Taipei Travels, Part 2

(ok so kind of random, but does anyone else notice how many of my titles begin with "T"?)

….continuing from yesterday, starting with Sunday morning.

Again Sunday morning I did not wake up very early, only about like 20 minutes before we were supposed to be leaving, it was a good thing that I had showered the night before. We were very hurried when I woke up, Sister Chou had some milk for us and then a granola bar, I drank my milk and then opted to save my granola bar for the train so that it would make it further. When everyone was ready we hurried downstairs to see the taxi pulling up, he helped us put our luggage in the trunk and then we jumped in. it was a pretty uneventful drive over to the train station but the guy did tell us a story (with translation of course :D) about how the other day he found a passport with the persons airline ticket inside on the street, I guess it was a good thing that he found it as he was an honest person and found their number and called them. The person was so grateful that he had found their passport and called them, they tried offering him something like $3000NT for returning it, and he wasn’t willing to take that much money.

We finally got to the train station and hurriedly walked down to the platform, I was so grateful because for the first time we were there early and had some down time before the train arrived, it was interesting as like 3 other trains were leaving around the same time for Hualien and I kept on trying to head for the train only to be told that it was the wrong one. Finally the right one pulled up and we got on the train, sadly our seats were across from each other rather than behind each other so we were not able to turn our seats to be facing each other, but it was ok as I ended up sleeping the whole way back to Hualien anyway. When we arrived in Hualien Sister Chou was again in a hurry and it was a little hard to keep up with her, but I was able to do it. We got outside and found Brother Chou waiting for us in the car, I found out Sister Chou was in a hurry because Brother Chou was on-duty at the hospital and he had to get back to work. Anyway we drove to the hospital where Brother Chou got out and Sister Chou got into the front seat and drove us home, I was more than ready to be home as Natalie and Grace decided that they wanted to sing the John Bytheway songs for Sister Chou, I realized that I was more than ready to be back home and have my personal space and time.

I finally did the smart thing when I got home from my trip, I started unpacking the moment I walked in rather than putting the bag to the side and leaving it to do “later,” I felt quite proud of myself. I checked my e-mail, unpacked everything, and then went to take a nap. When we got home it was too late for me to go to my ward but the other branch was supposed to start like an hour after we got home, but my nap ended going a little bit longer than it was supposed to and I was not awake when Natalie left for church- Brooke asked me later when I woke up if I had heard her, nope; I guess she yelled at me something like 20 times when Brooke told her to give up if I hadn’t answered by then.. Brooke was surprised that I had not heard her…I don’t think they understand how deep of a sleeper I can be, it is a long practiced talent :D.

When I woke up Brooke was just finishing preparing dinner, she had decided earlier in the week that she wanted to try making something and since she is generally the one to prepare the dinner she was more than capable of doing so. She felt like cooking some chicken breast and then making a mango salsa to put on top of it. I had never tried a mango salsa but I know that it has been all the rage in the cooking world. She told me that even if I didn’t like it I had to tell her that it was really good because she was really proud of herself making it. Brooke this time had planned on Amy’s meeting and so didn’t prepare dinner until an hour after when their branch got out but they still did not arrive home for like another 40 minutes. We sat down to a dinner of the chicken with salsa, cooked asparagus (I have to admit I didn’t try it), salad with Caesar dressing on it, and fresh pineapple chunks (YUMMY!!). I told Brooke that it was good and then kiddingly told her that my job was done, she was like oh I forgot that I told you that you had to tell me that it was good, but I really did mean it- she had done a wonderful job. When we were done with dinner we were going to just talk for awhile until Amy had to leave for her tutoring job. I kind of felt bad for Brooke as Natalie went and got string thing and Natalie and Grace started working on their bracelets and weren’t really talking with her, I kind of wished that they had waited until another time to do that as Brooke was leaving the next day and wouldn’t be able to talk to her again.

When Amy had left for her tutoring job Brooke decided that she wanted to call June and see if she wanted to come over and play some card games with her before she left. ( side note: I absolutely love that I am in a place that loves fireworks as much as I do, I hear fireworks going off at almost all times of the day everyday and I just stepped outside to grab my laundry and I was able to watch a mini show of fireworks! YES!) June wasn’t sure if she would come or not so Brooke asked me if I would be willing to play some card games with her anyway as she was in the mood to play, I am never really against playing cards so I agreed to play with her. We had only been playing a couple of games when we heard some noises outside on our porch, we went out there and there were the Sister Missionaries, they had made Brooke a birthday card and printed some pictures for her, they had forgotten to give them to her at church and so had brought them for her. I love the sisters that serve in our area, they are so much fun and awesome people, it is crazy to think that they are only a couple of years old than me, it used to be that people that were serving missions were so much older than me. Sister Hill told us this one story of when she had worked for two months in Africa at a deaf school. Somehow we had gotten talking about different bugs in Taiwan and she started to tell us this story, she said that the bugs were so bad and that they didn’t have air-conditioning, all they had was a little fan on the ceiling, she said it was so funny because bugs would fly at the fan and they would get hit and fly everywhere. The funniest part that she told us was this one time there was a blind guy that was sitting when all of a sudden he got hit on the forehead with a bug and it was just really funny. As we were talking the phone rang and Brooke went to answer it, it was June and she and her cousin were coming over. They came over and we played card games for like an hour but at like 9:30 I asked if we could finish by 10 as I was starting to feel a little stressed as I hadn’t yet done my lesson plan for the week, started my journal from the weekend, or done my evaluations from the past week- I kind of felt bad as they finished within 5 minutes, I hadn’t meant for them to finish so quickly but they all seemed ok and ready to be done anyway (it is not as bad with June anyway as she goes to BYU so Brooke will still be able to see her).

