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)