I fully realize that it has been a really, really long time since I have posted anything informative on what I have been doing over here.
So, here is my question. Does a really, really, long post make up for a really, really long time?
(Now that I have put that little forward into the mini book I have here, let's get on with the story.)
Allow me to begin by saying that it has been one of my busiest weeks of school since coming here. I have definitely put in my hours.
Sunday:
I got up at 8:00 and went to Church. After eating lunch, which is provided by the church, I came home at about 1:00. I dropped my stuff in my room, checked my email, and then went to help put dinner together. Since our kitchen is very limited (read: microwave, toaster oven, and hotplate.) and spread out in at least two rooms, it takes almost all afternoon to prepare a meal big enough for the whole team. Once the meal was finally done, we ate it of course, and had team meeting. As soon as team meeting was over, I made my way to bed (8:00) The reasons for this early retirement, you will soon find out.
Monday:
My alarm went off at 4:00. I got up and made myself presentable. I then sat down at the computer and called my church via Skype. I had a wonderful talk with them about how things were going over here, what it was like, what the food tastes like, what is my favorite food, what was my weirdest food, do I use chopsticks, are clothing styles different over here, currency differences, learning Chinese, etc. I had a great time. The call ended at 5:40. I then turned out my lights and went back to bed.
Twenty minutes later, my alarm went off again. I got up, and got ready for school. At 6:55 I left my room to walk to the bus stop approximately 2 minutes away. At 7:05 I caught the bus and made my way to the port. At 7:30, I took the public transportation boat across to Little Kinmen. Upon arriving in Little Kinmen, I climbed into the school van and went to my school.
When I got to the school, I made my way to the cafeteria and ate breakfast. After teaching four 40 minute periods, I ate lunch. After lunch, I had a Chinese lesson with one of the teachers at the school. Then the driver for my other school arrived at 1:20 and I went with her to my afternoon school. When I got there, I taught two more periods. At 3:40 p.m. the driver came and took me back to the port.
I took the 4:00 boat back to Big Kinmen, caught the 4:15 bus and rode it back to town. I hopped off the bus at my stop and walked 7-10 minutes back to the dorm. (the reason for the longer distance walking back is because the bus takes a different route on the way back into town than it does on the way to the port)
When I got back to the dorm, I scrounged around for something to eat. After eating my supper, of what I don't remember, I went to Chinese class. Now you are probably saying...wait a second, we already did the Chinese class. Well, this is the one I take with four other people on my team. Our school soldier teaches us. His English is excellent, especially considering the fact that he spent several years in Canada. Several meaning I think 10 but am not positive.
After about 2 hours of Chinese class, I was ready to crash. Aside from the fact that I had been going almost non-stop since 4:00 in the morning, I also started having a headache around lunchtime. Therefore, I quickly retired to my room and relaxed finally going to bed around 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday:
Again, I got up at 6:00 and got ready. Same as Monday, I took the bus to the port and the boat to Little Kinmen. I then got on the public bus in Little Kinmen and took that to my Tuesday morning school. School was similar to Monday except for the fact that I did more actual teaching on Tuesday morning than I did on Monday morning. At my Monday morning school, we, the Chinese teacher and I share the class time, each taking about 20 minutes. At my Tuesday school, the whole 40 minutes is mine. Sometimes they tell me what to teach, sometimes they let me figure it out for myself. I am not sure which I like better.
After school, I went home again via school van, boat, bus, and feet. I found something to eat for supper and relaxed trying to find some way to avoid having to take medicine for the headache that I still was having. It wasn't severe. It just was off and on, mostly in the afternoon, and was annoying.
Nothing really exciting went on that day that I remember.
Wednesday:
I woke up at 7:00. I got ready and was picked up by my school at about 8:00. Upon arriving at the school, I ate the school breakfast which consisted of a Chinese soup and a sort of fried bread log they dip in the soup. It was very good. But sometimes, you just don't want to know what all is in it.
With the first class starting at 8:30, I taught 4 periods of English. At this school I teach between 20-30 minutes of the class time depending on which class it is. Since we were teaching songs that day, my voice was pretty much non-existent by the time school was over. I ate lunch with my 5th graders. After lunch, I was taken back to the dorm by the school driver.
