Chapter 10

Monday, August 24th

Not a lot happened today, just the same old stuff at work. Oh my…little, hellion, SPE Joe will not be to school at all this week….I feel so bad for saying this, but his absence is exactly what I’ve been needing. Maybe for just a minute I can actually work on the kids’ speech, rather than behavior and discipline the whole time.

The summer is coming to an end, so all of the teacher’s schedules will be changing a bit—as of right now, next week us teachers won’t have any morning SPE’s…YAY! This means we’ll have a little extra time to get our classrooms and the school organized, and of course….sleep in—we’ll have to be to work around 11:00/noonish, so nice!

Tuesday, August 25th

We only had one morning SPE group this morning, so Tabbi went in for our shift…I got to stay home and talk to mom and dad, THANKS TABBI—it was yet again, just what I needed. After such a busy weekend doing home visits, I needed a little time to recuperate.

With Joe being absent, I haven’t had to raise my voice as much, ha! I’ve really been able to be fun and silly with the kids! I hate yelling, so I’m trying to adopt this different way of discipline…I hope this silly thing works. Any ideas for disciplining 5 year-old's?

After language exchange, Sarah and I went and got gratin—Asian casserole. It tasted just like Sheppard’s Pie, one of my favorites, but instead of mashed potatoes, it was filled with rice. Don’t worry mom, your food is still the best, irreplaceable!

Wednesday, August 26th

After work today, Sammy invited me to go rock climbing…so, of course, I went! I’ve never really been rock climbing, but you know, I’ve taken on the challenge of the portable rock wall, so I thought, how hard can it be. Well, let me tell you….it’s much harder than it looks, but I did it!

At the university near our apartment, the rock climbing club meets a couple times a week to rock climb a 40 foot wall near the track. The club let Sammy and I borrow their gear since we have none. I met a cool guy, Jeffery, who is a professor at Changhua University. He is a retired Marine, who happens to speak English, so he was able to help me with my climbing….Sammy did too, he’s a pro!

With my lack of endurance I only climbed twice, and although it was a struggle, I did climb to the top both times! Jeffery was very impressed….I was too! He said 97% of people who try climbing their first time don’t make it to the top…eh, beginners luck. I had fun though; maybe I’ve found a new hobby!

Thursday, August 27th

Hanna and I had a Home Visit with YoYo and Engine tonight (two of our students) at their house. To get their, Hanna and I followed Engine and his mom on our bikes—it was classic. Engine’s mom hardly speaks a lick of English so when she came to pick Engine up from school, our secretary, Emily, just told Hanna and I to follow that scooter. There were no introductions whatsoever. I just started pedaling, hoping I could keep up with the scooter; Hanna and I kept thinking, I hope we don’t lose ‘em—they all look alike. Engine’s mom didn’t look back at us once to see whether we were following her; for a moment, I questioned whether we were supposed to be following her at all, but then we hit a red light and I was quickly reassured we were in the green.

At Engine’s house, we all played a little uno (by far the kids’ favorite game) and watched the two boys, along with their cute little brother, show us their skills in Kung Fu—wow they can kick high! “Wah say!” I said, showing my excitement…..then I repeated myself in English, so the boys would know the difference, “Holy Cow!” Whoops, there I went again, Teacher Tanier, swearin’ in my student’s home. The word, ‘cow’ in Chinese means, SH%@T! YoYo caught on rather quickly and started tuggin’ on his mom’s shirt, “Mom, Mom, Teacher said SH%@T!” Hanna couldn’t stop laughing, neither could I….it was pretty funny!

While we were playing games, Engine’s family filled us with Coco Cola (as they say) and some yummy dragon fruit, we got rice cakes too! WOW, that family knows how to drink Coke. All three boys each grabbed a liter of Coke….their mom started yelling for them to put the unopened coke away….they did as they were told and came back with two opened liters—no wonder it looks as if YoYo never brushes his teeth, they’re stained with coke. The dragon fruit was delicious, but no one else was eating, so Hanna and I ate a whole bowl by ourselves….I was sick!

We had a great time with the boys; the best part was Engine’s grandma. Every time the boys would get a little rambunctious, gremmie would get out her bamboo stick and start tapping it against her hand. You could tell she was gettin’ ready to strike….it didn’t seem to phase the boys much; YoYo leaned into Hanna and said, “We’re not scared of her, she’s too slow!” So gooda!

Friday, August 28th

Today I played ‘capture the flag’ with my SPE’s in gym….they’ve picked up on a new phrase. I was on little Flora’s team, and we were playing against Tim and Jimmy. Tim would watch me as I tried to get the flag, hands held out, curling his fingers, “Come on baby!” Haha, I was dying laughing, where did he hear this stuff….it was hilarious. Jimmy chimed in too, it was cute.

Tonight we went out to McDonald’s with the ‘super students’ (every two months we take some kids to McD’s)…we had fun playing uno and other games. McDonald’s is always a treat, the kids absolutely love it, and it’s a fun way to get to know our students outside of class.

After McDonald’s, Hanna and I took the scooter out for a ride. We went to a yummy chocolate store and stocked up on some goods. Then we found ourselves at ‘The Body Shop’….yes, the same one in America. Unfortunately, Body Shop products cost the same as they do in the states, so we didn’t get anything; instead, we headed down to Watson’s (like Walgreens) and hung out there for a bit looking a different skin products….I got some lavender facial masks, FUN!

