Many people have died for their freedom, I just asked for mine.

After the principal forced me into a newspaper interview, I decided to quit Chinese class with him. The only reason I was still doing the class with him was because he's the principal and I should show him respect. The interview changed that. So after four days of worrying about how to quit I finally walked into his office and asked if I could quit Thursday's Chinese lessons. He agreed quite readily and I walked away with both my freedom and a new appreciation for the principal. He really can't be all bad. =)

And off in the distance, a dog barked.

so, many years ago my mom got me a barking dog alarm clock. She got it as a small revenge for my dog that used to wake her up barking. Well, the alarm clock is almost useless as an alarm clock as it doesn't have a snooze button. It is probably the loudest most annoying alarm clock in the history of alarm clocks. However this thing has proved to have other uses.
When I first got to Taiwan I set it and put it in the backpack of my accountability leader, Simon, during CI. Everyone could hear barking, but no one knew where it was coming from until the entire searching party ended up at Simon and one of the guys said "Dude, your backpack is barking." From then on the alarm clock had an obnoxious habit of turning up in people's bags or backpacks. You never knew who was going to be barking next or where it would start. Those were good times, really good times.
Well, a year had passed and I was looking fondly at my old alarm clock as I started packing for the new CI, when I suddenly had a brilliant idea. I could set my alarm to go off when it's in the baggage room full of everyone's suitcases. Then no one would be able to find where it's coming from. So, I put my brilliant plan into action. "12 pm should be late enough to go off. Everyone should be together then." So I set the clock and put it in my suitcase and Naomi and I set off to the train station. 3 hours later, in the crowded train...my suitcase started barking. Naomi who had not been privy to my "brilliant" plan could not understand why my stupid alarm clock was going off in the crowded train. We neared our stop and decided we'd try to get off the train and through the crowd as quickly as possible, so no one would know the barking was coming from us. A nice young man helped me get my suitcase down from the rack, then paused at the barking. He looked puzzled and looked hopefully at me for an explanation. I smiled, took the suitcase and Naomi and I ran out through the Taipei main station. Then we got out through the building and then hopped into a taxi. My suitcase, with the obnoxious barking still going on, was put into the front next to the taxi driver. The taxi driver got into the driver seat and paused, listening. "Is that a real dog?" he asked. Naomi assured him it wasn't, but he still had some doubts. Finally he shook his head and took off driving. For five minutes the dog was going off...Finally we reached our stop. We jumped out and payed the taxi driver (he charged us more than his original quote...I don't blame him) Then we crossed the street to starbucks, where I finally was able to shut the stupid alarm clock off. As we sat there on the suitcase and listened to the non-barking silence and sipped our coffee, I wished dreadfully hard that I had had someone else I could blame for the entire annoying affair, but there was nothing for it....I did it. I pranked myself.

sniffing chamomile???

Naomi and I had made plans to visit the small Island of Kinmen over the weekend. It's a really cool island full of history, old buildings and the added plus of seeing the amazing Kinmen tesol team. So, Friday after school our dear baba taxi driver drove us over to the Taichung airport. To our chagrin flights to kinmen were canceled due to heavy fog. So now what? We couldn't go home, because we knew we'd probably end up wallowing, eating chocolate and watching office episodes. We decided to visit the big city of Taichung. The Taxi driver we payed to take us there wasn't as nice as Baba. He drove like a maniac all the way there and by the time we got there we were both feeling some serious carsickness. So then we got out into the street and we were greeted by the most horrendous gutter smell ever. There were a few awful seconds as the smell turned our already aggravated stomachs. Then we tried moving to a different place, only the gutter ran parallel with the sidewalk we were walking on...there was no escape. I turned to my purse and found a bag of chamomile tea, which I promptly opened and stuck my nose into. The rest of the walk we were passing this opened bag of chamomile tea back and forth. It was a little odd, but at least it kept the gagging at bay.

don't cry in trees, the ants will bite your face.

