Tuesday's Taiwan-ism {Scooters}

Let me just start out this post with being frankly honest…scooter drivers here in Taiwan are about 50 different types of {{CRAZY}}!

So many scooters!

I would venture to say that driving here in general is, but without the scooters, things on the road would be about a million times better! There are many places on the roads that are marked specifically for scooters, the issue is though, the think that any place that is paved means that it's for them!

Taiwan Night Market

Taiwan is FAMOUS for their night markets! If you read my post from when I went to Taipei you may remember several pictures from the Shilin Night market there, it's huge! Each town has their own night markets; larger towns nightly, and smaller towns maybe weekly, but they are there rest-assured!

Although my town of Xinfeng is not that small I live outside of the city limits in the township, and it is small! My town only has it's night markets on Friday nights, so I went last Friday and my hopes were crushed...there were only 4 vendors...BUT...it was ghost festival, so I thought maybe, maybe, there will be more people next week. Man was I  glad I gave it another chance!  I love it! They literally have just about anything and everything there! I walked up and down the isles for well over an hour taking in the sights, the sounds, and the SMELLS (ok I can't lie, I also had some treats...and made a mental list of what I will be coming back for next time!)

Like I said anything and everything you may want...sunglasses, phone cases, clothes, phone cases, shoes, phone cases {seriously, they have a fetish here or something!}

Meat?!?! After some prior experiences here...I was a little hesitant to try random meat for the time being!

Balloon pop for the kids...

...and ring toss for mom & dad!

Taiwanese candy GALORE!

And my dinner! Taiwanese taco anyone?! The "tortilla" was sticky-ish, and it had chicken, TONS of onion, red cabbage, some corn, a sticky soy sauce, and a jelly like hot sauce...not too shabby!

First Week of School...DONE!!

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}

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!

___ ___  ___ ____ ___ ___ ___ ___  ___  ___ ____ ___ ___ ___

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!