I GAVE OUT SEVERAL BLACK EYES TODAY

(*Note: I have added more pictures to this posting...enjoy!)

Ni Hao! Happy Halloween! Well, almost. Earlier today (and yesterday) the school held several Halloween parties for all the different classes. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, (considering I am a trained make-up artist) and I love opportunities to practice. So anyway, a few weeks ago my parents kindly sent me a package with my stage makeup (Thanks Mom and Dad!), which allowed me to do the makeup for most of the teachers here.

To the right Kathryn is turning into a Vampire, and the left Brett is a "Deranged Doctor"

So you may be wondering what I dressed up as... I found this really fun shirt at a shoe store a few weeks ago, and my friend Julie and I both purchased one. The shirt was for a soccer (er, football team). On the front it says "Tibet" and the back, "The Monks". Well, I was so excited about the "find" that I showed it to everyone at the school, and a chain reaction of purchases resulted in eight teachers going out and purchasing the same shirt...Therefore, we decided to go as a soccer team for Halloween. To complete the outfit I was able to find a grey pair of shorts $199NT ($6 USD), white knee socks $40NT ($1.25 USD), a sweatband $100NT ($3 USD), and soccer shoes $85NT ($2.70 USD). Oh, the shirt was $290NT ($9 USD). So if you do the math, everything was just over $20 USD... What is nice is that everything is reusable. Well, maybe everything except for the socks. We wanted to spice up the outfits, because going as just a soccer player is a bit boring for Halloween, so I "handed out" some cuts and bruises to my fellow team members, if you know what I mean...Here are the team photos we took afterwards.

I have a confession: I have a problem only choosing one thing to dress-up as for Halloween, so I choose to go to Afternoon Kindergarten as a Frankenstein monster type creature, and then a soccer player to my other classes. I wore some black clothing I brought with me, plus a pair of black shoes purchased (for $85NT). I found a crazy black wig to top off the make-up job, and you couldn't even recognize me...I was watching a video of our class later and I was even fooled for a minute. (I am in the back middle, just in case you too do not recognize me...)

For each of the classes we combined with other teachers and did a rotation schedule. For my rotation I painted faces. It never even crossed my mind when i decided to do this that the kids would be opposed to it, but the first rotation of my first party I had an entire class telling me their mothers wouldn't let them put the makeup on their faces. I think it is just a general misconception here that face paint has poison or something in it...Anyway, a simple solution was painting on their hands. The following rotations I offered both face or hand painting, which was much more successful. Looking back over the two days, I would guess that I painted close to 100 people's faces and/or hands...Wow. So the rest can be explained by the fun pictures.

To the left I am putting on my makeup before class. My 2nd graders found me in the kitchen and crashed my party...To the right is during the party. Here I am painting one of the few who allowed paint on her face.

Above and below are pictures of the Afternoon Kindergarten and ELEa kids

What I loved about the Halloween costumes the kids wore was that the majority were homemade. (Remember, they don't celebrate Halloween here...) Although I was surprised at how many stores offered a small selection of Halloween costumes. The kids were so cute, and their parents were so clever. The costumes looked great!

TAIWAN'S "EWOK VILLAGE" and other beautiful places

Here is an update on a few different trips I have taken this month....

ALISHAN
Ni hao! As part of our Moon Festival Holiday we also went to Alishan. (I later learned that it is pronounced "Ali-san") We left the school on October 5th, a Thursday night, at around 5pm. I normally teach during that time, so I had to get a substitute, (Thanks Liz Merket!) but most of the other teachers who went were already finished for the day. We went down to the train station and purchased tickets to Chaiyi (pronounced "J-eye-ee"), but the train wouldn't leave until 6pm, so we had some time to kill..

