Stomach Issues and Orientation

We didn’t get off to a good start for our first breakfast in Taiwan—Luke threw up at the breakfast table! After returning to the hotel room, he threw up 2 more times. On top of that Lauren was also not feeling well and it looked like she was about to follow suit. Eventually both recovered and ended up okay. In spite of the stomach issues, we were able to sample the local cuisine. I’m finding that if you eat at the totally local places that are completely non-westernized, you get better food and prices. The only problem is that these places are completely Chinese with Chinese-language menus. My only saving grace is to find places that have a couple of pictures of their food, and I can usually go from there. The deals are incredible if you can survive the language barrier in these restaurants. We had a lunch for 4 that was under $10 USD and a dinner for 4 that was approximately $5 USD. These were not fancy places, but they served food that I love—dumplings and soup. I’m pretty terrible at ordering food, though. At one restaurant, John wanted a vegetarian meal, and I had NO IDEA how to articulate this. I ended up telling the waiter in Chinese that John did not want beef, did not want chicken, and pretty much named every animal I could think of. The waiter finally got it and John ended up with a seafood dish, which was perfectly fine with him.

Since John and I are Fulbrighters, we were required to participate in a 2-day orientation. The two people that I’ve had the most contact with from the Fulbright Scholarly Exchange (FSE) in Taiwan are Dr. Wu and Julie Hu. They have been incredibly helpful in getting us settled, clarifying our duties, suggesting schools for our children, etc. Dr. Wu has been the director of the FSE in Taiwan for almost 30 years. My big surprise at the orientation was the discovery that Julie Hu is white American woman. I felt racist, but the whole time I’ve been emailing her over the summer, I had pictured a Taiwanese person. It turns out she married a Taiwanese drama professor who graduated from Indiana University. This would explain why her emails were in perfect English. The first day of the orientation centered around logistics—how to get our Alien Resident Card (this made me think of the old Sigourney Weaver movies), how to get around Taipei, places to visit, etc. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) also did a presentation and it turns out the AIT is an excellent resource for Americans in Taiwan—they help you do absentee voting, help with visas and passports, and do what they can to keep Americans safe. The second day focused on the Fulbrighters learning about each other and getting to know one another. I was VERY impressed with the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs). The ETAs are recently graduated students who are assigned to help teach English to elementary, junior, and high school students. These kids are first-rate, articulate, warm, and extremely bright. Virtually all of them had studied abroad at some point during their undergraduate career. I’ve really enjoyed talking with them and getting to know them. Everyone, including John and me, had to introduce ourselves and talk about our projects. I honestly do not enjoy doing this kind of thing, but I think I did OK! John did a fantastic job! He is a very quiet person, but when he’s given the floor, he always shines! Even Dr. Wu commented on how quiet John is, but when he’s in front of people, he could tell that John enjoys the spotlight!

During the orientation, other Fulbrighters who have been lecturing here gave us some excellent tips in dealing with Taiwanese students. The prevailing conclusion is that Taiwanese students always have an expressionless blank stare and that we should not take this personally. Supposedly this is a defense mechanism—they want to attract as little attention to themselves as possible and hate being put on the spot. Taiwanese students also do not enjoy debating or having to consider many answers for one question. They prefer some kind of resolution and they need to have one right answer. They also feel very uncomfortable critiquing each other and despise any kind of situation that involves conflict or confrontation. And this I found amusing—many times if you give them a good grade, they will tell you that you graded too leniently and did not deserve that grade. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN THE U.S.! As you may know, many students in the U.S.have delusions of adequacy! Another thing I found endearing—Taiwanese students adore their professors and want to be close to them. It’s completely acceptable for professors to eat lunch with students, and supposedly students sincerely care about their professors and truly want to get to know them.

As you can see, one of the pictures is a map of the United States. During the orientation, Dr. Wu wanted each of us to tell everyone where we’re from and where we are now. The red stars represent where we’re from, the yellow stars represent our present institutions. As you can see, I was the only representative from Missouri and South Carolina!

Children were welcome to the orientation, but this was definitely an adult activity. Lauren and Luke rose to the occasion behaved superbly. They basically stayed in another room and various people would help watch them. I also brought a ton of videos for them to watch—they’ve definitely had enough of Charlotte’s Web! Luke finally redeemed himself after putting me through the ringer during the past week! He still has his moments and is still the king of drama, but at least he didn't completely humiliate me at the orientation! The end of the first day of orientation concluded with a nice reception and the second day concluded with a wonderful dinner at a restaurant in the 44th floor of a building. The view was phenomenal, but I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I could have since Luke was running wildly about and Lauren was narcoleptic...

Next stop….moving into our apartment…..