Last day of the conference

I woke up this morning and realized my alarm hadn't gone off. I had accidentally set it to only go off on weekdays, and today is Sunday. It meant I missed the free shuttle to the conference, but I still had time to eat a quick breakfast, take a taxi and catch the plenary at 10:00. 

On my way to breakfast, though, the woman in the elevator with me asked if I was going to the conference. 

Seriously. 

She was another attendee and she and her boyfriend were checking out and then driving over in their car. They offered me a ride. No breakfast, but I wasn't complaining. She was also incredibly friendly and we stopped and chatted a number of times throughout the conference. 

It was nice to be at the conference today without my presentation hanging over my head. I could just sit back and relax. I ran into one of my guides from last night and we chatted for a while. I think she'll be a Facebook Friend soon. 

The conference has been very nice. There were a lot of very considerate touches that I've never seen before. 

For example:

1. The gift bag only had useful things in it. There was a notebook with lots of paper for note-taking, a pen, a high end tote bag, a conference book, a plastic folder,  certificate of participation and a scoring book for the best presenter. We could vote for our 6 favorite presentations and the top 6 were given awards. 

2. There was a room with two tables heavily laden with a wide variety of pastries and coffee dispensers at all times. 

3. There was a hoard of university students trying to find every way possible to be helpful. 

I was very impressed with the whole thing. 

It all ended with a closing ceremony and awards for the conference. There were awards for graduate student papers (there is some fabulous CALL research going on in Taiwan) and the awards for best presenter. There were 6 awards, and #5 went to yours truly. I couldn't believe it! I didn't think that many people had attended my presentation to begin with. 

Yay!

Now I'm trying to decide whether I want to go brave the night market for a delicious dinner - or just grab some food from 7-11 and crash in my hotel room.  I'll probably go out. 

FOOD

Today was the first conference day that I attended. It was also the day that I presented. My presentation went fine and I attended a number of other good conference sessions. Even better, I feel that I'm doing much better than average at networking - something I am never very good at. I was even asked to do a book review for a major journal. Yikes! I channelled my boss, though, and just said "you bet". Now I have to figure out how to follow through, but I'll do it. I'm really excited.

This evening was our tour of the night market. There are many night markets all around Taiwan, but one of the well known ones is right down the street from our hotel. Night markets are centers of activity that are open all night every day of the week. They are characterized (as far as I can tell) by many stores selling everything you can imagine - mostly at very cheap prices - and tons of street food. It probably won't come as a surprise to hear that this one is right next to a very large university. I don't know if that is always true, but it does seem the perfect place for such a hub.

Three of us (all foreign teachers from Japan, actually) were in a small group with two adorable Taiwanese students. They were super awesome.

Oh Man! The food hasn't slowed down, and is only getting better and better. I was good and took lots of pictures, but I can't upload them until I get home. Until then, here is a summary of all the delicacies I just had at the night market.

1. Sausage on a patty of sticky rice - this was my favorite. I got the spicy one and it was absolutely delicious.
2. Real Taiwan Bubble Tea (I've had lots of bubble tea in the US and Japan, but it really is better in Taiwan. Yum).
3. Stinky Tofu- both regular and spicy. I didn't find the smell pleasant, but I've eaten far stinkier things. I thought both were delicious, but the spicy one was super delicious.
4. Pig's blood cake on a stick - pigs blood cooked with sticky rice and formed into a patty which was then rolled in toasted soy bean powder and shredded cilantro. This was delicious. I never would have known what it was if I hadn't heard about it before and been so keen to try it anyway.
5. crispy grilled prawns. They are grilled whole in their shell and are so crispified that you just eat them head, shell, tail and all. Delightful.

Our guides did seem a bit disappointed that we were all so enthusiastic about all the food they were sure foreigners wouldn't eat. They were pleased at the same time, though, since they love all these foods too. 

Favorite moment: Ron (who is probably about 6'2") said he was really tired. He said he would keep going, though, until he fell over. He suggested that when that happened, the girls shouldn't worry, they should just call the ambulance. One of our guides (barely 5 feet and tiny) very seriously said, "No. We don't need to call an ambulance. When you fall over, I will carry you on my back. Its true. I'm very strong."

