Sidetrack From My Blog
I
am off today from my two jobs of after retirement – 1. Unpaid Full-time Super
Nanny, and 2. On-line English teacher.
I
do not have to repeat the first one.
It explained plenty in my blog already. Aside from the occasional inner-turmoil complexity I faced
from time to time; it’s actually the most rewarding and fulfilling way to spend
my retirement. All I have to do is
striking the balance in life, and establish the healthy and happy well-beings
of all parties – my own family with husband, and my daughter’s family with baby
Forest.
The
2nd job, which I started in 2010, was my life-long passion in
English teaching. I have been helping
five non-English speaking students steer away from the fear of speaking, and
writing English since we made the first class in November 2010. They are one senior and two sophomores
in High School, and one sophomore and one graduate student in college.
I
conducted one-hour weekly class for each student on the weekend morning basis –
Time zone difference, nighttime in Taiwan. We e-mailed journal writing and skyped, face to face, to
cover a plethora of topics relating their life and my expectation from this old
grandaunt, a close aunt of their parents from my family and Ben’s family.
Yes,
it takes courage to conquer all the obstacles in speaking and writing for them. Not easy! But, we made it possible
through mutual learning model – I just need to get a clearer grasp of what the
student’s busy daily routine looks like, and to work together with each one of them,
so I can set some personal and academic goals for them. It definitely made the tremendous
impact for them, I could tell.
All
of them are my grandnephew and grandnieces that we met in Hsinchu and Taipei,
Taiwan, at family reunions in July 2010.
You can’t imagine the confidence and progress they have developed since we
started this project. I told their
parents to save the money by dropping the child’s cramming school, the private
English teacher they hired from some Americans ‘teaching English abroad’
program, or foreign graduate students in National colleges. “Just learn from me, the grandaunt!” “We could do it with easy on-line
and skype lessons via I-Talk BB plan my husband installed.” I said. In three years since, all these collaborative learning mechanisms via different communication
channels amazingly made all of them the top students in English at their class. The hard work paid off! The High School and College Entrance
Exam in 2012, three of them had the perfect 100 score in English. They not only love their old
grandaunt from Maryland and I also enjoy my best of inspiring and challenging ways
to keep them motivated. At the
same time, I keep up with their busy lives and maintain control over my mind,
occupied and fulfilled.
Anyhow,
my niece and nephew, parents of all these 5 students asked for a week off due
to the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year Holiday. I will blog about the cram schools and public schools, from
elementary to college, the English teaching in Taiwan some other time. Here, I do not want to let it sidetrack
from my blog today.
Field Trip #2 – Highway 101 – Conejo Connection
Saturday,
1/25/2014 8:20 a.m. – again, off I went to the Pacific View Mall Bus Transfer
Center – I was one of the five passengers – all white, except me, today. Three of them were sun-bleached; dry
and rough skin southern Californians, well into 50 – 60 years old range, casual
short-sleeve shirts and Docker khaki shorts. One guy had the biker’s shorts just like my son’s, and one
woman, lunch box packed in her big designer’s Tote bag, around 30+ years. I was thinking how could the City of
Ventura afford this kind of bus service with only 5 passengers for 56-charter
liner? Oh, well, the taxes of my
daughter and son-in-laws will pay for it.
Wacky Bus Home
See
the Wacky looking sculpture – inscribed with ‘Leap with Fun to Waiting for Bus.’ If you think waiting for a bus can be
downright dismal, this piece of art surely has a meaningful message for me: Janice, relax, have fun! Your bus riding, exploring southern California
isn’t so bad at all with your Medicare Card, $.60 bus fare, in the comfy
charter liner!
I
think you can only expect the liberal, laid-back, and tech-savvy California
State to build a funny looking structure as a public transit station. I don’t see it in Maryland. – I, myself
had started to ride Montgomery County’s ‘Ride On’ since May, 2007, when my son
needed a reliable car for summer intern in NASA at Greenbelt, Goddard. Of course, it was quite an adjustment
for my daily commute and lifestyles change. But, I have a reason besides the cliché of all other
incentives, and green environment stuff; I would really like to experience the
life of other Americans who ride the bus like me. The race, class, and cultural behavior of this group
interested me. I was spoiled with
the nice car and daily commute, only about 5.6 miles, to my job at Montgomery
County Government.
