As I sit in Seattle airport waiting for my next flight, I thought I would address some of the questions, comments, and concerns sent my way in the last 24 hours.
First off, I absolutely do not view this experience as a failure. While it did not go the way I imagined, frankly, what does? I mean, I didn't exactly imagine when I got a BA in English that I'd spend three years at a helpdesk, did I? Regardless of what exactly happened - which was basically just a complete communication breakdown between me, Janet, and the recruiter - I had the cajones to voluntarily turn my life upside down, move to the other side of the planet, and try something I had never done before. While not everything I try succeeds, I think the point is that I tried.
That said, I did get some really valuable and memorable experiences out of this. I made a true friend in Cleo and I discovered a lot about who am I and what I want out of my life and my career. I figured out that I can get over fish that have heads and that I do actually like oysters. And I realized that, you know what? I really like being in the United States.
I really don't know what I am going to do next. The immediate plan is to fly to Dallas and spend some time with my family, decompressing and working out the details. I still think that getting my teaching cert is a good idea, and that 4th and 5th grade is where I want to be. I plan to return to Richmond soon, because really, I can't stay away from my second family but for so long.
Thank you all for your support, encouragement, and well wishes. ALL my love, and thanks for reading.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Another Change of Plans
After a turn of events this evening that I don't really want to go into but basically boil down to me getting fired, I have decided to come home. This has been an adventure, and not necessarily a good or a bad one, but it is one that I am fed up with and now will end. I should be in Texas by 10:00 or so tomorrow night, Central Time. Thank you for your support in this endeavor. It has been well appreciated.
All of my love, now more than ever.
All of my love, now more than ever.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Skies of Blue
Well, um, things are going here. I am most likely moving to another town within the next week or two because the program here in Jhunan is reducing my hours. Moreover, I've been pretty homesick and isolated the last week or two, so it will be nice to go somewhere where I may be able to make some more friends and such. Overall, I am just going to take this as a good thing and try to be positive about the experience.
That said, I have had some amusing adventures in the market. I managed to buy everything that I needed in Chinese, which was good, though I ended up buying oysters by accident, which was not so good, as I don't much like oysters. Though I did make a mean scampi-ish thing yesterday, which was fun.
Anyway, that's the update on my life right now. I could use some happy thoughts, and an idea of what to do with oysters in the future :)
All my love, and thanks for reading.
That said, I have had some amusing adventures in the market. I managed to buy everything that I needed in Chinese, which was good, though I ended up buying oysters by accident, which was not so good, as I don't much like oysters. Though I did make a mean scampi-ish thing yesterday, which was fun.
Anyway, that's the update on my life right now. I could use some happy thoughts, and an idea of what to do with oysters in the future :)
All my love, and thanks for reading.
Monday, February 23, 2009
You win some, you lose some
Since my last post, things have been mostly good. I taught on Friday and Saturday, working with my adorable and rambunctious littles, which is a rewarding but sometimes frustrating experience. There are three of them, and them have the mutual attention span of a hummingbird. One of the bigger problems with them, as it is with all of my students, is that the other students speak almost exclusively Chinese in class, so anything that isn't in the book, they tend to not understand. I learned to play Simon Says with some of my young classes, which is great fun, and I administered my first test. All in all, those classes went well.
Saturday afternoon, after school, Cleo and I took the train up one stop to Hsinchu. It is amazing how much of a difference one stop can make. Hsinchu, a 15 minute ride away, is a completely different world. It's a huge, bustling city with an an ancient city center beautifully preserved as a large park. The city itself is amazing. Much like Jhunan, the streets are lined with shops and there are armies of scooters zipping around town, ready to run over an unassuming pedestrian. In most places, prices are very good and Cleo and I managed to loot pretty well for not a lot of money. Though, we did a LOT of walking and bargain shopping before we actually bought anything.
While wandering, we found two things that were amazing: The old town gate and the moat surrounding the ancient city, and a temple to the Ghost God (for more information about the Pudu rites regarding the role of ghosts in Taiwanese religion, go here). The architecture in this place is astonishing and really, no matter how many of these temples and monuments I see, I don't think I am ever going to get used to the sheer splendor of the vistas you can literally just stumble upon without even leaving the towns or cities. The area of town around the old gate has a beautiful moat that is the center of a large park, salvia and other flowers everywhere. It's breathtakingly beautiful.
