Traffic

I usually get really irritated by the lack of courtesy from other drivers. When two vehicles come face to face, instead of moving out of the way for the other, they will just lay on their horns for a solid ten minutes. Do not get in front of a bus because they will run you over. They won't slow down, they'll just honk their horns, and you'd better get out of their way, or you are dead. Literally. It reminds me of Africa and the buses that we called "matatas". Red lights, who cares? People in your way? Who cares? Just plow through. Lots of people will park their cars in the middle of the road, and get out, not caring that they have stopped traffic. One time I was coming home and the whole road was blocked because two cars decided to stop and talk to each other. All the other cars and scooters were laying on their horns, but these two cars didn't seem to care less. When I finally squeezed around them, I looked to see if it had been an accident, because I couldn't believe they would incontinence everyone else, just for a chat. But there was no sign of an accident. Just a lack of consideration for others. Yesterday I was coming through 'suicide alley', and half of the road was blocked off for construction. Usually suicide alley is used by scooters and bicycles, but today there was a car stuck in the middle causing a huge clog. Everybody was really mad, and normally I would've been too. But instead I just laughed. I often don't have tons of patience, but that's why I think living over here has been good for me. To face frustrating circumstances and learn to be more patient from it. Yesterday I realized how impatience can get you all boiled up, but that doesn't make anybody happy. So I chose to laugh it off. Now I know it's not easy to chuckle at the annoying things in life, but if we could, life would be so much more enjoyable. Many people say that your attitude is your choice. But it is one so challenging because that would mean taking control of your emotions. That is something we can't do alone. Sometimes we need to face some really big challenges to help change our attitudes. Right now part of me cant wait to go home, where things are more simple, but I am so glad I have come to china this year to face challenges and find out more about myself. Sorry if any of this is hard to read. I am writing this while my kids are taking Chinese math class, but I'm still in the classroom, so it's a little distracting. I hope everyone back home is doing well. Please know that even though I am terrible with correspondence, you are all loved and missed very much!

Spring time!

I'm so thankful that the sun is shining, and I am no longer sitting and shivering in my classroom. Spring is my favorite time of year. It's not too hot, not too cold, just right. I also start to appreciate things in life more, after a bitter harsh winter. I think that new year's should be in the Spring. Maybe that is Chinese influence over me, but think about it. New Year should begin with new life. Not in the middle of winter when everything is dead and cold. Who is really motivate to start and stick to a new year's resolution at the beginning of January. "I'm going to exercise everyday", when the weather is below freezing? Yeah right.

I also feel like it's a new stage in life for my first graders. In the fall, they barely understood one word of English. Now they are speaking English all of the time. I had another foreign teacher ask me if I had an "English Only" rule. I told him only during class time. But here my kids were running around speaking English during lunch and recess. Teaching 1st grade is probably one of the most challenging grades to teach. They start out so helpless: can't read, can't speak, can't tie their own shoes, etc. They need constant attention. Imagine being the single parent of eleven kids all between the ages of 6 and 8 years old. That's what it is like being a first grade teacher. Not only that, but you are expected to make all of them function as a well organized class. Then there's the parents, "my kid has too much homework", "I want my kid to have MORE homework", "does my kid have friends?", "Please keep my kid away from so and so", and on and on.

But while 1st grade can be exhausting and stressful, I think it is one of the most rewarding grades to teach. You start with a child who has basically no skills, and you get to help mold them into these fun, bright little people. Now all of my students can read, they can speak English, and they know proper behavior. They have accomplished so much in one year, I couldn't be more proud of them. They know how to joke with me, they know how to help each other learn and improve. They are just amazing kids! I will have wonderful memories of them.

Now do I want to be a teacher again? Probably not, I can't imagine starting all over from the beginning again with a new class. However I am really thankful for all I was able to learn and experience this year.

This morning one of my students, Alvin, brought milk with him to school. Another student, Estelle, came to inform me that Alvin's milk was all over the floor. I was sitting at my desk and I could see a small puddle of milk so I asked Alvin to clean it up. Alvin says "no, not I, not I"; which I translated to "It's not my milk". So I try to explain to him, "Alvin, you are the only kid who brought milk, so it has to be yours". But he kept insisting "not I, not I, not I". So I had Eric, my only student who speaks English, explain to him in Chinese, what I just said. Still Alvin insisted. During this time I am walking around my classroom, and out the door down the hall and I see this trail of milk EVERYWHERE! Even his backpack and jacket had huge milk stains, and his water bottle only had a tiny bit of milk in the bottom. I was trying to imagine how this kid can keep claiming that this is not his milk when there is SOO much evidence against him.
Finally my TA arrived and he explained to her that his Grandpa packed his milk, so it's not his fault that it spilled. It's his Grandpa's fault. So "not I, not I, not I" really means "It's not my fault".

Our school has snacks for the kids every morning. Guess what we have today? MILK. Alvin took one look at it and sighed. I smiled at him and asked if he wanted any, and he said "no thank you". I love Alvin . He makes me laugh just about every single day. Teaching with a language barrier is a huge challenge. But it's always an adventure.

4 Months in China

Where do I begin? 4 months can seem like a really long time when you live somewhere you are not accustomed too. You have to make a lot of sacrifices and adjustments. For example, I really miss my car. Especially when I am here in the dead of winter, driving my scooter around in the freezing cold and having my battery die on me and practically having to push my scooter about a half mile through town. Although, it's so crowded here and traffic would make driving a car very stressful and overwhelming. So I just don't get out very much during the winter.

