This weekend we traveled to Taipei for a post-arrival orientation for all Fulbright scholars. Of course we have already been here for a month, but we were the exception. Most Fulbright awards begin on September 1. We had to be here earlier so that we could have the month of August to train and prepare for the school year.

So we met with the 40 or so other Fulbright scholars, who will be researching or teaching at universities throughout Taiwan. Many of them have already been to Taiwan before. Their research projects range from computer-aided costume design for theater programs to studying the relationship between marital status and criminal behavior. It was interesting hearing about the various projects that were funded by the Fulbright foundation.

As part of the orientation program, Dr. Tong-jong Chen, the Executive Director of the Foundation in Taiwan, invited me to present on the educational system in Taiwan. It was fun putting together a talk that drew on my knowledge of the schools in Taiwan, what I know of Stacy’s past, and our recent experiences with the public schools. I tried to keep the talk relevant to what the Fulbrighters will encounter in their interactions with local students and faculty. I think the talk went smoothly, and it was well-received.

On Friday evening, there was a reception for all of the Fulbright awardees, hosted by the honorary chairman of the Taiwan Fulbright foundation, Dr William Stanton, who is the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, America’s unofficial embassy to Taiwan. I was impressed to hear Dr. Stanton speaking Chinese, and later, when talking with him, I learned that we were both studying Chinese in Taiwan at the same time in the 1980s.

Me with Dr Stanton, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)

I was also thrilled to meet some other people who are influential in the local government, including the former Director of the Government Information Office 新聞局, Dr. Yu-Ming Shaw 邵玉銘.

With Dr. Chen, Executive Director of the Foundation (and a graduate of MSU!!)

Ian’s having a great year, hanging out with so many pretty girls.

And the weekend wasn’t complete until we visited the CKS Memorial Hall, complete with a reproduction of the President’s office.

It was an intense weekend. It was a relief to get back to the office so I could relax. 😉

We’re enjoying a slight break in the heat, with temperatures “only” in the upper 80s instead of the mid-90s that we endured in August. I still break into a sweat walking to work, but the idea of hot coffee didn’t seem ridiculous to me this morning. Unfortunately, with the lower temperatures comes the reminder that winter in Taiwan is rainy and dank. We have some rain this morning. I got caught in a downpour when I snuck out for a cup of coffee this morning. Luckily I had my umbrella.

Evan is doing much better at school. His classmates have worked up the nerve to talk to him. What I really like about Taiwan is that the people are genuinely friendly and not mean at all. Even when kids are “naughty,” they’re really just being rambunctious, not mean-spirited. I was never concerned that Evan would be ostracized or picked on. That just doesn’t happen here. In addition, Americans are held in such high regard here, that I knew it was only a matter of time before the kids in Evan’s class would start to talk with him.

Yesterday Evan came home and reported that several kids talked with him, and two kids bought him a cold drink at the school’s store. Today he brought money to school so that he could buy drinks for them in return. This looks like the beginning of friendship.

Evan was so apprehensive about starting school. Hearing that he is starting to interact with his classmates and make friends gives us a huge feeling of relief.

I have a new favorite coffee shop: 85°C. They offer a smaller variety of drinks than Starbucks, but at a much lower price. Plus they have some local flavors. Here’s an example (article from Time magazine):

Some Salt with Your Coffee? Taiwan’s Hot Drink

Chinese people like to eat foods that Westerners consider unusual,
things like pig-blood cake and chicken-butt kebab, to name just a
few popular snacks. So the introduction of salty coffee shouldn’t
be such a shocker. What difference, after all, can a few sprinkles
of salt make to your morning cup of joe? The chefs at Taiwan’s top
coffeehouse, 85°C Bakery Cafe, pondered that question for six
months before they started serving sea-salt coffee, which became
their best-selling drink following its December debut.

