Here are almost all my Bumblebees in one of the "medicinal" square pools. There was one older dude in there already and he is on the left in the red cap - look how annoyed he is that 18 little yellow headed kids have invaded his Bubble.

They had this cool ... slidey Thing...I can't tell which student this is but I think they're having fun.

Here are some of my girls having some swimming fun. From left to right, Rowling, Louise, and Ivy.

Here is the pool (kind of dark, sorry) you can kind of see the little walls where people hang onto while the adjustable squirty-jets massage them.

This is little fuzzy-headed Eathen, he is very tiny and under this yellow swim cap he has such all this sticking-up fuzzy hair. He is so cute. He is my "secret favorite". :)

More splashing kids.

Splashing, happy kids.

Strawberry and Peanut Butter (together, mind you) M&M's. Go figure. I actually haven't tried these yet. They are still in my bag.

Ohhh... let's see...I'm trying to remember what has happened since the last time I blogged..I'm sorry my blogging fans, but I have been too caught up in the day to day life that it is easier to post a one-liner on Facebook than it is to sit down and write a real blog!

Classes are going okay, but I am still learning how to handle discipline issues, especially with my evening junior-high aged class. Apparently, teachers are not so cool when you are in junior high and I get a lot of eye-rolling and sneaking of notes in class. Also the culture here requires that children are in school all day from about 8 am to 9 pm and then they have to go home and do homework and have to go to school on Saturday too, so I kind of don't blame them for being tired and restless in their night classes.

We are now in a unit about Butterflies in my afternoon Bumblebee class, and so now our classroom is fully decorated with ants and butterfly crafts adorning every possible corner and hanging from all over the ceiling. I must take a picture sometime soon to post.

Last Thursday we went to the swimming pool (see above photos). The pool here is way cool because they have not only a regular sized swimming pool, but also a shallower section for kids, and a whirlpool section, and a squirty-jets section, and then little spa sections that have "medicine" herb stuff in them to "heal" things and make your skin "whiter" (whitening is a big thing here in Taiwan - nobody wants a tan, they all want to be whiter. "Teacher your skin so white!" is actually a huge compliment although I ruefully crinkle my nose when they say it to me). Also just to observe all the people wearing those ridiculously nerdy swim caps is just a funny sight.

I am getting faster on my scooter now and I haven't had any close calls yet. I am loving the scooter freedom! The other day I accidentally left my keys in the ignition when I parked at the school and then I was freaking out because I couldn't find my keys and I thought I may have locked them in the seat (storage section) of the scooter, but I noticed my helmet had been put on my seat instead of in the basket where I left it, so when I picked up my helmet, my keys were there! Apparently some do-gooder had taken my keys out of the ignition and "hidden" them under my helmet so nobody would steal my scooter! Yay, thank you Jesus.

I don't know if anybody has been following the disaster typhoon Morakot left in it's wake in the southern part of Taiwan, but if not do a google search for "typhoon Morakot Taiwan" and read about it. There is still a great deal of work to be done to restore homes and businesses to order and help people who have lost everything in those towns and villages to get back on their feet. Our church is sending teams every weekday to do clean up work, until this weekend when the military took over. Then we found out yesterday that the military now needs volunteers to help with the clean-up. I would go except my work schedule is kind of non-flexible. :( But please if you remember, pray for those people. So many people lost absolutely everything, and there was even an entire village wiped out and buried by a mudslide. Thankfully Taichung is pretty protected by mountains on all sides, so we are usually ok in natural disasters, but not everybody was so safe.

So far, outside of classes I've been hanging out with my roommates, eating out with friends, helping other friends move and clean their new apartments, watching re-runs of 'Friends' (aahh it followed me here! :), night market shopping, etc. etc. Fun times to be had by all.

Well, I haven't got anything else truly interesting to blog about. So perhaps by the next time I "blog" I will have more interesting things to talk about. :)