So this post is more about first impressions of things you see around you than for meeting people, although traveling to other countries always gives you a chance to change your first impressions of people.
But this particular road sign caught my attention from the very beginning. Perhaps it was sometime last year, when the bus to church took on a new route due to the International Flower Expo, and you would find yourself suddenly hurtling at top bus speeds (not that fast) into a lane usually reserved for oncoming traffic.
A couple weeks ago I saw a blue road sign that loudly proclaimed the lane below it as a "Reversible Lane" and I had to stop and think about it. Did that mean the lane itself could turn inside out like a jacket? No, it couldn't be. Then did the lane turn around? Of course not. The only explanation I could come up with was that the lane could be used for traffic coming in either direction, thankfully though, despite the many many confusingly parallel roads here in Taipei, it is usually very well understood who can use the reversible lanes, and when, and so far I haven't heard of any collisions in such a lane. But I still keep thinking of reversible jackets when I see the sign.
Another unique thing about Taipei is that I would say it is one of the few, if not the only place you will find on your cafe menu something like "Camellia Sinensis Tea," or, green tea. Actually usually green tea goes by its color, and red tea does as well, but some lesser-known teas are given even lesser-known names when they are placed on the menu.
Speaking of menu, a couple weeks ago I took an adventurous turn and decided to try to order something I couldn't read, which meant of course that I had no idea what I was ordering, except that I knew it was either noodles or rice or soup. Thankfully I could ask if something was vegetarian and thankfully they understood me this time. There have been times that wasn't the case, but I prefer to forget those times :)
Well I still have some homework to do. Until next time,
:)
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Dr. Dolittle
So I am a bit behind in my movie reviewing, but the other day as I was walking home from school, deep in thought as I usually am, little bits of sounds from conversations around me filtered through my subconscious until I suddenly "woke up" and realised with a start that I knew what those conversations were about! For the first time in my time in Taiwan, I was understanding pieces of what people were saying as they walked past me or talked on the bus. It felt like someone had opened a door and suddenly transported me into another world where suddenly what was previously just different, yet familiar sounds, suddenly turned into meaningful conversation. I imagined it to be a little like how Dr. Doolittle must've felt, hence this blog's title. This isn't to say I compare conversations here to the ones of the animals in the film. My analogy is purely single-faceted, connected only to the 'ear opening' aspect of the film.
I must say, it is exciting to learn Chinese, or any second language for that matter. To be able to converse and think in a different way is fun! It can be challenging though. We struggled greatly when we were introduced to the idea that "who" could also be used for "anyone" and "where" could be used for "anywhere." So now our sentences became more confusing for we still thought of those words as "who" and "where" - so when we said "everyone likes to drink tea" it sounded to us like "who wants to drink tea" except there was no question mark. And when we wanted to say "I can go anywhere" it sounded like we were saying "I can go where." It was highly confusing, but once you switch your thinking around, and hear the new use of an old word often enough, it becomes a little easier to grasp.
If you ever do come to Taiwan, don't worry about not knowing what to talk about when you arrive. Even though it's considered a boring topic to discuss, you can still fall back on the weather as a topic for conversation. And you will never run out of things to say for the weather is always changing. One day it may be summery and hot and humid, and the next day it may be blustery and cold and rainy. It all depends, on something, (I never studied earth science so I have no answer for what that 'something' is at the moment).
The last two days were getting a bit cold and I thought I needed to look for my winter jacket, but today, even though it was rainy and dreary, the humidity crept back somehow and was in full force today and still is this evening. If you don't have ramrod straight hair, you're in trouble. I know from personal experience. I always compare my hair to velcro when it comes to living in humid climates; it's awful.
Oh, on my way up the Yang Ming Shan mountain today, I saw a large black beetle, along with a jumpy lizard who kept trying to climb a vine to get away yet couldn't quite manage it. The beetle didn't seem to take any notice of me. Then later I saw a reddish beetle of sorts, and felt glad that I live in the city and not in the country. I have seen the larger-than-your-hand spiders and feel this is indeed a tropical jungle. Anyway, if you'd like to see a picture of what the beetle looked like, you can find a picture on this website:
http://www.beetleshop.net/forum/english/english%20forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1770
And on that note, I think I shall end :) Thanks for checking in and I wish you a wonderful week. Oh, and I had internet issues, and moved house and a few other things, so that's prevented me from writing. But things seem to have calmed down a bit and I now have more reliable internet access, so all is right with this side of the world right now :) until next time!
I must say, it is exciting to learn Chinese, or any second language for that matter. To be able to converse and think in a different way is fun! It can be challenging though. We struggled greatly when we were introduced to the idea that "who" could also be used for "anyone" and "where" could be used for "anywhere." So now our sentences became more confusing for we still thought of those words as "who" and "where" - so when we said "everyone likes to drink tea" it sounded to us like "who wants to drink tea" except there was no question mark. And when we wanted to say "I can go anywhere" it sounded like we were saying "I can go where." It was highly confusing, but once you switch your thinking around, and hear the new use of an old word often enough, it becomes a little easier to grasp.
If you ever do come to Taiwan, don't worry about not knowing what to talk about when you arrive. Even though it's considered a boring topic to discuss, you can still fall back on the weather as a topic for conversation. And you will never run out of things to say for the weather is always changing. One day it may be summery and hot and humid, and the next day it may be blustery and cold and rainy. It all depends, on something, (I never studied earth science so I have no answer for what that 'something' is at the moment).
The last two days were getting a bit cold and I thought I needed to look for my winter jacket, but today, even though it was rainy and dreary, the humidity crept back somehow and was in full force today and still is this evening. If you don't have ramrod straight hair, you're in trouble. I know from personal experience. I always compare my hair to velcro when it comes to living in humid climates; it's awful.
Oh, on my way up the Yang Ming Shan mountain today, I saw a large black beetle, along with a jumpy lizard who kept trying to climb a vine to get away yet couldn't quite manage it. The beetle didn't seem to take any notice of me. Then later I saw a reddish beetle of sorts, and felt glad that I live in the city and not in the country. I have seen the larger-than-your-hand spiders and feel this is indeed a tropical jungle. Anyway, if you'd like to see a picture of what the beetle looked like, you can find a picture on this website:
http://www.beetleshop.net/forum/english/english%20forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1770
And on that note, I think I shall end :) Thanks for checking in and I wish you a wonderful week. Oh, and I had internet issues, and moved house and a few other things, so that's prevented me from writing. But things seem to have calmed down a bit and I now have more reliable internet access, so all is right with this side of the world right now :) until next time!
Friday, September 30, 2011
So this seems to be the week to get sick. In three days we've had three different teachers, and unfortunately I'm able to use our new vocabulary from book 2: "我感冒了" or "I got a cold." Or perhaps is 我生病了, I got sick. Either way I'm feeling under this dreary weather. Apparently the temperature is supposed to drop from its lofty 32+C to about 21C this weekend, but I haven't confirmed the fact. I have rarely experienced such temperamental weather.
