Monster Mangos and Goodbye to Teaching in Taiwan

Well, today was a big day. It was my last day teaching in Taiwan (we still have to proctor finals for the next four days, but I won't be doing any instruction with the classes I've had all year). It was a bittersweet feeling all day: I'm so close to the end of the school year that I'm just itching for it to be done, but it's the last time I'll be teaching in Taiwan so I'm trying to make it last. An odd combination if you ask me!

One class in particular I will miss from this year. My second class of 10th graders of the day was always a ball of energy for me. As any teacher will tell you, some classes just have "it" where all of the members contribute to a simply wonderful classroom climate. There's no particular reason why some classes have "it" and some don't, so as a teacher you just have to enjoy them when they come along. My 10th graders definitely had "it." I won't say anymore, I'll just let the following pictures speak for themselves...

Some of the girls in the class were almost in tears on the last day. They are so sweet.

But also pretty crazy, as you can see!

Even though we had lots to review for our final still, they made me get another teacher to take a whole group photo. I can't say as I'm reallllly upset about this ;)

Besides having a great last day as a teacher in Taiwan, I also made a wonderful discovery. As I've previously stated, Taiwan mangos are beyond delicious and I have made it a goal of mine to eat one every day until I leave. That is not a joke either. Well today I stopped at a fruit stand and got some mangos. I was about to go checkout when I noticed a giant, mango shaped yellow fruit right next to the regular little orange ones I get. I can't read chinese, so I was completely guessing at what it was, but I figured it was worth the bet.

Sure enough, I got home and whipped out my cutting board immediately to find that it is a GIANT mango! SCORE! As you can see from the picture, it is literally double in size. I'd call that a perfect after school snack!

My Monster Mango cut in half next to the regular, baby sized, mangos I normally get.

What an epic day...Only 13 days until I'm home...

Graduation 2012

It is hard to believe that graduation has come and gone already. I didn't teach this bunch of seniors, but I taught a few of them last year and know almost all of them outside of class. Some of them I know better than the students I teach because of random interactions in the halls and activities. It's really a fun atmosphere when it's such a small school.

Needless to say, today was fun and a little sad. I had to say goodbye to some kids that I have known for two years. However, graduating from high school is a rite of passage for every kid and it gives me great pride to know that I helped shape these young adults (some more than others). Congratulations class of 2012! Good luck in whatever you chose to do with your next steps in life :)

Class of 2012 right after the ceremony

The Girls- (left to Right) Kate, Nichole, Me, Jane

My favorite Korean student, taught him last year and unofficially advised him this year. He's happy, I promise :)

The End is Near...

There are 17 days between now and when I board a plane, never to return to Taiwan. Now I don't know that I won't ever return to Taiwan, but it seems unlikely to me. It is a very bittersweet feeling for me because on one hand I am dying to be back home with family and Target stores plentifully in every city. On the other hand, I currently live on a beautiful, exotic, tropical island where everyday brings new things and your life is just legitimately more interesting. Like I said, bittersweet.

It hasn't really hit me yet that I will be leaving in a little less than 3 weeks and never returning. However, I am trying to check things off of my bucket list to get ready for the ultimate departure. Here is what I need to do thus far:

1) Drink as much bubble teas as humanly possible (one a day?)

2) Eat at least one mango each day (Taiwan mangos are sweeter than any candy you can buy here, most delicious fruit I have ever eaten!)

3) Make another trip up to the waterfall

4) Buy more pearls and Jade! Of course :)

5) Eat stinky tofu one last time, when in Rome!

6) Buy more tea to take home

7) Enjoy my city

I am going to miss Taiwan, but at least I have some time left now to give it one last goodbye. 17 days to go!

I Was Born this Way (a Geometry Teacher)

There are always good and bad days as a teacher, and being a geometry teacher is no different. Do I love teaching rule after rule on chords in circles? Absolutely not, they are unnecessary and annoyingly similar yet different. Terrible.

However, there are lessons that I literally can't wait to teach all year. Today was one of those lessons: a basic introduction to geometric solids or 3D shapes in geometry. You're jealous you're not one of my students right now, correct?!

My students discussing the smaller models I gave them to name after the lesson

I like this lesson because it is so tangible for my students. English language learners are always grasping for something concrete to hold onto and a cube provides a pretty solid grip. It's also a good lesson because these solids show up everywhere in the real world so it's easy for the kids to relate. One of my girls said the cylinder was like toilet paper; that was a new one I hadn't heard before :)

A look at the "skins" and diagrams I drew to go along with

This year was definitely better than last year because I worked out all of the kinks from my first year teaching. As a department, we have nice clear models of the four basic solids (cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid) which come in very handy during this chapter obviously. And this year I took it a little further and wrapped those models up in colorful paper. Then in class, as we were writing down the proper definitions of each solid, I was also able to engage students in a constant dialogue regarding the "skins" and what they would look like "unwrapped." We talked about the similarities between them, like how cones and cylinders both have at least one base of a circle. Then we discussed the differences, like how cones don't have any defined sides while pyramids always have triangle sides.

It was a lesson that went all hour, 50 minutes, and I have never seen my class so engaged in a basic lecture. Well, I guess that's because it wasn't exactly a basic lecture- I was "undressing models" in front of class! Get it? Taking off the colorful paper of the geometric models I had! I know, I'm clever. My students think so too...perhaps.

