Lately

Hello! I'm back again. It's amazing how time speeds up and slows down and we're just sort of along for the ride. There haven't been too many things to report lately, and we just got the internet in our new apartment yesterday so I have a good excuse for not posting. I'll touch on the highlights.

Most recently I was a member of a Dragon Boat team that participated in the Dragon Boat Festival here in Hsinchu. It was organized by our Program Manager, Desiree, at school and we were also sponsored by our school. We did two days of practicing and then had two days of racing. It was pretty fun and a great time, I posted some pictures of the event of my pictures page so you can check them out. We came in fourth out of nine foreign teams! It was a really cool Taiwanese experience, and fun to be part of a team taking part in a local event.

We are preparing for the Kindergarten Graduation at school, which consists of preparing artwork and posters to display, and also songs and dances to perform. It's on July 4 this year, and that is how I will be celebrating my favorite bbq day. The year is definitely winding down, and everyone is looking forward to July when we don't have any night classes anymore and get off at 4, until then I am working twelve hour days three days a week and meditating on the number of days until I am not longer a teacher! I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about how much I will probably miss it when I'm gone, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there! I do try to appreciate every day I have here and to bask in the essence of Taiwan (which isn't always a pleasant-smelling essence) while I still can.

Other news, I accidentally stepped on and killed a roach the other day, which when you think about it is pretty impressive. Consider the size of a roach, the size of my foot, the surface area of the earth, and the intensity with which I despise killing roaches and that is a very complicated calculation. I had to sit down and let it all sink it--it still blows my mind. I realize this isn't really news, but something that caused me to ponder the universe, so it's proof that you can be a kindergarten teacher and still have some degree of brain activity.

My co-teacher and I were having a conversation the other day about how tired we are of taking care of kids. It really is draining, and I have a lot of respect for parents. (Namely parents who stay home with their kids all day and have to entertain small children. Especially parents with 11 four year olds because that's totally pushing the limit of reason, and those parents should really re-evaluate their goals in life. At least that's my opinion.) Anyway, Glenn showed me a story about a little girl who got a lot of medals for being good which she wore on her blouse, and in the end was eaten by a wolf while she was hiding from it behind a mulberry bush because her metals were tinkling together. The part of the story that I liked (besides the extremely of morbid idea of harm coming to annoying children) was at the beginning where it describes an aunt who is taking care of her nieces and nephew on a train and another passenger tells this story to them. The reason I like that is because it describes how all of the aunt's sentences started with "Don't" and all of the children's sentences started with "Why," and the passenger got tired of listening to this and told the kids a story to quiet them. It seems like most of my days are spent keeping kids quiet so that I can maintain some of my dwindling sanity. I am very proud of my college education! I use it to count leggos of different colors, and choreograph dances to songs like "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" and have discussions about the small letter d. It has been a lot of fun, and I have found this to be a thoroughly gratifying experience that I am very thankful for. I have grown quite fond of my students, in the way that most people grow fond of kids that they're used to and see everyday, and I will be very sad to say goodbye to them. I take comfort in knowing that we have had some great times jamming to "The Wheels on the Bus" and playing some very intense games of Duck Duck Goose (we haven't mastered some of the more advanced games yet like Simon Says and Follow the Leader), and I hope they remember how vital these precious moments were to their education as they grow up to become engineers and computer technicians. But seriously, I love them.

I mentioned earlier that we have a new apartment! Our school moved its staff housing at the beginning of May, and we now live about 2 blocks closer to school, on the same street as school, on the 12th floor of a big apartment building. It's a great place, very clean and bright, and I love being able to look at the mountains every day (ever clear day). There are pictures of this too in the new post.

I have booked my flights home, and am looking forward to doing a little bit more traveling before getting back to the Lone Star State. Emily, Donovan and I will be visiting Hong Kong at the end of July for 3 days, then we will be going our separate ways (Em to California, Donovan back to Taiwan) and I will be going to England for about a month. I am very excited to visit Ashley for a few days, and to see Sam and his family! I will arrive back in Houston at 5:35 p.m. on August 27th! I am counting down the days, and today is 76 until I arrive. Fajitas and guacamole, here I come!