Happy New Year and TAIWAN UP to everyone! I spent New Year's Eve in Taipei this year, right under the 101 building, it's fireworks, and the glowing "Taiwan Up" sign that continues to confuse everyone. Apparently, the slogan is supposed to mean "Taiwan is getting up," which might make more sense in Chinese. It was a blast to be amongst all of the Taiwanese while we sat on the blocked off streets shouting, "Xing nian kuai le!"
I went home the morning of the 1st, by myself, because I wanted to enjoy the solitude of my empty apartment after a really busy 2009. I graduated, got a Fulbright and moved to Taiwan, and was hit by a bus. A pretty eventful year, I'd say.
But let's go back to Christmas Day, which I still have not posted about. It was very strange to be in 60 degree weather going to work on Christmas. After I went to English Village that morning, I met up with Carol at the local elderly center and we sang a few carols on every floor. The dementia ward particularly appreciated our songs and funny hats (I was a reindeer, as usual, and Carol was Santa).
We planned to meet up with Carol's host mom for what proved to be a very painful foot massage and waited outside the elderly center for her to pick us up. While waiting, and still wearing our Christmas hats, a man and his wife pulled up onto the sidewalk on their scooter. The man jumped off and began singing various Christmas carols. Then perceiving that we were American, he belted out our national anthem in operatic fashion. I had tears in my eyes, despite the absurdity of it all. He gave us his card, explained that he is Taiwanese, but teaches English, and wished us a very merry Christmas.
That evening all of the Fulbrights ate a delicious Christmas dinner together at Apartment C. Katherine, her sister Kendra, and Caroline cooked a feast for us! We had cheese and crackers, butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, roast beef, and pumpkin pie. I couldn't have asked for a more American meal. Bekah even played her viola before dinner to set the mood. I spent forty minutes after dinner washing the dishes for them, but it was totally worth it after that amazing meal. Then I went back to my room and talked to my family for a bit on the webcam with Skype. Probably my weirdest Christmas ever, but not all together bad.
Unfortunately, I woke up bright and early the next morning to come to my school's Sport's Day. I cheered on my third graders and gave out stamps to the first prize winners. Every grade participated in a relay race and a couple of other competitions. I met several parents and all of the students were happy to see me. Luckily, since we came to school all day on Saturday, we didn't have school on Monday. That gave me a three day work week with New Year's Day off.
That Sunday I took the metro out to the countryside, early in the morning again, for some traditional Taiwanese barbeque. Some of the teachers from Fushan booked a campsite where you can cook your food like the aboriginal Taiwanese. The day began with me squatting in the mud, rubbing dirt all over our food. Well, the food was wrapped in newspaper first, and then we covered it with mud. My colleagues' husbands and boyfriends built a stone pit into which we put the food. Then we let the food cook for around three hours in an underground fire. While we waited, we played UNO, t-ball and a vague version of charades. We also ate sushi and hot pot to hold us over til the food was ready.
When the food did come out, it was a bit surprising. Corn on the cob and sweet potatoes were delicious, but imagine my surprise when the plastic bags were cut open to reveal WHOLE chickens. This wasn't too shocking after five months in the country, but I did remark, "They look like curled up little babies." Everyone screamed and told me not to say that! They couldn't believe that I don't eat chickens with their heads and feet still attached.
After all of these festivities, I've been trying to find spare time to plan my and my parents' winter vacation trips. I'm also wrapping up everything at Fushan since I move to Shinjuang Elementary next semester. One of these days I will mail some postcards and pull myself out of the Taiwan Twilight Zone...I think.