Saturday, August 29th

Temple Trip! Sarah and I got on a bus this morning at 8:00 to Taipei, the trip takes about 2 ½ hours one way. When we arrived in Taipei, we were supposed to meet up with some of the teachers from the other school; unfortunately, we never found them, so we decided to make our way to the temple ourselves…surprisingly, we got around town pretty well. We didn’t get lost once. We took the metro, which is super easy here, and nice and clean!

Before going into the temple for baptisms, we walked around and got a bite to eat. Sarah and I both shared a rice ball, noodles, and a delicious mango slush custard (mango on shaved ice with a gelatin like custard, YUMMY)! We went back to meet the other teachers at the temple, but once again, our schedules were off—they arrived later at the temple, so they were far behind us in baptisms, and there were a lot of people at the temple. Baptisms went well—can I just say one thing…the font is sooooo small that the brothers have to kneel down in the water so they won’t hit their head when they go under the water to be baptized, crazy!

From baptisms, Sarah and I met up with Sammy and we made our way over to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial. On our way, we stopped at the bountiful living store and bought ourselves the coolest, authentic, Chinese scripture covers—mine are bright red, covered with gold dragons and lions (as I said early, the dragons symbolize the Emperor’s son, and the lions are good luck. If a man has a dream about dragons, he may just be the next king. If a woman has a dream about dragons, she will be blessed with many sons)!

The memorial was built in memory of Taiwan’s first President, Chiang Kai Shek. He died not to long ago, just in 1975. The memorial is surrounded by a beautiful park and the main building covers 240,000 square meters. Inside the main building, there is an exhibit that depicts the life of Chiang Kai Shek, and there is also a traveling exhibit, which happened to be all about astronomy. We had a fun time. Sammy is totally into science, so he kept us informed about everything. I was reintroduced to Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and many other great scientists, astronomers, and philosophers. Sarah and I got these cool silhouette pictures taken of ourselves. The background of the pictures is the galaxy and our body image is depicted as a new constellation….they were fun pics to take.

Traveling to Taipei is kinda far, so we always try to make a day trip out of it—there’s a ton to see. After walking around the memorial, we took the metro to the National Palace Museum. This art museum is one of the largest in the world, 15th most visited in the world, with over 650,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts. It has over 8,000 years of Chinese history. We had a fun time….we saw lots of pottery, water color paintings, and jade sculptures…including the jade cabbage, which was the supposed ‘sight to see!’ By this point in the day however, Sarah and I were a bit tired—we made the best of it by imagining up fun stories to go along with the historical artifacts.

Sunday, August 30th

Happy Birthday to my good friend Jules, the soon to be mommy!

We girls went to church today in Taichung as usual. We had a scheduled home visit with max and Vivian after church, so we walked to Chung You department store to meet the family. They had planned to take us to the Dinosaur museum, but it started pouring rain and that shot our plans down pretty quick. Plan B, the fam took us back to Changhua so we could tour around Bagwashan….yet again, the rain came down. Plan C, we went to Max and Vivian’s home to join in the birthday fun for their cousin and grammie!
Max and Vivian were so excited for us teachers to go to their home. Vivian kept saying, “Oh teacher, our house is SO big!” She got me intrigued to see what I was in for….well, we rolled up to their house, which was rather large….four stories, fairly wide for a Taiwanese home, and it even came with a huge, grass backyard….you never find that here…don’t get me wrong, there home is still far from anything you’ll ever find in the states, but it was great in Taiwanese standards; however, the kids still share a room? Interesting.

Well, we didn’t get much time to play inside the house….for the birthday party, us girls and the rest of the fam (extended and all) were stuffed inside a small dusty office that sat next to the house, strange???? …when a huge house was across the way…..maybe a little.

Oh man, we got to try another tasty Taiwanese treat….but it wasn’t that tasty, eek! Vivian’s mom had been telling us about some great food she wanted us to try all day. After explaining the meal in Chinglish, we came to the conclusion that the food was a stemmed bum, quite scrumptious….well, poor communication can leave one dry-heaving as they try to gag down the alien goo wrapped mystery meat….yup, words can’t describe. Oh it was awful, and Sarah, Tabbi, and I were the only ones eating, the rest of the family was just watching. I just kept thinking, Tanier, eat, eat, eat…think Jr. Whooper, anything….when you’re done eating, you can grab a peach and a few grapes from the table to take away the gooey (literally ‘gooey’) taste. Luckily, we girls made it through to enjoy a yummy chocolate birthday cake ten minutes later—that was a real treat, and surprisingly tasty!

After cake, Vivian and Max played the piano for us and then we went out to play baseball. I can’t believe I tell people I used to play softball….I struck out twice….alright, I was using a plastic bat that was made for an eight-year-old, but really, twice??? We had fun anyway.

Before calling it a day, we went out to dinner with Max and Vivian….I know, we weren’t too hungry after the goo, but the family insisted. We went to a really great restaurant that I’d like to try again. The meat was deliciously flavored and it came with some rice, of course, and bean sprouts. The only upsetting part of the meal would be when Jason, Vivian’s youngest brother, decided he was sick from drinking ‘cold water’ (yes, the Asian’s don’t like cold water—it’s bad for you), and he threw up all over the floor. I looked over at the most inopportune moment. Best part, the restaurant employee swept up the vomit with a broom before mopping up the floor…CRINGE. Jason was then given a bucket in case the incident happed again. No, he was not taken to the bathroom….No, he didn’t wash his hands….Yes, we went on eating as if nothing had happened. Haha.

What an adventurous day! Vivian and Max’s family was so gracious and I really did have a great time. I will miss those kids in SPE’s. They’re off to Chinese school now!