Voila! "Let's Go, Yilan!" (aka, the Yilan Project) DVD Clips

These aren't great transfers, but they should do well enough to capture a little of the cheesy essence of this grand project I've been slaving away on since October.

A little about the project...

The premise: 12 traveling Americans take the train to Yilan County, on Taiwan's northeast coast. From there, they split into four groups, exploring different aspects of Yilan County: transportation, food, scenic spots and recreation.

Each group has a three-lesson section of the DVD. Following the story scene of each lesson, there are segments to teach the new vocabulary and sentence structures. These segments contain vocabulary text and images, along with subtitles, and eventually a silent, slower replay of the story scene where students can read the subtitles aloud.

The first clip is an intro, which is not intended to teach any language. It just sets up the premise. We really nailed the everyone-jump-into-the-air-at-once-and-then-freeze-frame-fade-out thing. It's one of my proudest moments. Ever.

The second clip here is the Transportation Lesson 3. Joel and I are the stars of the transportation act, so watch for me really hamming it up here.

My YouTube

Phwew! Okay, I've finished my video/blog binge, and in case you haven't figured it out, I've been posting all my videos through YouTube. You can watch them directly on my page, or if you click elsewhere on the video image, it will pop open a new window and take you to video on YouTube.com. It's pretty easy to manage.

If you want to go directly to my YouTube page, you can click here:

http://www.youtube.com/leviaking

At this point, everything there is on my blog in some place or other, but it should be easier to find older videos if you should want to see them.

Thanks for putting up with all this. I hope it's mildly entertaining, at least.

And speaking of mildly entertaining, here's a video from dinner two nights ago, when I went out with my hot family. The restaurant was called Water Lily, and they specialized in healthy, Chinese/Western fusion, vegetarian food made from things you wouldn't ordinarly expect, like flowers. Outside, visitors can wander around the lily ponds where they grow much of this. Inside, of course, is the restaurant and also a spa, featuring a lot of health and beauty products made on-site from flowers and such.

This video shows the blathering server preparing the store specialty, a lily-flower hot pot. You can see the flower open as is heated. More interesting is the excitment of the kids, I think.

Moving Pictures: School Videos

Here are a couple of videos from the past month at school.

This one shows my fifth grade students at Dong Xing, my school in the countryside, at my going away party. The main teacher left the room, and I was eating lunch, so on a dare, one kid decided to chug an entire two-liter bottle of Sprite. You can hear the others cheering him on. Will he succeed? You'll just have to watch.

This next video shows the first and second grade classes at Luodong doing a little song and dance routine they rehearsed. I think it's some kind of Mother's Day thing, and actually not all that impressive but kind of cute.

Moving Pictures: Taiwanese Opera

A few weeks ago, some friends and I came across a stage set up in the street near the night market in Luodong. I believe it was a celebration of the goddess Matsu's birthday, as there is a Matsu temple right there. These videos show the Taiwanese opera that was performing there. Many people here love this stuff, but I'd rather gouge my eyes out. Granted, I can't understand a word of it, as it's in Taiwanese, but every time I've seen any of it performed, its the same thing-- a bunch of Taiwanese wenches dressed up in cheesy-looking traditional garb, running around the stage shrieking at each other. Often someone dies or faints, then comes back. Often someone must run off stage wailing just as another character enters... etc. Pretty formulaic if you ask me.



Here's the short version.



And the longer version.

Moving Pictures: Las Vegas Cheese

Okay, here are a couple of cheesy vids of cheesy attractions I saw in Las Vegas in March. There's the fountain pool at Bellagio, and the volcano at Mirage.

Moving Pictures: Lantern Festival 2007, Pingshi, Taiwan

These videos are from the Lantern Festival, which marks the end of Chinese New Year. I shot them back in March, when some friends and I went to Pingshi. Note the massive crowds hanging out on train tracks. It's a small branch line. You can see a few sky lanterns being released.

Moving Pictures: Classic Taiwan: Advertising Truck

File this one under "Reasons I Need an RPG." (Mom, that's rocket-propelled grenade.) Seriously, these trucks are infuriating. The people who drive these things are the lowest form of life. They drive around anytime from 8 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m., blaring advertising messages through loudspeakers. They putz around at less than half the speed limit, clogging up traffic, and they specifically target big apartment buildings, driving around all sides extra slowly, for maximum annoyance. This is great news for me, because I live in such a building. (I shot the video out the window.) It's really nice of them to wake me up at 9 a.m. on a Saturday. How else would I find out that there's a 24-special on dried fish at the local preserved meat store?

