Thanksgiving in Taiwan

This year I had my first Thanksgiving away from my family (not to mention my first Thanksgiving in a foreign country) so, to make up for it, I had two Thanksgivings. After all, Thanksgiving is a strictly American holiday and what's more American than drowning your sadness with an abundance of food, wine, and good company during the holidays? (That only sounds super melodramatic. I mean it as a joke.)

The first party was held in Taipei by the American Institute in Taiwan. It was held on the top floor of a ritzy apartment complex right by Taipei 101 and the Fulbright staff and all of this year's recipients were invited. All the food was delicious, especially the bread pudding, and William Stanton, the director of AIT, carved the turkey.

William Stanton and the head chef tackle the turkey

 

The whole Fulbright Yilan crew!

***

While the AIT Thanksgiving party was held the Friday before Thanksgiving, the second shindig was a somewhat more low-key event on Thanksgiving itself. The girls at the Zhongshan apartment (where I lived for the first month after I arrived in Taiwan) were awesome enough to host a great big pot luck for all us Yilan-ites. Turns out that, when we pooled our resources, we had just about everything traditionally required for Thanksgiving dinner (except maybe green bean casserole) and a few distinctly Taiwanese things to boot.  

One of our food tables (there was a separate salad/sandwich table and a third for drinks and desserts)  

Through a funny twist of fate, we even ended up with a big fat turkey with all the fixins from a fancy restaurant in Taipei free of charge. Of course, then the problem was actually getting the turkey from said restaurant to the party in Yilan. But Vivian (who lives in Taipei) came to the rescue, volunteering to pick up the 6kg turkey and bringing it all the way to Zhongshan apartment in a taxi. 

Christine, the only one of us who had ever carved a turkey before, shows off her handiwork

*Sappy moment of the day* This Thanksgiving, I was thankful that, even though I was about as far away from my home and my family as I could possibly be, I was still fortunate enough to be surrounded by good food and great friends. 

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us in Yilan!

Halloween in Taiwan Part 3: Pei Cheng

Funny faces, everyone!

When planning out Halloween activities for Pei Cheng, I was told to wear my Halloween costume on Wednesday and Thursday and that all of the English teachers would tell their students that, if they dressed up on either day, they could go trick-or-treating in my classroom. However, the school decided at the last minute that there were simply too many kids who wanted to participate so we had to move trick-or-treating to the courtyard because the principal was afraid it might become a safety hazard if all of the kids tried to come my classroom at once. That's right, we had to adjust our plans in order to avoid a candy-driven riot of adorableness. I love my job.

In the end, the way the Halloween festivities at Pei Cheng ended up going down kind of made me feel like a mall Santa (okay, more like a twisted Nightmare Before Christmas-type mall Sandy Claws in a bat costume).

Getting ready to see all the good little boys and girls

It was a two day extravaganza. The school set up a whole display stage on which the students could (between classes) come up and trick-or-treat with my co-teacher, David, and I. Instead of helper elves, I had the 6th grade hall monitors (in the purple vests) working as my bouncers all day. They had to set up little orange cones for crowd control. We even set up a festive holiday background for kids to have their pictures taken with me in front of.

My bouncers getting ready for action as the class bells ring and the kids run
to get in the trick-or-treat line

We were a popular attraction

Posing with the Halloween background board.
Note: I don't think Christmas boy's parents really understood the whole
"Halloween" thing when they were dressing him this morning
(which only made him all the more adorable)

Perhaps the free candy had something to do with it, but Halloween at Pei Cheng was a big hit. The kids loved it (some of them even switched costumes with their friends and tried to come back 4 or 5 times over the 2 days we had trick-or-treating) and even the principal got involved. He dressed up as a "killer" and helped hand out candy. One of my Taiwanese friends later informed me that this is very unusual (her actual word was "shocking") since, in Taiwan, principals are known for always being very serious and professional. I guess I'm just lucky to get to work with a principal who likes to have fun!

Hanging with spiderman and Pei Cheng's "killer" principal (heh heh heh, puns)

Candy for everyone!

Long story short, teaching in Taiwan has given me just one more reason to love Halloween. For more pictures (including close ups of some of the kids' adorable costumes), you can go to the school's photo album at: http://140.111.143.8/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=30606

Happy Halloween to all and to all a good night!

Halloween in Taiwan Part 2: Party at Dong Sing

See? Teaching is fun.

Have I ever told that you that I love Halloween? Because I love Halloween. Don't get me wrong, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter are great too but, for my money, Halloween just about the most entertaining holiday around. So imagine the sheer joy I felt when I showed up at Dong Sing Elementary last Tuesday for our school Halloween party only to discover that Halloween might, dare I say, be even more entertaining as an export.

I've always been a sucker for homemade costumes and creativity and my students my kids had both in spades. Who knew that trashbags and paper could be such versatile costuming materials?

Siena and I with our 3rd graders. Confession: we didn't get a lot of work done in class that day (and it was awesome!) 

Homemade goodness

That's right, he made his own flamethrower. Never underestimate the creativity
of little boys given permission to make their own weapons.

The principal let Siena and I organize a school wide Halloween party after lunch. All 138 students had to wear a costume of some sort (as I mentioned, the vast majority were homemade). The teachers all pitched in and a some of the parents even came in to help out. While it's been gaining popularity over the past few years, Halloween isn't really celebrated here in Taiwan. So it was really great how everyone was so willing to go out of their way to help me spread this little piece of American culture.

