Myths and Realities

I was doing some research on teaching abroad and found a website with things people assume about teaching and the truth about it, I enjoyed reading it because it was very true to what I experience.

Myth: Teaching is glamorous.  You can travel everywhere you want.

Reality:  Hours can be crazy, you might be working 6 days/week, split shifts and the only time you can prepare for your classes is on your own time (unpaid, naturally).  Often there is very little time to travel and see the countryside.  When you do get a day off you are so tired, you sleep.

Myth: Teaching is easy, anyone can do it.  You just speak English and chat with your students.

Reality: Teaching is hard work; there are lessons to prepare and tests to write and grade.  Often students have a good command of English grammar and you must anticipate questions that might arise out of the lesson.  It is necessary to continually reflect upon your teaching abilities in order to become a better teacher.

Myth: It is not a “real” job.  This is just something you do until you grow up.

Reality:  For many people, teaching English abroad is a job they do for only a year or two.  However, others have made this into a career and as such treat this job professionally.  We make “real” money and put “real” food down on the table to support our families.

Myth:  You can get rich.

Reality:  I would say there are few jobs that I would consider high paying, especially when you compare what teachers and students drive (or ride on) to school.  There are a few countries where salaries are quite high, but those are rare in the big scheme of things globally and these jobs usually require a masters degree or higher. 
       However, teachers can live quite comfortably as the cost of living can be very low.  It is only when you convert the salary back to your home country that you realize how limited your savings can be.

Myth:  After a year or two of teaching abroad, my experiences will help me find a job when I return home.

Reality:  Unfortunately this is false as most employers couldn't care less about what you did and will assume you were living it up while you were “on holidays”.  Even friends and family will grow tired of hearing about your experiences.  As a result, many people go back overseas to teach as they miss their more carefree lifestyle.

The last one kind of surprised me, but I don't think my family will get tired of hearing me talk about stuff...at least I hope not :P

The Grocery Experience

I don't enjoy buying eggs in Taiwan.  Not that I don't like eggs or don't use them, because I do.  Grocery shopping in Taiwan is just very different than in America, for me at least, it involves more strategic planning.  Buying eggs in America, or anything really, is easy: find what you want, pay for it, put it in your car, and drive home.  The main difference I have between the two countries is the car, or lack thereof here in Taiwan.  In America I would have no problem buying a large quantity of groceries to fit in my trunk or backseat to take home.  Shopping in Taiwan depends on how much I can (or am willing to) carry on the walk home.  I usually pick the day ahead of time, usually the last day I think I can survive without food (and when I actually have time).  Don't worry Mom, I eat everyday, just not always the healthiest or "home-cooked".  I empty my bookbag except for my wallet and extra bags.  Grocery bags cost 1-2NT so I try to reuse what I have.  Then I start off on the 10-minute walk, if it's raining I take a bus.  Then I start my shopping.  Milk, juice and other larger/heavy items will be passed over if I have no food at all.  And eggs are purchased if I have a light load.  Fruits and vegetables are most commonly found in my basket, along with bread, peanut butter, frozen dumplings, and maybe some crackers.  Most of these items can handle being piled into my bookbag.  One thing I can say is I'm an excellent bagger now.  The cashier will shove everything into one large grocery bag, so I don't have to pay for two, then I'll take it to a table by the exit and repack it - I've got a system now :) Just another habit I've picked up living in Taiwan!

The Banking Experience

I got paid yesterday (woohoo!). So since my Tuesday afternoons are free from 2-4 I decided to run some errands. First the post office to send some mail, then the bank to wire money home. The exchange rate isn't excellent right now (32.9NT = $1US), but it's better than when I first came (34NT = $1US). So after I finish at the "foreign exchange" counter I have to take a number and wait to be called to do the actual cash transaction. Since it was right after lunch I had about a 15 minute wait.

I always enjoy being in the bank because one of my favorite jobs was working at the bank in Wayne. Today as I was sitting there I noticed a bank person behind the counter looking at me once or twice. I didn't think much of it, just another "stare at the white girl" moment. Two minutes later, he was standing in the waiting area, which I found amusing, because after he said hello to another customer he came over to me and attempted an English conversation. It was cute and it didn't last long since he was obviously busy, but he was the bank manager, so I told him that I had worked at a bank in America. We both smiled and then he went back to work.

