Birthday

What a lovely day. Really, truly lovely, populated by wonderful people, foods, and times. Nothing exciting, but that's okay with me; oddly, my experience here has done nothing so much as reinforce me in the belief that being alone sometimes is not only okay, but great. So today was a fantastic mixture of being alone and being in company: perfection.

The morning existed in the best possible way for Saturday mornings to exist: sleep.

Then I got to chat with my mom and dad (though my dad fell asleep while I did...hardly an inspiring reason to come home, Dad! ;) ) via Skype, and open the fabulous presents they got me which had been staring at me since they arrived with Alex and Melanie more than a month ago.

Then I got free Starbucks and (as odd as it may sound for a voluntary activity on a Saturday which was also my birthday) got some stuff done. I finished editing the current chapter of the thesis I'm working on for a local grad student, made good headway writing a piece I'm working on for one of my university's publications, got some reading in courtesy of the wonderful Flannery O'Connor, and was inspired for a potential music video parody about foreigners abroad. (Stay tuned on the writing and music video projects; they will hopefully come to fruition soon.)

By then, it was time for dinner, a great and fabulously Western affair at Foster Hewitt's, a Canadian place in Zuoying where I joined my host sister Emily, Karina, and Analicia for a delicious 5-cheese hamburger and potato wedges (POTATOES!!!!), washed down with fresh strawberry-lime soda and followed by a brownie sundae which was, thanks to Analicia's efforts, garnished with a lit sprinkler. Thankfully, the owner respected my wish that they NOT sing to me. (After all, when you've had several choruses of adorable students serenade you all week, sometimes trilingually, there's just no going back to half-hearted restaurant employees.) Analicia and Emily had great gifts of chocolate and a teddy bear and sweet-smelling soap for me, just to round out the amazingness. :)

New shirt from home! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Soooooo gooooooooooood!

At home again, I got in some more reading and TV-watching, which was absolutely wonderful. And so ends my week of birthday--though not quite, really, since it's only 11:30am on my birthday at home right now, meaning birthday wishes will keep pouring in on Facebook for a good many more hours. This is undoubtedly the longest, and may be one of the best, birthdays I've ever had.

Mothers and Surprises

If I had written a real post yesterday, it would have been on mothers: we taught a cultural lesson on Mother's Day to the 5th and 6th graders at Qingshan, and I was amazed and saddened at some of the things I heard my students say. I found it particularly shocking because it's become amply clear to me that Mother's Day is a much bigger thing here than in America, and honor for your parents is an absolutely crucial component of the culture.

Still, it was sad to see how many of my kids had nothing good to say about their moms; our activity was a fill-in-the-blanks letter for their mom (or grandma or aunt or dad or...), and I know enough Chinese to know what they wanted to use to fill in the blanks was significantly less than flattering (one memorable boy's first attempt to finish "My favorite thing about you is..." was  你的大的屁股). Other answers were less inappropriate, and more heartbreaking. I'm sure a large part of it was because yesterday was the 6th graders, but it still served to remind me of how incredibly lucky I am to have my Mom. She's awesome.

Today was different, and confirmed my 6th-grade theory: with the 5th graders, while there were still a few complaints, what I heard more of was "do I have to choose just one thing to say about her? Can't I say my favorite thing about her is her smile and how fun she is?" That was lovely to hear. I also rather enjoyed seeing the drawings they did of their moms. Here is my favorite--and no, this does not mean he has a horrible home life; his mom is a teacher at Qingshan and is a wonderful person.

Yes, according to that picture, Zack's mom is Godzilla. Something tells me she'd be less than thrilled at the comparison...I like it, though! Added a smile to my day.

And there were plenty of smiles to be had today! Halfway through our fourth and final class of the day, Patty and the class of 5-3 surprised me with a birthday celebration! Patty had bought me a cake (one of the BEST cakes I have ever had in my life--vanilla with frosting layers of chocolate frosting and fruit) and some fabulously blingbling的 earrings, and all of my students, 5th and 6th graders together, had signed a MASSIVE card for me.

