Settling In

Today was a long day; to be honest, I'm a little surprised I'm still standing. I'm pretty sure that the sole reason that I am is the coffee drink I had for dinner (iced coffee with ice cream--delish!).

I spent all day today in my schools--from 8:00 to 1:00 at Cing-Shan, then 1:30-4:30 at Han-Min, then dinner with Maggie and Alison. I was observing again, and adding to my list of English names in my spare moments.

I've been learning a lot about my LETs' teaching styles, and getting more and more excited about teaching with them. They are each very different in how they teach, and even in how they prepare, but they are all great teachers, and wonderful people to co-teach and hang out with. It's going to be a great year!

This morning, (after a normal-time wake-up, thank goodness), Patty picked me up from the MRT and took me to Cing-Shan's student assembly, where (together with all the other new teachers) I was introduced to all 200 or so students, who greeted me with the standard "Laoshi hao," and then, at Patty's prompting, "Good morning teacher Bekah." Then the principal introduced me; then Patty introduced me; then they handed me the microphone. What was left to say? I don't know. I said good morning and that I was going to teach English with teacher Patty, then filed off the stage. I think I messed something up, because they laughed, but I don't know what! Oh the joys of not speaking the language.

Outside the classroom at Cing-Shan--it was super humid today, and fogged up my camera instantly.

So after that I was a superstar at Cing-Shan--every recess found kids in our classroom talking to me, or hiding behind their friends and refusing to talk to me. Several of them have pretty good English, too! And they're enjoying teaching me little bits of Chinese, most of which (Hello, thank you, etc) I already know.

Also, to continue the name-change saga, I changed "Boy" to Danny, and "Car" to Carl; "Wall" became Walt, "Wug" became Will, "Happy" became Harry, and "Jeach" became Jesse. Handed out a few names just because kids wanted to change them, too; it was fun to get a Liam and an Ella, a Shay and an AJ. Still let Boss slip through, though, and let a girl be "Ettie"--what she was saying sounded like Eddie, so I thought this was closer, anyway.

In the afternoon, I explored Han-Min and observed Maggie and Alison teaching--it is so different form Cing-Shan! At Cing-Shan, like I said, there are about 200 students, and Patty and I have an English classroom. At Han-Min, though, there are 2,000 students, and Alison and Maggie and I rove around to the various home rooms, and have a central office to spend breaks etc. So different! I think it will be nice having a mixture of the two, though--the intimacy of a small school at Cing-Shan and the bustle and fun of a big school at Han-Min.

My desk at Han-Min! More pictures later ;)

Of course, when I got to Han-Min, it wasn't quite bustling--it was still nap time. I love that we have nap time in the schools here--an hour and a half for lunch and nap, technically--and I can't wait until I actually get to utilize it. So far I've been in transit and/or preparing for a lesson in that time, but soon I'll be on a normal schedule!

After observing Maggie and then Alison, we each lesson-planned for next week, and then they graciously took me out to a DELICIOUS dinner--I had fried chicken with spicy and sour sauce, and we talked, among other things, about how little I eat and how tiny Taiwanese people are, considering that I can't even begin to keep up with them eating! (Main lunch-time topic at Cing-Shan, too, where I ate until I was bursting, ate some more, and then was asked if I wasn't eating because I wasn't used to the food yet...) Alison told me it's because a lot of Taiwanese women eat only 2 meals, which makes sense when I think about it. Maybe I should follow suit.

Alison and Maggie at dinner--Patty couldn't come because her son had piano lessons

Anyway, then I headed home and learned that Rachel bought a scooter today! I am itching to join the ranks of scooter owners/drivers--if only I had passed my test already! Oh well, I guess--a few weeks on the MRT won't kill me. It will, however, make me much more tired on a regular basis: I left the house today at 7am, and got back at roughly 6:45pm. *Sigh*

We're setting up Chinese classes now; I'm trying to see if I can take the "Basic," rather than the "Beginning" class, and maybe hire a Chinese tutor to catch me up to where others in the class may be. In the end, I think this will be cheaper and allow me to learn more faster.Also, it looks like neither Cing-Shan nor Han-Min have a lot for me to do in my extra 15 hours every week, so I have enough spare time for hardcore studying of Chinese--I'd love to come out of this year fluent, or at least conversational! Hopefully it will work out.

Well I'm exhausted (it is 2am, after all, and I've been up since 6am), so I'm going to go pass out now.