That’s no small feat considering that85°C (which is named for the
ideal temperature at which to brew coffee) has surpassed Starbucks
to become the biggest coffee chain in Taiwan. Founded five years
ago by tea-shop owner Wu Cheng-hsueh,85°Cnow has 325 stores
in Taiwan and is expanding into China,Australia and the U.S. Wu
first built the business by finding good beans: in 2004, he went to
the source of Starbucks’ most popular beans and persuaded the
Guatemalan supplier to sell him virtually all its arabicas (sorry,
megachain). Then he hired five-star hotel chefs to concoct fancy
drinks and desserts that sell for about half the price of Starbucks’.
(See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)

What inspired those chefs to come up with sea-salt coffee?
According to spokeswoman Kathy Chung, it was the aiwanese
habit of sprinkling salt on fruits like pineapple and watermelon
to bring out their sweetness. Salty coffee also makes sense in a
place where shaved-ice desserts are topped with corn kernels and
breads get slathered with sugary frosting and bits of pork.
“Taiwanese are greedy,” explains graphic designer Xena Wang, one
of six friends who recently tried the drink for the first time.”We like
to get all the tastes we can in one bite.”

A striking palette of tastes and textures has long been a hallmark of
Chinese cuisine (think sweet-and-sour soup), and this affinity for
taste-bud workouts has carried over to trendy drinks. The countless
drink stands that line Taiwanese streets flood the thirsty soul with
endless variations of bubble teas, a.k.a. hot or cold teas with chewy
tapioca balls and tropical juice blends. One popular combo, green
tea with passion fruit, tapioca pearls and chewy coconut cubes,
helps explain why85°C’s next coffee innovations will use panna
cotta and fresh fruit.

Salty coffee may sound strange, but it isn’t so much an acquired
taste as it is sequential tasting. You’re supposed to lick the salty
foam to arouse your senses, then savor the sweet, creamy coffee.
“Through the contrast of textures, you experience the saltiness
and coffee at different times,” says architect Jeff Lu of his first
encounter with the drink. “It’s a multisensual experience that
works.”

After sea-salt coffee spent two weeks as the best-selling drink at
85°C outlets in Taiwan, the company is sending the flavor combo
to its China branches. If it’s a hit there, Chung says, this cup of
Taiwanese sophistication may be exported to the West too. Could
salty Frappuccinos be far behind?

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1871635,00.html

Stacy has to get a new national ID card, and you can only do that in your “home town.” For Stacy, that means Tainan (down south). Usually, when women get married, their home town switches to her husband’s. However, Stacy’s situation is a little different. Although she’s married (to me, of course), her husband is a foreigner, so he doesn’t have a home town in Taiwan. Therefore, for purposes of her national ID card, she is still single. What about her two children? Well, let’s just say that they don’t exist. For purposes of the national ID card. If they did exist, then they would have to be classified as being born out of wedlock, and that’s just not a place where I want to go.

So Stacy had to go down south to Tainan so that she could do the paperwork for her new ID card. The boys went with her, so I’m alone up in Yilan for the long weekend. I miss them, and our small apartment suddenly seems really big. But it’s also not a bad situation, because I have to prepare for the Fulbright orientation next week.

For most of the scholars who were awarded the Fulbright to Taiwan, the grant period begins in September. But because we needed to train our ETAs in the Yilan English program before the school year begins, our program began at the beginning of August. However, we’re still Fulbright scholars, so we have to go to Taipei for an orientation next week. It seems kind of weird to get oriented a month after we arrived, after already have gotten oriented, but common sense doesn’t always factor into decisions made by large organizations, so there you go.

The Director of the Fulbright program in Taiwan invited me to speak to the other Fulbright scholars about the education system in Taiwan. It’s a great honor to be asked to speak, but it’s also a little stressful. Over the weekend, I will take some picture of schools, collect some detailed information, and try to put together an informative, interesting and entertaining presentation. I am not worried about being bored this weekend.

It turns out that although Evan is officially enrolled in school, Ian isn’t yet. Because the pubic schools system in Taiwan runs only through 9th grade, a different set of rules governs middle school and high school. When we enrolled Evan in middle school, we had a very clear set of regulations from the central government that we followed. A few official letters from the Fulbright Foundation and the Yilan County government, and he was enrolled.

