Dancing at school

Sometimes in the morning the students will dance to this song for exercise. I can't seem to get the hang of it, that's why I'm the one filming. :)

Christmas in class

1st grade class singing to Jingle Bells

Kids say and do the darndest things

so, today in class I was teaching Christmas vocabulary, when one of my fifth grade boys, in perfect English, yelled out " Teacher are you going to have a baby?" It flustered me a lot, but I know that to him it was just a casual conversation topic...so I said... "Maybe one day...Christmas Tree....Santa Claus....Presents" and continued teaching Christmas vocab...Then about three minutes later he blasted me with "teacher are you getting married?" I should have told him the truth, that I am married, but my husband is in a prison in Mexico. but I couldn't. So I told him that maybe one day I'd get married..."Stockings, Sleigh, bells, Christmas Carols..."
All in all it was a very interesting class.
Then just a little bit ago, I was wearing my jacket and a little 2nd grader started pointing and laughing at me...I guess I had buttoned it wrong. I must say it was very demoralizing to be laughed at by a 2nd grader for not knowing how to wear my jacket.

I guess kids just aren't sweet all the time. =(

A Morning at School

I didn't even mean to take this video. I was trying to take a picture of Nomes' clumsey attempts to get out of the car overloaded with stuffs, but instead I hit the filming mode of my camera. So, I filmed our typical morning at school =)

thoughts from an old coot

I'm in my room right now, cleaning it and thinking about a conversation I once had with my grandpa. It was one of those days when I sat with him out in the garage listening to him talk about anything that struck his fancy. This particular time he was bemoaning the evilness and unfairness of the world. Then he exclaimed "If only Adam hadn't eaten that apple!" He was thoughtful for a little bit after that then replied to his own statement "I guess if he hadn't eaten it, I would have." Then he went inside for a beer, leaving me to think. It made me realize that I can never assume anyone is more evil than anyone else. Adam committed one sin and then sin entered the world and billions have suffered because of it. I have sinned countless times and no doubt am just as likely as Adam was to eat that fruit. It could have been through me that sin entered the world. That doesn't leave much room for pointing fingers, does it?

Nome's update letter

Dear Friends and Family,

I think it's about time for another update! Yes, I'm still alive and kicking here in Da An, Taiwan, and I DO have things to tell you! God has been so good...

The month of October went by so fast, it's hard for me to really even remember all that happened! Of course, there was my birthday...that was the main event. ;-) I made a big deal about it from Oct. 1st on, and let me tell you, the school got me back BIG time. Have nearly every kid hug AND kiss me on my birthday was not exactly what I expected...esp in a country where Birthdays are really not that big of a deal. Well, I asked for it, right? Yup, number 23 was memorable for sure.

The month of October was also characterized by quite a few "we gotta work this out" times with our host family. You know, I never expected to be living this close with a Non-Christian family, and one that doesn't speak my language OR understand my culture...but it's been the most amazing thing. Every issue we've had to work through has turned out good, and brought us closer to them. I think they know we love them, and I'm grateful for that. I see God slowing softening their hearts, and opening a door into their lives. I'll tell you the latest...

About a week ago I was talking to Huang Baba, and as usual the conversation turned to me finding a boy to marry. You may think this is odd, but really, it's quite normal for us here, and we have found some great ways to turn the conversation...one of my favorites being "Baba, Taiwanese boys just eat too much Tofu... So how about them Yankees?" So we're talking, and he tells me the important things when finding a boy...I won't go into it...but then I told him what I look for: A man who loves and follows God with his whole being. The topic then turned to how DO we follow God? And he asked me how I know when God is speaking to ME. I told him God has spoken to me using many things, but one I could SHOW him, was how God told me to come to Taiwan. He was very interested in this, and I told him God used the Bible to tell me. He then asked me if I had a Bible he could read, and if I could show him the parts God used to talk to me about Taiwan. I can't even tell you how my heart leaped when he asked...God was working.

