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!