Samson, samson, let down your hair..oh wait. You don't have any!

After being advised many times by my Taiwanese friends that I am cruel to allow Samson to keep his fluffy hair during the terrifically hot days of summer, I finally caved in. Samson had been panting a lot. So I thought... I'll give it a try.





I'm glad they left him a bit of dignity at the end of his tail.



He's stopped panting, so I suppose it worked.

last days of a Taiwan teacher..part 1 - Dolphins!

Whoa. Last days of a Taiwan teacher sounds kind of like... I'm dying or something. Actually, June 30th was my last day at JacksonFive, at least in the afternoon classes. So here's my day..
Two of my cute Dolphins pose Taiwan-style with the peace sign and everything.





They made cards for me last week and bombarded me with them at the beginning of our second class. It's a skill to pluck 18 franticly waving cards from the air whilst battling to stand upright amongst 18 small children all trying to get their arms around your waist.


But I did it somehow.

We played a game for prizes. They got to draw their prizes after the game. I just love these two photos because the looks on little Gary and Shawn's faces are so funny to me. The guy in the green holding the box is the new Dolphin teacher, Aaron. He helped me take most of these photos. Obviously, not these particular two, since he's in them..

During break time (which went well into Real Class Time), we posed for some happy snaps.

OH! Louie! My little Louie was my special little guy. I always made him blush by saying "oh Loouuiiee! I loooveee you!!" but I know he liked it. :)

Class photos

Sillies...

Making hearts! (well. Two of the boys in the back are actually making triangles. On purpose.)

I got tackled after the class photos. I knocked poor Edward on the head with my teeth. However, he's none the worse for the wear.

More photos to follow of the Bumblebees...

Oh, in other newsy news, Lady Gaga was here in concert not two hours ago. Here, as in Taichung, at the amphitheater park right across from Banner church. I did not attend. I sat here and uploaded photos. This, I thought, was a more worthy way to spend my time than attending a free Lady Gaga concert with 24,000 other people at an amphitheater designed for 8000.
If, however, Josh Groban had been in concert tonight, I would have not only fought my way to the front of the amphitheater, I would actively be hunting him down at his private after party right now to proclaim my undying love for him.

Whew. Good thing it wasn't Josh Groban. Or these photos might never have made it onto my blog. :)

last days of a teacher in Taiwan, part 2 - Bumblebee

Here I am, five minutes later in the Bumblebee classroom for my last day with them. This card is from Ernie, but upon seeing it uploaded upside-down and I have no idea how to rotate it in Blogger, I think I won't upload the other cards. It says something to the effect of "you are a pretty and gently teacher. I hope you can everyday was happy." aw. Ernie also gave me my favorite chocolates. Ernie is awesome.

Our last day in Bumblebee class was book choosing day, where they went in turns to pick books from the ones they read during our reading program this year to keep and take home.

Sillies...


I let them doodle all over the whiteboard. For once. They're actually never allowed to do this.

But I'm glad I let them.

We're cute.








We're still cute!

And still cuter!

Goodbye, Bumblebees! Thanks for a great two years! :)

Adventures in naughty students and snails in my dinner box

Whew. Today's been a rough one. I went into work today a little saddened because this is my last working Friday with my afternoon kiddies, and Fridays are usually the "good day" of the week because we get to do all the fun stuff, like music and arts/crafts, and storytime. It's the "fun" day.
Wellllll I suppose due to end-of-the-year excitement, and final exam stress, and who knows what else, the kids were off the wall, Tigger-bouncy, wiggly wild little children. Who replaced my beautifully behaved Dolphins with these kids?!? I handled it alright in music class, where they bounced all over the place singing at the top of their lungs.
I handled it in arts and crafts when they wanted to glue ALL the die cuts in the box to their thank-you-teacher cards.
But in storytime, when I was trying very hard to impart God's truth about the last fruit of the spirit, "self-control" (of all things), I couldn't handle it anymore. My co-teacher Jamie is usually quiet good at maintaining discipline, but she had a lot of translation work to do so she was out of the class most of the day.
Waggh! They were turning around backwards to me, laughing at each other, making faces, yelling things out, interrupting...
So I gave them a "talk". A most stern "talk" about respect and such things. I almost never have stern "talks" with them. They were very sorrowful afterwards and did apologize and I forgave them.
But then I was all sad that my last Friday with them went such a way. *sniff*
On Monday, I get to tell them they have a new teacher next year. Not only that, but New Teacher is a Boy!! I think I will have some really happy students and some really sad students at that news. Mostly, the girls will be really sad, and the boys will be really happy.
In other news, one of our new J5 teachers arrived today. Her name is also Jaime. She'll be living here at the apartment with Amy, Beth and I. Yah for new friends!
In other other news, there's a typhoon heading this way. hm.
Oh, adventures in snails. I had spicy snails in my dinner box tonight. Did I ask for them? No. They were one of the standard sides for the night I guess. Did I try them? I'd like to think I'm a very adventurous sort of person. I ate stinky tofu once and it wasn't bad. But..spicy snails... *cough* are not for me. If that makes me not adventurous, then..so be it.
This weekend's plan includes a BBQ lunch for goodbye for the year with J5 staff; cell group and church as usual; dinner with the roomates; and battling the rain that we're supposed to get all weekend from Typhoon...something.
AGH! Summer's really truly here!?!?! Scary!
HAHAHAHAHAHA I posted this and then read the title again, and thought I should clarify something. The spicy snails were in my dinner box. The naughty students were not in my dinner box.
HAHAHAHA... oh my, I'm tired.