It took me about a week to get my hands on a Chinese/English Bible (thanks Simon!), and almost every day Baba asked me when I was going to show him the Bible, and my special passages. FINALLY I had it in my hands, a beautiful New Chinese/ESV Bible. I don't think anything I've seen in my life has been more beautiful to me then seeing Baba pour through that Bible, his eyes wide as he saw how with each question I had about Taiwan, there was a verse God has used to reassure, to direct me here. And not even just to Taiwan, but HERE, to Da An. We sat and talked about God and His word for a while, then he took it home with him for dinner. Later when we went over to say goodnight, when we walked in I saw him quickly put it down as we came in...I knew he'd been reading it agian.Please, please pray for Huang Baba, and Mami too. God IS working in their hearts.

Last night I talked to him again about how the most important thing in my life is Jesus. And that this world is not my home, that I have everything to look forward to! That the end of the world doesn't scare or worry me, because I am going somewhere so much better. I think part of him longs to understand, and part of him scorns this way of thinking. Taiwanese are very practically minded, and really, from their viewpoint it's ridiculous to not fear "the end", it's crazy to put love over money in our lives. Please pray that the Holy Spirit would be showing truth to these dear people.

I pray that God will continue to work here, in us and through us. It's not all been easy, Satan is alive and well here in Da An and has a strong hold on these people's lives. Trish and I have both felt his attack in even the last week, seeking to destroy and kill all that is good and all that is lovely. Please pray protection around us, being the only two Christians we see on a regular basis, it can be very hard at times to feel apart of things.Please pray that Satan would no be able to put his fingers in our lives here.

Please pray for health, H1N1 is all around us, tho we have escaped so far. The weather is changing and it's easy to overdo it.

Please pray for mine and Trisha's relationship--sometimes I feel like we're the only two people on earth we can talk to, and it can be stressful for both of us! (if you had to see me and talk to me and only had ME every day, you would know what I meant)

Again, thank you all so much for your prayers and support. Please know that God IS working, that people are seeing His light here. I'm encouraged, and I hope will be too!

Much love to all,
Naomi

Pictures:

The coffee I learned to roast by myself. :-)

Emma and I, out at a night market. She is Coach's wife and one of my Chinese teachers. She is one of my best friends here. :-)














Hank, one of my 5th graders.

















Cathy (my 'little sister') and Julie, 2 of my 4th graders.

Brina, Coach and Rogers...3 of my fellow teachers at Hua Chien.

Benson and another 6th grader. :-)

Another 4th grader...this kid loves to tickle and torture his poor English Teacher. :-(

Trish with students on a field trip

Muscle...one of my very favorites. :-) 6th grader.

What is a character English teacher anyways?

One interesting thing about Taiwan is that it's hard to get the children to use their imagination and be creative. So in order to help them to practice thinking more creatively in English I made them Mad Lib worksheets using a sample e-mail from their book.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RE: _how are you?_
Dear _spongebob___,
(name)
Thanks for your _robot__
(noun)
I'm _21_ years old, too
(number)
I live in __South Pole__.
(place)
There are ______95__ people in my family.
(number)
My father and mother are both _pilot__.
(career)
My grandparents are _ET___--
(career)
I like _gold_ and I want to be a __ president__
(noun) (career)
What about you?
Your __brother__
(noun)
Michael Jackson
or
Your mother
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't have a problem getting this kid to be creative. I was impressed. He even threw in a your mom joke at the end.

I did the same worksheet for each student and each one came up different.
One of my kids signed his e-mail "I want to kill you. you die."
Another one of my kids filled in every blank with "money". A third kid said he liked money and wanted to be a teacher. I hate to break it to that kid, but the two of those don't go together.

One of my favorite girls wrote this one. *shakes head* at least she's creative.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RE: _hello moto_
Dear _Patricia pig___,
(name)
Thanks for your _eyes__
(noun)
I'm _0_ years old, too
(number)
I live in __eraser__.
(place)
There are ____0__ people in my family.
(number)
My father and mother are both _singer__.
(career)
My grandparents are _cow and pig___--
(career)
I like _eat you_ and I want to be a __ nurse__
(noun) (career)
What about you?
Your __book__
(noun)
Spiderman

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An Apple a day keeps the doctors away.

