Letters

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Girls are so much nicer than boys. They behave in class and at the end of the week, they make you feel special and useful and loved by writing these sweet little notes. Boys never do stuff like that. I'm just saying.

Here are some of my favs from the year that i've kept to smile about later.



"Ms. Rika, Thank you teach us. We will HAPPY in there. in your class I am so happy. You are a very nice teacher. I will miss you. Goodbye, I'm Anna Jhao. I will miss you."

"Ms. Rika: I am Jenny.
Teacher thank you.
I love you.
Thank you teach.
Don't forget me.
MISS YOU!-Jenny"

"For Mr. Rika: I love you! Tks. you for me (so good) We draw playing! I am so happy! 88! Anna"

"To Ms. RIka: Thank you for you. You are a great teacher and you are very beautiful. Your class is very funny. ps. my english is not very well. Bling Bling!-Sheena" (I think I taught these kids what 'bling bling' is.)

one of my favorites:
"To Ms. Rica You are the best teacher I have ever seen. You told me that we could win the boys and told me a lot of plants parts, what they do and many! I love you. -Barbie" (I told the girls a story at night about girls beating the boys in a running race and told the girls that they would probably rule the country one day, and the rate of how far ahead the girls were already scholastically).

From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition

Entertainment for All

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After a long hard week of teaching 11-year olds that may or may not know what I'm talking about, and having to discipline most of them and convince them that going to school in the summer is fun, there is nothing I enjoy more than Thursday afternoon rec activities, specifically the relay races, and even more specifically, Aaron's game.

Aaron thought it would be funny a few months ago, to have the kids have to run while holding a soft ball between their elbows, all while not letting go of their ears. The result was fabulous! I just about die watching every time! One of the best parts of this feat is that if the kid drops the ball, he or she has to get down on the ground and pick it up without letting go of the ears!

Check out their expressions and concentration. It's payback time, kids!

From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition


From The Rikon Expedition

Making Tortillas in Our Underwear

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From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics

From Taiwan Pics


Cooking in our underwear.

What else to do on a hot summer’s day but cook in your underwear? (reason #42 why we love marriage!)
Aaron and I have been invited to teach a pastry and chocolate chef in our town how to make Mexican food. He specifically asked us to teach him how to make tortillas, and since we have no idea how to do it, we spent the day testing a variety of recipes and ingredients to find the magic of the Mexican.
And since it’s so bloody hot in our apartment, we cranked up the A/C, stripped down to our skivvies (is this too much info, btw?), and got to work.
Check out this recipe and then watch the video, which we felt was the best flour quesadilla recipe and it doesn’t hurt that this girl has a Hispanic background either which makes me feel authentic.
Flour Quesadillas Mexican Style
Tortilla
3.5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
Vegetable shortening 3.5 oz or 7 tbsp vegetable oil
Very hot water 1 cup

knead for 3 min, cover and let sit for 15 min, roll out into small balls, then keep together covered. Using a rolling pin, roll out the balls on a floured surface and make a nice flat round tortilla. Cook on high heat, flip when it starts to bubble.

Easy and Fun! Take off your clothes and it’s even more easy and fun!

Squidding

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From Taiwan Pics
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From Taiwan Pics


That night when we returned back to Magong, I called up a doctor friend of my grandfather’s who lived in the town. He was delighted to hear from me and invited us out to a fancy seafood dinner. Through the courses of seaweed, crab, squid, sea urchin, and pumpkin noodles, Dr. Steven asked us if we’d ever been squid fishing. Aaron had just told me earlier that he wanted to do that, so we said we were in.

Living on a small island definitely has its perks, and Dr. Steven seemed to know everyone there and found us a boat to join for a night of squid fishing. Riding on the boat was like one big party. Everyone was young and was definitely there to have a good time. The boat crew lit up our boat with some bright bright lights and sank some more lights into the water to attract the squid. We were given some poles and taught how to sink and cast our lines. Every now and then, I would hear a roar of excitement from somewhere on the boat as someone would catch a squid. The boat crew immediately cleaned and then chopped up the fresh squid and served it up, sashimi style complete with wasabi and soy sauce.