Moving Pictures: Lopburi, Thailand: Parade and Monkeys

This set is from Lopburi, Thailand, a small town three hours north of Thailand. The first video is from the King Narai Festival, held every year to commemorate the King's reign and show off his palace. I didn't know it was happening when I decided to visit, but I got really lucky, as it's the biggest event all year for the town. It's not just a historical re-enactment, but kind of an open house for the town's many palaces and temples, as well as a community celebration. I was one of very few foreigners there. In fact, the only other white people I saw were participating in the event, playing the role of foreign ambassadors.

The next three videos are from Prang Sam Yot, an ancient temple from the Khmer period that was converted from Hindu to Buddhist use. The temple is home to a famous clan of monkeys. They live there during the day and cross the street to another temple during the day. It's an odd place-- an ancient temple in the same style as those of Angkor. However, instead of being hidden away in lush forests, this one is on a small plot of land smack in the middle of a small town. It's surrounded on three sides by appliance and grocery stores, with a railroad along the other side. These videos are all about monkeys. The monkeys are quite accustomed to humans, and even like to climb on people or steal their food or drinks. Here you can see me walking among them. At one point, a little guy crouches in preparation to pounce on me from a fence, but I quickly step back out of his range. Enjoy!

Moving Pictures: Elephant Trekking near Krabi, Thailand

From February, 2007. I shot these videos on an elephant "trek" near Krabi, Thailand. I'd say it's less a trek than a stroll through a rubber farm, but that's okay. I'm riding the elephant, but you can see the other two elephants on the ride.

Moving Pictures: Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand Beach Party

Shot these back in February, on Winter Break in Thailand. These are from Haad Rin Beach on the island of Koh Pha Ngan. That beach is famous for its monthly Full Moon Party. It wasn't a full moon, but there were plenty of revelers. In the first and third video, local boys perform a little fire poi and fire staff twirling. In the second video, some partiers jump through a burning hoop.

Moving Pictures: New Year's 2007

Yeah, I'm finally getting around to posting some videos. Here are five from New Year's 2007. I went to Taipei 101 to see the fireworks. There must have been over a million people packed into a few city blocks, and getting out of there took hours. I shot the first video walking out of the crowd, and the rest from the back of my friend's scooter as he was driving us out of there. The quality is not great, and the lens was dirty, as you can see from the streaky lights, but what do you expect, given the conditions? :-T

Oh, watch for the peace sign cameo by a goofy rider in the third video.












That's all for now. I plan to scratch up some more from the last five months...

"Watch your head": Strange Rocks and the Zoo

Friday night I left for Taipei. I got up early and went to Yeliu. It's a 90 minute bus ride. It's a spot on the northern coast where the wind and water has carved the sandstone into some odd formations and patterns. It wasn't quite as cool as I expected. And I should have known better, but I expected it to be just an open coastline where you could wander around. Instead it's quite developed and you've got to pay a couple dollars for admission. I suppose that's worth it to protect it, though. As usual, you can go to my flickr page to see more photos.

That night I saw 28 Weeks Later, which I found sorely disappointing. At risk of sounding stupid, I'll say it wasn't believable. I know, it's a zombie movie... and a sequel, no less. But the camerawork was deliberately confusing so as to allow the plot to advance in sneaky little leaps and bounds, and besides all that, the characters were lame.

By the way, I saw Pan's Labyrinth last weekend, and it was brilliant. Not for children, however, as I mistakenly believed going in. In fact, some of the scenes regarding the war were so brutal I had to turn away. But that all went to explain the little girl's fantasy world all the better.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the zoo before coming back. Nice zoo, and I saw a lot, but had to hurry and still didn't see it all. I got there just two hours before closing, and it wasn't quite enough time.

What the..?

Oh, and I thought this was pretty cool. I didn't take these photos, but I saw this over the weekend and found these photos online. Taipei 101 is a really cool building and has some kind of lights in the windows of some upper floors that allow it to display simple messages. That can be great, if it isn't advertising for "Sony Bravia" or something stupid. Here it says 母親, which is "mother."

Happy Mother's Day!

Yeah, that's for you!

Yay, it's Friday. It's been a long, stressful week. English Easy Go is tomorrow. It's a county-wide English event involving contests and other activities. We were told three weeks ago that we'd be required to attend, but I already had plans and contested, so I'm not going. They said it's okay. It's a Saturday anyway, so there's not much they can do about it.

