Thanksgiving Weekend

Here in Banciao, we celebrated Thanksgiving last night, and it was quite a success. Most of the regulars were there, but some friends we hadn't seen for months were able to make it from the south. Jenny, my roommate from training, and fellow Banciao dweller opened up her apartment for the occasion.

I had heard that there was a variety of hotels that prepared take-out turkeys and sides. I the Grand Formosa Regent hotel (a Four Seasons hotel) and arranged to pick up the turkey at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. Not sure how it would be packaged or if I would be able to bring carry it on the MRT, I planned to catch a cab back to Banciao. The hotel was on the same street as fashion row where Gucci, Armani, Coach, Lanvin, etc have their Taipei stores - a good placement for the demographic that uses the hotel. People had been contacting me all day to get last minute details for the evening, so when I picked up the turkey I was actually on the phone - no problems though - they brought it out in a thermal cooler-like bag and I could pay cash - $3,000NT (about $90US).

I told Jenny I would come right over to her apartment with the turkey at about 4:30. She and Amy had just gotten back from Jason's (a Western Grocery Store) with ingredients and hadn't even started cooking! Ahhh! Jenny got caught at work and had to unexpectedly teach an extra class that day. Amy and I took over the kitchen while Jenny cleaned up and got herself ready. I started working on the stuffing and Amy boiled the cranberries for cranberry sauce. Brenna arrived and she and some of Jenny's Taiwanese Coworkers peeled sweet potatoes. About and hour and a half later, Amy and I had whipped up stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, salad, and the best cranberry sauce I've ever tasted.

At this point there were probably about 20 people there. We were planning to eat at 7, so our guests enjoyed a cocktail hour. We told everyone to bring food and/or drink to share. The Taiwanese showed up with some very nontraditional Thanksgiving fare (what else should we expect?). They brought dan bing (egg bake - like a fritata), spring rolls, an egg custard/kiwi dish, fried chicken, and pizza! We separated the food into the traditional and nontraditional buffets.

People were everywhere - it's a good thing Jenny has AC. I enjoyed my dinner on her bed. The turkey was a big hit. Ordering it pre cooked was a good idea. One of the NSTs from my school, Josh (from one of the Dakotas) was nice enough to carve it. There was a surplus of desserts - we probably had about 7 cakes, donuts, truffles, pumpkin pie, and brownies. We didn't have very many left overs - but I don't think anyone went hungry. We gradually cleaned up throughout the night, and I was the last to leave at around 12:30. I think everyone had a really good night, and appreciated sharing the American tradition together.

Today, some of us met at Daan station where we walked to gigantic Daan park for some ultimate frisbee. We had also heard there was a Thanksgiving "cookout" being held there...but no one was hungry enough to find it when we got there. I tried to learn how to throw backhanded, but still need practice. There were some tents set up in the park with food vendors giving out free samples. This wasn't street food, more like health and gourmet food. I tried some exotic dried fruit, ginger bread, peanut brittle, and coffee. It reminded me of a fair or art show atmosphere in the US. I'm not sure if it's there every weekend or not. We finished the evening with ice cream on the steps of the MRT station.

Random Post

I have no big stories to tell, so here are just some daily boring details to keep you entertained...

I've been trying to organize Thanksgiving dinner for my friends. I've called some recommended hotels and bars. Most are only serving on Thursday night. Most Hess teachers work till around 9, so I was in search of somewhere that will be continuing to serve through the weekend. All of the meals included turkey with all the trimmings for around $20US. A lot of hotels have prepared take-out Thanksgiving baskets, so I think I'll end up ordering one of them and we'll congregate at Jenny's apartment.

Jenny's apartment: flashback to 1972. I've never seen more wood paneling, ugly furniture, poor lighting and geometric curtains in this millennium. It has enough space though, and she's a good entertainer. The two of us will make a good party planning team.

Whenever I meet new people, I automatically relate them to someone I already know. Jenny is like Lauren. Katie is like Fran. Lynn is like Colleen. Rachel is like Kristen. So they may not be exact matches, but I guess I naturally need the same qualities in friends wherever I go.

I have become a pro at discovering new places around Taipei. It's great having such a network of friends and internet resources. I will hear about a good restaurant from someone and can look it up online, draw myself a map and get there via MRT successfully. I always make a trip out of it, even though the MRT is so convenient that I could be back home in under an hour. On Sunday, I went to Sababba's...an Israeli pita bar recommended by a few people. I also went to three potential Thanksgiving venues (one of which I discovered a vacant building). I enjoyed a lamb schwarma (like a gyro with cucumber sauce, felafal, and hummus). The also had an expansive hummus menu, but I thought that would be better shared with friends, so I'll have to go back. There was Movenpick restaurant at one of the MRT stops I visited...I had already eaten at Sababba's, but I just had to have a scoop of ice cream (ironically, i had a dream about the name Movenpick the night before and all day was trying to figure out what "Movenpick" was. I know I'd seen it on a sign somewhere in Banciao...so when I saw the restaurant, I couldn't pass by.

