Meishan

I know, I know... Twice in one week -- don't stroke out.
So, I had the opportunity today to visit a Taiwanese mountain school today. It was, without question, the coolest thing I've done and seen here in Taiwan, and probably the most beautiful sight that I can remember seeing in my adult life.
A professor at the National Chiayi University is pretty heavily involved in the English program at this school up in the mountains. He called Nick's school last week, asking for a couple of foreign teachers to volunteer to go up and meet the kids at the school. Nick and I and our friend Chris, who is here for a visit, were the lucky three.
We met the professor and the school principal in Chiayi and they drove us an hour up the mountain just outside of a small (and I think aboriginal) village. Most of the people who live in the village have lived there for their entire lives and work in the tea fields. The kids at the school have never seen foreigners before, so the point of our trip today was for them to meet us and get a chance to talk with some native English speakers.
After we arrived at the school, we spent about an hour with the kids, giving them one-on-one oral tests (about eight questions each). Some of them were pretty nervous, others were EXTREMELY excited. One of the first little girls I talked to leaned in and whispered, "I don't know," when I asked her what her name was : ) I whispered back, "Yes, you do," and pointed to the name tag on her shirt. Another little boy answered, "My name is Kevin1" when I asked his name. Apparently there are two Kevins in that school -- he was "Kevin1" (his name tag actually said that) and there was a "Kevin2". He also proudly told me that he goes to an English school (probably about a 45 minute drive down the mountain, twice a week) and that he knew English very well. He also told me to drink the tea, it's good for my health. One of the questions we had to ask was related to going into a fast food restaurant and we had to say, "For here or to go?" A girl in the 5th grade didn't quite understand the question, so I tried to explain it to her by saying the phrase "wai dai" which means "to go" in Chinese, and when that didn't work, I rephrased my question and tried to explain that "to go" means to take your food and go outside of the restaurant to eat (in much simpler words, of course). She thought I was telling her that she could go, and stood up and started to walk out of the room! Hahahahaha
After the oral tests, the principal took us outside and showed us around the school. It was absolutely incredible! She has been there for two years and has literally transformed and decorated every last nook and cranny of the place. There is art work and calligraphy hanging in the hallways and sitting areas for the kids and visitors outside so they can eat their lunch or have class out there on nice days. We were told that the school wasn't much to look at before she came, and she enlisted the help of parents and teachers to build beautiful fences and walk ways. My favorite area (in one of the pictures) had beautiful, brightly colored pinwheels hanging all around and a handmade stone table and seats, with a bamboo fence (made entirely by the parents) surrounding the school perimeters. There was a nice cool breeze and lots of sunshine with the incredibly beautiful mountains in the background. As Nick and I walked around the school, we gasped and "ahhh"ed and "Oh my goodness"ed at every turn. The mountains were breathtaking; covered with tea fields and palm trees. It's a very strange thing to be up on a mountain and have palm trees all around...
Unfortunately, though I try, neither words nor my pictures can accurately portray the beauty and amazing-ness of this day and that place. I said several times that one thing I really wanted to do before I left Taiwan was visit one of the aboriginal villages. This was nothing like I expected it to be (the kids looked exactly like the kids I teach every day and there weren't any mud huts or people walking around in handmade clothes and no shoes with baskets on their heads), but it was so much more. I can't begin to express how happy I was to have that experience today. It was truly awesome.

Pictures below:
#1 The basketball court/track/recreational area of the school with the mountains in the background.
#2 Nick and I with the mountains in the background.
#3 Mountains and palm trees.
#4 & 5 The pinwheel area with the handmade bamboo fence in the back.