Taipei's Temples

A little late on this blog post, but that's life I guess!!  This past weekend I went to Taipei again  with several friends with the intention of seeing more cultural things that were waiting for us within the city. It must have been Ariel & I's lucky day! Though we had a rough itinerary in mind for the day, each time we arrived to a new location there was a festival, market, or celebration in progress...so naturally we happily accepted the day's changes!!

We started the day with a visit to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall...just in time for their changing of the guards! (and of course I forgot to get a picture of the outside of the building!) 

One Month in Taiwan!

Holy Moley! Where did the time go?!?! Today officially marks me being here for one month! I honestly feel like I just stepped off of the plane like 2 days ago…makes me a little nervous to see how fast the rest of the year will go!!

{After a month I feel like I'm finally starting to figure out how things work here, so if you've caught  the travel bug, or are itch'n to come check out Taiwan let me know!!}

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!