It's finally happened! I am officially a teacher. Today one of my third grade boys gave me an apple. The dream has become reality.

Along the street, we ride our bikes on everyday on our way to town, is a closed down preschool building. I can't help thinking that it would be a great place for an after school program. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. The thought scares me it is too much of a long commitment plan. I really don't know if i want to stay here forever or not. Is anyone else interested in starting an English after school program in Taiwan?

Why is it that I'm tired all day and wide awake at night?

Two things I've been "pondering" (as my dear father likes to say) over and over in my head. One:What was this place like before we came. Two, how can I describe how terribly disgusting salted plum juice is.

Naomi and I talked to Baba today about how things were before we came and how we ended up living about his car repair shop. Apparently, before he volunteered to take us, nobody wanted us. We were unwanted and we didn't even know it!!!I guess people were really nervous about what to do with "foreigners." It wasn't until we got here and people thought we were "beautiful" and "funny" that they decided they wanted us to come stay with them...But they were TOO LATE!

Last June I went to town with some of my students and we all bought drinks at a drink stand. They didn't have passion fruit green tea, so my students ordered for me. Plum juice. They even payed for it. Plum juice. I took one sip and a shudder ran down my spine. Salty, sweet and warm...It quickly reminded me of vomit. I drank half of it so that my students wouldn't know I hated it. It was so sweet of them to buy it for me. I got to a point where I couldn't drink anymore. It was painful to say the least. So I put a hole in the bottom of the cup and it spilled out while we were walking. Finally one of my students realized it was leaking, so I "had to" throw it away.

Forever starts today

I am going to write a gushy blog post about what it feels to be loved.

Sometimes I feel so fed up with life. Each person wears so many hats for so many different people. We try to be what each person needs us to be whether it's someone to teach them, someone to listen to them, someone to laugh with them them or merely someone to hug them. At times it's hard to know which hat to wear with what person. It's mind boggling trying to figure out what people need so I can help them. There are times when I just want to quit. I want to stop caring about what other people need or want me to be. I just want to crawl into my own little hole and not have to care about anyone or their problems. Sometimes I do succumb to it and quickly fall further into a sort of depression. I really don't think a person was made to carry their own burdens, the more they look at their own issues the more depressed and frustrated they become, or at least I do. In moments like these I get so caught up in myself that I'm not worth much. Yet, I don't serve a God who gives up on me. Instead of condemning me He reassures me. Yesterday, He used a 2nd grade girl saying "I love you" in broken English to brighten my day. Today, He allowed me to run into my students from last year. I got to talk to one or two of them and I said hello and hugged them. I didn't have time to chat so I said, "Goodbye, long time no see." and one of my girls said "Long time no see and long time miss you." Then she turned her head away I think she was a little choked up to see me. I'm ganna say it's because she loves me and she didn't know I was coming back =D
"OH GOD! is there anything more wonderful in the whole world than being loved back?! Isn't that what You did when you came to earth? You loved us and loved us and kept loving us whatever our response. Whether we loved you back or not you kept loving us. Joy knows now bounds when that love is returned"

I warned you that it would be mushy. I love my students here and I love the children and the people God gave me and no matter what I have to give I'm going to keep loving them. Why? Because it's the moments like these that make it all worthwhile.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;" Ephesians 1:3...


P.S.

Today I bought an ugly purse. I don't know why. I thought I loved it when I first saw it. It was on sale so I bought it and left the store within minutes of coming in. Now I hate it. Such is life.

A few thoughts for the day

You can't choose who will love you, but you do have a responsibility to the people who love you. It's almost like a debt of gratitude.

When you lose your sense of purpose find it in what you invest in the people around you.

