Katie: What do we eat?!

Team Awesome (us): HAMBURGERS!!

Katie: When do we eat them?!

Team Awesome: FOR BREAKFAST!!

Yes, this was our team chant used to pump it up before our Dragon Boat race.  9 of the Kaohsiung ETAs, our advisor, and several Taiwanese friends joined together to compete in the foreigner division of the annual Dragon Boat Races.

 We needed at least 10 foreigners to row the boat (out of 20) in order to qualify for this division, and then we got to compete in the preliminary races.  Our own wonderful Katie was our drummer, keeping the beat as we rowed, we had a flag grabber, who sat on the dragon’s head and then reached for the flag at the finish line, and then a steerer who stood in the back.  

We were given a few practice times (this picture was taken during one of them) and we could never seem to round up a full boat.  It wasn’t until the last race in the preliminaries that we could seem to fill all the seats.  

We raced against 3 other teams (I swear they were all gigantic German men.  ALL of them) and then 3 of the teams would move on to the semi-finals, and then the finals.  I didn’t really pay too much attention to the progression because obvi 2009 we would win EVERYTHING. (ha. no.)

Ok, so we didn’t win.  But we did come in 4th place!! woot woot! and Gered made us fantastic T-shirts that say ‘Your ass is dragon’ on the back…get it?? dragon = draggin’.  dragon boat. ha.  We’re so clever.  This must be why we are Fulbright scholars.  (Even though I’m pretty sure this quote came from a book or something else…)  And our team name was ‘Hamburger Breakfast’…not because we actually eat hamburgers for breakfast, but because many Taiwanese people tend to think Americans eat hamburgers for every meal of the day.  The back of the shirt features a rising hamburger.  Again–pure cleverness.

Way back when…in early May… a special transquad member came ALLLLL the way from La Francia to little ol’ Taiwan for the reunion of a lifetime! In honor of this event, I made sure Alex got the full Taiwan experience–from Kitty, to awesome Taiwanese fashion, to face masks, to scooter adventures!

THE DREAM

The above pictures document our photo shoot from atop the Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel on the top of the Dream Mall in Kaohsiung.  

I can’t believe it took me so long to go up here.  Not only did we get a beautiful view of Kaohsiung city and the harbor, but we got to play with a Hello Kitty head pillow in an air-conditioned (!) glass-bottom compartment! And there was a surprise kiddie fun park on top of the mall as well!  We even got to race pandas! Jealous?  Dream Mall= the place where dreams really do come true.

THE RIDE FROM HELL/ BEAUTIFUL BEACHES!

Now I’ve been told from the beginning of the year that it is possible to drive a scooter from Kaohsiung to Kenting, the southernmost part of Taiwan and some of the prettiest beaches on the island.  Fancina told me it felt like flying.  Sweet.  I’ve always wanted to fly.  So I thought this was a perfect transquad adventure–2-hour scooter adventure on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.  So we headed out in the early morning–bathing suits on, ipod ready, and this fantastic shirt (compliments of Alex) that told the world of our mission.

Little did I know that by ‘flying’ she really meant the wind from the ocean was so powerful that you could literally fly OFF your scooter.  About an hour into the ride we were both making silent prayers for our lives.  Luckily (?) the wind was blowing in such a way that we would be blown off the road instead of into oncoming traffic.  But we made it all limbs intact.  And we sure as hell deserved the huge-ass margaritas we got with lunch.  And what would a day at the beach be without beer vendors (compliments of 7-11)

and some beach babes in full beach attire?

Other than a really sore butt and some shaken nerves, we came back from the day with a nice beachy glow.  

A ‘TASTE’ OF BOSTON

And finally what would a transquad reunion be without a little ‘taste’ of home.  I guess in France they don’t have Dunkin Donuts (I know, right?!).  HA….ameatures.  Well in Taiwan we do it right.  Among several popular food chains we have the amazing Dunkin Donuts.  And my Boston-born love was in desperate need of a fix…so a quick ride on the MRT brought us to one of the several DDs in Taipei (unfortunately they haven’t spread down south yet).  And in true Taiwanese style, we had the choice of not only our regular favorites:

But also your ‘meat flake and seaweed’ varieties! mmmmmm. yummy!