Goodbye My Possessions! I Hope to See you Again Someday in the Future!

With just under 6 weeks left in Taiwan (ever!), I am starting the somewhat terrible and somewhat fun process of relocating to another country once again. Yes, it has started already. I came to Taiwan in three suitcases, and I will not be able to leave with just that! It's amazing how much stuff one person can accumulate in the course of two years.

I had heard from other coworkers who went through this same process last year that shipping boxes home by "slow boat" (meaning your package is literally shipped on a barge instead of flown in the air) is pretty easy to do from Taiwan and relatively cheap. So a few weeks ago I set out on the quest to find boxes to put my "life" in. I went to grocery stores, hardware stores, stationary stores, looking for the perfect discarded pieces of cardboard to safely house my things back to the U.S. The biggest requirement I was in search of was box dimensions big enough to pack enough in while still being able to fit on my scooter (how else would I get it to the post office?! I miss my Civic...and it's trunk space). It was a challenge.

Little by little however, I managed to gather three good boxes to meet my very specific size requirements. Then I began compiling the heaviest, bulkiest stuff I owned here that wasn't going to be used in this last month. I packed up DVD's, books (too many!), nail polish (many bottles = surprising amounts of weight), extra t-shirts, sweatpants, and all types of jackets- professional and recreational. In my scooter sized boxes and with three separate trips to the post office, I packed the excess baggage of my life. And now it's gone...hopefully not for good!

The post office is pretty easy to navigate here and my coworkers from last year were right, it was cheap to send those boxes. All three cost me just over $100 total which is nothing compared to the $700 allowance my school gives me to move home. The only problem? It takes 3 months for them to reach their destination. Slow boat, remember?! Yikes, so I guess I'll find out in August if I still own several bottles of shockingly pink OPI nail polish and a twentieth anniversary edition of Bambi on DVD. I will keep my fingers crossed that they show up but I sure won't be holding my breath until then!


Countdown until my departure from Taiwan: 39 days

Touring in My Own Country

Working long days, grading at night, and lesson planning on the weekends tends to make you forget there is life outside teaching. This is common when you are teaching in the U.S., and sadly enough it becomes more and more likely the longer you live in a foreign country. You forget that you are actually living somewhere unique and different and fall into the old routines of everyday life. In order to actually take advantage of living in such a cool place, you need to force yourself to be a tourist in your own country. Thus, I have been making this a big push in my life in the last few weeks I have here in Taiwan.

Last weekend, a coworker and I took the Taiwan High Speed Rail down to Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan. We stayed in a brand new hotel, which was awesome, and saw what the southern city of Kaohsiung had to offer. We walked along the fisherman's pier, strolled along the famous Love River that runs through the center, and rented bikes to go out to the old British Consulate that overlooks the city. It was great. The best part about that weekend was that by Sunday, I felt like I had had a real vacation and was ready for my week to start.

 Called the "Dome of Light" in the Formosa Boulevard MRT station in Kaohsiung

 View of Kaohsiung City from the British Consulate up on the hill

Really cool graffiti or murals (I couldn't tell which to be honest) on a building in the art district

Today, although I didn't travel anywhere else on the island, I did take a long walking tour of my own city, Taichung. I walked to the Science Museum which has a nice park all around it. Then I wound my way down further into the heart of the city and ended up at the National Museum of Art. It's free and oddly enough, I've never been there. Most importantly, it was air conditioned so after a long, hot walk, it was perfect.

Besides the much needed break from the heat, I also made an important discovery while there: Taiwan has some amazing art. I've always told people that Taiwan does not produce hardly any art simply because you can never buy it anywhere. There are never local vendors or small artists with their own galleries. You can't walk through small art fairs and buy cheap prints of photography even if you wanted to. So I was simply convinced it did not exist on this tiny island.

I was wrong of course. The art here is just for museums only, but it does exist. Even in the museum shop, there were no prints or mugs or even keychains of any of the local Taiwanese artists I saw in the museum. I did, however, see plenty of Van Gogh and Monet posters. Why, Taiwan, why? When there is such wonderful art being produced here, I still don't understand how the people don't want to display it more. Oh well, at least I got to enjoy it for one afternoon.

Two of my favorites from today:

Liu Kuo-Sung  

Chen Ting-Shih

Now if only I could buy prints of these somewhere in Taiwan! Anyhow, good day being a tourist in my own city.

Applying for Jobs While Living Abroad

The long and winding road has begun: I've been job searching for the 2012-2013 school year already. Just like any job search, there are disappointments lining your path with an ever constant feeling of frustration to keep you warm at night. The most frustrating part for me however is that I live thousands of miles away from these schools and 13 hours ahead in time. The most frustrating emails of incomplete files received and scheduling conflicts always wake me up in the morning which is never good to start a day with.

However terrible it has been, there is a glint of hope in my educational heart currently. After submitting no less than eighteen applications over the past month or so, I have had two interviews, one job offer, and I'm feeling good about some other prospects. I'm waiting to hear from an interview that I did last night (at midnight mind you...) by the end of this week, so keep your fingers crossed for me! I will keep you all posted as I hear (hopefully) from prospective employers...