After returning to Jhunan, I did a bit more shopping, and curled up with a better than average pizza for my first cheese consumption since arriving. Saturday was a very good day.
Sunday was homesick and mostly uneventful, though I did have another instance with shrimp that have heads. You know, I don't think it's all fish with heads that gross me out endlessly. I think it's just the fact that whole cooked shrimp look like evil little aliens from Europa out to eat my brains from the inside. So bad. *shudders*
Today was another good day, for the most part. I forgot that, in addition to being a beast to learn in a literal sense, there are a many millions of bizarre vaguaries and shades of gray in usage that can really never be taught. Today, I complemented my coworker, Emily, on her very attractive leopard print shoes, saying "Emily, you always wear the cutest shoes. I love that pair." She looked at me, confused, and said "Cute? I think these are more lady." And I remembered, right, cute has the denotation of young, adorable, and childing. Connotation being the evil beastie that it is, I had the fun job of explaining the different uses of "cute" in slang.
Beyond that, I taught seven classes today, including the ruffians and the miscreants. While the miscreant teenagers lapsed backward a bit today - they were pretty rough on me - the material we were studying was dead dull and there wasn't a lot I could do with it. That said, though, the ruffians, my level 3 9-11 year olds were a dream. I won!!! I had this idea that they totally bought into. One of the things they were doing that was driving me crazy was to get out of their seats and try to "help" me with stuff, so I just played off that. Today, I started keeping score, on the board, for each kid in the class. If you were good, sat in your seat, and answered questions, you got plus signs next to your name. If you were bad, you either got minus or lost a plus (depending on how many pluses you had). The point of the game was that, whoever had the most pluses for good behavior, next class gets to be the President and will have a special seat as my helper. They get reward cards or candy and they get to help me chose the President for the next class. It worked like a dream. I was SO excited.
My last class of the day was funny. It is a really small class and they're the highest level class that the school teaches. Anne, the other teacher that I really like, was in the room with me, and we were working on topic sentences and writing paragraphs. As an example of a topic, Anne suggests foods eaten in different places around the world. This turns into a 20 minute discussion of weird foods, the weirdest foods we've ever eaten, and the very weirdest foods we've ever even heard of. Apparently, it is a delicacy in mainland China to eat a bear's paw. In southern Taiwan, you are supposed to eat monkey's brains for good luck, and salamanders are another commodity eaten regularly in the south. I talked about escargot, alligator, and crawfish. The girls in my class were pretty grossed out by the idea of crawfish, but people here eat grasshoppers, so I don't want to hear it.
So, things are going well. All of my love, and thanks for reading.
Saturday afternoon, after school, Cleo and I took the train up one stop to Hsinchu. It is amazing how much of a difference one stop can make. Hsinchu, a 15 minute ride away, is a completely different world. It's a huge, bustling city with an an ancient city center beautifully preserved as a large park. The city itself is amazing. Much like Jhunan, the streets are lined with shops and there are armies of scooters zipping around town, ready to run over an unassuming pedestrian. In most places, prices are very good and Cleo and I managed to loot pretty well for not a lot of money. Though, we did a LOT of walking and bargain shopping before we actually bought anything.
While wandering, we found two things that were amazing: The old town gate and the moat surrounding the ancient city, and a temple to the Ghost God (for more information about the Pudu rites regarding the role of ghosts in Taiwanese religion, go here). The architecture in this place is astonishing and really, no matter how many of these temples and monuments I see, I don't think I am ever going to get used to the sheer splendor of the vistas you can literally just stumble upon without even leaving the towns or cities. The area of town around the old gate has a beautiful moat that is the center of a large park, salvia and other flowers everywhere. It's breathtakingly beautiful.
After returning to Jhunan, I did a bit more shopping, and curled up with a better than average pizza for my first cheese consumption since arriving. Saturday was a very good day.
