winning the war

There are many things I've learned about education in my few years of teaching experience.  Picking and choosing my battles, not one of them.  Haha, I refuse to let a student win in the battle of wills.  I often see one of my co-teachers seemingly give-up, or let things go and I can't stand it.  Every time that happens that student has won power over the teacher and they know it.  Believe it or not students actually like to be under the teacher's power (as long as it's power with the students' best interest in mind) and will test to see if it's going to happen that way.  I speak from experience not as a teacher, as a student.  I MUCH preferred my strict teachers to the easy-going ones (there's a fine line between strict yet fair, and mean).  This probably speaks negatively of my character, but I would walk all over a teacher if they let me (talking in class, late homework, attendance, etc).  But the teachers who made it clear they had strict expectations, I would jump on board and follow right along.

So, this brings me back to winning all the small battles, lol.  Last week, while I was teaching, I could see a situation arising out of the corner of my eye between my co-teacher and a 5th grader.  She had pulled his desk up about 2 feet in front of him (he was in the front row) and was trying to get him to move himself and the chair up to the desk...he shook his head no.  She pulled the desk about halfway back towards him (what?!  he says no to you, the teacher, and you decide to try a compromise?  Is it just me or is that already the wrong step?!) and tried again.  He moved his chair about 3 inches up and then pulled the desk back to him.  She seemed to be satisfied with this, and he, had smugly proven complete control.  Well, I just couldn't take it, I had to interfere.  I walked over pulled the desk all the way to the front of the room as far as it could go and commanded "MOVE!"  He didn't shake his head at me (I think they know by now I won't tolerate as much even though we have the language barrier) but he tried to same stunt with moving halfway and then pulling the desk back to him.  I said no, moved it again and this time he did shake his head.  I could tell how badly he did not want to give up all of the control he had gained in this situation.  So I pointed to the door and said "get out."  I do not have time to waste on getting this one kid to move his desk when all of the other students are patiently waiting to learn English.  However, unlike my co-teacher, not having the time does not mean I give in to the student, it means they just need to get out if they can't cooperate.

Am I completely ridiculous?

April showers bring May flowers

Let's hope so

I haven't posted in a while for various reasons.  First I was focused on packing and getting ready for my trip to America (as Deb pointed out I'm definitely residing in a foreign country when I say "America").  Then, I was in "America" and insanely busy as I knew I would be.  And then my return to Taiwan brought some unexpected events with it, and I've been a little down and out.  However, after a fun weekend at Spring Scream Festival in Kenting with the girls, I'm starting to feel a little better and felt it's probably time for an update.  The point of this blog is my time in Taiwan so I want to stay focused on that and not ramble about what's really taking over all my spare thoughts right now.  My solution was to start a new secret blog just for me  and complete strangers where I can get out all of the crap going through my mind without having to bore the people who know me on this blog (props to Sara for the idea ;) )

Therefore, I will share a great moment I had at school.  Like I said, last week was a hard one.  Probably my most difficult one yet this year.  It took a lot of focus and energy to not tear up while at school and concentrate on doing my job.  (I wasn't always successful.)  On Friday, I was at my second favorite school out of the two =) and just not feeling well.  I could not get rid of that "punched in the stomach" feeling all morning while dealing with my fourth graders.  In the afternoon I had my sixth graders and they quite literally turned my mood completely around.  You hear teachers say all the time that a bad class ruined their day but how often do you hear about a class completely lifting your spirits?  I <3 those two classes and am so grateful for their positive attitudes and fun personalities!

Spring Scream Festival was a blast and full of new experiences.  Aside from my sunburn, it was a perfect weekend.  I won't go into all the details of my new experiences but I will say that one was hitchhiking!  I know, I know, sounds super dangerous right?  But, first, Taiwan is waaay safer in general than just about anywhere in the United States.  Second, this was a huge hippie music weekend in a really chill surfer town.  Third, there were 4 of us and who is really going to pick up 4 people and try to kill them all??  Anyway, it was exciting and fun and better than walking the whole way in the sweltering heat =)

I left my camera battery in the States so I'll post some pics when the other girls put theirs up.

6 days

I'll be in America in 6 days!  Weird!  I'm fairly certain I'm going to have a bit of culture shock.  I'm also afraid of being over-stimulated really easily.  Here, I am constantly surrounded by signs written in and people speaking Chinese.  Therefore I've mastered tuning things out.  I think when I first experience being in a place where I'm surrounded by a language  I comprehend, I'm going to struggle.  But, we'll see.  I am super excited for Lanesha's wedding (the reason I'm coming home) and I have a PACKED week of visits and plans.

I haven't been posting much at all, but I honestly think of things to post at least once a day.  It's just by the time I get home I forget, or I get sucked into something else.  1 new thing is that I joined a gym.  It's big and really nice, and aside from the exercise equipment and pool, there are a ton of different classes to choose from that are included in my package.  Right now in my "girl funk" class we're learning the Nobody dance (which will only mean something to you if you live in Asia) For the rest of you, youtube search Wondergirls, "Nobody"  It is a HUGE hit right now from Korea...actually it has been a huge hit for several months now.

