Li Chia Royal Garden Hotel Taichung

... in simple language. Many times the Chinese teachers would have to repeat directions in Chinese because the students have only been around English for about 2-3 months. I will miss them because they had so much love to give. I loved the little hugs they would come give me, way better than my 3rd graders whining about too much homework! haha

Also this week I started my 2 writing classes. I have one with 2 1st graders and 1 2nd grader and then my other class ...

... the music instead. This was a lot of fun.

I had quite the last day of our summer program. Friday brought the end of a long week. The kids were a little crazy. This may be because many of them will be starting up Chinese school on Monday or who knows what. I had one student who had brought a Fanta soda (orange pop) to school and wanted to drink it. I had to remind him many times that we only drink water in class and that he needed to put his pop back in his bag. Well I had to ...

... been taking some pictures of my students and will be able to post those soon! I will be getting 3 more of my students on Monday! Because of the summer program the parents can pick when the students will come. It is annoying for the teachers because we seem to always have kids coming and going. I am excited for the regular year when their attendance is more consistent.

Well that is all for now....Until later.....love ya and miss ya!

Recently, one of the Chinese teachers, Chiayi, invited all of the staff to her house for a good ole fashioned Taiwanese barbeque. I must say that I absolutely love grilling out! Hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, a cold beverage of choice, and brats... delicious! When I first saw the invitation I immediately got excited. However, as the week wore on, it was discovered that a Taiwanese cookout was not similar to those in the states by any means ...

... and seemed to declare the party "over." It was at the point that everyone stood up and started making their ways toward the exit. I had never seen a party end like that before! April greeted each guest on their way out the door and posed for pictures with everyone. She and her fiancé also handed out mints, pictures, and even cigarettes to those in attendance as a thank you for coming. Her wedding is scheduled for October and I'm hoping I will be in attendance for that!

... badminton here and they have a pretty competitive athlete or two that qualified for the games. They really love baseball here as well and I do see the occasional advertisement for when "Chinese Taipei" takes on the Netherlands or Cuba. So, I have a feeling that if I am going to see a major Olympic sport, it will most likely be baseball. I have asked why the country of Taiwan is always referred to as "Chinese Taipei" in the Olympics. I got sort of a ...

... previous 3rd grade teacher working on administrative errands for his remaining month in Taiwan. They said that they wanted to hear my thoughts on the matter, but to keep in mind that there was relatively no other option around this. I must admit that I was quite disappointed in the decision. However, like the administrator had stated, there was really no other option for me. This was an instance where I reminded ...

... However, my kids seemed to have some sort of extra spark. I don't know what it is or where they found the strength, but like Muhammad Ali "roped a dope" with his Thrilla in Manila, my kids did a little dope roping of their own as we were crowned the champions of Taichung. High-fives and fist-pumps were thrown all around. Although you would not think that grade schoolers would be that overjoyed to be outside and playing sports in the 95 degree heat (not including ...