oh help!

*sigh* Well, I've been doing very well at practicing the guitar lately. I can even strum a simple sort of strum while people attempt to follow me in singing. However, I feel I am having problems that are hindering my progress. My problems lie in the areas of: strumming more than a simple 4/4 time strum (wherein any other tempo befuddles me); and Bm and F#m respectively. These chords I encounter often and I can't play them.
Oh help.
So if anybody in Taichung reading this can play the guitar well and would like to hang out with a fun person who will buy you tea, can you please come teach me F#m and Bm and strums?!
In other news, Samson is fatter and very hairy, and I'm thinking of getting him buzzed for the summer. It's still just a thought. If I do, I will be sure to post photos of the funniness. I have a lot of photos to upload, some other day when it is not very late at night when I ought to rather be sleeping.
I updated my Blogger profile photo too. I thought it was about time, as the other one was taken two years ago and somebody was leaning on me. And my peace sign was backwards.
Tonight we went to a Tappanyaki place (where they cook the food on the counter stove in front of you), and I ate salmon. It was a little overcooked and therefore kind of dry, but I love salmon so much it didn't matter. I think for my birthday I'm going to request a big bag of frozen (*wild Alaskan, not farmed!*) salmon steaks from Costco. oooooh. Too bad my birthday is still six months away.
This week, old friends are coming to visit and new friends are coming to stay! How exciting. Also current friends are leaving for summer vacations while I.. stay right here.
There are sprinklings of plans for the summer, such as day trips here and there and perhaps a camp or so, so we'll see. More posts to come.
Samson is trying to see if he can fit his fat round self into my tote bag. He's doing a pretty good job.
Good night!

Singing Dolphins!

We've been singing these songs for months. The Dolphins take a nap time from 1:00 - 1:50, and class with me is supposed to start at 2:00. However, today they woke up late, like at 2:00. So I had asked our head teacher to come film them singing around 2:00 because they're so cute and they like to be on Youtube. They weren't quite as normally enthusiastic as they usually are since they had literally just woken up, but they did pretty well. And they're cute!
Here they are doing 'Lord I Lift Your Name on High':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13eJ13RJicg
and here is 'Only a Boy Named David'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVTJz3dvTqY

Outback comes to town!

Yes! Indeed! A cause for joyful celebration and mournful lamenting that I'm on such a strict budget that I can only afford one steak dinner per year! Outback steakhouse has come to town! and not just to town, but right across the street from my house!!!
Prior to this, the closest Outback was in Taipei, a three hour drive to the north. *sigh*... and now, I know exactly what I want for my birthday. :)

I also went grocery shopping tonight, which doesn't sound like fun, but considering I almost never go grocery shopping, it was fun. I usually just get something ready made like noodles or a dinner box at the cheap-o MSG laden buffet down the street. Or frozen food from 7-11 which is even less healthy than the cheap-o MSG laden dinner boxes.
But I had these gift certificates for a fancy department store left from Christmas from my boss, and I remembered that there is also a fancy supermarket in the basement of this fancy department store. So I went to check it out. It was, indeed, quite fancy. And expensive. But they had such Things!! Things like baked beans in tomato sauce, of the perfect variety for Toast!! I have not seen baked beans in Taiwan until this. I bought all they had, which was only two cans.
I will be living on sandwiches and pasta and beans, but I'm stocked up! And the best part, I used my gift certificates and thus extended the life of my budget for this month. O happy day..
I also won $200 NT in the Taiwan receipt lottery this month (which is the equivalent of...like $6 USD or so..). But it's better than nothing!
That's really all I had to report. And now I'm going to go make beans on Toast. YAH!! :)