Christmas in Taiwan

About a week ago now, we had our annual Christmas concert here at school. I was pretty busy all week getting ready for the break that I didn't have time to do anything with my pictures or video I took...until now!

Enjoy a little taste of my experience with Christmas in Taiwan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcuDj7ptIeE

So I tried this with 7th Graders....and it went OK I guess

My 7th grade class is always somewhat of a challenge to me because I never know exactly what will motivate them and more importantly, keep their attention. So far throughout this year I have stumbled upon lots of random activities that they like for no apparent reason. There have also been times when I plan and plan and plan for an activity I think they will like and it is a total flop. Needless to say, they are about as unpredictable as any other 7th grader I know.

This week, with the semester wrapping up and Christmas break so close at hand, I decided to slowly introduce concepts we will learn next chapter by doing a hands-on activity with estimation and ratios. I found this activity in one of my NCTM math books (Navigating through Mathematical Connections in Grades 6-8) and I really like the idea of this one. Basically you get a large bag or bowl of some small, countable object; I found some small beans at the grocery store to use. Then you use a method called "capture-recapture" to estimate the number of beans in the bowl.

You first take out a small handful and make a mark on each bean and count them. You put the colored beans back and proceed to take another handful and count both the total number of beans you grabbed and the number of those that have your mark on them. You repeat this seven or eight times and average your results at the end. Finally, you can figure out how many beans are in the bag by using the ratio of total beans you pulled out each time compared to the number of those that were marked which should be a similar ratio to the total number of beans in the bag compared to the total number you marked in the beginning. Environmental scientists use this method often to guess how many fish are in a pond for example.

What I liked about this idea in theory was that the 7th graders would be working with their hands and working in small groups- both things that I thought the boys would excel at. For these very reasons, I split my class up into two groups, four girls in one group and the four boys in the other. Never again will I make this mistake. The differences between boys and girls in the 7th grade is so astronomical and I keep forgetting this; my girls had finished with the entire activity by the end of the hour while the boys hadn't even finished with their first handful after marking their first batch of beans. Needless to say, I also learned a lot during this activity...I learned that girls are better bean counters :)

Overall, I liked the activity, but I think I would structure it a little differently next time and perhaps even try it with older grades.

December Already

Well it's December. I know that it's already December 12th (Happy Birthday Mom!) and I'm just now getting around to writing this blog post, but things got a little busy around here recently! In another week, I will be already in Cambodia for my two week long Christmas vacation in both Cambodia and Vietnam. I am terribly excited as you can imagine, but it still feels years and years away at the moment.

Recently it seems like the weeks have been moving at a snails pace yet when I stop to think about it, it has all gone so quickly. I've been living in Taiwan for four months now and it's already Christmas break. I've been told from the other teachers who have been here for more than a year that it is all downhill from here as well. This week I am giving chapter tests in all of my classes and that will be the last material on the midterm test (which I still need to write...ugh) when we return in January. Midterms, already?

It is also hard for me to grasp that it is truly Christmas season already. Although the weather has cooled slightly to high seventies during the day and fifties at night, it's no blizzard like the current conditions at home. And with all of the sunny weather (sorry to rub it in Minne-snow-ta!) and work to be done wrapping up a semester, I still feel like Christmas must be far off.

This past week however, I did receive two awesome Christmas care packages from home to put me in the spirit. I now have a small Christmas tree sitting on my TV, presents wrapped in green and red sitting on my table, and have already eaten about a dozen spritz cookies. It doesn't feel like the typical Christmas to me for obvious reasons, but having those things from home is appreciated more than you can imagine. So thank you to all who contributed to the Maria Pint Christmas boxes and to all a good night!

Good Activity for Geometry Students

My geometry students all took the Chapter 6 test yesterday and are about to start learning about geometric transformations in the next chapter. For all of you out there who aren't familiar with the term geometric transformations, I assure you that you probably know exactly what they are! Basically it's reflections of shapes, rotations, and translations (when you just slide something over without changing it). So instead of diving right into the chapter in the book, I decided to do a little activity with them today. I found this lesson plan on PBS, which is the best resource for teachers if you ask me:

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/resources/3945/preview/

The challenge is that given a square split into 8 parts (as seen in that activity), there are 13 unique ways to display 1/2 without simply rotating or reflecting a previous way. The students got 7 minutes to try to come up with all of them in partners of their choosing and then we went one by one in the groups to fill in the boxes online. I was able to get the math department projector for today too so we could all watch as each answer was submitted to see if it was right or wrong.

The cool thing about this lesson was that not only did students get introduced to reflections and rotations (we had a discussion after every rejected answer based on it being a previous box simply flipped or rotated) but they were literally cheering when we got the last one together. It was awesome to see my students that excited about math at 8 a.m.!

All of my little kiddos hard at work!

Busy November

Today is the last day of November already. It seems like just yesterday that I first got here and started teaching; the school year is three whole months under way but it still sort of has that new car smell to it. At home, snow is flying yet here it is still 80 degrees during the day. Thanksgiving came and went, and although I wasn't able to do any Black Friday shopping, I was able to eat turkey and gravy and the works (twice even!). Life in Taiwan seems to be going at warp speed.

