We ate lots and lots of 'real' Chinese food - which, in this case, includes sprinkles and dressing on bamboo shoots. We also ate all parts of the animal, intestine, brain, hoof, and heart. Yum, yum. Actually - I was really craving Mexican food! Oh, but I did try a new fruit, Persimmons. So delicious - up there in my top three favorite fruits! However, they seem to only grow in the South of Taiwan, so I won't be able to indulge often. 

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Orchid

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Quite possibly my worst night's sleep...ever!

Number of hours lying in bed: 10
Number of hours asleep: 4
Number of hours reading Harry Potter: 1
Mosquitos Killed: 5
Trips to the Washroom: 3
Number of Penguins: 2
Number of times all my cds crashed to the floor, after I rolled over on my mosquito net: 1
Number of times I bemoaned my fate: 4

Culprit for this evening tally? A very silly decision to have a Taiwanese iced tea with my late dinner around 8:30pm. I didn't even think about it, because all the labelling is in Chinese. But it must have been pick-me-up caffiene or something! Stupid!

And the worst part was, yesterday I was getting the beginning of what looked to be a killer sinus cold. By 9pm, I was so tired, I could barely walk straight. But then I started to pack, the drink kicked in, and this morning I feel like I've been run over by a bus.

Now it's off to the hot springs for me. We leave in 45 minutes. I was hoping to have a really relaxing weekend, and it still could happen. I'm the only foreign teacher that has a Chinese roommate. When I heard that, I had a momentary flash of pride that they chose me because I am the most culturally sensitive, but was quickly shot down when I realized we were alphabethical (by our first name, as usual). So I've decided to take advantage of being alone and I'm making it an Advent retreat. I printed off lots of meditations from the internet, and all I'm taking is those, my Bible, and my spiritual journal. It was very hard to leave Harry Potter on the nightstand! I'm going to try to spend as much time quiet and alone as I can, although we have no idea what the schedule is for the weekend. They gave us an entire brochure with everything planned out, but no one had time to translate it for us. So we know when we leave and when we come back, and who our roommates are. Other than that - surprise!

Pictures should be on Sunday morning your time!

This was just before I left work at 9:30 pm tonight! It was a long day - we had to be at school at 7:45am for Grade 2 Christmas song practice. Thursdays are tough - but I got through it, and at the end I realized that I looked like a advertisement for Northern Reflections in my striped pj-like trousers, white embroidered blouse and new rose sweater. Now it's 11 and I can't wait to go to sleep. Just one more day to multi-task my way through before our weekend spa getaway, which I REALLY hope will be relaxing.  

This week a large part of my job has been to play postmaster. I make my job harder than it has to be - but still, it's fun. All the kids blew me away, they all brought in the cutest Christmas cards. So now, theres over 200 cards on their way to Indiana, from my Taipei kids, to Claire's Indiana kids. I hope they like them - the whole thing costs me about $40 each time! 

A Curl up in a Ball Day.

Today is cold and dreary - just the way I like it, I get to wear my coat. However, even with all of my planning ahead and 6 day work weeks, I'm still feeling a bit stressed this week. Christmas is such a huge deal at the school, it means more work for everyone. The Taiwanese teachers said they have come to dislike the holiday because it means to much extra work. Alas. I was feeling so tired and stressed by the end of the day that I was almost close to tears in my last class - grade 7 boys. I compensated by being tough - although I felt bad about that too, all their other teachers are iron-fisted! (Actually, Fu Hsing was in the news this week, because some of the grade 7 students complained that one of the English teachers (taiwanese, not foreigners) was beating them. See, corporeal punishment is accepted here, every teacher has some sort of stick they use daily - but I guess this teacher was accused of hitting 37 students too hard or too often. Either way - it was not good publicity for the school. I just thought it they are worried about the teachers at FuHsing being too strict, they could just come to one of our chalssrooms to see a very gentle discipline hand, indeed!)

Anyway, after my tiring day, I was not excited about having to go home for dinner just to go back to tutor for two hours. But I came home to a Christmas card from Kathy - which made my day much brighter. Now I still have to go tutor, but I know I should be thankful that I have all these extra jobs and am making so much more money than everyone else. Still all I want to do is take a nap.

Anyone have any suggesstions what I should do for Chinese New Year? I have about 10 days in which to travel - but it is by far the most expensive time of the year. Cheapest flights are to Bangkok for about $700 CND, and various other asian nations are about $1,000. Part of me thinks I should just go - it's my only vacation all year. But then maybe I should just save my money for when I can travel in Europe or something? If I go to some poor nation, it's cheap to travel but less relaxing, and I don't know if I should commit the money for the luxury hut on the beach I had envisioned. Suggestions? Anyone can think of a way to find cheap asian flights?