But besides learning how to say I'm sick and my throat hurts and I have a serious illness, I've also been finding Taiwanese dramas to be quite interesting. Of course the English subtitles are one of the reasons.
Although right now I can actually understand what people say some of the time - make that a very small percent of the time - there are myriads of topics we haven't yet discussed in our uh, beginner-intermediate level. But! I now have some friends in book 4, "Class 4" as I like to call them, and as I hang out with them I get to hear their conversation, which makes me envious of course, since they can talk about anything from shopping to drugs. But it's incentive for me. I only hope to one day be able to really converse on their level with them.
Yes, there's only so much you can learn in one day. Today after class one of my friends said "Don't! Don't talk in Chinese! I've just had 3 hours of class and I had to speak almost half of the time and I just can't take it anymore!"
So there are times when you've had just about all the language learning you can take before your brain tells you firmly that it will not be accepting any new information. That has happened many times to me, where I've stumbled out of the classroom dazed and weary and unable to form a proper sentence in any language.
But I'm pleased to see improvement in my speaking. Except, today one of my friends asked me in Chinese about my language improvement, and I had to ask him to repeat himself many times, so sadly, I think my improvement, while existent, is still slow and sometimes slower. But I press on! Mostly because, um, I did pay for the whole term :D oh yes, and because I enjoy it!
Right now it's evening and my energy is slowing disappearing. The weekends always get busy, but this weekend I'm afraid I'll have to stay and rest a bit. Argh. I hate missing the social life. Well perhaps I shall blog about it. Perhaps tomorrow morning when I wake up again at 3:30 I shall write a blog about the 半夜 or midnight (I think).
(Because Chinese has so many similar sounds and detailed characters, if I write just one line a little shorter than it's supposed to be written, it could potentially change the whole meaning of the character :) Details are important in writing Chinese characters, as I am finding out. Sometimes I tell myself stories to help remember, "the ski character has snow on top and a pair of skis below." 雪
And today we learned why in Chinese you always say East or West first when giving directions, instead of saying north or south first like we do in English. For example, instead of "northeast" you'd say "eastnorth." The reason our teacher gave us was because of the sun going from the east to the west, so the directions follow the sun :) I thought that was very interesting.
There are other interesting stories in Chinese characters that make so much sense when you hear them. The character for day 日 originally was the shape of a sun with a dot in the middle, and the character for moon 月 was originally shaped like a moon. It's fun to write the characters!
Well I shall go in search of some food and then get some rest. Have a lovely weekend on all sides of the globe!
until next time!
But besides learning how to say I'm sick and my throat hurts and I have a serious illness, I've also been finding Taiwanese dramas to be quite interesting. Of course the English subtitles are one of the reasons.
Although right now I can actually understand what people say some of the time - make that a very small percent of the time - there are myriads of topics we haven't yet discussed in our uh, beginner-intermediate level. But! I now have some friends in book 4, "Class 4" as I like to call them, and as I hang out with them I get to hear their conversation, which makes me envious of course, since they can talk about anything from shopping to drugs. But it's incentive for me. I only hope to one day be able to really converse on their level with them.
Yes, there's only so much you can learn in one day. Today after class one of my friends said "Don't! Don't talk in Chinese! I've just had 3 hours of class and I had to speak almost half of the time and I just can't take it anymore!"
So there are times when you've had just about all the language learning you can take before your brain tells you firmly that it will not be accepting any new information. That has happened many times to me, where I've stumbled out of the classroom dazed and weary and unable to form a proper sentence in any language.
But I'm pleased to see improvement in my speaking. Except, today one of my friends asked me in Chinese about my language improvement, and I had to ask him to repeat himself many times, so sadly, I think my improvement, while existent, is still slow and sometimes slower. But I press on! Mostly because, um, I did pay for the whole term :D oh yes, and because I enjoy it!
Right now it's evening and my energy is slowing disappearing. The weekends always get busy, but this weekend I'm afraid I'll have to stay and rest a bit. Argh. I hate missing the social life. Well perhaps I shall blog about it. Perhaps tomorrow morning when I wake up again at 3:30 I shall write a blog about the 半夜 or midnight (I think).
(Because Chinese has so many similar sounds and detailed characters, if I write just one line a little shorter than it's supposed to be written, it could potentially change the whole meaning of the character :) Details are important in writing Chinese characters, as I am finding out. Sometimes I tell myself stories to help remember, "the ski character has snow on top and a pair of skis below." 雪
And today we learned why in Chinese you always say East or West first when giving directions, instead of saying north or south first like we do in English. For example, instead of "northeast" you'd say "eastnorth." The reason our teacher gave us was because of the sun going from the east to the west, so the directions follow the sun :) I thought that was very interesting.
There are other interesting stories in Chinese characters that make so much sense when you hear them. The character for day 日 originally was the shape of a sun with a dot in the middle, and the character for moon 月 was originally shaped like a moon. It's fun to write the characters!
Well I shall go in search of some food and then get some rest. Have a lovely weekend on all sides of the globe!
until next time!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
What time is it? 現在幾點?
I'm doing it! I'm writing in Chinese! The nice thing is that I've learned a lot of handy repeatable words such as "he/she" and "want" and "don't want" and some other random nouns and verbs, so I can write a nice essay, and if you couldn't read it you'd be impressed, but if you could, you'd quickly see that I'm basically repeating myself and my 30+ words :D hehe. Ok, maybe I know more than 30 words, but the more I learn, the more I want to express myself, and the more limited my vocabulary seems.
The first week of class was exciting - I was actually getting to talk in Chinese! I hadn't done that in years The second week of class was even more exciting - I was learning new vocabulary and was able to talk even more about my daily life! The third week of class I began to feel more comfortable with speaking, and now, the 4th week, I'm beginning to become impatient, "Why can't I express myself more clearly?" I demand to know. But when I stay up too late at night, endless checking friends' posts on facebook and writing long e-mails home, a thought manages to crawl into a tiny space in my brain that's open '24 hours' and make itself known that perhaps lack of sleep is one obstacle to my learning at a faster speed, that and the fact that I decided to tackle Chinese, one of hardest languages in the world I've heard, or 聽說, in Chinese.
So right now I'm not sure why I'm awake at such an unearthly hour, and writing about the consequences of staying up late, of all things. Why am I not resting? Who knows. Taipei doesn't seem to sleep at night, which makes me want to stay up too. Why miss out on something exciting?
Except tomorrow I have another dictation quiz and we're starting on book two! I am so excited! Oh the simple joys of a beginner language student :D so now I'm not sure what time it is, but as I peer through half-closed eye lids, I think my computer clock it says it's almost midnight...hm...how do you say that in Chinese? I forgot. No wonder, my brain must've fallen alseep when we learned that in class. Hm.