Tomorrow is the first day of December and before I blink an eye, I'm sure it will be Christmas break. And judging from how fast fall has gone for me, I think in another few blinks I will find myself in spring and then summer. It all makes me realize how quickly this experience is going to pass me by. It makes me a little sad to think about, but it also makes me excited for the future. Another year (or two???) here, and then who knows...

Thanksgiving in Taiwan

Although this is the first Thanksgiving I have ever spent away from family and loved ones, I think Taiwan did us proud on this one. The school brought in turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing. There was even pumpkin pie for dessert! Even better was the awesome time I got to have with my group of girls that I sit with at every meal, my advisees.

I'm thankful for this amazing life experience and the chance to get to know so many different people from around the world. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Scooter Owner Maria

Well it's official, I own a scooter!

My friend and coworker, Jane, and I struck a deal with a nice Indian man who has lived in Taichung for the past 5 years about buying two scooters he had for sale. This afternoon while I was teaching, Jane had some preps and went to go meet the Indian man and his cousin at the DMV. These scooters are now safely registered under our names, we have paid full in cash, and I even got a name stamp out of the deal!

Let me explain that last part. Everyone (well, almost everyone) in Taiwan (and possibly other Asian countries as well) signs their name with a personalized name stamp. Since each persons name is generally broken down into three chinese characters, they easily fit on a small square stamp that people just carry with them. So apparently this cousin of the Indian man who sold us our scooters is very good friends with some people at the Taichung DMV and while Jane was waiting for the paperwork to process, this cousin went ahead and had them make us our very own name stamps too!

A scooter AND a personalized name stamp?! Thanks Indian man and your cousin.

Common Good Day

At our school, we decided to have a "Common Good Day" this past weekend. Basically, every house (yes, like Harry Potter) chose a charity they wanted to contribute their time to and used the afternoon of Saturday 20, 2010 to do some community service. Archimedes House (my house) decided to first make some cards to send to children at a children's hospital nearby and then use the afternoon to pick up garbage along a trail close to us.

All in all, I would call Common Good Day 2010 fairly successful only because I hadn't been up in the foothills yet on the trails so I thought it was exceptionally beautiful out! We didn't pick up a TON of trash but I figure, any little bit helps, right? :)

Our whole house after the cleanup...notice the very few bags of trash for the large number of people...

View from the top- worth the climb!

My friend and coworker, Jane, and me at the top

Math Olympiad Success

After a whirlwind of 48 hours, jumping between Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, and back again, I can safely say that my first time as a middle school math olympiad coach was a success. It was a very busy schedule and as I type this on Sunday morning after all of the chaos, I'm extremely exhausted. However, I would say that it's all worth it because my kids did awesome, the trip went off without a hitch, and I didn't loose a 7th grader in China!

In all seriousness, I was very proud of my team. I had three little seventh grade girls and one little seventh grade boy with me. Although we had some interesting situations, like making the emergency bathroom stop within an hour of the start of the trip, but I think that's fairly par for the course when traveling with children. In general they were very well behaved and actually really helpful because they could communicate with more people than I could for obvious language reasons. If I couldn't figure something out, I would send one of them to ask someone nearby and they turned out to be awesome little translators.

As far as the math competition went, I was even more proud of my team. My school has been sending a middle school team to this competition for several years now. I've been told that we always do pretty dismal so going into this trip I had very low expectations. As the teams were busy competing on the first floor of the school we were at, the coaches were up on the second floor grading everything and updating the scores. Throughout the competition, which was four rounds, I watched my team start at a tie for fifth place (out of seven teams), move up to fourth, and seal a third place victory with a perfect score in the third round of nineteen multiple choice questions. When the announcer called our name for the third place team from the 7th grade division during the awards ceremony, no one was yelling louder than me because I was so happy for them and it was cute to see their surprised faces (they kept telling me how bad they thought they did!).

All in all, a great but quick trip to China, an awesome math olympiad tournament and my first international travel with preteens under my belt. You can check out some of the pictures I took below.

The team and me outside the school in Shenzhen, China.
7th graders doing what 7th graders do best.
View of the harbor in Shenzhen.

So I'm an Asian Mother for 48 Hours

Currently, I am using the free wi-fi to write this in the Taipei International Airport. It is a Thursday, yes a school day, and I have four 7th graders with me to travel first to Hong Kong and then onto China for a math competition tomorrow. I am officially the ONLY adult responsible for them for 48 hours and it has been...hectic already to say the least.

This morning a van was supposed to pick us up from school to take us to the airport. However, a car showed up and the driver seemed to think he was only supposed to take one person to Taipei. We lost twenty minutes there arguing with him to try to get us there. In the end I was perfectly comfortable riding in the front while the four kids had to cram in the back together. About an hour into our two hour ride, one of the boys told me he had to go to the bathroom. I asked if he could hold it until we got to the airport and he said yes but his face told me no. So we pulled over at a wayside rest and watched him literally sprint to the public toilets. After ten minutes in there he comes out and the first thing he says upon arrival is "Teacher, I thought you said they would have tissue paper here." Sigh, how was I supposed to know that a random wayside rest between Taichung and Taipei wouldn't have toilet paper in the men's room?