Sorry I haven't had time to put in proper blog entries this week - I think I'll put in some extra work time the next few days and hopefully have a relaxing weekend away at Sun Moon Lake.

Something uniquely Taipei- we see this piece of modern art from the bus often, and thought it was a cute back half of a zebra, stuck on a glass ladder. Odd. But then yesterday I walked by, and found out that it was a walk signal - which makes it even more fun! 

Time for a Penguin?

I don't have time to do a proper blog entry, soo...

Now a little treat for all of you who have known the great joy of a Penguin…or a whole package of Penguins!!! (For the uninitiated, Penguins are a kind of cookie, popular in Britain, and also, I have discovered, imported to Taiwan. Although the cookie itself is divine, one of the key attractions is the silly joke that is printed on the wrapping.)

Questions:
1. What did the fish say when it swam into the wall?
2. Why did the lobster blush?
3. Which bird is always out of breath?
4. Funny Fact #5: A Starfish can…


Answers:
1. Dam.
2. Because the sea weed.
3. A Puffin
4. Turn itself inside out.

Another Monday morning...Are you ready?

During my Saturday Class, some of my students were asking how long I would stay in Taiwan. Well, I started beating around the bush because I really don't know, and I asked them why. Well, turns out they want me to stay for three years, so I can teach them Advanced English until they graduate from this school! Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? It was the best affirmation that I am doing an okay job!

In other news, this whole blog thing is addictive. Now I have a regular route of blogs I visit daily, then add a post to my own. This is how it's supposed to be! So all of you who say your life is interesting enough to blog should just do it anyway - then I could read about your life everyday like you get to read about mine. It's only fair! Anyway, I'm going to add links to a few of my favorite ones on the sidebar, maybe tonight.

On one blog I found this handy little reference to the internet Death Clock, which is kind enough to take your information and give you your own personal date of death. A good reminder of the inevitability of our mortal bodies. My personal date of death? Monday, March 26, 2061. That is if I don't get run over by one of the crazy Taiwanese motorbikes!

Oh, and I don't think I put up my addresses on the site, like I had been meaning to. But now I think that's kind of a silly thing to do, seeing as this is a public site, and I don't exactly want people knocking on my door. So, if you want the correct address for sending my letters or packages, just email me.

Now it's time for me to get back to my Monday morning. So far, I've slept in until 7:20 (almost 9 hours sleep), got dressed, picked up a coffee, got to work pre 8am, read the paper and had my coffee for 15 minutes, checked email and blogs for 30 minutes, and am currently finishing my post at 9am. Still time to get all organized for my grade 5 class in an hour. Usually I'm all organized on Sunday night, but I determined that this weekend, starting with the half days on Thursday and Friday, would be one long weekend off - no weekend work (well, other than Saturday class and tutoring). So, now it's Monday, and I'm unorganized but well rested and ready to throw myself into the week.

Saturday Fun

So it's been quite a week. I gave all my students tests last weeks, and got them all graded early this week, so that's done till the end of the semester. I also finished my novel and have it printed off (after much stress!). Then Thursday and Friday we had two half-days, so on Thursday Carolyn and I went over to Taipai 101, the tallest building in the world. It's about 4 blocks from our apartment and I hadn't been there yet! It was quite the entertainment district, it felt like London or Los Angeles. We saw Alexander (bad movie - don't bother) and did a little shopping. The stores were all pretty expenisve, but I did get a lovely rose zip up sweater. The best part was that the Christmas decor was so over the top - they were blasting fake snow over the entrances, so when we came out it felt like it was snowing! And there was a three story tall reindeer. Then after a movie and shopping we went to Jillian and Amin's for the last few episodes of BBC's The Office. So enjoyable.

Then, as you can see, on Friday we had a half-day trip to a hot springs spa up in the mountains. It was luxiourious and I had a wonderful time. I came home so relaxed. Today I worked, and made more than enough money to relieve my guilt from my little splurge on Thursday. Its great to have $40 hour for my extra jobs - I'm lucky to have so much 'on the side' and to be still in the multitasking workmode that got me through my overcommitted university career.

Ah - and now I'm ready to celebrate Christmas. I made my own Nativity scene from Ikea pillow case, angels, toys and animals. THen I have two lights strings to make my room glow. The NaNoWriMo site suggests I put my novel aside for a month and bring it out in January to fix - which sounds like good advice to me. So if you think of any suggestions while you're reading, you could email me them now or later.

Carolyn and Jillian in one of the murky hot, hot springs. We spent about 2 hours 'taking the waters' before we went in for a huge banquet. The whole trip was sponsored by the school's teacher's association, and we were guests. It was a lovely way to spend our half-day off on Friday, and best of all it was all free! 