Not all wisdom comes in sets of three (I only had two points =) )

Fall and falling apple juice

It's fall time, but it doesn't look like it here. Naomi Kallberg absolutely refuses to let that be a reason to not enjoy fall and I find myself being caught up in her enthusiasm for the amazing autumn season.
The first thing she did was procure pumpkins for carving at the school. We were both a little disappointed that all our school could find was little squashes, but she determined to make them work. A second of our schools found real Taiwan pumpkins, but they were green and more round, they couldn't sit on their own..."Oh well, we can still make pumpkin pies with them."
Then we went on a trip to Taipei by train and we took our two little sisters with us. Guess what we found there? We found the most beautiful collection of imported American pumpkins. I have never thought pumpkins were beautiful before that day. So we bought one. Then we went to Costco and bought lots of candy for trick or treating and two gallons of apple juice to make into an apple cider drink. It wasn't until we got back to where we were staying that we realized we didn't have enough arms between us to carry all of our newly acquired items and the stuff we brought with us...We attempted this anyways and in our attempt to make it up to the Chen's house I dropped one of the apple juices in the elevator. It burst open and was spilling all around our feet. There is a camera in the elevator and I can't help but imagine what the man watching the video was thinking. He would have seen four overloaded females waddling onto the elevator, then seen the apple juice crash on the floor, then he would have observed four people attempting to bend over and pick up the apple juice, then he would have seen the elevator close when we got off and then lots of hands mopping up the huge apple juice mess, then the doors closing again and he would be the only one who knew the secret to why the elevator smelled like apples.

We did manage to save half of the gallon and Faith heated it up with some spices and it was amazing. I can't help falling in love with the taste of fall.

We got home and carved our beautiful orange pumpkin. It was my first time carving a pumpkin. Then Naomi cleaned out and sectioned and cooked up and drained and packaged and froze one of the pumpkins. The next day we made pumpkin pies. I made the crust, but had no rolling pin so I emptied a big old Vitamin C bottle and used it. It was a rather novel experience. Naomi made the pumpkin filling. I'm not allowed to say what she put in it, because it's a top secret recipe her brother invented. All I can say is that the pies were incredible, better than any I've ever tasted.

I REALLY REALLY REALLY LOVE FALL! =)

Something really strange happens when Naomi gets ahold of pumpkins...Sometimes she just looks at them other times...










Pumpkins with the classes. =)


The children definitely enjoyed the fall season in English class.

overly protective?

Last weekend Naomi and I visited Taipei with our two younger sisters. We had many a good time and our biggest adventure was coming home, but I refuse to tell that story right now. I'd rather laugh with you (or alone, depending on whether or not you find certain things as strange and suggestive as I do) about certain oddities of Taiwan life.

What you see in this picture is two vending machines one is a gum ball machine and the other vends bouncy balls.




This next picture is not of bouncy balls, but of individually wrapped gumballs. I haven't decided if this is pure genious or a sign of hygenic obsession.
I'm thinking the next time I feel a little overly cared for and controlled over here I will use code phrase "Individually wrapped gumballs" to let Nomes know it's time to go home. Or maybe I can use it for overly protective parents "they are so the wrapped gumball type"

Okay...so maybe I am the only one laughing. WHO CARES?!!!







This last picture isn't anything special or funny. It's just a soda vending machine in Taiwan, just in case you were wondering.




You can't really see if but in this picture Coke and Pepsi are residing peacefully side by side. Let this give us all hope that one day World peace can actually be achieved.




Thank you

varying degrees of sweetness

This week we've been teaching Halloween vocabulary in all of our classes. We've tried to help the kids get as much of the Halloween experience as possible in a 40 minute class. In a few of the classes we carved pumpkins and in the less lucky classes we did other crafts or games, but one thing that's been common to every class is trick or treating. Every class got to go trick or treating to either the teacher's office or amongst themselves. I thought it was a pretty "American" experience for them, until I saw the candy they brought and I realized that they just don't get it. In the course of today's class I've seen some of the most unsweet and strange candy's ever. Salty Plum lolly pops; green tea, sarsaparilla and coke candies; other candies of strange colors and various stages of fluffiness, but the ultimate strange and disturbing candy of the day was MUSHROOM DRY RADISH MOCHI. When the students handed me one of the later I knew the game was up. These children don't understand the point of candy, so how can they understand Halloween? Needless to say I pocketed the candy for later experiments...I'm still debating on whether I should try it or not for the rather novel experience of eating mushroom flavored chewy "candy." What do you think?

