Monday, March 25, 2013
The Staying Healthy Dance
At 10:15 every day we get a 15 minute break that the kids usually spend running all over the place or doing who knows what, but on nicer days they spend about 7 minutes doing this dance-type activity to keep themselves healthy. In fact, at certain parts of the song they all shout something about staying healthy. It's a little hard for me to understand them, since they don't yell it exactly it unison. Anyway, the other day I whipped out my camera and tried to capture some footage. The closest students in the video are the 1st graders. We've had several new students the past couple of weeks so some of the students who are standing around and not really participating are new...some of them are just students who apparently didn't feel like getting involved that day. The confused little fellow who kept getting re-directed by the principal is one of the new kids.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Peanut Butter and Jelly?!?
I'm going to try to tell a few more anecdotes from school, but the thing is, amusing things happen pretty frequently, but so often it's all about the facial expressions and just knowing the kids, that I'm afraid they lose some quality in the retelling. But I'll just tell a few things that have made me chuckle lately anyway.
Actually this one happened around Christmas time. I had a first grader ask me if I seen Santa Claus and I told her I hadn't and she seemed absolutely shocked. I started to wonder if I had heard her correctly when she exclaimed "Doesn't he go to foreign countries?" My teacher took over for me here, since my Chinese wasn't able to cover any sort of answer, unless I told her straight up "Santa isn't real" which seemed like would have been a bad choice.
A couple times I've been teaching about something or other (once it was teaching the vocab word "sandwich" and another time about American lunches) and the fact that American eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (for lunch no less!) shocks the class. I've never seen my sixth graders so passionate about anything before as they were about how outrageous peanut and jelly is. My co-teacher tried to compare it to stinky tofu saying that Americans think that stinky tofu is terrible because we aren't used to it and they think peanut butter and jelly is terrible because they aren't used to it. But the students would have none of it. They said things like, "But stinky tofu is so good!" (I had to bite my tongue at that point...I would bet large sums of money that whoever you are reading this, you would not like stinky tofu).
Anyway, in second grade the other day we were teaching the word net to go with the letter n and there was a little clip on the e-book of someone using a net to try to catch a butterfly, which he didn't end up catching. We watched it a few times, saying "N, net"and then the kids would all start yelling, "jia you! jia you!" Cheering for the guy to catch it this time...apparently no one had caught on that it was the exact same cartoon each time.
A couple weeks ago, after my new fifth grade class a student came up and asked me to draw something. I told him I didn't know how to draw and he asked if I'd draw a person. Well, I really can't draw people so then when he asked if I would draw a rabbit I thought I had better agree before it got too difficult. So the next thing I knew I was sketching a little rabbit in the middle of his Hello Darbie! English book...only after I started did I realize that a teacher probably shouldn't be promoting drawing in the middle of textbooks, but I was using a pen so it as too late. Anyway, he seemed happy enough with it and the next week a small group approached me after class with a pen and a post-it note requesting another rabbit. He brought his book along to show me "like this one". So I drew another rabbit (and signed it this time).
All the students here carry pencil boxes around full of all kinds of things besides pencils and pens. Once I watched a third grader pull out five rulers and three erasers (nothing like being prepared!) And nearly all of them have exacto knives and/or scissors in there which I generally forget about until they start fooling around with them, usually by threatening other kids (although thankfully, I've only see that in jest). Oh the excitement never ends...
Actually this one happened around Christmas time. I had a first grader ask me if I seen Santa Claus and I told her I hadn't and she seemed absolutely shocked. I started to wonder if I had heard her correctly when she exclaimed "Doesn't he go to foreign countries?" My teacher took over for me here, since my Chinese wasn't able to cover any sort of answer, unless I told her straight up "Santa isn't real" which seemed like would have been a bad choice.
