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...

Algebra 2 Activity Epic Success!

I have always been the type of teacher who likes to do hands-on activities. It breaks up the monotony of math lectures (yes, this math teacher admits it can get a whee bit boring) and allows for a lot of students to get involved who don't normally. I especially like discovery based learning when it comes to the younger grades because it tends to help them connect the concepts more than just examples.

This entire year I have been resisting doing too many activities of this nature with one class in particular however. I have a class of tenth graders who are all very bright, fairly motivated, and well behaved....when you lecture at them. The few activities I tried with them in the beginning of the year were a disaster! Such great little children turned into terrible angry monsters the moment I released them from their assigned seats. I try not to revisit those days in my mind, gives me shivers.

I was getting a little spring fever while planning last week though, and wanted to try an activity with them again. Why not? How bad could it be, again? We are studying exponential growth and decay and I found a cool activity in the textbook of all places involving pennies. You start with one hundred in a cup or dish. You spill all of them out on the desk and remove all of the pennies facing heads-up. After taking away the evil heads-up pennies, count what you have left. Repeat this process until you are down to one. The theory behind this is that half of the pennies should be removed each time you spill them out onto the desk. Hence, following an exponential decay model where you have a rate of 50% and a starting amount of 100. Simple enough.

So like any ambitious/perhaps stupid second-year teacher, I typed up a worksheet and went about harassing coworkers to donate to my educational fund. And to my total shock, it was what I would call an epic success in class today! I have never heard them so quiet and focused when doing an activity like this. They completed the steps and dutifully started on the critical thinking questions on the backside of the worksheet. What I'm very impressed with is the fact that they used their partners to figure it out, not automatically ask me on each step. It was honestly so great, I don't think I can accurately convey it through this blog. Great teaching moment for me!

Needless to say, I will maybe try a few more hands-on activities with that class before the end of the year!

I also like these sorts of activities because some of my students physically go
nuts sitting in a desk all day. Sure! Lay on the floor and count! Why not?!

  

Beijing with the Sisters

Well, I've been a little late on this update due to a busy week back at school, but Beijing with the sisters was a TOTAL success! I had my expectations of a good trip with maybe some stumbling blocks here and there, but I really can't say we even had even the slightest slip-up.

Ok ok, that's a little bit of a lie, we did have some issues getting to our hotel the night of our arrival. We have come to the conclusion after the fact that we ended up with a driver who was illiterate. The hotel sent me detailed, step by step directions in Chinese for a driver from the airport which he couldn't follow. So near the end of our trip, he parked the car on a corner, got out, and proceeded to ask a small schoolgirl how to get to our hotel. Pink backpack, pigtails, the whole works; she was probably 9. Eventually we made it, but it was funny to say the least.

And I guess there was my departure which was a little too close for comfort. I had a flight leaving from the Beijing Airport at 8 p.m. the night before the sisters left. I knew I wanted to get there at about 6 p.m. thus wanted to leave the hotel via taxi at about 5:15. Well, we got to drinking beers on an awesome rooftop bar in between the Drum and Bell Towers and misjudged the time it would take us to get back. Because at about 4:50 we were racing down the street to get to our hotel from the metro stop and my bag was completely unpacked still. When I opened it up in Taiwan again, my things were literally in ball form from my rushed packing. However, I did make it to the airport in plenty of time, so I can't really complain.

So like I said, minor minor travel blunders but nothing to really tarnish my memories of the trip. All in all, I had a wonderful time in Beijing, and more importantly a wonderful time with my sisters. We saw the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, the Temple of Heaven, and just about everything else. We had Peking Duck (YUM!) and other traditional dishes. Melissa kept us on track the whole time so we utilized every second of every day to the fullest, hence we went to bed at 9 p.m. every night! It is a trip I will not soon forget, Beijing is really a great city and it was a really amazing time I got to spend with my sisters.

Temple of Heaven

Tina on the Great Wall

Melissa in front of the Forbidden City and right across the street from Tiananmen Square (hence the picture of Mao...)

Great Wall of China

Pint Girls at the Forbidden City

Tainan Trip A Success

After about 28 hours in Tainan, we are off to China tomorrow to see the Great Wall and Mao. So before we head off to the land of restricted internet (so thankful I live in Taiwan), I figured I'd share some pictures of us in Tainan.

We told Tina, "Go put your hand in that hole in the tree" and she did it. Had to take a picture.

Big night market in downtown Tainan.

A Few Short Pictures Before Tainan...

This morning we're heading off to Tainan, so I figured I'd post a few pictures before we left. The sisters and I are enjoying the vacation thus far, so I'll keep you updated!

The Sister's enjoyed the soft-shell crab at the Vietnamese restaurant on Friday night!

The big golden Budda near our house.

Seesters on their Way!

Well, it's official: my sisters are somewhere in the air between Los Angeles and Taipei! I have waited patiently, and now that the time is here, I am getting very nervous! I'm obviously excited to see them too, but I'm really starting to wonder how they'll like Taiwan and how well Tina will sleep (my guess, not well!). It's just a little pressure hosting your only two sisters!