The Hot Springs we went to - it had numerous pools, varying from about 12C to 43C. Some were massaging, some were waterfalls. I liked starting cold, going hotter, hotter, then a steam room, then jump into the 12C pool. It was quite the shock to the body - but I like feeling like I have discipline.  

My neo-Nativity Set. Courtesy of Ikea and a good imagination.  

Test

Testing - can anyone read this blog?

Yes - my blog has been done almost all week. I missed it, as I hope you did. I had the same problem viewing it, so I sent an email to the Blogger support, and waited. But after 5 days with no response, I figured I should just do it myself. It wasn't that big of a deal - somehow my template got erased completely, which is why all my content is safe - whew - so I just had to start again with everything else. Overall, the problem is fixed.

I have lots to put on here - pictures, etc. But I need to go to Saturday class. I thought that it would be cancelled because the first winter typhoon in 100 years is hitting Taiwan today, but I haven't heard anything. I still might just get to the school - soaking wet - to find no one there, but that's one of those inconviences that comes with being a foreign teacher who can't understand the news.

Either way - more later.

Carole E. Nickle - novelist!

Wow - I'm officially a novelist! I've done it - written just over 200 pages (51,158 words to be exact) in one month - actually 28 days - I finished last night. The total amount of time spent? 28 hours. It really did work out to an hour a day - although there were more than a few days that I wrote nothing at all. And yesterday (Sunday) I decided I wanted to finish it, so I wrote for 5 hours, pretty much straight, and knocked off the last 10,000 words (I even surprised myself!)

And I didn't even have to skip church! There was a special team from South Africa visiting Oasis (my church) for the last few weeks, and this was their last day. It was one of those services that starts at 10 and ends around 1:30, but no one notices! There were so many exciting parts, and I feel so thankful to have found a church that really fits what I believe the church should be. We did communion the way King David did - which meant taking the cup, and pouring in the grape juice (although I think David used wine!) till it spilled over the side and all down your hand. Then you down the whole cup in one go, and turn the cup over on your head to show it's all empty. Crazy, eh? and messy. But it was really powerful, and whever I spill liqiud from now on I'm going to think of "My cup runs over!"

I got home from church with 10 minutes to quickly change and get my stuff ready for my Spinning Class at 3. Then as soon as I got back from the gym, I put in a load of laundry, and wrote my novel. It was such a great feeling to finish, even though it was 11:00, I had to get online to get my 'winner's certificate' from the NaNoWriMo page. I also got a little winner's icon for my blog - should be appearing later today!

What now, you may ask? Well, I plan on printing out my novel and making a book, partially so I can do my editing on a hard copy, and partially because I want to hold a big, fat book that I wrote. I went to Tesco and bought a bunch of extra printer paper and an extra ink cartridge, so I'm ready. That will take a few hours to do the formatting and put in the illustrations. And then, I'll just get busy celebrating Christmas, I've been saving putting up my decorations until I finished my novel. I also have a bunch of grading to finish this week, that I was also putting off (rightfully!). And then Friday, the school is paying for a day trip to the hot springs, and then we're going away the weekend after to Sun Moon Lake for more hot springs, courtesy of the parent's association. I tell you, a rich private school is the way to go!

Thanks to everyone who's been reading my novel and supporting me - you're the best! Keep an eye on the novel website, I should be putting up the last few chapters today, then maybe the illustrations. I can't wait for next November!
Plucking Blackberries

Novel Writing Crunch Day

Well, today is my novel day. I loved getting up this morning knowing I had all morning to write. I brushed my hair, washed my face, and turned the kettle on. Then I lit my Ikea Winter smelling candle, put Norah Jones in the CD player, got my computer ready and made my first cup on coffee. I’m on my fourth cup of coffee now, and I’m switching CDs to instrumental Christmas music.

I realized that there really is some part of me that likes the thrill of pressure. I could easily have finished my novel if I worked steadily this week, but I didn’t. Subconsciously I think I wanted to have to work all day today. And, of course, I’m still very sure I will be able to finish in time. According to my ‘report card’ I have about 5 more hours of writing.

And more exciting news – I’ve decided just to buy an extra ink cartridge and print my novel off. I want something thick and tangible. Oh, and I’ve found some illustrations for it: I’ll be putting them online once I’ve finished the whole thing. Should be soon. Then I send it in for them to check, and what do I get? A downloadable certificate and an icon for my website. And the pride of knowing I wrote a novel in a month. Hopefully my next Blog entry will be an “I’m done!”

Chapter 14 is online: Plucking Blackberries.

My morning walk to school is around this huge traffic circle, and every day I look at the Nescafe building. I was thankful for coffee this thanksgiving morning.

