It is the end of my third week here. In just a few days we will be finished with training, and school will begin one week from tomorrow! 

Just for fun, here is an old picture I forgot to post, showing 8 of the 10 of us Taichung ETAs - fresh from our 15-hour flight 3 weeks ago ;)

 I have been placed at Chong Qing Elementary School, a school that has 435 students in grades 1-6. I will be teaching English to students in grades 1-5.  I have already met some of the teachers and am so excited!  

At least twice a month, I will also facilitate what Fulbright calls "English Camp."  Along with 3 other ETAs, I will lead one-day English workshops for students at different schools all around the county. These are all schools that do not have "foreign teachers," as we are referred to here, and so they applied to Fulbright to be granted one day of programming led by native English speakers. We will be visiting a wide range of schools, including tiny schools and schools in the mountains.  Our group is currently working to develop our curriculum; we will pick one topic and then modify it as necessary for each school visit (depending on students' age and English-speaking ability).

I have enrolled in a basic Chinese class, which starts on the first day of school! I have also found a language partner whom I met this past week.  She is wonderful and her English is fluent, so we plan to exchange Hebrew and Chinese lessons :)

Temples: I very much look forward to learning more about religion here, as well as going inside some of the beautiful temples.  This is one that we pass every day on our walk to orientation, and I thought the picture was worth sharing.

The Wonderful people of Taiwan: Before I came here, everyone I talked to told me that the Taiwanese people are EXTREMELY friendly and helpful.  This has proved to be 100% true; I have heard about and experienced so many acts of kindness already!  Two great examples before I get to the explanation of the picture below:   1) One of our program coordinators accidentally left behind a folder with money and important information in it; someone found it, called her, and returned the folder without touching anything inside. 2) Another one of our coordinators had a friend who parked a scooter and forgot to take the keys out of the ignition; the friend later came back to find that someone had removed the keys and thoughtfully left them in one of the scooter's side compartments, out of sight from anyone who might have stolen it.

My story is from last weekend, when 4 of us were trying to hail a taxi on our way home from the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art. We passed by a bakery that was closing for the night and admired the bread we could see through the window.  Moments later a man came out and asked if we wanted some bread.  He immediately ran inside and came out with an entire loaf of bread, wishing us well and returning back inside.  We thanked him and waved to all of the other bakers watching from inside the bakery, who waved excitedly back at us.  After a minute, once we had turned and continued walking, we heard the man again - running to catch up to us, holding out 3 more loaves of bread! Again we all thanked him and he smiled and left :)  Oh the privileges of being a foreigner here ... It was such an interesting and thought-provoking experience.  Most people here love foreigners from the U.S. and go out of their way to be welcoming and treat us kindly.

Scooter Highlights: I have seen so many crazy things on scooters, and this is definitely one of the highlights.  The picture isn't zoomed in enough and it's not too clear, but if you look closely at the scooter father away from where I was standing on the street corner, you might be able to see the little pink step-stool on the floor of the scooter.  This mom has her child strapped to her with a little seat belt that ties them both together, and the boy's feet are resting on this step-stool!  Other things - funny yet practical - that I have seen on scooters include: dogs sitting at their owner's feet and balancing to stay on, kids standing up in the front, and two kids in front and one behind the parent/driver :)

Discovering food: Part of our orientation has been trying soooo many new foods! It is quite simple to be a vegetarian here; people are very happy to make any dish without meat, and many other people here are vegetarian as well. The picture below shows mango shaved ice, which is similar to water ice but with fresh fruit mixed with flavored syrup and plain ice. 

Skies: Of course I have taken many more pictures of the sky than most anything else ... Here are a few that show sunset at a night market, clouds over the nearby mountains, and the busy city streets under the cloudy sky.

That's it for now ... Please feel free to post below so that I (and others!) can read your thoughts/responses to anything I have shared. I would love to know what you think!