This really hasn't been a good week. I can't figure out why. I'm happy to be back with my students and the other teachers, but I'm a little bit grouchy. I hate being this way and the more I try to figure out why the more frustrated I get. So I guess I'll just attribute it to my body hating me for putting it through plane flights and jet lag and insufficient sleep. =( I definitely felt better this morning I slept from 9-7. It felt really good. I always like Friday because I get to teach my third graders. They really love anything I want to teach them. I always feel more relaxed and at ease with them. They're a bit of a refuge for me, only today was different. I was teaching my second class when I got dragged into the other classroom by principal bai to "take a picture" or that's what he said to get me to come. A camera crew had come to the other class room to interview them about using newspapers in the classroom to teach. I don't know why they needed to interview me, but interview me they did. I had no time to fix my hair or to think about what I wanted to say. The teacher seemed to know that it made me upset, no one else cared. I cried afterwords in a tree by myself. The ants bit my face. Ouch.

This is for you

Repelling



Rock climbing was a lot of fun at the retreat. I wasn't really nervous about climbing up the rock, though I was nervous about coming back down it. I'm the same way about everything. I'm pretty quick to move forward with something new, but I'm terrified of when that thing ends and I have to start back towards ground level. A lot of times it would just be easier for me to keep going with the thing I'm doing rather than go back to where I started. To make things clearer, I should say that I'm leaving Taiwan soon. It was easy enough for me to start up this mountain of foreign experience. Yes, there were moments of unsureness, but I always knew I was climbing up. Now there isn't much time left here and soon I'm going to have to start making the descent down. I'm going to have to say goodbyes and get back to ground level. I don't feel as comfortable with this. It means letting go of something I've known and loved and trusting someone else to help propel me down. Seriously, when you are propelling down you have to let go of the rock that you've been clutching all this time and you have to relax and put yourself entirely at the mercy of the persons or people holding the rope.









So, here I go. I've got a little further to go to reach the top of this experience and then I'm going to have to say those goodbyes and lean back in trust that God will bring me down safely. Then from there I'll still be harnessed up and ready for the next experience God leads me up.

How would you feel?

So, I come to Taiwan as a sort of missionary/English teacher. This totally doesn't make me a saint. I'm really annoyed right now, because the principal of our school wants a cameraman to come into our house tomorrow and film us eating lunch with a couple of key families from the school. I say "why? I'm not that special, I'm just an American". Why should I have to be on TV? I feel enough like a freak already, because I'm an American and I can't go outside without attracting comment. Why add this to that? I guess the principal thinks it will help the school recruit more students for the next semester. I don't want to be a tool. Everyone thinks I should be honored to do an interview and be on T.V, but this whole thing has my stomach in knots. I don't like this sort of attention at all. I hate that I have to do the things I normally do, not because I love the kids who will be at my house, but because a cameraman and the principal and everyone expects me too. What if they make me "show off" my Chinese? I never feel comfortable speaking Chinese around anyone but little children and some nice women...My throat constricts and I feel miserable whenever the principal or another adult asks me to speak to them. How in the world will I be to say something to a camera?Anyways I'm nervous and I feel exploited and I'm having a hard time not being angry at everyone who is forcing me into this.

and I should add that I'm feeling more than a little guilty about being so upset about this instead of just sucking it up and doing what people want me to do.

Americans are fat because they only eat hamburgers

It is a commonly believed here that Americans are fat and that they eat hamburgers everyday. Thus the reasoning is that if Americans eat hamburgers and Americans are fat then hamburgers must make you fat. It's hard to convince anyone that hamburgers aren't any more fattening then some of their heavily fried foods or to convince them that Americans eat many different types of food. Then the other day I was reading a story from my students' lesson book and this is what I found.

Are They Healthy?

This is Sally. She likes vegetables. She has vegitables everyday. She doesn't like soda or hamburgers. Sally is very healthy. (then they had a picture of a thin girl)
This is Tom. He doesn't like vegetables. He has hamburgers, fries and soda every day. Is Tom healthy? (then they had a picture of a really fat boy)

Doesn't it sound like a stereotype? No wonder it's so hard to convince people otherwise. They're trained to believe hamburgers are the reason for people being fat. One of the teachers even told me that in America you can see a fat man eating hamburgers around ever corner. I honestly think he's gotten it all wrong. It's fat men eating twinkies and donuts on every corner. ;)