This is a surf beach in the north east called Yilan. My co-teacher Andy invited me for an early morning surf last Wednesday. He picked me up at the dorm at 6:30 am, we arrived in Yilan by 8:00 am and we were back by 2:30 pm to teach our classes at night, what an awesome day!
Surfing is such a difficult sport. I have had lessons before but every time I have forgotten how hard it is. You really need a lot of upper arm and core strength, two things I have always needed to work on. We rented our boards from an extremely tanned, 50 year old Taiwanese guy named 'Cool' (I have just decided on the name for Jack and Kyla's first child). It cost a little under $20 to rent them for the day. I had a hard time at first but 'Cool' took it upon himself to get me standing up by the end of the morning. Basically the only time I caught any waves was when 'Cool' stood behind my board and pushed me as I paddled as hard as I could. All morning he would just yell 'Jai-oh, Jai-oh' (go! go!) as he knew this was one of the few Chinese words I knew. We ended the day with me getting stung by a small jelly fish, next eating some mystery meat from a beach side Taiwanese lunch box, then buying special, pink, hot spring tomatoes on the road side and finally napping in the car on the ride back. I am definetly looking forward to going again!
Andy and I teach together on Tuesday nights at a school in the south. He is my favourite co-teacher and is the most helpful. I have been meeting up with him for a half hour before our class to go over our lesson plan. Most Taiwanese are worried about 'saving face' so if you are doing something wrong they will usually not say it directly to you. I like that Andy is straight up with me and he will tell me whenever I am not doing things correctly. He is definetly improving my teaching skills.
We also went for hot pot together one night after class. This is a Taiwanese specialty where you put a bunch of food in a pot and cook it yourself (pretty self explanatory). The first time I went was with Steph and we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't realse you could turn down the tempearture on the broth so during our whole meal we had steaming hot broth boiling in our faces. As well, we completely overcooked all our food, boiled down our broth too fast and didn't even realise that the broth was unlimited so you could just ask for more.
When I went with Andy he got me to try some random squid balls, oysters and congealed pig's blood, mmm-mmm! It was actually not bad and I am eager to try hot pot again once mom and dad arrive.
We also went for hot pot together one night after class. This is a Taiwanese specialty where you put a bunch of food in a pot and cook it yourself (pretty self explanatory). The first time I went was with Steph and we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't realse you could turn down the tempearture on the broth so during our whole meal we had steaming hot broth boiling in our faces. As well, we completely overcooked all our food, boiled down our broth too fast and didn't even realise that the broth was unlimited so you could just ask for more.
When I went with Andy he got me to try some random squid balls, oysters and congealed pig's blood, mmm-mmm! It was actually not bad and I am eager to try hot pot again once mom and dad arrive.
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