Party Glad Tidings

If you have not been able to tell from the past couple of posts, we are supposed to be having a typhoon this weekend, originally the forecast was that it wouldn’t even hit Taiwan, but with the last few the days the forecast has changed and it will definitely be blowing right over Taiwan, and it keeps getting bigger as the moments go on, so we are not sure how big it will be when it hits or how long it will last. So because of this aforementioned typhoon the things that I was the most excited about for the weekend have been cancelled (yes I know that I posted just about that last night but I am really bummed), one of my tutor students parents asked me tonight if church will be cancelled, I had thought about that but am not sure, I will have to find out some way I am sure. The typhoon is supposed to hit tonight but not sure when, I believe that as I am writing this it might be beginning, it starting to rain pretty hard outside.
Now that I have updated everyone on the conditions of the weather here in Taiwan let’s move on to things that are of more interest (well I find them of more interest). I last finished with Wednesday night and have had much happen since then. Yesterday morning in my morning class we played balloon volleyball, we were supposed to work on our counting, that didn’t go so well, but the kids did have fun, that is until one of the balloons popped in the 3 year old class (I was actually surprised that it had made it all the way to the end of the 3rd class). Because the classes are getting so big we had to divide the kids into groups when they were playing, for the most part I just did boys and girls.
In my afternoon class I was talking about simple machines, I sometimes feel that we are stuck inside the class for too long of the day, the kids get to play outside for maybe like 10 minutes in the middle of the day and then they can play at the end of the day until their parents pick them up, so I try to find ways to take them outside once in awhile. I first read a couple of books to the kids about simple machines and then we went outside on a “treasure hunt” to find some of the simple machines (in one of the books it had talked about springs, levers-sea saw, ramps up and down-ramp and slide), once we found these different things that kids got a little bit of time to play on the toy. In the 4 year olds class they did awesome, they followed directions perfectly and had tons of fun, but when it came time to the 5 year olds class they had some difficulty. I had given the 5 year olds simple directions, go up the ramp, come down the slide and then get in line at the end, at one point I looked behind me and had some kids going down another slide, a couple of kids running around the building, kids cutting in line, and others just playing with other toys; I asked the kids to get back in line and follow directions, but for some reason they could not so again we had to go back inside, sit down, and wait quietly until the end of class. while we were sitting there, there was all of a sudden a big bang and then we heard a bunch of wind and then lights went out, all the kids gasped and some of them jumped up, looked outside and informed me that a typhoon was coming, it was kind of funny though as Rose also used her hands and did like this huge sweeping thing around her head to illustrate in case I was not sure what one was.
For my afternoon class we were making decorations for our birthday party (because what kind of party is it without directions?), in reality we were just making a paper chain, each of the kids got like 4 slips of pieces and got to decorate them however they wanted, with whatever colors they wanted, and even whatever shapes that they wanted. The kids seemed to enjoy it, I saw so many different decorations- one person drew a train on theirs and another Taipei 101 (I would have to say that, that was the most impressive of all the ones that I saw). When they were finished with their slips for the chain they brought them up to me and I stapled them together along with a slip of piece of paper with their names on it, the plan was that I was going to take them down today when the “party” was over and give the kids their chains back, but our party went a little long and I realized that it was kind of a crazy idea. After I had stapled their chain together they grabbed a brown paper bag that already had their names on them (yeah I am smart like that as I know that 3 times out of 4 the names don’t get put on things), they then got to decorate their treat bags for today, again however they wanted. I found it interesting this week though, when I generally do craft projects I only allow for like 20 minutes and the kids seem to do fine with that allotted time but this week we have been just doing a craft project for the whole class period (45 minutes), I don’t know if it is because the groups are getting bigger or just because the kids kind of mentally know that they have more time to fill, it also kind of worries what will happen in the next couple of weeks when I try to do a craft project again for only 20 minutes.
