Stinky Tofu? Yes, please!!!

Ever heard of stinky tofu? I hadn't either until I made it to Taiwan. It's one of the most beloved snacks of the Taiwanese people. We even have an entire food alley dedicated to it in Feng Yuan (or maybe we just named it Stinky Tofu Alley because of the smell). The smell is pretty undescribable. It's foul at best, and the first time I got a whiff of it's not-so-pleasant aroma I wanted to hurl. Needless to say, my first six months in Taiwan I passed.

Yet, this time around I decided to not be a wus and actually try some of the strange foods offered at the night markets. And the opportunity to try stinky tofu presented itself while I was Kenting. I was feeling pretty gutsy, plus I was hanging out with two of my Taiwanese friends, Kelly and Charlene, an they convinced that I should try it. So I did. And I liked it. And here's a video to prove it:

Those three guys were kinda walking with us and we kinda challenged each other to try it. It was quite funny. Before I tried it, I saw the one guy take a bite and then spit it out. It made me a bit hesistant, but I had to go through with it.

Tonight I decided to see how they made stinky tofu, and I've also decided that I may not ever eat it again. Click here to find out why.

Here's to stinky tofu even if it does stink!

Miss Shannon's First Graders

I've decided that it's about time for "meet my students." I teach four incredibly cool classes (how could they not be? I mean, I am their teacher), and this will be the first of a four part blog series. :)

These kids a hilarious! The boys are a bunch of rascals and the girls are angels. It sure does make for some amazing classroom antics.

Meet Derek. Derek is a pint size bundle of energy. Rarely can he sit in his seat, and often I find him not standing, but skipping next to his desk while writing his work. He always has mischievous twinkle in his eye and is always up to something. He's always coming up with ways to scare me or to sneak in a tickling session. He probably has the cutest laugh I've ever heard. Unfortunately, all of his cuteness can't keep him from getting in trouble.

This is Miss Stephani (without an 'e'). This quirky gal is hilarious. Whenever I ask her what she did yesterday, or over the weekend, the answer is the same: "I ate Miss Shannon!" For some strange reason she has an obsession with eating me. And she really can't sit. I've tried. At any given moment I'll glance at her and she'll be lying on the ground. But she is one smart cookie. Really smart. And has the most beautiful handwriting.

This is Koala. I frickin' love this kid. At the beginning of the semester he was my most challenging student. He was openly defiant, and I hated teaching him. Sending him to the secretaries just didn't work. At a loss, I asked my boss, Gerald, what I could do. He suggested doing a different sort of discipline, one that was a bit more creative. I thought over it and remembered that a friend once had his students dance in front of the class if they got in trouble along with a hug from the teacher. I decided to try this out.

The first day when Koala got his name on the board, I told him he had to get a hug. He freaked out! Like I've never seen a kid so shook up just from getting a hug. But I had to do it. He cried and cried and cried, and I had to send him to the secretaries anyways. I have to say that I was pretty shook up too. It's all ended up well though. I since had the class come up with their own punishments for not following the rules and they now have the option of picking between a hug or doing 10 push-ups when their name goes on the board. And they can do a wall sit or dance in front of the class when they get an X by their name. I mainly added the other option for Koala, but wouldn't you know it that he always picks the hug over the push-ups. And he's been so much better behaved since then too. I think he was testing me, and somehow I broke him. He is seriously a joy to have in class, and is sooooo funny. He is quite the ham--I guess your typical class clown. His great big toothy smile just melts my heart!

 This is cute Miss Kelly. I love her face! She's the younger sister of one of my favorite students, Cheryl, who was in my 3rd grade class last year. She is so sweet, and sooooo easy going. She's petite and quiet, but don't let that fool you. She's pretty fiesty, and doesn't let the boys take advantage of her. Quite the tom boy she runs faster than the boys, loves basketball, and is our classroom champion of the wall sit. Her record is 5 minutes. No joke. I'm lucky if I can even make it for 2 minutes.

Meet Mr. Eric. He is the biggest cuddler and finds any excuse to tickle or hug me. At the beginning of the school year he used to slide down my legs because he thought it was fun. Eric is an observer, and a very good one at that. He has the biggest brown eyes and nothing seems to escape him. Lately he has noticed that Derek and Koala get attention for their bad behavior, so he's decided to be crazy to get attention too. Still trying to figure out how to counteract that. Any ideas? Eric is also a smarty pants. He works a bit slower, but his perfection pays off. And seriously, who could not love that smile?

This is Miss Kristine, the Hermione of our class. This girl is a whiz! She's new to this class, but English is not new to her. Like Hermione, Kristine knows pretty much everything. In addition to English class she also goes to math class, swim class,  piano and recorder class, and some other class thrown in there too. She has a dream of traveling to Paris and writes about it in weekly journals. She is a perfectionist and incredibly hard on herself. She's come a long way though. At the beginning of the year it was hard to get her to even participate, but it's surprising to think that she was so quiet before. EArlier in the year she wrote me the cutest note with a book mark. Lovely girl.