Eating Thanksgiving dinner out at our School's beautiful outdoor education centre by the ocean. It was about 20 people total, but they had thanksgiving dinner for us, and a Chinese BBQ for the Taiwanese guests, who weren't as excited about Turkey and Cranberry sauce as we were. 

Our host was our Principal, Dr. Phoebe Lee (on the right!) and she also invited the pastor of her church, which is the largest Baptist church in Taiwan. (I visited one day, but it was a bit too big and formal for me). The pastor was really nice, and it was fun to sing "Give Thanks" and hear a little sermon. Dr. Lee throws quite a dinner - it was tons of food in such a beautiful setting. 

One of the many different desserts - pumpkin pie, with strawberries on top and little reindeer sitting inside. Too cute! 

You know that after- thanksgiving dinner "I ate WAY too much feeling"? THis is Jillian and Carolyn demonstrating. 

A non-traditional post-thanksgiving dinner activity - Rock Climbing. We thought we should play football or something American, but Rock Climbing was a great way to work off some of the food. 

Happy Thanksgiving - as applicable

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans. I had thought that after celebrating the american thanksgiving for four years, I would go back to the Canadian one, but no. I completely forgot about it in October, and this week - it's all over the place. We're talking about being thankful in all my classes, and we're making "I am thankful for..." turkeys in the grade 2 classes. It's swell. Today, the principal has invited us foreign teachers to have a thanksgiving turkey dinner out at Wan-li, the school's outdoor education center. We're not too sure what to expect - it could be an outdoor picnic. It's been so warm this week, it would work. But anything involving turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes sounds good.
Good news - I found out what's going to happen with our classes next semester, and it's exactly what I had hoped for. I will still have advanced english, and I will still have the top 10% of the students. So I should have mostly all the same students and they're still the brighest ones. That's exciting, I've grown so attached to my students, I was really afraid of having to switch to 400 new students who would all be lower level. And my favorite class, the Saturday Writing Club continues all next year, too. Happy day.
And final good news - mail works. I got a postcard from Kathy delivered to my desk at school, and then went home to find a letter from Kathy waiting for me at the apartment. So both addresses work. I don't want to bug the people at the school too much, so I think I'll use it mainly for packages, and then use my apartment address for regular letters and correspondence.
Well, enough blabbering. I need to grade some tests, actually, a lot of tests, and try to finish my novel. Oh, and remember to be thankful.

An act of God?

In what appears to be an act of God - our TV is mysteriously broken. This is a serendipitous accident, given that I'm in the final strech of writing my novel. Because I no longer have the distraction of the tv, I plan on writing multiple hours this evening and tommorrow - because Wednesday through to next Monday are pretty much stuffed full with no time for writing. Maybe I'll even hit my 50,000 word mark tommorrow night. We'll see. Chapter 12 and 13 are online now - if you haven't noticed yet. Plucking Blackberries. And here are some pictures from Apple Cobo - that restaurant I told you about.

Here it is! The famed Apple Cobo. Carolyn and I have been four times in under two weeks. It's a little piece of heaven in Taipei.  

Me at Apple Cobo - looking like I usually do - not much make-up and hair that appears to have been attacked by something. Alas - I blame the water.  

Jillian at Apple Cobo - demonstrating her 'tea cup' fingers. 

Carolyn at Apple Cobo - wearing the appropriate pearl necklace. 

The end is...in sight??

It’s been a few days since I’ve blogged. It’s also been a few days since I’ve written my novel. BAD. So, today I’m buckling down to catch up on my word count and hopefully get a little bit ahead, because next weekend is going to be a busy one.

I’m amazed, but I realized this week that the end of this semester is in sight. I’ve already got November and December worked out and booked up, and I’m looking towards January. Our last day of school is the third week of January and then it’s up in the air whether we have to teach winter camps or have some vacation. We’ll see. Either way, it’s nice to see the half way mark in the near future. Time has really flown.

I’ve officially gotten the Christmas spirit. It was very hard to discipline myself to not go to Ikea and completely deck out my room. I’ve decided it would be a good year to try to limit commercialism. I’d like to just get some twinkle lights and a nativity set. These seem to be a whole lot harder to find than Santa Clauses. Although, as I mentioned before, our school performances are all about Jesus’ birth and nothing about presents, which is nice. In my grade 2 and 5 classes, I still feel like I’m doing something very wrong, when a kid asks me “Is Jesus God’s son?” and I say “Yes.” But from everything they’ve told me, we teach the kids to sing Angels from the Realms of Glory as the truth.

By the way this week we did the third verse: “Saints before the altar bending, watching long with hope and fear, suddenly the Lord descending, in his temple shall appear.” Try to explain the second coming to second graders who are learning the names of fruits this week. There’s a challenge. I made myself laugh!

