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.