Now I'm patiently waiting for the kiddos to return to me at the gate. We are due to depart at 11:25 and I threatened them that if they were not here by 11:00, I would find them and send them back to the school without being able to go to Hong Kong first! I'm hoping that shallow threats will work so we'll see.

Being an Asian mother for these two days will be interesting to say the least. I am looking forward to the stories I will have after this weekend and you should too! (It will probably be an awesome blog post)

Wish me luck!

If this Weekend Doesn't Kill Me...

Working as a teacher is trying enough for the most part. Living with your students at a boarding school is even more so.

I still really love what I'm doing here in Taiwan but I have definitely hit that point in the year where everything starts piling up on my desk and there doesn't seem to be enough time in the day. Next week I will be traveling with my math olympiad team to China for a whirlwind two day, one night competition. So this week I have been busy making sub plans and figuring out what to do with my four classes the two days I will be gone (not easy to do because I can't have them learn anything new due to the fact that I have English, history and art teachers covering my classes).

Unfortunately, I am not the only one missing school here or there. This week has also been a long parade of missed prep's since so many of my coworkers need to take off work for school related functions and that leaves the rest of us subbing for their classes. I truly believe in this philosophy, no outside subs, but it makes it tough when you are trying to use your prep's to get ready for when you need to leave!

At least we have the weekends to ourselves. Which normally is my saving grace; a time to shut myself in my room and not see, talk to, or think about students for an entire day and a half. However, this weekend also happens to be the weekend I am on duty AND I got stuck with library duty Friday night. Basically this means that tonight (Friday) after my five day work week, I will be the teacher in charge of a dozen or so failing students who are required to be in the library from 7-9 p.m. Then I will wake up tomorrow morning (Saturday) and teach for three hours. I will then go to lunch with the kids and at 1:30 chaperone whatever activity is planned for tomorrow afternoon. At 6:30 I will accompany all 167 students to a night market and return at 10:00 p.m. Sunday I continue supervising students from 1 p.m. till 4 p.m. and then Monday starts a new week.

Like the title of this blog suggests, if this week doesn't kill me, I really think I will live forever because nothing will!

Term 1 Over

This week marks a new term for the school year. I have been teaching for over two months now and even though it's feeling more and more real with each lesson, I still catch myself thinking I'm not actually a teacher yet. However I do realize that I most certainly am by now; I'm just waiting for the first time I have to fill out a form where I can put "teacher" under occupation instead of "student." I'm sure that will be a big day.

After two and a half months of teaching I have learned a lot about myself both professionally and personally. I have also learned, or at least heard, all numbers up to twenty in Chinese, and a select few Chinese curse words as well. And most importantly, I have learned a lot about teaching international students. I know now that a lot of things work with ESL students and also, a lot of things don't (and yes I learned that the hard way as you can imagine). I am by no means an expert on teaching English language learners, but I feel a lot more knowledgable now than I did when we started school in September and I bet I'll be even better by June. It makes me realize that this is a profession in which I can expect to learn something new every single day. It's very exciting to think about how my teaching style will evolve throughout my career and even how I will teach differently by the end of this year alone.

What's also exciting is to think about how I can improve on things for next year. I boarded the plane in August 90% sure that I would work in Taiwan for two years; however I did only have a one year contract so I knew there was a possibility I would only stay for one. After one term though, I am absolutely positive I will be working here next year. Both professionally and personally I am very happy in Taiwan and am very excited to start next year with experience under my belt and actually know what's going on!

Tainan & Kaohsiung

This past weekend was our first break from school and some coworkers and I decided to hop on a train south to explore Tainan and Kaohsiung. Tainan was the former capital of Taiwan and had a lot of cool temples and old Dutch forts to see. Then we took a day trip by train to Kaohsiung, only an hour away. Kaohsiung was equally cool and we rented bikes to see the city all day. Both places are on the ocean which was pretty cool to see because it's been a while since I've seen the ocean!

Our time in Tainan and Kaohsiung was very fun and a much needed break from school. It also made me feel like travel in Taiwan is going to be very easy from now on because this past weekend I really got the hang of it!

Sunset on a beach in Kaohsiung

Looking over Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

The travelers were thirsty....

Temple in Tainan

Ceiling of a temple in Tainan

Garden outside a temple in Tainan

We Made it (to Fall Break)

Well, It's been two full months of teaching the kiddos and we finally made it to our first vacation of the year. The students were dismissed yesterday, Friday, and will not return to school until 6 p.m. on Tuesday. I cannot even imagine what it will feel like not seeing the students every day. Somehow I don't think that four days away from them will make me miss them however!

Now that fall break has arrived, I feel like it's all downhill from him (until March or so at least). When we come back from break I teach two weeks (only one full since it's only Wednesday through Friday) and then the third week I'm taking four 7th graders to China for a Math Olympiad contest on Thursday and Friday. Then it's only four weeks until Christmas break!

So since this is our first real break of the year, some of the other teachers and I decided we wanted to get the heck out of dodge. We're hopping on a train in an hour or so to Tainan to spend the long weekend. It's the old capital of Taiwan and supposedly has some pretty cool stuff to see so look forward to some pictures next week!

Watch me Scoot!

