Jiantan / Teaching in Miaoli

Sorry I have not written in so long! Last week I was in Jiantan, which is the headquarters for the Taiwanese expatriate association. I met up with the 300-something other students in the program and the 5 other people I am teaching with. Every day we listened to lectures and worked on our lesson plan, as well as worked on our opening ceremony. It was pretty boring and most of the AID participants are high schoolers, so when I first arrived I was in a bus with all high schoolers and was pretty freaked out. But some of them were pretty nice, and then I roomed and worked with all college students and older people which was better.

All AID participants were originally scheduled to go to their respective schools on Friday, but due to the swine flu scare we had to stay at Jiantan until Sunday to make sure we didn't have the disease, which has an incubation period of seven days. They took our temperature every day twice a day. So on Friday we had to to to Jingshan which they said was a temple, but was actually a creepy, empty hotel where they put us for one night because they ran out of room at Jiantan. It was extremely musty as well. We all wanted to leave the hotel and look around the town, but they actually locked us in and wouldn't let us leave for the ~24-hour period! Also, three guys including one guy in my group were playing cards in some girls' room that we were all in, and some counselors came in and gave them 8 demerit points, which means you can't go on tour on the fourth week. The rule is you cannot be in a room belonging to a person of the opposite sex between 10pm and 7am, but they had been leading us to believe it started at bed check which is 11pm. All the girls freaked out and yelled at the counselors, one counselor almost cried! We argued for one or two hours, but in the end we won (woohoo!).

Now I am in Miaoli, which is picturesque and in the mountains. The kids are crazy, although they keep asking all of us if we have girlfriends or boyfriends and keep saying "fuck you!" Some of them are pretty loud, and one kid keeps responding to me in Hakka which is a dialect that I can't speak. But they all seem to really like us, even if they are bad sometimes. They keep trying to tickle us and one kid, Linda, just attaches herself to me and hugs me. They also like to give us massages, which is nice too.

Today something a little bad happened. We decided to race on the track with me on one AID teacher's back and the other girl Cathy on another AID person's back. We ran a little bit, but then tumbled head-first into the track. I have a huge scrape on the right side of my face as well as my right shoulder and arm. And I actually had to go to the hospital because I banged my head straight on the ground. I was on a guy named Jack's back, and he also has a scrape on his head but he did not go to the hospital.

When the ambulance came, I freaked out a little, not because I was worried about being hurt but I felt really embarrassed and didn't want to make a big deal of what happened. But I felt really dizzy, so I went. I panicked a little though because I felt so bad, and I don't have insurance here. The school paid for the visit though, I don't know how much it was. The X-ray was fine, but they didn't have a CT scanner so I have to monitor myself for three days to make sure I don't have a concussion. I still feel a little dizzy, but I think I am okay. They cleaned up my wounds and gave me a shot in case I get an infection from the ground. The doctor called it toxim or toxoid (I am thinking he meant toximia?). The kids were so nice when I came back and gave me a get well card. :)