Ok, I'm convinced. I shall go to bed. After I finish checking my 3 other e-mail accounts of course...
until next time,
:)
The first week of class was exciting - I was actually getting to talk in Chinese! I hadn't done that in years The second week of class was even more exciting - I was learning new vocabulary and was able to talk even more about my daily life! The third week of class I began to feel more comfortable with speaking, and now, the 4th week, I'm beginning to become impatient, "Why can't I express myself more clearly?" I demand to know. But when I stay up too late at night, endless checking friends' posts on facebook and writing long e-mails home, a thought manages to crawl into a tiny space in my brain that's open '24 hours' and make itself known that perhaps lack of sleep is one obstacle to my learning at a faster speed, that and the fact that I decided to tackle Chinese, one of hardest languages in the world I've heard, or 聽說, in Chinese.
So right now I'm not sure why I'm awake at such an unearthly hour, and writing about the consequences of staying up late, of all things. Why am I not resting? Who knows. Taipei doesn't seem to sleep at night, which makes me want to stay up too. Why miss out on something exciting?
Except tomorrow I have another dictation quiz and we're starting on book two! I am so excited! Oh the simple joys of a beginner language student :D so now I'm not sure what time it is, but as I peer through half-closed eye lids, I think my computer clock it says it's almost midnight...hm...how do you say that in Chinese? I forgot. No wonder, my brain must've fallen alseep when we learned that in class. Hm.
Ok, I'm convinced. I shall go to bed. After I finish checking my 3 other e-mail accounts of course...
until next time,
:)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Learning and Still "Teaching"
Today I'm back online in blog land. It's been way too long, and though I've thought often of updating my blog with my current whereabouts, I always put it off in favor of something more pressing like researching second hand kitchen appliances to buy to add to my collection in my new room.
So I'm back in Taiwan, this time as a student, and I am really enjoying this new position. It's already been over 3 weeks since classes began, and already I can understand a few simple phrases in Chinese spoken at regular speed. That is definitely improvement, as when I first returned I still could not understand anything. I am trying to slowly transition my accent from a thick Beijing accent to a softer Taiwanese accent, so I don't stick out so much when I talk :)
This week we are learning about the weather. The weather is also giving us much to talk about as it is constantly changing. It seems that "qiutian" (pronounced 'tyo tien') or "autumn" may actually be making an appearance. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and it feels much cooler outside. I'm very grateful, as my room is on the 4th floor, and as you know, heat rises, and the higher you live, the hotter you apartment will be, as least I am finding that out.
We are still in the very beginning level of Chinese, but we are fast approaching book 2, and are very much excited at the idea. We will soon graduate to harder lessons and more complex homework. Today we had our first preview of future class 'presentations.' We had to introduce a country and talk about its weather for 1-3 minutes. I chose northern California, and 1 minute :) I talked about how strange (ji gui) the weather is becoming, since it snowed last May. I didn't have a lot more to say after I described the sunny aspect and the occasional rain and the nice temperatures most of the year. My limited vocabulary kind of stopped me after that point.
My classmates are from all over the world. We have Asia, Europe, and North America and Latin America represented in our classroom. It's really quite exciting.
The title of this post is "Learning and Still 'Teaching' " because I can't help but continue 'teaching' or telling everyone I know about the useful information I'm learning, such as where the library is and where the good restaurants are. I couldn't help but tell all my friends about how to get a library card and after a couple trips at least 8 of my friends now have library cards and 4 know where the media center is, where you can watch movies :)
Well it's getting late so I shall begin to end here. One last thing - something I do not cherish about Taipei is the enormous and speedy cockroaches that meet me on the stairs with beady eyes (I think) in the middle of a dark night. Thankfully I've found that light is one weapon I can use against them, and I happily shine my small beam from my small flashlight on them, but we always end up in a dance - I call it the cockroach dance, because usually the cockroach is faster and more scared than me so he usually gets to go where he wants and I have to just jump out of the way. Thankfully not too many have charged towards me, and thankfully I'm still at least 50x times their size (just a random number). But still, I could do without them, as well as the anonymous bugs that have bitten me in at least 14 different places. (I was careful to count my bug-battle scars so I could tell people so they could feel sorry for me. But that's just how a city-raised girl like me feels in regard to insects.)
So until next time, but seeing as how regularly I write, that may not be until next year, at which point I shall probably write in Chinese and you won't be able to understand it anyway unless you use google translate (which I probably will use to write it anyway), until then, have a great time!
:)
So I'm back in Taiwan, this time as a student, and I am really enjoying this new position. It's already been over 3 weeks since classes began, and already I can understand a few simple phrases in Chinese spoken at regular speed. That is definitely improvement, as when I first returned I still could not understand anything. I am trying to slowly transition my accent from a thick Beijing accent to a softer Taiwanese accent, so I don't stick out so much when I talk :)
This week we are learning about the weather. The weather is also giving us much to talk about as it is constantly changing. It seems that "qiutian" (pronounced 'tyo tien') or "autumn" may actually be making an appearance. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and it feels much cooler outside. I'm very grateful, as my room is on the 4th floor, and as you know, heat rises, and the higher you live, the hotter you apartment will be, as least I am finding that out.
We are still in the very beginning level of Chinese, but we are fast approaching book 2, and are very much excited at the idea. We will soon graduate to harder lessons and more complex homework. Today we had our first preview of future class 'presentations.' We had to introduce a country and talk about its weather for 1-3 minutes. I chose northern California, and 1 minute :) I talked about how strange (ji gui) the weather is becoming, since it snowed last May. I didn't have a lot more to say after I described the sunny aspect and the occasional rain and the nice temperatures most of the year. My limited vocabulary kind of stopped me after that point.
My classmates are from all over the world. We have Asia, Europe, and North America and Latin America represented in our classroom. It's really quite exciting.
The title of this post is "Learning and Still 'Teaching' " because I can't help but continue 'teaching' or telling everyone I know about the useful information I'm learning, such as where the library is and where the good restaurants are. I couldn't help but tell all my friends about how to get a library card and after a couple trips at least 8 of my friends now have library cards and 4 know where the media center is, where you can watch movies :)
Well it's getting late so I shall begin to end here. One last thing - something I do not cherish about Taipei is the enormous and speedy cockroaches that meet me on the stairs with beady eyes (I think) in the middle of a dark night. Thankfully I've found that light is one weapon I can use against them, and I happily shine my small beam from my small flashlight on them, but we always end up in a dance - I call it the cockroach dance, because usually the cockroach is faster and more scared than me so he usually gets to go where he wants and I have to just jump out of the way. Thankfully not too many have charged towards me, and thankfully I'm still at least 50x times their size (just a random number). But still, I could do without them, as well as the anonymous bugs that have bitten me in at least 14 different places. (I was careful to count my bug-battle scars so I could tell people so they could feel sorry for me. But that's just how a city-raised girl like me feels in regard to insects.)