The last time friends came to visit my students put on an English Talent Show.  When Alex came to visit, I knew we had to do something new, fresh, and well…Asian…so what better way to entertain my N1P than a karaoke contest??  So here’s some footage of some of the more impressive performances.  And note to self–if I ever hear ‘Bad Day’ or ‘Pieces of Me’ again, I might jump off the nearest cliff.

Jasper’s song–’Pieces of Me’

Class 2 boys–’Hey Jude’

Cherry and Angel– ‘You Are The Music In Me’

Class 3–’Bad Day’

Class 4–’I've Never Had Someone’

A cake from the bakery and a meal of desserts obviously didn’t cut it for this Hello Kitty fan.  It was obviously necessary to try the Hello Kitty Hamburger on a Hello Kitty bun.  You know you’d do it too.  I’d give it an A+ for presentation and about a B for quality.  But when you’re munching on Kitty’s face, can you really be that picky? And no…the burger was not actually made of kitties.  We asked.

Because this event demands more than just one post.

Class 8–Beautiful Sunday

These kids blew us away.  They won first place in the singing category..hands down.  I mean….there was some serious emotion in this song!

Class 8–Star War

2nd place for a play. Love the costumes and the creativity.

Class 5–My Heart Will Go On (CUTE!)

3rd place for song…mad props for providing their own music.

Class 5–America vs. Japan (Scary)

umm…no prizes…just kind of startling.

In honor of my friends’ visit, Fancina and I hosted an English talent show featuring the many various…umm…skills of my 6th graders.  The four of us, myself, Abby, Amanda, and Steve served as the most honorable judges.  Here are just a few jems from the day.

This is Me–class 7

Magic Show! –Class 8.

These boys won 1st place in the play category of the talent show! They wooed the judges, had balloon animals, magic tricks, and poppers. Even though this doesn’t fully capture their performance, hopefully you can understand how adorable this show was!

Ultimate–Class 8

These girls won 2nd place in the song category.  Coordinating outfits+dance moves+ singing=awesome!

1000 Miles–Class 8

When you find yourself abandoned at the most random park/museum/dinosaur-land with nothing but your friends and a go-cart.  So you obviously drive on anything but the road…

When you find young foreign kids supporting your not-so-good and not-so-famous (internationally) baseball team!!

When your choice of helmets is among an elephant and a ladybug.

When you have to learn to use chopsticks quickly otherwise you’re not eating.

When you can purchase hair clips in the shape of horns…ears…small hats…in all colors and sizes

When you can buy this hat…and wear it outside…and not give it a second thought.

When you find yourself looking like this at 1am. (bad air quality in Kaohsiung takes its toll.  But we got a sweet midnight scooter ride out of it!)

When your icecream resembles something you want to cuddle…not eat.

When you find yourself making excuses to take jumping pictures in front of anything you can.  Please appreciate Steve’s height and our collective inability to get airborn for too long.

 

While walking on the streets of Taiwan, or even sitting in the comforts of your room or I’m sure in a bomb shelter 20 feet underground, you will hear the piercing, tinny song of a truck driving through the streets.  Now before you run to get your wallet and start salivating over popcicles and ice cream bars, you might want to stop and take a look around.  The people lining up on the street are not carrying money or little kids in tow.  Their baggage is trash.  Lots and lots of trash.  That’s right…this cheerful little ditty calls out for trash and recycling on a daily basis. How wonderful it must be for people traveling to the US who expect garbage and get King Cones and how sad for people (like myself) who get their hopes up for a cool, refreshing, icy treat, but end up with rotting bags of filth.

 Who knew my local shoe store sold BC apparel.  And color choices to boot!  And yet there was no Penn State stuff…a providential sign? or just Taiwanese randomness? I’m going with Taiwanese randomness.

So this is the second visit to the Hello Kitty Bakery in Taipei. (And probably not the last…)  This time, however, we actually saw the inside of this genius operation.  After being seated at a pink, frilly, fluffy, cushy booth, in a totally pink, frilly room (I guess it is what the inside of Kitty’s house would look like…so good job on that one), and after being ignored for about 30 minutes while people all around us were being attended to by small Taiwanese waitresses dressed in pink and lace…no one wanted to talk to the foreigners in the corner (us), we finally got some attention. Now this might not have been so hard if not for a couple things: