Thinkings..

Well hello. I'm back! I've successfully gotten four of my wisdom teeth removed, and it was a million thousand katrillion times better than the first attempt. For starters, the teeth actually got removed this time. :)
The hospital was ok, and I had some wonderful friends who gave up time from their busy lives to come visit. I don't remember a thing about the surgery. I woke up back in my hospital room, tried valiently to stay awake like they told me to, ate some pudding, and came home. It's a huge relief to have that all over with.
I could say more about the rather painful IV starting experience, or the funniness of the oral surgery interns who were assigned to my care because they spoke English, and how they always appeared in groups of three to do Very Important Things like measure how big my mouth is and things like that, but... I won't go into detail. I rate the whole experience a 8 out of 10. 2 points off for the IV experience.
I'm now admiring my beautiful bruised jaw. I don't think I've ever had a large bruise on my jaw. Better add that to my list of firsts. Haha. You think I'm kidding?
Well, while I'm writing about small goings-ons in my life, I got a package today (thanks MOM!) which always makes people go ooo ahhh (getting packages is a very VERY VERY rare experience for me..in fact, this is only my.. um.. second? package since I've been in Taiwan. No, third? and package #'s 1 and 2 were things I ordered from Amazon or somewhere). So I have a happy.
So, most of you know it's almost my Birthday. Every year, 'round my Birthday, I start having these things I like to call, Thinkings. Usually the Thinkings result in a nice detailed list of things I need to do in the coming year to Improve My Life. Things like, routine exercise, eat lots of vegetables, memorize passages of Scripture, Get up early, and things like this. Good Things. Yes. And then I am very Good for about a month, post-Birthday. So by the time most people are starting to work on their Lists (or as most people call them, new year's resolutions), I am failing mine. *sigh*
Well, so this year, my Thinkings went sort of like this: I started Thinking the other day, that there are so many things I used to love doing, hobbies or activities, that I don't do at all anymore. Really, since moving to Alaska over six years ago. I got busy with Real Life, like having a job and teaching Sunday School, and volunteering and stuff, that I lost track of all the little things I enjoy doing. Things like, taking pictures. Like, I still take photos of my friends or whatever, but nothing I used to do in highschool, or even college. I used to really be into photography, but somewhere along the way I just stopped taking so many pictures. Along with that, I used to really love scrapbooking. Saving memories in a creative way was so much fun for me. I haven't touched a scrapbook in years. I'm doing well just to upload the few photos I do take onto Facebook. Also, sports or outdoor activities like hiking, or playing soccer or volleyball. Those things are harder because you kind of have to find someone else to do them with, but even in Alaska, I played "Wallyball" with my co-workers once a week and I really looked forward to Wallyball night. In highschool I'd go running with friends, in college I played on the girl's basketball team for a year, intermural soccer and volleyball, and I loved it. And now, I'm doing really really well to jog for like ten minutes down my street. It's very sad to me.
And COOKING! I love cooking. and baking. I did some in Alaska, but not as much as Id've liked. And reading. I used to read and read and read all the time, all throughout highschool and college. all kinds of books, novels, trilogies.. Somewhere along the way after that, I just stopped.
And I was thinking about how sad I was that I didn't do these things anymore, because I want to. I tell myself I don't have any time, but really, people make time for things that are important to them. This is the truth.
So, this year, in addition to all the normal things I need to do to Improve my Life, I am going to make a big effort to bring back some of the joys that these hobbies used to bring me. Starting with this, I'm going to invest in a new camera and this time, I'm actually going to use it. You can keep me accountable! Ask me where all my pictures are. :)
This last year was kind of a blur for me, and I think I spent most of the year trying just to keep up with myself. I think I've finally settled here and become comfortable with the area, the people, and myself in this culture. and I have big plans for next year and I'm really, REALLY excited about them. Instead of working for Jackson 5, next year I plan to take Chinese classes at a local university. I'll be applying for school in the spring, along with a scholarship that will allow me to study full-time without having to work. Even if I don't get the scholarship, I can make it working part-time, if I'm diligent about saving now.
I had a whole bunch of really insightful, wonderful, deep things to say here, but I got really tired all of a sudden and I think I just lost one of my stitches. Aahh!
Anyway, fellow bloggers, please help me to pray for my Chinese study plan for next year. I feel this is the direction the Lord is leading me, so I'm gonna go for it. I'm also just very recently starting to become more involved with my cell group here, and next year will also be attending more of the Banner discipleship training classes, so I'm expecting next year to be one of tremendous spiritual growth, change, and happiness.
OH and also, over the next couple of weeks I will be strongly presenting the Gospel in my younger class, so.. that's a prayer point too. I'm hoping most of them understand enough to commit their lives to Christ, even at such a young age. Help me pray for that too, ok?
THANKS! I'm going to bed. No. first i'm going to check out this stitches situation. Ok. Later! :)

I'm back!

First of all, my apologize for slacking off in the blogging department! By the time I remember I even have a blog, I'm too tired to sit down and type about stuff that happened in recent weeks, and by the time I finally do get around to it (like..um..now), I forgot half the stuff that happened. oops.
But I'll do my very best. Let's see.. well, as you all are well aware, last week (no..week before last? no. last week. ? ) was Thanksgiving, thus we appropriately had a Thanksgiving gathering (gathering = 32 people in our modestly sized apartment) the Sunday before Thanksgiving. One of the guys in our cell group picked up a turkey, complete with the head and neck
(side note * I may agree with the Asians on this one - the turkey looks more complete with the head and neck even after it's cooked. I always secretly thought the headless, neckless, tidy little turkeys and chickens in the States were kind of...sadly unwhole. This turkey was like "look I'm proud to be a whole turkey even though I'm cooked". Anyway, there I gave you a sneak peek into Sharon's logical little world... )
And we managed to whip up (no pun intended) some mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry yummy stuff, and other appropriate Thanksgiving fare, such as black peppered soybeans, steamed water chestnuts, red bean ... um..deserty stuff, cream puffs, dumpings, and ... sweet potatoes.
?HAHAHAHA Samson was standing on my Bible just now and he slid off and scared himself. That was funny. He looks rather miffed.
Dumplings. Not dumpings. I re-read my last paragraph. Oops.
anyway, if you follow this blog, you may recall that a few months ago I attempted to have my wisdom teeth removed in clinic with a local anaesthetic and it didn't work out so well. I have kind of put it off since then, and lost contact with that dentist (who I'm quite certain never wants to see me again), and so was wondering how I was to go about getting my wisdom teeth removed. I finally brought it up as a prayer request in cell group, and one of the girls in my prayer group was like, "Oh, my boyfriend's a dentist. Why don't you talk to him?" It turned out he was also in cell group that day. He helped me with an appointment at his hospital and they scheduled a surgery for me. In two days. This Saturday. Augh. While I am very grateful to the Lord for working all this out for me, and I learned a good lesson that I should just pray first about my problems instead of worrying about them and save myself all that mind trouble, I'm not very excited about this Saturday.
I have been googling "wisdom teeth surgery" which, by the way, is a terrible way to ease your nerves before a surgery. Yikes.
But! at least it will be over and done with and I never have to think about it again, and when I wake up in the mornings, my teeth won't hurt anymore!
So, enough about that. I took some pictures of my kids, but I'm too tired to upload anything. I can't think of anything else interesting to say. I really do have a great, fun, interesting life full of little adventures every day, but I can never remember them when it's time to blog. My apologies! Oh, yes I do remember one little adventure:
So local Taiwan elections were last Saturday, and for about a month prior to the election day, the campaigners were very very active. By active, I mean driving around in little loud blue trucks blaring campaign advertisements and little tunes that are supposed to make you want to vote for whoever. I don't understand this. Being catapaulted into consciousness at 8:00 in the morning when I was enjoying a nice deep sleep with a good dream does not make me friendly towards anybody. They drive by everything everywhere all times of day, making it hard to teach at times and if you get stuck behind them on the road, they are quite slow. Anyway, the few days right before election day were very lively. The blue trucks increased in number on the roads, and in addition to the normal little loud blue trucks, there were large open blue trucks with people in the back, bonging away on drums, and launching rockets into the sky (like bottle rockets with whistles, and the occiasional person hopping out of the truck to ignite a small string of firecrackers in the middle of the road. And people, walking without a care in the world for the scooters and cars trying to sqeeze past them (and around them, through them, hopefully not on them), in parade fashing in appropriately coloring shirts or vests and carrying flags. I actually had a thought whilst I was stuck in the midst of one such parade (complete with many small loud blue trucks, large open drum-bonging trucks, scooters laden with firecrackers, police escort, and marching people without a care for traffic), that it felt a lot like being in downtown Parimaribo on New Year's Eve day. I recall waiting at a 92 second red light (there are countdowns at the lights so you know exactly how much time you spend at red lights every day), breathing in the scent of "recently exploded firecrackers", and imagining myself thousands of miles away in Suriname. It was a nice 92 seconds, (probably not for my lungs though).
Ok, I'm really really quite tired so with this I will leave you. Hopefully my next post will be full of great adventures and a succesful wisdom tooth removal story.
Goodnight!

Rubrics...and...um..whatnot.

Yes, as you can probably tell from my oh-so-interesting Title, there hasn't been a whole lot of exciting goings ons around here.
I just finished typing my 35th theme rubric comment (for those of you who need a definition of "rubric" (and I did when I read my JacksonFive contract for the first time but now I like saying it - it sounds all official teacher-ish. Anyway, you can check out this groovy website: http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/teaching/rubrics/, which uses a lot of big words. Basically a rubric is an assessment of the skills the students learned in class. Like a test, only a lot fancier and harder on the teacher).
Mostly, I meet with the students one-on-one while all the other students watch a movie, and I ask the student questions based on the theme we learned that month. If they answer without any prompting from me, I check the "No Teacher Help" box. If they need a little prompting from me, I check the "Little Teacher Help" box. There's also a "Moderate Teacher Help" and "Must Have Teacher Help" boxes. Then after I figure out where to put all the little checks, I have to type a 4-5 sentence long comment about how the student did in the theme. It takes a lot of my time, especially since I have two afternoon classes now.
That's just the theme rubrics, which we do once a month. Once a semester, we also do general rubrics, which is an overall assessment of their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. It takes a lot of time to assess where each check should go for each student there's like a million little boxes to check. Blah. But at least I don't have to grade homework.
Anyway, I'm caught up for a month at least. Next month the theme rubrics and general rubrics are all due in the same week so I will have over 70 rubric papers and comments to write. That's...a LOT.
But I still like teaching, regardless of the millions of little dancing check marks that are currently floating before my eyes as a result of me staring at them for the past couple of hours.
I picked out my Christmas songs for the JacksonFive christmas program and I start teaching them tomorrow (oh happy! Christmas is starting!). The Dolphin class, year 1, will be singing "I'm the Happiest christmas Tree" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqnjGEg0PVo&feature=fvsr and "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f7SE3zOtXE&p=FF5D74CE72FF8092&playnext=1&index=48
And Bumblebees will be singing: "One King" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OODyWYnkTl8 and "Beautiful Saviour" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCleEjxB-jI

In case you're interested in a sneak peek. And I will be teaching the Bumblebees sign language to both One King and Beautiful Saviour, which will be a lot of work, but both songs are BEAUTIFUL and will be absolutely amazing with the sign language. My co-worker Karen knows sign language so she's an invaluable resource when it comes to things like this. Actually sign language is quite fascination when you learn it. I'm intrigued.
anyhoo, as far as anything else goes, there's not been much else going, really. I'd like to report some adventures, but there haven't really been any. Samson is doing some mischief I hear in the corner so I'm going to go check it out. Hopefully my next post will be more adventurous and interesting. :)

Moon Festival, clean rooms, and (a) typhoon.

Yay! I finally figured out that if I load photos to Blogger in a backwards order than how I want them on my page, then I don't have to scoot them all around after they upload. I'm so brilliant, it's scary sometimes.
I have to give credit where credit is due, however, for these Kenting photos. As I previously mentioned in another post, I forgot my camera in Kenting, so I didn't get hardly any photos of my own. These are borrowed from my roomate Amy. You rock, Amy!
This is one I asked her to take specially for you, my blogging fans. Although my hair is askew and my legs are red as red can be, you can see I really, truly was in Kenting. HAHAHA, you know, in case there were any doubters out there.
The coastline was fantastic. It was a gorgeous scooter drive. And I don't usually say gorgeous. But it was.



Here's one of the beach from a cliffy sort of pullout on the road we were scootering on. Of course, as is usually the case, the real thing was much better than this photo portrays.












Here I am again, this time with a proper peace sign. Because, you know, I am in Taiwan. I can't forget to do a peace sign in my photos.
















Here's one of everybody, and we're all really tiny, but it was the one where everybody's hair looked the best. The wind was vicious (spelling?) up there.












As I mentioned before, one of the scooters broke down. We waited maybe 45 minutes to an hour to get it fixed in a scooter shop in a small nearby town. This is Autumn (my coworker at J5) and I waiting patiently. We are most patient. Mostly all I remember of this episode was the pain I was in already from my sunburnt legs.

I put him also on Facebook, but again here is my oddball kitten, Samson.

This was taken at a recent field trip to the Science Museum with the Bumblebees. The Science museum, as you may have noticed by now if you follow this blog, is a favorite place for field trips, not only for Jackson5, but most other schools and cram schools as well.

It's actually a great museum with very nice, well laid out and interested exhibits, with everything in both chinese and English. This one was about animal communication, which happens to be our theme for this month.

We are hanging out with this super cool peacock, who is, as one girl explained to me, "trying to call his girlfriend with his tail".

This is also how I explained the bullfrogs farther back in this exhibit, who were croaking loudly for mates. I told my kid Mason (there in the middle with the cheesy grin), that the bullfrog was trying to get a girlfriend by croaking. Mason said if he tried to get a girlfriend like that he would get slapped. (he acually didn't say it that way, but he acted it out and it was the same).

Well, you've probably heard news of the typhoon, ol' Mr. Fanapi (or just Fanapi..), who scooted through this weekend. He didn't hit Taichung too hard, actually much less than we expected, as he turned more south than we thought and mostly missed us. We got some wind and rain on Sunday morning, but nothing horrible. The south got a lot of rainfall and some flooding, but nothing like Morakot last year. So, yay!

We were sort of expecting a typhoon day on Monday, though, and didn't get one so all the J5 crew was a little bummed, but we'd rather have a safe typhoon than a terrible destructive one even if it means no typhoon days off of work.

Tomorrow's Moon Festival, and Jimmy explained the story behind moon Festival to me once...and I remember...something about a rabbit...sacrificing himself for a mouse..and an eagle..and then..going to the moon to live forever as a reward..or...something..like that. There's another story too but I forgot it. Anyway... what it DOES mean is a lot of food at work. The student's parents have been bringing SO MUCH stuff for the teachers, and it's a little overwhelming. Moon cakes and sun cakes (which are much better than moon cakes, I think), and cookies, and honey cake, and fruit. oh boy oh boy.

It also means barbecues! and I guess fireworks, unless those were for something else. I heard a lot of fireworks on my way home from work tonight.

We had a barbecue on Sunday, and it was nice but I think I ate something not quite cooked right because on Monday I had a stomach pain all day. Tonight when I went to take out the trash (tonight is..like..Moon festival Eve, I guess..since tomorrow is the holiday), there were about 7 different little barbecue gatherings going on in our courtyard. Families or friends were gathered around food-laden grills in different sections of the yard. I wish I could have taken a picture without looking...like a rude foreigner. Sausages, steak, chicken wings (and feet, and hearts, and..um. other parts), mushrooms, shrimp, corn, bamboo... soooo yummy.

I do miss grilled salmon though.

Um.. well, I suppose there were other things that I could blog about, but my hands are getting sleepy, and Samson is sneaking up on me like he does when he's ready to go in his corner. He tries so hard to sleep right next to me, but he's so loud when he purrs and after about 5 minutes he's so hot and I get annoyed. So I always let him sit there for about 2 minutes, then I pick him up and put him in his "corner" of the bed where he has his special blanket (it's a king sized bed so he practically has his own side). He tries about 5 more times to sneak up and sleep next to me, and I pick him up and plop him back in the corner and then he stays there and sleeps all through the night. He's a good cat.

Ok, well good night! Sorry I'm such a slacker at my blog. :( I'll try....

Samson grows ever larger...

..he is now a fat blob of fur that runs around at warp speed and pounces on everything and even things that are not there. Right now, though, he's a fat blob of fur asleep on my Bible.
My sunburn is getting better and my feet stopped swelling but now I feel rather dragon-ish with the scars and the skin coming off and stuff. It's not nice. Phooey.
Real Classes started today ( as opposed to the Sort of Real Classes that I was teaching in August's summer schedule ), and it's going to be a rough year for the Bumblebees. So much more work to do in so much less time! Whew. But we'll make it.
I taught my Dolphins 'Jesus Loves Me' last Friday. None of them knew it and nobody knew who Jesus was. So it was their very first ever introduction to Jesus. It was really amazing to sing 'Jesus loves me' to 14 wide-eyed 7 year olds and get to be the first one who tells them who Jesus is and that He loves them. It really struck me what a great privilege it is to teach these kids and also a great responsibility to show them the love of Christ and share the Gospel message with them in a way they'll understand. I hope I do it well this coming year.
Well, it's almost midnight. That's when I turn into a pumpkin. *har har har* I'm going to bed.
'til next time.....

All Day Field Trips and a Fuzzy Kitten. and a Sunburn.

Last Wednesday we went on an all-school, all-day field trip to some farm/entertainment park-ish sort of place in Miaoli. I had a bunch of kids to keep track of since I have two after noon classes now. We did lots of fun-ish sort of things like..."making" cookies, which involved squishing cooky crumbs into a wooden mold sort of thing and then banging the mold up-side down on the table to make the "cooky" fall out; making pinwheels, taking a tour of ancient tea-making machines, and watching a great clown/magic/fire show thing, which is where this picture was taken:

This dude is spinning some "glass" (really not glass because he dropped one on accident and it bounced - uh, huh...) bottles that are on fire, and he is blindfolded. It was a pretty impressive show, and as you can see there is a huge clown balloon on the stage.

This is a Bee I caught with my camera. He was a bugger, too. I chased him on 7 flowers before I got this picture.

Here's my "cooky-making" set-up. One box for cookys - check. One cup of crumbs - check. One wooden spoon mold thing - check. They're smiley faces.

Here's my Dolphin class! Cute, aren't they?

---aand, here are the Bumblebees, taller than ever and mostly paying attention to the camera. That little orange shirted kid on the left is Louie and he actually belongs to the Dolphin class. His English is lower than the other Dolphins and he I guess didn't understand the "move this way, Dolphins!" to get them all out of the way.

Here're two of my Dolphins, Little Shawn (we also have a Big Shawn...) , in orange and Hugo in white. They are showing off their tea leaves. Little Shawn is a silly, very friendly outgoing child who speaks pretty good English for his grade and loves to talk to me. He also loves to be silly when he shouldn't and gets in trouble a lot. But he's very sweet. He made me a paper heart at home last week and presented it to me first thing the next morning. Aw...

This is Samson, chillin' with the Word.

He's got to check everything out, you know. Even the camera.

This is one of only two pictures I took in Kenting this past weekend. The day we went out to the beach and on a scenic scooter drive, I forgot my camera in my room! *bad Sharon, bad Sharon!* I tried to take with my cell phone but didn't work. Phooey.

This is my and my friend Annie diggin' some groovy hats in the night market.

Kenting is in the southernmost tips of Taiwan and has some beautiful beaches. A couple of cell groups went on a weekend trip for fun. We spent most of the day Saturday at the beach and then went on a scenic drive around that area on rented scooters (we also had a slight delay with a broken down scooter and had to get that fixed somehow out in the middle of nowhere, but that's another story and I'm kinda tired, and it's a long one).

I applied sunblock once before going in the water. We were in the sun for .... a looong time...like...4 hours? at least. I "snorkeled" a little bit (not like, really professional...like with a kiddie snorkel), but I saw some Nemo fish and his buddies. Well, apparently my sunblock got washed off fairly soon after I was in the water, and I ended up with the mother of all Sunburns. My legs are deep dark red from the mid thigh down (I had a skirt Thing over my swimsuit) and although my back and shoulders are burnt, my legs are way ouchier. They're swollen and extremely painful - on Saturday night I nearly passed out in the night market and on Sunday I had to take ibuprofin just to stand and there was still pain. I went to Dr. today and he gave me cream and pain meds, but is still very painful.

Lesson learnt. Re-apply, re-apply, re-apply.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

My students told me I looked like a pig, and some other students said "Tr. Sharon SO SCARY!!!"

I was like a walking Sun Safety ad at the school and everywhere else I went today. They were whispering - look what happens when you don't cover up in the Sun. Hrmphphph.

I won't post a picture. The kids were right. Tr. Sharon really is SO SCARY.

Well on that note, i'm going to take those meds and go to bed...

good night.

Teaching, and such

One of the teachers at my school gave me a disc today with some photos on it from last year. The co-teachers are supposed to take photos in the classroom all the time so they can give discs to the parents at the end of the year and show them what their kid has been doing and how much fun it was. (ha, ha...)

Anyhoo, it had about 17 candids that I had no idea were taken of me so I thought I'd post a few to show what I do every day.

Okay, that last one isn't JacksonFive. That was Amanda and my drama workshop at the youth camp last month. We had almost 60 students. Whew!

Ok, that's all. I survived my first week of August - 3 more to go! I started speeding up the matrerial for my super smart Dolphin class and it's going much better.

I'm tired and hungry. I'm going to go forage. Zai jian!

of Dolphins...and...surprises...and...stress...

Hallo Blog Followers.

As I write this I'm pondering a strange situation that I hadn't thought about. I requested a year 1 class this year at JacksonFive for several reasons: 1.) They're incredibly cute and small and I loved the projects and the cute little basic English things they get taught in this year and I liked the idea of being their first English teacher ever (actually I suppose that was two reasons..anyway.) 2.) As I taught the Bumblebees last year (year 2) I wished many, many times that I had known exactly what they learned and went through the year before so I could plan better. I never got to confer with the year 1 Bumblebee teacher because he went to Hong Kong before I got here last year.

Well, today was my second day with my year 1 class, the Dolphins, and I've got a problem (a rather good problem, I suppose, but it means a lot of time for me..)

They are in a year 1 class, but all but two of them know all the things they're supposed to learn this month and many things they're supposed to learn in year 2. Over half the class has already had 2-3 years of ESL classes or kindergarten and I have three students who can effectivly use the word "ceremony" and "graduation" and many, many other words they're not supposed to know yet. They're not supposed to know ANY English words yet except maybe "hello" and "goodbye"!! There are 11 students in this class.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

I am not any of their first English teacher, they all have previous ESL training. So my simple lesson plans that I modeled after all the other first year classes are far too simple for these kids, and they are starting to complain that they already know their alphabet so why are we spending a whole class period learning one letter (as per the JacksonFive curriculum). After yesterday's class I had a parent ask the same question.

So I have to amp it up and come up with harder worksheets, more challening lessons, and way more material. And I spent sooo much time this July at home planning these lessons and I can't even use them anymore!

I'm so stressed out and on top of that, my Bumblebees decided to have drama and disrespect and behaviour issues (they are undergoing a lot of transitions this year in Chinese school: going from year 2 to year 3 in Chinese school is a HUGE transition and takes a lot of time for most students to adjust to the enourmous difference in classwork and homework). And they are growing up so they have that attitude thing. *sigh*

But, the Dolphins are reeeallly cute, and we played some games and did a song and stuff and they thought that was really a lot of fun. They like to do activee wiggly things even if they already know the stuff the active wiggly things are supposed to be teaching them. So.... yeah! I'm pretty sure with the right planning I can really take advantage of this and Dolphins can be one of the top classes at JacksonFive, like...ever. But with Bumblebee class too.... planning is very stressful for me right now.