So this was another lesson on the cultural difference between Americans and Taiwanese people. This one has concerned what I call the sweet/saltiness factor. Taiwanese people just don't like sweet very much. I don't know why. Just the other day we had Coldstone ice cream with three little kids and they complained about it being too cold and too sweet...Ice cream, too sweet? since when? I don't think I will ever understand these people.

The way to hell is paved with good intentions

sometimes I just can't handle it! I love my students in such a complete and special sort of love. I want to help them and hold them and carry as much of their burdens as possible...but it's too much. I can't love them enough. I can't help everybody. I can feel sympathy and care for students who are being raised by their grandparents because their parents left them. I can hurt with the students who are from a poorer family and don't have the same opportunities as the other students. I can sympathize with the students who are so unsure about themselves and who feel so unimportant...but that's all I can do! I want to do more, but I can't. For me this is a new sort of torture when I can feel the pain and the needs of those around me and yet I can't do anything to help.

1. How I praise Thee, precious Savior,
That Thy love laid hold of me;
Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me
That I might Thy channel be.

2. Just a channel full of blessing,
To the thirsty hearts around;
To tell out Thy full salvation
All Thy loving message sound.

Channels only, blessed Master,
But with all Thy wondrous power
Flowing through us, Thou canst use us
Every day and every hour.

Lyrics: Mary E. Maxwell

Of boys and rings

So, on Tuesday one of my third graders put a ring on my finger and said he loved me. I kissed him, of course, because that's what you do when a boy puts a ring on your finger. I guess I knew it wouldn't last forever and that he'd change his mind eventually and find a new girl. BUT I hadn't expected it to happen the very next day! It was Naomi's birthday and I guess he felt he had chosen the wrong English teacher because he took the ring off my finger and gave it to Naomi. =(

Then today, Racky, one of my fifth grade boys, gave me a ring. He has a matching one. I don't know how excited i can get about this one. The only two things he can say in English are "I love you" and "goodbye." That definitely does not bode well for a long term relationship.

This is the first ring. If you look closely you'll see two skulls on it.

This is the second ring. It's a litle more simple and it's green. =)

part 2

It isn't nice of me to get you all interested in an event and then not to tell you about what happened. So, I was not able to get sick. I couldn't even manage to learn "I don't know any songs in Chinese" in Chinese. So the party happened. We got there early so we could sit with the crazy teachers instead of with the old men and the principal. It was interesting. The two guys next to me kept filling up my bowl with food, so I didn't have to. There was constant karaoke blaring in the background. The DJ announced that "in the course of the meal the two beautiful English teachers would be singing." Well that put my heart to rest instantly. He wasn't even thinking about us, he was thinking about the two "beautiful" english teachers. I started feeling really bad for poor Jean and Amanda though, it really stinks to be forced to sing.

The principal kept walking by us and talking to Naomi about her song and once he brought her the Karaoke book so she could pick one..I was suddenly busy talking to a student so he didn't say anything to me. ;) Anyways Nomes diappeared for a while and I heard someone saying Naomi and Patricia were going to sing. I of course didn't "really" hear it because it was in Chinese. So I kept eating and someone else sang. Then Naomi came back and the principal wearing his pants unusually high (for back support, I guess) announced she'd be singing. The poor girl. She did sing, but she didn't sing for the principal she sang for her friend and I was so proud of her for doing it. She was amazing and she saved my life in the process. Since Naomi sang I didn't have to. Though, if they had had "yellow" by Coldplay I would have sang it, just for Jacob "And they were all yellow"...I love my racist brother. ;)

A lesson in humility (and the blockheadedness of some people)