The Homeless and the Beggar
On
the way, I trotted fast through the parking lot of Trader Joe. One homeless, an old white man greeted
me ‘good morning,’ squatted in the bushes between Staple and BevMo – a liquor,
beer & fancy water beverage store. I do not believe he was the one who picked up the Frito
Lay chip from the trashcan I ran into last Sunday. I guessed that the temperate weather and the beautiful
coastlines here really attracted the homeless like him in Southern
California. It’s a heaven to them. But, are they the useless, filthy and
worthless bums or the socially excluded group with some untold stories behind? Who
knows? Am I supposed to be walking past and treating them as though they don’t
exist? If I do, I would say, I am
probably one of the majority Americans, who can only sympathize them but not benevolently
offering them the material services.
The
memory of one beggar crippled with one crooked leg, holding the walking bamboo
stick, his 2 young toddlers in tow, muttering something with mantra-like
repetition, rattling bell in the hand of one of the older kids, stood outside
at the courtyard of my old house in Hsinchu, Taiwan, vividly came into my
mind. My parents would always have
one of us children quickly put the warm rice we were eating then in his broken
bowl. What a difference in culture
between two different countries.
Of course, my subjective point of view in cross-cultural comparison
probably is biased again here.
Oxnard – the Garden of America
By
8:25 am, I was on board on the
comfortable charter liner south bound Highway 101. – This is a north–south busy U.S Highway that runs through the states of
California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of United of State. The scenery was not much different from the east-west bound
Highway 126 I took last Sunday – wide open view with palm trees lined up along
the highway, barren mountains in close range, jagged with tree-less ridges
paraded against the blue sunny sky like dinosaurs’ backbones slopes, thumping
away from the ridgeline in fast motion. - I have been reading the baby all
kinds of baby books stocked in my daughter’s house, including the
dinosaurs. After passing several exits
with shopping centers and strip-retailed stores, with designers and name brands
like you see along Rockville Pike, the bus plunged into the endless view of green
valley.
This
land, a vast plain and valley, dotted a few oilrigs for the productive oils
here – lucky America with her bounty of natural resources, is filled with
strawberry fields, covered in plastic greenhouse and cultivated farmlands. I saw from the charter bus window, the
big scale of industrial farming equipments – gigantic agricultural machineries
– Crop sprayer, spraying the steam of water from the pipes just like one of the
dancing water fountain show at Longwood Gardens, only without music. Many huge, towering John Deer like,
green harvester scattered in all corners of the field.
I
have been driving every week since I got here on 1/10/2014, to this newly opened
Whole Food in Oxnard - twice as big as the one in Kentland that Lydia, Shawn,
Casey and I stopped by to have bathroom break when we had our weekend walk
around the GE building on RT28.
But, the low driver seat in my daughter’s Subaru 4-wheel precluded me
from seeing all this open-view scenery.
The charter liner provided me with ultra-comfortable seats and nice skyline
view, had picked up only 8 passengers this time, I counted, from different
shopping plaza bus stops. We
arrived at the bus transfer point – Oxnard Transit Center.
Nostalgia
I
had always used RoadRunner – Airport Shuttle Service – from/to LAX to her home
to avoid the headache of infamous LA traffic problem. I once had the conversation with the nice young driver, born
in Oxnard, mixed Latino and white, and a part-time student at Oxnard College. This green land reminded me of the far-reaching
terraced rice fields in Taiwan.
It’s visible from virtually everywhere when I was riding the high-speed
rail, which I fell in love there – nostalgic for my homeland again. As I think about the wonder of Taiwan where I was born and now in Oxnard on Hghway101, a transplanted citizen,
or naturalized American citizen, whatever you called, living in America and in
California, it’s hard not to restrain my fragile sense of belonging. In fact, this scene has inspired me to
love life and things around me, no matter where I live.
He
told me this part of the valley is home to some of the most fertile soil in the
world, and as such, agriculture is one of the region’s most vital and important
industries. The Oxnard is the
‘Strawberry Capital of the World” and Santa Paula, the place where I visited on
the charter bus last Sunday is the ‘The Citrus Capital of the World.” The Oxnard plain/valley is also a major
producer of celery, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, and onions. Believe it or not, the Bok Choi, that’s
a ‘must have’ vegetable in pretty much all my Chinese/Taiwanese friends are produced
here. You would think it must be
nice and cheap to get all these fresh produces. Nope, my daughter said, ‘Mom, I wouldn’t want you to buy
those strawberries or salmon in COSTCO, they are not ORGANIC!” Good grief!