AAUGH.

Here's a photo of my cat, Samson. He's fuzzy. I like him.

He's my buddy.

So, that's been my two days so far. ONLY TWO DAYS!! AUUGGHHH... how will I ever make it through this year?!

Realizing you're way underprepared for something is not a great feeling. Jai yo, me... (Go, go, me..)

Guess I'd better get to work.

Samson

Hallo faithful blog followers!
I have a cat. A kitten, more exactly. I've always wanted my own cat, but couldn't because of landlords and allergic roommates, or different other living situations. So I checked with my roomates 'bout a week ago and they said if I got a cat they were fine with that.
So a couple days later Jimmy and I went on a "date" to the 24 hour pet store (we went at like..midnight. Jimmy works pretty late so we do what we can to hang out...and the pet store is kind of fun. They have a lot of puppies. And we like to watch the fishes) Anyway, since I was now "free" to get a cat I went to check out the kittens. And I started playing with one in the window. And I knew I wanted him.
He's a little 10 week old black and white Persian kitten that's supposedly a purebred (he'd better be for what I payed for him), and he's very playful but also likes to come sleep on your stomach when he's tired. He likes to jump on my bed and stare at me while I'm sleeping which is kind of creepy to wake up to. He's a very good cat. I'm pleased. Even when I gave him a bath, he stood in the tub all well behaved and didn't try to bite or scratch. I didn't have to hold him down at all, he didn't even try to jump out of the tub. He did meow pitifully during the whole process, and looked kind of miffed afterwards, but I was still very impressed.
I named him Samson because he is very hairy. I have to brush him every day.
I have pictures, but it's really late now so I'll post them another time. But take my word for it. He's cuter than 99% of the cats in the whole world. He could be a kitten model.
School starts on Monday. I went in to prep some stuff this afternoon and was a little overwhelmed at all the stuff I have to do. Even though I've been lesson planning all month, there's still a load of prep work for August. August is still summer schedule, so that means more classes and waaay more of those classes are "theme" classes (don't follow a book which means I have more prep and planning to do). I hope I don't get sick.
Well, it's been a nice laid back July vacation, but next year...I'm going somewhere. I don't care where. I'm takin' a vacation.
August, here I come!

Rain rain....blah

It's been raining all day. Blah. I've been inside. Anyway, many of you will I think be happy with the new blog layout which should load much faster than the flowerie one.
Um...camp was fun. I just woke up from a nap so I'm not in much of a blogg-ing state of mind. There's not a whole lot to report from camp, we had a lot of down time. I did the drama workshop again and it was just as fun as last year. Lots of creativity. I finished a book. We visited the Taichung harbor and I ate some squid-on-a-stick and a sausauge on a stick with garlic and saw some slimy slitherly sea creatures for sale. We went swimming. We played a lot of cards. Um....yeah. :)
I still haven't heard from my dentist so I'm starting to give up that the surgery will happen before school starts. So some time in August, and then I will have to struggle through classes with a mouth full of...gauze...oh, pooh.
Um.... nothing very exciting is going on, really. Just...lesson planning, and ...stuff. Watching Survivor on PPS. yes, very exciting. :)
That's all. Hope the new blog template helps.

Sun Moon Lake, etc.

Well, I think it's high time I posted some photos of the happenings around here. Blogger confuses me with its photo placement when I upload, so I scoot them around but I apologize in advance if this post is still hard to follow. :) At least I posted, right?

This was taken a few weeks ago at Stephanie's "goodbye" part which was cleverly disguised as an '80's party. Steph left this week, sadness and sorrow for us, but she's going to a Bible school in Redding, CA for a year and I'm sure she'll have a great time. I got to move into her bedroom which is HUGE mongolous and has a king-sized bed and two closets and... way more room than I need but I'm also pretty stoked about having all the space. I'm sad Steph had to leave for me to get it, but..that's the way it goes, I s'pose.

Check out my groovy shirt "Mullets Rule".

This is me also at the "80's party" with one of my students who showed up kind of on accident. Her name's Cherry.

Ok! Here I am at Sun Moon Lake. We went on an ITPS team trip this past Wednesday. In retrospect, I should've removed my groovy shades for this self-portrait, but oh well. I like this particular lake's shade of blue.

Here's a picture of the lake from our hotel window. We scored these amazing rooms overlooking the lake for 800NT for the night which included dinner and breakfast (that's about 26 USD) Pretty cool....

Here we are on a dock somewhere on the lake makin' faces. Faces make a photo just that much better. :)

Left to right: Josephine, Amy, Marvin, Me, Autumn, Beth, David, Mandy, Vicki, Jacob, and BoBo.

Here we are again, in the same place, but Not Making Faces. Same order as above. Wheee...

This was taken on a dock outside our hotel that evening. The lighted things behind us are a band of big glowing insects rockin' out. This is a "pose" photo. Aren't we great posers...

Left to right: Iris, Mandy, BoBo, Vicki, Autumn, Amy, Beth, and Me.

We visited an Assam Tea Farm the next day. All my other photos at this place turnd out really dark, but here's another group photo.

....and these are my awesome dumplings from a couple of weeks ago. I want to see how many people read this blog and then become hungry when they see this picture.

Yes, so that's it for photos for now. I will be going to the Banner youth camp this week. After some roundabout communication with my dentist, I now understand they won't have a surgery room available until August for me (AAUUGUGGHH) which means I will have to do the four teeth out surgery on a weekend and hope I'm sufficiently recovered for class on Monday. My August schedule is kind of crazy with my new class, so please pray for me! I'm a little worried about it.

Umm..... I can't think of anything else particularly interesting to blog about. Two more weeks of vacation! Yay me.... :)

I probly won't update my blog for at least a week because I'll be at camp. Zai jian!

