Chapter 13

Monday, September 14th
Well, I’m getting used to the three hour block, SPE schedule—it can be a bit tiring, but good nonetheless. Man, can I just say, ‘boot camp’! It’s the beginning of a new semester, so we have to teach the new kids all the rules, they don’t like it much, and they just want to play. Can you blame them, their five? It’s especially hard when the kids don’t speak a lick of English. I have to continually remind myself that not always are the kids trying to be ‘bad,’ they just have no idea what’s going on.

No more games, activities only! Well, my 2A boys had a little melt down today. I made the mistake of telling the class that we would play a ‘game’. We were learning about adverbs so I made paper posters of adverbs and posted them all over my classroom. I divided the kids up into teams (they insisted on playing boys against girls). I would say a sentence with an adverb, and with these little hand slappers, the kids had to find the adverb that I said in the sentence. The first team to slap the adverb would get a point. Easy enough, right? Oh no….Hank had a come apart. The girls were up about 10 points, the bell rang to go, and the boys had no time to redeem them. My class is soooo competitive. As I was throwing Hank out of my class, he kept complaining that it wasn’t fair—he was making excuses that the girls had played the game before or that they saw me put the words up beforehand. He was nearly crying he was so mad. Honestly, it was somewhat funny! Kyle was pretty upset too. Looks like I know what gets my class motivated, a little competition….but, I’ll have to give a lesson on good sportsmanship. Thus, I can no longer play games in my class—just ‘activities.’

Tuesday, September 15th

If you remember, I had my students write a letter to Buck for his birthday….they all wanted an individual letter back…Buckee came through. He sent each child a letter, with pictures too! The letter came last Friday, but I just had the chance to pass them out today. The kids were in awe. Martin (my oldest student, 16) asked if Buck was a movie star…haha, (wahoo, point for Buckee). My little 2A’s want me to make copies of the pictures so they can have some pics of Americans. Ha, they loved it!

Us girls ditched out on language exchange tonight…we went and saw the movie, The Time Travelers Wife…it was a pretty good flick, kind of interesting. Going to the movies with the girls is always fun, because for a minute, we feel like we’re back in America…it must be the air conditioning or something (a moment out of the hot, humid heat).

Wednesday, September 16th

Alright, I know I’ve been super slow at blogging lately, but all for good reason. The roomies and I are wanting to travel after our contract is up in December. Since we’re already here in Asia, traveling to the different countries around is pretty cheap! We want to go to Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos (iffy), and Thailand. Then I hope to hit up Hong Kong and China with the parents! I’m soooo excited, but planning this trip has been a bit overwhelming. I found some good tours from STA travel and another great website that gives me all the do’s and don’ts: worldtravelguide.net. But hey, if anyone has any tips or suggestions, I could use any help! ….and thanks to those who have been helping me already!

I’ve been teaching my older students about major cities in America such as L.A., Vegas, DC, New York, etc. I brought my computer to show them some pics and they were lovin’ it—I always enjoy when they get excited to see and learn new things. They just start chatting away and we have a good conversation.

Thursday, September 17th

So I thought I was getting over my cold, but this week it came back, and ten times stronger. Waking up to a cough attack in the middle of the night is not fun! I wanted to go to kickboxing tonight, but I figured I should give my body a rest….I stayed home!

Ha, I have a new nickname with the children…Teacher Banana! Who knows where they came up with the name, but little SPE Ray is always coming up to me, ‘Hello Teacher Banana’….I think he has a crush….now, I like nicknames, but banana, really? Thanks to Buckee telling family secrets, my students also call me Teacher Annie.

Friday, September 18th

YAY for Friday! After work tonight, all of us teachers rode down to the night market—we were craving some Indian burritos; too bad for us, wrong night market for the burritos. We settled for a baked potato, you know, sometimes you just gotta go with the American food. For dessert we had a special Taiwanese treat, ICE CREAM, not just any ice cream though…..two scoops (one mango, one vanilla) wrapped in a thin crepe stuffed with granola and cilantro, yes cilantro….it actually made the dessert pretty sweet, you’ll have to try it.