Tonight I drove a scooter on the streets of Taichung for the very first time. It was both exhilarating and sort of terrifying at the same time. We went at a time when there was not a lot of traffic, which helped, but there were still plenty of cars and other scooters...and large buses and trucks, to watch out for. I felt like I was in a video game of some sort except I clearly knew it was not a game and I only had one life.

Overall, it was probably the most fun I've had in a long time. I can't wait to get back on a scooter and do it again. Good thing this weekend we are going to Taroko Gorge where we will be renting scooters and driving them all weekend! Good thing I got a little practice in tonight...

Parents Day

Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and grandparents will be flooding into the school starting at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow morning; it is the first Parents Day of the school year and I have no idea what to expect!

The day starts with a presentation for parents in the auditorium. I have no idea what will be discussed in this presentation but I have been warned that all teachers will be introduced so it's best to smile and try to look nice. Then from 10:30 to 12:30 the parents are free to roam about the school visiting teachers. I have also been informed that parents generally want to speak to math and English teachers the most since they seem to consider these the two most important subjects for their children. Needless to say, I'm expecting a long line outside my door for those two hours.

Most of the parents will speak some English but I have also been told that some will not speak any English at all. I will have a translator in the room with me but I'm thinking that will be a little awkward because we make the students whose parents don't show do the translating. I'm guessing that it will be a little uncomfortable at times because no one wants to tell their friends parents that their friend has a horrible attitude in class and never turns in their homework! I'm just grateful that most of my students are awesome so I don't anticipate too many awkward conversations.

I'm a little nervous to meet my first batch of parents but I hear from other teachers that parents at our school tend to be very supportive of teachers. What I'm really not looking forward to is loosing my entire weekend since I taught this morning (Saturday) for three hours and will spend my entire Sunday with students and parents. Then it's back to school right away on Monday!

It will all be worth it however because students get dismissed at 1 p.m. for a long weekend on Friday this week. That means no Saturday classes next weekend, only 4 full days of school this week, and a nice (and much needed) long weekend for us teachers too! I can hardly wait, now I just have to figure out how to act professional and like a real teacher for the parents tomorrow...

KTV For Life!

This past weekend, I discovered one of the many finer points of Taiwanese culture: KTV. You may be wondering, what is KTV? Let me explain: it's a better version of Karaoke. There are KTV's all across Taiwan in which basically you rent a private room and get full control of a karaoke machine just for your own private group. You rent the room for 3 hours and it includes food in buffet form outside.

I'm waiting for this idea to catch on in the States because frankly, it's genius. Even the most timid of your group will get up and sing at least one ballad because you can bring your own liquor in with you (a standard in almost all of Taiwan) and there is no one in the room to laugh at you but your own friends, so why not?! There is also the added bonus of eliminating the uncomfortably long stretches one must go at a regular Karaoke bar in which strangers try to Mariah Carey the mic.

Yes, this is my friend Kate and I singing Mariah Carey, "Hero." I Mariah Carey'd the mic this time.

I Love Socialized Health Care

For everyone out there thinking that socialized health care would be a disaster in America, I suggest you get sick in a country that HAS socialized health care and get back to me.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat and was sort of fatigued. No big deal, I thought it was a cold so I proceeded with my day as usual. By noon I was fairly convinced this was no common cold. I then spent the night alternating between bone shaking chills and awesome clammy hot spells. Needless to say, I woke up this morning feeling less than stellar. To spare you the nasty details, I'll just say that upon checking my throat with a flashlight, I was fairly certain I had strep throat.

After finding subs for my four classes and writing out sub notes in my classroom at 6:30 a.m. (one of the true benefits of living one flight of stairs below your classroom), I started inquiring about seeing a doctor possibly. Now I don't have my ARC card yet, basically the only thing I need to get the full benefits of socialized health care, so I was a little concerned that this would be a long and expensive process.

Kathy, the pseudo mother figure for all the staff here, and I left the school at 10:00 a.m. to go to the doctor. When we walked in, Kathy handed the girl working the counter her health card and gave her a wink and I was in. I was seen by a doctor with no appointment in less than ten minutes and had antibiotics in my hand in another ten. We were back at the school by 11:00 a.m. The best part about it was that I paid 100 NT for the visit and 250 NT for the drugs. In U.S. dollars, that's about $10.

Needless to say, I love socialized health care. In my opinion, there is no better invention in the world...besides antibiotics of course! I'm so glad I chose to come to a country that has socialized health care- it makes like easier and strep throats better quickly.

Prost!

The first time I ever truly celebrated Oktoberfest, with traditional food and dress instead of the ridiculous La Crosse version, I was in Asia. That's right, last night we celebrated in true German fashion at the apartment of my department chair and his wife, the social studies department chair. We had really good German food (can't beat sauerkraut while in Asia!), good keg beer, and good company for the night. All in all, an awesome way to spend my one free night a week!

This IS My Life

Today I had a moment during first hour when I stopped what I was doing, took a look around, and thought, "huh. This really is my real life now, isn't it?" It was the second test for geometry today and the new car smell of the year has worn off already. Things are running like normal in Ms. Pint's classroom and I realized today just how weird that is.

First of all, it's weird because I'm starting to feel like an actual teacher and not like I'm student teaching still. I don't know when I'll get used to this feeling, but for right now it's pretty cool.