Since it was a national holiday, it seemed like all 22 million people on this tiny island wanted to pile on to the train... Like our trip to Chingjing, there were people everywhere, and the train was packed to overflowing with people. We had to buy "standing-room-only" tickets, and stood in the aisle of the train the entire two-hour ride. We weren't the only ones standing, and in fact, it seemed like the minority were actually those in seats! There were so many people, that they had to actually open up the bathrooms for people to stand in. We all became rather close, if you know what I mean...

Upon arrival in Chaiyi we had to find a way up the mountain to Alishan. We quickly found out it was too late to take a bus or a train up the mountain, so we had to resort to taking a taxi...This is always an interesting experience as you have to bargain, in Chinese, with a taxi driver to agree on a fare. We approached a few different drivers waiting outside the train station. The first agreed to take us for $2,000NT (approximately $60). We hoped we might be able to go lower, so we told him it was too expensive and kept looking. The second driver approached us with a mouthful of beetle nuts and blood red teeth. We just kept walking... Next we approached a group of drivers and asked if someone would take us to Alishan. One driver said he would go for $2,500NT. We said it was too much, "tai-gway-la", and started to walk away when he dropped the price to $2,000NT. We decided it was probably as good as we would get, and agreed.

The drive up the mountain was a bit unnerving as the taxi quickly sped up the narrow, winding mountain road. Two hours later we made it safely to Alishan, although we were all a bit car sick. Our taxi driver took drove us into the park and dropped us off at the bus station, where we had arranged to meet the hotel shuttle. We still needed to call the hotel, and our driver was kind enough to allow us to use his cell phone to make the call (the only pay phone available didn't take change, but required a special card). We felt bad, however, after his generosity, because the cab started to smoke and was leaking what looked like a stream of oil as we left on our shuttle. Hopefully everything worked out alright...

We had made reservations for a cute little 6-person cabin at the Alishan Hotel Annex, and it only cost each of us around $700NT ($18.00). The interior was Japanese style, with the mattresses on a platform. I really enjoyed our cabin. It had two rooms with two beds in each, one queen-size and one twin-size. There wasn't any central heating system, and so we were instructed on how to use the space heaters provided for each room. They also provided some heavy comforters, which I later gratefully climbed under as the night grew colder.

We made arrangements with the annex manager to have a wake up call at 4:30am, allowing enough time to catch the train up the mountain to view the sunrise. It was a short walk from our cabin down to the train station, where we each bought our tickets for $150NT. I had hoped that the train wouldn't be very busy, but we experienced a bit of dejavu as we watched the train pull up and realized that the box cars were again full of people...We had to stand once again as we slowly climbed up the mountain. On the bright side, it was only a 20 minute ride.

Once the train arrived at the sunrise viewing spot we followed the hordes of people up the mountain to the overlook. I found it interesting that we passed several food vendors on our way up, who were taking advantage of the tourist attraction. It was a beautiful, cold, and memorable morning. Here are some pictures:

One highlight of the morning was that we made two new friends while watching the sunrise. One , whose name is Steven, was talking to Julie when somehow the conversation turned to religion. He asked Julie what her religion was, and she proceeded to say, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints". There was a pause, and she filled him in, "the Mormons". He smiled and said, "Oh, I was just baptised last month!" Yeah, it turns out he is in one of the Chinese speaking wards in Taichung. So we exchanged contact info with plans to get together sometime soon.

After viewing the spectacular sunrise, we took the train back down the mountain (standing once again) and walked back to the cabin where we promptly went back to sleep until 10am. We then got up, checked out of out cabin and went down to explore the sites. Here are some pictures from our hike:

On the right is a tree entitled the Elephant Tree, can you see the resemblance?

We hiked around the park for a few hours before catching the slow train down the mountain ($399NT) in order to admire the beautiful scenery. It was relaxing and very enjoyable ride, especially compared to the taxi drive the night before! I think I was one of the few people in my group who was really able to enjoy the scenery, however, as several fell asleep during the three hour trip. Lucky for them, I had my video camera out and recorded several parts, so I was able to fill them in later.

