Teachers' Day

I've missed a few days, because the middle of the week is just so jammed full of stuff. This week, the main event was Teachers' Day, oh happy day!

On Wednesday, we went to a morning assembly, where Kathy and I, as new (less than 7 years) teachers presented bouquets to experienced (more than 30 years) teachers. Then the class leaders presented all of us with sunflowers on behalf of the students. The ceremony ended with an incredible Chinese Opera / Acrobatic performance. I took pictures and will put them up tommorrow. It was so intriguing, with choreographed fighting, tumbling, weird screechy music, and elaborate costumes. Sadly, only Kathy and I got to go, so all the other foreign teachers missed out on the experience.

Then the rest of the day was full of cute kids saying thank you and cards and gifts. It was so encouraging. After teachers' day I suddenly begin to think I could be a teacher for life! Amazing what positive reinforcement will do. I realized that all my previous jobs had no positive reinforcement, and it suprises me how much I love working in a supportive and encouraging environment. Of course, expensive chocolate, cookies, and Italian lavendar gift sets are wonderful to recieve, but I think the cards meant the most. They were from some of my students who are quieter in class, and who remind me so much of me at that age. It makes me very happy to think I can be a supportive, encouraging figure for them.

. Defining Teacher Moment

Tonight in afterschool class I made a kid cry. Andy, this cute little grade one boy who always comes up to hug my thighs before class, sobbing uncontrollable. Oh, the guilt!

It was entirely neccessary, but I'm just hoping he's not scarred for life. Earlier in the class, another boy, Handy, had hit the girl next to him, so I moved him up to the front to sit in a row by himself. Later, Andy hit the boy next to him, so I had to do the same thing, for consistency.

But Andy didn't want to go. I told him everyone was waiting for him, explained again why he had to move, and then started counting down 10 to 1. Around 6 his eyes started to get really red and I thought to myself "Oh no!" By 2 he moved, with the tears starting to fall. He sat at his new desk, put his head on his arms and bawled. He stopped after five minutes or so. Hopefully it was just wanting attention. I hope.

Earthquake Drill

Last week we had two classes cancelled so that the students could do an earthquake drill. It involved all the classes going down to the courtyard, and squishing into rows. They sat on the ground and put their school bags or backpacks over their heads. Ready! Bring on the earthquake. (=

Compagnie Maguy Marin

So, Kathleen and I took great enjoyment out of creating our very own Fall 2005 perfomance series. One thing I love about living in Taipei, I can't imagine it being an simpler to go to the theatre.


Every month there is a small booklet distributed that lists every theatre, dance, music performance of any sort, with an english description and prices. Then we take that booklet to the desk at the Eslite bookstore right across the street from the school, show them which performances we want, pick our seats, and get our tickets. Almost all the performances are at either the National Concert Hall or the National Theatre, which are conviniently right beside each other - a short bus or taxi ride from our apartment.

There is such incredible variety, I guess because Taipei is a key stop on the 'Asian' tours of all these different companies and performers. You can find a symphony performance or recital pretty much any night of the week. The tough part is choosing.

So, Kathy and I started our 'season' with the Compagnie Maguy Marin's performance of "Umwelt." We knew nothing about it, only the name, and the picture above, and that it was dance. So we bought tickets.

It was most certainly, the oddest performance I've ever been to. It only lasted one hour, no intermission, and it was the same thing the whole time.

There were a series of mirrors on the stage, that shook and made shaking metal noises. There were three electric guitars laying on stage, with a string 'playing' them as it wound from one bobbin to another. It was an hour of schreeching electic guitar noises, wind, and bending metal. The noise got to me, as it was supposed to, I guess.

Then, the dancers in different patterns and repitions would move around the mirrors, performing actions of daily life. For an hour. Then it was over. It was definitely more of a performance than dance. I read after that it was inspired by Samuel Beckett which made more sense, because it definitely reminded me of that kind of odd intentional meaninglessness.

The review in the Taipei Times said: "Considered one of France's most celebrated choreographers -- and certainly one of the most cerebral working today -- Marin's work is structured, intense and multi-layered, as the performers repeat scenes or motifs again and again as if they are trapped in some form of purgatory."

Anyway, we paid quite a bit for the priviledge of watching an hour of purgatory, and I left with a pounding headache because of the noise. However, after trying to pretend to be very intelligent and discuss it over coffee after, we decided it was worth the money, because it certainly made us think, which very few things do in our days of easy entertainment. Kathy is afraid that the days of singing and dancing are over, and that instead we are all going to have to deal with cerebral performances all the time. However, our next performance for the season is the Spanish Ballet's performance of Flamenco Carmen. So she should be okay!

Finally

At last, a true salad! This was almost comparable to a salad from Pete's.
It was Gorganzalo cheese, apple slices, candied walnuts, yellow peppers and raspberry vinagrette.

It was an expensive luxury, Kathleen and I went to the cutest little French Patisserie, which I believe is named Ille. We had the mushroom soup, the peach water, our main course and dessert and coffee with real warmed cream. It was a delicious meal, and made even better by the fact that we accidently got two desserts each! We didn't think dessert was included, so we both ordered on of the beautiful little cakes from the front display, only to recieve them and a few moments later a creme brulee each. Kathy wasn't sure she could do it, but I relished the challenge of a delicious French lunch with two desserts.

Playing Around

Kathy did not feel like participating in the family tradition of taking photographs while waiting in restaurants for food (ref. to Gilroy Family Site!). However, she did eventually agree on the condition that it be an artsy one. So a couple glow filters and an illustration later, my camera produced this shot.

Me at Ille

Cute

Well, I have no sleeping kittens to photograph (my favorite subjects). So I thought I'd substitute sleeping puppies, which are in greater supply. This is one of the principal's puppies, either Angel or Charlie, after the girls took them out to play hard.

