Bowling for Sammy

Well today is Sammy Pants's birthday, but we celebrated on Friday by going bowling. It was the five of us as well as our secretaries Emily and Penny, and some friends Nic, Jeff, Rita, and Julia who showed up later. It was a great time even though I sucked it up on both games. The best part of the night was watching the other bowlers. We had a group of boys next to us who were crazy. Some of them were so skinny it looked like they were having problems throwing the ball and getting it to the end of the lane. One of the boys had the craziest hair I have ever seen. It was poof ball in the back and straight bangs. 

On the other side of us we had an older man that looked like he was trying to throw the ball to Taipei. He would lift the ball over his head and then whip it around.

We also saw a dude hit himself in the face with a bowling ball. He fell down and dropped the ball after it happened (I would have too as well as yelling a few expletives). But this kid played it cool even though he but through his lip and was bleeding. He just got a tissue and shook it off. I had to hand it to him. I must admit I felt bad, but I did laugh as well. I mean seriously how do you hit yourself in the face with a bowling ball? 

The end of the second video is the best. And yes that is a boy, not a girl. I know it can be hard to tell. 

Staying Up Late

Lip Trills
Shake Face
Random Faces

Oh the joys of being able to stay up late even though we probably shouldn't because then stuff like this happens. Hanna, Tanier, and I all were up late and started doing crazy faces and taking pictures. We had random faces, shake face, and lip trills. It was hilarious! We were laughing so loud we woke up Tabbi a few times and she was not happy about that. Sorry Tabs. Lets just say I will be sad in a few weeks when I no longer live with these funny girls.

Thanksgiving and a Wedding

So the week itself is usually really boring and I have nothing to write about, so I only seem to write about my weekends. Sorry for that. This week was Thanksgiving. All of the teachers seemed to read the same story to our students about the holiday. My Basic Reading students on Friday had to write two thank-you's and we wrote ours to Emily and Penny (our secretaries) and Uncle Joe (our handyman) the reasons ranged from you help with homework to you go to 7-11 with us. They really are adorable kids.

On Thanksgiving the girls and I decided to go eat Indian food, we felt we needed to support the Indians and since we can't support American Indians in Taiwan we went with the Indian Indians. It was awesome!

Then on Saturday we went to Fengyuan, which is where the others school is that uses our program and we go to church with their teachers. We had a huge Thanksgiving feast with around twenty or so people. We had enough food for thirty or forty people. Also when you live in Asia for a long time your stomach sort of shrinks so it was hard to eat all that food. We had the traditional turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie. And the not so traditional egg rolls. We ate up the room surrounded by christmas lights and lamps. Then we had a dance party.

On Sunday Hanna, Sam, and I went to a Chinese "wedding" it was actually an engagement party, but that is usually the big party for them. It was held in a huge banquet room and the bride wore three different dresses. I won a teddy bear. There was a light show with flowers and bubbles falling from the ceiling. It was gorgeous. There was also so much food. Once again my family would be proud of me... I ate a huge prawn, red snapper, fish rice, a little crab, black chicken. It was crazy, I was so glad when they finally brought out pork and chicken. I was tired of eating mainly mushrooms. Well that is all for this week. 

Home Visit and Night Market

I almost didn't make it for the week, but it is only 11:06 pm, so I still have 54 minutes. This week not a lot happened. The week went as it usually does. My bike had a flat tire so I had to walk to school, then home, then the next day walk my bike to school and get a new tire. Its funny because three of us had flat tires this week. Our boss asked if someone was playing a joke on us. If they were, we did not think it was funny. 

On Friday, Hanna, Tanier, and I went to find a dumpling restaurant, but had language difficulties so we did not really get what we wanted. Then we went home at some dinner and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic. 

On Saturday Hanna and I went to Taichung with my student Joey (who always wears yellow crocs). They took us to a cool restaurant where we had our own room over the water and sat on the floor. The food was okay. But we got to feed these huge koi fish, like 5 bags of food. They bought us a tea cup and a smelling cup and the owner gave us each a book about the place. Then they took us to SOGO a giant fancy department store. Where Joey held my hand the whole time and just dragged me everywhere. It was so cute because he is only nine, talks a mile a minute, and shuffles in his yellow crocs. There they bought us donuts and ice cream. Joey got a Calpis flavored (sprite), but when Hanna asked what he got she thought he said cow piss. It was pretty funny.  The whole way home he asked me if this was my favorite home visit and what was my favorite part.

