My Early Christmas Present!

Cindy and Cindy are both my students. Cindy #1 (pink) is responsible for cleaning a few of the areas in our English Village. Cindy #2 (blue) gives me hugs and barely knows 20 English words.
On my way home from school, Cindy #2 (blue) yells my name (Teacher Debon) as I'm getting ready to cross the street.I turn around to see who is calling me and I see her sprinting across the park towards me. When she makes it to me, she gives me a hug and tries to tell me that she is playing with her friend Cindy #1 (pink). Cindy #1 runs over to serve as the translator because she knows more words and sentences compared to Cindy #2. Cindy #2 asks for a kiss (she says my names and then perches her lips). She motions for her mouth, but I tell her no. I show her my cheek. She gives me a kiss on the cheek and says something to Cindy #1. Cindy #1 then translates that she wants to sing me a song. I say OK and then quickly tell them to wait so that I can get it on video.

As you can see, she may be a little girl, but she definitely has a big voice! It brought tears to my eyes to hear her sing a song so passionately and without fear. She has become my inspiration! If she can sing wholeheartedly and without fear, then I can too!

Taiwanese Opera

Well, there has been a Taiwanese Opera going on in my neighborhood.  It was cool during the first 2 days, but now it is starting to get old. It has been 7 days and there have been a lot of people and scooters coming and going.  This coming up week, we were told (newspaper) to not be outside as much due to an increase of pollution that will be traveling via strong winds. This should be interesting! Well, I have included some pictures and videos of what I could catch of the opera. There were lots of people inside this big tent in front of the temple. Not sure if it is a religious opera or it's theme. It was still nice to see. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

Since no one really has an oven or a way to get real Thanksgiving food, we decided to go to TGIF for dinner after work.  Yes, we worked during this holiday because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. They do have Christmas lights and trees around the train stations, in the stores, and around the neighborhoods.  It's funny how majority of them worship different gods, but still manage to celebrate Christmas.
I recently bought a rice cooker. Maybe it will help me save money and keep from getting burned out on all the eating out. I understand that they eat out a lot here because they get home so late (from work and studying at night school), but after awhile you run out of things to try.  Let me rephrase that.  You run out of "normal" things to try.  I'm still not brave enough to try the squid and other random grilled, fried, or raw unknowns. If a Taiwanese person says that it is good, then majority of the time it is not going to taste good to me. I have learned this the hard way! What is sweet and tasty to me is too sweet for them. They are more in to spices and I am not.  I don't think I enjoy pizza as much as I did before I came here.  As you can see, I am still working on getting used to different foods.  Don't worry! I'm not losing weight because I am not eating. I'm losing because of the increased amount of exercise.  I can't wait for treatment in January! I know that will help level a lot of things.

Maokong

Nate has been dying to meet new people, but he doesn't like doing it alone. So, I was talked into going to an international meet up in Maokong today. I don't regret going. We had a good time and saw some cool things. I finally got to go inside of a temple. It was kind of scary to me at first, but that was because of the statues. We went to another temple where they were displaying offerings to the gods and burning paper money. The smell of incense was really strong! While there, another foreigner and I were asked to take a picture with a local woman. Actually, the woman's husband forced her to take the picture. They were a cute little couple with a white poodle. Of course, the poodle was in the picture! After taking that picture, we passed by a lady and a woman that looked like she could have been her grandmother. The girl said something about me being black (it was in Chinese). The next thing I know, the grandmother was standing in front of me. She began talking to me in Chinese and looking at my hair. She wanted me to buy a spiritual necklace that had a picture of Confucius on it. I declined the offer and continued to go outside to see the view. After taking some more pictures with the people in the meet up, I turned around and the lady was standing in front of me again. This time one of the people in my group translated for me. She was asking about my hair. She wanted to touch it. She wanted to know how long it took me to do it. She wanted to know how long it took for me to grow my hair that long. I'm laughing because it is a very cute situation. I'm assuming that she has never seen fake hair other than wigs. I don't know how they explained to her that it wasn't my real hair. She looked confused, but she kept smiling and stroking my hair. The Canadian girl that was with us asked me if I was okay (because she was still touching my hair). I told her that I was fine and that I was used to it because of my students. When I looked up towards the temple, I noticed that there was a crowd of people watching the lady stroke my hair and listening to the conversation that we were having. I guess her little arms got tired of reaching up and she noticed goosebumps on my arms. The weather was chilly, but it felt great! It is hard to explain to the people here that I'm not cold even though my hands and arms are cold. Thinking it would help, she began to rub my arm. Bless this woman with her little calloused hands. They were rough, but her intentions were very sweet. Overall, I had a good time. My dark people count is now up to 45! Many people laugh and question why I am counting. They don't understand that I never thought that I would see so many people that favored me. We (foreigners) are still trying to decide on Thanksgiving dinner. It should be interesting! Until next time, enjoy the pictures and videos.