On Thursday’s I only have one tutor student (Sam and Rose’s older brother Willy), last week Teacher Stephanie told me that their mom had called and was wondering if I could move the tutoring half an hour earlier, that was fine with me, that just means that I get done half an hour earlier. So this week I wasn’t sure if he would be coming at the original set time or half an hour earlier, so basically I was just hanging out for half an hour until he came (I guess that Teacher Stephanie never had gotten back to the mom and told her that it was ok). Natalie had asked if her tutor student got there first if they could be inside, I was ok with that, but luckily Willy showed up like 3 minutes before Natalie’s tutor student, so I did not have to be outside and get eaten alive by bugs. Willy is a really smart kid and he works right through the hour, I don’t ever have to remind him that he needs to be working, which I like very much. About 5 minutes before we were done I heard someone outside and looked up to see Rose running through the rain and stomping on the porch, she came in and handed me money (to pay for tutoring), she was going to go back downstairs but I suggested that she just sit and wait until Willy was done so that she didn’t have to get wet again so soon. As we were finishing up the Sister Missionaries arrived and Willy’s mom came upstairs also, she had a big umbrella to try and stay dry, she knows quite a bit of English so I was able to tell her that I would be fine with tutoring half an hour earlier.
Amy had not yet arrived so I was able to do some stuff really quick, but then the Sisters wondered if maybe she was downstairs just waiting for us, so I spent a few minutes frantically searching for the poncho that I had thankfully bought just like Monday or something, finally I was able to find it. We went downstairs and did indeed find that Amy was there waiting, I quickly put on my poncho and then we all hopped on our bikes (and scooter in Amy’s case). I didn’t know exactly where we were going but I knew where we were going (sorry if that is confusing), Natalie had told me that we were going to eat curry somewhere, I remembered that the Sisters really liked this place, Sister Ni (the Taiwanese Sister Missionary who was here for like my first week and then was transferred) even had several business cards for them in her wallet. I was right we were headed to the curry place, it is actually pretty near and I could find it again pretty easily, it is called “The Curry House” and it is owned by a guy from Sri Lanka, it was good curry but not the best that I have ever found (Ali’s is better, especially with her yummy fresh apples on it!). The Sisters had to be at an appointment at 8 and Natalie had a tutor at 8:10 so we all broke up at about quarter till 8, it was really fun to go to dinner with the Sisters and Amy, except I am so mad at myself- I had forgotten to put my card back in my camera from the night before when I was getting pictures off. I really like the Sister Missionaries, they are really enjoyable to be around, we are supposed to be having them over for dinner on Sunday night but we will see how that goes.
I was so proud of myself, I left before Natalie did as she was talking with Amy, but not very long before her, I thought that for sure she would pass me, but she didn’t!! I kept going the whole time and kept a good pace, I think that I am getting a little better as each day goes on, especially since it was all uphill back to the apartment.
Once Natalie was done with her tutor student we started working on the piñatas, rather than bring my laptop in and listen to music I decided to turn on the TV (I actually haven’t turned on the TV for like the last week before that). We first caught the end of a Jackie Chan movie, Natalie and I were so excited as it had random parts that were in Chinese and we were able to pick out words that we understood, it was actually quite humorous about how excited we would get when we recognized a word. When the Jackie Chan movie ended the movie “World Trade Center” started, I had never wanted to watch the movie as it kind of made me sad to take an event like that and turn it into something for entertainment, I was quite impressed with the part that I saw though, it is about 5 police officers who went into one of the towers and how only two of them survived, and it was a true story- I didn’t watch very long, I actually went to bed early- but I guess that Natalie did watch the whole thing and she was rather chatty about it this morning. I guess that sometimes it kind of makes me sad how people talk about that event; they are kind of flippant with it and are not very feeling about it.
This morning in my first class we played color tic-tac-toe, now you may ask how in the heck can you play color tic-tac toe (ok you may not have actually been asking yourself that question, but now you are right ? ;D), well let me tell you. You first begin with colored something’s (in my case I used colored pompoms), then you have one kid at a time pull one of the colored something’s out of the bag (without looking) and then place it somewhere on the tic-tac-toe board. The kids seemed to enjoy it, it was kind of entertaining listening to them telling whoever was going where they should put the pompom, especially one time where it was only like the 2nd pompom but there were two kids who were very adamant about which way they should make the tic-tac-toe go, when in reality both ways would have worked. In the 3 year olds class I just had them each pull out a pompom and tell me what color it was.
