One more day of work!

Hello Everyone!

I have one more day of work, and then I am off for my two week vacation. I'm sure you can all smell my anticipation and excitement. I know my sleep resevoir is ready to be refilled! Wooo!!

No new gross news from work. We had our last official day of Calvert lessons before the break, tomorrow is going to be a game show during the morning with the kids, and then an extended snack time after nap time, we asked the parents to bring in a dessert or fruit. I might have to stay late though to help pack, supposedly everything is supposed to be moved out on Monday. That won't be incredibly hectic or stressful. I have a better idea of where the new school is, I have an address now, I just need to see it in person and I'll be all set.

I am losing 3 kids from my bushiban class because of the move, which means as of right now, next semester will start with only 3 kids left in my class. It'll be a lot easier, but a lot quieter. Maybe the new spot will bring in a few new kids. Maybe we'll be the competition for Andrew's school? Since we're moving not too far away from where he is right now.

I might not go down to Tainan after all, Kate's mom doesn't want her dog in the house, because Kate's brother just got married, and his wife is trying to get pregnant, and they don't want her to have any allergic reactions to the dog, so Kate might have to stay somewhere else. It's starting to get complicated, so I might just be a complete bum and lounge around the house for a few days, maybe try to work on my Chinese reading skills.

I have some extra time at the cafe, so here are a few random thoughts on Taiwan.

Scooters: Still can't go over how versatile they are, have seen a family of four on one, a ladder again. A labrador sitting at the feet of his owner, old men with their canes hanging off the handle bars. Crazy stuff.

If you fall through the GAP, there's a NET to catch you: In grand Taiwan knock-off style, there is a clothing store here that sells clothes at around the same price and about the same style as the GAP clothing line in the States. And their logo is a dark green box with NET in white block lettering. I crack up everytime I see it.

Status on the 702 line: One thing I will miss after we move to the new school location is my 702 bus drivers. I'm the whitie who can speak ok Chinese, and it seems that they all know me, when I get on at a different stop or get off at a different stop, they always ask what's going on, and on Saturday when I had to go in, the bus driver asked why I was working on a Saturday (one that had never spoken to me before). I think they get a kick out of me. The other day I was running a little late and it looked like I wasn't going to get on the bus since it had just passed the stop, but the bus driver saw me and let me get on way before the bus stop, so I guess it really is all about who you know! Ha! And he's one of the mean bus drivers that likes to zoom by if you're not right at the stop.

The Gross Factor

Hello everyone!

I knew little kids were gross, but there's gotta be a line. Sure my kids, sneeze with snot flying out of their nose, they don't cover their mouths when they cough, their hands are mini petri dishes with millions and millions of colonies of bacteria, we've had a couple potty "accidents," but I think puking on other kids has got to be horrible. Let me explain.

Since I have been working, we have had a total of 2 kids puking at school, which is gross, especially cuz both ricocheted off onto either nap blankets or their work box. But yesterday, ugh. I was waking up the kids after nap time, I step out of the room for a sec to get the communication books, and I step back in to see Alan throwing up, and he was throwing up right over John-John, so poor John and his blanket and pillow were covered in Alan's puke. I almost puked myself. John was gagging a little bit, I don't blame him at all. Poor Kate had to stay after her work time (she goes from 8am-2pm) to help me clean up the kids and the blankets. Ick.

Other than that, work has been good, I officially have one week and then I am on two weeks vacation!!! I am SOOOOO excited. I can't wait to sleep in and be a slacker!!! The parent meeting actually went really well, not many complaints at all, mostly just questions about their reading abilities because we're starting to read phonics books. I was super nervous though and they could totally tell. But it went fine.

I have work news though, my school is moving to a new "undisclosed" location, and we start at the new school after the Chinese New Year break. Ted doesn't want the competition to know where we're moving, too bad his workers are still kinda confused as to where the location is as well. Unfortunately I'm losing at least one of my kindie kids because his parents decided that the new school is too far away. Kate and I are sad because he's one of the good guys in the class, boo. :(

Speaking of Kate, she is going home to Tainan for the break (that's where her family lives) and I might spend the first few days of Feb. hanging out with her down there. I have to be back by the 5th to continue my one on one, so maybe from the 2nd-4th? Her mom was excited and was ok with me crashing, so we're just figuring out the details now.

And speaking of my one-on-one, it went ok on Saturday, the girl is in 2nd grade, and has learned English before, but doesn't really remember too much, so we're starting over from ABCs, and then we'll quickly work our way up to words and sentences. And her mom asked me to stay after teaching Cindy to talk to her older brother so he can work on his spoken English. Not too shabby!

I am the donkey, and I see many carrots

There are many things dangling in front of me right now, with promise of something new. However, I don't know if any of them are actually going to materialize. Like what? Well...