So until next time, but seeing as how regularly I write, that may not be until next year, at which point I shall probably write in Chinese and you won't be able to understand it anyway unless you use google translate (which I probably will use to write it anyway), until then, have a great time!
:)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Starting to perk up
Probably the worst part about being a procrastinator and a teacher, is that there is a stack of homework sitting on my office, begging to be released back into the outside world. I have held some of those papers captive for far too long and it is time now to begin letting them go. However, first things first - one cannot work in an untidy office. So today I spent around 5 hours trying to organise myself and my files for my successor.
I realised I have multitudes of files all saved in mulitple locations bearing similar names... in other words, I was very careful to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my research and worksheets and handouts to any technology malfunctions. I have the files on my USB, my documents, my network places... so I managed to consolidate most of those today. Thankfully it didn't take too much time to figure out the duplicates and happily delete those out of existance, or at least out of sight and into my vitual trash can.
Perhaps it shows, perhaps it doesn't, but with the end of the school year fast approaching, I am beginning to perk up a bit and even venture out into the night life I live so close to. Tonight at 7-something I realised I hadn't yet eaten supper. At 8:30 I finally stumbled out of my office and flew down the stairs in an effort to go find some food for supper. Unfortuntely, by the time I made it to the vendor I had planned to buy some pineapple fried rice from, I realised too late that they closed at 8:00... So I kept wandering around and ended up finding a deep-fried cheese empananda and a vegetarian burrito minus the beans, all for less than $4. I was quite pleased, as was my stomach.
It is so fun to wander around the night market with all its clothes, watches, shoes, and trinkets stores. The food is quite something to behold too. I saw a pizza cone with squid, at least the pictures told me it was squid. I haven't learned that word in Chinese yet, although I did learn "shrimp" after one very unfortunate curry experience.
This week I will have another Chinese class and I forget the topic, but last week we learned how to say where we were from. Unfortunately I still don't know how to answer that question, in any language, so I alternated between "America" and "England" giving my classmates a bit of confusion. I made one new friend and was so excited because she is from England and I have so far not talked with anyone from England here in Taiwan. Of course I felt very un-British around her.
Perhaps I should end here for now and continue another night. It's hard to keep up with life sometimes, and other times it drags by. This is one of those speedy times, and I know I will soon be wondering where in the world the time has gone, and how a year could have passed by already. You may even find me looking under the cushions in my house to see how I could have misplaced a whole year's worth of time. Where did it all go? I know at least half of it has sped past me. The other half is best left to itself.
It will feel good to say I survived my first year of teaching. I am quite sure that my students' learning is at least comparable to how much I have learned from this year. I'm thankful to my students for being such fun teachers. Teenage years are definitely the hardest and I have certainly had my struggles trying to combat this in my classroom. But there are those days that just stick in your memory forever, days when you laugh wih your students and watch them happily oblivious to the adult woes we carry so heavily on our shoulders. The memory of these days lasts longer than the hard days where your energy just goes into breathing deeply after every confrontation you face.
The happy days I'm talking about are when you watch a student up front expertly taking prayer requests and offering up the prayer; the times you watch your own students teach the class, and pattern their class after yours; the days where your students ask you about your plans and what you think about a topic; the days where someone has an 'aha' moment and suddenly gets what you have been trying to explain; the days when you read a 'thank you' note from a student, or you watch your students help a classmate to succeed... these times I will not forget, and I'm so thankful for memory and that I can keep these good memories as long as I want to, and think back on them anytime I want a smile or a little tear of nostalgia :) perhaps this is the reward many people talk about - deeper than those "I finally understand" moments in your teaching career; it's the connecting your students do for you when you don't realise it, connecting you back to life and away from the minutiae that takes you away from people and being part of life. Thank you students... I never knew this was the lesson you would be teaching me. I knew I had something to learn, but I never realised it would be the one lesson I had come to teach you... so thank you. For all the energy that went into planning your classes this year, I can only say that it was well worth it, and you certainly surprised me with your own lessons for me. I wish you the best this next year. I know you, and I know each and every one of you has the potential to succeed. May you never forget how to love and how to live.
Until next class,
- RL
I realised I have multitudes of files all saved in mulitple locations bearing similar names... in other words, I was very careful to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my research and worksheets and handouts to any technology malfunctions. I have the files on my USB, my documents, my network places... so I managed to consolidate most of those today. Thankfully it didn't take too much time to figure out the duplicates and happily delete those out of existance, or at least out of sight and into my vitual trash can.
Perhaps it shows, perhaps it doesn't, but with the end of the school year fast approaching, I am beginning to perk up a bit and even venture out into the night life I live so close to. Tonight at 7-something I realised I hadn't yet eaten supper. At 8:30 I finally stumbled out of my office and flew down the stairs in an effort to go find some food for supper. Unfortuntely, by the time I made it to the vendor I had planned to buy some pineapple fried rice from, I realised too late that they closed at 8:00... So I kept wandering around and ended up finding a deep-fried cheese empananda and a vegetarian burrito minus the beans, all for less than $4. I was quite pleased, as was my stomach.
It is so fun to wander around the night market with all its clothes, watches, shoes, and trinkets stores. The food is quite something to behold too. I saw a pizza cone with squid, at least the pictures told me it was squid. I haven't learned that word in Chinese yet, although I did learn "shrimp" after one very unfortunate curry experience.
This week I will have another Chinese class and I forget the topic, but last week we learned how to say where we were from. Unfortunately I still don't know how to answer that question, in any language, so I alternated between "America" and "England" giving my classmates a bit of confusion. I made one new friend and was so excited because she is from England and I have so far not talked with anyone from England here in Taiwan. Of course I felt very un-British around her.
Perhaps I should end here for now and continue another night. It's hard to keep up with life sometimes, and other times it drags by. This is one of those speedy times, and I know I will soon be wondering where in the world the time has gone, and how a year could have passed by already. You may even find me looking under the cushions in my house to see how I could have misplaced a whole year's worth of time. Where did it all go? I know at least half of it has sped past me. The other half is best left to itself.
It will feel good to say I survived my first year of teaching. I am quite sure that my students' learning is at least comparable to how much I have learned from this year. I'm thankful to my students for being such fun teachers. Teenage years are definitely the hardest and I have certainly had my struggles trying to combat this in my classroom. But there are those days that just stick in your memory forever, days when you laugh wih your students and watch them happily oblivious to the adult woes we carry so heavily on our shoulders. The memory of these days lasts longer than the hard days where your energy just goes into breathing deeply after every confrontation you face.
