Another week!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! It didn't feel too much like Christmas here. There was Christmas stuff everywhere, but the feeling just wasn't the same. We had a good one, though, enjoying our day off and unwinding.

We've just finished our third week of teaching and are settling in to the routine. It's still extremely challenging, but going well overall. I think I mentioned in a previous post that the kids are very energetic and rambunctious. It makes sense because they come to language school after they've already gone to their regular school all day. So they are in school from probably 7am to 8 or 9pm.

The classes are a lot of fun. I've quickly realized that the only way to keep the kids' attention spans is to turn everything into a game. Games are the entire basis of teaching English here, and we are constantly having to invent some bizarre relay race on the fly. One of my classes really likes the "foam block tower" game, where if they answer a question right, they get a foam block. When I say go, the kids race to the front of the class and build up their blocks into a tower. The first team back to their seats with their tower still standing gets points. It takes a lot of cooperation and they love it. All the teachers who have been here for a while have hundreds of interesting games up their sleeves, and we're constantly getting new ideas and trying things out.

The kids have English names along with their Chinese names, and some are very interesting. You get a lot of Kevins and Annies, but there are some different ones, too. There is a kid named Popeye at John's school, and at my school we have a Tweety. I heard of a teacher who got to name his students himself, and a brother and sister ended up as Ike and Tina.

The job is a lot of fun, but it takes it out of you. Being on the active end of education is an interesting and exhausting experience! We are excited for New Years and another day off. They shoot fireworks off from Taipei 101 and I think we'll be going to a friend's house who has a great view of 101 from his balcony.

Hope everyone's doing well and we're still missing everyone so much! Talk to you soon and Happy New Year!

Updatin, not hatin!

Hello everybody!
So we began our new jobs as English teachers in Taipei this week. Man, that sounds too far fetched to be real. But apparently it is a fact, though I'm sure I will always have my doubts. Mel is teaching at a school called "Banqiao" and I am at a "Wen Hua." These are just two of the seven or eight schools that Shane Language Schools runs around the city. We nearly pulled our hair out with the amount of preparation and teachers anxiety that we felt this week, but we made it over one hurdle. Only several thousand more to go. Haha, I make stupid joke. It already feels easier to both of us, and the other teachers have congratulated us on making it through the most difficult week of the experience. Thank God!

Last weekend, before we started we had the chance to go to a wonderful riverside carnival/market in an area called Bitan. We took a fantastic seafaring adventure with Simon and Debbie in a paddle-boat. The highlight was when several young Taiwanese folks took our picture. We obliged, giving them a Chinese photo by putting our peace signs in the air and smiling with enthusiasm. Before this we decided to cross the river and explore some very green mountains. There is a great footbridge over the Danshui river that leads to some "hiking trails." I put those words in quotations because on one hand you are surrounded by thick lush foliage; bamboo, ferns, giant prehistoric leafie thingies (that is the technical name thank you very much.) And on the other hand, the trails are paved with asphalt and the sound of a jackhammer thumps majestically in the distance! Perhaps once you get out further into the countryside there are some more natural trails, but we've yet to find out. We'll let you know.

We will be posting more photos in a while, but our free flicker photo trial has expired and we must wait to get paid. Take care of yourselves and we love you all so much. May you all be blessed this holiday season (that sort of sounded like a Hallmark card? but I mean it sincerely.)
Ho!Ho! Ho! or as they say in Taiwan, Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!

Kooky Stuff

So I've been making a list of all the weird/funny stuff you see here on a day to day basis. Here are a few:

1. The Trash Trucks.

They play really loud ice cream truck-type music and come almost every night. They don't come to you, you run to them, with all the other people on the block scrambling with their trash bags to the street corner. It's a pretty funny sight; sometimes I can't help but laugh as I'm running down the street with a bunch of trash. You can also get fined 6000NT if you are caught throwing away recyclables.

2. Receipts.
All the receipts here are part of some kind of lottery. Each has a number on the back and apparently you can win up to 1000000NT. Most people donate their receipts to charity, though. There are clear bins on just about every street corner to take them off your hands.

3. Collectible Toys.
Every 7-11 and Family Mart (of which there are thousands) has some kind of toy you can collect. If you buy a certain amount of stuff from their store, they give you stickers. Once you have 8 or 10 stickers, you get a little toy. Most of the time it's Hello Kitty. I have to admit, it keeps me coming back.

4. Bathrooms.
There are no shower curtains here. The entire bathroom is a shower. The shower head just kind of sticks out from the wall and when you take a shower, you're really cleaning your entire bathroom.
The toilet paper is not on a roll, either. It's just squares of tissue stacked up, and you put it in a waterproof container attached to the wall.
Oh, and there are also no closets here, either. At least none that I've seen. You buy wardrobes instead. I'm waiting for ours to be delivered right now, actually.

5. Advertisement Trucks.
Every once in a while, you'll see a truck go by with speakers on the top blaring Chinese. Su told us they were just advertisements, though they sound rather militaristic.

6. Lack of Road Rage.
Everyone drives like crazy here, with traffic lights and signs acting as suggestions of what you should do. You would think people would always be upset with one another, but I haven't once seen anyone get angry or yell. Losing face here is really a big deal, and if you become upset in public, it makes you look really bad and you're pretty much shunning yourself. It's a nice change to live in a place where getting along with people is the number one priority, not doing whatever it takes to be right and get what you want. (Though figuring out what someone wants can take quite a while.)

7. Respect of Property.
In such a huge, bustling city, you would think people wouldn't ever leave anything unlocked or just sitting outside. That's not the case, though. I've only ever seen a few scooters and bikes locked up. People mostly just leave them outside on the sidewalk. Also, things like fire extinguishers and plants are everywhere, and you could take them if you wanted, but nobody does. Things aren't chained down or put inside at night.
One night we walked by a construction site with a chain link fence surrounding it. It was near a walkway, and someone had put hanging plants along the fence in about six-foot intervals to make it nicer. They all looked healthy, too. None had been stolen or destroyed! I've also only seen graffiti a couple of times.
I'm sure stuff gets stolen or vandalized every once in a while, but the general feeling here is one of respect for people and the surroundings.

So there are a few things I've noticed. John and I are both really loving it here. We get homesick sometimes, of course, but also feel like we've already found our niche in many ways.
Our apartment is beautiful, though it's a bit empty right now. You can see pictures on our Flickr link. We're having a blast living with Simon and Su. We've seen many hilarious and bizarre British comedies.
We're also excited to be starting our jobs soon. I've sat in on a couple of the classes I'm going to teach, and the kids are very enthusiastic and boisterous! Not what I thought at first. John and I also have Saturdays and Sundays off together, which is really lucky. We're all thinking of going to the mountains or the ocean this weekend to do some exploring.
Well, hope you're all doing good back home and we miss you all!