Bowling...whee..

I'm ba-a-a-ack... just thought I'd upload a few photos of our bowling tonight. We went out for my new co-worker, Autumn's, birthday. The bowling alley is also a pool hall and video game arcade, and I found this interesting game. "Hit, Hit Alaska". Hmmnnn...














Here I am, supposedly "hitting" Alaska. I guess I'm more of "leaning" on Alaska..













Here a few new friends: left to right: Coralee from France, Amy from North Carolina, Autumn from Colorado, and David from..somewhere. Illinois, maybe?

Autumn's my new co-worker at JacksonFive. She didn't come with ITPS. Coralee I met through Banner. She didn't come through ITPS either. Actually neither did David. He's just friends with us. Hmm.






WE all came with ITPS. ME (you know, in case you forgot..), Elizabeth from Illinois, BoBo (Bonita) from California but originally from Taiwan, and Vicki, from California but originally from Hong Kong.







That's it. I've nothing new to report except, I am an exceptionally terrible bowler. ok, zai jian! :)

Blah

well, I didn't exactly get my wisdom teeth removed today. My blood pressure dropped really low while the oral surgeon was working on yanking my top left one out, and I nearly passed out and gave them all a big scare. Instead of finishing the procedure, the dentist sent me to the ER for "observation" even though I felt perfectly fine (except for a numb mouth) about five minutes after all this happened.
So I spent a coupla hours in the China Medical hospital ER getting all kinds of screenings to figure out why my blood pressure dropped so low suddenly (it came back up), and I told them this happens even when I get my blood drawn. I think it's a vasovagal (?) reaction? I think that's what it's called. Where your body reacts by passing out when you see or experience anything bloody or medical-ish. I kept saying "I'm ok now, I'm ok now, REALLY, I'm ok" but they kept saying "no, no, it's procedure, you must stay". Blah.
So I still have my wisdom teeth (although, one is pretty loose and now that the local anesthetic has worn off is pretty sore too, and I can wiggle it! painfully). They will schedule another surgery for me under general anesthetic this time (the oral surgeon is afraid of me now, I think), and just take all four at once. But I have to do all kinds of screeings first for the general anesthesia and meet with the anesthesiologist. While I appreciate their thoroughness, it's all so mafang (bothersome) and I just want to give up altogether. But I will push through and get it done. Blah. that's what I've got to say today.

Of teeth, and puzzles

I saw the dentist this morning and scheduled my wisdom tooth pulling surgery for Friday at 3 pm. It sounds most unpleasant and I'm really REALLY REALLY REALLY not looking forward to it. I've been putting it off for several years for three reasons: 1.) I never had enough money; 2.) I never had enough time; and 3.) I'm afraid.
So now I have a month to recover and the surgery is mostly covered by my national health insurance and will only cost me NT 170 (which is around $5 USD and is RIDICULOUSLY cheap for having two wisdom teeth pulled), so I'm left only with excuse #3: I'm afraid. But I'm doing it anyway because in the words of my dentist (and two others before this one): "You MUST." Blah.
Apparently I'll be awake and under a local anasthetic and they have to saw my tooth out and it's really close to a nerve and I was told I might be numb in my chin and lip "indefinitely" if they nick the nerve on accident. AAAAUUUUGGGHHHH.... I think Thursday night will be mostly sleepless for me....
The dentist also said that although I need all four out, it's too risky to pull them all at the same time so they're doing one side at a time (two at a time), and since it will take "probably three weeks" to fully recover from one side, I will probably have to do the other side either at Chinese New year or next July. I'm one unHappy Sharon right now. :(
On a lighter note, I've rediscovered my fondness for puzzles. I'm currently doing two: an old world map 1000 piece puzzle and a Thomas Kinkade painting 1000 piece puzzle, both of which are buggers and I've made many mistakes already. It's fun. I put on some "Friends" on the Tv in the background and puzzle away. When I worked in the elder care home in Alaska before I came here, one of the residents was an avid puzzler. She also had Parkinson's and couldn't control her shaking but she still managed to complete about one (huge) puzzle a week. This is what she did ALL day except for meal and nap times, while the other residents watched CSI on Tv (not kidding - CSI and Monk were all they would watch. I made them switch to the Amazing Race on Sunday nights when I worked there and they would fall asleep. hrmpph.). Not surprisinginly, Pearl (the puzzl-er), was the sharpest of the bunch. The others forgot lots of things...often didn't know what was going on...and..occasionally tried to wander out into the woods somewhere looking for things that did not exist, but Pearl knew what was up pretty much all the time. I figured it was the years of puzzles that sharpened up her brain cells. She was amazing - she kept track of all her doctors appointments and medications and was known to call employees on their mistakes. I can't even keep track of my doctor's appointments now. Good for Pearl, I always thought.
So thanks to Pearl, I'm sharpening up my brain cells for when my day comes. :) and since I anticipate sitting in my house slurping pudding for the foreseeable future, I might as well be somewhat productive.
The new team is gone at camp this week so I have the house to myself. It's actually been a nice quiet break and I've done a lot of cleaning, puzzling, and a little bit of lesson planning *pats self of back*.
They are all going to Sun Moon Lake on an overnight retreat next week and I'm *hopefully* going as well, unless the tooths pain is unbearable. Then the week after that I'm going to the next youth camp and I think my workshop this year will be arts & crafts. Hmm... gotta think of something cool enough for junior highers to "make"...
Anyhow, not much new or exciting is going on here besides all that (which, puzzles and wisdom teeth aren't really that new or exciting), so just if you who read this could keep me in your prayers for Friday since I really am pretty nervous about it and I've had more than 3 dentists (and the internet) tell me it will be very painful. :(
Zai jian! Probably I won't post again until next week.

Whew *wiping forehead*...