Later on Saturday, the girls, plus our friends Torry, and Andre went to Fung Jiao Night Market, the most crowded, feeling like cattle night market. We bought scarves, earrings, hats, and food. We actually found Mexican Food! It did not taste that great, but beggars can't be choosers. We finally made it home around 12:45, when I realized I had not written my Relief Society lesson, so I had to hurry and finish that. It went okay, I hope. Well that is about it for this week. 3 trips to Taichung in 24 hours = good weekend. 

Pictures

I have decided to do a picture update so everyone can see the beauty of Taiwan. 

Update

So it is about 2 months until I will be back in America. It is crazy to think I have been here for 10 months. And I only have like 8 blog posts. So as a last goal I am going to update every week or else I have to pay my roommates money.

Well... I have been doing lots of traveling lately and I am glad that I have been able to see so much of Taiwan. I have been to Wulai, Jiufen (?), Alishan, and Keelung, Taipei was also thrown in there twice. Taiwan is such a beautiful place, with such wonderful people.

At school we had an awesome Halloween party. It was complete with a haunted house, scary costumes (us teachers), and fun games. We even made some of the kids cry. It was a fun day. 

My classes have been going well. I feel like I need to work harder these last two months to make sure they are ready for their next class, especially my 3A-1. They are my bigger class and struggle a lot more, mostly because they don't study. Which drives me crazy!! My 3A-2's are doing great. We have finally become friends. One of my students even asked me to come to her Chinese school on Friday and watch her run in a race. It was a lot of fun, I saw a bunch of kids from our school. 

I don't remember if I mentioned it, but I have been teaching Basic Reading as well this semester. I love getting to be with my old SPE kids, especially BIG (Eric) he has such a pouty face and Buddha ears. I love it. 

Well that is about it for now. I will write again soon. 

Typhoon Morakot

So basically I have been a prisoner in my apartment for the last three days!!! There is a typhoon going on outside and it has been raining and windy! School was cancelled on Friday and there is a  95% chance it will be cancelled for Monday. I love not having to go to work, but I am also bored out of my mind. I never leave my room, except to go to the kitchen or the other girls' rooms. I would go downstairs, but Sam our boy teacher has taken up residence on the middle cushion of the couch and won't move, even though his room is only three steps away. I have got to get out of here and soon, but not necessarily back to work. 

Well... Here it finally is...

I know...I know Sarah Lilly is the worst blogger ever. But I am here now and that is all that matters. So a lot has been going on. For starters I took a two week vacation from work and travelled to Hong Kong, Thailand, and China with my friend Ali from America. It was so great and we had the best time. There were times it was so hot we thought we would die, and times we thought we would never make it to where we were going, but we always made it and it was always an adventure.

I do have to say I am very grateful for my dad and Expeditors on this trip because they saved us a few times. My dad while I was planning, kept making me have all of these lists with everything written down of where we were going to be on which day and it got to be a hassle. He also called every Expeditors person he knew in all of the areas we were going to and let them know we were going to be there on specific days. So while I was planning I was slightly annoyed. I am 24 I can plan my own trips I would think to myself. However those guys from EXPD came in very handy. 

First off in Hong Kong we stayed with a family and they were great and had the most beautiful apartment, they also took us out to meals, told us how to get places, and drove us to Stanley Market.

In Thailand we were on our own and only had one major mishap when we missed a flight to Phuket because our crazy Bangkok taxi driver decided to miss our turn and take us all they way around Bangkok. Luckily we had already decided on a price and did not have to pay extra, even though it took us an extra 30 minutes to get to the airport. 

Then in Beijing we were on our own for the first and most of the second day, until T.H. came and picked us up for dinner with another co-worker and took us for duck. then gave us the company van and driver for the next day to take us all around the city including a part of the Great Wall. He even helped us get plane tickets to Xian when the train we wanted to take was booked. He also had someone in Xian take us to dinner and drive us out to the Terracotta soldiers the next day, take us to the museum, and back to the airport. He also got us a hotel right by the airport. 