Thus far the schedule is pretty set, and since I don't think I'll get a chance to update my blog while they're here, I'll outline our trip right now. Tonight, Thursday, they land in Taipei at 8:30 and I will meet them and bring them back down to Taichung. Tomorrow they will come to school with me for our half day before the start of spring break; they get to meet all of my little darlings and even get to play SAT Math Jeopardy with 10th graders. Friday night a bunch of coworkers and I will take the sisters to our favorite Vietnamese seafood restaurant for some Taiwan Beer and deep fried soft-shell crap (um, YUM!).

Saturday will bring lots of goodies, especially for Melissa! We're going to hit two pearl/jade markets and then dinner somewhere that night- perhaps up the mountains at a place we refer to as the "Mushroom Palace." Then Sunday we take off for Tainan, a smaller city South of Taichung about 35 minutes by high speed rail. We'll spend the night, return to Taichung on Monday, and fly out to Beijing on Tuesday!

Now I can't give you an itinerary on Beijing because I'm not going to be planning anything once we're in China: I had to plan all of the Taiwan stuff! So we will see what those days bring, but I'm sure we'll see the Great Wall, The Forbidden Palace, and Mao (his body is perserved for viewing...).

If I can, I'll try to post some pictures before we leave Taiwan on Tuesday, but that will depend on how busy the seesters keep me! Wish us/me luck!

What I Love and Will Miss about our Students

There is no doubt that Asian students have more of an aptitude for mathematics. I think it has more to do with their schooling from a young age rather than genetics, but that's just my opinion. Either way, most of my students are ahead of their American counterparts as far as age groups go. One special group of students that makes this fact very obvious is the math olympiad team, whom I have worked with for two years now. They are 8th graders who can do more math than most college freshmen in the States.

It's an understatement to say I will miss them, for obvious and multiple reasons, but I will specifically really miss their intrinsic motivation to do math of all things. Just now the bell rang to release students from their last hour of the day to go to their dorms to change for activity. Michael, one of my math olympiads from the fall, came right over from art class (next door) only moments after the ringing of the bell left my ears. His purpose? "Do you have any hard math questions for me, Teacher?"

He does this from time to time; I don't teach him and never have, I just coached him in math olympiad in the fall of both of my years here. He just simply loves math so he comes and visits me sometimes. I don't have normal math problems just laying around my classroom, so I generally give him SAT math prep tests. And you know what, he does well on them. I love these kids' natural math ability!

Now we'll just see how he does with the special right triangles SAT sheet I just gave him!

They Can't Deny It, The Students Actually Like Math!

We've been working on our all school math competition , Math Wars, since early November and it has been an uphill battle. Entire prep periods devoted to a saturday in which we would put in basically volunteer hours just to have this event. Countless night trips to hardware stores and dollar stores gathering supplies. And of course, the ever constant battle with administration to get exactly what you need to make it happen. Needless to say, we were all really hoping it was be good in the end.

Lucky for us, our hard work paid off in full: Math Wars was a shining success! I knew it would be good when I started with an all school presentation in the auditorium at 1:30 yesterday. The students filed in just like any other day, but when I started talking they were really listening. I don't mean the sort of teenage half-listen and half continue talking with your friends, I mean actually listening. I explained the day to them: five different rooms that they could choose to be in focusing on different applications of math. We had the visual room, the vocabulary room, the construction room, logic room and finally the challenge room. It was up to them which room they wanted to compete in and I think that made a big difference for a lot of students.

I was in charge of the challenge room- "only for the serious mathematicians." As all of the students in the challenge room filed in and sat down at their tables in the cafeteria, I could tell there was definite excitement building. I explained the rules and the process of the day, and then went on to detail the opening activity. Now the opening activity was the only one that was a direct competition for the entire event. Each team had to use two containers, one with 3 units of water marked and the other with 5 units, and pour exactly 4 units of water into my cup which was also marked. As I finished explaining and took one last pause, I literally saw students sitting on the edge of their seats. So I just said "Go!" and I have never seen some of these kids move so fast!

It was really just as intense for the rest of the time; each house (team) was working on what they wanted because we provided them with five or six other challenge problems that they could choose from to try and gain points. Again, I have never seen some of these kids work so hard! I even saw some shaking hands and that is not an exaggeration!

The best part about it was that I was hearing the exact same thing from other teachers in the other four rooms. It seems like all of the students enjoyed their time and really got competitive about it. We had kids getting really pumped about the results which we are refusing to release until Monday at assembly. Little did they know they would like a math competition so much! :)

On the Eve of Math Wars...

Well folks, tomorrow is the day. The day that my math department has been preparing for since November. The video (see previous post to have your mind blown) has been made, posters have been hung around school, and all supplies have been gathered. Tomorrow is Math Wars 2012 at school, an all school math competition!

I am so excited I cannot possibly begin to explain. On one hand, I'm just so curious to see how the students like it and if it is as epic of a success as I am imagining in my head (I think so!). On the other hand, I'm just really excited for it to be over so I can have all of my prep periods back! It's going to be very fun and a great accomplishment to have under my belt, but boy does it take a lot of work to organize an event for 180 kids!

