Pictures!!!

I found these pictures on Alida's Facebook page. These are the toddelers I teach so I borrowed the pictures to show you.

These are the T3Butterflies (2-3 years old) L-R: Cherry, YunYun, Andrew, Josh, Rich, Bill

The T1Dragonflies: Alice, Paul, Vivian, Summer

The Butterflies with Teacher Alida

Joshie

YunYun and Bill sleeping with Teacher Yvonne

Cherry sleeping with Alida

Typhoon Days and Moon Cakes

So, some people are probably wondering if I will miss all the snow days we had in Nebraska. I'm not afraid to admit that some cold, snowy days I wished hard for a snow day, not just because it was snowy and cold but because I just didn't want to go to class or work :D Well, have no fear, because here in Taiwan there is a nice substitute: Typhoon days!

Tuesday turned out to be one of these days. Monday seemed fine, but there was talk of a typhoon coming, nothing to serious, but they did postpone the zoo field trip for the older kids, but no talk of canceling school altogether. Monday's I teach my evening classes and afterwards I take a school bus home. On the bus there was the uncle driving, me, and a student. Uncle was talking to the student about something in Chinese (he doesn't speak much English) and he told her to translate into English. She was nervous and it ended up being "Tomorrow, typhoon. No go Uncle Sam" I clarified that she meant not going to school, I asked if she would be going to school and she said no, and then I got all excited about no school of course. I also tried to explain snow days to her. After she was dropped off, my phone rang and it was Fiona from school making it official that we'd have no school.

I really was very happy about it because I didn't have the best day at all. I had a meeting with some supervisors about a student of mine not behaving the best and I have to come up with a solution to fix this. Plus they sounded like they were criticising me about everything and I just wasn't in the mood to try and defend myself or deal with it. Then, on the way to Joy I ended up getting lost and being an hour late. So, overall, it was a horrible day and the first time I was really upset. So a day off was very welcomed. Although I ended up being incredibly lazy (is there any other way to be on a typhoon/snow day?), and I didn't have Internet because of the weather.

But it really wasn't that bad, the typhoon brushed over us killing one person and went on to China killing 5 people there. They call it Typhoon Wipha, a woman's name in Thai. They were saying it was going to be a super-typhoon originally, but after it landed in Shanghai it was downgraded to a tropical storm, so no biggie!

This Monday and Tuesday I don't have to work again (I'm just so lucky!). It is the Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival, officially on Tuesday, but we're getting Monday too to have a long weekend. The moon cake is a food created for the festival. I received a box of moon cake things from work. The cake is usually small and different ones are filled with different things like red bean (not my favorite) and pineapple (pretty good). The apartment building is having a party on the 24th that I think I'll go to, just to see. I'll have to let you know how it goes.

Hope the moon festival will bring you happiness!

(I'm keeping the box, it's cool! Yes Dad, it's coming home with me, stop shaking your head, I don't care! :P )

Weekend news

So this weekend was pretty good. Yesterday (Saturday) I offered to substitute teach for Leon so he could be up at 3am to watch the World Cup rugby game that was on. I taught from 9am-12. It wasn't too bad, it was the oldest class at Joy Language school and they were very quite, so it was a little difficult to get them to be interested and talk. The bus I take to get home stops in front of a Pizza Hut so I bought some to bring home for Gretchen and me. I got the chicken and mushroom pizza, finding out later that it's topped with chicken, mushrooms, onions and corn and the other was a Hawaiian with pineapple and ham. Just having the pan crust was wonderful!! After lunch we were pretty lazy the rest of the day, watched movies and hung out around the apartment.

Gretchen has been wanting to find a church to go to for some time. She talked to a teacher at school who found one very close to our apartment that had English. So we went this morning. She told us the service started at 9, when it really starts at 10 so we were a bit early. The pastor and other worship leaders were there and they talked to us and were very friendly, but soon informed us that the service isn't in English, they just have a lot of bilingual parts. There's 4 TV screens around the room that sometimes have the Chinese and English and the hymnals have Chinese and English which was pretty neat. So while everyone else is singing Chinese, Gretchen and I are singing in English :P It was a very warm environment though, so it was worth the language barriers. We pretty much understood everything that was going on and then they started the sermon...all in Chinese! A woman sitting behind us leaned forward and asked if she need to translate and soon she was sitting between us explaining everything the pastor was saying. After that there was communion. The little kids are in Sunday School during church but they bring them up to participate in communion. One of the kids, Joy, goes to Uncle Sam and I teach her class 3 times a week. She was walking up the aisle, saw me, and yelled "Teacher Marisa!". It was so cute, but then during a prayer, she got up again and came towards me and said "Teacher Marisa" and went to her mom to point me out! It was cute and funny at the same time.

Near the end of the service they announce new guests. We had filled out a sheet with our names beforehand and they called my name first and I had to stand up in front of everyone, then Gretchen, then other new people (all Chinese). After everyone was introduced, the guy said welcome, this is your family and it was easy to believe him.

