Dear Mama....Contract Renewal and Taiwan Summer Vacation

Now to the important matters. Was I able to renew or not? 

The answer is.....

Yes? I waited and waited until finally I decided to contact my recruiter to see if he could help me find another public school teaching job somewhere else. He told me that he could check on my status for renewal before going that far. He told me a week later that I could be renewed and, the next day at school, the IMOE representative teacher asked me if I wanted to renew. Later that night, my co-teacher also called me saying she got paperwork about it and would give me a good review. So I assumed the process was rolling for me to renew. The next week, I received the application for renewal, which had to be turned in by the end of the week. From what I have seen on Facebook, IMOE will send official acceptance letters out after they receive all the applications. I am waiting on that letter and to sign the renewal contract but from how my co-teachers are acting, I am already accepted for renewal and don't have to worry. I have heard all sorts of things from other Guest English Teachers like they have to get a certain amount of points based on their open class and as soon as school started they had to record their English classes as part of the application. I didn't have to do any of that so I don't know if I should be relieved or worried? Anyway, for now I am saying that I will be renewed!

The renewal issue affected whether or not I would spend the money to go home and caused me to cancel my trip. That was not going to stop me, however, from going on a vacation. I decided last minute to go to a place I have been wanting to go to for over a year now, TAIWAN! I went to Taiwan for 4 days and it was great!! It was such a nice change from Korea and there were a lot of things I liked better than Korea (automatic doors, escalators at every metro station, English visitor centers where they actually speak English, clean streets and numerous trash cans, people caring about their environment, the service and care of people in customer service jobs, being able to use data on my mobile phone, cheap, fast and comfortable buses, cheap and delicious food, real shrimp, night markets everywhere, helpful strangers, "American-style" plug outlets and faucets that you flip up to turn on). Oh the little things!

The biggest thing is the people, they were really friendly, warm, welcoming and inviting. The only mannerism that resembled Korea is how they cut you off in line but it didn't bother me too much. The first day, I met girl named Emma, at my hostel, Socket Hostel, and we hung out a lot over my trip. Socket Hostel had a great host who was really helpful in recommending what we could see and eat. We went to explore the Taipei 101 area the first night and had dinner there. The next day, I went on a long train journey to the southeastern town of Taitung. There was beautiful scenery of tranquil, uninhibited beaches and mountain backdrops on the train ride. I went to see a hot air balloon festival and even though I did not get to ride in one it was worth the trip. It drizzled rain on and off so it was a few hours before they started blowing up the uniquely massive balloons. There was live music and a few food and game tents. It was up a very large hill, which was perfect for paragliding and cool to watch. I ended up spending the night at Spring House Hostel in downtown Taitung because it was too late to go back to Taipei. The host at this hostel was also very friendly and full of energy and I ended up talking to her for a long time despite being so tired.

The second day, I went with Emma to the town of Keelung to enjoy the Ghost Festival activities. The Ghost Festival is during Ghost Month when it is believed the ghosts and spirits of deceased ancestors come back to visit the living. All throughout Taiwan I kept seeing people around offering tables on the sidewalk or burning joss paper, which looked like paper money, in large bins. We explored Keelung including Miaokou Night Market and Zhongzheng Park.

  

Back in Taipei, we went to this awesome shaved ice restaurant, Ice Monster. Mine had fresh strawberries, sherbert and ice...NO cream/milk (like in Korea).

The third day, I went to an aboriginal village called Wulai where I learned about the Atayal tribe from the Atayal Museum. There were many other people there enjoying the free hot springs (but it was way too hot for me to get into hot water). I missed the traditional dance performance but I took some pictures with one girl decked out in the traditional attire, headpiece and all. The store she was standing in front was across from the beautiful waterfall and I got suckered into buying two traditional dolls from there. They are cute though! They were blasting the song Return to Innocence and I was thinking, "why are they playing that western song?" Later on I researched it and found out that song is sampled from a Tawainese aboringinal singing couple. When I came back to Taipei, I went with Emma and some other people from the hostel to the famous Shilin Night Market. 

Woman Burning Joss Paper

 

The fourth day, I met up with some other Korean Guest English Teachers I knew from orientation. I had only seen them a couple other time but never really hung out with them before, so it was an interesting encounter. I definitely had that feeling like I was third/fourth/fifth wheel. I was there with them (following them) but not really a part of their group. This is all the more reason why we probably don't hang out in Korea. So, needless to say, I didn't stay with them for long. I explored the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park but the Design Gallery was closed. It was a very large and hip area. I also walked around the Zhongshan underground street and outside the Museum of Contemporary Art (which was also closed). There was a section underground where people could come just to practice their dance routines, which made me stop in my tracks and creep walk by trying to watch nonchalantly. I met up with Emma later to go to a Peking Opera show at the TaipeiEye. The show was about the Legend of the White Snake. It was a kind of funny story about a snake becoming human and marrying a very handsome man but this hater monk told the man he married a snake and to be safe from her he must study/practice Bhuddism. So there is this epic battle because the snake wants her man back. After the show we went to the Brass Monkey in Fuxing and had some delicious burgers! To be honest, I felt like I didn't eat a lot of Taiwanese food while I was there but what I did eat, I really liked. The major Taiwanese eats I had was braised pork rice (Lurou fan), skewered seasoned meat, scallion pancake, Taiwanese noodles with shrimp (like shrimp lo mein) and, of course, bubble tea and shaved ice.