Just a small thing, but one of the little things you need everyday to keep you smiling!

Winter's Here!

It's 66 degrees!!  Can you believe it?  I can't!  The heat finally went away this weekend, only downside is it brought some rain with it, nothing to bad, but not fun to be out in for too long.  It's actually feeling kind of cold, and I have no desire to have my AC on. 

Last year I remember the beginning of October being fairly chilly, so our summer heat lasted way to long this year.  So the cold finally came, and I'll hopefully see some snow when I'm home for Christmas, my winter expectations are being fulfilled.

And although it's been sort of dank and dreary, I always have this to brighten my day!

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I'm tired, it's been a long week and it's only Wednesday.  I've been trying to upload photos on a website for the past hour and it hasn't been going well, so I'm going to post some pictures here for your enjoyment, but there might not be much detail....ENJOY :D

The happy little bumblebee, Melanie.

Natalie trying some different costume ideas (she was actually trying on her new USAS sweatshirt and moving her pumpkin costume out of the way, but I found this arrangement amusing)

Kate and her nephew, Caster, the newest addition to the Gorillas.


Eden and Rain


Polly had the cutest witches dress.


Angela, a little angel


Wendi was not a happy ladybug.


Kevin is hiding behind his trick-or-treat bag


Walking down the street...two by two!


Getting ready to sing at a bakery


Singing at McDonalds.


Making some noise at a cell phone store.


Happy Kangaroos with Teacher Natalie


Some pretty tired Gorillas and Teacher Marisa


Natalie and Kate waiting for the bus.              

Let's Chat

I have 20 minutes before my "bedtime", so I'll take the time to blog. Which is another way of procrastinating on the many other things I should be doing. This week is way to busy...and it's only Tuesday. It's 'PTA' week at Uncle Sam, and I use PTA loosely because it just means the parents come visit and tour the school and also sit in on one of your classes. The class they sit in on is over prepared and done up with more activities than you would normally do to make it look good for the school. Lucky me, I have to PTAs to do. One for my homeroom kids, my Gorillas, on Thursday, and one for the Pandas tomorrow. I'm doing the Pandas because quite a few of them used to be Gorillas so they're used to me, and since we're currently one foreign teacher short I didn't mind.

On top of PTA, this week is busy for my online class through WSC. I had a test to take Monday night...it was like 10 pages long! I think I actually did ok, but the weekend of studying stressed me out a bit. I have homework due on American Tuesday and Thursday (one of the main things I'm procrastinating, thanks to the 13 hour time difference!) and another test in two weeks.

Also in two weeks there's a birthday party that I'm in charge of, a trick or treat outing, and a haunted house that I'm also in charge of...slowly I am learning to say 'no' to extra things :)

It's safe to say I'm stressed and worn out. And for the past few weeks I've been having a pretty hard time, to the point where I've considered coming home quite permanently. I'm just at that point where I ask myself why I'm still here. It doesn't help that I have other people ask me the same question. The first year was an adventure, now that it's sort of the same thing, I think I'm bored. And yes, if I was in the states at a job, I could end up just as bored. But chances are, a job in America will be some sort of position or company that I would plan on staying with for many years and move up in the organization. It would be a job with a future, a career. Here in Taiwan, teaching is not a career, I can't move up in my position. It's a yearly contract to do the same thing over and over.

Feeling like I'm not going anywhere, when I've based my life on moving forward, making goals, and doing it as fast as I can, is really hard for me. As a freshman in high school I was researching colleges. College that I completed in 3 years instead of 4. Mom knew the day the next semester's class schedule came out to bring me home a copy, and that night I'd start listing the possible classes I could take. Planning and organizing, setting goals and schedules are habits that I can be quite obsessive about. Although most of the time I write out the schedule better than I actually follow them. I know I once blogged a whole 'life plan', and I'm not so obsessive that I freak out if things don't follow my plans, I know stuff can change, and I actually like change (explains moving to Taiwan!). So maybe I'm not getting enough change right now and I feel stuck. Who knows?

