Nan-Ao at last

Thanks, Wunderground! According to this storm tracking feature, Super Typhoon Jangmi will be pounding the northeastern coast at 9pm tonight..which is home at the moment! I'm not used to changing plans because of weather, but when faced with trees swaying so furiously and flooding rain, I won't dispute the need to stay indoors.
I've just returned from buying candles, food, and drink from the stores-- before going out means risking being whacked by falling tree branches.
The eastern coast of Taiwan is less settled than the western portion, and there's so much to do outdoors! Faith, Adam, Ann and I hiked up a hill along the Caoling historical trail while the others headed straight for Fulong beach. This weekend, we were going to climb Guei Shan Dao, or Turtle Island, just east of Yilan, but Typhoon Jangmi is keeping boats from sailing. And Turtle Island isn't close enough to swim to...

I'm living in Nan-Ao, a little village a 30 min train ride from Yilan. Population ~1000. One 7-11 (you can tell how big a place is by how many 7-11s there are; in the big cities there's one on every block). The ocean is on one side, mountains on the other. Greg Swenson and Uli both came to visit this week before starting at NTU in Taipei. The beaches were beautiful, as was a little hotspring in the mountains. People have told me that the little Beihou village hotspring was built by a man for his wife as she was fighting cancer.

Teaching at Nan-Ao and Penglai Elementary Schools has been a huge challenge. I spend most of my time at school. In learning to plan lessons for kids from 6-12 years old, I've given a lot of thought to how we learn, and what motivates us to learn. We taught the first graders to play a simple Pass the Ball game with a song, and they had a blast. Here's Jennifer, my local English co-teacher, working her magic!

On Fridays I teach at the English Village in Yilan, which was built to give students a chance to practice English in authentic settings. There's a restaurant with tables and real menus, a real airplane cabin, a shopping mall with clothes and plastic groceries, and much more. One week, Beth and I taught the airplane lesson together. I'm also helping her teach a community class in an even smaller village, Dong-Ao, on Thursday nights.

One of the biggest things I've learned is that students need clear, concise directions. Clear, because if they are confused they won't bother or they'll goof off to avoid showing they don't understand. Concise, because their English vocabulary is very limited. Even adults appreciate unambiguous directions, sometimes. I'm confused by this sign that I've seen several times on the train by the restroom. Man and woman, No! Wait, Yes!

Finally, all the Fulbright ETAs have spent quite a bit of time with the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange. We recently went to an orientation in Taipei-- Kelly and Kristin are two wonderful ladies that have helped us so much. There, we met the AIT staff (American Institute in Taiwan)--the embassy in everything but name, and a few key Taiwanese leaders in science and education. AIT can help us apply for absentee ballots, help us get American citizenship for babies if we decide to have them on Taiwanese soil, and facilitate delivery of corpses back to the US if we die here. Despite all this, because of China's insistence that the international community not acknowledge Taiwan's sovereignty, a lot of policies and decisions dangle on careful euphemisms.