When we finished playing games I went and locked myself in my room so that I could work on my evaluations, journal, and lesson plans. I completed my evaluations and had my lesson plans ¾ complete but could not do the rest without talking to Natalie as I didn’t really want to take all of the good themes or vice-versa. (ok another side note: I am watching a movie as I type this I am watching a movie on TV and the girl just offered someone dragon fruit, I had not even heard of that before I came here, I didn’t know that it existed out of Taiwan) Anyway I finished up and asked Natalie if we could work on our lessons, she wasn’t feeling well and so told me that I should just pick whatever ones that I want and she would be fine with whatever, I picked stuff but I still felt bad about her not picking some of the things that she wanted. I guess that I was more exhausted than I thought as I slept through most of the day Sunday and then I went to bed early, still several days later I am still pretty exhausted.

Monday!!! Yeah I am finally getting caught up on my days. Because I had done my lesson planning a little later than I wanted to I had decided that I would do my Monday morning class as something just simple, I decided that I would just do the book 10 Little Monkey’s Jumping On The Bed, I read it through once to the class and then the kids got to act it out, each being one of the monkey’s that was jumping on the bed. Nothing too complex but it enabled me to have a better start of the day and week than I would have otherwise. My middle class we talked about car safety, I started by having some chairs set up to be like the seats in a car. I sat down in the middle seat and started doing some things and asking if they are what I should do in the car while we are driving (stand up, climb over seats, yell at the mommy driving, fight with siblings, hang outside the window, etc.), they always laughed and then told me that no I should not be doing it.

In my afternoon class this week we are talking about occupations. Yesterday I decided to talk about construction workers. We started with looking at the different tools that construction workers use (we even learned a song about hammers), both the small tools and the large machinery tools. We looked a picture and talked about how to build something it takes more than just one person, it takes many, many people. Then I brought out a whole bunch of wooden blocks and the kids worked together to build houses (well the 4 and 5 year olds were ok at working together, whereas the 3 year olds are not quite as good at the sharing aspect quite yet), some of the things that they built were really cool, I was quite impressed- I always wish that someone would sit in the classroom with a camera and constantly take pictures.

When class was over I went upstairs to finish some things that I needed to take to the post office, when I finished I took off and headed towards the stores. Because I don’t have a basket on my bike I was a little concerned about carrying the letters that I had to deliver so I went to the post office first so that I would not lose them. I got to the post office at about 15 minutes after 5 and it was already closed, I was a bit disappointed as I really was hoping to get those things off, but it is ok I will get them off eventually (I was too tired to try and go right after class today so I think that I will go tomorrow during my lunch break). Brooke had gotten me some bread on Friday afternoon but she and I had eaten through most of it, so I biked to the baker y and got a loaf of bread, then of course while I was down towards that end I had to go to the grocery store, I was out of eggs and other things. I did a big shopping trip and then headed back to the apartment. When I got back Natalie was gone, she had went over to the Chou’s, as she does every Monday night, I made my dinner and then started working on my journal- it was hard writing last night as I was really distracted, I was watching a tv show, talking to Kyle on skype, trying to write my journal, and getting attacked by bugs at the same time. I did eventually get most of stuff done. At midnight I was pretty stupid and got sucked into a movie and didn’t want to leave without finishing the movie, so I didn’t end up going to bed until after 1.

It has been kind of weird with Brooke being gone, I guess that I should get used to it pretty soon as she is gone, she left yesterday morning. I think that Natalie and I will get along just fine, but I think that it will be a little sad not having her here, she was so much fun to have around and hang out with. I think that Natalie and I will get along, but Brooke and I definitely would have gotten along better.

When Natalie got home last night she asked if we could organize the kitchen as she gets a little confused at what is hers and sometimes loses food that is in the kitchen, so we separated our shelves, threw away some stuff that was from the intern that left like 2 months ago and figured stuff out. It was kind of nice to have the kitchen organized; I hope that it will be able to stay that way.