The happy days I'm talking about are when you watch a student up front expertly taking prayer requests and offering up the prayer; the times you watch your own students teach the class, and pattern their class after yours; the days where your students ask you about your plans and what you think about a topic; the days where someone has an 'aha' moment and suddenly gets what you have been trying to explain; the days when you read a 'thank you' note from a student, or you watch your students help a classmate to succeed... these times I will not forget, and I'm so thankful for memory and that I can keep these good memories as long as I want to, and think back on them anytime I want a smile or a little tear of nostalgia :) perhaps this is the reward many people talk about - deeper than those "I finally understand" moments in your teaching career; it's the connecting your students do for you when you don't realise it, connecting you back to life and away from the minutiae that takes you away from people and being part of life. Thank you students... I never knew this was the lesson you would be teaching me. I knew I had something to learn, but I never realised it would be the one lesson I had come to teach you... so thank you. For all the energy that went into planning your classes this year, I can only say that it was well worth it, and you certainly surprised me with your own lessons for me. I wish you the best this next year. I know you, and I know each and every one of you has the potential to succeed. May you never forget how to love and how to live.
Until next class,
- RL
Monday, April 25, 2011
The question that begs to be asked
So my question today is, how do you keep the balance between spilling out all your thoughts in one go when you can't hold them in any longer, to your friends or whoever happens to be around you, and, holding everything inside and not letting anything out at all so that people forget you're around sometimes?
A related question would be, how much de-stressing can you safely do before you turn into a garbage truck, but instead of collecting the rubbish, you are dumping it out onto those around you?
The reason I ask, is because we all feel stressed from time to time and it seems most helpful to talk it out with someone who can calmly sift through your emotional rantings and can piece together your fragmented words and give them back to you in the form of a more complete and logical picture of the situation you are having trouble facing.
Hypothetically speaking, let's say there is a limit to the amount of barraging words we can safely dump into the ears of our patient friends or family. And let's say that one day we reach that limit.
Now, the other question that begs to be answered is, what should be said to the friend who finally holds up his hands in mock surrender and says, "I am sorry, I can no longer take anymore. From now on, I can only handle (#) of minutes of your troubles, after that you need to stop." Now is this friend setting a boundary, and is this a logical boundary, or is this friend no longe a 'true' friend who is there to listen and help and support?
Perhaps there are many answers to these questions. Perhaps you have felt you were both: the dumpee and dumper, or perhaps you are more prone to fall into one of the two categories. The reason I bring it up is because I was just hit with the realisation today of how powerful the combination of words and emotions put together can be on those around us. A simple sentence like, "Do you believe me?" can be a calm, direct question, or it can turn into a piercing accusation, all depending on how you deliver the words. You can deliver a clear message or you can deliver a whole package of bits and pieces of emotions and feelings that the listener has to sort through before being able to give an answer, that is, providing the speaker pauses long enough to take any incoming information in.
Sometimes we can be like radios - always talking, always giving out information, always running. And someimes we can be like answering machines, the only thing we say is "hello...." and then the rest of the time we take in information, spitting it out when asked for a recounting of the past.
Perhaps a valuable lesson I learned today was how powerful words combined with emotions can be, and important it is to carefully balance the two when freely sharing them with others. Perhaps there is wisdom in carefully considering what we say before we say it, weighing the consequences and the possible effects our words will have on our hearers. Perhaps we don't do this enough.
On a different note, today was my first field trip, and I took my older students out to a bookstore to do an English treasure hunt :) It was quite fun. All the questions I had painstakingly written over the course of two Sunday afternoons, were finally put to good use. Except, I had missed one vital detail in my planning... let this lesson not be wasted on just my experience - but let the reader learn from my mistakes! Check the time that the bookstore opens, BEFORE planning your field trip.... we arrived 1.5 hours early, and had only budgeted half a day for the trip... needless to say, I was disappointed that my hour-long project shrank to a 20-minute-mad-dash, where even my students were asking me "can't we stay longer?" (music to an English teacher's ears when you're in a bookstore working on a learning project :)
Well, you live and learn, and I learned to be prepared for details like opening times... and I learned that I could trust these students, like I had suspected; and I learned that I really enjoyed this type of teaching/learning! The trip went so smoothly, and I arrived back at school refreshed and eager to continue my day! I couldn't stop smiling :)
Well if I want to smile tomorrow perhaps I should think about getting some sleep soon...
Until nex time,
- R
A related question would be, how much de-stressing can you safely do before you turn into a garbage truck, but instead of collecting the rubbish, you are dumping it out onto those around you?
The reason I ask, is because we all feel stressed from time to time and it seems most helpful to talk it out with someone who can calmly sift through your emotional rantings and can piece together your fragmented words and give them back to you in the form of a more complete and logical picture of the situation you are having trouble facing.
Hypothetically speaking, let's say there is a limit to the amount of barraging words we can safely dump into the ears of our patient friends or family. And let's say that one day we reach that limit.
Now, the other question that begs to be answered is, what should be said to the friend who finally holds up his hands in mock surrender and says, "I am sorry, I can no longer take anymore. From now on, I can only handle (#) of minutes of your troubles, after that you need to stop." Now is this friend setting a boundary, and is this a logical boundary, or is this friend no longe a 'true' friend who is there to listen and help and support?
Perhaps there are many answers to these questions. Perhaps you have felt you were both: the dumpee and dumper, or perhaps you are more prone to fall into one of the two categories. The reason I bring it up is because I was just hit with the realisation today of how powerful the combination of words and emotions put together can be on those around us. A simple sentence like, "Do you believe me?" can be a calm, direct question, or it can turn into a piercing accusation, all depending on how you deliver the words. You can deliver a clear message or you can deliver a whole package of bits and pieces of emotions and feelings that the listener has to sort through before being able to give an answer, that is, providing the speaker pauses long enough to take any incoming information in.
Sometimes we can be like radios - always talking, always giving out information, always running. And someimes we can be like answering machines, the only thing we say is "hello...." and then the rest of the time we take in information, spitting it out when asked for a recounting of the past.
Perhaps a valuable lesson I learned today was how powerful words combined with emotions can be, and important it is to carefully balance the two when freely sharing them with others. Perhaps there is wisdom in carefully considering what we say before we say it, weighing the consequences and the possible effects our words will have on our hearers. Perhaps we don't do this enough.
On a different note, today was my first field trip, and I took my older students out to a bookstore to do an English treasure hunt :) It was quite fun. All the questions I had painstakingly written over the course of two Sunday afternoons, were finally put to good use. Except, I had missed one vital detail in my planning... let this lesson not be wasted on just my experience - but let the reader learn from my mistakes! Check the time that the bookstore opens, BEFORE planning your field trip.... we arrived 1.5 hours early, and had only budgeted half a day for the trip... needless to say, I was disappointed that my hour-long project shrank to a 20-minute-mad-dash, where even my students were asking me "can't we stay longer?" (music to an English teacher's ears when you're in a bookstore working on a learning project :)
Well, you live and learn, and I learned to be prepared for details like opening times... and I learned that I could trust these students, like I had suspected; and I learned that I really enjoyed this type of teaching/learning! The trip went so smoothly, and I arrived back at school refreshed and eager to continue my day! I couldn't stop smiling :)
Well if I want to smile tomorrow perhaps I should think about getting some sleep soon...