Just a few samplings of their glorious work :)

Beautiful, scrumptious cake!

西瓜甜不甜?

Gifts. <3! Pink bow and yellow barrette from Kitty and Linda; bracelet came without a card, pretty earrings from Patty!

Another hugely popular gift was boxes filled with 300 paper stars: I got two today, one in a silver box, and one in a pink pig music box. Kiki and Sherry also assured me that they were making me one, but hadn't finished yet. Apparently, it's a tradition akin to making 1,000 origami cranes in Japan; it brings good luck! Here's what my silver box looks like (once I've turned it on its side and artfully dumped the stars into the lid, that is):

Another lovely moment of the day was the several students--several bearing gifts or cards--who Patty prompted to the front to take a picture with me. One of them, Kevin, apparently said he was going to kiss me, and I got a little worried, but he didn't. Here's Kevin and I:

...and here are Judy, Angela, and a boy whose name I can't remember at the moment, but who was in the crew of people making stars for the pig music box. :)

So many lovely surprises today! This year, my birthday has brought such a wonderful store of love flowing from so many wonderful people at both of my schools. I'm eternally grateful to all of them! Today restored my faith, not only in kids' views of their mothers, but in the belief that Taiwanese people are the best people on Earth. Period. Thank you all so much! It's not even my birthday yet (okay fine it's 2am...), and yet this ranks among my best ever because of you. Thank you!

Blessed

Ingrid had a question about writing characters. I leaned across my desk and towards her, explaining stroke order and trying to reconcile her calligraphy teacher's and a student's rendition of the word "是" when I heard a commotion behind me. I turned--and there stood Maggie, Alison, Fiona and about 15 of my students, bearing a beautiful chocolate cake and shouting "Happy birthday!"

We lit the candles and they sang for me (including Ingrid's raucous Dutch addendum to the song, which I rather loved), and I made a wish. And then they revealed that not only had they bought me a gorgeous cake, they had cancelled the school lunch and brought in teas for everyone, and duck and crepes from a famous local shop. And they had bought me a present!

For not actually being my birthday, today was one of the best birthdays I've had. I feel so blessed! As we ate, we sat and chatted about anything and everything, from life in general to what to call the things we wrapped the duck in (Ingrid said 'wraps' or 'pancakes'; I said 'crepes') to the question of the origins of "bling bling的," an actual thing in Chinese used to describe shiny/sparkly jewelry (like my super cute new earrings--thank you guys!). A fabulous conversation with fabulous people while eating fabulous food.

One unexpected perk of being a teacher at two schools: your birthday starts way early! Here are the photos I snagged:

Cake, food, AND tea! Love my co-workers!

Had to rearrange my desk to fit my birthday cards. My students are the BEST!

Love.

Today was my short day, as all Tuesdays are, and so most of my day was spent at home either being productive or procrastinating about being productive. (Or at Starbucks realizing I'd forgotten most of the essential things I needed to be productive.) But that's not to say that I didn't have time first to be reminded of how much I love my job!

We taught professions to the 6th graders today, including an activity strongly resembling the one we used last semester to teach professions to the 5th graders, but with stricter injunctions against "careers" like killer, thief, and, a popular one today, terrorist. (Oh dear.)

Nonetheless, I loved today because I love hearing what my students want to be--or what they want to joke about being, as the case may be. One of my top-level students, Jay, first raised his hand to say he wanted to be a "watermelon monster." We told him that wasn't a job and moved on. He raised his hand a second time and said he wanted to be a "shemale." We, again, told him that wasn't a job, and I made a mental note that his buqiban teacher must have an interesting sense of humor. (Eventually he said he wanted to be a wrestler.)

It's just so wonderful to hear kids claiming their dreams, at a time when all their dreams are still cool and not boring or faded. When you still have 3 basketball players in a room, and several astronauts and dancers and entertainers and fire fighters, but also get the more thought out but still hard-to-get professions, like fashion designers and architects and computer programmers and paleontologists (yes, one girl claimed it! Another wanted to be an archeologist; writing those words on the board was nerve-wracking for my spelling abilities ,though I got them right). One boy wanted to build the dais (litters? stretchers?) they put deities on for parades (I told him carpenter?); another boy wanted to be a wig designer. I just love the creativity they still have in elementary school!

