The English Village

This week, we were introduced to the English Village. This is the Yilan County English Village:

Basically, the EV was created in order to share the Fulbright love or, as our director Dr. Vocke put it, "To spread you guys as thin as possible." Since there are 72 elementary schools in Yilan County and only 16 Fulbrighters, the students at many schools don't get the opportunity to interact with us (even though many of us were placed at two schools). So the EV is a way for the 5th graders at every school in the county to get to learn from a native English speaker, even if its only for the duration of a field trip one day a year. I (along with half of the other Fulbrighters) am scheduled to man the English Village every Friday morning. 

The inside of the English Village is actually pretty cool. They have set up 6 stations to provide real life situations in which the kids can practice their English. 

The Shopping Station, where we get to make the kids play our own
version of Supermarket Sweep!

The Health Care station, where I get to be a medical professional. Who would have
guessed when my sister went to nursing school that I would beat her to the punch?  

The Airport/Customs Station. Complete with a legit mock up
of the inside of an airplane. 

See? Real seats and everything! 

They also had a big pile of airplane life vests to play with!
I've always been tempted to inflate one, now I don't have to.
Siena has a serious face because "We're all about to crash into the ocean and die."

The other stations are a mail center, TV studio, dance studio, and coffee shop/restaurant. I'm not really looking forward to commuting to Yilan bright and early every Friday morning but, all in all, it's a pretty interesting place. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about it later.