The girls kept claiming they're English was bad and they were shy of speaking, but they were chatting away the whole night and were sharper than I was with the teasing. Ron was constantly teasing them and they were giving it right back. It was a lovely, fun evening. I was, once again, totally spoiled.

Quick Update from Taiwan

Hello! Sorry its been so long between posts. Life has been crazy - though I only seem to post when things are really out of control crazy, so perhaps things just haven't been busy enough. Next week is midterm week at our school, so last week I was preparing students for their midterms (and writing their midterms a week in advance so I would know what to teach them about). Along with this, I was also planning my slideshow presentation for a conference in Taiwan.

Sometime late last year I was trying to get my old thesis research accepted to a journal, and since I was elbow deep in all the literature again, I decided to submit the research to a conference at the same time. I was accepted to present at a conference in Taichung, Taiwan. Unfortunately, things have been so hectic at work, that I waited until the last minute to put my presentation together. Of course, I know the material well, but it still required quite a bit of time to make all the slides and practice. I also had never been to Taiwan before, didn't know how to get from Taipei (where I was flying in) to Taichung (where the conference was going to be) and didn't speak Chinese. My impression was that the Taiwanese people were generous about switching to English or Japanese when they were able and that I would be able to get by.

Even so, I was really getting nervous. The night before I left I was frantically digging on the internet for information about currency values, venue addresses in Chinese (so I could show a taxi driver)routes from the airport to my hotel in Taichung... there was a lot to figure out and I was imagining myself lost in the middle of Taiwan, getting my purse snatched and being utterly alone. No one was waiting for me, no one would know how to contact me. I decided to approach the trip the same way I approached Spain (my first solo trip abroad). Just keep accomplishing the next step.

1. Wake up on time - check
2. Get to the airport bus - check
3. Check in to your flight - check
4. Get through immigration - check
5. Get on the airplane - check
6. Get through Taiwan immigration - check
7. Follow signs to the shuttle bus that goes to the high speed rail - check

And here the powers that be decided to step in and help me out. While I was on the shuttle, a woman leaned over to me and said, "Hey, are you going to the conferece? The one in Taichung?" Why yes, I was! We started talking and it turned out that she is also teaching English in Kobe. Her parents are (I believe) Taiwanese, but she grew up in New York City and married a Japanese man. She is fluent in Chinese, English and Japanese and will be met at the train station by her good friend and fellow presenter who has a car and will take her to her hotel. (Her hotel is different than mine, but on the same side of the city). She'll ask her friend if I can come too. Seriously. So I tag along.

We talk the whole way, and by the time we get to Taiwain, I feel like I had always planned to meet up with her and we've known each other a long time. We meet her friend, who is incredibly gracious and doesn't bat an eye at picking up a stray. They decide it would be better to go get lunch together and then go to the conference to check in before going to our hotels. This works out better than I could ever have hoped - I hadn't figure out eating or registering for the conference yet. We went to a restaurant that specialized in Taiwanese food for lunch (delicious), chatted the whole time, had a special Taiwanese dessert I will post more about later, and then went to register for the conference.

While there, the lady that had picked us up from the station ran into another visiting professor (this one from Nebraska) and started talking. I introduced myself, and it so happened she was staying at the same hotel. In fact, she was on her way to the hotel now, so we could share a taxi. I went and got my things, said a temporary goodbye to my first two guardians and headed out with a new guardian and her friend, who she had just met a week earlier in Taipei. We stopped at the friend's hotel for coffee and then headed on to our hotel. I checked in (the room was lovely) and at 5:30 - met back up with my new friend and her family to go to the welcome banquet.

I'll write more about the banquet soon, but for now, my mind is just blown at how completely I have been taken care of in spite of not knowing anyone or anything about this weekend or what it would be. I was hoping that I would meet people I could hang out with once I got to the conference, but this is so far beyond what I had imagined. I am very appreciative to everyone I have met so far.