Chapter 11

I know there is a lot of reading this week, but I had to catch up on week 10 and 11....there are some pictures, but more to come, so stay tune! I love you all! T

Monday, August 31st

So Chinese school started today and the schedule has officially changed. No morning SPE’s for now (keep your fingers crossed), just afternoon, and there are a lot of afternoon….they are so cute. We have so many new kids, and most of them barely speak any English, I’m so excited to see their English skills improve over the next four months!

Last week was Valentines Day in Taiwan, so today, when I was teaching my 2A-2’s, one of the new SPE’s (Sara) came into my classroom to give me a treat for Valentines. She doesn’t speak any English, but she’s good at mimicking. She was a little hesitant to interrupt my class, but when I beckoned her to come in she came right to me and held up this little shadow box that had each square covered in paper. She pointed at a square, I knew if broke through the paper I would find a surprise—sure enough, a candy and a sticker. She is so sweet; after I took my candy, she turned around and left the room, having not said one word…precious!

Tuesday, September 1st

Wahoo…..September already! I know I came to Taiwan at the end of June, but still…..thinking that I’ve already been here since June is just beyond me. Let’s see, wanna know what else I’ve been thinking, this is the first time in 18 years that I will not be going back to school after the summer….well now, I am a teacher, but still, something to think about. BYU started yesterday and I am definitely going to miss BYU football, GO COUGS!

Now that Chinese school is back in progress, everyone is freaking out about getting H1N1 (swine flu)….they don’t say swine flu around here because they don’t want people to be frightened to eat pork. Anyhow, so many people are wearing masks around…I mean, the Taiwanese already wear masks on their scooters so they can keep the pollution from affecting them, and people already wear face masks when they’re sick….but now, more than I’ve seen so far, people are wearing face masks. Little Jimmy came into school today with his mask on, I asked if he was sick, “No,” he said, “I don’t want to get H1N1”…yeah, he’s five. I also had two of my older kids wearing face masks—I asked them what the big deal was and they said three people from their school have H1N1…eek!

Chinese/English exchange was tonight. I was working with Ken. He plans to go to Vegas next week for a bike convention, so I was helping him with some phrases and things. I told him to give a shout out to St. George for me! I am slowly learning more Chinese, but I just can’t study….it must be that whole ‘I’m graduated’ mentality.

Wednesday, September 2nd

This morning Sarah and I got up at 7:30 AM to go to ‘Go Go for Her.’ We bought a pass so we can take more classes. The class we went to this morning was only a half hour, but it was intense….we were moving the whole time—there was no stopping. This class was a bit different than the kickboxing we’ve been to, we actually did some crazy Asian dance moves…I felt super uncoordinated.

I got a new student in my 7A class today. His name is Alex and he is hilarious. He is the typical video game junkie that has no social skills, kind of like Napoleon Dynamite; yet, he is insanely smart and he talks very fast. Both of his parents are doctors and he studied in Canada for awhile—I think his reading ability is better than mine. Some of the comments Alex makes are just so funny and he doesn’t realize it. My 7A’s are pretty fluent, so they totally understand what’s going on and we all laugh together, Alex likes to chime in too, but he has no idea ‘what’ we’re laughing at. He’ll definitely bring some entertainment to our classroom.

Tonight after class I went downstairs to see my kids off for the evening. Martin and JoAnna’s dad, Frank, had come to pick the kids up….they brought me homemade rice dumplings—so nice! I just love the Ko family. They are so good to me!

Thursday, August 3rd

Today was bitter sweet. We teachers found out that we will be getting even more SPE’s in the afternoon, so that means, more hours. Well, I already have a lot of teaching hours, but I have to teach more SPE’s because we don’t have a lot of teachers….thus, my 2A-1’s are no longer mine….sad. They’re my best class too. Teacher Tabbi will be taking over (she had some extra hours to fill) and she’ll do a great job, but I am still sad. On the bright side, I will have a little more time to prepare for my lessons and focus more on the kids that I do teach!

Kickboxing time! Sarah and I were able to get Hanna to go with us to kickboxing tonight! Man, I just love that class, and the coach is kinda cute too, that’s always a plus….haha, he’s Asian….I think I’ve been here too long (jk, I do not mean that in any derogatory way)! Our coach works us out hard, I’d start to slack off and he’d come down from the stage and just get in my face, oh dear, I thought, I better pick it up!

After kickboxing we went to Carrefour and the night market, this was our second time, so Sarah and I officially say ‘its tradition’….Kickboxing, Carrefour, night market, YAY! At the night market we saw so many foreigners….they were definitely coming out of the woodwork—in little Changhua, I’ve never seen so many white people. We also saw a Taiwanese transvestite who was wearing pigtails and red lipstick. He kept following us around the market, kinda freaky! I don’t think he was all there.

Friday, September 4th

Progress reports were due today….WOW…I’m glad they’re over. Those things took forever; I always hate putting down the bad stuff, I just want to fill the reports with “your child’s great,” “I love having them in class,” but on every report I wrote some things the kids could improve on….the parents like to know that they are getting their money’s worth—if their child can’t improve on anything, they might as well take them out of the program; yet, at the same time, you have to be careful because if you write down a lot of improvements, the kids may get hit (yes, beaten) by their parents, eh…it’s a fine line!

