Week something or other: Why you should love winter!

For everyone who is blessed with a proper winter, you have no idea how much larger things that are living get when there is not a freezing cycle in their life.  Mainly, these guys http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriental_cockroach are the current bother.  I originally encountered these over-sized cockroaches when I moved to Austin.  The first week I was there, I was lying in bed and had one crawling on my face- needless to say there was some screaming and jumping up and down involved.  Later that year I remember them crawling in my pant leg while clearing some land for Habitat as well, but they're much easier to deal with during daylight hours- still, an unpleasant thing.  In current life, here in Taipei, they are everywhere.  Everywhere!!  Last night, I was waiting for the bus around 10pm and at the bus stop they were crawling all around - mostly coming and going into and out of the sewer grates and holes in the street (always watch where you walk at night- they often are coming out of those grates that are everywhere!).  Sunday, we were walking down the sidewalk midday and I saw one making a beeline for Andrea's foot- I tried to warn her, but it happened so fast all I got out was "B!!!!!" and then she's kicking her foot and yelping and throwing the thing down the walk, and I'm crying I'm laughing so hard.   A few weeks ago, I was attempting to dine on my rooftop after having a lucky evening to myself, and it being somewhat cooler.  I had my yummy dinner and some wine and was sitting up on the roof in mostly darkness watching the city and mountains in the night sky, when I realize there is all kinds of movement in my peripheral vision.  THEN I focus in it and realize that those pesky massive cockroaches are everywhere.  Needless to say, I grabbed my dinner (after checking it!) and spilled about half my wine on the way out the door.  I have been lucky not to have any in my apartment, because we live in a nice, newer, high rise.  Tales from friends involved them waking up in the middle of the night with one on their mouth, in the couch, covering them up with frisbees, throwing them out the window, trying to put up a barrier between their bedrooms and the rest of the apartment (most doors don't fully extend to the floor here so you typically would have to stuff something at the bottom of the door to keep all critters out) and countless other tales of traumatizing experiences by these guys.  To be fair, I actually don't find them as offensive as regular cockroaches - at least you see these coming (usually!).


In other news, this is why I don't blog.  I get busy with life and then it hangs over my head as something I should be doing that I'm not. So no more weeks.  I'll update as I can.  And I have gotten ridiculously busy somehow.  July wasn't supposed to be, but when I was told I got the kindy job starting August 1, I also got told I was taking over another schedule for the 6 weeks before this.  Great, at least I know when I'm working.  Not great, I'm on the entire other side of the city from where I live and have a ton of hours. I like those schools okay and had some great classes (in particular a teen class that I loved on Friday nights...my last class there I ran the Quest in standard ship form - just slightly altered to adjust to the non-native speakers, and had a birthday party, cake included), and hours kept getting dropped.  Two weeks into it, I ended up with less hours, but soon picked up kindy training hours- great, except that the kindy is on the other side of the city from the schools I'm now working in the afternoon-evening at...I live between the two (MUCH close to the kindy) but was then having to go southwest from my house in the morning to all the way northeast of the city and my house later in the day.  Needless to say, lots of time was spent in transit.  That being said, having covered at schools all over the place, I have a pretty amazing knowledge of the public transit system here- subway AND busses.  I've waited for busses that don't exist, I've taken ones that definitely did not go where I was hoping they would, and I've been generally lost in the bus wrld trying to get somewhere.  The thing you realize is that, because ALL buses eventually hit an MRT station, you can't really get totally lost.  The other thing that leaves little reason to worry, is that there's not really a 'bad' part of town so it doesn't really matter if you're on a bus somewhere that you don't know.

*Side note, how do YOU spell more than one bus?  Busses or buses?