Where does the week go?

Well, it feels like the end of the week. Friday's are only three Grade One classes in the morning, so Kathy and I mentally treat them like the weekend.

THe internet's broken at the apartment, and the school internet is refusing to post pictures. I'm tired of playing with it. Maybe tommorrow.

Did you know that I wake up every morning at 6:03 am? Isn't that odd. I set my alarm for 7:20, just in case one day my internal alarm shuts off. It's actually nice, though, I get to roll over and doze for 45 minutes or so - it feels just like a weekend. Then I get up, have a nice breakfast and read for a half an hour before I actually have to get ready. I could get used to this. It does require me going to bed really early, usually 9:30. Still, for this teacher stage of my life - it works.

The bell tower

The Fu-Hsing bell tower. Largest bell tower in Taiwan. (The only one I've seen, so I'm not sure how big of a deal that really is!) I really appreciate being at a private school that seems to be so well-run, and so supported by the parents.

On another note, today was a great day for penpals. I got Claire's envelope of pen pal letters from INdiana, and it's always so much fun to give out the first set of letters. I also got an email from a teacher in Merrilville, Indiana who wants to also be pen pals with my class. The reason is, I had to exclude one of my grade 6 classes from the pen pals. But then I realized that they were my best class and I didn't want them to miss out on the experience. So I started looking around on line for other advertisements, and found them a gifted grade 6 classroom to write to. So all 6 of my grade 6 and 7 classes have Indiana penpals (this means I only have to make one powerpoint- instead of, say, an INdiana powerpoint and an Ohio powerpoint).

I'm quite interested to see what the difference will be between the gifted students in Merrilville and the 'normal' students in Elletsville letters will be!

Fu-Hsing

Ahh. Such a pretty school. This is the new half, which is currently Grades k-5. The old half is grades 6-9, and our office. In the middle is the construction on the new, new building, which looks just like this one and should be finished in the next few months. Then the old building will be torn down, the junior high will change to the new building and the elemtary will go to the new-new building. They are then planning a third, identical building, which will eventually be a high school. It's a pretty giant undertaking, and it will be a very impressive series of identical buildings and walkways and belltowers when finished.

Photographers

We were on our way to lunch, but the sky was so blue we had to stop for pictures. I think people passing thought we were funny, standing in the street taking pictures of the bell tower.

Inadvisable

Whew, just finished another Grade One after school class.
Imagine a class of 17 little grade one kids, who have a vocabulary of about 100 English words.
They've been in school since 7:30 - they'll leave after 10 and 1/2 hours - so they're, shall we say, squirrely.
Now, try, in English, to convince these children to sit in a desk, quietly, without touching anything or talking or moving.
It's like the ultimate challenge. It definitely drives me crazy, but I have not snapped yet. I will not let them crack me! Only twenty some classes to go.

Mid-Autumn Festival

So, we didn't feel like the traditional b.b.q., pomelos and mooncakes. Greek food just sounded so much better! It was just like the Friendly Greek at home, and the owners were so friendly to us, they gave us all free dessert. Nothing says "happy mid-autumn festival" like Greek food!

Really Laughing

This is the one of us really laughing, after the owners brought out their dancing cow toy.

Full Moon

This is the view from outide our apartment of the very bright moon behind the ever-changing colourful Taipei 101. Best I could do on night mode with no tripod.

Taipei 101 and Moon

What happens when you don't hold the camera still. (=

Happy Moon Festival!

Well, it's that time of year again - Mid-Autunm or Moon Festival. Last year we had a day off, this year it's a Sunday. Pooh. I felt like boycotting Moon Festival in protest. However, the moon was too bright, the night too magical, and heh, it's a holiday, a good time to celebrate!

So five of us went out for dinner. We stopped on the way to take pictures of the very bright moon behind a very rainbow Taipei 101. Our dinner was at this incredible little Greek restuarant. The owners were so sweet (they gave us all free dessert)! It was just like the Friendly Greek, and we all adore Greek food. We just kept saying "This is SO good."

So I'll put the photos up tommorrow.

One last thing - I was wondering if anyone can tell me whether the moon in North America is in the same stage as Taiwans? My mind does not comprehend that whole planet orbital thing. So look outside tonight, and let me know if the moon is the brightest its been all year. You could try to explain to me why, but I doubt I'd understand!

Not for the faint of heart...

Just for those of you who have no daily contact with disgusting insects, here is one of our friendly cockroaches. Well, he is the wrong side up - they do that when they die. And if you look closely, you'll notice he's lying in a pool of cockroach-killer spray. We find it's best to douse the cockroach fully in the spray just to be sure.

They are usally about 1-2 inches long, but it's those really long feeler thingys that get to me. Gives me the shivers!

A Weekend of Sorts

It's been a busy weekend, finishing up my Gender/Development paper. Pretty good, compared to my other papers, I believe. At least it's a lot more of my unique thoughts and a lot less of my overdependence on other author's quotes. (Kathy writes the same way I do. We realized it's because of the way we were taught to write research papers with ABeka. The whole reliance on notecards from high school transferred to our reliance on source quotes in university. Oh well, it got us good grades even if it didn't teach us to think for ourselves).

Yesterday was the first Saturday class. On the good news side, all of the wonderful students from last year signed up again this year. On the bad news side, all those students told their friends, so I went from 17 students last semester to 31 this semester. Still, I'll enjoy teaching the class, but it won't be as cohesive of a class. And I'm flattered that all my kids enjoy the class so much. THere's a sneaky little voice in the back of my head that says they like it because it's fun, we play games, and I don't yell at them in Chinese. Even if that is the case, that's not so bad.