Second of all, it's weird because I'm teaching in Asia and that feels normal now too. During the first few weeks of school, I couldn't stop thinking about how weird it was that I was teaching in Taiwan; clearly I signed up to do this but it's one of those things that doesn't hit you until you get there. For the past week or so though, it's odd because I haven't been thinking about that at all. It hit me today that I have gotten used to this new norm in my life. Weird because it's totally opposite from the "normal" I used to know.

I can only imagine the culture shock I will experience when I go back and try to teach American students after this...

Out on my Own (for like 30 minutes)

Today was the first day that I left campus totally by myself. I got a taxi, told him where to go (well, gave him a sheet of paper that said the address of where I wanted to go in Chinese), and figured things out on my own once there. It was a rather thrilling experience; I feel like a real adult again, one who can make their own decisions and get to places on their own.

I don't often want to pay the $100 NT each way to get to my local grocery store alone, but once in a while it is nice to go be by myself for a while out on the streets of Taichung. What will be even better is when I get a scooter of my own. It shouldn't be too much longer until I get my ARC card (basically like my green card for Taiwan) which is the only thing stopping me from getting one right now. So hopefully, soon I will be able to scoot away from campus whenever I want to which will totally rock my world!

Until then I'm ok with the cab drivers because they can understand my horrible chinese directions well enough (I make my students tell me how to say things which is pretty surprising that they haven't misinformed me yet as a cruel joke).

What? You can't understand that I'm saying "right"? It's cool, I'll just point in that direction because that is universal. You're awesome taxi driver man, I'm so glad you're playing the Ke$ha CD right now...(true story)

My Students Are Calculators

Over the past few weeks, I've come to the slow realization that my students are calculators. Not in a good way (how are we going to divide up this bill equally?), but in a terrible way (you can't do this problem because it's not worded exactly like the last one I did?). They have been programmed to simply plug-and-chug in math class for their entire mathematical careers. This tends to be a large issue when it comes to problem solving skills and logic in mathematics.

On one hand, it makes tests very easy for these kids- that is IF they understand the directions first. On the other hand however, it makes them utterly helpless when it comes to solving a problem they have never seen before. They not only lack creativity when solving problems, but also a general understanding of what they should try to do if they get stuck.

It makes it very frustrating as a teacher because I don't know how to undo fourteen years of black and white instruction and introduce a little grey area in their math worlds.

New Shoes and a Korean Boy Band

This weekend was fairly epic as far as my life in Asia goes. It started out normal enough, class with a bunch of eleventh grade students who did not want to learn anything (or be quiet) on a Saturday morning. But things picked up significantly after that.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, I boarded a bus with ten students and our Dean of Faculty to go to Taipei for the evening. Having never been to Taipei, I was pretty excited to go, but that's not the real reason I signed up to chaperone this particular trip. That evening, we had tickets to see a Korean boy band in concert and I was more than willing to accompany our students there. Not only do I have an unnatural love for boy bands in general (I did see Hanson in 2008, long after they released Mmm Bop), but I figured it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I couldn't pass up. We all went to Taipei 101, the giant building in Taipei that was at one time the tallest building in the world (seen below), and then all went to the concert together. And the concert delivered like Dominos!

Each song had Korean verses but an English chorus and it was hilarious. One song literally was "Let's get crazy! Let's get crazy! You're so hasty! Let's get crazy!" It made me smile to say the least.

As if a Korean boy band wasn't enough of an excitement for the weekend, two of the other new teachers and I went shoe shopping this afternoon. I was very excited to find out that although my feet are pretty huge by Asian standards, some stores still carry shoes made for bigfoot Americans (you can see the fruits of my labor below).

All in all, a solid weekend, now I just have to figure out what I'm going to teach tomorrow!

New Lunch Table

Today was the second day of our new seating assignments at lunch and dinner. And it is AWESOME. My table before was composed of primarily boys who a) didn't particularly care for my forced English conversations and b) couldn't speak English at all. I basically just sat there and listened to them speak Chinese for thirty minutes each day.

My new table is all girls and already by the second day we have been trash talking the other teachers (in jest of course), talking about our favorite boy bands, and been touching on the subject of how to talk to the boys we may or may not have huge crushes on. Needless to say, I now metaphorically skip to lunch whereas before you just about had to drag me there. I mean, who doesn't like to go eat at a table where you are unconditionally loved?

As if that wasn't enough of a day-maker right there, I also found out that I will be attending a Korean pop boy-band concert this Saturday with a handful of students and our Dean of Faculty in Taipei. It's like god looked down upon me and smiled today.

Moon Festival

Today is the Moon Festival. I don't exactly know what this means, however we did get to have a bonfire outside and see some pretty awesome fireworks. The three marshmallows I had roasted over a Taiwanese fire were some of the best marshmallows I've ever had- probably because I had just spent two hours in the library with students so just about anything would have tasted good.

The best part about tonight though were the fireworks. Now I've seen fireworks before, but these were awesome. All of the students and teachers (those who were here for the night) sat on one side of our track and the secretaries and cooks were on the other side of the track lighting them off. Needless to say, we got a good look at them. We were close enough that one of the students got burned apparently.

My first great Moon Festival!