A couple times I've been teaching about something or other (once it was teaching the vocab word "sandwich" and another time about American lunches) and the fact that American eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (for lunch no less!) shocks the class. I've never seen my sixth graders so passionate about anything before as they were about how outrageous peanut and jelly is. My co-teacher tried to compare it to stinky tofu saying that Americans think that stinky tofu is terrible because we aren't used to it and they think peanut butter and jelly is terrible because they aren't used to it. But the students would have none of it. They said things like, "But stinky tofu is so good!" (I had to bite my tongue at that point...I would bet large sums of money that whoever you are reading this, you would not like stinky tofu).
Anyway, in second grade the other day we were teaching the word net to go with the letter n and there was a little clip on the e-book of someone using a net to try to catch a butterfly, which he didn't end up catching. We watched it a few times, saying "N, net"and then the kids would all start yelling, "jia you! jia you!" Cheering for the guy to catch it this time...apparently no one had caught on that it was the exact same cartoon each time.
A couple weeks ago, after my new fifth grade class a student came up and asked me to draw something. I told him I didn't know how to draw and he asked if I'd draw a person. Well, I really can't draw people so then when he asked if I would draw a rabbit I thought I had better agree before it got too difficult. So the next thing I knew I was sketching a little rabbit in the middle of his Hello Darbie! English book...only after I started did I realize that a teacher probably shouldn't be promoting drawing in the middle of textbooks, but I was using a pen so it as too late. Anyway, he seemed happy enough with it and the next week a small group approached me after class with a pen and a post-it note requesting another rabbit. He brought his book along to show me "like this one". So I drew another rabbit (and signed it this time).
All the students here carry pencil boxes around full of all kinds of things besides pencils and pens. Once I watched a third grader pull out five rulers and three erasers (nothing like being prepared!) And nearly all of them have exacto knives and/or scissors in there which I generally forget about until they start fooling around with them, usually by threatening other kids (although thankfully, I've only see that in jest). Oh the excitement never ends...
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Thailand!
Yes, that's right! We went to Thailand for two weeks of our winter break. Woot! True, this was a while back, but I started writing this when we got back and then didn't add to it for ages, so I figured I'd just quickly finish it up so as to not let it go wasted!
So in mid January the semester ended and we kicked off our winter break at the Fulbright mid-year conference at this cool resort in Northern Taiwan. And just a couple days after the conference was over, some friends and I boarded an early plane to embark on our journey to Thailand! We split up the trip by the three places we were going (Bangkok, beaches and Chiang Mai) and different people planned each section. I actually was the only person who didn't help plan anything...oops. But in all honesty, that was probably for the best for everyone.
We started the trip in Bangkok where we stayed in a neat hostel, Mile Map Hostel, I believe it was called. The couple of days we were in Bangkok we spent most of the time touring various places, like the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. For those of you who like me, didn't know what a wat is, it seems to mostly mean a temple in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos (don't quote me on this, I'm not sure of the exact definition). At the temples and the Grand Palace all the girls had to wear ankle length skirts and not wear tank tops either. Fortunately, the places all had skirts we could rent since we were not dressed appropriately since it was sweltering in Bangkok. One day we also went on a bike tour which was a super fun way to see some parts of the city we wouldn't have visited otherwise. And after a few days in Bangkok we got on the overnight train to head south to make our way to the island of Koh Tao. When we got our train tickets we also got bus tickets to the ferry and ferry tickets to get to the island which we were told was the way to do it...although I'm not convinced that it ever is the way to do it even under normal circumstances.
The overnight train was an interesting little set up. There were single seats facing each other on both sides of the aisle and around 10:30 or so someone came around and folded them into beds and also pulled down beds from the the ceiling. Shortly after we started our trip though, the train stopped for over an hour and later it stopped for a long time again. For some reason, I didn't think about the fact that that would probably affect our arrival time, but sure enough we got there about two hours after we were supposed to, and to cut a long story short, we missed the bus and the ferry but eventually made it to another pier where another ferry left at 1pm which we arrived in plenty of time for...over 4 hours in fact.