I've talked a little bit about the principal at my school. Did I mention that he is now my Chinese teacher? Once a week I have an exclusive 40 minute Chinese lesson with him. I'm so lucky =(. I'm not going to lie, I cried when (after) he told me. It's just that I'm fine with the principal from a distance. It's really hard to show him Christian love when I'm around him. =/
(Hold that thought)
Tonight is a big dinner party because the president of the parents association is stepping down and new a person is taking his place. So there will be a lot of eating, drinking (not me), speaches (in Chinese) and karaoke. All in all it's one of those things that aren't any fun for anyone and no one would come if they didn't serve food. I personally do not enjoy these things. I get bored sitting still for two hours or longer eating food, being talked about by everyone and occasionally made to go up front and give a speech or sing a song. Anyways, the principal announced that we were going to be going to this particular dinner, he told us to dress beautifully and he asked/told Naomi to sing a song. I was happy. I think he's finally understanding that I don't like being in the public eye. I am terrified of giving speeches and I don't like to sing karaoke. YAY!

Well soon after this announcement was my Chinese class with the principal. I was in a somewhat apprehensive mood, afraid he'd change his mind, but it was okay. We reviewed our words from last week and then he said he had a new phrase for me to learn. "Wo yao chang y so gu gay hwey zang" Which means "I want to sing a song for the new president of the parents association." my heart sank. "He doesn't really expect me to use this phrase, does he? *gulp*...."

I hate politics!

Since, Chinese class I've been frantically trying to come up with ways not to go to the dinner. Why is it so easy to catch a cold when you want to go somewhere amazing and so hard to catch one when it would be really useful? Sigh...I might have to suck it up and sing. This might just be one of those lessons in humility.

What's happening

Naomi found to her chagrin that the expensive coffe beans she bought, were green. After some extensive research she discovered how to
roast them. Yummy coffee followed.

We borrowed a dog for the day. We tried to sneak him in without baba noticing...My distraction methods had some flaws in them and baba and the other men in the office all stared at Naomi as she tried to slide by with a furry creature in her arms. =( The dog was really sweet though. She was a bit crazy though. I'm still trying to get the dog smell out of my room. I had to wash all of my chewed up stuffed animals. =(

God's grace is greater than hog hair

Today I was eating the schools lunch, when I noticed the pork I was about to eat had skin and hair on it. It took all my concentration not to gag. Somehow I managed to consume all my other food without drawing attention to the fact that I was disgusted beyond belief.
oh and the week before that at another school there was a bug in my vegetables. GAG!

Besides that...here's what's been going on. =)


An amazing bug I watched fly into the office.


Naomi chilling with my fifth graders =)


Once a week we have a family from school come to our house and I get to torture the younguns. These two lasted pretty long, but they always talk in the end. ;)

They're Yours

Earlier I blogged about Ghost day. I think I failed to really understand it then. Apparently, that was only one day out of a month of celebrating "Our kind brothers" (ghosts). That was the biggest day, where they put out the most food and go indoors early. Now it is the end of "ghost month" and the air is filled with sounds of parading and fire works. There is a big parade of religious people who walk alongside big float like vehicles which look like temples on wheels. Naomi and I went on a bike ride yesterday and ran into the tail end of this parade. There were many, many people out. Mostly men in some sort of temple uniform and there were a lot of old people standing outside their homes waving incense, burning paper money or bowing in worship to these ghosts and to their gods. It was a sobering sight, but that didn't compare with the pain of realization I experienced when I saw my third grade student out there with his mom. MY student. This dark religion, this worship of ghosts isn't just something the old people do because of tradition. It is something they believe and they drag the younger generation into it. It shouldn't happen with my students, but the reality is...this is life without Jesus. I took this picture today through my window. It was placed outside of the car repair shop I live at. It is an offering of fruit to the ghosts. on the left side of the table are stacks of paper money. They burn this money to give to the ghosts. Shortly after taking this picture I saw what was maybe the saddest thing of my life. I saw my dear mama bowing and waving incense and then my dear sweet little Abby bowing in obeisance to WHAT? Demons? ghosts? darkness? God?
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give them eternal life: and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." John 10:17-19

They're mine

What if you had mean students? And what if you loved them anyways, because they were yours? And what if after every class you went home emotionally exhausted because of how much they took from you? What if you continued to love them and to pour yourself into them even though it hurt? What if they graduated and left you? How would you feel? And what if you found them again? What if you found that they loved you too? What if?

