I'M SORRY!! and kiva.org

I'm bad at writing letters, I'm bad at making phone calls, I'm very bad at responding to e-mails, I'm usually not this bad at writing down my thoughts. This should be easy, I think a lot so blogging should be a piece of cake. But then of course you get busy and tired and it's easy to make excuses....but NO!! Not any more!! I am going to start blogging regularly, at least once a week I promise and if I don't I will apologize profusely and you can all yell at me.

Anyways, I will update on past events like thanksgiving, Xmas, school activities, random activities. And I do have some pictures, so don't worry, it's coming. But right now I just want to talk about me in general.

I have been in Taiwan for 150 days (I have a count up on Facebook hehe) and I like to think about how much I've changed in such a short time. I realize every event in a person's life can potentially change them, even the little things, but moving across the world was a bit of a monumental event in my life, especially since it happened right after college graduation when I was thrown out into the real world. Obviously thinking of being 'thrown' into the real world was a scary thought, so I thought of the one place I would be most happiest, and here I am, and I don't regret my decision.

I love working with kids, I couldn't ask for a better job. Despite my complaints, tiredness, and occasional anger and the kids that choose not to listen to me or anyone I love them so much. I already know how sad I'm going to be when I leave, whether I'm going home or going to a different school in Taiwan, it will be hard. But having this job has taught me how to figure things out for myself, be resourceful and be more creative, along with probably many other positive traits that I cannot think of right now. Just being in Taiwan has helped me to grow up, yes I still call Mommy often, but it's more just to talk about things going on and ask a general question or two rather than for her to solve all my problems :) Being here has also allowed me to explore more about myself. Not that I couldn't have possibly figured these things out in Wayne, but it's like a friend said to me before I moved: she knew how right this was for me and that Wayne was just to small, she told me how I was meant to travel and see the world and be in a city where I would have room to grow. And I think she's right, although I have learned that I like to be very lazy on the weekends!!

I feel like I'm figuring myself out all over again, which I actually do often. I like to evaluate me and see what I can do to improve. And recently I think I've been doing pretty good. I teach Monday - Friday 9-4 (or 9-9 on Thursdays and Fridays), I have private Chinese lessons for two hours every week and I started my first Graduate class online through WSC. I have an extremely productive life at the moment, so when people ask what I did over the weekend and I either say "slept" or "as little as possible" for once I don't feel ashamed or embarrassed of those responses :D

Recently I have been "youtubbing" a lot. Just watching random videos for fun. I have some favorites right now. There are two brothers that started a project last year where they made a deal to communicate without any text, so no e-mails, online chats or letters. They mainly do video blogs (on YouTube) or phone calls. Now, this project ended once 2008 began, but their still doing videos and I've started watching all their past videos. These are to very passionate guys and...very nerdy! So I love them, being a fellow nerd! They actually call themselves Nerdfighters and have a website for fellow nerdfighters :) One of the brothers, Hank, is very eco-friendly, he runs a website (ecogeek.org) and discusses environmental issues often. The older brother, John, is a young adult writer.

Anyways, in some recent videos I watched the brothers had a family reunion in the Dominican Republic where the experienced some of the poverty there. Afterwards the brothers were trying to think of ways to make a difference. One of them came across this website: http://www.kiva.org/, which is a place where you can give money, but unlike charity, it's more like a loan. You pick the specific entrepreneur to lend money to and how much money, and after 6 to 12 months you get your money back. During that time you get updates on the progress of this person(s) business. I am very interested in this project, and although I'm saving as much money as I can, I don't mind sparing some temporarily to help out other people. I like the idea of giving money knowing it's going for a specific purpose, like starting a business. I challenge everyone who reads this to go to kiva.org and lend money, then let me know about it :D