So we eventually made it to Koh Tao which was a beautiful island...oh, I wish I were there right now...Anyway, we spent most of our time relaxing on the beach (some people from our group played a lot of volleyball, I was not one of them). One day we did go snorkeling and I was slightly petrified. I went along figuring I could always just stay in the boat, however I got so seasick that being able to get off the boat into the water was actually a relief! Anyway, I ended up having a lot of fun and enjoying myself despite the fact that I can't really swim (obviously we had lifejackets though) and had to get towed back to the boat by one of my obliging friends each time we stopped. Perhaps one of the low-points was when I wasn't getting pulled along fast enough for the guy in charge so he threw me the life ring and towed me to the boat himself. I probably should have been more embarrassed by that situation than I was though...
After several relaxing days in Koh Tao we ventured on to our last destination: Chiang Mai! Because we put off buying tickets until the last minute and because there was a big party on a neighboring island, we ended up having to take an overnight seated train back to Bangkok instead of a sleeper. This was a fairly unpleasant ride since we had to sit up all night and I was freezing most of the time (that pesky air conditioning) and also it felt like the train was going to derail at any minute. The train was only two cars long so perhaps that had something to do with the derailing feeling. Anyway, we made it to Bangkok where we took a plane to Chiang Mai. I really liked Chiang Mai because while the other places we visited were very neat, they were also very touristy and Chiang Mai just seemed more livable, although plenty touristy as well. We saw a bunch of temples there, wats, if you will, and I for one, truly enjoyed all the great puns (if there is such a thing as a great pun) you can make with the word wat! "Wat" was one of them, you might ask? Well, I'll spare you the details, because you can probably get the idea.
While there, we also went to some kind of elephant reserve where we got to feed, wash and ride the elephants. This was really neat although I was kind of nervous. Elephants are huge. We rode the elephants in pairs and of course the elephant that Emily and I had was a trouble maker and insisted on carrying a log around with him the whole time. Doing so made him trip occasionally and made his head go all over the place and at one point when we were going downhill, I was convinced that I would just tumble off over the front. Stressful.
Oh, also, it should be mentioned that going to Chiang Mai fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine because when I was about nine years old my family moved to a different city in China, and my friends there would go to a conference in Chiang Mai over the Chinese New Years break and my family's were always in China (which was also cool, although I didn't realize it so much at the time). Anyway, I got this idea that Chiang Mai was a magical place that I needed to visit, and I'm so glad I finally was able to.
Anyway, after Chiang Mai, we just went back to Bangkok for one day where we checked out the floating market. Or we thought that's what we were doing. We found it all right and walked along the river but thought we would take a boat around to where we thought the main part of the market was but we ended up accidentally just taking a boat tour with no market in sight, so I think maybe we were already at the main part...I'm not really sure. The next day we made our way back to Taiwan and enjoyed the next two weeks off from school. Lovely.
Anyway, I think it's safe to say a grand ol' time was had by all!
So in mid January the semester ended and we kicked off our winter break at the Fulbright mid-year conference at this cool resort in Northern Taiwan. And just a couple days after the conference was over, some friends and I boarded an early plane to embark on our journey to Thailand! We split up the trip by the three places we were going (Bangkok, beaches and Chiang Mai) and different people planned each section. I actually was the only person who didn't help plan anything...oops. But in all honesty, that was probably for the best for everyone.
We started the trip in Bangkok where we stayed in a neat hostel, Mile Map Hostel, I believe it was called. The couple of days we were in Bangkok we spent most of the time touring various places, like the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, the Grand Palace and Wat Arun. For those of you who like me, didn't know what a wat is, it seems to mostly mean a temple in Thailand, Cambodia or Laos (don't quote me on this, I'm not sure of the exact definition). At the temples and the Grand Palace all the girls had to wear ankle length skirts and not wear tank tops either. Fortunately, the places all had skirts we could rent since we were not dressed appropriately since it was sweltering in Bangkok. One day we also went on a bike tour which was a super fun way to see some parts of the city we wouldn't have visited otherwise. And after a few days in Bangkok we got on the overnight train to head south to make our way to the island of Koh Tao. When we got our train tickets we also got bus tickets to the ferry and ferry tickets to get to the island which we were told was the way to do it...although I'm not convinced that it ever is the way to do it even under normal circumstances.