.... it's seriously HOT around here! I don't remember it being quite this hot and humid last summer, but I suppose it probably was. I was probably just so excited to be somewhere warmer than Alaska that I didn't think too much about it. :)
Yesterday we putted around with the new team, and then I made lesson plans for my first week of school in August. My schedule in August will be mon-fri. 8 am - 5 pm, and it's pretty much class after class after class... lunch, then class after class after class...so I would like to be completedy prepped before August rolls around.
I had the best fried Dumplings ever for lunch today. Curry fried Dumplings. We each got 12 nice fat Dumplings for 60 NT (less than $2 US). I'm still amazed at how cheap and good the food here is. It's nice to see the new teachers appreciating it too. :)
I almost wish it would rain a little bit nowadays and cool things down a little (oo - better be careful what I wish for - watch us get a typhoon now that I said that.... )
It's almost 4th of July (not that it's any special day around here), but we are having a BBQ at the church (mostly for us foreigners....and any excuse for a BBQ is good :)
But I can't help but think what I'm missing out on in Alaska on the 4th .... Julie's barbecue chicken and steaks and salmon and corn and potato salad.... and nice sunny cool weather and playing wiffle ball.....
o-o-o-o-o..... but, although I have moments where I do miss little bits like that of Alaska, I am really quite content here.
AND I'M SOOO HAPPY that I don't have to work this afternoon! Or for any afternoon for the next MONTH! :) :) :) :) :)
Bumblebee time will come soon enough. And my new 1st year class will be the Dolphins, just for future reference as I'm sure I will be blogging about them shortly.
Ok, I'm out! Off to Starbucks I go....
Zai jian!

SCHOOL'S OUT!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!

Although, I should be careful about just how excited I am to have a one-month vacation because I've had three people ask me already, "Was your job that bad?" Haha...no really, I love working at JacksonFive and I absolutely love my Bumblebees, but after a year full of kids, kids, kids day after day, hours after hours, it's really really nice to have this BREAK!!
Yesterday was my last day of classes for the year, and even though I knew I was coming back, it was still a weird kind of a feeling. The kind of weird "everything's changing" feeling that I get when I move somewhere or change jobs or something. We just did a fun day, made some gifts for each other and teachers in class, and went to the park (it was soooo sooo HOT but the kids still had fun) to play, and then I cleaned up my desk, loaded up my prep stuff and books and binders to take home to get ready for classes in August, and drove away not to return for a month! yay meee....
*whew* I feel sooo tired and I haven't even done anything, really. The new ITPS team got here late late late Tuesday night and they also looked soo tired... Having the new teachers be here is fun because they can all share their adventures with us and they have this fresh outlook on Taiwan and we get to share our experience with them and stuff, and it makes me think over my last year here and how much I've learned.
Wow, I've come a long way! I took the new JacksonFive teacher I'll be working with, Autumn, out for a test scooter drive today and taught her how to "work" a scooter and she did great. It reminded me of when I learned to drive and how excited I was to get a scooter and be all independent. :) So many people were so helpful to me when I moved here and answerd all my questions and took time out to take me places and show me stuff, and I'd like to be that blessing to the new team too.
But, it's Taiwan summer-time which brings lots of heat and humidity, and being in go-go-go mode all the time is making me soo tired. They just went to the church for a dinner that I opted out of so I could get a little time to be just "me" and also to hang out with Jimmy later. I've been so busy and so has he, and we've not really gotten to spend much time to gether these past couple of weeks. I feel bad for him, since now that his finals are over and he has a little bit less stress, now I'm all caught up in the "new ITPS team" whirlwind of activity so we still don't have a lot of time to hang out together. :(
So my roomate Stephanie will move to California for school on the 14th of this month and then I will move into her room and also take over her scooter. It's sad to say goodbye to her as we've lived and worked together for a year (she also taught at JacksonFive), but happy for her. So two new ITPS girls will live with me and Amanda in a few weeks. Change is good, change is fun, but it also makes me realize how fast time is going. I can't believe it's already been a year.
I told my friends today that I de-activated my Facebook account over a month ago. Most of them hadn't even realized! So I guess my Facebook page wasn't that important after all. :) Sometimes I miss being on Facebook 'cause I can't "check up" on peoples lives, but really if they're my real friends I should email or call them to see what's up or if they're here I should be hanging out with them face to face. I don't know if I'll reactivate or not, but right now life goes on just fine without Facebook. It motivates me to blog more often so people can keep up with me, instead of assuming they'll keep up on my Facebook one-liner statuses.
Yah, so that's it for me lately. I'm hoping to get my wisdom teeth, at least a couple of 'em, pulled next week while everybody's at camp (I'll go to the next camp in three weeks), and maybe a couple of day trips with Jimmy if we can. Whew. I'm acually quite exhausted. I may have to take a nap now.
Jin tian, hen re! (Today, very hot!) Zai jian!

of co-teachers, Bumblebees and Koalas

My co-teacher, Teacher Tina, is not returning to JacksonFive next year. She lives kind of far away and has to take care of her mom. She's been the Bumblebee co-teacher for the last two years and has literally been with them (in the same room) for about 6 hours every day, 5 days a week. They're pretty attached. So we're making this ginormous cool card for her and we took a picture last week to put on the front. I took four pictures and it was like pulling teeth to get the boys to smile nicely without making a face *siggh* here they are:

ok, I did tell them they could make a silly face for one. This one was my fault.

This one would be ok, except you can't see about three of the kids because they're too short and are standing in the back (aggh, bad planning teacher Sharon!), and my Kyle only has his hands up (I guess he figured since somebody was standing in front of him he'd better try to get some part of him in the picture)

The girls are so cute and the boys are unmanageable. Seriously, I couldn't make them just smile nice. Well, it's test week for them so maybe they're a little off.

This one, even in it's weirdness, is the winner for the card. You can see all the kids, and...yeah, that's pretty much why.

This is one of my night classes, the Koalas. They're a little bit older, about 5th grade - junior high aged, with the oldest being Tommy on the left in black. He's 13.

When I started teaching this class it was a nightmare. They didn't know anything they were supposed to know at this level English class, some of them had attitude, and nobody would ever volunteer or do the conversation activities.

But now we have a lot of fun. They've come a looonnnng way. I'm really proud of them, actually.