My very happy 2nd graders

Here are some highlights from the festivities:

1. Cookie-on-a-String Eating Contest (adapted from the donut-on-a-string race)

We decided that buying a donut for every student would be too expensive, so we switched to cookies. It took Siena and I an hour to tie all of the cookies up but it was totally worth it. Watching all of my students struggling to eat a cookie without their hands? Priceless.

We had a little too much fun

preparing for the cookie race.

The kids are chanting "Chi diao," which basically translates to "Eat it all!"

2. The Mummy Race 

Mummy Siena lending a hand

The toilet-paper-mummy race is an all-time Halloween favorite of mine. The students at Dong Sing all seemed to approve as well : ) 

Get ready...

... get set... 

GO!!!!

3. Pin the Tail on the Cat

A Halloween-y twist on the classic party game. For the record, it was originally supposed to be a black cat (but whatever).

4. Trick-or-Treating

We finished off our Halloween party with a quick trick-or-treating run around the neighborhood. Siena talked with the neighbors who lived closest to the school and all those that volunteered to help out were subsequently engulfed by a candy fueled mob of cuteness. 

Somehow, I don't think they minded.

 Of course, as with most aspects of American culture that have been imported by Asia, I don't think everyone quite got it. Instead of giving candy to the trick-or-treaters, one older gentleman in the neighborhood handed out tea eggs (basically eggs that have been hard boiled in tea instead of water).

"Gabby teacher, what am I supposed to do with this?"

Then again, who hasn't been given something completely random and decidedly not sugar based while trick-or-treating (a toothbrush, a box of raisins, plastic army men, etc)? I guess it's an American Halloween tradition after all.

Halloween in Taiwan Part 1: How to make a bat costume

Christine and I in all our bat glory at the Leopard Garden hostel in Taipei

This project is adapted from:
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/UmbrellaBatCostume


Materials needed:
Black hoodie
Black umbrella
Wire cutters
Needle and thread

Construction Time: 2 episodes of It's Always Sunny and 2 of Big Bang Theory


Step 1: Buy materials.
Go to your local Carrefour. Stop at the little umbrella stand just outside of the front doors. Tell the saleswoman that you and your friend want to buy 2 plain black umbrellas. When she gives you a blue umbrella, tell her no, you really do want a black one.  Repeat process as she tries to sell you a silver umbrella, a black and white polka dot umbrella, and a decorative navy umbrella. Finally convince her to sell you the two cheapest black umbrellas she has. Enter Carrefour with your new umbrellas (which you will soon be cutting into pieces) feeling very accomplished.

Search the entire clothing section of Carrefour (including men's and children's) for a black hoodie. Find only raincoats in adult sections. Try on the largest kid's hoodie you can find. It has giant shoes printed all over it and it's too small. Give up on trying to find anything as simple as a plain black hoodie on such short notice in Taiwan. Try to improvise. Decide to buy a black men's dress shirt to sew your wings on instead. Ignore the cold stares of the other foreigners as you and your roommate try on articles of men's clothing in the middle of the supermarket. Try to find a hat that you can glue bat ears to. Give up after the salesperson tries to give you the white hat off of a mannequin. At least you have your umbrella and a shirt.


Step 2: Disassemble umbrella

Frustration.

Attempt to unscrew the little metal wires holding the umbrella spokes to the center of the umbrella. According to the directions, they should just "pop" off. Lies! After trying for about 15 minutes and only getting 2 of the 3 off this way, give up and try to just cut the third wire with the new wire cutters you just picked up at Carrefour. Quickly come to the realization that you are now the proud owner of the most useless wire cutters on the planet as they cannot cut even this one small, cheap piece of wire. Conclude that you perhaps should have spent more than one US dollar on your new tool. Go back to struggling.

Okay. Wires successfully removed!

Cut umbrella in half along the seam, removing one spoke on either side. Attempt to cut off the metal ribs in the middle of each spoke (the ones that used to connect it to the slidey part of the umbrella stick). Curse your cheapie wire cutters again. Resort to prying the ribs off with a combination of a flathead screw driver, your good for nothing wire cutters, and pure brute strength.

Showing the umbrella who's boss

Tie remaining spokes on either umbrella piece back together at the top with the wires you so painstakingly removed earlier.

Step 3: Sew umbrella to shirt

Watch It's Always Sunny as you sew. Trust me, it makes all that hand stitching much more tolerable. Try not to stab yourself in the finger too many times. If you do, it's okay, your costume's black. The blood probably won't show.

Ta-da!

Step 4: Run amuck all over Taipei in your swanky new bat costume

Amuck, amuck, amuck!

You and your 15 foreigner friends in costumes have to get from your leopard themed hostel to the Halloween party you're attending somehow. May as well take the subway.

On Ximending

Our entire group with a random Taiwanese guy who wanted to get a picture with us. Can't blame him,
it's not everyday you meet so many well dressed foreigners.

Suave hipster cowboy Ari always gets the girls

Just a bat on the subway. Casual.

"Happy Hallo Ween" everyone!

At the party!

This week, I'm super excited to get to wear my costume to school! More Halloween fun in Taiwan coming soon.