Chinatrust Hotel Taichung

... s too, and I decided to have our own SMU Alumni weekend in Taiwan! On Friday at school since we have many of the same SMU t-shirts. We wore matching outfits. The students really liked that! haha Then right after school we went to a teachers apartment and had wine and pizza! It was a fun night. On Saturday night we went out to a Mexican restaurant similar to one in Winona, Tequila's, and drank some Coronas. We then went to a bar, Frog Family, and played some darts and hung ...

... working later into the evenings. Because the students have Chinese school in the morning it pushes their English classes later into the evenings. I will be teaching my 3rd graders from 5-7 three days a week. Could you imagine being that age and having to be in school all day until 7 and then go home and do both Chinese and English school homework! Crazy!! No wonder the Asians are passing up Americans! They work their butts off at the age of 10!!

I ...

... some parents complain that their students aren't getting enough homework...even during the summer program. These kids don't get much of a break! My observation went well and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would!

I figured I would include a couple more random tidbits about how life in Taiwan is a little bit different than in the states.

1. On most stop lights they have a countdown to when the light will turn green. Most people don't wait ...

It has been a busy week. I now have 2 weeks of teaching under my belt and as of tomorrow I have already been here for a whole month!! Wow where has the time gone! It doesn't seem like I have been here that long at all.

I started my week off a little rough. I had a student who when he becomes frustrated or doesn't want to do something will act out either by screaming/crying for "moving" furniture. So on Monday and Tuesday he had outbursts where he needed to be removed ...

... party to celebrate a birthday and the end of the school year. I am excited to go out and celebrate with the staff. I also get to have scooter lessons from my "Super Buddy" Katie so that I will be able to drive her scooter when she goes back to WI for the month of July. I am sure there will be some great stories from that giving that a scooter is a little smaller than the big white beast I have driven since I was 16!

Until later...Love ya and miss ya!

... starting a fire! The ladies then set out the evening's food spread on a table in the garage. The cuisine consisted of chicken, pork, shishkabobs, shrimp on a stick, oysters, and fish. It was definitely a variety of items that were available for us to eat and I must say that I was not used to attending a cookout where there was shrimp on a stick as an option. We grilled out in the middle of the street (they do not have a backyard) and enjoyed ...

... have cost about $6). The taxicab ride was one to remember. I do not know what it is about riding in a taxi in foreign countries, but I always seem to end up fearing for my life and saying about a dozen prayers before I reach my destination. The driver (while wearing some very Top Gun-esq aviator sunglasses) drove up the mountains at an insane amount of speed. I actually looked over his shoulder and noticed that we were going 140 kilometers per hour (about 90MPH ...

... It was a fantastic feeling to receive that first paycheck. We all took a group trip to the local post office, which is where we, as alien citizens, can open a bank account. One-by-one we walked up to the window with our school's Chinese interpreter and organized our own account. We were given a bank statement, a checkbook, and a debit card with a cute little dinosaur on it (everything around here has some sort of "cute" cartoon ...

... a strong earthquake. This was rather ironic news due to the recent trip to the earthquake museum just last week. Thankfully, the earthquake's epicenter was toward the southern tip of the island, and the effects were minimal in my city. I asked all of my fellow teachers who all stated that they did not feel a thing. However, the event did cause me to ask our administrator about our school's ...

... some errands within the school in hopes the rain would die down). Needless to say it was rather frustrating and not the birthday gift I had hoped for. When I walked into the apartment building, soaking from head to toe, I walked past our security guard. He yelled something at me in Chinese and I sort of let out a groan because I half expected to be scolded for being so wet. However, the man was holding up two packages (clearly written in my Mom's ...