Aaron and I thought that we were casting the lines exactly as the boat crew guy but did not catch one thing. Occasionally, we would see trumpet fish swimming at the surface of the iridescently clear water. After a while of a bounty-less journey, the boat crew finally threw in some real nets to catch some squid. The nets were the secret weapon and soon the crew was pulling in thousands of these slimy rocket-shaped nasty things that stained everything black with their fear-induced ink splatter.

Ick.

Have I mentioned that I'm a vegetarian? And there is nothing tempting about sinking my teeth into one of these suckers. I was definitely in the minority on that ship, because soon hundreds of squid took a hot bath with hot sauce and were served over noodles to all the passengers on the ship. No thank you, no thank you.

Aaron ate a couple, and our buddy Dr. Steven couldn't get enough of them. He even convinced the cook to let him take a baggie of squid and noodles home for breakfast. Yummy.

Castaways on Penghu Pt. 2

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Lucky for us, along our journey, we met several people who spoke pretty good English who were more than willing to help us out. We did manage to get out to Cimei on a ferry where we planned to spend the night and return the following day. Cimei is beautiful! We rented a little scooter and drove around the island in about 30 minutes, and marveled at the steep ragged cliffs, the lush grass that seemed to grow despite the dense rock, and picturesque blue ocean that we could see far off into the distance.

Cimei is also home to the fabled tombs of 7 virgins who killed themselves rather than disgrace their families. Here’s how the story goes: Seven Beauties Tomb, called Da Islet, has a sad but touching legend. In the reign of Jiajing, Ming dynasty, pirates attacked Da Islet, killed people, burnt houses, and robbed money. Not yielding to the pirates, seven virtuous girls jumped into a well. Later, townsmen filled the well up with soil. Before long, seven sweet-flower trees with green leaves and delicate fragrance grew out. Praising their virtue, people set a monument called Seven Beauties Tomb.

Another of our favorite cheesy tourist sights was the Twin Hearts Stone Weir that is an old fish trap in the shape of two hearts and harnesses the rising and falling of tides to trap fish daily.

But nothing could have prepared us for the epic snorkeling of Cimei. I’ve always been bummed to find the disintegration of coral around the world, but I’m happy to report that the coral was absolutely abundant around Cimei. We saw thousands of fish including a really long trumpet fish and some rather strange 7+ft long sea cucumbers that looked like awkward sea snakes.

We managed to find a place to stay at a little Greek style Bed and Breakfast in the tiny town that was right next door to a Vietnamese noodle shop. We made friends with a family staying there and rode around the island and played with their kids, who are the same age as our students. The parents were both teachers and treated us so very kindly! They even took us out for a seafood dinner that night and told us entertaining stories. One of the things that the mom said was that there is a Chinese phrase that says something to the effect of “Treat strangers the same way that you would treat your own family”.

When she told us that, it dawned on me that this summarized all the interactions that we’ve had with people here. They have sincerely and openly welcomed us into their homes and always help us when we’re lost, confused, misunderstood, or anything at all. The next day, we had some major problems getting back to the main island. Apparently people don’t usually stay on Cimei and return on the same boat that they arrive on. All of the boats were full or going to the wrong destination. Just when we thought we were out of options, Aaron managed to befriend an army guy who spoke passable English who was able to finagle each of us a trip back on a small fishing-style boat. We were on separate boats but we met up later at our go-to low budget hotel. Yay!