Until nex time,
- R
Friday, April 22, 2011
Memory
Tonight as we were sitting down for the special easter program with our students, suddenly a flood of memories from years past, high school and college, slowly materialised in my mind along with a twinge of sadness for the fact that they were now only memories. But I am thankful for those memories.
There is a staccato of rain outside my window as I write. Fortunately for me, we had an extra umbrella at home that sort of worked, so when I was caught this evening, without my umbrella since it was back at school, I was able to slosh my way and arrive for the evening program moderately unsoaked.
The neatest thing was seeing my students there. The intimidating factor to knowing my students were there, in fact all but two were my students in one class or another, is how many students I actually have out of our total count. I believe it is about 1/3 of the student body, and that is quite intimidating when you realise the opportunities you have everyday to make a difference.
But back to the memory theme. I know I shall look back on today as a good memory, especially when I recall the small group of dedicated students who spent over an hour practicing a song for another program, by themselves, with just a sound file on my computer as their accompaniment. They seemed so excited when I emerged from my staff meeting and came face to face with them as they gladly rushed into the room where the piano was to practice some more! I was super impressed.
One thing I learned this week - and that is that God has a plan for us, and contrary to what some believe, it is not more noble, nor is it even reasonable, to force ourselves into a mold we believe we need to fill. For example, when considering what career path to take, I need to discover the gifts God has already given me, and find out how to use those as much as possible. Then, instead of constantly feeling frustrated in a job where I do not have the gift to accomplish it efficiently, I will feel happy and energised doing what I know I was given a gift to do.
This idea came in direct contrast to the idea I was used to where I needed to 'get out of my comfort zone' to do the 'more noble' work, we sometimes like to call certain positions, and teaching can certainly be considered one of those. I do enjoy coming up with ideas for teaching, don't get me wrong, but once I changed my mindset from "I must be happy as a teacher even though I get more tired in this position than in other positions" to "perhaps my gifts lie in another area" - I immediately felt a sense of relief.
Perhaps we are a little too hard on ourselves at times - imagining that we must valiantly fit ourselves to the position we are in, whether it came to us or we came to it. Of course we do not always have a choice, and that is difficult. But when we have a choice, imagine how much happier we will be when we are doing something we truly are good at, even it takes some training to get to that point?
Having said that, I need to go take another personality/career test :) The difference in a job that is difficult to accomplish, may come from just looking at it from a different perspective. Instead of saying, "I must fit this mold" you (I) could say, "I am going to learn what I can, then go find a mold I more naturally fit into."
The object used to bring home this point to me was an AC remote control. The person giving me the advice said, if he used this remote control as a cellphone, it wouldn't do him any good, and it would frustrate him. That made me smile. And tonight I smiled again when I saw my students who came to the program. I have the best students ever :)
There is a staccato of rain outside my window as I write. Fortunately for me, we had an extra umbrella at home that sort of worked, so when I was caught this evening, without my umbrella since it was back at school, I was able to slosh my way and arrive for the evening program moderately unsoaked.
The neatest thing was seeing my students there. The intimidating factor to knowing my students were there, in fact all but two were my students in one class or another, is how many students I actually have out of our total count. I believe it is about 1/3 of the student body, and that is quite intimidating when you realise the opportunities you have everyday to make a difference.
But back to the memory theme. I know I shall look back on today as a good memory, especially when I recall the small group of dedicated students who spent over an hour practicing a song for another program, by themselves, with just a sound file on my computer as their accompaniment. They seemed so excited when I emerged from my staff meeting and came face to face with them as they gladly rushed into the room where the piano was to practice some more! I was super impressed.
One thing I learned this week - and that is that God has a plan for us, and contrary to what some believe, it is not more noble, nor is it even reasonable, to force ourselves into a mold we believe we need to fill. For example, when considering what career path to take, I need to discover the gifts God has already given me, and find out how to use those as much as possible. Then, instead of constantly feeling frustrated in a job where I do not have the gift to accomplish it efficiently, I will feel happy and energised doing what I know I was given a gift to do.
This idea came in direct contrast to the idea I was used to where I needed to 'get out of my comfort zone' to do the 'more noble' work, we sometimes like to call certain positions, and teaching can certainly be considered one of those. I do enjoy coming up with ideas for teaching, don't get me wrong, but once I changed my mindset from "I must be happy as a teacher even though I get more tired in this position than in other positions" to "perhaps my gifts lie in another area" - I immediately felt a sense of relief.
Perhaps we are a little too hard on ourselves at times - imagining that we must valiantly fit ourselves to the position we are in, whether it came to us or we came to it. Of course we do not always have a choice, and that is difficult. But when we have a choice, imagine how much happier we will be when we are doing something we truly are good at, even it takes some training to get to that point?
Having said that, I need to go take another personality/career test :) The difference in a job that is difficult to accomplish, may come from just looking at it from a different perspective. Instead of saying, "I must fit this mold" you (I) could say, "I am going to learn what I can, then go find a mold I more naturally fit into."
The object used to bring home this point to me was an AC remote control. The person giving me the advice said, if he used this remote control as a cellphone, it wouldn't do him any good, and it would frustrate him. That made me smile. And tonight I smiled again when I saw my students who came to the program. I have the best students ever :)
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Back So Soon
Imagine, 2 blog posts in less than a week... I really amaze myself, or perhaps amuse myself. At any rate, I do enjoy writing and need to do it more often. So we haven't done anything radically different in class this week, but I thought I'd share some things we did before... for example...
Did you know that Facebook has several word games called "Word Challenge" where you have 6 letters and your goal is to create as many words with those six letters as you can in 20 seconds or more. Then you can change the letters and start creating all over again. So we played that in my English 1 classes several times. My students are quite good at finding words. I think they enjoy the challenge and the puzzle/problem solving skills. I enjoy it too!
Did you know, that Facebook also has the coolest word game called Scrabble? But anyway, enough about Facebook... back to Taipei... they have the coolest place here called "Subber" - which really is a local Subway with the absolute greatest sub sandwiches. Where else do you get corn and sweet mayonnaise on your sandwich? Only at Subber, in Taipei. Speaking of food. I still haven't visited what is called by some "Stinky Tofu Alley" ... I have a feeling I'd much rather go there only if I canfind the Gelato store at the end somewhere which my friend told me about.
The weekend is coming up... that means 4 weeks left of teaching! And my field trip has been approved! So my students are going to do a literature treasure hunt soon!