I should get paid a little more this month. However, I get paid on the 5th, the day after I leave work for a week. So I'll have a week to fester if I'm NOT paid more (for doing more work, haha).

I should be getting a scooter from work, which is really cool. Should be, of course.

Vacation! Yes, that's the big carrot. In two weeks, I'll have a complete week to relax and... lose to Mei's granddad at Mahjhong! Or however you spell it. More on that later, but it's brilliant (and quite possible, except for my special luck, haha. Andrew.. wins again! CRAP!!! More on this later...).

But things are going very well. I had a Pearl Milk Tea, something I hadn't had in, well, maybe a month, and the caffeine is racing through my veins. I've played a game of bball, and am amazed at how much my skill (and heck, coordination) have deteriorated. Do you ever not run for a really long time (jog), and then run again, and feel that your form is out of whack? That's what I feel like. I look forward to getting back to SORT OF knowing what I'm doing.

What else what else. Work is cool. Same old, same old. And my parents are going to visit in early April, it looks like!! WOOOOHOOO! I'm more excited than they are, I think, because I'm already thinking about places to show them. Quite cool, quite cool, I'm looking forward to not being the only strange whitey here.

Speaking of which, you'd think I'd get used to it, but no, I don't. All of these "Foreigner." comments, except in Chinese of course. Funny, Todd, who is half JAPANESE, not even Chinese, blends right in. Hilarious. But me? Not so much. Tall, pale, blue eyes, non-black hair (doesn't matter what color it is, except that it's non-black). It's funny. If a sports star wants to be oblivious, he/she can leave the country. If I want to stick out and be popular, I just have to leave the country. Hm.. there's probably something deep about that.

Well, time to go teach. I SHOULD have had internet by now, so no guarantees if/when we'll have it. But IF we do, perhaps we'll post more than once a month, and actually write back to people in a relevent manner! Right now the nearest internet cafe (that we know about) is about a 20 minute walk, as the one near us closed down. So It's not that we TRY not to write, it's just really, really inconvenient. So give us a LITTLE leeway. Anywho, off I go, I hope you're all doing great and enjoy this week of vacation coming up! Oh wait, you don't get one? I don't feel bad. Why? Because We got diddly for Christmas/Rest of the world New Years. :)

I hope you're doing great! Take care!!

Andrew

P.S. New England I kenw was going to the SB (ok, well, would have been very surprised if they had lost), but the Eagles, wow.. I was expecting another year of futility without T.O. Of course, this is without seeing any games, buuuuut, well, good for them. Maybe next year for Vick and co.. if he gets a #1 receiver that averages MORE than 2 catches a game (Peerless (??? Ha, great name) Price).

Another quick post from Mei

Hey everyone!

I'm almost out of time again at the old internet cafe, so this will be a quick update, length dependent on time left.

I am doing good, things are starting to wrap up for this semester at school. I did telephone interviews with my bushiban (most of the kids said "I don't know" a lot, I think they just didn't know how to answer and were super intimidated by the fact I was talking to them on the phone) and I have finished their final grades/reports. Tomorrow is a parent teacher meeting with my Kindie parents, Kate will also be in attendance, I have to finish writing progress reports on them tonight, and Kate and I will have to set out their books and other work that they have done this semester. I hope it goes ok, we're preparing ourselves mentally for the onslaught of questions that will spring forth from our demanding parents. Luckily tomorrow is an outing with the kids, so no teaching, and when we come back it will be set up for the meeting, which is supposed to start at 7pm.

After that it will just be coasting until the end of January, when I get two weeks off for Chinese New Year. I cannot wait to sleep in, it's going to be nice to just relax. My mom is flying in on the 8th for the holiday, it'll be nice to spend time with my family.

As a side job, I might be doing one-on-one english lessons with the daughter of the lady who works at the food shop Andrew and I frequent a lot. We have two trial sessions set up for the next two saturdays, and if it seems like it's going well, I might have some extra income! Woo! (Speaking of income, I actually got paid on time this month, woooohoooo!!!!)

Work has been much better now too, I am way less stressed and I'm really enjoying the kids. Although I think that teaching is not my calling, while I am having a lot of fun with it, I don't know if I have the patience to do this long term. I'm actually pretty proud of myself for having enough patience to last this long!!! My bushiban has gone down to six students, which is nice, because now we sometimes have ten spare minutes at the end of class to play a game, the current favorite is hangman, they love that game!

Hope everyone is doing good in the new year!

State of the Job

Well, negotiations between my boss and I went nowhere. So I brought in the heavy artillery. In came Mei, who was able to help using her special talent: that of translation! Phew! It was such a relief to actually be able to understand and communicate with my boss. (Thanks a ton, Mei!)