The simple joys of maidenhood

I was afraid of boring people with too many posts so it's been too long since my last one. I have so many things to tell.

1. The single worst thing has happened to me. The principal, who I talked about in my last blog, has volunteered to teach me Chinese. So now once a week I have to sit down with him for a 40 minute Chinese lesson. Last week, I learned "The big tree is our good friend." So far in my conversations with Chinese squirrels it has been incredibly helpful.

2. I went fishing! Naomi and I stayed over at our students house and went fishing with them. We fished in some sort of outlet from the ocean. We stood on a bridge and watched Mr Lin cast a net into the water then we'd pull up a small fish or two and garbage. It was awesome. Mr Lin got the net stuck in the water. I volunteered to go into the water after it, but no one thinks the Americans can do anything =(. So a complete stranger came and stripped to his boxers so he could jump in and save the day. I was jealous. After getting our net back we caught 12 little fish all together. Then we went home and scaled and gutted them. They were very much still alive when we started to scale them. I had to tell myself over and over again "fish don't feel pain. Fish don't feel pain." (don't tell me if this isn't true, I don't want to know). After the fish were gutted (this was my first time gutting fish ) we fried them and salted them. It was seriously one of the best things I've ever tasted. I love fishing!

3. Today one of our students asked the principal if it was "true that all Americans only eat steak?" I wish!!!! =)

Life and Principals can be so Cruel

Many of my most awkward situations have been orchestrated by two special individuals. One of these is the Mountain Man (more about him later) and the other is Principal Pai. I have many stories about both of these very unique men, but you can't understand my stories until you have a little background on these men. So this is my catch up on principal Pai post.
The Man
Principal Pai is the principal at Hi-Chian elementary character school (only when he says Character he rolls the "r" *grimaces*). He's a good principal and he really cares about his school and about good character. The only thing is he has almost zero personality or sense of humor. Yet, his school has mostly young teachers who like to joke and laugh. He doesn't usually get what other people are laughing about so he tends to laugh awkwardly anytime he thinks someone might have said a joke. Worse than all of this, he wears his pants so stinkin' high! It's awful. So awful. He wears these pleated waist slacks up at his elbows practically. I shouldn't let something so shallow bother me so unbelievably much, but it does.
The butt bumping story
This horrible, horrible event occurred at our school in the evening. We were having a big 6th grade graduation party. You wouldn't believe these Taiwanese people could do it, but they have a huge bonfire and dance around it. It was really fun...watching. That was until I got dragged into the big line dance by the principal and a director. So I got stuck holding hands with the principal and a director lady and doing the chicken dance. In the middle of the circle was a DJ person yelling out commands in Chinese. I had no idea what was going on until suddenly the entire group of students and teachers and principal start bumping butts with each other. When I realized with horror what was going on, I had no time to get away and...you guessed it. The high pantsed principal bumped butts with me! I didn't have time to freak out because other butts were coming at me. So I dodged Taiwanese butts and moved over to where my students were dancing. I guess the command was to bump butts with ten people. Oh lucky me. The next command was to grab 10 people's thighs and then to tickle 10 people. I got out of there quickly! I really had no idea they could be like that!

I have got to learn CHINESE!!!!

So this happened last June and as you can probably tell, I'm scarred for life

What's in a name?

I was looking over my blog posts and I realized I've made a big mistake. I've started out my blog with funny stories, now the day to day feels so boring. Yet, the day to day is why I came. So maybe I should say a little more about what I do here.


I teach.
I love it.
My students are very sweet. I'm lucky to be working with 5th graders, they aren't half as scary as 6th graders. Today some of my students greeted me like "Good afternoon beautiful teacher."
I'm sold.

When I'm not teaching I'm hanging out at the office with various peoples, mostly Naomi. We have an interesting relationship. We're with each other so often we find ourselves making some of the same faces.