The head of the Foundation in Taiwan recommended that we put Ian into Yilan High School. It’s a very good school, and the principal is very impressive. However, although the high school is a public school, it doesn’t fall under the clear regulations that governs the middle school. Without any transcript from a Taiwan middle school, the school’s registrar didn’t know what to do with Ian. Through a set of long conversations between our local Foundation coordinator, the school’s registrar, and me, we had to decide whether Ian is a transfer student or an exchange student. We finally decided that he should be an exchange student, even though he didn’t come to Taiwan through the Rotary Club, which usually does exchange programs.

We hope to be able to settle everything this week, because school starts on Monday. Stacy can only help from a distance, because she is down in Tainan getting her new national identification card.

We thought we were all set for school to start, but this sprung up on us at the last minute. It reminds me of the times when students send me copies of their dissertations named, optimistically but incorrectly, “final draft.” Nothing is final until it’s final. Before that, it’s just the latest draft…

Ian wanted a Frisbee, and hasn’t been able to find one. This is my fault. He has a great Frisbee in the US, and he wanted to bring it to Taiwan with him. I told him not to bother, that there are plenty in Taiwan. I was wrong. We just couldn’t find one anywhere!

On Saturday, we decided to go to Taipei and look there. We took the bus from Yilan to Taipei.

The bus let us off in front of the Taipei 101. There’s a huge shopping mall in the building, so we decided to look there. We had some Indian food in the food court, then walked around the mall. It quickly became apparent that we weren’t going to find a Frisbee in this mall. The $50 t-shirts, Armani and Prada outlets were a clue. So, we decided to look somewhere else. Somewhere a little more down scale.

Outside the mall there’s an open plaza. In one section of the plaza there are water spouts in the floor tiles, arranged in a pattern. It’s a fountain with no basin – pretty cool. There are regular performances of the fountain that are set to music. In between performances, kids like to play “you can’t get me” with the spouts, which squirt water in short spurts in a random manner. We saw a lot of little kids dodging the water. The boys knew exactly what was going to happen sooner or later. Sure enough, it did. A little kid got drenched, much to her surprise, but not at all to ours. It was pretty funny.

We decided to try the Gongguan area (公館), near the big university. We started off walking to the subway station.

We passed by the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall park. It looked there was a lot happening in there, so we decided to take a side trip into the park to see what was going on.

There was a demonstration of some Kung-Fu stuff that was pretty fun to watch.

There was also an old lady selling toys: soap bubbles, kites, and… Frisbees! Only NT$60 – less than US$2! We snapped one up, then had to try it out. We had fun in the plaza (almost hit an old guy two different times – woops), and got all hot and sweaty.

..

Then it was time to lower the flag. A military honor guard representing three branches of the armed forces proceeded from inside the hall to the flagpole.

..

The ceremony was interesting. The soldiers moved in a very scripted, slow-motion procession. After it was over, we were getting hungry, so it was time to proceed on to Gongguan to get some dinner.

We had some yummies at the night market, then took the bus back to Yilan. We were pooped after so much activity, but it was a great day.

Evan went to school for a two-day orientation session this week. The experience was hard for Evan, and heart-breaking for Stacy and me.

Evan has been worried about school in Taiwan ever since we first announced that we were going to Taiwan. He is unhappy about leaving his friends in America, and anxious about his Chinese ability. He is worried that he will not be able to keep up with the pace of the class. No matter how much everyone encouraged and assured him that this was a great opportunity, he’s been unable to see anything beyond the immediate downside of the experience. He just can’t be optimistic about the prospect of going to a local school.

A few days before the orientation session, Stacy took him to the school and gave him a tour of the campus. They met with the principal and the “dean” (who supervises the academic affairs of the school). The dean introduced them to the teacher. The teacher impressed Stacy very much. She just returned to Taiwan after doing an advanced degree in Canada. Not only is her English excellent, but she also understands the needs of international students. Best of all, she has the same attitude that we do toward Evan’s year here in Taiwan: that he should look at this as a positive experience to learn what he can, and have as enjoyable a time as possible.

Still, Evan was apprehensive on the first day. Stacy and I went with him to school (which probably didn’t help him, but it helped us). We could tell from his facial expression that he wished he could be anywhere else.

There is a special place for first-year students to park their bikes.