This weekend we are planning a special Easter program for the students... I hope you remember that when you think of us... keep us in mind - that it will be a special experience for everyone who comes. It's so neat to see my students blosom into leaders who lead their fellow students in singing and discussing and thinking about the deeper topics of life.
Well it's bye for now. Until next time,
R
Did you know that Facebook has several word games called "Word Challenge" where you have 6 letters and your goal is to create as many words with those six letters as you can in 20 seconds or more. Then you can change the letters and start creating all over again. So we played that in my English 1 classes several times. My students are quite good at finding words. I think they enjoy the challenge and the puzzle/problem solving skills. I enjoy it too!
Did you know, that Facebook also has the coolest word game called Scrabble? But anyway, enough about Facebook... back to Taipei... they have the coolest place here called "Subber" - which really is a local Subway with the absolute greatest sub sandwiches. Where else do you get corn and sweet mayonnaise on your sandwich? Only at Subber, in Taipei. Speaking of food. I still haven't visited what is called by some "Stinky Tofu Alley" ... I have a feeling I'd much rather go there only if I canfind the Gelato store at the end somewhere which my friend told me about.
The weekend is coming up... that means 4 weeks left of teaching! And my field trip has been approved! So my students are going to do a literature treasure hunt soon!
This weekend we are planning a special Easter program for the students... I hope you remember that when you think of us... keep us in mind - that it will be a special experience for everyone who comes. It's so neat to see my students blosom into leaders who lead their fellow students in singing and discussing and thinking about the deeper topics of life.
Well it's bye for now. Until next time,
R
Monday, April 18, 2011
Countdown to 1
The countdown has begun - only 5 1/2 weeks of school left. Soon I will be staring at the graduation stage and watching my students march down in their colorful robes (I'm sure they're colorful, I don't know what color though), and my freshmen will be promoted to sophomores (providing they pass my class) and my juniors will be promoted to seniors...
And so the seasons change, although I would say, not quite as fast as the weather here in Taipei. After a lovely sunny week during our spring break, with absolutely perfect weather, it has gotten rainy, cold, humid, and hot all at once and you never know if you should bring an umbrella and coat or sunglasses and hat, so I always bring all of them. That's why I always carry a backpack laden with all sorts of things that I'm always dropping.
I have learned a lot this year. I must say I have learned so much about myself it's quite intimidating. Sometimes what you don't know won't hurt you, until you finally know it. For example, perhaps organising teenagers everyday is not my strong point... I know it isn't, as I would much rather be the one behind the desk hunched over a keyboard and typing furiously away on brilliant lesson plans and fun ideas and activities and field trips. But to implement them? What a different story. Whoever decided that students should go to school everyday must have not been a teacher. Why not every other day, so teachers and students have time to recuperate from the experience, get their homework or research done, and come back again for some more intense learning? But perhaps one needs the steady routine of doing something everyday, or there must be other reasons, which I have yet to be fully convinced of.
I learned that I love showing people Taipei because I really like it here. What a lovely spring break - showing one of my best friends around to all the places I like to go to and places I haven't been to before. Public transportation is one of my favorite parts of Taipei because you can be independent and not have to drive! It truly is a place for me.
I learned that I like milk tea... and then I learned what kind of tea it is and I learned why I was so happy after drinking it :) But it really does taste good. Milk tea is a black tea with milk, sugar,and these little round balls of jelly that are more chewy than jello. I tried it one day just to be adventurous, not sure what I would think since the first time I ever saw milk tea I ran away from the little sample cup as fast as I could. However this time I managed to like it so much it promptly replaced guava juice as my new favourite drink.
Another thing I learned is that I'm thankful for friends, especially friends who take a Sunday afternoon off to help me look at all the American Literature books in a bookstore in Taipei 101, in an effort to create a treasure hunt / learning experience for my American Literature students. Fingers-crossed, I will be able to finish it by next Sunday.
I still enjoy learning Chinese, even though I haven't spent much time on it this year. But, despite that fact that it's almost the end of the year here, I signed myself up for a Chinese class at a university... an hour away... and I have lessons once a week in conversation. Last week I learned words like 'sit' and 'stand' and 'crawl' and other useful words. I suppose if I ever lack words to use in my limited Chinese conversations, I can always ask people to crawl away from me.
Well it's getting late here in Taipei, although you are probably just waking up across the world. I hope you have a great night. I will keep you posted (perhaps it may not be until next month at the rate I write)
Until next time,
R
And so the seasons change, although I would say, not quite as fast as the weather here in Taipei. After a lovely sunny week during our spring break, with absolutely perfect weather, it has gotten rainy, cold, humid, and hot all at once and you never know if you should bring an umbrella and coat or sunglasses and hat, so I always bring all of them. That's why I always carry a backpack laden with all sorts of things that I'm always dropping.
I have learned a lot this year. I must say I have learned so much about myself it's quite intimidating. Sometimes what you don't know won't hurt you, until you finally know it. For example, perhaps organising teenagers everyday is not my strong point... I know it isn't, as I would much rather be the one behind the desk hunched over a keyboard and typing furiously away on brilliant lesson plans and fun ideas and activities and field trips. But to implement them? What a different story. Whoever decided that students should go to school everyday must have not been a teacher. Why not every other day, so teachers and students have time to recuperate from the experience, get their homework or research done, and come back again for some more intense learning? But perhaps one needs the steady routine of doing something everyday, or there must be other reasons, which I have yet to be fully convinced of.
I learned that I love showing people Taipei because I really like it here. What a lovely spring break - showing one of my best friends around to all the places I like to go to and places I haven't been to before. Public transportation is one of my favorite parts of Taipei because you can be independent and not have to drive! It truly is a place for me.
I learned that I like milk tea... and then I learned what kind of tea it is and I learned why I was so happy after drinking it :) But it really does taste good. Milk tea is a black tea with milk, sugar,and these little round balls of jelly that are more chewy than jello. I tried it one day just to be adventurous, not sure what I would think since the first time I ever saw milk tea I ran away from the little sample cup as fast as I could. However this time I managed to like it so much it promptly replaced guava juice as my new favourite drink.
Another thing I learned is that I'm thankful for friends, especially friends who take a Sunday afternoon off to help me look at all the American Literature books in a bookstore in Taipei 101, in an effort to create a treasure hunt / learning experience for my American Literature students. Fingers-crossed, I will be able to finish it by next Sunday.
I still enjoy learning Chinese, even though I haven't spent much time on it this year. But, despite that fact that it's almost the end of the year here, I signed myself up for a Chinese class at a university... an hour away... and I have lessons once a week in conversation. Last week I learned words like 'sit' and 'stand' and 'crawl' and other useful words. I suppose if I ever lack words to use in my limited Chinese conversations, I can always ask people to crawl away from me.