Girls night! After work, me, Tabbi, Hanna, Sarah, Julia, and Molly all went to see The Proposal, it just hit theaters here in Taiwan—I also saw it in America before I left, crazy! After our frilly chickflick we went to this little shop and got waffles and ice cream….so yummy! Wow, really…I had a straight waffle full of vanilla ice cream sandwiched inside. I absolutely loved it. This little diner also has waffles that come with hummus and vegetables, next time I’m definitely trying it!

When we arrived home after the movie our other friend Julie was waiting at our place. She brought us wintermelon juice and some fired chicken—she is always thinking of others. We were so surprised to see her because she is always working, but she now has Wednesday’s and Saturday’s free so she can play with us, hooray!

Saturday, September 5th

I believe this is the first Saturday I’ve stayed home since I’ve been here in Taiwan, and even then…we didn’t really stay home….but it was nice to have the first part of the day at home for a change. This afternoon we went to Costco with Molly! Costco is just in Taichung, where we go all the time, but you always need someone with a Costco card; Molly was our saving grace. We made a day of the trip—it’s quite the treat to go to Costco!

Wow, I never knew the smell of cardboard could remind me so much of home! I was in heaven; I saw dad’s mixed nuts that he always buys, and mom’s cracker mix that she sprinkles atop her salad each night! ….American food, and not just any American food, but really, really good American food; however, it all seems quite expensive now. It’s funny how the fish is so cheap here and everything else is so pricey. For the most part, I just looked around to see what Costco had….ugh, everything! Luckily I just walked away with some cereal (Quakers natural granola that we have at home…oh I’ve been missing cereal) and some fruit snacks; I didn’t want to splurge because food goes bad fast with all the moisture in the air….we use the fridge and freezer to preserve some stuff, but we’re also fed lunch at school, so I didn’t need too much, but….now I know what I CAN get when I WANT it…..chocolate chips, tortillas, salsa, chocolate muffins, lettuce, cheese, lunch meat, wheat bread, pistachios, cereal….be grateful people, you got it made!

Costco was packed, I couldn’t believe all the people there, and did I mention the sampling lines….oh yes, people go crazy over samples here…everything to the extreme. I just couldn’t stand to wait in those long lines. After we grabbed our comfort foods, we went downstairs to EAT, haha; I got a nice slice of Hawaiian style pizza, and then Tabbi and I shared a churro (kinda bland) and mango frozen yogurt (not diggin the mango sauce). However, that pizza was probably the best I’d ever had….WOW….why does my life seem to revolve around food?

Well, its official, Molly is leaving us. My first Taiwanese friend and she’s moving to Australia. Good luck Molly! She’s flying out on Tuesday. Tonight was Molly’s night. She wanted to go to Clothes Street so we went to Clothes Street. Once again, I saw some really fun clothes and accessories—summer sales are beginning now, I love it!

I saw the cutest dress for $100NT ($3. US)….I was going to buy it after making sure it fit alright, but the store employees wouldn’t let me use the fitting room because it was a ‘SALE’ item. What? I thought, that is absurd! I can understand them not letting me return a sale item, but really, not to let me try it on. I tried to explain to the lady that if she would just let me try it on, and the dress fit, I would totally buy it, but if I couldn’t try it on, I wouldn’t make the purchase at all….she’s wasn’t having it. Wow! I am just too stubborn and $100NT is too precious to me now (I can buy two or three dinners for that kind of money)…I told the lady her policy was bad for business and walked out of the store. Alright, maybe I was a little dramatic, especially over $3 dollars, but…as a business woman, I just don’t see the point in the policy. Maybe if the fitting rooms were full and I was taking up other shopper’s time by trying on the sale item, I could possibly understand, but no, the store was practically empty. You see, now I will not refer anyone to that store…they’ve lost my business and many others….Ha! Alright, so maybe when I settle down over this minute issue I’ll go back and get the dress, but for now, it’s a no go!

Sunday, September 6th

Yay for church! Because today was fast Sunday, our ward broke our fast together after our auxiliary meetings. We had pot luck, so there was so much food! Elder and Sister Dowse made sandwiches, with ham and cheese….and lettuce….I was so happy! We had a little bit of everything….fried rice, dumplings, pudding, fruit, chips, rolls, taro cake (which is rather tasty), cheesecake, and as always, ice cream! Everything was wonderful!

I also had to teach today because it was my month to conduct! I gave a lesson on General Conference….it’s coming up, I’m so excited! Start preparing now!

Torry came to our ward today; it was so great to see her. After church she taught me a little Chinese. She told me she’s going to test me so I better practice….my goal is to talk to five people for each new phrase I learned. She taught me all the question words: How, who, what, why (in Chinese, all the question words go at the end of sentences). ….and FYI…words such as it, am, are in English, only have a single word translation in Chinese. Yes, I can say one word for all those meanings, glorious, and who said Chinese was hard….haha, just teasing, it is very challenging, mainly the tones and different sounds!

Well, I may actually be catching up on my journaling. I’m starting to get a sore throat that I am not happy about….this is not a good thing for a teacher. Sarah gave me some Asian miracle drug, I’m gonna go take it now, wish me well! Love you! T