Sunday was homesick and mostly uneventful, though I did have another instance with shrimp that have heads. You know, I don't think it's all fish with heads that gross me out endlessly. I think it's just the fact that whole cooked shrimp look like evil little aliens from Europa out to eat my brains from the inside. So bad. *shudders*
Today was another good day, for the most part. I forgot that, in addition to being a beast to learn in a literal sense, there are a many millions of bizarre vaguaries and shades of gray in usage that can really never be taught. Today, I complemented my coworker, Emily, on her very attractive leopard print shoes, saying "Emily, you always wear the cutest shoes. I love that pair." She looked at me, confused, and said "Cute? I think these are more lady." And I remembered, right, cute has the denotation of young, adorable, and childing. Connotation being the evil beastie that it is, I had the fun job of explaining the different uses of "cute" in slang.
Beyond that, I taught seven classes today, including the ruffians and the miscreants. While the miscreant teenagers lapsed backward a bit today - they were pretty rough on me - the material we were studying was dead dull and there wasn't a lot I could do with it. That said, though, the ruffians, my level 3 9-11 year olds were a dream. I won!!! I had this idea that they totally bought into. One of the things they were doing that was driving me crazy was to get out of their seats and try to "help" me with stuff, so I just played off that. Today, I started keeping score, on the board, for each kid in the class. If you were good, sat in your seat, and answered questions, you got plus signs next to your name. If you were bad, you either got minus or lost a plus (depending on how many pluses you had). The point of the game was that, whoever had the most pluses for good behavior, next class gets to be the President and will have a special seat as my helper. They get reward cards or candy and they get to help me chose the President for the next class. It worked like a dream. I was SO excited.
My last class of the day was funny. It is a really small class and they're the highest level class that the school teaches. Anne, the other teacher that I really like, was in the room with me, and we were working on topic sentences and writing paragraphs. As an example of a topic, Anne suggests foods eaten in different places around the world. This turns into a 20 minute discussion of weird foods, the weirdest foods we've ever eaten, and the very weirdest foods we've ever even heard of. Apparently, it is a delicacy in mainland China to eat a bear's paw. In southern Taiwan, you are supposed to eat monkey's brains for good luck, and salamanders are another commodity eaten regularly in the south. I talked about escargot, alligator, and crawfish. The girls in my class were pretty grossed out by the idea of crawfish, but people here eat grasshoppers, so I don't want to hear it.
So, things are going well. All of my love, and thanks for reading.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Take THAT, hormones!!
Ladies and gentlemen, I have done the impossible. I know that even I doubted my ability to complete this awe-inspiring task, but know that I am a invincible.
I won over the miscreant teenagers.
How, you might ask? If you're not asking, you should be, because I had a little help from a friend whose name can be summed up in two words:
Ferrero Rocher. Yep, that's right. I bribed the misfits with chocolate. Now, that's really not all I did. I realized that the reason they were acting up was probably because they were bored. Not with the material - they're bright kids and and seemed to keep up pretty well - but with the delivery. I was laboring under the assumption that they were too old for most of the teaching games the school uses and that they wouldn't buy them. Fact was, it wasn't the games they didn't want to play. It was the incentives that were lackluster. 13 year olds don't want to play just to win, or for some arbitrary reward cards that you have to earn and cash in for toys they were too old to want. They want gratification RIGHT NOW. So I gave it to them, in the form of really good chocolate. And they absolutely were awesome today.
The ruffians, the class I have before them that like to do things like hit each other with books? They're going to require a good bit more work. But hey, one down, one to go is not so bad. Especially when all of my other classes pretty much this whole week have gone well. I can handle one group of utter misfits. Though, suggestions are welcome :).
Anyway, I'm crashing early tonight because I can. All my love, and thanks for reading.
I won over the miscreant teenagers.
How, you might ask? If you're not asking, you should be, because I had a little help from a friend whose name can be summed up in two words:
Ferrero Rocher. Yep, that's right. I bribed the misfits with chocolate. Now, that's really not all I did. I realized that the reason they were acting up was probably because they were bored. Not with the material - they're bright kids and and seemed to keep up pretty well - but with the delivery. I was laboring under the assumption that they were too old for most of the teaching games the school uses and that they wouldn't buy them. Fact was, it wasn't the games they didn't want to play. It was the incentives that were lackluster. 13 year olds don't want to play just to win, or for some arbitrary reward cards that you have to earn and cash in for toys they were too old to want. They want gratification RIGHT NOW. So I gave it to them, in the form of really good chocolate. And they absolutely were awesome today.
