Chapter 25

Monday, December 7th

WOW! Only 3 ½ weeks left of teaching; the time has flown by—actually, I have two weeks of actual teaching, a week of review, and then finals!!!! Crazy, now I have to start thinking about packing and all that good stuff. I have no idea how I’ll get ALL my STUFF home—I don’t have Missy here to tell me, “Tanier, you don’t need that, or that….OR THAT!” She was such a big help before I came to Taiwan (helping me pack and all)….I just wish I wouldn’t have snuck in those extra items that she told me NOT to bring…now I don’t think I’ll get them home with all the stuff I’ve accumulated.

Last week I had a lot of ‘sick’ kids who missed school. They got the H1N1 vaccine a couple weeks ago, and now…they all have the ‘piggy’! I hate when kids miss school; it’s so much work to get them caught up with the rest of the class. Hank has to make up two tests…when I told him he needed to get to work and study for BOTH of them; he just looked at me with his somber face and said, “But Teacher, I’m GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE.” Oh, life is so hard when you’re 10-years-old. I have to admit, the way he said DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE was so dang funny!

At Maryland, we’re having an open house this week. We’re allowing the parents to come and sit in on the classes. I’m always a bit nervous when the parents come in, because the kids act soooo different. They either have the hardest time behaving because they get so hyper around visitors, or they do the exact opposite, they shut down and won’t say a word. No matter what end of the spectrum the pendulum falls, it’s never good. With a rowdy class, the parents will think the teacher has no control, and with a silent class, the parent will wonder whether their child is actually learning to speak English. I hope the parents understand one of these outcomes is bound to happen…we’ll see how it goes!

Tuesday, December 8th

Working with China can be so frustrating at times. Tabbi and I are planning on spending nearly two weeks in China. We plan to visit Guilin, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Beijing. We have some friends in Shanghai, who we’ll stay with, and they’ve helped us tremendously, so that’s nice…but we’re still getting a feel for everything else. Let’s see, the frustrating part: Tabbi and I can’t fly straight from Beijing to America; instead, we have to go back to Taiwan first, because that’s where our boss bought our initial flight last June…well, well, well,…has anyone tried to get a one-way flight out of Beijing to Taipei…RIDICULOUS! They are extremely overpriced for such a hop, skip, and a jump length of a distance, and it’s just all around difficult (government and political issues)…we’ve talked to so many people about the best way to purchase our flight, and apparently, people who live IN china, who have a CHINA card, have access to CHEAPER flights—Tabbi and I tried this option (with our friends in Shanghai)…we were going to all possible lengths to get the best deal. Turns out the good flights are only available to Chinese Nationals...go figure, $400 US dollars later, Tabbi and I will be departing Beijing on the 2nd of February, landing in Taipei where we’ll kick it for a few days, and then HOME SWEET HOME to America on February 4, 2010!

I read a story with my 2A kids today—Dinosaur Facts—they were in love. My boys trade Dinosaur cards everyday at break, so reading a story about Dinosaurs was right up their alley. Our story told us all about different types of dinosaurs, what they ate, where they lived, their size, yada, yada, yada. The only thing the story failed to mention was were Dinosaurs ‘came from’…I guess the author wanted the teacher to explain that one. After reading the story, Hank raised his hand, “Teacher, where did dinosaurs come from?” Oh dear, I thought…how on earth can I answer this one? “They came from eggs,” I explained. Apparently that answer wasn’t good enough, because he kept probing the issue. “Ugh, where did you come from Hank?” I asked, “…and where did your mom come from? …and her mom, and her mom after that…” I knew this discussion was getting a little deep, then Kevin shouted out, “GOD!” ….and then Kyle too, “MONKEYS!” WOW, I thought, we have a dilemma on our hands. Hank, this cute little soul, is just wondering about existence itself, as so many people do, and I just couldn’t find a good way to explain anything in our classroom setting. I told the class that everyone has different beliefs of where dinosaurs came from, and where people come from, which are God and Monkeys (evolution). Then I told them, they need to study it out to find out for themselves, which they thought was true. Ha, I’m not sure Hank was satisfied our ‘spiritual’ discussion because after the monkey talk, he piped up, “Teacher, can’t you just Google it.” Haha—Google, what a perfect source for a quick fix.

Wednesday, December 9th

We’ve had some parents come for the Open House this week—so far, so good. Some SPE parents showed up, as well as Frank (Martin and JoAnna’s dad in 7A’s)…I really enjoy talking with Frank, but he can be a bit intimidating. Luckily he came during our grammar lesson, so all went well. JoAnna came up to me before class, “Teacher, my dad’s coming today…” “..and,” I replied. “I didn’t do my homework…” Whoops! My kids have been having the hardest time turning in their homework lately. Chinese school really weighs them down, and frankly, I’m not the best stickler when it comes to homework! I don’t know how teachers keep track of it all—there’s got to be a good system, I’m just not using it, and with just a little over three weeks left, I’m not sure I’ll be implementing anything new.

Tabbi and I hit up the Tree House after work tonight—we feel like we’ve been cheating on Julie and her husband with Max and Viv’s because we haven’t been to the Tree House F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!! When we arrived, Julie acted so excited to see us. She had a bigger crowd than usual in her restaurant and more pictures of customers up on her wall—it looks like the place has been doing well (I’m so glad, before her restaurant was always empty). As we were talking to Julie, she told us how her patrons are always asking about the ‘American’s’ whose pictures are posted on the wall. Apparently we have quite a fan base at the Tree House, and there’s supposed people who want to meet us—supposed Taiwanese MEN, haha! Listening to Julie talk about this was so funny. We also asked her about some new Chinese writing she has hanging up…the words read, “Tree House”….she’s totally taken our name for the place and posted it up on the wall. Sweetness!