Sorry I am not being as descriptive tonight, I am still a little tired and probably as soon as I finish this I will be heading to bed. Today in my morning class we talked about parades. I had brought some different toys and music makers, etc. and gave them to the kids, we walked around the classroom in a line, waving to the invisible people and playing our instruments and toys. When we sat down we talked about different things that we see in parades, when we had finished it I told the kids that one of my favorite parts of parades is that people walk down the streets passing out candy. It was kind of funny as it had worked out perfectly, we had played a game on Friday and the kids had earned a prize, I had told them that they would get it Monday but I didn’t have any time to go to the store before class on Monday so I grabbed some candy yesterday afternoon when I went the grocery store, anyway it worked out perfectly because then I had a reason to bring candy to class. Needless to say the kids were happy to have candy.

Today for my afternoon class we talked about shakers (the music kind). I had grabbed a plastic bottle and filled some plastic necklaces to show the kids what a shaker is, we looked at many different types (some made with boxes filled with toys and other bottles, etc. ) then I had the kids go through the classroom and search for different toys that we could put in one of the bottles to make a shaker. It was kind of interesting to see what different types of things the kids would find to put into the bottle. When we had finished making a shaker I passed out maracas that they have in the music “department” and we got to play with the maracas for the rest of the class period.

Today during lunch break Natalie had to go over to the university to help them with something and she had asked if I would be willing to do her 20 minute tutoring job for her, so after I had eaten lunch Anna and I headed upstairs to read a book, we just read through it one time and then talked about the different things that were in the pictures, not too hard and I got paid $100NT for 20 minutes, so even better. When we were done I followed her downstairs as they keep it a lot cooler in the office. I have not really had the nerve to ask Yuling if I could hold the baby (I didn’t know if they have some traditions or something where you are not supposed to hold the baby… oh and I found out that his English name is Daniel), she was perfectly fine with me holding him, she just asked that I wash my hands (like any good mother), he was sooo cute, I love it when babies are that small, they are so warm and cuddly. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep in my arms (I love that feeling), I needed to do some stuff upstairs to prepare for my lesson so I went to put him in his car seat, I am terrible at putting babies down when they are asleep, I move to much and so he woke up, but it was ok Ayi (the cook) rocked him back to sleep.

I ran upstairs and quickly made my PowerPoint (I am getting quite good at it, I can now do one in less than 30 minutes!) and then ran around our kitchen and found a bunch of different garbage. Today we were talking about garbage men if you couldn’t tell with the reference to garbage. I began by playing the song that the garbage truck plays as it drives through town (refer to the previous post), it was kind of funny, when the kids heard the song they all covered their ears as they knew what it was and didn’t want to hear it. We then talked about how we should take care of our garbage, we learned a song about garbage men (it was actually kind of cute, during my 2^nd group after I had asked them if they knew it or understood it and they were totally honest with me saying no whereas they normally try to pretend that they know the song—I guess that, that should tell me that they were totally lost :D). Also during my 2^nd group I explained to them that in America we don’t have a song like that on our garbage trucks it is normally played on the ice cream trucks and when I first heard it I had thought that it was an ice cream truck and wanted ice cream, Teacher Michelle had to explain it to them but when she was done they all started laughing at me for thinking that.

When class was over I came back upstairs and did some stuff on the internet but I was pretty tired and so I took a little nap, when I woke up it was dark outside and Natalie was gone, I brought my computer into the kitchen started cooking my dinner, threw a load of laundry into the washer, started my journal, got hooked on another movie (but at least this time the movie was earlier and it is already over) and now here I am. I am finally caught up again, I hope that it will last a little bit longer than it has been.

Oh, oh, oh, I am so excited!!!! I can’t believe that I almost forgot to mention it. When I first found out about Owl Preschool and that I would be coming I announced it during my wards relief society during good news moment (because of course it was good news and I was really excited), there was one girl in my ward who was really interested in doing it, I actually had sent her all of the information about it and she had e-mail Yuling but had never gotten a response. I had forgotten all about that she had expressed any interest until last week Yuling had been mentioning one of the people she was pretty sure that would be coming. I was talking with Yuling yesterday and asked her if she had ever heard from an Emily P., she said that she had not received an e-mail from her, she asked a little bit about her- if she went to BYU, what her major was, etc. She told me to write Emily and have her re-e-mail her with her information. So I e-mailed Emily last night and told her that if she was still interested she should try e-mailing her again, anyway she wrote back and said that she was going to e-mail her right then. I talked to Yuling this morning, she had received the e-mail and she had already sent Emily back information about doing the internship, so to finally bring this really long paragraph to an end… I think that Emily might be doing the internship next semester!!!!! That makes me soooo excited, I know that she will love it and have so much fun. It will be really cool to have that connection with her. I hope that she really is interested and that she gets to do it!

Anyway, that is my super exciting news for the day oh and that I am pretty sure that I have found my housing for next semester, which would be a huge stress off of my shoulders (especially after watching Kaylene try and find housing from over here, I know that she was trying to find married housing but she had to get up at like 5 in the morning for a week trying to get hold of different offices). I will keep you updated on both Emily and the housing situation. I guess that I am done for now, so loves to all and this is Betherd signing off!