Saturday, September 19th

JiJi trip! Alright, as you know, one of the goals I made in Taiwan was to do something fun every weekend, so far I’ve been successful….I don’t think I’ve stayed home one Saturday yet (I think I might start tighten the belt a bit, we’ll see). Anyhow, once again, we had a great Saturday excursion to JiJi, about an hour south of Changhua.

We got up early and met our secretaries (Emily and Penny) at the train station. Tabbi and I were so tired we lied down on the train to get a little shut eye….but for some odd reason, after about 15 minutes, I got a burst of energy, must have been the lack of sleep. Ha, one of the train’s men came and shushed me…haha, classic, tellin’ Tanier to be quiet, go figure. I’m sure all the Asian’s were thinking, obnoxious America, that’s what my roomies were thinking anyway! You see, we were going through a tunnel, so I was teaching Emily a game—who can hold their breath the longest….it called for a little enthusiasm. Emily was just laughing!

As soon as we got off the train, the cameras came out. JiJi is such a cute, little, quaint town. Fresh air, green, beautiful! We were definitely in the country and I loved it. We walked over to see about renting some bikes for transportation, we stepped it up a notch and got electric bicycles, SOOO FUN! We had a blast scootin’ around all day. A whole day’s bike rental just cost us $5.50—wahoo!

First stop: Military/airforce base. Cool tanks, pontoon boats, fighter jets, etc.

Second stop: Mingcin Academy. Once again, I am amazed by the intricate carvings on the temple and academy…so amazing!

Third stop: Ecological Conservatory. I could have spent a lot of time here. This place was gorgeous! Green, green, green! There were butterflies everywhere, dragonflies too. We also came upon a small pond covered with lilies and lily pads. Walking through the windy pathways we saw lots of birds and other fun creatures. The landscape was so serene!

Fourth stop: Earthquake memorial. We went to an old Buddhist temple that was barely standing due to the biggest earthquake that has ever hit Taiwan. The ten year commemoration is on September 21st. It left hundreds of people injured and many children parentless. So sad! At this stop we paid to go into an earthquake simulator that shook the ground up to a 7 on the Richter scale, the earthquake was a 7.5 I believe. I couldn’t imagine going through something like that, especially when many of the structures are so dense here in the cities of Taiwan.

Fifth stop: Go Carts! I don’t know what it is about competition, but I love it, and I’m totally motivated by it. Who would have guessed, go carts in this quaint little town. We got some discount coupons so we definitely took advantage of them. We had so much fun! I was a little nervous at first when I found out we didn’t need to wear a helmet or anything, no safety precautions were taken whatsoever….they just strapped us in and we were off. Once I was behind the wheel, however, any jitters I had were gone. I floored it through the course, around and around for at least 15 good minutes. ….if you’re wondering who came in first, wonder no more….drum roll please…hahaha, I’m a Glauser, what can I say…ME! I think all of us teachers passed the secretaries at least ten times. Emily was stuck on the side of the road just about every time I came around the corner, Penny was on a nice Sunday drive, and then there were the American’s with some unsettled road rage. Maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t driven for awhile, I’m not sure…but anyhow, we had fun! By the end of our race we were covered in black exhaust and lined with sweat straps from our seat belts, no biggy!

Sixth stop: Buddhist Temple of Love. We rode down a little dirt rode in the middle of no where to find the Love Temple. Emily was telling us that each Buddhist temple worships a different God, so if you want to find love, you come here! The temple walls are plastered with wedding announcements from people who found their true love after visiting the temple….ooh, how romantic!

Seventh stop: Mountain riding and spiders. After visiting all the major sites we had a little extra time to use the bikes, so we took them for a spin around the country a bit longer. We rode along the river, saw some farmers working in the rice fields, passed the fruit stands, took pics in front of a fun little café, and enjoyed the peaceful countryside.