My co-teacher for this class, Tr. Fanny, is also leaving next year so this will go in a card for her.

My Bumlebees are so cute. They've been making little "gifts" for teacher Tina at home and will sneak up to me with their hands cupped and whisper "look what I'm going to give Tr. Tina!" and it will be some little paper thing or note or something and I'll whisper back "it's amazing! she'll love it! go hide it until Wednesday" (our last day of class). This has happened about four times this week. They can't wait until Wednesday..and neither can I!

wheee ... vacation here I come! :)

Tonight we're having a good-bye party for my roomate Stephanie and couple of other people from our cell group who are leaving this summer. It's an 80's party so we're supposed to dress 80's ish. Well I was a tiny kid in the 80's and also I lived in Suriname.. how am I supposed to know..

but I did remember the big ol' T-shirts the older kids in school used to wear and they would bunch them up on one side and tie it with a scrunshie or a t-shirt clip made specially for this purpose. I inherited a big red t-shirt from a previous teacher that has a black outline of a guy with a mullet hair-do and sunglasses on the front and it says "Mullets rule! business in the front, party in the back". I sort of think mullets are 80's...maybe...anyway, I'll wear that and tie it on one side with a scrunchie and wear some big red earrings and my black and red Converse shoes and I should look sort of 80's. I think the other foreigners will be dressed in similar attire, but I'm interested to see what the Taiwanese people do. Should be fun, I'll post some pictures.

Well, I've gotta run. Zai jian!

Problems with Cell phones, Mold and Mildew, and Shower heads

I seem to have a problem with cell phones. I lost my cell phone after going to Jimmy's KTV (Karoke) party last weekend (I think it fell out of my pocket in the KTV room), and so now I'm using Jimmy's old cell phone as he now has a new iPhone he got for his birthday. It's a skinny, slipper little thing that's always jumping out of my hand.
So the other night I was sitting on my bed with my laptop and the phone RIGHT beside me. I KNEW it was there. I was checking my receipts against the winning numbers of the Taiwan receipt lottery (if you Google Taiwan Receipt Lottery, the first link should be for the tealit.com article about what it is along with the winning numbers. It's basically a way to keep businesses legal. All reciepts have numbers and ever two months they post winning numbers, you can win small amounts or very large amounts of cash. I haven't won anything yet, but I still diligenlty save my receipts and check every two months.) Well I had a mountain of receipts for the last two months that I was piling on my bed as I checked them. Then, when I had sadly confirmed that I hadn't won anything (again), I scooped them all up and dumped them in my trash can.
Later, I couldn't find my cell phone. I looked high and low, stripped my bed, I KNEW it had been there. I couldn't believe I'd lost a phone again.
So I went to the living room where my roomate Stephanie was watching Tv and asked her to please call my phone, so she did, and it rang - - from my purse! I was like how the..what the...HOW IS IT IN MY PURSE! I KNEW it had been on my bed! I thought I was going NUTS. I tore apart my purse and couldn't find it! I seriously thought I was going crazy or just really really tired.
Well, when I come in my room, I have a plastic stool right inside the door that I put my purse on. And under the stool, guess what - - the trash can.
So you guess where the phone was.
That's right, in the trash can, along with the huge pile of receipts I'd scooped up earlier that night.
Stephanie says "I'll keep this one between you and I" and walked away chuckling.
*palm to forehead* how Stupid am I!!!!

So I went to clean the bathroom yesterday. The new team of (mostly) girls is coming in a little over a week and will be staying here for a few days, so I thought I would make the bathroom really clean. Well, I bought some Mr. White and some gloves for the job. Mr. White is the local can of "anything" foamy cleaner that is very strong and noxious and totally terrible for your skin and lungs, but works magic.
I sprayed the tub and shower walls with Mr. White, left the bathroom to put on a face mask, and returned to scrub away. I scrubbed away the most mold and mildew I'd ever seen. When I sprayed it with the showr head after scrubbing it was like a wall of black. But it was lurking in the gray "stuff" between the tiles, so it was hard to see until I cleaned it. So nasty. I couldn't believe this is where I'd been coming to get "clean". Ew.
So I was all proud that I'd finished that noxious job, then I was so proud too that I'd bought this cool rotating massager jets thing showr head for only 39 NT on sale! (a little over a dollar). But it doesn't fit on our hose. PHOOEY! So now I have a showr had hanging out in my room irritating me when I look at it because I can't use it.
This post is rather boring, you can see my days of late haven't been too exciting. School ends soon and July should come with lots of fun things, new people, wisdom teeth removal, trips, and pictures. Stay posted.

Flat Sharon's First Birthday Walk

Here she is! Over a year since she was "born" and given to me as a gift by thoughtful co-workers, Flat Sharon has had a most boring year sitting on my shelf. But I took her on a Birthday Walk and so here she is outside my apartment building.

















And here she is being "green" and doing her share to save the world by recyling. Those first three big green bins are for general trashes, then there's one for plastic bags, one for glass and metal, four different kinds of plastic bins, and one for paper down on the end. And one barrel for food scraps waay down at the very end. It's intense.



Here she is also outside my apartment building. She likes the plants.












Here she is ready to ride on my scooter, but I didn't have a helmet that would fit her so I told her she was out of luck.


You know, I don't want her to get squisht any flatter in an accident or something.


She needs a helmet.








Here she is back in the house, in the living room right inside the front door, where she will dutifully remove her shoes.





Here she's chillin' in my bedroom and surfin' the web. Note "Buddy" my Bamboo plant there on the bedside shelf. He's made significant growing progress.

Here are the Bumblebees on their recent field trip to the Science Museum. This was, I think, a mammoth at some point in history. The kids aren't really paying attention. This is a funny picture.














Here are some more Bumblebees in front of a model Chinese pagoda which up close is very detailed.












Aaaand here we are again, with Tr. Sharon this time. We're cute.















I haven't got anything new to blog about. Just wanted to post some pictures. And to report I sneezed about 300 times today. I hope I'm not getting a cold again.
Zai jian.