And the results? Well, we essentially agreed that I'll get paid more for doing more work; we understand that I am scrapping the teaching of teachers (and thus can go to work on Tuesdays at 3! Yeeeha!) and will teach an additional class. This gets me more money.. as well as a "signing bonus" of the use of a scooter! Woo! I was on the fence about getting one... It'd be neat to have one, but the threat of injury made me not actively look into getting one. But now that one fell into my lap, well, I could definitely use it. If nothing else, it'd make me not have to wait for a bus for who knows how long each morning and night (sometimes 1 minute, sometimes 20 at night. So... it'll cut my commute time, and Mei's as well, as I can take her to work. If I'm really freaked out by the driving system, I'll just not use it. But yay, a new toy!

Back to work I go...

A weekend in Danshui

Hello everyone! As this is my first post in 2005, I want to wish everyone a very Happy (belated) New Year.

That being said, I feel almost artificial writing that, as here, the big New Years isn't on Jan 1st, but rather, is the Chinese New Year. There was a big get together at 101, like Mei said, with cool fireworks and lots of bright, moving, hypnotic lights. But I'm getting geared up for Chinese New Years.. when I get to meet Mei's family!! How cool is that? Now, if only I could understand the words that will be shared across the table! I'm looking forward to experiencing a whole Chinese family getting together and gawking it up, potentially even at me! Good times. But I've been assured that I'll likely be put in a corner, anyway. I can't wait!

Mei and I spent the weekend at Danshui, the Fisherman's Wharf of Taipei, sorta. Todd was too busy recovering from his poker winning endeavuer, likely still high on the success of victory. Mei and I braved the elements (the cold and the rain) to take two ferry rides, one of which was to the wharf itself, which we THOUGHT was going to the township of bali... anywho, it worked out, we went on that ferry later. We had some great Indian food (interesting, since we were at a fisherman's wharf, should had seafood, huh?), got harrassed a night market, where I bought and carried around a basketball for the rest of the trip (stupid? Quite!). In the morning we rode bikes up and down the river, stopping at a scerene beach, filled with more debris and trash per square foot than the average dump. Lovely. Not to mention that it's January and quite coldm with some rain. We then had our caricature taken, which was great, the guy who drew it was really cool and funny. He kept telling mei how difficult it was to draw foreigners because of our long faces (these weren't cartoonish carictatures, I guess I should more adquately call them portraits, as they were amazing). And when he was drawing me, his facial expression were absdolutely hilarious. The difficulty in drawing me was definitely apparent. I was smiling big for the picture, and trust me, which his facial expressions, it wasn't hard to do so.

Oh! before we got our picture drawn, we saw a big, BIG, white man walk by, big in his height, his wastline, and his mullet and waddling ability. Think a mean Mr. Bernd with a bald spot and a bigger mullet and you get the idea. A chinese guy said something, partly in English I think, and as he waddled by, he said something to the extent of, "I'm not in the MOOD to be FLATTERED." I was busting up... guess he didn't want to be drawn.

Annnywho, it was fun. Next week we'll likely hit up somewhere with hot springs.. to counter the cold! A little more thought out trip. :)

This is for Hiro: I bought a basketball and shoes, so now I'm gonna play (hopefully 3 times a week, since I want to get in shape after doing NOTHING here, but likely less, ha). Thought you'd get a kick out of that.

As for my work... I am teaching more for the same pay. Basically, a verbal agreement I had with my boss was thrown away. I am trying to get it resolved by myself, but you know how I feel about talking to my boss (it's like talking to a brick wall). If things are resolved by wednesday, I'll bring in the big gun.. Jerry. He's not the classiest guy.. but here is an opportunity that we can use his classlessness for our advantage! But he'd bring in the elephent gun for the mouse; he'd as likely try to get me to work somewhere else, where I want to resolve this in a manner that pays me a bit more, but where I keep the job (it's a nice one, right, who knows what something else will bring?). Really, it's not a big deal, but it may be if I can't get it resolved. I'll keep you posted!

I hope you're all doing great. We likely will have internet in our place in less than two weeks.. then we can upload more pictures/post more/write more emails. Good time. Even talk on AIM! Ha. So take care, and I hope 2004 can be put to rest, both the bad, as well as the good, as both can be learned from. I hope 2005 brings a new and fresh start, and that you seize it!

Andrew

Hello 2005!

Hey Everyone!

Just a super quick update, new years was lots of fun, we went to Taipei 101, there were tons of people, it was crazy, got to see 101 completely lit for the first time, and watched fireworks shoot off it. My birthday was really nice, got to relax, sleep, watch Kung Fu Hustle, a hilarious Kung Fu parody that just came out in the theatres here, and then my co-workers took me out to a delicious Thai dinner.

Work has been much better, finally getting paid was really nice, we're a little shortstaffed at the front counter, but that's ok, doesn't affect me too much, just that Kate isn't as available because she has to cover the phones. But everything is good, but I can't help but admit that I look foward to my two week vacation in one month for Chinese New Years. Wooo!!!!

Hope you all had a great New Years! Happy 2005!!