It is Friday at noon and I just put the finishing touches on the trophy for Math Wars. Now we just have to wait and see which house brings home the gold! Stay tuned...

St. Patrick's Day in Asia

Very American holiday's are always interesting when celebrated in Taiwan. As one can imagine, the Taiwanese don't get overly excited about holiday's such as St. Patrick's day. Now we do a pretty good job at picking up the slack and making the best of it, but it's always difficult to get certain essentials.

For St. Patricks day this year, Nichole (my roommate) and I decided to have a little green gathering at our apartment. And since it was such a fun themed party, we wanted to get costumes to really take it to the next level. We go to a costume shop where you can rent full costumes for school a lot. So we drove over there and checked it out last Friday. Sadly enough, we couldn't find any full body leprechaun costumes there, but we got creative and still made the party a hit!

We didn't have any green food coloring to make themed appetizers, but we did get foods in the three main colors of the Irish flag (and of course positioned them in the order of the flag as well). So even though we live in Asia where pots of gold and four leaf clover decorations are impossible to find, we gave it the old American try and did our best with random stuff! It turned out pretty well too!

Math Wars

I have fallen behind, once again, but boy do I have something exciting to tell you! In the time that I left you last, lots has happened obviously. We had our advisees over for dinner at our apartment, had a Ladies Night (teachers only that time) out on the town, and have been doing lots of other little things. So my time has been clearly elsewhere, instead of blogging. But something is in the works right now that I can't help but tell you all about.

We are having an all school math competition in one and a half weeks! I know, exciting. So to build anticipation for the event, we showed a video at assembly. Let me just post the link to the YouTube video of it and I'll let you see for yourselves...it is EPIC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAOSEiq7-FQ&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy :)

Earthquake!...on the 10th Floor

It has been a miracle that this year there have been significantly less earthquakes than last year. Well, that miracle was shaken away on Sunday morning when our apartment building began to sway. Yes, you read that right, sway.

Earthquakes are scary enough to us Midwesterners because it is such a foreign and unnerving feeling. Last year they were scary; the building shakes and the contents of your shelfs start to rumble towards the edge. This year is oh-so-much worse living on the 10th floor of a high rise apartment complex. Now, I take comfort in thinking about how many regulations there must be on buildings as tall as ours (17 stories!), but I also worry that it could still fall. Obviously.

It is a very odd/terrifying sensation to realize that your entire apartment building is swaying back and forth because there is an earthquake. It sort of feels like when you go up into a tall fire-tower and it sways with the breeze. Except this is a huge concrete and steel structure...where you live. We checked later and it was actually a pretty big earthquake, 6.1 on the Richter Scale, but it was far away and deep in the earth. It still scared me enough to not want to experience any more while at home! Minnesota, when can I set my feet on your solid ground again???

The Joy's of Having a Mechanic Named Bruce

I am convinced that mechanics all over the world must all be alike. It takes a special type of person to get their hands dirty day after day and constantly fix machines that the rest of us try our bests to run into the ground. No matter the race, language, or time zone, a mechanic is a mechanic.

Which is exactly why I love my mechanic Bruce. First of all, his name is Bruce which is quite possibly the best mechanics name in all the land. Second, he is the stereotypical mechanic you would think of, but Asian. In a culture that is lacking in machoness, Bruce is all that is man. I know several male coworkers who love to go visit him just because they think he is a cool guy.

And most importantly, Bruce is a straight shooter and will not cheat you on parts or labor costs (since he doesn't charge anything labor, it would be pretty tough to!). I can go get my oil changed from Bruce (like I just did, hence the raving blog post you are reading) and he will tell me if my tires need to be changed or just pumped up with air. He will tell me I'm an idiot for waiting so long to get my oil changed and then he will tell me if I need to replace the brakes or not. Last time I did need to replace my brakes, and good old Bruce put in used ones to save me some money...which I hope is safe.

My favorite part about seeing Bruce for my oil change however, is the departure. I will generally smile and tell him thank you and all I get in response is a slight nod of the head and a somewhat dismissive hand wave. Mechanics are lovable, gruff characters. Even in Taiwan.

Volleyball Tournament Weekend

For the second year in a row, we have hosted the ACAMIS middle school volleyball tournament right here in Taichung. That was this weekend and since I had relatively nothing to do, I decided to drive on over and cheer for the kids. I teach quite a few of them and since it's a small school, I know almost all others.

The volleyball was fun to watch, but perhaps the best part about going there was our unexpected welcome. We walked into the gym while the girls team was warming up and the boys were sitting on the bleachers ready to watch them. One of them must have spotted us come in because they started waving and then when we waved back one of them jumped up, ran to meet us, and gave us high fives. And then the next one ran up, and the next one. We successively high-fived the entire middle school boys team and went to go sit down on the bleachers thinking they all ran past us because they had somewhere to be. Instead, they just filed back and returned to sit all around us. It was pretty adorable because they all jumped out of their seats solely because they were so excited to see us there, it really makes me glad I went!