Then classes were over. As I walked towards the elevators, two of my favorite 5th grade girls, Sammi and Judy, (they always bring me my lunch and chat with me; they recently had me fill out a card for their friendship address book :) ) popped out from behind a pillar and came towards me--bearing gifts! See, my birthday is coming up--another adorable student had given me a very cute pink birthday card earlier--and, thanks to the little cards Judy and Sammi had me fill out, they knew that, and they got me presents. So precious! And the gifts themselves were adorable, too! It's not even my birthday yet and I'm feeling so loved.

Judy's gift! A crystal bear--and about 5X more wrapping paper than was truly necessary. :)

(part of) Sammi's gift: a hippo and hear mug and a pop-up birthday card with a poodle. <3

Everything,including Sarah's card (far left)! Note the cookies in the middle: the rest of Sammi's gift. Girl knows me: cookies and a coffee mug!

America meets Taiwan

The first part of today involved teaching American traditions to the kiddos; the second part involved whole-heartedly embracing Taiwanese traditions and injecting them with a bit of playful Americanness.

Our lesson today (and yesterday) was pretty simple and fun: an introduction to sports around the world. The book included bowling, badminton and dodgeball, but neglected to add soccer or American football. I quickly remedied that, and re-discovered that, no matter where they're from, boys love the idea of a sport that involves hitting each other and making the other person fall over.

Seriously. I played about a minute from this clip of the last Super Bowl, and at the end of many classes, both yesterday and today, I had boys trying to figure out where they could find more of this "football" craziness. To which all I can add is a Scott-themed "aMERica!"

After school, our apartment got together with Katy (an American teacher at Sanmin), Fonda, and Chialing to celebrate Rachel's birthday today in the most Taiwanese fashion ever: KTV.

And this was, hands down, the most fun I've ever had at KTV. The English songs available at this particular place were not particularly plentiful, and consisted primarily in popular songs from the 90s or earlier, but that led to fantastic, no-holds-barred singing contests of the Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Avril Lavigne etc, plus songs like "Barbie Girl," amongst others.

Because, really, when you're doing KTV, you've already kissed your dignity goodbye; it's more fun if you take it all the way and go for flat-out ridiculous! Once Chialing and Fonda arrived, we incorporated some Taiwanese songs too, of course, leading to several rousing rounds of our old favorite 我的寶貝,

as well as several songs by 五月天(Mayday) and others that I recognized but can't yet sing. (To do list: learn to sing more Taiwanese songs for KTV purposes.)

It was a lovely way to spend the evening, and a lovely way to wish a happy birthday to the wonderful Rachel! By the time we ended, the whole group was belting out "My Heart Will Go On," confirming American stereotypes and thoroughly celebrating our past four hours in the best way possible.

So, in light of such a bi-cultural day, there's really only one way to end this post: to say Happy Birthday, Rachel, and 生日快樂,池蕊!

火锅 and cousins

I forget how much I love family, and family gatherings. Until I do things like I did tonight, going with my host family and extended family to a hot pot restaurant, then back to their place to play board games. It was a wonderful, three-generation gathering, and I got to meet Margaret's parents (it was her dad's birthday) and her brother and sister-in-law, as well as their three adorable daughters! And, on top of all of that, I had hot pot (火锅)for the first *real* time, and it was absolutely delicious.

The hot pot restaurant they took us to was stupendous, and had everything imaginable to eat. It was actually a hot pot/buffet, so in addition to the wall of hot pot ingredients, they also had everything from sushi to hot dogs to chocolate and strawberry fondue; watermelon juice to almond tea to Coca-Cola in glass bottles. But, apart from the drinks (and the fondue) I didn't even touch their other options, as I was too focused on the hot pot itself.