My biggest struggle is with patience. Trying to patient with the driver who decides to stop right in front of you, blocking traffic, and getting out and going into the store. Or trying to be patient with the kid who runs his bike into the back of your leg. Or trying to be patient with the driver who spits out his window as you drive by and it almost hitting you. Or trying to be patient with the store workers who follow you too closely when you are shopping for clothes(it's like they think I'm going to shoplift of something).
I'm not to get hung up on the negatives though.

I have made some awesome friends since being here. And I am so lucky to have my little brother here in China. The kids at school are fantastic. They are so spirited and fun. I have a really nice apartment. There are some really great places to eat. Cost of living is so low. Cops leave me alone, because they don't speak English. The security guards at my apartment development are really kind and helpful when they are NOT hiding my scooter behind the bushes(note: do not park your scooter right in front of the building). I like learning mandarin. I can easily get tailored clothes.

There's definitely ups and downs, but I am enjoying just experiencing life. 

Time to Catch Up!!!

Ok, Ok. I know I am WAY overdue for a new blog post. Lucky for you, I am sick in bed, and so I don't have any excuses for being too busy.

There hasn't been any really exciting news lately. Wait, when was my last blog post? Oh yeah, I guess a lot HAS happened since then. Let's see if I can remember......

The American teachers at my school were invited to go on the sixth grade class trip of the school that our camp is attached to. We travelled down to this beautiful place called Sun Moon Lake. We stayed at this GORGEOUS hotel place, it was actually a bunch of these tiny cottages. Since I was the only female american teacher on the trip, I got my own tiny little cottage to myself. Probably the CUTEST place I have ever stayed at. However, when I showed the other teachers my cottage, one of them decided to run and dive onto my bed, immediately snapping it in half. SO I had to be moved to a different more rundown cottage over by the freeway. (This website hates me because it is not letting me upload any photos).

The next day we were able to go to the Aboriginal Village Theme park. That was pretty fun. It's funny because this culture doesn't like to get wet, so on the water rides, everyone was wearing ponchos except for the americans.
We also got to go to a paper factory factory, where they make paper by hand. It was a pretty neat process.

On to other news. Our camp is FINALLY almost finished. I have posted some photos to my facebook that you can check out. It's really cool because each of our classrooms has a smart board. It looks like a white board, but you hook up the projector and this other cable to your computer, and you can use the "white board" as a touch screen! It's AWESOME! We should be getting our first campers on monday. Hope that I am feeling well enough by then. Yesterday at 2am I went to the ER. I had been throwing up for 10 hours and I wasn't getting any better, I was just getting worse. Still not feeling fantastic, hence the reason I am still in bed, but looking forward to a full recovery. I will try to keep this blog up to date, and I will also try to figure out why it is not letting me upload photos. Peace!

Weekend #2

I left my apartment to go meet my friend Alix the other night. Just after I left the building, I realized that I had forgotten my keys. I knew my roommates were upstairs, but I still don't have a cellphone yet to call them to ask them to bring down my keys. I can't even get into my unit or go up to my floor without my keycard. (That's how secure and hightech these apartments are). So I went back to the front lobby and tried to tell the guys at the front desk that I had forgotten my keys upstairs to see if they could help. Obviously I do not speak enough Mandarin, so I had to use a lot of hand gestures, and then I had this 92 year old Taiwanese lady come up to me and tell me that I have to know how to speak Chinese if I want to come to Taiwan. I do at least know how to count in Chinese so I was able to let them know which floor and apartment I was in, so they were finally able to help me out.

Sabbath I went to church and found a couple of my old highschool teachers there. I also ran into some parents of some old highschool classmates. Small world! Speaking of a small world, I found out that one of the other teachers at one of the camps here actually lived in Rwanda before us and we inherited their cat Fluffy! Also I was talking to one of my coworkers on the phone and I asked him who he was with and he said I probably don't know them, and I jokingly said "I know everybody", and then he told me the name and it turned out to be one of Shaun's old highschool classmates! I think it's so fascinating how many connections there are in the Adventist world.

Anyways, today we are planning on going to the zoo. It's supposed to be really cool and really cheap which makes me excited, because I LOVE zoos! Hope everyone back home is doing well. Please pray for Japan and other places destroyed by earthquakes and tsunamis.  Thanks for thinking about me and praying for me. God has kept me very safe over here and I am having an AMAZING time! Love to all!

First Week in Taipei!!

First of all, I would like to say that I set up this blog, and all the directions were in Chinese. So I definitely consider this a victory!

Moving on, I arrive here Tuesday morning, March 1. I was picked up at the airport, then we dropped my luggage off and went out to the new school that I will be teaching at. For those of you who don't know what I am doing, I am teaching dance at a 5th grade English camp. If you have heard of 6th grade outdoors camp, it's kinda the same thing, except 5th graders. Anyways, more details on that later because our camp is not quite ready to open, they are finishing up construction and stuff.

I would like to touch on some first impressions: 1--It is most courteous to wear surgical masks if you are sick. 2--traffic rules don't really apply here, just try to dodge whoever you can. 3--they require recycling here. 4--it seems like every apartment has a washer, but not dryer, and not an oven.

I have gotten pretty familiar with the public transportation systems, and have a lot more mandarin learning to do.

Sorry I don't have pictures up yet, I've never been a photographer, but I will try! Will update you soon and will have better stories:)