We traveled to Hualian 花蓮 this weekend for the 10th annual Taroko Gorge marathon. Ian entered into the 5k “fun run.” There were a few (thousand) other people there, too.
While Ian warmed up, an aerobics instructor warmed up the crowd. Can you imagine this working in the US? Me neither.
Finally the starting gun went off, and Ian shot to the head of the crowd. Yes, all those other people (everyone in a white t-shirt) were also runners in the race. Thousands of people!
About 20 minutes later, they were back again. Look who was in the lead!
Unfortunately, what Ian thought was the finish line wasn’t the finish line. He still had another 100 yards or so to go! We got the message to him, and he got back to his feet, and finished the race. Since he was so far ahead of everyone else, he still managed to finish third.
That last sprint really took a lot out of him, though.
He was in a cold sweat, felt dizzy and had a bad headache. We took him to the first-aid station to recuperate.
He managed to get back on his feet in time for the award ceremony.
The two guys in front of Ian felt a little bad about taking first and second place, because they knew that Ian should have taken first place. Ian didn’t resent them, though. It was a great race, and although the experience wasn’t 100% great, it was a memorable experience.
The port town of Su Ao (蘇澳) is one of only three places in the world that has cold springs (where else? look it up for yourself :)). Hot springs are fairly common in volcanicly-active areas, but cold springs are rare.
The town made a public park around the cold springs. The water seeps up from the ground, along with gases that are trapped underground along with the water. You can see the gases escaping as bubbles from the ground.
The water is a constant 22 degrees celsius all year around, making it a popular place in the summer. In the autumn, the place is much less crowded.
I saw kids trick-or-treating on the street Friday morning. It looked like a preschool class. They were all dressed up in a variety of costumes, from witches to princesses, superheroes to monsters. They were visiting stores in the neighborhood. I imagine that the schools arranged the activity with the stores beforehand, because trick-or-treating isn’t well-known in the community at large. Still, I think I witnessed the beginnings of a trend.
We observed Halloween in an unusual culinary way. First we pretended to be vampires and ate blood. This is a traditional Chinese food, but we thought it was especially appropriate for the day:
Then we ate pumpkin ice cream. It did not taste good. Needed some allspice.
Then we went home and watched a scary movie. Happy Halloween!
The 7-11 coffee cup holders are getting into the spirit of Halloween. I remember “back in the day” (when I was living in Taiwan about 20 years ago) that Halloween was a strange concept to Taiwanese, and it was hard for me to try to explain it. I think that the reason it’s making inroads in Taiwan is the fact that English is now being taught in the elementary schools. Since culture is a common vehicle for teaching children, so it’s natural to focus on American holidays in English classes.
Schools hold small parties for the children, but trick-or-treating happens strictly in the school buildings. But I predict that it’s only a matter of time before trick-or-treating is spread to the community at large. Given the huge population density in Taiwan, kids will be able collect enough candy to last them all year.
The latest (last?) typhoon passed us by yesterday. We were greeted this morning by a blue sky and perfect temperature. It felt like Michigan in June. We had to get out of the house and enjoy the weather while it lasted. We decided to visit Ren Shan ä»å±± Park. The mountain marks the northernmost point of the central mountain range that runs along the north-south part of Taiwan.
The park consists of trails that go up the mountain. Some of the trails are REALLY steep steps. The boys counted the steps in the first part. I lost track after 200-something.
The climb was tough, but once we got to the top, the view was amazing.
At the end of the trail is a platform from which you can look out over the town of Luodong ç¾…æ±.
Pictures can’t capture the whole sight, so here’s a short video clip showing the panorama:
Don’t ask how they managed to build a garden in the Tang style on the top of a mountain, but they did, and it’s really nice.
The walk down was just as hard. My knees were trembling after walking down so many steps.
Stacy’s brother Quinn is in The Netherlands, doing a Ph.D. there. He left his car in Taiwan, and generously offered to let us use it while we’re here. At first we weren’t convinced that we would need a car here, but after we got it, we were immediately glad that we did. It’s a small Nissan sedan that is just big enough for the four of us.
Stacy has a Taiwan driver’s license, but I use my Michigan license plus an international driver’s permit that I got from AAA before we left Michigan. Driving in Taiwan is a surreal experience, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
For those of you who are curious about the price of gas, we filled up the car this morning. Gas was NT$30.5 per liter. That works out to about US$3.59 a gallon. Not being in Michigan, I don’t know if that is high or low, although I suspect that it’s just a bit higher than Michigan prices. Someone can let me know how close the prices are.
Ian is disappointed that the driving age is 18 in Taiwan, so even though he will turn 16 in a few months, he can’t drive here. As if we would let him drive in Taiwan anyway. 🙂 Â Some say that if you can drive in Taiwan, you can drive anywhere in the world. I say that driving in Taiwan ruins you for driving anywhere else in the world. I shudder to think of Ian learning to drive here, then applying the “Taiwan rules” to Michigan driving. 😮
The purpose of classroom observations is for us on the advisory panel to give constructive feedback to the teachers. However, even though I am doing that, I have also noticed that it’s an incredibly instructive experience for me. I get to be a fly on the wall in other teachers’ classrooms, and see exactly how they teach. In addition, because I’m a third-party observer, I get to watch both the instruction, and the reactions by the students. During the process, I get to see what works.
This is especially useful when I see activities and techniques that are new to me. Sometimes, when I look at the lesson plan beforehand, I think to myself that this or that activity will fall flat on its face. Sometimes I’m right, but sometimes I’m wrong, and those times are the biggest learning experiences for me.
The Chinese have a saying that both student and student learn from each other æ•™å¸ç›¸é•·. I have to say that the same is true of teacher and observer. I’m learning a lot from watching the LETs and ETAs in action. After just a half-dozen observations, my eyes have already been opened to many new ways of leading activities.
We went to look at the ocean last Saturday. It was about to rain, so everything was gray. This video was shot in full color, but because the sky was so gray, it looks like it’s black-and-white.
This week we began classroom observations. The advisory panel will visit every ETA’s school for a formal observation. We sit in the back of the classroom and watch the class. We also video the class and give the ETA a copy of the video. After the class, we give the teachers feedback.
Because the four ETAs who teach in middle school go to two different schools, we visit each of them. Eight observations plus 12 observations for the 12 ETAs who teach in elementary schools means a lot of observations. Traveling between the schools throughout the county is time-consuming, so at most we can do one observation in a morning, and one in the afternoon.
It’s great to get out of the office and into the classrooms to see the ETAs in action, but it’s a lot of work. In addition to the feedback right after the observation, I am also expected to write a formal report on each observation. Guess what I’m going to be doing for the next month?
We finished the 4th observation this morning. So far, I’m really pleased with most of what I’ve been seeing. The ETAs are working well with their local English teachers, and we’re seeing some good instruction in the classrooms. One interesting phenomenon is that when four or five adults are sitting in the back of the classroom, the children are very well-behaved. The teachers are able to teach without worrying about classroom management. As a consequence, though, they tend to finish their lessons early, and have to scramble to fill the last five minutes or so.