Lets just say we had a ton of help on this trip and that made it so enjoyable. I will be putting pictures up later. 

Hiking

So I have no idea what is up with all these people and hiking. I don't know if all these families think that Americans just love hiking or what, but I have now been on about 4 home visits in one month where we have gone hiking. I have been to Sun Moon Lake, Dakeng, a tea farm, and a dairy farm. And at each one of these places I have had to climb a dang mountain. I guess the good thing about all this hiking is I get to see more of beautiful Taiwan, hang out with my kids, and get in shape. The bad side is I look like crap in all of my pictures so I apologize for that. but here are some pictures of my hiking experiences here in Taiwan. 

Cows and Lugang

I know... I know I said every Sunday I would post and obviously I have already failed. But here we go for the last week. Once again school is no different, I think my kids are doing well and I am finally finding interesting ways to teach grammar. Have I mentioned I hate English. Chinese class is still going okay, my goal is to be able to have a simple conversation by the time I go home.
This weekend Hanna and I had more home visits. They were a good time. On Saturday we wnet with Ivy and her family, she is one of my 2B-1's. She is adorable. They took us to a farm where we checked out cows and fed them bottles and grass. Then the main event... I milked a cow!!! Then drank the milk!!!1 It was actually pretty good, just a little warm. Ivy did not want to do it because as she told Hanna and I the utters looked like a boy (with a gesture to the crotch area). Hanna thinks that her and Ivy can be friends outside of school, after that comment. Then we ate ice cream made from the cows at the farm. Then we went to lunch by our scool. It wasa ton of food. After that we went to Ivy's to play Wii, which lasted forever. But it was fun, Hanna and I were both getting tired when they asked if we wanted to stay for dinner. We said sure and ate pizza with them. It was way good. After which I had a coughing attack, since I have been sick. We are finally thinking we can go home, but then they ask if we want to watcha movie. Hanna asks if I am up for it so I say sure. We watched Slumdog Millionaire and did not get home till 9:30. It was a long day.
Then on Sunday Hanna and I went to Lugang with two of our students Ella and Minnie. They are our only two morning SPE's and so cute. They speak English amazingly. We first went with just Minnie, her mom, and cousin to the Folk Arts Museum, then we met up with Ella's family at a temple, where it was the goddess birthday so there were tons of people bringing gifts and eating food it was cool. Then we went to a park and fed the fish. Then ate lunch. After that we went to a historic shopping street where I saw on of my 2B-2's so that was funny. Hanna, the girls, and I all held hands and sang Christmas songs, we made quite a scene. After that we headed home, but I was having a killer migraine and was coughing...again. I had this really bad coughing fit that I couldn't stop so we had to stop and get me water, which helped a lot. We got home around 4:45. I then took a nap until 6:30ish. Then Rebeckah had some people over for dinner and Leslie, Hanna, and I went out to eat. I didn't feel good so I didn't eat. Well that was the week I had. And next weekend there will be 3 days of adventures to right about so stay tuned.

Palm Readers and Bowling

So I realize that it has been over a month since I have posted a blog and I apologize. But my new goal is to post every Sunday about the last week. So I am not going to worry about the previous month just last week. Most of my weeks are the same, work a bajillion hours, go to tons of meetings, beg the other teachers to have their stuff in on time, and teach my classes. This week was adding up to be no different until Thursday. I teach two follow-up class 2B-1 and 2B-2, but Hanna has to teach my 2B-2's on Thursdays because of how the schedule works out. Usually this goes okay even though 2B-2's can be monsters. Well I guess Thursday was a particularly bad day which ended up with books being thrown and kids threatening to get Hanna fired (don't worry she won't be). Let's just say Friday saw a lot of tear stained faces as they came into class after having to go see not only Hanna for one-on-one talks, but also Sherry (my boss). It was pretty funny. Then Friday I got to pull a McGuyver as Hanna and I fixed her tub drain with a fork, screwdriver, and floss (you always need floss). Now to palm readers and bowling. Saturday was shaping up to be a boring rainy day (it has been raining for 3 days). Until Molly called, she is one of our Tawianese friends. She invited us to go to Taichung with her, only Hanna and I went. First we had some adventures at the most crowded Costco I have ever seen. Seriously it was hard to walk in their. Then we headed over to a friends house and ate a ton of food and watched Enchanted. One of the ladies there (the landlady) is actually a palm reader and can see the future. So of course I had to have my palm read. She said that my parents have a great marriage and they really love me, I am also very smart because I have a Confucius eye on my thumb (if the lines on the inside of your thumb at the first knuckle form an oval it means you are smart). She also said I will get married before Hanna and I will have a great life. She told me I should stay in Taiwan, but I don't think I will. After this we all went bowling at 11 pm. It was Molly, Hanna, Sue, her 10 year old daughter Sandy, Collin, Derek, Jeanette, and some kid I never met. I came in 3rd the first time and 1st the second. It was a good night. Well that is all for week one of the weekly blog posts.