For my 2nd class I was a little late, I had a lot more to prepare for the class than I had realized and should have started a little earlier but it was ok I got everything done eventually (which reminds me, I just realized that I left my stuff in the classroom, I guess that I will have to get them on Monday). It didn’t help matters of making me on time that I forgot and went to the wrong class, I walked into my normal class in time to hear Natalie say “Good Morning Class” and I was like what is she doing in my class and then I remembered and left really fast (she said that she didn’t see me, so that is a good thing :D). I got to my actual classroom (I don’t know if I ever told you but on Friday’s Natalie and I switch because she uses something called BoBo songs and it is on a DVD, my classroom is the only classroom with a TV!) I found the 5 year olds sitting very quietly, which made me feel even worse about being late, but when I told them that I had gone to the wrong class Teacher Michelle just laughed at me. In class we were making time capsules, just basic ones that is. I made a piece of paper that had a spot for their favorite color, shape, letter, and toy. The kids filled out their papers and then put them in an envelope with their names on them. The plan is that like the week before I go home we will fill out the same paper, with our favorite color, shape, letter, and toy; then we will take out the one that we did now and see how it has changed- I kind of think that it would be really cool if the future interns were to do it and like you could have a 3 years worth of papers for the 3 year olds and they could look back and see how they had changed. It was kind of funny, Leslee drew a Barbie as her favorite toy, and so kind of scary, Jimmy also drew a Barbie as his favorite toy- I think that there is only so far that 4 year old love can go.
I feel kind of spoiled, today when Ali (the cook) went to get stuff at the market for lunch she remembered that I do not like fish and so she made sure to get beef instead of fish flakes. I was so grateful to her, I don’t think that I always realize the small little acts of service that people do for me. Lunch today went very smoothly, I had several kids that wanted to help me take the food from the kitchen to the classroom and return it to the kitchen when lunch was over, it is kind of nice having kids that want to help me rather than me doing it all. There two helpers in particular today that I really appreciated during lunch, first of all was Rose, she helped me stack all the chairs and then offered to take things back to the kitchen, I think that she made like 3 loads back to the kitchen for me. I also really appreciated Annie, if you don’t remember Annie let me remind you, she is the one that is normally very loud and isn’t the best at following directions, anyway today she finished her lunch very quickly (which she doesn’t normally do either) and then came over to me and pointed at the beds, she wanted to help me set up the beds. I wasn’t quite done eating but she went over and stood by the beds until I was done eating and then she helped me lift every single bed off the pile. Seeing the kids like this makes me appreciate and love them in a whole other way. The other day, I made a comment to Natalie that I had been watching one of the kids leave and I was like they are pretty cute and then I started thinking about it and realized that they are all pretty darn cute, we are so lucky of the kids that we get to work with- especially when they come up to you and tell you that you are beautiful, pretty, or that they love 24 times.
Natalie and I still had much to do before our afternoon class so we both opted not to take a nap like we normally do (good thing too as we were working right up to the last minute) and so we came upstairs and grabbed the piñatas and went downstairs and got to work, I also grabbed two of our water jugs and took them downstairs to fill them as I figured that it would be better to be over-prepared for the weekend rather than under-prepared. Natalie and I didn’t really have any ideas of what we were going to do to cover the piñatas, so we first filled with candy and then taped them shut, we found some tissue paper and started gluing them on, luckily Allie had come from school and she was there to help us pull apart the pieces. I think that the piñatas ended up looking pretty cool, if we had, had a little more time they would have looked a little better and nicer done, but I try to ignore that fact and just enjoy what we did.
I ran and grabbed the chains and treat bags right as Teacher Jane was ringing the bell to signal that it was time for class to start, I rushed to class and was lucky that there was no rain at this point as it would have been kind of sad for the chains to get wet and get ruined. Natalie and I had decided that we were going to do 20 minute classes and then have like the last 45 minutes together to do the piñatas. Both of the classes went very quickly for me, first we sang our song, we then took a picture of the class with their chains and then we had to hang the chains up. I kind of wished that I had, had a little more time in the class but realized later on that with all we were trying to do it might have been better to just do the whole class time together, oh well we learn as we go.