Some of the other English teachers at Luodong seemed stressed about the English speech contest. There were about six students in the office during every spare moment, including lunch. I have come to hate speech contests, and made that quite clear. The reason I hate it is that it's all about appearances and not about learning. As Zach said after judging a speech contest a few months ago, "Some of those kids gave really good English speeches. Not one of them can speak English." They approach it like most of their education-- with rote memorization. The kids can memorize a five-minute string of sounds and gestures and give a speech, but it has no meaning to them. It's parroting. They still can't communicate with English or use English creatively. I feel like I get dragged into the politics of school systems, which put pressure from the top down to create this appearance of English competency. I feel it's a giant waste of time, so I avoid it as much as possible. When the kids come in and hover around the English corner of the office during lunch, I put my head on my desk and rest like I do any other time. I'm entitled to that. I'm not a pronunciation coach. I can spend my time teaching much more effectively, and I try to do so.

Over the course of the year, I'm supposed to have "storytime" with each class of the school. That means that on Wednesdays and Fridays, during the very first period where most teachers are having meetings, eating breakfast, and preparing, I have to shake the sleep out of my head and try to entertain 30 kids who don't wanna focus at that time. Today was my first day doing storytime with sixth graders, and I'd prepared something new. Instead of me standing up and reading a story that they wouldn't understand and would lose interest in after two minutes, I passed out photocopied comic strips with the words whited out. I asked the students to fill in the missing text, and wandered around helping them. The grammar wasn't perfect, and I got more than one Snoopy and Garfield dropping the "f-bomb," but frankly, I didn't mind. I was really delighted! The kids were finally being asked to creatively use the English they know, and i think many of them were happy to learn that they can do it. I'll try to post an image of some of the funnier ones.

I'm leaving for Taipei in a couple hours. I'm going to spend the weekend there and in the vicinity. A friend promised to take me to Yeliu (sorry, that's the best link I could find) tomorrow, which is why I'm not going to English Easy Go.

Last night I had dinner and drinks with some Dong Xing teachers. We had a fun time and agreed to do it again. I miss Dong Xing!

Return to Nan Fang Ao

Saturday morning. It's supposed to be a rainy day. I think I'm going to Taipei in a couple hours. I haven't been in almost a month. Tomorrow, I have to meet with Sam from FSE and go to the studio of the production company to view the (hopefully!) final cut of our DVD. This project has been a lot of fun, but it's meant a lot of extra work for me. I'll be so happy when it's all finished!

So, I think I'll go up today and see what fun I can find. I need to get out of Yilan for a change.

Last night, I had dinner and saw Spider-Man 3 with a group of friends-- ETAs Zach, Luke, Ben, Gina, Viktor, and Luodong teachers Diane and Allen. We ate at a Chinese restaurant that Dr. Wu introduced us to long ago. The food was great. The movie was pretty good, I guess. Probably one or two too many new characters, and about 30 minutes too long, but it was mostly fun.

On sunny afternoon in the last couple weeks, I felt like going to the beach, so I hopped on my motorcycle and rode 30 minutes south to Nan Fang Ao, a really cool spot Diane showed me last fall. It's not really a swimming spot, but it was really getting too late to get to a nice sandy beach and have enough time to do much swimming.

It's just south of Su Ao, and you have to follow the road through several 90 degree turns as it winds along the docks and harbors of Su Ao, a fishing town. It's fun to see all the boats docked there, with fisherman unloading the catch, and more boats coming and going all the time. A few signs lead to Nan Fang Ao, but otherwise it's like it's hidden. You follow some inconspicuous alley to the back of some buildings and follow a little lane up a hill, and if you're on a motorcycle, you can squeeze through the gap in a railing and continue up to the top. From there, the view is the best. It's a small cove at the base of some cliffs.

There's a rope tied at the top for making your way up and down the rugged hillside. I climbed down, walked around a little, picked up some cool rocks, took some photos and swam a little.

Most of the time I was there, the place was almost deserted. When I arrived, this fisherman was diving for something.

He left, another came, and later three people came briefly to collect rocks or something. I talked briefly to the second fisherman. I was wading in the water, and he told me I should go on out to swim. I was wearing my swimming shorts, so I did. The water was warm enough, but the undertow can be pretty strong, and got stronger as the tide came up. The beach is rocky, and in places, strewn with garbage. Also, as you wade out, the floor is covered in seaweed or something, and it kind of creeps me out to walk through it. I'm afraid I'll encounter something unfriendly.

