All of November Thus Far

So, none of my posts have really been about November until now. In fact, I'm starting with October 31st, Halloween. We had an unofficial Fulbright party with the 12 at Apartment A (not my apartment). A few other friends came, including Fonda and my host sister because it was her birthday. It was a lot of fun with great food, games, and costumes. I dressed up as Two Face from Batman, in honor of my actual resemblance to Two Face due to my accident. Even my BB gun paled in comparison to my broken finger with the blue stitches and three nails in it!

The following week I went back to school after a week of post-accident rest . That Tuesday my teacher's class took the liberty to cancel our class and take me to a temple to pray for some luck! We went to a small local temple where people worship "local gods." I was advised that the god might not understand me because he doesn't speak English and that he has no jurisdiction in America because it is too far away. So my friends coached me to introduce myself as Bo Kai Li (my Chinese name) and to ask for peace during my time in Taiwan. We lit incense, walked through the temple in a special procession, knelt and bowed three times. Then I was supposed to perform a Taiwanese ritual called Bo Bui and ask the local god if I could take a Ping-an Fu, a small red bag that brings peace to the wearer. I tried to throw the wooden crescents, but twice received a negative answer from the god. My friends intervened and spoke to the god in Chinese on my behalf and we finally got the okay to pick up a ping-an fu. I really appreciated my friends' efforts to include me in their traditional beliefs and practices and their concern about my future well-being. Afterwards, we ate dinner together at a shop called Mr. English. The restaurant is owned by an Australian and is promoted as a place where locals can practice their English.

The following Saturday evening my host family took me to Wan Nian Ji, also known as the annual Zuoying Festival, held at Lotus Pond. This is a beautiful area not too far from where I teach. It is a large lake with bridges, temples, and that evening, many food vendors, games, performances, and music. People sang, did tricks on traditional Chinese yoyos, and competed at who could throw the most fireworks into little paper houses. We walked around the entire lake, washed our hands in a fountain for blessing, and wrote our wishes on small red papers that we then tied to bamboo trees. My friend Carol joined us and we all had a great time.

On Sunday a different group of friends held a good luck party in my honor. Firefly, Winnie, Kevin's co-teachers Su and Amy, and several 5th grade teachers from Fushan cooked dishes that are traditionally believed to bring good luck (i.e. "long life noodles"). Kevin and Carol came with me to Firefly's house where we ate and sang karaoke via Firefly's TV. Everyone took turns explaining why their dish is lucky and we all had a blast!

Our lessons have been going fantastically thus far in November. We've been playing a lot of games and the kids are really enjoying English. Last week I had my observation with officials from the Bureau of Education and my mentor, Spring Lin, from the National Kaohsiung Teacher's University. A total of 8 people, including my principal and Educational Affairs director, attended my class last Thursday. The feedback was overall very positive and they gave helpful suggestions about minor things to tweak. A video was taken during the class, so I hope to post that soon, along with a bucketload of photos that correspond to this blog update.

This weekend also had some special events. Friday evening most of the Fulbrights attended a press conference held by AIT to welcome an American conductor to Kaohsiung. William H. Curry is a Grammy-winning conductor based in North Carolina and he came to work with the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra this past week. We had the pleasure of meeting him, several CEOs of TV, radio, and newspaper networks, and our friends at AIT. He was very philosophical and engaging; also surprised to hear that we were Fulbrights, saying, "I want to be like you when I grow up."

Yesterday night we were given free tickets to attend Maestro Curry's concert at the Cultural Center, right across the street from our house. The perfomance was astounding. Curry told us that this week has been a highlight of his life; he is so impressed with Kaohsiung's orchestra and their Asian debut of his composition "Eulogy for a Dream" based on the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His encore included Stars and Stripes Forever, which brought tears to all our eyes out of homesickness, a traditional Chinese song, and New York New York.

I am still trying to make plans for my winter vacation, sort out the expenses related to my accident, and just make sure I'm taking advantage of my time here. We all have so many goals for our time in Taiwan that we have a tendency to wear ourselves out and forget things. Please know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers, even if I am not in touch as often as I would like to be!