The overnight train was an interesting little set up. There were single seats facing each other on both sides of the aisle and around 10:30 or so someone came around and folded them into beds and also pulled down beds from the the ceiling. Shortly after we started our trip though, the train stopped for over an hour and later it stopped for a long time again. For some reason, I didn't think about the fact that that would probably affect our arrival time, but sure enough we got there about two hours after we were supposed to, and to cut a long story short, we missed the bus and the ferry but eventually made it to another pier where another ferry left at 1pm which we arrived in plenty of time for...over 4 hours in fact.
So we eventually made it to Koh Tao which was a beautiful island...oh, I wish I were there right now...Anyway, we spent most of our time relaxing on the beach (some people from our group played a lot of volleyball, I was not one of them). One day we did go snorkeling and I was slightly petrified. I went along figuring I could always just stay in the boat, however I got so seasick that being able to get off the boat into the water was actually a relief! Anyway, I ended up having a lot of fun and enjoying myself despite the fact that I can't really swim (obviously we had lifejackets though) and had to get towed back to the boat by one of my obliging friends each time we stopped. Perhaps one of the low-points was when I wasn't getting pulled along fast enough for the guy in charge so he threw me the life ring and towed me to the boat himself. I probably should have been more embarrassed by that situation than I was though...
After several relaxing days in Koh Tao we ventured on to our last destination: Chiang Mai! Because we put off buying tickets until the last minute and because there was a big party on a neighboring island, we ended up having to take an overnight seated train back to Bangkok instead of a sleeper. This was a fairly unpleasant ride since we had to sit up all night and I was freezing most of the time (that pesky air conditioning) and also it felt like the train was going to derail at any minute. The train was only two cars long so perhaps that had something to do with the derailing feeling. Anyway, we made it to Bangkok where we took a plane to Chiang Mai. I really liked Chiang Mai because while the other places we visited were very neat, they were also very touristy and Chiang Mai just seemed more livable, although plenty touristy as well. We saw a bunch of temples there, wats, if you will, and I for one, truly enjoyed all the great puns (if there is such a thing as a great pun) you can make with the word wat! "Wat" was one of them, you might ask? Well, I'll spare you the details, because you can probably get the idea.
While there, we also went to some kind of elephant reserve where we got to feed, wash and ride the elephants. This was really neat although I was kind of nervous. Elephants are huge. We rode the elephants in pairs and of course the elephant that Emily and I had was a trouble maker and insisted on carrying a log around with him the whole time. Doing so made him trip occasionally and made his head go all over the place and at one point when we were going downhill, I was convinced that I would just tumble off over the front. Stressful.
Oh, also, it should be mentioned that going to Chiang Mai fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine because when I was about nine years old my family moved to a different city in China, and my friends there would go to a conference in Chiang Mai over the Chinese New Years break and my family's were always in China (which was also cool, although I didn't realize it so much at the time). Anyway, I got this idea that Chiang Mai was a magical place that I needed to visit, and I'm so glad I finally was able to.
Anyway, after Chiang Mai, we just went back to Bangkok for one day where we checked out the floating market. Or we thought that's what we were doing. We found it all right and walked along the river but thought we would take a boat around to where we thought the main part of the market was but we ended up accidentally just taking a boat tour with no market in sight, so I think maybe we were already at the main part...I'm not really sure. The next day we made our way back to Taiwan and enjoyed the next two weeks off from school. Lovely.
Anyway, I think it's safe to say a grand ol' time was had by all!
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