While there's a lot of garbage dumped over the cliffs, somehow it doesn't detract too much from the natural magic of the place. For one thing, the water and the rocks are powerful and have a way of digesting whatever refuse reaches the water's edge. In fact, the beach is covered with lots of glass and ceramic pebbles, worn down from broken bottles and other garbage. It's kind of a cool effect. Other materials as well quickly get crushed, shredded or otherwise destroyed. You still have to watch your step on the beach, because there are glass bottles that haven't been through the grind yet, as well as random pieces of metal and spiny blowfish carcasses.

Otherwise, the place has lots of cool rocks with wild colors and patterns and textures, both in the cliffs and on the beach. Some of it is just the slate the cliffs are made of, and some of it looks like sandstone, marble, or even jade. I also like the way the cliffs and rocks are worn down in and near the water, but slowly rise up into the dramatic, craggy, hard lines of broken slate.

It started getting cool as the sun sank behind the cliffs, so I climbed back up and rode home.

The other day, on my way home from school, I got stopped by a giant crossing the road. I'm telling you, I have never seen anything as crazy (stupid?) as Taiwan's traffic. I had to take a picture this time.

Miss America

It's Kentucky Derby weekend. What could be more American? I'm wishing I could be around for all the festivities, and just generally missing America a little bit. But don't worry-- I'm fine!

Monday was my last day at Dong Xing. It sounds silly, but those damn kids made me cry when I left. No kidding... I had to leave after lunch to go to a meeting in Yilan, and as I was leaving the office, my co-teacher and several other staff and teachers followed me out past the classrooms toward my motorcycle. At that point, I was already feeling a little sad about leaving. Then the kids started coming to me and shouting, "Goodbye, Levi!" etc., which only brought my departure to the attention of more students, and soon I was surrounded by a swarm of them. They were lining up and crowding around to shake my hand and say goodbye. All my little favorites were there, and I got really sad about how sweet they were, and how eager they were to say goodbye, and the knowledge that I'd never see them again, and just hoping that I'd done a good job and brought them something worthwhile. All the while, a couple of the teachers were offering to take me to dinner that night, because they were unable to go two nights before with the others, and we were trying to work out those details. I felt myself tearing up, but tried to ignore it. Yet I had to say goodbye to all the students who came to see me, and all the contact and looking them in the eyes and remembering the good times and all their different personalities... it just killed me! It was embarrassing, and I tried hard to not cry, but finally one girl handed me a tissue, at which point there was no use pretending. And as they all realized I was upset about it, they all started looking more and more concerned, and trying to comfort me, and that just made it worse! I finally got a little bit of composure and climbed on my bike and tried to speed away from it all. As I was driving out the lane, some kids started chasing me, running behind and shouting "Goodbye!" and "Levi!" and "Don't go!" Just as I got away from those, others who had cut across the schoolyard mounted the top of a little hill near the road, waving and shouting...

(Here are a couple photos from the English skit at the morning assembly.)

Now I'm back at Luodong and feeling the grind. What can I say... It's a large, rather impersonal place. Some teachers there are good, some teachers are bad. I'm rotating back through working with three of the English teachers there. The next three weeks might seem slow, but I'm just trying to connect with the kids, enjoy my time, and not stress about it too much. I've learned I can't invest too much of myself in the situation.

Oh, but about Monday. First, we had a workshop that afternoon. Our main school co-teachers were required to come. A TESOL specialist from California was there to lecture. Actually, her whole presentation was about reading, and was targeted for teachers with students at a much higher level than ours. So, in short, the whole thing was off target and a waste of time.

I did have dinner later that night with some Dong Xing teachers. Actually, there were about eight teachers and staff. One brought a daughter, one brought a boyfriend. We had hot pot, which always makes for a long, involved dinner. But it was nice. I was able to talk to them quite a bit in English and Chinese, and we all had fun. Dong Xing feels much more like a community or a family, and the teachers there are special. I'll miss it. But two them promised they'd call sometime to go out for a drink.

Tonight, I had dinner with some ETAs and an advisor to discuss some problems with the Fulbright program in Yilan and the best way to make suggestions and improvements. Another long, involved dinner, but I think we all left feeling good about it. Hopefully we can make some things happen...