At one point, we where following this little trail, which came to a dead end. I had taken the lead and as I was turning around I saw a Black Lab running toward me from the corn fields. I don’t know why I got the urge, but I yelled, “Rottweiler,” and all the girls starting freaking out! It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen five girls move so fast on electric bikes. The secretaries were screaming….everyone was pedaling their little hearts out….I was just laughing….and the Lab was having a jolly ole’ time as it ran right past us and down into another field. I’m so mean!

We then went up the mountain to see the view at sunset….we went through a sweet tunnel that blasted right through the mountain side. The tall bushy trees and dangling ivy covered our view of the town, but we did see some HUGE spiders…pictures can’t even begin to depict the size. Seriously, legs and all….these spiders were the size of my hand. We saw the first one hanging from its web off a telephone pole, pretty cool right…..then we say another from a tree…..and another from the ivy…..not so cool anymore. I started to get itchy as we spotted more and more spiders—all I wanted to do was get outta there. Yuck….I was just waiting for a spider to spin on down and land on my head!

Our night to JiJi ended with some fried bananas and mushrooms, a bit of shopping, and a casual run in with another English teacher from Europe. We had a great day and so far…..JiJi is one of my favorite places!

Sunday, September 20th

So Tabbi and I have decided that since we are traveling to Taichung every Sunday for church we might as well stay awhile in town to tour the sites before coming home after church. Sister Dowse (the senior missionary) has been telling us about the big smiling Buddha, so we decided to take a gander after church—it’s just down the street from our branch building, so Elder and Sister Dowse were so kind to walk us there.

This big Buddha is sweet! It’s a giant thing planted right in the middle of the city, I’m sure it was planted first, but still…..it’s gold too! We had fun taking MORE pictures! Afterward, Elder and Sister Dowse invited us over for dinner. They are the cutest couple, so funny! Sister Dowse made us some yummy American food….the meal reminded me of home. We had chicken over rice (of course) with the cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese….so yummy. She also whipped up some fresh veggies and…..AMERICAN COOKIES! They were delicious. She is a great cook with the little magic oven (yes, we don’t have real ovens here….we have to use the easy bake lookin’ things, you know, the toaster ovens; thus, I don’t cook much). Wow, I could have eaten that whole pan of cookies they were so yummy!

Tabbi and I talked to the Dowses for quite sometime….we even got looking at pictures of the grandchildren. I was looking at one family photo…..some peeps looked familiar, hum, I thought…after a few questions directed to Sister Dowse we made the connection. Her daughter and son-in-law were my landlords at my old house in Provo with Miki and the gang! What a small world….Wah Say! My old landlord is just like her mother….a sweet little chatterbox!

After arriving back into Changhua, Tabbi and I were making our regular trek home when we heard some fireworks. I swear the Asian’s are always lighting off fireworks. These ones sounded fairly close so I mentioned to Tabbi that we should go and see what was happening….we took a side street and found a a huge Bai Bai ceremony in front of us…fireworks, food, headdresses, parade, shrines, drums, flutes….the works! Tabbi and I tried to follow the marching parade that was leaving us—we began to follow the parade, not realizing we were leaving the crowd of people behind us. All the sudden, fire works went flying right in front of us….not the kind that shoot straight up in the air, but the kind that slither on the ground like a snake…..and not the kind you buy at Wal Mart, but the kind you can’t get because they’re illegal….Tabbi and I started running back toward the crowd of people like crazy American’s…it was awful. It felt like one of those Mission Impossible movies were Tom Cruise is running from the huge ball of smoke that is chasing after him, yup…that was us! The fireworks were so loud too….man, everything happened so fast I wasn’t sure what was going on….roadside bombing, landmine, it was all a blur! We then got caught in a crowd of people with a Buddha statue….they were rocking the statue back and forth, chanting some religious something or other in Chinese….we were almost trampled….WOW! This was the moment were we thought, where the heck are we? It was quite the experience….one that only happens in Asia!