Thursday, December 10th

Sarah and I still have a couple of passes on our GoGo card, so we decided to take a break from travel plans and kids, and we went and unleashed our built up aggression in our Asian kickboxing class. Wow, I love that class. Our instructor is sweet. The workout routine is never the same—he constantly changes things up to make sure we’re on our toes, and yes, I was on my toes the whole time. After leaving class, I seriously felt as though I could defend myself against any predator. Unlike American Kickboxing, where you throw a couple of jabs, I was doing round house kicks. Let’s just say I’ll definitely be sore tomorrow. From kickboxing, Sarah and I kept with our tradition and went to the night market for some tasty dumplings! YUM!

Friday, December 11th

We went to the Tree House, AGAIN, for dinner tonight. Man, us girls have the most extreme eating habits…I swear we go on binges of eating at Max n’ Vivian’s every week to eating poor man’s food, tuna fish, from the supermarket. There’s no even balance. ….but yes, we went to the tree house, and it was great seeing Julie, the owner. She is just wonderful…probably the last time I’ll ever see her as well, but of course I didn’t tell her that because I absolutely hate goodbyes!

Tabbi, Hanna, and I went to Watson’s convenience store to grab some things for our 35 day backpacking trip across Asia. We’re packing light—one backpack…no checked luggage—3 oz. bottles? Why yes, I’ll take 10 empty ones please, ha. We plan to refill everything…shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. We did find some nice wet wipes and bug spray. There’s no way I’m going to get Malaria in Cambodia.

Saturday, December 12th

I spent the day doing laundry, seriously, ‘the day’….why does laundry have to take so long. At least it’s something tangible that I can mark off my many ‘To Do’ lists. I also spent some time wrapping up different odds and ends—getting ready for my grand departure of Taiwan.

Tabbi and I are singing in church tomorrow. I know what you’re thinking, Tanier sings??? Ha, kind of funny, right….well, I love singing, but haven’t ever been given the opportunity to do so, I mean, I’m not the next Mariah Carrey or anything, but I can hold a tune (on a good day). Anyhow, Tabbi asked me to sing with her, yes…she asked ME…I even have a solo too! Crazy. I hope I don’t mess it up. To ensure that we can pull this off, we scheduled a little practice session with Sister Greene tonight at 5:00 pm in Taichung—Sister Greene’s going to accompany us.

Tabbi and I took off for Taichung around 4:00—an hour is usually sufficient time to make it to Taichung. We’ve been going to Taichung every week for church, so we’ve got our route down, or so we thought—WE TOOK THE WRONT TRAIN! I’ve lived in Taiwan for nearly six months now, and tonight was the very first time I’ve ever taken the wrong train! We both fell asleep on the train, when we woke up, we were in Shalu or Dadu….some place in Timbuktu it seemed. We had to backtrack for an hour and a half to reach our initial destination. Oh man, the one time we actually have to be somewhere ON TIME….we end up arriving an hour and a half late. Luckily, Hanna and Sarah were there to tell Sister Greene we were coming, but they didn’t know where we were either. Tabs and I were taking bets on who thought we stopped off to go shopping, or whether we’d gotten hit by bus or something. Where was my helpless card when I so desperately needed it? I still can’t believe it, even though we know how to get to Taichung, we always ask a conductor whether we’re on the right train or not—this was the first time we didn’t ask, oh the pride cycle at its finest….and can I just say….once we finally hopped off the train in Taichung, Tabbi and I tried to flag down a taxi to get to the church (thinking it would be faster than the bus), but the taxi drivers were totally rude to us….we must have been saying something wrong. When asking for a ride, one driver looked at us, said nothing, and then turned away…as we kept talking, he put his taxi in reverse and drove away…what? RUDE….in all my time in Taiwan the people have been nicer than nice, but tonight…I saw a different side. We ended up taking a bus to the church, which seemed to take forever…we found Sarah and Hanna, and then we found Sister Greene, we explained our incident, and were able to practice for a few minutes before going to the night market with Andre and Bush. We went to the Fengjia Night Market again—had our baby mangoes and frozen bananas….delish. I will miss these fun night markets.

Sunday, December 13th

Tabbi and I tried to make it to church a bit earlier today, so we could practice our song before church, of course, we didn’t make it early. We got there about ten minutes before sacrament started, ran through our song a couple times, and called it good. We sang ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’…oh my goodness that song is so high…I’m a soprano, but get me in front of a crowd doing something I’m not familiar with and my voice started to shake a bit on those high notes (my voice just isn’t as strong when the notes start going higher, and higher, and higher…) Overall we sounded good…Tabbi pulled it together for us….she’s a beautiful singer. Thanks Tip! …and thanks Mik for the few voice lessons….and for giving me the confidence to sing. I guess there’s no better time to get comfortable singing in church than when you’re a part of a branch with just 25 active members, ha!

After church I came home and went through my souvenirs….where did they all come from??? They were covering my entire bed. YIKES….luckily I’ll be sending some home as Christmas gifts. Everyone’s Christmas gift will depend on how much crap I can stuff in one little box. Good Luck to me!