If you've never had hot pot, first of all, you should. Second of all, let me explain: you order a flavored broth (the place we went had everything from "original" to miso to Italian tomato to curry, which I ordered), and then go get a whole bunch of raw foods from the buffet. Back at your table, you discover a full pot of your broth and a heat control beneath it; you basically just drop in your ingredients, let them cook, and dig in!

It's simple, but brilliant.

My uncooked pile of goodies and the broth I later used to cook it

 And amongst the delicious food (they even had beef!!!), I got to meet my host family's family. And they are FANTASTIC. Not that I expected any less from my fabulous host family--they are altogether some of my favorite people ever. :) 

Emily and cousins!

Family!

Margaret's brother's kids, Bunny, Jenny, and Mumu (she doesn't have an English name yet; they invited me to help give her one!) are 13, 9, and almost 2, and, as odd as it sounds, I hadn't realized how much I missed hanging out with kids. Yes, I know, that's pretty much all I do here, but being someone's teacher is an altogether different dynamic than being someone's cousin and, with 21 cousins back at home, I missed that relationship.

No need now! Bunny and Jenny both have excellent English (Bunny's is better, as she's older and so has had more time to study), and they remind me of our family friends Shelby and Kendra, back home--same sisterly dynamic and  (for Jenny, at least) same personalities. Also, she pretty much IS my cousin Lindsey. About halfway through our meal, Jenny began spending more time at our table than her own, and insisted on bringing me to get, first fondue, and then ice cream. I wasn't hungry at that point, but I couldn't possibly say no to her!

Who could?

 Then she began quizzing me on my Chinese, and I began swapping simple sentences with her in English and Chinese "I am from America"/ "我 是 美國來" and "You are in the middle in your family. Me too!" (Emily had to translate on that one, but it made Jenny happy.) Eventually, Bunny joined the conversation and the cousin dynamics deepened.

Outside the restaurant, talking with my new-found cousins

 We headed back to James, Margaret, and Emily's place and Jenny immediately took control of the situation, breaking out the Taiwanese version of Monopoly (whose Chinese name directly translated to 'rich man,' incidentally), and proceeded to make what can be a relatively slow game into a fast-paced one, slapping dice into peoples' hands and moving for them if they were too slow. 

I, meanwhile, tried to follow simultaneously the game and the flow of conversation, in Chinese and English, which was passing over, around, and towards me from all of the adults. Everyone was speaking at once; many times several people were speaking to me at once, and I couldn't even begin to catch everything that was said, even in English, especially as Jenny commandeered my attention every few seconds or so for the game, but it was glorious. My family gatherings always consist of loud, boisterous conversations on all sides, punctuated by kids' queries; I was right at home!

After a while, we had birthday cake for Margaret's dad, who was turning 80, and sang him Happy Birthday in English and Chinese. (I just clapped for the Chinese part, but it was fun nonetheless.) Mumu, who had been alternately "playing" with the Monopoly pieces and grinning at me and others, figured all this attention was for her, and so perched herself in front of grandpa behind the cake--so as to be able to blow out her candles, of course! (Which she later did.)

Adorable.

After cake, Jenny busted out the Uno game and insisted I teach her how to play, then she, Bunny, Emily and I started the game, which Bunny promptly won, leaving an eventual 2nd place to Emily as Jenny and I commiserated with an arm wrestling game. Just like home, hanging out with my little cousins. :)

Meanwhile, Bunny took advantage of her free time to draw some stupendous sketches of the four of us, plus Mumu.

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye, and as I shared an over-enthusiastic hand-shake with Jenny, who had promised to invite me to the *next* family birthday, I hoped I wouldn't have to wait that long. I love family; love my family; love now having two families, one in America and one in Taiwan.

*** 

Side note: After my great evening with my family, Karina and I headed to the Young People's Shopping District to take photobooth pictures. I was able to find the place without a problem (accomplishment 1) and the pictures turned out FANTASTICALLY! (accomplishment 2). Therefore, I give you...