After the service they have a lunch where everyone came up to introduce themselves and I got a chance to talk to Joy and her mother. We are planning on going back next week and probably repeatedly because it was so inviting and there were many people wanting to help and be friends. It was really great!

After we got home I left to go visit my first host family when I lived in Taiwan as an exchange student. I did not know which bus went directly from Sanxia to Shin Dien (the city they live in) so I had to go the long way: bus, subway, switch subway, bus. I left at 1:30 and got to their home at 4....don't ask. A lot of it was time spent waiting for the different transportation's and then after the subway I had to remember the community bus I used to take to get up the mountain, I was so nervous I would miss it or get on the wrong bus. After I was safely on the right one I couldn't remember where to get off at! I got off on a road that I thought was close to their house, but I didn't know which way to walk. I asked a guy in Chinese if he knew where the road I need was, he answered in English and helped me figure out what to tell Eric so he could come and get me :D

Back in their home it was great, so many memories, after a lot of chit chat I went out on the balcony just to admire the view again!! Next time I go I'll have to take pictures again, it's just so peaceful. We talked about everything, working here, being back, family back home, what I do on the weekends, their sons (both in the US). Stacey's English is not the best but she tries so hard it's cute and I love her for it. Eric sometimes had to translate things for her, but I was teaching her new words throughout the night like I usually do. She made dinner for us, very simple, dumplings and soup. Afterwards we watched TV for a little bit, Eric fell asleep and went to bed, but Stacey and I watched Steel Magnolias until I had to leave at 8:30.

It was a wonderful day and even though it's 12:30 pm and I should be sleeping, I'm happy that I got to meet so many new people today and visit with some old ones. This really is my second home.

Gorillas go to the zoo!

This morning was our trip to the Taipei Zoo. It was fun, but tiring at the same time. Trying to keep 12 little people in order as we walk around is not easy. At one point they wanted them to walk two by two, like the buddy system....I can barely get them to walk one by one!! It was fun though. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I was busy keeping them in order, but I did get some really great ones. All of these kids are in my homeroom (K1Gorillas), so they aren't the little little ones, but the little ones :PThis is Dora waiting outside the zoo all redy to go inside.

This is the only animal picture I took :P

Attempt # 1 at a group photo

(Jasper, William, Dora, Candy, Polly, Vicky)

Attempt #2

Attempt #3, and we gave up!

(Ken, Selina, William, Dora, Polly, Vicky, Emily)

Lunch time, they made sack lunches for everyone.

Close up at lunch time, Emily was yelling at me so I took a picture.

Candy sat with me on the benches to eat lunch because there wasn't enough chairs for everyone.

Leo and Vicky

Polly

Vicky

Emily - one of my favorites, she's very smart!

Playtime after lunch, just running around.

(Gavin, Vicky, Emily, Candy)

Getting rid of all that energy!!

This has to be my favorite picture. This is William, a newer student that can't understand much and likes to run wild. The fact that he actually stayed still for this is amazing!!

Candy could not stand still at all

Emily

Vicky and her froggy friend

They had an area near the bathroom of decorated styrafoam poo and this big plastic poo shape that the kids could climb in....don't ask me why!

Trying to stand in line to head back to school

Gavin, waiting on the bus

It's blurry I know, but you can kind of see the small seats in the bus. The bigger person in the back is Teacher Phoebe, my Chinese teacher.

The kids were very tired after the zoo, this is Dora sleeping on the way home.

Emily was sleeping but she woke up when she almost fell over :P

Candy was sleeping but woke up, sat on the floor and went back to sleep, so I had to take a picture lol

Teacher Pheobe borrowed my camera to get a picture of Candy because it was so funny.

Made in China

I have internet at my apartment now...yay!! We were told that our internet bill was overdue (it was in Chinese how were we supposed to know!) so when the guy came to collect we had him set up a router so I could have internet for my computer instead of always using Gretchen's. Anyways as he was setting up he was having trouble getting things figured out. He got the router hooked up and connected and I helped him get to the right place to get the computer to recognize it but once we had everything figured out the internet still wouldn't come up. We kept trying different things and we checked the internet on Gretchen's computer and that worked fine. Finally, he pointed to the Ethernet cord connecting my computer to the router and said "Made in China - no good!" It was so funny to hear it!! He had brought his own cord to make any length I want so if I wanted to use my computer at my desk we could, so he made the cord and plugged everything in and it all worked! So we both said "Made in China - no good!" It was really great and he ended up throwing the China cord away. That has been my new catch phrase for the time being, just to let you all know :D

Update (with pictures)

So I've finally had some time to update. It's been very busy the past week, just getting into the hang of things and figuring out what works and what doesn't. At first it was a little daunting because I have some pretty unruly kids and figuring out how to fill a whole class time took some work. But things seem to be getting into routine now which makes me pretty happy and comfortable.

