Tracy Jo Travels

First Week of School...DONE!!

Friday, September 4, 2015

But really, it was an exciting, nerve-racking, and much anticipated week that ended up much better than I could have ever expected! My schedule is a little crazy and will most likely take some getting used to, but this first week is always the hardest! I am working at 2 different elementary schools about 5 miles apart (and currently relying on school personal to drive me to the farther school 5 miles away!)

I did it! I survived my first week of school! And there were no tears, not even from the students! Haha

I work at Hsin Fong Elementary School Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and over the course of the semester will have worked with each of the 600 children at least once. I see each of the 5 fifth and sixth grade classes once a week and have between 28 and 33 students in each class! Monday's and Tuesday's I rotate groups of 1st & 2nd graders and groups of 3rd & 4th graders to have what they call a "sing and dance class" which essentially means {please plan 40 minutes of English activities for our students, but we have no idea what we actually want you to teach, but promise to love whatever you come up with}. Also on Tuesday's I will work in the English Situational classroom at my school where other schools in the area can sign up to have their children come see me and have this "sing and dance class" with me....yes, basically I'm a school attraction! ;-)

On Wednesdays and Fridays I catch a ride to Fu Long Elementary school where there are only about 45 students grades 1-6. *it's my baby school!* the classes have only between 3 and 11 students in them which although difficult to play some games with so few students, it also allows me to work much more closely with each of the children. I will see the 3-6 graders twice a week including individual class lessons for each of these grades, as well as English Story time for each of the grades 1 - 6.

The local English teachers that I am working with have been nothing but amazing and they have showered me with candies, local foods, teas, and local food suggestions. The children are beyond adorable and I cannot walk more than a couple yards without seeing huge smiles and hearing "hello Teacher Tracy! Hello!"...needless to say, I think the year here is going to be amazing!

Tuesday's Taiwan-ism {Taiwanese Trash Trucks}

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

So I've decided that besides my normal posts, I'm going to {TRY} (try being the key word!) to post each Tuesday about something I've learned, found interesting, or just downright strange about living in Taiwan. Now of course I'm a teacher so I had to have a cutesy alliteration to go with it...so Tuesday's Taiwan-ism is born!

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Today's Taiwan-ism was something I was warned about before moving here, but it still makes me giggle almost daily. Each day around 4:00pm I hear a beautiful sound coming down the street that would make every American run outside waving their money and ordering ice cream from the traveling ice cream truck!

To every American's dismay though...this truck does not have ice cream...in fact it doesn't contain anything edible...the music truck coming down the street is sadly the daily trash truck that comes to collect your garbage. So while we line the sides of the street like it's a 4th of July parade, the trash truck rolls through, collects our garbage, and continues playing their cute little melody!

Please Stop Ruining My Meal!

So although I'm loving Taiwan, I do have one general complaint....people have a wonderful knack for ruining the meal that I am eating while talking to them. Let me give you today's example!

I was at school and the lunch was served in the teachers' office like it is each day. I dutifully brought my bowl and chopsticks up and placed in my bowl rice (seriously EVERY MEAL!) bean sprouts, and cooked turnips. One of the other teachers then motioned to the last dish and said "chicken" {apparently they realize that I have 0 idea as to any of the foods that I am eating here!}. I spot the chicken in the pot but decide against it as I'm not a "sort my meat out from the veins and bones type of girl", but notice that there were some other squarish pieces that looked like chunked up chicken breast! I grab one of those and head to my desk.

I begin eating my meal and cut apart my "chicken" to see what exactly it was (side note: "cutting" here is more of a me ripping things apart with my 2 chopsticks since that's all we have haha). The "chicken" was black and not exactly the consistency that I had expected, but I {naively} thought it was tofu (another very common part of every meal) and took a bite of this mystery substance. Though the looks were quite odd the taste of the food was actually quite good and I chalked this mystery food up as something I like!

Enter Teacher #2: About half through my lunch another teacher comes over and we begin talking while finishing off our meals. During our conversation she sees me take a bite of my "chicken" and asks me if I enjoy it, I respond yes. {another side note...I wish my story ended here!} This is when she excitedly tells me that this is a great treat in Taiwan to have pigs blood cake! EXCUSE ME WHAT?!?!? "hmm" she says..."maybe it's ducks blood? No, I think it's pigs blood."

Fast-forward to me trying to choke down the remainder of my lunch! Apparently this "Taiwanese Treat" is sticky rice mixed with pigs blood and formed into a cake like shape and fed to locals and unsuspecting foreigners. Now I can't lie...it was good...but, I could have done without knowing what I was eating!

Ghost Festival

Sunday, August 30, 2015

Let me start this post off by saying that this year is going to be a year of many new experiences and lots of new learning will take place {some learning by the kids and tons by yours truly!}.

So Friday here in Taiwan was the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar (I realize everywhere else the date was August 28, 2015, but here in Taiwan it was July 15, 104....yeah I'm not completely sure I understand this yet!) The 7th month in many Asian cultures is ghost month and on the 15th day the doors to both Heaven and Hell are opened and the ghosts are allowed to roam free with the living. (Side note! I am by no means an expert with ANY of this, this is just what I have gathered by talking to people at school and in my community). Because the ghosts are running free, their culture believes that they must feed, make offerings to, and entertain the ghosts...enter the Ghost Festival.

On this day ALL the families, business, and stores make offerings to the wondering ghosts by placing these offerings (usually food items) outside of their homes and then putting a piece of incense into each food offering signaling to the ghosts that it is for them. Food that I saw being offered included Doritos, Oreos, beer, Mountain Dew, tea, homemade rolls, dog food....literally whatever they have, they offer! Likewise, many of the families also set up small burn barrels where they burn fake paper money as a way of giving money to the wondering ghosts.

Needless to say, I did lots of walking around town and exploring Friday night and graciously talked to many of the locals who were eager to tell me about their traditions. I took some pictures, but because I tried to do it cautiously, some didn't turn out the best, but it was still so fun to see what everyone was doing!