And I can't deny that some of this is probably homesickness. I miss my family and the few friends I'm close to. Although I do have friends here and people I hang out with, and people I will miss when I do decide to return to Nebraska, it's still hard because a lot of them I haven't known for that long, or if I have, they're Chinese so explaining emotions and feelings can get a bit tricky. I am lucky though because my two main supervisors I consider good friends, and when I first started questioning whether I should stay my full year I felt comfortable enough to talk to them and try to explain how I was feeling. Which helped me to decided that at least for now I plan to finish my contract, but will be taking a vacation for a full two weeks at Christmas, to go home and see if that helps. Xmas and New Years at home will do more help than hurt and I hope will give me the kick I need to finish what I started.

Maybe once October's over and all these extra things we have going on come to an end my feelings will change. We'll have to wait and see.

A healthy obsession?...Dad's not gonna like this.

It is far more seemly to have a Studie full of Books, than they Purse full of money. - John Lyly

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. - Logan Pearsall Smith

Today I decided I needed a break from all the stress (and right now there's a lot of stress), so I decided to travel into Taipei to my favorite place: the Eslite Mall. Sounds like a normal girls shopping spree right? I walk in, past the boutiques of bags and shoes, dresses and jackets, straight to the escalator taking me to the 2nd floor - the beginning floor with 4 more above it, all filled with books. I don't spend much time on the 2nd floor, it's mainly magazines and electronics. Most of my time is spent on the 3rd floor - general literature and the 5th floor - music/movies and stationary stuff. Just walking through rows of books, Chinese and English, makes me happy. The fact that I literally get lost in this place puts a smile on my face. And although I spent too much money there (oops) it's fun to just go and see the books and watch the people. People are sitting on benches and chairs reading, or they just find a random corner to occupy. It's quite like a library, yet not so restricted.

There are a lot of people like me, people who need books the way they need air. - Richard Marek

I only bought 3 books, some little gifts and 2 notebooks, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. One of the notebooks is a reader's journal, I figured it would be good because when I read a great book I want to talk about it a lot, this way I can write about it instead and not completely annoy/confuse Mom. The notebook it had a lot of quotes, which is another thing I love. And there's one that really seemed to fit well with me: "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." St. Augustine.

I enjoy reading, it takes me away from what's going on in reality for awhile and into whatever world I'm reading about, a mini-escape. And I enjoy writing, journals/blogs, stories, poems, a release of things inside that sometimes make more sense on paper. Healthy obsessions that sometimes empty my pockets and weigh down my luggage (sorry Dad!), but help me relax and realize life doesn't always have to be so fast paced and stressed. Sometimes it's good to just curl up in bed with a book and read the day away.

Ok, maybe I am crazy..

Let's go through a week in the life of Marisa...well Monday through Friday mainly:

I try to wake up between 6:00 and 6:30 and leave for school between 7:00 and 7:30. I don't really have to be to school until 8:30, but I like getting there early, I'm more productive and I enjoy having the office to myself for awhile.

I always teach Monday-Friday 9:00am - 12:00pm
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday I teach 2:00pm-4:00pm and 4:40-6:10pm
Tuesdays I have my afternoons off starting at 2:oopm
Everyday I have 12:00-2:00pm as a break and planning period, but there's usually meetings going on during that time too.

So this doesn't seem to bad, a full schedule, but doable. Is this enough for Marisa? No.
I also teach hours at Joy, our sister school, downtown.
Tuesday - 6:40-8:40
Thursday - 7:40-8:40
Friday - 7:40-8:40 (this is a newly added class)
Tuesday's is ok since I have the whole afternoon off anyways.
Thursdays and Fridays I chose teaching the later time so I actually have time to get from Uncle Sam to Joy. So even though there's a break from when I finish at Uncle Sam at 6:10 to when I teach at Joy at 7:40, there's taking the bus, eating dinner, and planning the class.

So a normal work week for me is
29 teaching hours at Uncle Sam
4 teaching hours at Joy
21 prep/commuting hours at Uncle Sam and Joy

On top of that I have my online class for my Master's at Wayne State, and I have a test coming up so I should be studying :P and I'm trying to fit in some more Chinese learning on the weekends! So if my posts are infrequent which I know they are, it's because by the time I get to the weekend to actually have time to write stuff -- I'm too damn tired!! hehe. Guess I'm officially a workaholic...am I crazy?? I hope not!