Okay everyone - play along!

Heh everyone - this blog is supposed to be semi-interactive! Is anyone out there? I feel so narcissistic posting and posting and not knowing if anyone is reading. So, whenever you feel so inclined - put a comment on a post - just click on the little "0 comments" button at the bottom of the post. This way I get to know who's actually reading this little site occasionally. And I'm really disappointed more of you haven't put little people into my Guestmap. It would make my day!

I will try to make my posts a little more interesting. I realized reading over the last few that I've fallen into the habit of telling you little stories about my kids and telling you where I eat. This is not exactly exciting stuff. I'm going to try to be a bit more aware of moments and events that are a bit more unique to Taiwan - and perhaps I'll even through in something intellectual or thought provoking now and then? I was going to post a poem, but I couldn't find the perfect one. I'll keep looking. Until then - I'll tell you more about food. Did you know, I've found a new favorite food in Taiwan? Oddly enough, I have discovered a great love for Japanese BBQ Pork pizza. Words cannot describe it - the best pizza I've had anywhere, and that includes Italy. I recognize that I should be trying Chinese food more often, but I have all year!

Little Hugs

Today has been a lovely day, for a few reasons.

This morning I had my grade 2 class, with some of the sweetest students. One, A., reaches out her arms for a big hug whenever I come to class. I usually make her wait until after class - because I can't actually hug all my students before class. So as soon as we were done, she ran up and before I had a chance to squat down to hug her, she had wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her head against my stomach! Then she just stood there, and hugged. A few other girls noticed and came up behind her to join in. It was so sweet. Then, I have two little boys who like to walk me back to the office after class. One, R. never says anything, and he has these really big geek glasses. Sometimes he just follows a few steps behind me and pretends he's a mouse. Today, he grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go until he saw me to the office door. Isn't that cute?

The other thing that made my day was my lunch at Starbucks. I've been going quite often, I've a new addiction to their Oriental Chicken Salad. Anyway, since the last time I went, last week, they had a new addition. Sitting on the top of the display case was a cardboard Starbucks cup, autographed by my favorite Taiwanese artist - Jimmy Choo. I recognized his signature in English and Chinese, and it just made me smile that I go to the same coffee shop as him. Of course I wouldn't know if I sat right next to him, but still. I put two of his illustrations below. It doesn't really express the utter enjoyment I get from his work.

I finished my 100th page today, and chapter 11 is online. Plucking Blackberries.

 

 

WHOO-HOO!

Well, I've done it - reached the half way mark on my novel and on schedule! I passed the 25,000 word mark tonight and I feel quite proud of myself. Not neccesarily proud of my plot, though - it does ramble a bit. But, heh, I guess that's the downside of writing a novel in a month. Chapters 9 and 10 are online now. Plucking Blackberries.

My address???

Here is what I'm going to call my official, but untried, address. It should work - the school is well known and supposedly they get enough English mail that the post office should be able to direct it quickly. It also means my packages come to me, instead of me having to go pick them up. So give it a try it your so inclined - I'll let you know when I get anything.

Fu Hsing Private School
Carole Nickle - ERC
262, Sec. 1, Tunhua S. Road
Taipei, 106
Taiwan (R.O.C.)

In other news - today I was again blown away at how pro-Christian this school is. My job includes teaching the Grade 2 classes "Angels From the Realms of Glory" to sing at the Christmas concert. This is not an easy job, think about it, it's about the trickiest carol out there. So we're taking it verse by verse, and I have to explain "Well, we're telling the angels to come and sing about the birth of the baby Jesus. Then we are all supposed to come and worship." And for my Grade 5 classes, they have to be narrators for their performance, and today we went through what they were supposed to say about "the most wonderful story, ever" and one of the kids raised his hand: "Jesus is God's Son, right?" It almost made me laugh that I have such freedom not only to present the Christmas story, but to be able to present it as true, and the real point of the holiday.

Finally, tonight should be a milestone for my novel - the half way point. Fireworks and a marching band are in order, but I'll probably just treat myself to an extra cup of tea and an hour to read. I'm in the middle of the novel "Hideous Kinky" which is the story of two young girls travelling with their hippy mother in Morocco. Highly recommended to the aunts and cousins - enjoyable and an easy read.