Water Polo and Typhoons

Today was an epic Sunday. I woke to the sounds of wind whipping through the Taiwanese trees. A typhoon was passing over Taiwan and the wind was howling through the school. When all was said and done however, it was smaller and less severe than what we initially thought so all is well now.

This afternoon, while the typhoon raged outside, we had our first house competitions of the school year. See, my life is basically a real world Harry Potter tale now because at our boarding school we have points, house competitions, and prefects just like Harry Potter. So today we all went into the indoor swimming pool and played water polo- house against house. There are 8 houses total and I am part of the 8th house which was new this year; we named ourselves the House of Archimedes and we have an owl as our mascot. Unfortunately, the House of Archimedes is not so talented in water polo.

Although we lost both of our games very quickly, it was still fun. The most entertaining part about it was that I got to stand on the edge of the pool and watch all of my students try their best to be athletic in a pool. It was hilarious for the most part because there are some very uncoordinated students in this school!

Everything was going great until a couple of my students got the great idea to push Ms. Pint in the pool. They never succeeded but I did spend a lot of time hugging the wall in the pool. Hopefully our next house competition will be on dry land!

You Know you Live in Asia When...

You know you live in Asia when certain things happen in your day. Yesterday was actually quite full of those moments and at the end of the day, I just shook my head and muttered to myself, "I really do live in Asia, don't I?"

Yesterday started off like a normal day. I mean, you know you're in Asia when you teach Asian students all day long, but that's just the norm now. And of course in the afternoon when the headmaster set off the fire alarms because he was trying to exterminate some ants on the third floor, I felt as if I was in Asia. Not because Asia is the only place in the world that has fire drills, but the simple fact that as we were standing outside for half an hour I literally sweated through my shirt and parts of my pants because it was so hot at 2 p.m. on the track.

I really started to realize my geographic location when I had to officiate the badminton match last night though. When you're in a gym filled with Asian students playing hardcore badminton, you know you're in Asia. It made me laugh a little bit but then they were taking it so seriously that I had to really watch the lines and foot faults.

As if the sporting event of the night was not enough, I knew for sure I was in Asia when I ran up to my classroom at 9 p.m. to find a surprise. I had just opened my door when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye; I've found cockroaches in the school before so I thought it might be another one. This time however, it was the worlds smallest gecko. I wanted to ask him if I could get cheap car insurance, and then I remembered they probably don't have Geico in Taiwan.

Good Times on the Weekend

This past weekend was a pretty good time in Taichung. Of course, every Friday night we go to Family Mart and drink cheap beer on the patio. What made last Friday awesome in particular was the fact that a new pizza place opened up in Taichung and one of the teachers stopped there before coming so we all got to eat real pizza. Even though I've only been gone about three weeks now, it was still amazing to eat pizza!

Saturday I had to teach in the morning and unfortunately, my first class of the day was really bad for me that day. First they wouldn't settle down then they turned into zombies who didn't want to do anything. So that was a struggle to get through, especially since classes are an hour and fifteen minutes on Saturday. Luckily though, my second class that day was much better which left me in a better mood for the rest of the weekend.

That afternoon I also made my first trip to the Jade Market. It was everything you expect out of a Taiwanese bazar-type market; lots of Jade, lots of random souvenir stuff, and lots of jewelry. I obviously didn't walk away empty-handed; a strand of real pearls cost me about 100 NT (roughly $3.50). We finished up Saturday celebrating a co-workers birthday at a Greek restaurant which had super delicious gyros and fries. A nice way to spend a Saturday evening if you ask me!

All in all, this last weekend gave me a good break from the students and now I'm all set for another week! Monday's already over for me so this week is all downhill from here.

Best Sign in Asia

This is possibly my favorite billboard in Taichung. If you can't quite read what it says, allow me "even the biggest of birds can fit in our pants".

What exactly do they mean with this?

First Full Week Teaching The Kiddos

It is Friday afternoon during 8th period as I type this. I have a prep this hour so I figured I'd procrastinate a little more from lesson planning for next week by writing a new post on my blog-lucky you!

After my first full week teaching at ICA, I know that I'm going to like it here. All of the staff is super helpful and nice so I never feel dumb asking questions or seeking advice from anyone. Everyone also gets along really well so I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them better in the coming year.

I have also decided that I'm going to really like teaching this particular batch of students. First of all, the rumors are not true- Asian students don't just sit quietly in their desks waiting for the teacher to teach! They are just as loud and out of control as American students but the difference is that when you tell them to be quiet or to stop monkeying around, they actually listen (for the most part). I'm getting to know all of my classes better which makes teaching all of them much more fun! I know that this is the "honeymoon" period and that it will inevitably end, but I'm enjoying it for the moment.

The biggest challenges I have are my 7th and 11th graders. In general my 7th graders are awesome, but I have an uphill battle ahead of me with one boy in particular. I don't know for sure, but I'm fairly certain he is autistic. If he were in the U.S. education system, he would definitely have an IEP and be pulled out for some classes or have an aid with him. My struggle with him is that I have to educate not only him, but the other six students in the room as well. It sounds a little silly to complain about a class of seven students (an unheard of number for American public schools), but I also have no help or resources at my disposal for working with an autistic child. My goal for next week is to try to figure out where he is in math ability compared to the other students. So that will be interesting to say the least!