Food

So in my family I am known as the pickiest of eaters. They joke that I don't eat anything. So Taiwan has been semi rough on me to actually find food that I will eat. Basically I eat at the same three places, or I find dumplings cause those are usually safe. But I just want my family to know how good I have been about being an adventurous eater lately. On Tuesday my boss took us all out to dinner and our two appetizers were pickled radishes which were ok and pig ear. Which I want them to know I did try. At dinner we also had huge shrimp still with legs and eyes (I did not eat) and a huge flounder fish that kept looking at me because it still had its eyes (I did not eat that either). The rest of the food was ok. Then on Friday one of our students, Kitty, her parents took us to this amazing restaurant. We each got to pick an appetizer, antipasta, salad, soup, palette cleanser (it came in a shot glass), a main dish, a drink (most of us got a mango shake), and a desert!!! The appetizer was shrimp and aspargus in an amazing sauce, and I did eat one shrimp. I also had the cheese and beef antipasta, a salad, pumpkin mushroom soup, steak, mango shake, and ice cream with a chocolate bag!! This was probably the most amazing meal of my life. Now today... Today three of my students Edward, Trevor (twins), and Vincent invited me and teacher Hanna to their house for a chinese new year dinner. 90% of the dinner was fish. I had a shrimp that still had the legs on it, Trevor peeled it for me. I ate the fish, which I tried to sneak only a little, but the mother gave me more. A meatball made with shrimp, and some soup that had octopus and squid, I did however avoid the meat in that one.  So I want my family to know that I am embracing the great food around here. And I wanted to tell my dad that yes, they do eat dog around here, its just hard to find and usually the stray dogs around here will mess with you after you eat dog, because they can sense that you ate one of them. I have a personal source on that one. 

What Should I Do?

So here I am in Taiwan with plenty of things to do and see, but we are sitting here 2 days before Chinese New Year and we have no set plans. I think it is because there is too much to do and see, we can't make up our minds. We were invited to go east, some friends are headed to Taipei, we hear the islands off the west coast are great. So what should we do? Right now we are looking at going to Taipei, but rumor has it the a lot of people leave during Chinese New Year and less markets are open. How lame would that be if we went and the town was shut down. The only thing I care about seeing is the Pingsi Lantern Festival. Its where they light hundreds of lanterns that people have written wishes on for the new year and then they are released into the air and they float. It looks so neat. It starts on the 26th and goes for about 9 days. So I hope I get to see it. I will keep you informed on the plans. 

Two Weeks

So I have been here for about two weeks now and I have written nothing. Sorry about that. The first week I did not have Internet so it was not my fault. Anyway let me catch you up on what has been going on. I started work a week ago Monday and for some reason my boss made me head teacher. I have no idea why, so basically I can tell the other four teachers to do whatever I want them to. J/K But I do have more work, which includes observations, evaluations, testing new students, organizing home visits, making sure everyone is where they are supposed to be, covering for them when they are sick, plus my own classes that I have to teach. And the extra bonus of not getting paid any extra. But it has not been too bad everyone here is great about picking up their own slack and having great ideas. 

I love the kids here (most of the time) sometimes I want to kick them out of class. I have found that bribery works really well. Or threaten them with beatings. Whatever I am in the mood for. Not really we usually threaten them with sending them to Sherry (my boss) and that usually does the trick. 

The town I live in is fun. Everyone is way friendly and really want to practice their English with us. Or they will speak in Chinese even though we shake our heads and say we don't understand. Its a good time. We still have a lot to explore, and luckily I have 6 months to do that. Until next time...