The dark lining on my silver cloud

As you know, I’ve been loving my time in Taipei. I haven’t been upset much, but the closest I’ve been to crying is when I think about my lost mail. Yes, it seems trivial, but most of you know how important mail is to me, and it just makes me so sad to know that you all sent me letters and I can’t have them. As I was standing on the street corner, telling myself not to cry about this, I realized something. I’ll just write to you again with an address that works, and you can write me back again! This cheered me up considerably, although it won’t bring back Kathy’s package from Kazakhstan or the cd I bought from the states (there’s $20 wasted). I have the correct address for our apartment, as well as permission to get any mail sent directly to the school. Kathy’s going to do a test card to both addresses to check them. I think it will be easiest to get letters and cards sent to the apartment, because I don’t want to bug the mail people at the school too much, and any packages to the school – or penpal letters from Indiana. That sort of thing. I’ll let you know when Kathy’s test letters arrive, and be expecting mail from me in the next few weeks. Unless you’re someone who just found my blog on the web and don’t know me. You won’t be getting a letter. If you really want one leave a comment, and I’ll consider it.

If Carole was a restaurant...

If I was a restaurant, I would be Apple Cobo. (Yes, I think they meant Apple Cobbler.) I found it a few weeks ago, but I didn't get around to going in until Friday (mostly because there wasn't an English menu). But C. and I went for and it really is what I would make if I were making a restuarant. The walls were all pink and yellow with white lacy accents. The decoration was a bit shabby chic and a bit Paris chandliers - some chairs had white flowered slip covers, some were big, plush cherry red velvet armchairs. The waitresses wore little flowered bandanas on their heads. We both had a salad with lettuce, kiwi, melon, tomatoe, and dragon fruit, yum! And dessert was included (dessert is their specilalty - they have an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet!) and unlimited teas, juices, and coffees. We're going to go every week - it's very much C.'s style just as it is mine.

I've put chapter 8 up on the website. I feel my plot is meandering a bit, but I had fun with some descriptive passages. Plucking Blackberries.

This is a picture I took of one of the bulletin boards in the elementary school a week or so ago. I thought of it tonight, because I just ate a slice of chocolate mousse cake and now I feel like a little pig! (actually, we're talking about that in class this week - what it means to call someone a pig). 

Someone had to be the first!

When we moved into our apartment, they gave us each a key to our room. I remember thinking: "hmm, that's dangerous, it would be so easy to lock it inside!" But at the time I assumed it would be someone else to do it first.

Well, last night I had tutoring cancelled, right, so I planned on taking a shower and writing for the rest of the evening. I came out of the shower, wrapped in my towel, and turned the door to my room, and yes, I locked my keys inside. I felt like the biggest idoit, although I still claim it was the door's fault - I had noticed earlier it was locked, but I had played around with it, and couldn't get it to unlock. I had that warning light going off way in the back of my head, but did I listen, no. Lesson learned: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

So what did I do, I changed back into my dirty clothes in Carolyn's room, then through a series of calls and crys for help, we eventually found someone still at the school who could get the keys, so I ran to the school to get them. I didn't know whether they meant literally or figuratively run to the school, so just to be safe, I ran - and thanks to spinning, I made it all the way to school without getting out of breath. Whew. I was lucky that it wasn't any later at night - I would have been sleeping on the couch in my dirty clothes.

I was so happy to get into my room, it felt weird to have all my stuff and sense of home in one room and to not be able to get in. The whole find a key thing greatly cut into my writing time, but thanks to my verbosity over the last weekend, I'm still on schedule to finish before the end of November.

A Melancholy Day

Today was brilliantly sunny and 32 degrees, this made me depressed (if you know me you understand). My body was just beginning to enjoy the cooler weather when, boom, it's back up in the 'sweaty' zone. And now I've gotten addicted to spinning classes (4 times a week) which leaves me throughly drenched. Anyway, I'll be happy when it gets cold enough to wear my new coat.
I was bemoaning my schedule today - Wednesday through to Sunday is full up. I was worring about staying on track with my novel, too; when I got the call from my tutee, S, that he has a headache and can't meet tonight. The quality of his excuse aside, I was thrilled. A whole evening to drink tea and write. I can't wait. Also, the chance to put up Chapter 6 and 7 written earlier this week: my novel's site Plucking Blackberries. I had one of my students say she read it, but otherwise I think it's only my family. If anyone else is reading it, let me know.
I have to tell you about my Grade 7 boys class. I think they are my favorite, because they are so funny and energetic, I go into class with a smile on my face and I leave with one. Well, today I gave them time to work on their letters to their PenPals in Bloomington, IN. I graded their last letters, but because they did such a good job - I told them I trusted them to write on their own this time, but I'm still collecting them to mail. Anyway, one of the student's penpal asked if they could teach them a little chinese, and I'm afraid I started their devious thoughts by suggesting they could give their penpal a Chinese name. Another kid suggested giving a boy's name to the poor Indiana girl, and I said something about how they could call her "poo-poo" and she would never know. They think "poo-poo" is the funniest thing ever, and I feel like it's a harmless thing to laugh at, but it got the ball rolling. Later another kid wrote in his letter that he would teach his penpal how to say "hello" and "how are you?" in Chinese. Then he wrote out how to say something either inappropriate or stupid, because all the kids were cracking up. I think a couple of the students did this, so I'm going to have to send a warning note with them: Do not use the chinese taught in these letters! But it was pretty funny.

self-portrait

Whew - can I go throw up now?