My 11th graders are what you would expect out of high school juniors. At ICA, each grade is separated into classes of A, B, C and D. The A's are the best in their English skills as well as their math skills. As you can guess, the D's are the worst in both areas and my last class of the day is the 11D class. Again, there are only six of them so you would think I would be able to control them no problem, right? Wrong! They are all over the place each class period that I still have no idea where exactly they stand in their math skills. I do know however that they are all really good friends and love to speak Chinese in class even though they are NOT supposed to. They will be an entirely different type of challenge than my one 7th grade boy, but a challenge all the same.

After a long and tiring week of trying to be a real teacher though, I still want to pick back up where we left off next week and try again-a pretty good sign I think. Now if you'll excuse me, I have yoga to attend then some cold beers are waiting for me at Family Mart tonight. Cheers!

Pictures from my life in Asia

I know I've been very bad at posting pictures, so here's a large batch of them:

Today was payday, so here is my very first payment as a real professional (and yes, those are all $1,000 bills of Taiwanese money)

These are the graves you see all around the school. They're right on the side of the road but you're not supposed to take pictures of them because the Taiwanese people strongly believe in ghosts and a picture of a grave means that ghost stays with you then. Whoops.
No one in Taiwan checks their blind spots or slows down when driving on the narrow roads so you see these mirrors everywhere on tight corners.
This is a view from the road I run/walk on every day. The green spire you see is the school.
This is another section of the road I run/walk on every day. The big grey building you see in the background is the Buddhist Hospital right by school that I will ever be taken to if I fall ill.
This is in the town by Sun Moon Lake- definitely an Asian street.
Two shots of Sun Moon Lake- the pictures do not do it justice because it is beautiful there.

My First Week OVER (how many more to go?)

My first week teaching at ICA is over and needless to say, I am a little exhausted! It wasn't even a full week (we only had classes on Thursday, Friday, and half day of Saturday like usual) but it taught me a lot already.

The first big mistake I made was underestimating my students, which I can't believe I did because I've been told not to do that by countless education professors. I sort of fell into the mindset of "they can't speak English very well, so it's going to be very hard to communicate" thus I thought their math skills were going to be equally lacking. Wrong.

Truth is it IS a little challenging to communicate, there are definitely times when I ask a question and no one has any idea what I'm asking of them, but math is the universal language. My first few days of class I was totally underprepared and didn't plan enough because I thought it would take way longer for them to get through the material they did. As I said, even though the English was shaky at times (and by that I mean about half the time at least) they knew exactly what they were talking about when it came to the mathematics at hand.

So today is Sunday, my one totally free day all week, and I need to spend it all lesson planning because now I know a little better how to handle my classes. I definitely have also learned what to expect out of them which will make planning much easier.

Tomorrow is Monday which is a downer because it's the beginning of my first full week of five and a half days of teaching, but I'm also going to make it rain tomorrow because it's payday! And since I don't have a Taiwanese bank account set up for me yet, I'll be getting roughly $90,000 in cash tomorrow! I'm rich! (Ok, so it is going to be Taiwanese dollars, not U.S., but it's still going to be awesome having that many bills in my hands all at once...you can expect a picture of it tomorrow)

I'm off to lesson plan my day away!

Teaching in Taiwan

After only two days with the students, I can tell that this year is going to be full of lots of things. For one thing, this year is going to be very full of stress as I try to adapt to a new style of teaching (these kids can't speak English? No one told me that!), a new style of school (private, international, and somewhat disorganized at all times yet still functional somehow), and a new style of life (living with my students? who thought this one up?)

I know that I'm going to have to change not only my teaching style, but also my general attitude towards planning. I've been told by almost every teacher here thus far that I shouldn't plan too far ahead because the students will amaze you with what they do and don't know. So it is Wednesday night, tomorrow is the first day of classes, and I am only planned out with detailed lesson plans till Tuesday of next week; a ridiculously small amount of time compared to how far out my detailed plans normally stretch. So I guess you could say I'm just rolling with the punches as of right now- a pretty new concept for me.

However stressful this year is going to be, I can also tell that it is going to be so much fun at the same time. I really like the community of teachers working at ICA and I've only known them for a week. Everyone has a great work ethic, an easy-going personality, and still knows how to have fun when we get just a little time away from the kiddos. I also am starting to feel more comfortable living with 170-some Asian students. It was a little awkward at first (it is only day 2 with them here) but I can tell I will really like working with them all year.

Will it be challenging when they don't understand anything I said to them about parallel lines for an entire class period? Absolutely. Will I be tired at the end of a long day and just want to go to a home OFF campus sometimes? Of course. At meals, would I like to sit by friends and not a randomly assigned group of students? Clearly (but that's not changing anytime soon so it looks like Jerry, Tim, Peter and Howard are my lunch buddies till the end of the year).

In the end though, I think I'll look back at my first year teaching internationally and be very happy with my choice to do so.

My First Classroom

Today I had the pleasure of setting up my very first classroom (see pictures below). There was a water problem so I got a new floor on half of the room. However nice this new floor may be, it also made things really dusty in my room. So my afternoon was filled with taking down old stuff on the walls and cleaning stuff off.