As you may notice, it is not past August 1st, and I've traded travel time for many many hours of work all at one school.  On the plus side, I'm closer to home ( 3 MRT stops and a bus that I'm only on for a few stops) and going to get paid well.  Then again, I'm working a lot.  I'm in charge of the 'baby' class - which is 3-4 year olds, except right now we're more in the late 2s, early 3s.  Yes, you have kids in all day English kindergarten kindergarten here = anything for 3-6 year olds...somewhat a cross between day care/ preschool/kindergarten in the States...there's also summer camp stuff for older kids that need somewhere to go) in the morning and afternoon for about 4+ hours a day.  We spent about 4-6 weeks on a topic, the first being "Myself" - so we're learning "Eyes" and "Ears" and "Head, Shouders, Knees and Toes" and doing projects (today was fingerpainting face portraits on cardboard) and lots of songs and movements (We are excellent at Ring A Round the Rosies...or as the girls say "Teacher, I like Tissue! since our version says A tissue, a tissue, we all fall down" Other favorites are I'm A Little Teapot, Row Row Row Your Boat, The Wheels On the Bus, and other nursery rhyme songs).  We're also doing Maths (colors and basic numbers), Writing Practice (trace the straight lines...or wiggly lines), Phonics (a letter a week...we're on C which is "C! cuh cuh cuh CAT!"  B was B! buh buh buh BALL!..motions included), lots of gym time (in a ball pit indoors with a jungle gym...I cringe at the child germ infested thing...there's a reason they took those out on the ships!  Then again, USPH doesn't exist here in any way shape or form...and everyone seems to get along a-okay), and other random activities including story time focuses on one book for about 4 weeks, other books, and lots of just play/bathroom breaks/attempting to get some of them to eat while others gobble right up.  It does make you wonder what you were like as a kid in preschool or kindergarten, seeing how they all have such distinct personalities already.

On top of this, I also still teach a buxiban class of kids who are around 8 on MWF after the kindy hours.  They mostly went to the kindy untli they started normal school and now just come after school 3 days a week for a class.  An extremely rowdy bunch but they're fun.  I have a few private students at the school on Wednesdays and am there until 9pm usually which is super late when you have to be back early the next morning.  I'm also tutoring a girl around my age on my own, not through my school, who I pay volleyball with for the TOEFL as she's going to try to do a master's of arts next year in the States (possibly in Chicago!). 


Yes, that's right, volleyball!!! It only took me 3 months to find, but I finally found a decent level game going on - indoors on Monday nights (so my Mondays are pretty much like a 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. day...only part of the insanity)  The game is at.....the American School! hahaha.  It's a bit bizarre because you walk in and it's like you've gone home (okay, maybe not Rivet....but a nice high school in the States).  The gym is standard gym, they're the Tigers, banners all over with sports accomplishments, basketballs in the corner on a rack, volleyballs next to them in the bin, pom-poms stored in the locker room, etc.  Everything is in English, and when you walk into the lobby, teenagers are usually sitting around chatting in English with what sounds like very American accents.  The group playing had some high schoolers from the girls and guys team playing with us until recently (apparently "the old people" play on Monday nights according to the students there) as it was summer and the girls' practice would be ending right as we took over.  It's still summer here too, so school is out for a little bit longer.  Meanwhile, there is a good mix of young Taiwanese people, some faculty/staff from the school, a handful of older Taiwanese people who've been playing together for every, sometimes the few from the high school teams, and then other random folk (me, for example).  All in all, it's at a pretty good level though - bump, set, spike; hard serves; good net play, etc.  A bunch of the guys hit as hard as anyone else I've played against anywhere (more so? since it's indoor hard court...).  Regardless, the one thing I realized is I play volleyball much more like a guy here than the girls. hahah.  Not that the girls aren't good - they have amazing underhand serves and all play pretty solidly themselves, it's just the style difference. Growing up, in junior high we were taught to serve under hand, and then once somewhat mastering that, you moved right on to at least learning overhand.  Playing in high school you learn to cover when people are up at the net and move your feet for everything. Playing beach so much since high school, I've learned a lot of net play and just in general ball control..  But I still suck at setting - however, you can always pass on that 2nd hit!  Either way, I am super excited to have found a good game, and super grateful to Oceane and Patrick for inviting me to come.  (Oceane is from here an Patrick is American, they're dating, and they're in the group of friends that are teachers than I know)


Other things to come sometime:  Visitors galore (I had my first house guests fly in from Seoul on Sunday!..and also ran into the one person from Vin walking around...all in the same day), Weekend Fun, Ghost Month, and What I Eat!