I'm not really proud of this

no....they really have lost their minds

As everyone knows I am back in Taiwan. My coming back has definitely caused quite a stir around here. Rumors had been going around about why I wasn't going to come back. Some people thought my parents were mean and wouldn't let me come back even though I wanted to. Other people thought that I had to go to America to get married (this paired with me accidentally wearing my promise ring on my left hand has made for some interesting explanations.) =( But that's not the only thing everyone is talking about. They believe that both Naomi and I have come back more "beautiful" than when we left. They seriously argue and develop theories about it. One theory is that we had surgery done. A few people think that we found love in America and love makes us beautiful. A third theory (and my personal favorite) is that the food and weather in America is better for us. Other people just assume that our "glow" will go away with time and plenty of rice.

So this is Taiwan. This is what they talk about. Sometimes I just don't know whether I should laugh or cry.


okay so it is stinkin' amusing ;)

Sometimes timing is just BAD!!!!!!!

So what if I came back to Taiwan and I found that everyone is out of their minds?!!!!!!?!?!?!

I know blogs are only fun because of pictures, but I don't have any pictures that match my blog...so I will work on that. I'll try to get pictures up soon.

Yesterday was ghost day. Actually this entire month is ghost month, what made yesterday special was that it is the only day when everyone feeds the ghosts. They call the ghosts, their kind brothers. Maybe in their culture the ghosts could indeed be their brothers. But they don't want ghosts hanging around their homes. So they feed the ghosts on this one night of the year. They put a table outside and fill it with food. It could be packaged crackers, cookies, chip or soda or tea or specialty dishes of scrumptious home made food. It could be juice boxes, wine or even baby bottles full of milk. They set all of this on the table and place bowls of burning incense on the tables to attract the ghosts. The ghosts eat their fill and hopefully won't come back until the same day next year. I don't think everyone who sets food out believes these things, however this sort of thing is such a big part of their culture that they practice "feeding ghosts" more as tradition than actual conviction.

It was strange being there during ghost day. There were tables full of food lining the streets, a heavy smell of incense burning and to top it all off firecrackers!These things would only go off the moment you least expected them to go off. This place definitely keeps you on your toes.

We ate dinner at our family's house that night and were in sort of an awkward situation, because some of the food in front of us was the food they had offered to the ghosts. It's one of those things where you have to decide which is more morally wrong eating food offered to idols or offending our host family by not eating the yummy food they prepared. We ate it but did not ask any questions. We felt that if we asked about it and they knew we knew that we knew we were eating food offered to ghosts they would think we were okay with the custom.

They always return to the scene of the crime

Taiwan and it's people are definitely different, but I've found that Taiwan has a way of making both it's native people and it's foreigners strange. I'm going to focus on an especially strange group of foreigners in this amazing place, the Schweitzer teachers. These people are a special group of Christ serving, squid eating, purpose planning, kid loving, Mandarin attempting, adventure craving, attention demanding English teachers. I got into Taiwan on the 26th and I found myself thrown into the midst of these amazing people all amassed together for orientation and purpose infusion. I can't say how much fun I had meeting all these people and talking with them. I know now I have a group of people I can call and depend on even while I'm in a foreign country.
So orientation wasn't without it's set of adventures. I'm telling you they follow me wherever I go. It's possible that they are really following Naomi who I tend to follow everywhere as well...anyways... Naomi and I went for out team meeting to a little coffee shop and outside our coffee shop we noticed some really inappropriate posters written in English outside a club. So we decided we would tear them off the post (but only after we finished our coffee, of course). So we went outside and there were lots of people around so we were waiting for our chance to rip the posters off without anyone noticing. This wasn't working, there were too many people. Finally, we both drew courage from imagining ourselves as someone else. Nomes imagined herself as a sidewalk clearer so she started picking up trash around the area while I pretended like I worked at the club and we needed to replace the posters. It worked! I walked up and ripped the posters off feeling like I was doing my job and Nomes continued to clear the garbage around me...so we both walked off with a handful of garbage in our arms. We took a different way back to the office to make sure we didn't lead any police or any angry REAL club members to the Chen's house. But I must say it was exciting...all the way back we were imagining different scenarios of people seeing us and reporting us and arresting us as soon as we left the Chen's. Despite all of our conjured up fear we still ended up walking by the crime scene to see if anyone had replaced the posters...they had.