I just finished being observed. It was highly stressful, similiar to a very important job-interview, I think. See, all the teachers (Taiwanese or Canadian) get observed once a semester. Half of us are getting observed in our elementary classes, half in junior high. I was quite glad they had me for Grade 8 girls class. My grade 2 teaching skills are still be worked on. Anyway, I wasn't too scared, because my Grade 8 girls are very well-behaved, and I built in 'outs' in the lesson plan in case the girls were shy and wouldn't talk (they wouldn't).

There were about 5 Taiwanese English teachers who watched, and they videotaped my lesson. I think my heart was beating during the whole time. But I did well, I think, and the students were very sweet about behaving like angels, albeit quiet angels. I'm not sure if my lesson was 'good' or if it met the right educational objectives - but I did my best!

Now it's over and I can relax, and spend entirely too much time writing my novel when I should be going to the gym. Oh, and for those of you who sent me mail that is lost somewhere in Taipei, I finally asked my 'boss' about it, and she put one of the student teachers right on it. If it can be found, I trust S. will find it, and it is awfully nice to have such helpful student teachers who speak Chinese!

P.S. Do you like my new "weatherpixie"? She changes her clothes based on the weather data from Taipei. I think it's highly entertaining, and it should help you picture me over here - night or day, hot or cold, etc. Although I should put a disclaimer on her - although she may be wearing a sundress, I'm still wearing my long sleeve t-shirt and a hoodie. 27 degrees in Canada and 27 degrees in November in Taipei do not warrent the same clothing choice. It's all relative. But I think she's fun. I should name her. Any suggestions?

Saturday Morning Snapshot

Saturdays Mornings are good for the soul.

I’m in one of my ‘relax’ Saturday morning states. This goes very well with Norah Jones “sunrise” on the cd player, my second cup of Nescafe 3-in-1 instant coffee (an Asian invention? Do they have 3-in-1 in Canada? It’s a great idea). I’ve also got two small luxury items from Ikea, a new Christmas candle that smells wonderful (it’s called Kold and looks like snowflakes when you burn it, in case anyone needs a reason to run to Ikea!) and slippers just like my navy ones, only these ones are the softest, fuzziest, chenille / teddy bear material ever. I just cannot find words to express the wonderful feeling of these slippers. I was so excited about them, I took a picture. That’s my $4 teddy bear from Ikea on the right, my new slippers in the middle, and my fancy coffee mug on the left. Did I put a picture on before? It was a teacher’s day gift from one of my Grade 8 boys classes. It’s Noritake china with gold accents. I’m such a gift person that I just love using it, even though the Grade 8 boys are somewhat bratty. Their card said “To the best teacher from the best class” Yeah, right!

I’m sitting at the living room computer, watching a small colony of ants go in a little river, back and forth from the coffee table to the wall. This is mildly upsetting, but it’s not my job to clean the living room (actually my only chore is to take out the garbage, which I try to do when I’m in the apartment, but I’m out so much I never seem to do it. Hopefully my housemates won’t kick me out!) Anyway, the ants are miniscule, I really only notice them when there are tons, like in the living room. Nothing like the giant ants in our house on Ruth St. in Indiana, where they were so big they crunched when you killed them. (Ahh, found memories of that terribly-flawed house!) As long as the ants stay out of my room, I allow them to live in peace, and go about their food gathering tasks.

Anyway, I’ve found writing my novel fits right in with ‘relax’ mode. I was so excited to get up this morning and get started writing. (Good thing, too, because I didn’t have a spare moment to write on Friday). Chapter 3 is on the “Plucking Blackberries” site. One of my friends is starting her novel this weekend, and the other decided to fly off to another continent for awhile, which exempts her from her novel writing duties (living life, or writing about life? Hmmm) What about the rest of you? I want to be able to procrastinate by reading your novels!

What does your Daddy do?