I'm very pleased with how everything looks when all is said and done though. I have a nice big space and very nice class sizes (I'm told the biggest class I will have is 15 students). What I'm very excited for is tomorrow because finally we meet as a department so I can get some much needed questions answered!

Thus begins the Process

After being here only two full days (today is my third full day and it is only 11 a.m. as I type this), I feel incredibly adjusted already. The jet lag is still kind of an issue because every night so far I have hit about 5 p.m. and been VERY ready for bed. However, I've been fighting it by staying up until at least 10 p.m. so it's getting better.

My first impressions of Taichung are very positive. The city is large and of course, Asian in nature, but I like it thus far. The teachers who have lived here before have been showing us new kids around and Taichung even has a Little Europe section where you can go to bars that look a little like those in the States. I've made a trip to the French equivalent of Walmart (Carefour) and could even find somewhat regular things there. Of course there were some not-so-regular things there as well, but who really cares about that!

The school is starting to feel more and more comfortable to me as well. Both in living and working here I think I'l be very happy. Today is only the second day of meetings so I haven't even had a chance to sit down with my department head yet and really plan but I know that I'll get there, I just have to be patient. As of right now it's just policies and procedures but the fun stuff is coming.

They're working on my classroom right now (new floor because the ceiling leaked over the summer...so perhaps a patch in the roof too???) but soon I'll get in there and start organizing and setting up. I'll post a picture as soon as that happens!

Finally in Asia!

Well, I made it. I thought I wouldn't there for a while, but 24 hours of continuous travel and one really crappy night of sleep later, I write to you from Taichung, Taiwan. I had a little scare there for a moment just now because when I opened up my blog, everything but my own posts was in Mandarin. Luckily, I found a backdoor into "Taiwan or Bust" and can still write to you from Asia.

Sunday/Monday was a very long few days for me seeing as how I spent the entirety of them both in airports and flying. I don't have much to complain about though because almost everything went really well. We got into Taipei around 10 p.m. on Monday and still had to take an hour and a half bus ride to Taichung. As soon as we pulled into the city, it was pouring which made it difficult to get all of my bags to the school safely.

Once here though, I was greeted by many of my co-workers and a boss(I think?) which was really nice. They helped me settle into my room and today we have a few meetings and some orientation to get out of the way.

Thus far, everything has gone very well so stay tuned for the inevitable issues I'll have at some point in time!

Here are some pictures I took of my apartment:

This is the second room that I have. It is attached to both the hallway and my bathroom for fire safety purposes. As you can see I have a couch, tv, kitchenette, and around the corner where you can't see is a fridge/freezer and a hotplate.

This is the view from my bathroom window. I believe it is the traditional Taiwanese school we share some grounds with.

This is my bathroom. Don't worry, I have three faucets, three showers, and three toilets in case I break one or just want to rotate.

My bedroom finally. Most teachers push their two twin beds together to create a King so I thought I'd do the same. That door you see is the one that leads into my bathroom. Also, all of those closets are mine, plus one you can't see because it's behind the camera. I may not have enough space...

Eve of Departure

Tomorrow is the day I leave. I had dinner with my sisters, grandparents, and of course parents tonight. Pork and dumplings for the last meal which is appropriately Czech.

I have all three bags packed and I'm crossing my fingers that none of them are over 50 lbs. But I guess we won't know until tomorrow at MSP. The next post I have time to write will come to you from Taiwan. Wish me luck!

Countdown to D-Day: 0 days.

I Hate Goodbyes....

Today is Thursday, three days before I leave. I still cannot wrap my head around the concept of moving to Asia yet but I obviously know it's coming (and quickly).

In this last week, I've been trying to fit a lot of things in that I'll surely miss while living on a different continent; a pseudo bucket-list but without the inevitable death at the end. I've been playing with my dog a lot, enjoying the sights, sounds, and smells of my house, and partaking in some last minutes activities. Like yesterday when my brother, Mike, and I spent the whole day at the zoo. It was awesome because I forgot how much I enjoy animals and I got Dippin' Dots out of the deal...and it was fun to act like a kid again.

After the fun we had at the zoo however, it was time to say goodbye to my one and only brother. It was odd because I'll be back for Christmas so it feels weird to make a dramatic event of it. With that in mind however, it's still really sad/confusing to watch him drive away and know that the next time I see him, there will be snow on the ground in Minnesota and I'll be four months into my year-long contract in Taiwan.

How much is going to change in that time? My guess: a lot.

Count down to D-Day: 3 days

I can drive in Taiwan...maybe

Today I got my international drivers license; it took about 5 minutes and only cost $15 at AAA. Who knew that it was that easy to get a document saying you can drive in any country you want??? (With a few exceptions I'm told)

Count down to D-Day: 6 days

One week till D-Day

As I type this, I am sitting on my front porch in Jordan, MN, USA. It is Saturday, August 14th and I leave a week from tomorrow. I have recently purchased 2 large suitcases from Macy's, shipped five flat-rate boxes from the Post Office, and have made countless trips to Target already. All in preparation for what I hope to be an amazing first-year teaching experience.

With only a week left in the States, all there is left to do is pack and repack my bags over and over again and, I guess, see family and friends for the last time- till Christmas break that is, I'm not dying.

I don't think Asia knows what's about to hit them!