The beginning of this week I went to my other school (Shun An) and
this one is a lot of fun too! It's a bit bigger, with about 360 students so
there is more staff to meet as well, but they are a really welcoming and kind
too. One of the first things I did upon arrival was guess the gender of
the next baby being born to one of the teacher's wives. It's quite the
to-do and the losers have to treat the winners to dinner and I really hope I
win because I guessed girl and only 4 other people did, so if we lose we will
have to buy dinner for like 14 people. Some people put so much thought
into their answer and I was asked multiple times if I wanted to switch but I
decided to stick with my original guess. I was one of the first people to
guess and apparently one of the other teachers who guessed girl is notorious
for losing these bets so I think that made more people guess boy.
Anyway, this school is a little different and in the English classroom we all have to remove our shoes and the kids sit at tiny little tables on tiny little stools. It's all very cute although the fifth graders definitely don't fit very well and most of them sit on the floor and use their stools as individual tables. I only have 1st, 4th and 5th grade at this school, so it's different from the other school in that I have multiple classes of the same content.
We had a whole school assembly where I introduced myself to the school which was fun. Then they showed a picture of a flower that apparently you should crush and put on your skin if you get bitten or cut (I think this is what was being communicated) so I made mental note of that although I hope I don't need to ever recall it. Next on the agenda was earthquake review and I guess there will be some earthquake drills coming up in the next few days. I was commissioned to take pictures and videos of it because they have to send them into the government to prove they did it.
Also, I decided to get a hair cut just for fun and on Tuesday I felt up to the adventure, so after school and after seeking advice about where to go I went on my merry way. I kind of forgot though how many questions hair dressers ask because in English they seem easy but in Chinese they were quite difficult (and by that I mean I have no idea what was going on). In fact, most of them time I just agreed to whatever they asked and hoped for the best or when they gave options I said either way was fine. Since I wasn't too concerned about the outcome, I think it worked out okay. Towards the end a little girl came in (she turned out to be the hair dresser's niece) and she was totally engrossed in the process. She let out a little squeal of joy when she saw me and they said she liked to see foreigners because she liked to see their hair and eyes. So she stood about a foot and a half to the side and just watched. She was really cute.
Anyway, this school is a little different and in the English classroom we all have to remove our shoes and the kids sit at tiny little tables on tiny little stools. It's all very cute although the fifth graders definitely don't fit very well and most of them sit on the floor and use their stools as individual tables. I only have 1st, 4th and 5th grade at this school, so it's different from the other school in that I have multiple classes of the same content.
We had a whole school assembly where I introduced myself to the school which was fun. Then they showed a picture of a flower that apparently you should crush and put on your skin if you get bitten or cut (I think this is what was being communicated) so I made mental note of that although I hope I don't need to ever recall it. Next on the agenda was earthquake review and I guess there will be some earthquake drills coming up in the next few days. I was commissioned to take pictures and videos of it because they have to send them into the government to prove they did it.
Also, I decided to get a hair cut just for fun and on Tuesday I felt up to the adventure, so after school and after seeking advice about where to go I went on my merry way. I kind of forgot though how many questions hair dressers ask because in English they seem easy but in Chinese they were quite difficult (and by that I mean I have no idea what was going on). In fact, most of them time I just agreed to whatever they asked and hoped for the best or when they gave options I said either way was fine. Since I wasn't too concerned about the outcome, I think it worked out okay. Towards the end a little girl came in (she turned out to be the hair dresser's niece) and she was totally engrossed in the process. She let out a little squeal of joy when she saw me and they said she liked to see foreigners because she liked to see their hair and eyes. So she stood about a foot and a half to the side and just watched. She was really cute.
This weekend we had our Fulbright Orientation in Taipei with
all the other Fulbrighters (other ETAs, researchers, and fellows) in Taiwan so that
was kind of fun to see and meet others.
On Saturday we had a really big touring day, going to four museums. They were really interesting but I started to
wish I knew more history. My favourite
stop was the aboriginal museum. We had
an awesome tour guide and it was just super interesting to learn about the
aboriginal people here. I think she said
they recognize 10 groups right now, but the number will probably be growing
soon to like 14. Most of the places just
had so much to see that I think I just need to go back sometime and check them
out at my leisure.
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