Memories

Newspaper clippings related to Taiwan and/or Middle America

62

Letters, notes, or cards

44

(plus some that probably got thrown out on accident)

Staying connected to what's going on back home, especially with my family

Priceless

Every week my grandmother writes me a letter and includes any clippings she finds when she reads the paper. I look forward to her letters every week, it's probably the only reason I check my mailbox (except for bills, but that's not fun!). I love getting mail, and I think she knows that. Despite the fact that I'm horrible at responding, she continues to write me. She did this 5 years ago too, the first time I lived in Taiwan, and I knew she'd do it again when I decided to return to Taiwan to teach. I can't seem to throw them away, they live in a box with other cards I've recieved, ticket stubs and random memories I've collected in Taiwan so far. And this box will continue to grow over the next 12 months. Life would be no fun without memories and without grandmothers who send weekly letters to Taiwan with the Nebraska weather report! Priceless!

(5 minutes after this was posted I found 2 more letters and 3 more clippings :)

Resolution...

Things haven't been the best recently. Not bad necessarily, just a lot of work and not much fun. It's getting to the point where I'm almost tempted to come home instead of try and tough it out. Today though, I decided that before I make any drastic moves, I'm going to attempt to visit one new place every weekend. Just some simple Saturday or Sunday day trip, most likely somewhere in Taipei city. I keep saying that I've seen all the tourist places, but I know there's plenty more I haven't seen yet. And I think getting out of the house (and out of Sanxia) will give me more energy during the week.

Today I went to a BBQ with some Uncle Sam teachers, at a co-workers house in the mountains. After lots (and lots) of food, we played with water balloons (pictures soon hopefully), and then went to another house and sang some Karaoke. It was a lot of fun and has me motivated to go out more. I get to Friday and the end of my week I'm just so tired I don't want to leave my comfy bed again until Monday morning. So I'm attempting to change that, and we'll see if that helps how I'm feeling during the rest of the week. Plus it'll give me interesting stuff to post every week (and I will attempt to post every week!)

Dance Time

I teach extra hours at Joy Language School, and I usually get there at least an hour early so I can plan my lesson. Most of the time there's other kids there doing some private study or working on homework and things for class. Two of my students where there one day and when they're there I don't get any work done! So I pulled out my camera and we had some fun!

My new class

I've been asked to teach some older classes.  G level classes they're called.  It's Elementary kids that usually go to a Chinese elementary school then come to Uncle Sam afterwards for English classes.  I originally started with one class from 4:30-6:00 (which is considered overtime :D) and for the first 3 weeks there were only 3 students.  Now that the new semester has started it's up to 16 students, most of which are brand new to English classes.  I have some pictures of the 3 boys I had in the beginning, and I'm hoping to get some more pictures next week at the birthday party of the rest of the class.  It's a loud, rowdy class, but it's fun that way!

My boys - Peter, Leo and Hubert

Leo - the wildest one

Hubert - the smartest of the three but he gets silly sometimes

Peter - he's the newest, but most determined

My new home!

I decided I wanted to live by myself this year, so around August 15th I moved to my new apartment :D

Living room, with a very small couch.

Looking from my front door - kitchen on the left, bedrooms on the right

Little bar/sitting area looking between the kitchen and bedrooms

Spare bedroom - everyone's invited for a visit!

Closet space in my bedroom - there's so much room!

Kitchen with door to laundry room

Huge shoe closet!

Bathroom with plenty of counter space just for me

Say Cheese

We have a new class of babies at Uncle Sam, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take some pictures.  Enjoy the cuteness!!

Home Sweet Home

Sorry I've been on vacation for about a month it seems.  I went back to the states from July 22-Aug 2 and had a great time.  Now I'm back in the swing of things at work.  Signed a new contract with the same school.  They asked me to stay and I liked that idea more than going to a brand new school and starting all over.  So one more year at Uncle Sam.  I have had some moments of homesickness because I miss the people I got to spend 10 days with, but I also love my kids, so it gets tough.

I drove a car (and rode in many) for the first time in a year!

Sisters!

Lots of shots!

Lots of karaoke - something that is hugely popular in Taiwan.

 

I love my sister!

I was cold in Nebraska in July!

The best bro-in-law

Sisters and best friends!

Played a whole lot of Guitar Hero

My brother.

Best friend ever!!

Fun times!