 Side note 2: This evening, Karina, who is staying the night, stepped out of my bed room to encounter a 3" cockroach flailing its legs in the air on our floor, just moments after telling me she is cursed with bringing cockroaches with her wherever she goes. Point proven, as I trapped it in an old tea cup and Rachel saved the day, drowning it in Raid. Seriously, though, Karina is like the Pied Piper of cockroaches...

Quite the Day

For some reason, this Friday has felt exceptionally long; it had plenty in it to make it seem full, mostly in the good sense, but now, I'm so exhausted I don't really know how much I can write about it.

But write I will, if only because my sheets are in the dryer and I can't go to sleep yet until they're done, anyway.

I realized during my 5th grade classes at Cing-Shan today that I suggested--and we played--charades for three of my four lesson plans this week. It would seem that I'm getting unimaginative (Heaven forbid!), but at least the kids all liked it. And it's hard not to bring up charades for easy-to-act things like emotions, which we covered today. It's even more difficult, though, to differentiate between near-synonyms taught together: today we had "great," "excited," and "happy." No matter how you act it, those three pretty much look the same. As for the textbook activity--write the word next to the right picture--impossible.

Tomorrow is Patty's birthday, it turns out! The principal came into one of our later classes with a cake--I wish I had known before! Glad to have gotten to help celebrate a little, anyway--she is wonderful and I'm so glad to know her!

I stayed for lunch today at Cing-Shan for the first time since the observational week because today we started rehearsals for Readers Theater. Ah, how I miss theater: I realized it when our eight aspiring readers trouped in, and I was reminded of so many pre-rehearsal bonding moments with other groups of kids; I loved the camaraderie of being the select few. And I learned these select fews' names--a few to check off my massive class list of names to learn: Kiki, Sherry, Tin (like the French cartoon--he won't change it), Daisy, Alice, and...shoot, there were definitely 7 kids there; two more boys. Woops.

Anyway, rehearsal was fun--nostalgic for me on multiple levels, both remembering acting when I was younger and reading the story itself, which Patty adapted into script format from Bill Peet's wonderful The Spooky Tail of Prewitt the Peacock, which I read growing up, and lent to Patty. Our version is "The Spooky Crown of Hank the Cockatoo," and features a good deal more singing than the original, but I really like it. Some good vocabulary that got carried over from Prewitt. And I'm going to like doing RT! Even though it means staying long on my early Friday, it's the best of all worlds: I get to re-tap into my theatrical side, work to get pronunciation perfect (which I love) and work extra with the kids who already have a pretty wonderful grasp of the language for their age (read: probably the work of buqibans, but still...).

After school I ran out to Carrefour to get goodies for the BBQ that happened tonight at Tiffiany and Steven's apartment in Dashe--I tasked myself with drinks, chips and fruit, and Rachel chipped in on them. And in the process, I learned the right way to go grocery shopping on a scooter: with a backpack.

Fonda was nice enough to drive Rachel and I to the BBQ (others did a complicated MRT-to-bus-to-foot route), and we had a great night of hanging out with everyone--at final count, there were 14 of us, I believe: Tiffiany and Steven (of course), myself, Rachel, Analicia, Esther, Emily, and Lydia of the ETAs, then Fonda, and Evelyn and Rita (her co-worker we met at Dream Mall), Katy (new American English teacher at San-Min), and CJ (San-Min security) and his friend Bacon. We enjoyed such delicious fare as Steven's grilled fruit and Lydia's grilled salad, then snacked on all sorts of goodies and fruit until the main course, Steven and Tiffiany's fajitas, were served.

And oh, another important point of the night! Tiffiany and Steven share their apartment building with several of their students' families; also present tonight were Sylvia and her son, Yung-Yung, one of Tiffiany's students whose tenth birthday was today. And they hadn't had plans! So we sang to him and ate black forest cake. Happy Birthday, Yung-Yung!

Well, that's about it for now...have to be up early tomorrow. Goodnight world, it's been quite a day; happy birthday to Patty and Yung-Yung!