I subbed Kindy today at a branch I've never been to before, even though it's literally a two minute walk down the street. I was amazed at the difference...I like it so much better than my Kindy. The kids were so well behaved and the atmosphere of the entire branch much less chaotic. I had a "small class" with some "yo yos babies." This means the ages were from 2-4...I was so impressed by how smart they are! It doesn't seem like they should be able to say much of anything at that age, let alone English sentences. I was talking to another NST who works there and she agrees about the atmosphere of the branch, and believes it's because there's more space for everyone...the classrooms are larger, tons of windows, and just a more open layout.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Cheers!

October Update

The last four weeks have sure flown by!  I can't believe I was in Korea a month ago.  The weekend after I got back, I hopped on the train and took a trip to Chaiyi (Southern Taiwan) to visit my friend Lynn.  She is separated from a lot of our friends who are around Taipei, and I wanted to see what the south of the country was like.  I've realized that the rent basically anywhere outside of Taipei is dirt cheap.  Lynn shares a 3 bedroom apartment with two other guys and pays about $150US a month!  It is complete with a kitchen and family room, garden, and lovely view of a lake below.  On Saturday we were picked up by one of Lynn's Taiwanese friends who drove us and some of Lynns coworkers to Kenting (a beach that many say is Taiwan's most beautiful).  The town was kind of smelly, but very cute.  We got lunch at a cool surfer themed restaurant.  It was a national holiday weekend so the campground we ended up at was busy with Taiwanese families.  The waters, however, were not.  Taiwanese prefer to wear jeans on the beach, stick there toes in, and spend the majority of their time posing for pictures on the beach, while the 9 of us American girls went straight into the water.  There was a bbq area where you could buy different meats and vegetables and grill them yourself, so we opted for this, and was also nicely supplied free beer from the bar!  A great night of fun and dancing was had by all.  While some slept on the beach, others stayed in tents and were awoken by the neighboring rooster farm.

After two weekends of traveling, I was content to hang around Taipei and get to know new areas of the city for a while.  The following two weekends weren't too eventful.  Had some fun nights with friends at Luxy night club, and enjoyed trying some of the best food at various restaurants around Taipei.

This past week, Hess schools got into the Halloween theme.  The kindy playground area was set up with a graveyard and paper pumpkins.  All of the classrooms were decorated with black streamers hanging down over the doorways...the kids were really distracted by this, especially when the streamers got caught in the door every time it was shut.  On Friday, the Kindy kids wore costumes, and Han Dong Kindy had a haunted house made with black trash bags...some teachers made kids cry.

Last night, was Ingrid's birthday, so she and her boyfriend Emylyn (both from South Africa), hosted a bbq night at their apartment in Taoyuan (near the airport).  The MRT doesn't go there, but it's still very close...it's the next stop from Banciao on the high speed rail. Their apartment complex is the fanciest one I've visited so far...they have a private KTV (luxery kareokee) room, bbq area, game room w/bar, beautiful courtyard with fountains, and lobby with crystal chandelier.  It is all very new, contemporary, and resembled a resort...a far cry from my home above the post office.  We meant to go up on the roof at some point during the night, but we never did.  Just about all of our close friends were able to make it.  We each brought our own meat to bbq, Em and Ing supplied drinks, and Em did all of the barbecuing...they were great hosts.  Their front desk man even gave Ingrid a birthday cake.

I've been fighting a sore throat off and on for the last week....better pump up the vit. c.  I've inquired about getting a flu shot, but they're not available at the clinics I've visited.  Dad, I've been running 2-3 miles about 4 times a week...I know, not very far, but it's on a track.  There's a bike path that goes from Taipei to Danshuei (north) along the river which would be fun to try sometime.  The weather's been in the high 20's during the day and low 20's at night...so I'm not using AC as much.  Teaching is going just fine.  The only issue I have is with my treehouse class.  My co-teacher is the head of my branch, so very particular about how I do things...and even though it's my class, I don't have as much freedom as other teachers.  I really like teaching Step Ahead classes because they're the most structured and the students are well behaved.  One of my Kid's Club classes is graduating to Step Ahead this week...so I'm going to have to teach them the homework writing procedures...step by step...should be interesting, especially since they're still quite rambunctious.  I also have to do telephone tests this week for my treehouse class.  This means staying an hour later for two days and phoning the kids at home to test their English over the phone.

Ok, hopefully I'm better about doing more posts in November if anything interesting happens.  Hope all is well in the US.  I'd love to hear updates from you all, and I'll be missing everyone at Thanksgiving!
 (More pics will be on facebook soon...)