By Aaron: (written on his ferry ride from Cimei back to Magong).
The Penghu archipelago is one beautiful place. Not very visited from
people outside Taiwan. In fact on the island of chimei we did not see
a single westerner except ourselves. On Thursday afternoon of our trip
we found out that there was no scheduled boat to the main island on
Friday. The problem was we had to get there on Friday. Luckily I had
met Yunam who is serving his military time here. He had already gone
above and beyond his duty helping me find a boat to go fishing on and
then going fishing with me on it because he knew no one else spoke
much English. Friday morning he made it his mission to get Rika and I
to the main island so we could catch our flight Saturday morning. I
think he had to ask quite a few people as no one seemed to have any
room. Finally he found two boats that each had one spot. So as I right
this I just shipped Rika off to sea without me and she had no phone.
We do however have a room booked in the city we are trying to get to
so hopefully we will find each other there. Neither of our boats are
actually going straight to our destination so there is potential for
anything to happen. But we are always up for an adventure. More
later...

So Rika and I both got a sort of layover at an island named Wangan and it
even overlapped for about five minutes before her boat left. So I rented
a motorcycle and checked out this little island while I waited for my
boat to get here. Nice little place but I'm glad we stayed in Cimei. I
think there was more to see and do there and it had a nicer place to stay.
This island is one I'm glad we stopped at because it is famous for the
green sea turtles that nest here and they have a very nice
conservation center about them and the other wildlife that live on
these islands. Also on the scooter I did a couple laps around the
island to check out the sights and the on mountain here that is
fifty-six meters above sea level. So there seems to be some confusion
on what boat I am to be on but I will hopefully get it sorted out.
We'll see when I finally get to Magong.

Castaways on Penghu Pt. 1

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Castaways on Penghu Part 1
From Taiwan Pics
From Taiwan Pics
From Taiwan Pics
From Taiwan Pics

Because we only work every other week, we try to go on adventures during our weeks off. However, our adventures are usually limited to the Taipei area because it turns out that it’s rather expensive to have frequent free time. We really wanted to do one more exploration trip before we left Taiwan so we decided to hit up the islands off the southwest coast for a week and see what kind of adventures we could have, for as cheap as possible.

Penghu is an archipelago of more than 40 islands in the sea between China and Taiwan. The islands are rough hardened lava that have somehow managed to grow vegetation and beaches and everything you need for a lovely vacation. The three biggest islands are connected by bridges and we explored old military forts to fend of the Japanese, a depressingly bleak aquarium, a rock island that we could walk out to during low tide, crazy huge temples, blowholes, back roads, and ancient villages.

Magong, the biggest city of the island is known for its fishing and seafood, and walking through town that’s about all we smelled. After attempting to camp one night, we decided it was way too hot and bunked up in a cheap hotel in the middle of the city (US$21/night), where we were greeted each morning with the fresh scent of fish. After doing as much exploring as possible on these small islands, we attempted to take a ferry out to an even smaller island for a splash of fun.

Here is where it got complicated: Taiwan, especially Penghu is definitely not set up for the independent Western traveler. Taiwanese people typically travel in massive packs of people, usually filling a tour bus and it’s uncommon to see travelers fending for themselves and scurrying around on scooters. Combine this with a complete lack of English and organization at the boat ticket building, and you’ve two determined travelers, determined to do whatever it takes to get to the outer island.

Welcome to ENGLISH SUMMER CAMP!

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All throughout the month of July, instead of running school for specific Taipei County elementary schools, our program opened up to any 5th grader who wants to come and attend an English summer camp. We run the program exactly the same as when we have kids from 2 different schools, yet the variety of students as well as their English ability elevates our camp onto a whole new level.

As a teacher, I’ve gotten really bored teaching the same exact class, week after week, speaking like an excited robot in slow and over annunciated syllables to students who probably only understand about 10% of what I’m even saying. However this week, we’ve got the cream of the crop English speakers. It’s incredible to actually have conversations with my students during class. They can tell me about their families, their favorite foods, who they have crushes on-it’s extraordinary to be able to connect on a deeper level!

Most of these kids come from higher economic backgrounds, probably because they have to pay to attend (about $65 USD, as opposed to the free week that the government provides schools), and many of the students are teachers’ kids who I’ve noticed are quite educationally motivated.