I teach these kiddos four days a week for two and half hours each time. My heart is going to ache when I leave this cute kids!!!

What I'm currently listening to...

Imogen Heap.

Just bought her new album, Ellipse, and am already in love.

I've loved Ms. Heap from way back when she was with Frou Frou. I love the synths. I love her ethereal melodies. I love her lyrics about hope, loss, perseverance, living and loving life to the fullest. I feel like her songs could narrate my life to a certain extent. Lovely.

I've been following the making of this record for a couple of years now and have much anticipated it's release. As I've watched her various vblogs I've come to find her quirky, cool, and full of soul. She's a real artist, not one puffed up by the glamor of fame and fortune.

If you haven't had a chance to hear Imogen, please, please do yourself a favor and watch this video of her song, Canvas. It's simply amazing!

Once

Have you ever seen a film that just moves you? I think there are only a few out there that I can honestly say have touched me in that way. I love films of all kinds, especially foreign films. I think it has something to do with the unusual camera angles, the use of music (or the  lack there of), and the beauty often used in the cinematography. Heima, a video chronicling Sigur Ros's Icelandic tour, does about the same for me, as does Amelie.  

Once is just as fabulous, and it probably helps that I've been obsessed with the soundtrack ever since it came out. Why did it take me so long to see? Who knows. But who can resist a film that takes place in Dublin, features an Irish singer-songwriter's journey to creating an album and with the help and support of an adorable Czech woman? I was in heaven. It was heaven to hear Czech again, and I was half proud half disappointed in my language abilities. I could understand most of what she said, but I wished I could have understood even more. But on the other hand, I have been out of the country for 3 1/2 years, and I have been surrounded by Chinese for the last 3 months.

Anyways, moral of the story, please see it. It is wonderful. I caution that it does have an R rating ( and I feel partly guilty for promoting this film), but honestly it's for language that was mostly used in the first scene of the film, and that being the repetitive use of the F-word. To some that may be offensive, but to me, I just figure it's not quite the same in the UK/Ireland. Everything else was more clean that most movies nowadays.

Here's to films and to film makers who do not believe in producing cookie-cutter movies!

Taipei--a picture post

A couple of weekends ago I went up to Taipei with some friends to celebrate Wendy's birthday. The places we hit up--The Taipei Zoo,  a huge Ferris Wheel, and of course, Taipei 101 (still the tallest building in the world).

As in most places in Taiwan, the  zoo is no exception with it's obession with poo. There was an entire wall of poo art, and each bathroom had it's own cutesy poo motif. And this was an adorable girl that we saw all over the zoo.

 Yes, that's a piece of poo that we posed in. Isn't it fabulous?

The giraffes were my favorite. I found them so happy, and strangley elegant. They made me happy. And who can resist an elephant bum and a cool totem pole? The elephants danced, which is something I'd never seen before.

 

 After fun at the zoo, and after escaping a rain storm, we took the MRT to this cool ferris wheel. It was much like the eye of London, but of Taipei.

  We had the chance to ride in an all glass car, but we would have had to wait over an hour for it. We decided against the wait and had a blast. The ride took 20 minutes to complete, and it was so fun to see Taipei from that angle.

The fabulous night ended with a trip to Taipei 101, to the English bookstore--Page One, and dessert at Chili's. It was awesome, and the first time that I felt well satisified with seeing what I wanted of Taipei. And of course, none of my pictures do any of it justice.

Here's to Taipei, and it's wonderfulness. 

Blogger's block, and I mean hard core...

So it's almost been two weeks since I last blogged, and it hasn't been because I didn't want to. I've been having some major blogger block. I can't think of anything to write, even though I probably have a ton to write about. Well, now that I think about it, I have two whole trips to write about, yet I have no desire to write about them quite yet.

Maybe it's because I have a lot on my mind? Could that contribute to writer's block? I would think otherwise, but who knows? Life's funny. As soon as I make a decision with what I'm going to do with my life a wrench seems to get thrown into the mix, and things completely change. This is a good thing, despite the fact that my stress levels seem to rise every time it does happen. Plus it keeps me from making the wrong decision. 

Halloween is quickly approaching, yet it doesn't really feel like it. Come to think of it, it still doesn't even feel like fall. The average temperature is still about 85 degrees with 70% humidity. I wake up every morning hopeful that it will be cool enough for me to wear a cardigan. And "cool enough" would be anywhere below 80. You might think I'm ridiculous, but here's the thing--I'm a lover of layers. I think it has to do with my being from Seattle.