Well it's getting late here in Taipei, although you are probably just waking up across the world. I hope you have a great night. I will keep you posted (perhaps it may not be until next month at the rate I write)
Until next time,
R
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Random
So the other day I passed by a man who regularly begs on our street near the night market, and I never know what to do or give, so I finally decided that since it was a cold evening, I'd buy him a drink and some hot food from 7-11. So off I went, returning with some potato fries, hot chocolate and some sausage-thing, nice and hot. But when I knelt down to ask him if he was hungry, he told me no thanks, he had eaten, but thank you! I honestly didn't know what to do, but since I was also cold, I was happy for the hot chocolate and I ate the fries and tossed the sausage-thing =D
So, the weather here has been like a roller coaster - up and down from day to day. Yesterday was around 21 Celsius, a nice warm temperature, and today it dropped down to 13 Celsius, and I shivered my way home from work today.
Some random notes from my classes... last week in an effort to practice pronunciation in a fun way, on a sunny day we trotted down to the basketball court, stood in the sun, stuffed our mouths with cherry tomatoes and spewed out tongue twisters as fast as we could. It was kind of fun :)
The countdown has begun - we just passed midterm and I cannot believe it is the last quarter of the school year. While it still seems like there is a long time to wait until the year is over, as I look back, the time goes by faster and faster. And soon I know I will be looking at the end of the school year, as it stares solemnly back at me, and I will question whether or not I really taught what I should have. For a first year teacher, I am just happy to say that I survived, and even more than just surviving, I actually did teach some of the real-life lessons I so wanted to teach. That's enough for me and I can rest knowing I did what I could with what I had.
Now the question is, where to next? Perhaps I shall start a new blog soon from another part of the world.
Until next time,
- RL
So, the weather here has been like a roller coaster - up and down from day to day. Yesterday was around 21 Celsius, a nice warm temperature, and today it dropped down to 13 Celsius, and I shivered my way home from work today.
Some random notes from my classes... last week in an effort to practice pronunciation in a fun way, on a sunny day we trotted down to the basketball court, stood in the sun, stuffed our mouths with cherry tomatoes and spewed out tongue twisters as fast as we could. It was kind of fun :)
The countdown has begun - we just passed midterm and I cannot believe it is the last quarter of the school year. While it still seems like there is a long time to wait until the year is over, as I look back, the time goes by faster and faster. And soon I know I will be looking at the end of the school year, as it stares solemnly back at me, and I will question whether or not I really taught what I should have. For a first year teacher, I am just happy to say that I survived, and even more than just surviving, I actually did teach some of the real-life lessons I so wanted to teach. That's enough for me and I can rest knowing I did what I could with what I had.
Now the question is, where to next? Perhaps I shall start a new blog soon from another part of the world.
Until next time,
- RL
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Random
So I'm not even sure what to write today. It's kind of late and I guess I shall just describe what I did this week. I know this is quite unoriginal, and as an English teacher I am trying to inspire creativity in my students, so this really is uncharacteristic, but then again, it has been a long week and my energy level has dipped below readable levels again.So this week I have been out quite a few times. There is a pasta restaurant nearby and I went there twice this week and each time I got the only vegetarian option they have, but it was still good. It came with a soup that looked almost like Borscht, and some sweet-ish garlic bread. Did I mention that bread here is not the same as in the States or Europe? It's more like Wonderbread style wherever you go, and almost like a pastry; it's hard to find the rough and hearty whole-wheat here.
Besides pasta, the night market here (one of many) also has a thing called "Shaved Ice" and it literally is ice that is shaved in a machine into little ice chips. The ice is made either from water or from milk, and is sweet. They put your choice of fruit, red or green beans (green beans here beans that are green, and are a bit like black-eyed peas); they then pour syrup over the whole thing and voila, you have your rather large plate of shaved ice. The last time I ate a whole plate of it I decided I had had enough to last me for a year, so now I try to share a plate whenever I go.
This time though I tried the icecream on the menu and it came in a rather festively decorated bowl with a small parasol perched on top and peaches and banana and strawberries and kiwis gracing the sides of the glass bowl. I admit I was surprised, even though I've lived here a while, but my first bite of the green icecream was quite something. It was green tea icecream, and instead of the sweet flavour I always associate with icecream, it was like eating iced tea with a very strong flavor. It really took getting used to.
Well I must get some sleep now, but it really is fun to walk around between 7-10 at night and look at all the little shops and see the night life. It definitely feels alive and you never feel alone, especially in the night market, as there are always at least 10 people within arms' reach and plenty pushing past and strolling ahead. Well below are some random pictures from my life here :) Enjoy.
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| Yep, we really were going this fast on the train |
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| Random meal in China |
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| Random decorated tree in a train station |
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| "Um, dear? ... I left the parmesan at home..." |
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| "Oh! You should have told me!" |
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| "It's ok, I forgive you.... at least we have salt and pepper..." |
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Back in Blogland
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| Shanghai - on the Bund at night |
Hi, I've decided to re-join the land of blogging, for today at least. Got a bit discouraged towards the end of the term last semester. So no promises, but I shall try to keep writing to open a small window into my world here in Taiwan.
Second semester started with a rush - for me that means rushing into the classroom along with the students, more out of breath than they. I used the longest possible time I could for vacation, so I flew in late Tuesday night. My first class was 9:15 Wednesday morning :) I always have been a last-minute person.
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| Shanghai skyline in the day |
Now second semester is in full swing and my class load has decreased by an ESL class and increased by another English 1 class, so my student count has risen, along with the number of papers I have to grade. Hence my motto: "Only assign what is absolutely necessary, and no more." Of course that can be debated, what really is necessary. Rule of thumb: less is better (for teacher).
Some projects the students have done this semester are: giving persuasive speeches, on topics such as why we should use public transportation instead of cars; How-to speeches, where we learned self-defense and many lovely recipes which we got to sample; giving directions and following someone else's directions around the school; and now we're working on writing a descriptive essay.
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| guilty culprits: reason for my night session staring down the loo |
My experience of the day was being followed as I walked home from school today. It was quite interesting, although very disconcerting when I realised I was definitely being followed, even as I purposely weaved my way back and forth between aisles in the covered market. Thankfully my friend called me on my cellphone just then and I needed to go back to school for a paper, so I hurried my way back, watching as the man in the red jacket followed quickly behind me. I got a short video clip of him, just in case, with my handy iPod touch, a present from a really good friend back home. It was a great gift - thanks so much! I have recorded so many memories, and now evidence, during my time here in Taiwan!
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| Hotpot! buy your vegetables, and cook them yourself :) |
Now it's off to bed to try and get some rest. I just got back from a holiday in China where I visited friends
and had a 2-day vacation on my own in Shanghai. It was tonnes of fun, except the food poisoning that kept me in bed all of Saturday. Thankfully I was able to fly back the next day with no problems.
I hope you are all doing well. Take care and keep in touch. There is nothing I like better than reading and writing e-mails, so write away, and let me know how you are doing!
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