So, I have three grade 2 classes, right? Well, I did the "Daddies at work" lesson for my first two classes, and got the predictable answers. Mostly all were:"My daddy is a Doctor" or "My daddy is a businessman." Also a couple lawyers. Then, I had my last grade 2 class (also, oddly enough, the one full of devilchildren. It seems they decided to put all the children with behaviour problems into one class!) Anyway, I asked my question and got the usual mix of doctors and businessmen, but then they surprised me. One kid came up and drew a bottle of wine on the board and said that was what his father did (I wanted to ask "Drink!?!" but I didn't!). Another kid said their father was a clown! (Really) But my favorite was little B. She has no attention span whatsover, but she is really smart, just always seeking attention. Anyway, she raised her hand and said "My daddy is a superstar." I smiled and said that's nice, thinking she was simply using the expression. But no, the other kids pointed out that her dad was "So and So" the famous star. I thought, no wonder she's the way she is!
My only other news of the day is that I fell going up the stairs to my office and whacked my right knee really well. It's actually gross, I pulled up my jeans to look at it, and promptly put a bandage on it so I wouldn't have to see it again. And now its swelling up and doesn't want to bend - not a good thing when you have to go up 100 stairs to get to your office. We'll see how it is in the morning.

Sliding Doors and Open Windows

Right now the US presidential election is still to close to call - it all comes down to Ohio! It's 4 pm here, so I'm assuming I'm probably the only one watching the play by play election results.

I was telling my afternoon classes about how I ran back to the apartment for lunch so I could watch the results, and how I found election coverage really, truly fascinating. (They did seem skeptical!) And I thought of something - I was so very, very close to watching these election results from a ratty couch in a tiny, old, house in some slum of Washington, D.C. Really, if I had been offered that internship I would have taken it, and it would have entirely changed my life, and the lives of the students I am affecting now.) I would be working my butt off at Sojourners for no pay, instead I am here doing work I really enjoy for very good pay. I could be living in the most uncomfortable circumstances I can think of, and going through all the culture shock of innercity US life, but instead I have a city I love and feel safe and comfortable in. I could be surrounded by the American mindset all day, and instead I live with Canadians, work with Taiwanese people, and hang out with all sorts of different cultures from my church on the weekend. I get overwhelmed when I think of how much hinges on the tiniest little decisions. Remember the old Gywenth Paltrow movie "Sliding Doors"? It's like that. I just remind myself that I am blessed that I have a God who works all things for good; in Taipei or Washington, DC. But from this vantage point, I wouldn't switch and make them accept me for that intership for anything!

Oh, one more thing. I made the split second decision in my grade 9 girls class today to let them know where my novel is online. They were just so interested, I figured it couldn't hurt. So we'll see if they like it. I can see them looking at the site but not actually reading the novel, its alot of reading for them. I definitely don't want to let my students know about this blog, it's just a bit too candid about my teaching life! But they shouldn't be able to trace it back from "Plucking Blackberries" unless they are computer geniuses. Oh, I have Chapter 2 almost finished. I have to tutor this evening from 6:30=8:30, but after that I'll finish the chapter and have it online by 10pm ish Taipei time (something like 9am for most of you all).

I'm sitting in the living room, wasting time finding new little things for my blog (by the way, I hope everyone will click on the "Guestmap" link on the righthand side of this page underneath my profile - you can put a little person to mark where you live - or if you like, you can put your little person where you wish you were! You can still put a Canadian flag by your name, even if your little person is in Timbuktu.) Anyway, I noticed the Orchids we have on the bookcase, and realized I hadn't put a pictures of them online yet. See, one of the housemates who shall remain nameless bought these orchids to give to the Principal of our school when we went to her house for dinner. However, white flowers in Taiwanese culture mean that you are wishing death for the recipient. So, they became our house flowers. That was almost three weeks ago, and they still look completely fresh. They are stuck in wet foam, or something, we don't do anything to them. Pretty, aren't they? 

The first fruits...of blackberries!

Well, yesterday was the first full day of writing and it went quite well. I spent a total of two hours writing and got 7% of my novel done! I think that's quite encouraging.

Anyway, I wasn't going to let you all know where my novel was online, because I was embarrassed about how bad it will be. However, I realized this is just my pride, and, moreover, I just spent two hours working with the HTML code to make the new website beautiful. So, it's up, online, and there's a permanent link on the sidebar of this website, right next to my progress meter. Please check out the site to see how pretty it is, but only read it if you absolutely feel you must. Otherwise save yourself from my convoluted and confused ramblings! Plucking Blackberries.

On Schedule!

I stayed up last night so that I could start my novel at 12:01 am, November 1. Yes, it's a bit silly, but I was excited. I only worked on it for about 15 minutes, and got 500 words. I just spent another 45 minutes on it, and in one hour I hit my daily target. So I'm on schedule, and according to the motivational "report card" I downloaded, I only have 28 writing hours to go. That's not bad.

So far, it's been really fun. The writing comes easily (although I do have to fight the urge to go back over my writing and fix it!) and I'm liking my ideas. I still have decided exactly what target age I'm going for, I think it will be young adult, although I still keep putting in too big words, I think. Anyone else started writing?