Everyday in Seattle is cool enough for layering, as my mom would attest. I never minded probably because I didn't really know any better. Fall was always the best because I could wear my favorite V-neck sweater and sandals at the same time.  At least that's how it was in high school.

Fall has always been my favorite season, and those crisp cool autumn mornings were the best. I remember going on walks up the Tolt River Pipe Line right by my house  (it was always up, in both directions) and admiring the hills of lush evergreens interspersed with jolts of orange and yellow deciduous trees. The best days were those when the sky was a piercing blue, which made the colors of the trees pop.  My favorite tree (and I did have quite a few) was at the top of our hill and it would turn into a flame of orange. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.  

 I miss the fall colors. I miss the cool crisp fall mornings. I miss wearing scarves. And I kinda miss wearing cute shoes.

Taiwan has forced me to shed my layers and learn how to actually dress for summer weather. If it really felt like fall here, I wouldn't/couldn't go to the beach and still get a tan. You win some, you lose some, eh?

On another note, teaching is going really well. I really love my kids. My fifth graders are in the process of making pinatas, and I'm in the process of persuading them that they should let some of the other classes break them open. They are still wanting to keep all three of the pinatas, but we'll see who wins. Muahahaha.... I mean, I am the one providing the candy.

The school is doing a big to do about Halloween this year complete with a haunted house. It should be wicked fun. No clue what I'm going to be, but it will be interesting.

Here's to fall, Halloween, and to writing despite blogger's block!

Photos from Seattle PI and National Geographic.

I couldn't sleep last night...

The month of October is just barely a week old, and so many exciting things have already happened. This past weekend I spent time up in Taipei (which I'll blog about later), and tomorrow I'm headed to down south to the beautiful beach town of Kenting, home to the lovely Taiwanese film Cape No. 7 (ok, so maybe the movie wasn't so great, but the soundtrack is awesome and it brings me some sweet nostalgia). As a result, I haven't been able to sleep much this week due to the excitement/stress of planning a trip for 10 people. But what can I say...who could resist this loveliness:

Went to bed at 1am last night and woke up at 3:19, finding that my dear roommate Lisa had fallen asleep while on her computer with the light on. I got out of bed and turned out the light. Then about 6am my mind decided to wake up and started racing. I've come to recognize this as stress, and decided that I should make a 'to do' list for everything I wanted to get done this morning before class at 1:30pm:

• read scriptures
• exercise
• do lesson plans
• go to the post office
• call Lex
• buy ice cream for my first graders
• buy conditioner/lotion for my trip
• download conference onto my iPod
• transfer money to my American account 
• take out the garbage (it's my turn this week)
• pack
• figure out snacks for the train ride tomorrow
• print of hostel info
• and CLEAN!

Hopefully I'll be able to get more of it done!

Wish me luck! And here's to wonderful vacations and lovely weather (it's cooled off a bit, at last!)!

What the?!

So I used to think that Taiwan was in a fairly safe part of the world (rather naively) until recently. It seems like Asia keeps on getting hit with the natural disasters! Last week the Philipines were getting slammed with typhoons killing hundreds, if not thousands; Samoa was flattened by a tsunami caused by an earthquake, the aftershocks of which were felt clear over in Singapore and Malaysia; and last but not least, we had a 6.4 earthquake last night.

And I have a knack for accidentally/not experiencing natural phenomena. First it was the eclipse, and now the earthquake. Yeah, I felt nothin'. Granted I was on a train headed back from Taipei, but still! Not much has been damaged as far as I know, except that the crack in our wall has gotten a lot larger.

Is it wrong that I like experiencing these things? Is it immature that I think earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis are cool? It's not like I'm glad/happy that countries, towns, and homes (not to mention lives) are destroyed by these disasters, but it's still amazing to me the power that is in them.

After the last typhoon that hit Taiwan it hit me that typhoons are really no laughing matter. This one was even supposed to be a mild one, but because of the angle that it hit Taiwan, it became the worst typhoon they've had in 50 years. Towns up in the mountains are still trying to recover, and Alishan, the only place I really want to go to has been shut down because of mud slides.

I've been feeling guilty about thinking typhoons are cool, and decided to ask one of my students and his sister what they thought. As I was riding with them to yet another barbecue (more on that in a later post) I asked them how they felt about typhoons. I was expecting them to say that they were terrible and that they hated them (which seems to be the general consensus), but I was pleasantly surprised that they liked them for the same reasons I did. Basically it's like a snow day for them. And for the Taiwanese, a snow day would be a big deal!

Anyhow....we are supposed to have 2 typhoons this week! And even though this may be immature, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for school to be canceled!

New HOTness!

So this song and dance is all the rage in Taiwan right now. I've been hearing about it for weeks now, but I have to admit that I saw this video for the first time yesterday. This dance is so hot that my first graders know it! But I have to admit that I kinda like it. Who would have thought that I would like Asian pop?

Please enjoy!