One more advantage to having students who are strangers to each other when they come to camp is that they are wildly insecure, scared, and yearning for a friend. I just came back from supervising the girls’ dorm, and I was so happy to see the absence of cliques as the girls ran around chasing each other. They were playing a game of truth or dare and the girls kept “daring” each other to hug me or the other adult supervisor, Sherril. They were hilarious as they shared secrets of kissing boys, passing gas in class, and who they thought was handsome. (the English adjectives for boys and girls that are attractive are always “beautiful” for girls, and “handsome” for boys-forget words like “cute” or “hot”, although “sexy” is starting to make its rounds).

We have one kid this week, we’ll call him Sammie, who has a terrible case of ADHD. This boy can not sit still for anything!!! He is always touching, talking, moving, wiggling, and cannot and will not sit still if his life depended on it. I always have to give him something to play with in class so he’ll somewhat pay attention and I’ve noticed that the others in his class are starting to get really annoyed with his antics. During flag raising this morning, I moved him to the back of the line because he was too chatty. Immediately, Sammie started running his mouth and then walked away to play with rocks. Another teacher walked him back to line and Sammie then bent down, picked up a wad of grass, and put it on a girl’s hair in front of him. The other teacher had had enough and took him away to give him a Green Slip, which is just a discipline report.

I love Sammie, even though he really tests my patience a lot. I want him to feel love here, because I know that he probably gets negative reactions wherever he goes and it’s very obvious that he has no control over his body sometimes. I sure hope his parents are enjoying this week without him. Oh, on a quick sidenote, Sammie tried to call his parents today to tell them that he had injured his eyes and was going to go blind if they didn’t pick him up. The camp nurse was mortified. Luckily, they didn’t pick up their phones-probably because they’re on an island somewhere basking in the glorious quiet of Sammie’s absence.

Leavin for the Islands

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Aaron and I are about to take off for the beautiful Penghu group of islands off of the southwest side of Taiwan. We are taking a backpack, oatmeal, and a tent and are attempting to backpack and camp all around the cluster of islands. We'll see if we can battle the heat and sun to see some of the gorgeous reefs that we've heard about. Stay tuned! We'll be back in a week!

Dragon Boat Day!!!

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From Taiwan Pics


A couple weeks ago, we got a day off of work for Dragon Boat Day. This is one of the major holidays of the year in Taiwan, and we were excited to see the festivities and the dragon boat races down by the river. Dragon Boat Day has been celebrated in Taiwan for many years and is based on an old story about a poet in the time of Confucious.

A long time ago, there was a man named Qu Yuan. He was extremely wise and always gave advice to King of Chu during the Warring States Period in the third century BCE. After a while, the king and his courts got tired of Qu Yuan and his advice and started telling him no. Qu Yuan was frustrated that the king did not listen after writing some passionately angry poetry, he threw himself into the river and sank to the bottom. As the story goes, his followers tried to find him in boats and threw rice cakes overboard to get the fish to eat the rice instead of Qu Yuan.

And now today, people all over Southeast Asia celebrate Qu Yuan by racing boats decorated like dragons, and eating a traditional rice triangle filled with meat. (see photo).

When we went, the day was stifling hot and humid and we were only able to stay a couple hours because I thought I was going to pass out. It was so fun to watch the crowd cheer for their favorite rowing teams. My favorite moment was when we walked by a testosterone-filled bunch of guys that were fresh out of the water in their little swimsuits, and they were very excited to see us Americans, so I took a photo and for some reason they seemed to really enjoy that.

The boats would race 3 at a time, with about 20 people in each boat. There would be a special drum beater person to keep all the rowers in time with each other, and a front small person who's one role was to grab the flag at the finish line to stop the clock and hopefully help his or her team win.

Our buddy Michael, who's been helping us understand the culture and language bought us some traditional rice triangles at the market and then told us that on that day, the moon was in the perfect position to make an egg balance on its own. But we didn't really believe him because sometimes I think he just makes up traditions, and the egg trick didn't quite work out.

Dragon Boat Day=Awesome! And I was so glad to have an umbrella for protection agains the hot hot sun. Umbrellas are seriously the most used accessory here.