Once back in Chaiyi our group of five separated as three went on to Tainan to another destination. I went with Julie back to Feng Yuan, and arrived home around 7pm.

SHITOU
So last Saturday all the children in the area had to attend Chinese school to make up for the additional holiday they received for Moon Festival. This meant I didn't have to teach! Hooray! (I hate to mention, however, that I have to make up those hours and teach an extra long class the following two Saturdays to compensate...hmmm) Anyway, this freedom meant that I was able to go on yet another fun trip. This time to Shitou, or "Sitou", or "Chitou", or "Hsitou"... the spelling changes depending on what sign you are looking at! You pronounce it "she-toe" and it is a two hour bus ride Southeast of Taichung. We had to be up and out the door at 5:30am, take the 6:00am train to Taichung in order to make the 6:45am bus. There were only two buses leaving for Shitou that day, the other wasn't until 10:30am--which wouldn't have left us much time, because the last bus heading back down the mountain was at 4:45pm. Anyway, we met up with our new friend Steven, whom we met at Alishan the previous week. He speaks pretty good English, and I can't tell you how nice it was to have a native Chinese speaker in the group! He helped us get on the proper bus, among other things.

We were surprised when we climbed on the bus to find it was a city bus, instead of the comfortable charter buses we have grown accustomed to as we have traveled around the country. It was jam-packed full of people, and Steven and I weren't lucky enough to sit in seats. Fortunately, there was a really sweet elderly couple that motioned for us to get these bucket-like stools to sit on in the aisle. This couple, we later learned, had lived in the Sacramento, California area. They spoke some English, but usually spoke to Steven in Chinese who then translated for us. I wish I got a picture of them, because they were so nice! (more on that later...)

I think this is a fun picture, because if you'll notice that everyone except for myself is sleeping...

So Shitou was pretty cool, except for all the endless hiking uphill. Unlike other places we have visited, the different sites were much more spread out, and involved a lot more effort to get to. We somehow picked the most perfect day, because coincidentally there was a special that day where everyone got into the park for free! Here are some pictures:

Julie and I posing with the trashcans...

On the right are some boys who were drawing the scenery as part of what looked like a youth art contest (there were several groups)

On the right we are up on a sky walk, built high up in the trees, which could be described as the "Ewok Village."

Above is one of my favorite sites here in Taiwan, a bamboo forest.

The endless stairs we had to climb to get to the "Giant Rock" (below)

It was a rather long day as we toured most of the sites, and we were pretty tired by the end of it all. We walked down to the bus station just after 4:00pm and sat down to wait for the bus, which was scheduled to leave at 4:45pm. Well, it was pure luck that we were a bit early because the bus picked us up at just after 4:30pm. There were a lot of people waiting around for it to arrive, and when the bus pulled up, they all quickly stormed the doors. One such individual was a feisty old lady who made quite a show to get on the bus first, pushing and shoving others out of the way. It was all rather amusing. (You'll have to remember that pushing your way through a crowd is part of the culture here, no one takes it personal.) Anyway, we were among the hordes pushing to the front, as we hoped to actually get a seat this time. Sadly we climbed on the bus and surveyed the filled seats only to quickly accept our fate and begin walking to the back of the bus to get our trusty buckets...but wait, two angels were on the bus with us, the cute couple from Sacramento I mentioned earlier. These sweet people had actually managed to save five seats for us to sit in! Once they got our attention, they excitedly motioned to the different seats and removed their bags they had used to reserve the seats for us. This is just one example of how amazing the people are here. We were practically strangers, and yet they went out of their way to help us.

The ride back to Taichung was comfortable and I think I slept a good hour. We said our goodbyes to Steven at the Taichung train station. The time was now around 7:30pm. Having rested during the bus ride, our batteries were recharged and we decided instead of heading straight home, to run over to the Taichung Central Mall. We spent another two hours shopping, and then made it back home around 10pm.