I went on a weekend trip to Kenting (墾丁), an area even more south than Kaohsiung (where I live), last weekend with my host family and a group of faculty/staff from Taiping Elementary School.  My host mom, Liu Ming, used to work at Taiping Elementary School and still has very close friends there, so they travel a lot together.  Kenting is now very famous in Taiwan because it is where Cape No. 7, the movie that is sweeping Taiwan right now, is filmed. 

We visited all the sites where the movie was filmed, which meant a lot of beach scenes because Kenting is also known for its beaches.  And now I know why.  They are so incredibly beautiful and inviting.  If it weren't for the weather, I would have totally jumped into the water.  I'm turning into such a wimp; it is only 61 degrees in Taiwan right now and I'm wearing sweaters and jackets. For some odd reason, 61 degrees feel awfully like 40 degrees here.

Besides visiting the sites, we also did a lot of others things as well, like eating a whole lotta seafood.  I mean, we were by the ocean.  Almost every meal consisted of seafood, but luckily, good seafood.

We also went to a hot springs!  It's basically a place with many mini jacuzzis that massage different parts of your body.  Also, the water is supposedly from the mountain and is not chlorinated (which is troublesome, but I try not to think about it and focus on the positive).  The hot springs we went to had this really cool jacuzzi just for your feet, and in it, there were many schools of fish.  The fish would nibble at your feet and eat away the dead skin.  I felt a little discomfort at first, but I got use to it and learned to endure the pain.  And apparently, I have a lot of dead skin on my feet because whenever I put my feet in the waters, it would attract many schools of fish away from the other people in the jacuzzi. 

I had a great time with my host family and everyone from Taiping Elementary, and I'm thankful that they invited me to go to Kenting with them.  I have such an amazingly cute 2 year old host brother, whom I gave an English name to during this weekend getaway.  His English name is now Gunther!  And if you ever meet him, you'll think that it's an appropriate name for him as well.  He loves to play with race cars and ask the same question repeatedly until he receives an answer. 

For more pictures from Kenting, please click here.

So, the staff at Zuo Ying Elementary finally finished filming "Brother and Sister Mango" this past Monday.  We had to finish it in one day because the costumes were mad expensive to rent.  Unfortunately, Jenny and I couldn't find mango costumes, but we found the next best thing - pineapples and carrots (we at least tried to get the same color scheme). 

I will put up the completed video as soon as possible, but for now, enjoy the pictures.  Filming "Brother and Sister Mango" was a lot of fun and the finished product is truly well-done and entertaining.  Chi Yi, a tech savvy administrative assistant at Zuo Ying Elementary, did an impeccable job editing.  She stayed up till 3 am multiple nights getting it ready! 

During the filming process, I was surprised to discover a dentist chair in the nurse's office at my school and subsequently learned that all schools in Taiwan have a dentist chair.  Taiwanese students apparently get their dental check ups in school.

I really had a lot of fun with this project and hope that we will have more episodes.  I'm considering an episode on deodorant and body spray.  I mean, the kids don't smell bad, but deodorant or Axe body spray may enhance a couple of lives here and there.  

For pictures from "Brother and Sister Mango," please click here.

Instead of staff workshop last week, the teachers and I went on a field trip with one class of Grade 4 students around Zuo Ying's historical sites.  It is currently the 2008 Kaohsiung Zuoying Wannian Folklore Festival, so students who attend schools in the Zuo Ying District are now taking guided tours and visiting all the historically preserved architecture in Zuo Ying because there are lots of them around Zuo Ying.  So, we saw lots of old architectural styles and old temples. 

(This is a historically preserved house, which shows a traditional architectural style known as Sanheyuan (三合院).  There would be three sides and a big front yard.)

(The largest temple in Zuo Ying.)

I learned that the reason why there are so many temples around the area where I teach is because Zuo Ying used to be the equivalent of the "wild west" when Taiwan was developing and lots of inauspicious events occurred.  Therefore, temples were built - lots of them - In order to console and comfort the people living in Zuo Ying at that time. 

During the tour, I even had the opportunity to try something called Lingjiao (菱角), a water chestnut, for the very first time.  The nut has the coolest shell that I had ever seen.  It's like a bull's horns.  Before Zuo Ying became modernized, it used to be famous for Lingjiao, now its Lingjiao comes from Tainan, south of Taiwan. 

Halfway into the tour, the teachers and I decided that's we've seen enough history of Zuo Ying and decided to have an afternoon snack instead.  They treated me to some small delicacies that I've never had and even some that I've been avoiding, like stinky tofu.  It turns out that I don't like it and, contrary to popular opinion, you can taste the stink.  Besides stinky tofu, everything else tasted great!  I especially liked the pig's blood (which tastes much better and looks a lot more appetizing than it actually sounds).

For more pictures from this event, please click here.

(You can't really see it, but for Thanksgiving week, Jenny and I had the Grade 4 students write what they were thankful for on tiny post-its.  Then we reassembled the post-its to have it spell "Happy Thanksgiving!" underneath our black board.)

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, thank you Phillip, Amanda and Chris - our Fulbright coordinators - for placing me at Zuo Ying Elementary for my Fulbright term.  I absolutely love my school!

Reasons why I love Zuo Ying Elementary (not in any particular ranking):

-I just think the campus is beautiful!  It's not too new and it's not too old.  My school has a lot of trees and almost resembles a small forest.  Even though I'm a city boy, I do love mother nature to a certain extent, and the school's scenery is just the perfect amount. 

-Jenny, who's an EXCELLENT co-teacher.  We're more than just co-teachers; we're friends, and we both share a penchant for spontaneity.

-The school administration and other teachers.  I love the fact that I have a staff/teacher workshop where I can interact with the school's faculty.  And I think Zuo Ying has the most fun and loving principal, deans, teachers, and administrators ever.  Even though I'm new and have only been in their school for like 4 months, they've already inducted me into their family.  Moreover, the school functions like a family too, which is even more spectacular.  Everyone helps each other out and are nice to each other - the way a school should be. 

-The students.  Honestly, I think they are truly the best.  They're just so....out-of-the-box and quirky, and I love it!   How could you not love having students named Bruce, Wewe, Weener, and Oscar?  Oddly enough, the name fits their personalities!  I love calling Oscar in a British accent.  Also, how could you not think it's precious when a sixth grader turns to a third grader and asks him how to say "cute" in English and have the third grader respond, "Are you insane?  Do you know I'm only in the third grade?" in Chinese? 

So even though I need to travel farther than some ETAs and sometimes need to stay later, it's okay cause my school makes me happy and I truly enjoy my time there.