The first day was a half-day orientation session for the entire seventh-grade class. There are 26 sections, each with 30+ students. This school is HUGE. After the first day, we asked Evan what he thought about school. He thought for a second, then said: “Hot.” Taiwan schools have no A/C, so during the hot months of the year, it’s pretty uncomfortable in school.

The second day was a full-day session in the classrooms. We went to school with him again, but Evan told us to stay outside the school grounds; he wanted to go into class alone.

Being good Chinese parents, we ignored his wishes, and followed him to his classroom. I wanted to meet the teacher in front of the whole class. Foreigners enjoy special social status in Taiwan, so the class seeing that Evan has a foreign professor for a father gives Evan extra “face.” We said hi to the teacher, then we left.

The second day went a little better than the first, but Evan still isn’t happy about being in school here. We are still sure that he will have a good year, and he will look back on this as a good experience. However, as sure that we are that we made the correct decision to come to Taiwan, right now, Evan is an unhappy young man. We feel so badly for him. We aren’t sure that there’s anything we can do for him, other than to give him love and support at home. With luck, he’ll make some friends soon, and start to have some fun at school. Until then, though, he is not in a good place.

There was a concert of classical Chinese music at the Yilan High School (right behind our apartment complex), featuring the high school’s alumni orchestra and a local professional orchestra. Tickets were only NT$100 (about US$3), so I wasn’t expecting much. Several ETAs also expressed interest in the concert, so Stacy bought a bunch of tickets, and we all walked over to the high school together.

The orchestra played some modern pieces, and some traditional pieces with a modern flavor. We were very impressed with the quality of the orchestra. It was far from an amateur performance. In the second part, they played a 4-movement piece that featured a flute soloist, and a 3-movement piece that featured a plucked string instrument called a pipa 琵琶 that looks like this:

The ETAs were very impressed with the concert as well. I thought it was perhaps the best live Chinese music I’ve ever heard. It was definitely the best three bucks I’ve spent in a long time.

A few years ago, Yilan County created “English Village” 英語村, which is an environment for children to practice English in realistic situations. The ETAs will work in the English Village for half a day each week during the school year. The Village has eight stations, which give children opportunities to interact in different situations. As part of their training, the ETAs planned and carried out activities at a few of the stations with some students who the schools recruited.

One of the stations is an airport and airplane. Children use English to check in, go through security, and board the airplane. A local airline donated a part of an airplane to be used in the Village. On the plane, they practice interacting with the “flight attendants.”

Another station is a store. Children review vocabulary and useful phrases, then interact with the storekeepers, asking prices, bargaining, and practicing using numbers.

I thought that the ETAs did a good job with their activities. This was their first experience in teaching in Taiwan, so they were a little nervous and apprehensive. It was also hard for them to plan the activity, since they didn’t know much about the students and their levels of English. They had to improvise a little, and modify their activities on the fly. They were prepared, though, so their activities went off without any problems.

Only a small number of schools will have an ETA at their school. The English Village is open to all schools in the county. For many children, their experience in the Village will be their only interaction in English with a native speaker. Since the English program is sponsored by the county government, it’s good public relations for us to have the ETAs interact with as many children in Yilan as we can.

Near Yilan is the Center for Traditional Arts Center 國立傳統藝術中心, which is dedicated to preserving and showcasing traditional arts and customs of China and especially Taiwan.

All forms of art, from clothing to jewelry to daily-use objects, and even writing brushes, are exhibited in the shops that line the street.

The center has lots of exhibits, artisans, artifacts, performances, hands-on activities, in a festival atmosphere.

The aim of the center is to maintain a link to the past lifestyle, in this fast-paced and ever-changing society. Many people in Taiwan are only one or two generations off the farm, but modern city life is quite different from life only 50 years ago.

One form of candy is made from spinning malt sugar until it’s crystalized, and can be formed into lollypops. Put a sour plum in the middle, slap it onto a stick, and you’ve got yourself a yummy treat.

Another candy is made with cherry tomatoes on a stick, rolled in boiled sugar that hardens as it cools. Don’t forget the soda pop in a bottle that has a marble for a bottlecap. Push the marble down into the bottle to open it up. Yummy!