*note: I guess that the typhoon has actually not decided to start quite yet, it was just a playing games with me earlier.
It was crazy having all the kids together in one class, I would say though considering how many of them, they did awesome at listening to the teachers and following directions, it was really cool when we sang some songs to hear all of the little voices together singing the songs. We had so much fun with the piñatas, Natalie and I were concerned that the piñatas would not be thick enough and they would break with the first hit, we need not be concerned, the one piñata made it all the way through the kids and then it took all of the teachers to break it. Once we had finished the first piñata with the kids the teachers just broke open the other two (but of course the kids got the candy). I had so much fun and I hope that the kids did too; it was kind of interesting having to do it inside because of the rain. When the class was over I was a little late starting with Kristy again, so I asked Teacher Stephanie if it would be ok if I could go and tutor Kristy and then come back and help clean up the room. Teacher Michelle had only given Kristy two short little books that she went through in probably less than 2 minutes, which left us with 18, I got to be resourceful and write sentences for Kristy to read, because for some reason she doesn’t like to read the same two books over and over for 20 minutes.
When I went back downstairs I found that the other teachers had completely cleaned everything up and that there was nothing for me to do, I kind of felt bad but grateful at the same time. As I was standing there Teacher Stephanie handed me two packages of these pineapple things, they kind of look like Fig-Newton’s, they were extra snacks and they could help us last through the typhoon. As soon as I had checked with Teacher Stephanie that everything was clean I decided to head off to the grocery store to get stuff to last me through the weekend. I was also looking for stuff for dinner with the Sisters, we had decided to make mashed potatoes, chicken, and have banana splits- I am in charge of the mashed potatoes and chicken but have decided that I don’t really feel like cooking chicken and think that we will be having some chicken nuggets that Natalie bought today, anyway it took me awhile to find the potatoes, they were packaged a little different than I am used to (I will try and remember to take a picture when I prepare dinner with them). I left a little later than I had planned on and it took me a little bit longer to shop than normal so when I got home I did not have very long till I had to head out again to go to my tutor session at the Chou families house.
Again I am very lucky that I bought a poncho, except that for some reason the poncho did not get the memo about where it’s hood is supposed to stay up and so generally by the time I get somewhere my head is soaked. Mrs. Chou was very nice when I got there and got me a towel to dry off on though and she also was very nice and called down to the cook and had her bring me up some chicken soup, though it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting when she said chicken soup, it was just broth and kind of oily-oh well it tasted good and warm going down. Tutoring went very quickly, Angelo and Abby sometimes have difficulty staying on task but they are both very smart, I also enjoy working very much with Cammi, she is very smart and a little bit older so I feel more on level with her. When I was done with tutoring the cook brought me a plate of food, the food was ok, but I am thinking that it is probably better that I don’t know what I ate (:D). Mrs. Chou also gave me a bag that had a red bean moon cake (the kind that I don’t like  sadly), some mango cakes (which I am really excited about trying!), and some kind of bread that is hard and has like a orange swirl through it. Once I was done I went home very quickly, as I had heard at one point that the typhoon might hit sometime around 9 (it was about quarter till) and I just wanted to be home anyway.
Natalie is spending the night with the Chu family tonight and so she had locked and closed all of her windows but as soon as I got home I went through the rest of the apartment and closed the windows and locked them, I have since also cleaned my room and put stuff away as I felt like everything was going crazy again in my room. Now I am just sitting in my room waiting for all my pictures to download, the typhoon to start and finishing off my journal.
*note: I was reading Kaylene and Luke’s blog (the couple that was here but has gone home) and during the last typhoon when the power was out Luke decided to go shower outside in the rain, I have not gotten to wear my swimsuit since coming, so I think that I will be doing that tomorrow-so at least I have one thing to look forward to this weekend! :D
I love you all and hope that you are having mild weather, have a great Friday and amazing weekend! ~Betherd~