Here's how a regular week goes for me now:
Up by 7:30, at school around 8ish. I head to class around 8:50 to get the kids and get their stuff put away. 4 classes in the morning and then lunch at 12 down in the basement where the kitchen is located. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have from 12:00-2:00 for lunch/lesson planning and whatever else. On Tuesdays from 1-2 there's a staff meeting and on Thursdays from 1:10 till about 1:30 there's a mini workshop where one of the teachers (foreign or chinese) demonstrates how they'd teach a certain subject or class. Then from 2:00-4:00 there's 3 classes and I'm finished for the day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Just recently though, on Mondays from 6:40-8:40pm and Wednesdays from 5:00-6:00 I teach at Joy Language School. A sister school maybe, of Uncle Sam. Joy is just a cram school though, which means, it's school after school :P Kids go to their regular everyday school like ours and then afterwards come to Joy for extra classes. Some cram schools have classes in all subjects like Math, Chinese, Science. Joy I think is just specifically English. I taught at Joy on Monday and it was pretty nice. I had had a bad morning and horrible night sleep along with a tiny cold things were just adding up and then being with the little kids that don't want to listen...it was a pretty bad day for me and when I had first gotten to school in the morning that's when I found out I had to teach at Joy...no warning or notice or anything, so I was pretty upset. When it finally came time to teach though, it went really well and it was nice to have kids that actually listen to you :P it was actually fun. Most of those kids I taught on Monday were 10-11 years old and we got to play some games that were fun. I really like that M-F 8:00-4:00 I get to be with the little kids and then Monday and Wednesday evenings I get to be with an older group, it gives me some variety.

This coming Monday is PTA day for the little kids, so that's a bit nerve racking because in the morning the parents will be in the room watching me teach, so I don't know how the kids will act then, but I'm glad it's on Monday so I can get it over with. Then on Tuesday we get to go to the zoo!!! And you know what that means!! PICTURES!! It's my class (K1) and Patricks class (also K1) and the toddlers!!! I'm so excited because #1 - it's the zoo (be jealous Megan!) and #2 - I get to be with the little kids in a fun setting and #3 - I can bring my camera and get some cool pictures I hope. So be checking up end of next week.

And speaking of pictures I have a few. I took some pictures around the apartment.
The first one is my bedroom, well my bed and the window. I'm standing right in front of the door and to the right of the photo would be my closet.
Picture number two is the kitchen. I'm sitting on the couch in the living room, and you can see the fridge and the little counter area that divides the living room and kitchen. Small area but it works. If you look and see the doorway there that leads to the little "room" that has the washing machine and where we hang our clothes to dry, which if you have a very good eye, you can see Gretchens socks hanging there :P
Next picture is part of the living room. I'm sitting on the couch still (very lazy sorry) and to the left of the fan is the entrance to Gretchens room, the doorway behind the fan is my room and the door on the other side of the bookshelf is to the bathroom. We're watching The Green Mile on Gretchens laptop :P

I took a picture of the outside of the buildings but it was on my phone so I don't have one to post yet..maybe this weekend I'll get more motivation to take more pictures :D

Sunday I hung out with my friend Vickie in Danshui, which is on the northern part of Taipei. We went there because supposedly a lot of foriegners like to go there. It's pretty cool, a couple of streets with tons of shops and a lot of the shops have trinkets and things and some stores have aborigione themes, which will makes good gifts at Christmas time, so I plan on going back. It's located right next to a river, I'm not sure if the river is also called Danshui or not, but I took a picture. They do a lot of fishing here and people take boats to get across to the other side. Don't ask me the name of the mountain, Vickie told me but I forgot. It had been raining earlier in the day so it was very cloudy, but it was still nice.

This is Vickie, she was a classmate of mine last time I was here in Taiwan. I was so excited to see her and she was excited to see me, to the point where she didn't finish her homework (don't worry I yelled at her for that lol). We meet up at 3:00, got to Danshui around 4:00 and didn't leave till about 7:00. We ate a ton of food, or at least I did because she kept buying stuff for me to eat. Danshui, literally translated means "fish ball" which is a food they're famous for, the food Vickey has in the picture. She explained it as fish and other stuff all mixed together and made into a ball. The ones we ate here are fried and put on a stick, but later we went to a more sit down eating place and had a soup that had the same thing in them only not fried. It's pretty good, doesn't really taste that fishy.

Anyways, I'm having a good time. Work is work, but also a lot of fun. At least more fun then if I'd be working in an office pushing papers or writing computer code :P On the weekends I'm really lazy with occasionally spurts of motivation to go out and do stuff. This weekend I think will be pretty lazy since I'm still feeling a little sick and Gretchen's sick too. But on Sunday I think I'm having lunch with Angela and her family, which will be a lot of fun.

More later!!

Marisa