I really want to do an entire post on "driving in Taiwan."  It's something I've been thinking about for a long time and just never get around to doing it.  Maybe now that I've said it here, I'll do it very soon in my next post =)

Boats are not my friend

Today we began our journey around the southern portion of the island and it was just a bad start from the get go.  We missed our 6:10am train and had to take the next one, Jacque's iPod touch was stolen, and then there was the boat ride.  I had read in lonely planet that this particular ride, specifically to Green Island, was the worst case of sea sickness the author had ever had.  Knowing I'm prone to motion sickness, I had on 2 sea bands and took a Dramamine.  Regardless, it was a 1 hour boat ride from hell and I'm not getting back on tomorrow!  I would say that definitely 50% of the passengers were puking, possibly as high as 75%.  There was no way to get away from it.  Luckily there were barf bags everywhere you looked.  Literally, everywhere....you know how you go to the grocery store and tear off a little plastic bag for your fruit and veggies?  They had those at the end of every aisle as well as a bag at every seat.  Not only did I have to listen to every kind of vomiting, gagging, and dry heaving imaginable, I was also a participant.  It took a whole 15 minutes before I had to grab for my bag, and it didn't stop until we got there.  Awful, absolutely awful =(

Happy New Year!

This past weekend was Chinese New Year.  It is definitely the biggest Chinese Holiday and totally different from our New Year.  Our New Year is all about 1 night of partying.  Chinese New Year is a week+ of family dinners and fireworks.  Saturday night was New Year's Eve and I was invited to Jenny's house, a 1st grade teacher at my school.  I went with Jenny, her husband and their 2 kids to his parents house and his brother and sister-in-law were there as well.  I learned that the eve of Chinese New Year is to be spent with the parents of the husband and the second day of Chinese New Year is to be spent with the parents of the wife.  They also give red envelopes with money to the children and the elders.  I also learned that the reason they shoot off fireworks is based on an old superstition.  They believed that after dark-fall a monster, similar to a dragon, would come and get people who were alone and sleeping.  So, they shoot off fireworks to scare off the monster and stay awake until midnight to watch over the family.

On Sunday evening I went to Doris's house to have New Year's dinner with her family.  I had a lot of great traditional Chinese food and it was nice to spend the holiday with Taiwanese families.

Yesterday Chris went to go visit his mom at his brother's house.  He took his computer so that I could say hi to everyone on Skype and see Asher =)  Asher was soo cute on Skype.  He looked really confused about the person talking to him in the computer.  I suppose it was like watching a movie on TV but the character is just waving and saying your name repeatedly haha  I snapped a ton of pictures of Asher on Skype so I'll post a few of the best ones.

[gallery link="file"]

SUPERBOWL!

Superbowl Sunday snuck up on me.  I'm not constantly bombarded with media of American sports and therefore didn't realize the day was approaching.  On Sunday I went to Taroko Gorge to meet up with Karin and her family who are here visiting from Chicago.  Her brother asked if there was any place in Hualien to watch the game and I couldn't believe that I didn't even realize it was happening!  As far as I know there is no such thing as a "sports bar" in Hualien, so when I got back home I did some internet research.  Turns out there are a few well-known sports bars in Taipei that open at 6am with a breakfast buffet and broadcast the game live.  CRAZY what we Americans will do for some football haha.  Well it was too late for me to be in Taipei that early, but I did find out that a couple bars were re-showing the game in the evening for those who couldn't make it that morning.  So, around 1pm on Monday I decided to hop on a train with Karin and her family who were headed back to Taipei.  I got in at 6pm, walked around in the area near the train station looking for some hostels, found one on the 22nd floor of some building and got a room for the night, then hopped on the MRT and met the Wissman's at Brass Monkey for the 8:00 Superbowl party.  We had so much fun (despite the loss for me)!  Karin's dad and I were the ONLY people in the bar rooting for Indy and it was sooo weird.  I've always watched the games surrounded by fellow Colt's fans with the occasional outsider rooting for the other team (eh hem, Megan...).  So I felt like I had to cheer extra loud to make up for the lack of fans in the room =)

The next morning I woke up, got some breakfast and got a train ticket back to Hualien.  It felt really great to be able to just go somewhere, do something fun for a night and then go home, all on my own.  Of course I had Karin, her brother, and the rents who were great company at the bar, but other than that I did the whole experience on my own and I love that about being here.  If I want to take the 3 hour train ride to the capital city, no big deal.  All and all I'd say the 24hrs cost me...(I'm converting to the US dollar).... $60 for train, room, and food.  It was definitely worth it and I'm going to miss being able to do things like this for so cheap when I go back home.

Highway 11

Highway 11 runs along the Eastern Coast of Taiwan and is sandwiched between the mountains and the ocean.  It's incredible.  You can't imagine how scenic the drive is.  Jacque, Brandi, Linda and I took our scooters out on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon and cruised south through Hualien County.  Oh and Jewel, Linda's dog, she went too =)  We took the hour and a half route to the Tropic of Cancer marker, stopping at a few beaches along the way.  The drive was fantastic, but also a little scary.  We all know how accident prone I am so I'm not always 100% comfortable while driving my scooter.  So driving along curvy mountain roads at 80-90km/h made me a little nervous.  BUT it was beautiful and worth the slight scariness (and the sore tushy after 5 hours on the scooter).  The pictures don't do it justice, I want to make the drive again in the spring on the back of someone's scooter or in a car so that I can videotape the drive =)