The ruffians, the class I have before them that like to do things like hit each other with books? They're going to require a good bit more work. But hey, one down, one to go is not so bad. Especially when all of my other classes pretty much this whole week have gone well. I can handle one group of utter misfits. Though, suggestions are welcome :).
Anyway, I'm crashing early tonight because I can. All my love, and thanks for reading.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Turning Taiwanese
Ok, I really never post twice in the same day, but I had to tell about two things that happened today. It would seem that I just might be the most kick-derriere person ever when it comes to learning languages. Today, by myself and in Chinese, I purchased train tickets to the correct location, gave addresses and locations for three taxi rides, ordered a large coffee, negotiated retrieval of my suitcase with a concierge at a hotel (ok, this was mostly in English, but I did say "Hello, do you speak English" in Chinese), AND bought batteries, lunch, and milk tea. IN CHINESE!! All of it! I know how to say "Please take me to the Shangri-la hotel at 201 Tun Hua South Street" IN CHINESE!!! I know what the cabby means when he says "yi bai er"!!!! How cool is this?? I am the most self sufficient person EVER.
On a similar note, my classes actually went pretty well today. My class of littles who I adore had to get "magic lined" so they wouldn't run me over. (Magic line is "Okay, if you cross the magic line, you have to go sit down!!") My Emily class (they're the level four kids who are kind of slow) laughed at me for evacuating my skin when fireworks went off, but overall that class was good. The other two today were pretty solid. My Wednesday classes are easy because they're all younger kids and they're all lower level classes. Oh, and several of my ruffians from my Monday-Thursday class (not the miscreants. These are the younger group that wear me out before I get to the miscreants) decided to teach me Chinese today before they went to class. It was really cute. They went WAAAAAY too fast for me, so I may or may not remember anything they taught me come tomorrow, but it was still adorable.
Anyway, that was pretty much it. All my love, and I am going to bed. Night, y'all.
On a similar note, my classes actually went pretty well today. My class of littles who I adore had to get "magic lined" so they wouldn't run me over. (Magic line is "Okay, if you cross the magic line, you have to go sit down!!") My Emily class (they're the level four kids who are kind of slow) laughed at me for evacuating my skin when fireworks went off, but overall that class was good. The other two today were pretty solid. My Wednesday classes are easy because they're all younger kids and they're all lower level classes. Oh, and several of my ruffians from my Monday-Thursday class (not the miscreants. These are the younger group that wear me out before I get to the miscreants) decided to teach me Chinese today before they went to class. It was really cute. They went WAAAAAY too fast for me, so I may or may not remember anything they taught me come tomorrow, but it was still adorable.
Anyway, that was pretty much it. All my love, and I am going to bed. Night, y'all.
Note to self
Hello, all. In my journeys around Jhunan and other parts of this island I now call home, I have been carrying around a journal in which I write observations, tidbits, and about half of what ends up in this blog. What has been cropping up more and more in the last week or so, though, are little notes and reminders to myself. I was just glancing through a few of them and realized that hey, they're completely hilarious, so I thought I would share.
Notes to self:
Notes to self:
- When having an emotional crisis, eat, then continue meltdown if necessary.
- If the menu isn't in English and doesn't have pictures, assume that your food will have a head still attached.
- If the menu is in English and doesn't have pictures, assume that your food will have a head still attached.
- Get over the food with heads thing.
- Completely give up on saying "four" of anything, because you will inevitably get the tone wrong and say "death" and cause the extremely superstitious Taiwanese to hate you.
- Chinese is one of the hardest languages on Earth. Of course it's frustrating to learn. Take it slow.
- When planning lessons (or anything else), keep it simple, stupid.
- You didn't leave Murphy's Law at home with your tennis shoes and your extra chewing gum. Wherever you are, the thing you forgot is on the other end of those three flights of stairs.
- Leek dumplings are really subpar in both flavor and texture. Don't order those again.
- Do everyone a favor and stop substituting coffee for lunch.
- Brothers and mothers are completely universal.
- Chill out. You're doing fine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)