Joyce – My College Classmate
I called up my college
classmate, Joyce, who lives at Newbury Park that I was coming over to visit her
before she leaves for Taiwan, in spring, to temporarily settle there. Joyce, a classmate of mine, came in the
first in our class from Tainan Senior High School, is another successful story
of National Cheng Kung University Foreign Language and Literature Department. She left the hard life in Taiwan
behind, studied in US and became a wife, mother and career woman. Unfortunately, her beloved husband,
Robert, Culvert, 82, who passed away on June 19, 2012 in the gym while he was pumping
the iron. Joyce would like to
visit his gravesite while I visited her today. Both of us could take the advantage of balmy weather, 75
degree, to climb the Stony Point Park afterword. I told her, ‘I am not driving today, and I plan to explore
Highway 101 with VISTA charter bus again.’
Conejo Grade
By
9:40 am – The road climbed slowly toward Conejos Grade – I have asked my
daughter about this word all the time.
She said it’s ‘the Spanish word for ‘rabbit’.” “The Spanish were the
first Europeans to arrive this area back many years ago. The rabbits and various animals made
their homes here.”
She commutes everyday from
Ventura to Thousand Oaks – Amgen - where she works. There is large stretch of road, the grade is physically a
steep incline, which I was so nervous and tried to stay alert to watch my speed
when I made the first trip to see Joyce in Newbury Park back in October 2013.
By
10:05 am - I was the only one got off from this stop. The rest of them disappeared at different shopping plaza when
I was looking at my photo shots. I
only paid attention to the old guy with the biker’s shorts carefully unloaded
his expensive bike from the front of the bus at Camarillo. There must be some good bike path in
that region.
Joyce
picked me up at ‘The Oaks Mall’ closest to her Wendy Drive bus stop, which was
not a stop for weekend route.
Luckily, it’s only about 5 minutes’ drive for her. I was very happy to see her regain some
strength physically recently. I
know we all experience grieving a loss in our lives. It will take time to get over and find your whole self
again. She told me, ‘she is
trying.’
We
had simple lunch while she was preparing to have her beautiful house clean out
and spruce up to be rental ready.
The plumber came to inspect her ceiling where she claimed was leaky at
one point. But, the plumber ran
the water from upstairs and inspected all the pipes in the house still couldn’t
find where the problem was.
Anyhow, I shared with them our problem of ice dame and leaky ceiling that
was wide spreading the whole community in Maryland during the 2010 Nor’easter
storm. Her case was not this
though; the plumber didn’t charge her any and promised to come back again if it
happens again.
Topanga Canyon
 |
| Mountain with aged Rocks |
Cactus-strewn Mountain
Joyce
drove me by State route 118 to Robert’s gravesite, located at near Topanga
Canyon. It’s a land of
California’s State Park where Ronald Reagan’s Library and Museum is nearby in
Simi Valley. I saw many American
flags flying in the wind with the mountain behind it. My family paid a visit in 2009
when we visited my daughter’s family after her marriage. The scenery changed from cactus-strewn
mountains at Highway 101 to mountains with aged rocks and boulders everywhere
on both sides of the Highway.
Joyce found her
husband’s gravestone near a shady tree and behind a newly planted lily flowers
from someone else’s loss. It
inscribed ‘Robert (Bob) Culvert, a husband, brother, father and Papa -
6/19/1930 – 2/23/2012, I live a good life, I love my wife, Joyce, forever. She
sat silently weeding the grass along the edges. I bowed my head standing and prayed for Robert peace in
heaven.
The End Journey
It’s
a journey we must go through.
We
did not hike the famous Stony Point Park.
My back probably couldn’t handle the challenge. I’d better save some energy to carry my
grandson instead. He is getting
big, close to five month next week.
22 pictures to share - Sorry for no time to add the captions
22 pictures to share - Sorry for no time to add the captions
https://picasaweb.google.com/115266046856451651125/Highway101_Jan252014?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKmgu_bH8ofvPQ&feat=directlink
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