about US$5). They also had four kittens, which were 2 months old and ADORABLE. Trini made a friend while we were waiting for our food, as one of the cats joined our table and began helping himself to her glass of water. He drank it like George does, dipping his paw in the liquid and licking it off. After a while though, he seemed to get fed up with that and just went face-first into the cup. His face was a bit too big to actually fit in the cup, but it was funny watching him try. Makenzie hates cats, and Rachel and Trini are allergic, so everyone but KC and I left after about half an hour. KC and I were in heaven though, and had no interest in leaving. We stayed long enough that I ended up sitting on the floor just playing with the kittens, and one of the owners/workers came out with a brush and started grooming one of the cats. The kittens were named after fruits, and though I didn't catch/understand all of their names, I do know one of them was named Mango. SO CUTE. One of them ended up climbing on my shoe, while another tried to eat my jean shorts (probably because of the strings around the bottoms). At one point, KC picked one of them up to pet, but once it had had enough, it geronimoed off her lap and to the floor. Very brave kitten. By the time we left the kitten were taking a cat nap behind a magazine rack, all curled up together. It was adorable and I think the US has a distinct lack of cat cafes. Someone should fix that.



Today we went out on a day trip in a bus of our own. Granted it was a small bus, but we have ridden in working city buses the same size while we've been here, so having one to ourselves was pretty cool. We first went to an old sugarcane factory, where I got a tasty (and cheap) passion fruit ice pop. The factory part itself was kind of creepy, and could very easily have been a horror movie location at night. Lots of broken windows and dusty, rusted machinery. After that, we went to a wood carving museum which was surprisingly really cool. I think Mom and Dad would have liked it, because they had some nice antique Chinese wood furniture in one of the sections. I was also really amazed at how intricate some of the carvings were. There was one that stood out to me that had leaves that were so thin, they were more or less translucent. I had never imagined wood could ever be translucent, so that was really cool. There were also some weird, creepy carvings, like the ones that gave the impression of people wrapped in a sheet or body bag or something. You could definitely tell that it was people, because there was a distinct head, feet, elbows, but there were no features. Creepy. After the museum we went to an old train station up in the mountains. Although no more trains run through the station, Yu laoshi told us that it's the highest train station in Taiwan. However, we did not stay for long and were soon off to a spa. Yep that's right. We went to a spa. And it was a very nice spa, at that. It was very modern and resort-y, but there were lots of different pools with different temperatures, and the water was from a nearby hot springs. Although we only spent about an hour there, it was really lovely and relaxing, and I am glad that I was able to get over my insecurities for long enough to don a swimsuit and get in. Unfortunately, they did not allow photos in the pool area, but the view from the pools was amazing. Our last destination for today was the Gaomei Wetlands. The area is famous for having gorgeous sunsets. Unfortunately we were a bit too early for sunset, but the view was still spectacular. There are lots of huge windmills, which are always awesome to see, and you walk down a long dock to a point where you can take your shoes off and wade in the mud. I didn't, because I wore sneakers, but some of the other girls did. We were also there on a Saturday, which I wouldn't recommend, because the walkway and beach-type area were packed with people. I'm really glad we got to visit today, though, because according to Yu laoshi it would take us three hours to get there by city bus, due to the number of stops along the way. I'm not interested in riding the bus for six hours in one day, but I am glad we got to see it, because even in daylight it was beautiful.



In totally unrelated news, I have found this trip will be teaching me a lot about patience, both with myself and others. All of the girls on this trip are wonderful, wonderful people, but after spending every waking moment with the same people I find myself getting irritated at the little things more and more. This normally happens when I spend too much time with one person, but normally I will take a break and hang out with someone else while I get my head back on straight. However, since we are all in a foreign country and don't know anyone else, this is harder to do. Part of the problem is that we have gotten so used to doing everything together that it has become habit to go in a group, whether that be to meals or exploring Taichung. However, none of us are particularly decisive people, and while I will step up and make decisions for a group if no one else is, I HATE making decisions (something Tanya can attest to). On the other hand, one of the things I hate more than making decisions is feeling in the way of people, which tends to happen when we stand as a group in the middle of the street/sidewalk/etc. waiting for someone else to make a decision. I think that one of the problems with being in a large group is that when no one is particularly opinionated or "leaderly," nobody wants to make choices that might not be what everyone wants. The problem is that no one will step forward and say what they DO want, so we are left at a loss of what to do. Or, if we do make a decision, there always seems to be someone who sulks about it, which is almost more annoying, because if you didn't want to do it, why not say something while we are trying to decide? And although I am a completely indecisive person myself, I never said I'm not hypocritical, so I actually get really annoyed when we can't ever seem to come to a mutual decision. Therefore, I predict that I will be spending as much time alone or with one other person as possible, otherwise I am likely to bite someone's head off. I feel like when you spend time alone or with only one other person, there is much less fear that your opinion might clash with the other persons', or if it does, it is much easier to come to a compromise. Regardless, for now I think I will make decisions that make me happy, and if that means I go alone or others end up eating/doing something they didn't really want to do, so be it. As harsh as that is, I feel like there is always plenty opportunity to say something or just not come along if it's not something that interests some people. And it's probably for the better that we don't all hang out together all the time anyways, because it's inevitable that we would get sick of one another.



Anyhow, that's all for now! Until next time!

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Photos

Underneath the City Hall overhang
The building in the background (with the hole) is where the city council meets. It was designed by a Swedish firm after they won a competition. The hole represents three things: an eye to watch the city council, an ear to hear the desires of the people, and a mouth with the power to speak for the people.

Taichung
I caught this one on the way back to campus after the cat cafe. In the background you can faintly see the rest of Taichung.

Creepy, creepy ride
It's a baby. Also it's super creepy. Found in the old sugarcane factory.

Yu laoshi leading all of her little ducklings
From the right: Yu laoshi, Rachel, Sarah, Makenzie, KC. I think Trini and Annastasia were dawdling.

Nature has retaken these ruins
This is an old arch that has fallen. The tree seems to be thriving on the ruins.

Spa and resort
Even the architecture was beautiful