I had about enough time to set down my things, do a little work on the computer, and then leave again. I had agreed to help one of my teammates whose name rhymes with Karita with her after school class. Since Wednesday is only a half day of school, that means they have more time for after school. And that means that instead of 2 periods of English back-to-back, they have 3 periods. I had visited her class several times last semester, but this was my first time visiting it this semester.
So we had fun in class. That day, we were making play dough. It went very well, considering the fact that we had to bring the hot water for the dough from our dorm and I only had make two trips to 7/11 for more flour. The 23 kids had a blast making it and pretty soon, green, blue, orange, and yellow dough were all over the classroom. It was a great activity. It ended up taking two periods to making it/play with it.
For the third period, we cleaned up and then Karita took them out to play basket ball. I stayed inside and finished cleaning up the play dough. By the time I was done, class was over. I enjoyed cleaning it up. I would much rather have done that than go out and play basketball. I am afraid that is one of the many sports I have no skill in whatsoever.
I then walked home with Karita and another one of my teammates whose name rhymes with Lachel. Upon arriving home, I did pretty much what I had done the last several days. Found something to eat and went to bed with a headache.
Thursday:
7:00 a.m. my alarm went off. I got up and my driver picked me up at about 7:50 to take me to school. I got to school, ate breakfast, taught 4 periods, and ate lunch. By the way, when teaching family relations, we came to the word 'Aunt'. Now, where I come from, and many other places, I might add, this word is pronounced with a long 'a'. However, I am aware that there are groups of people, particularly in the New England area, that pronounce this word with an 'ah' sound. So, when the teacher comes to you and asks you which way to pronounce the word, do you go with the way you have been raised to say it, or do you go with the way that might possibly be more phonetically correct?
After lunch, it came time for me to go home, and I couldn't find the person who was going to take me home. But as it was an absolutely gorgeous day, by far the nicest day of the week, and it was only a little over 1 km away simply enjoyed the exercise and walked home. I had a great time. When I got home, I knew that my week had been unusually busy, so, I obeyed myself, and took a nice long nap. 3 hours later I woke up feeling very much refreshed.
At 6:30, I went to team meeting and then dinner with the team. I had a delicious hamburger, (made from beef!) with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and pickles (actually it was relish). It came with a side of fries (which were well salted and without pepper!) and a milk tea which I upgraded to include the little black jellies, or pearls, or whatever you want to call them. Wow! Those things are good!
After dinner, I came back and since I was still exhausted from the day, I retired to my room and later that evening, I went to bed with happy thoughts of being able to sleep in since I didn't have to teach any school the next morning.
Friday:
I was wide awake by 6:30. (¡angry time!) That was suppose to the the morning I was going to sleep in! I wallowed in bed for another 45 minutes drifting in and out of consciousness trying to fall back to sleep and gave up.
It turned out to be a blessing that I didn't sleep in for several reasons. First, Karita was leaving that morning for Nan-Tou to visit some friends who were coming from back home. I had volunteered to teach her after school class that day. So, I went to her room and asked her what I was suppose to teach that afternoon. (If I had slept in, I would have missed her and not had a clue what I was suppose to do.)
Second, I was able to make some biscuits. I didn't make many, but the few I did make were delicious! Nothing compared to Daddy's, but a nice reminder of them. And I made them at just the right time. Because, except for butter to put in the middle after they were done, I had all the ingredients I needed and didn't have to substitute anything! I even had Crisco!
Third, I was able to sit in on part of the advanced Chinese class. Even though it is pretty much all Chinese, and even though I didn't understand most of it, it was a lot of fun to watch it. And the little that I did understand, or thought I understood, was pretty funny. Like one time I thought one student said to another student in a playfully angry way when he had done something, (this is in my own dumbed down Chinese for people who are like me and can't figure out the different types of Pinyin.) Knee duh toe whoa duh! Which I thought to mean Your head is mine! I took this to mean basically, I'm gonna get you! However, I later I found that it wasn't anything nearly so exciting. All she had said was, You just said what I said! because he had copied the answer that she had just gave.
After my third Chinese Class this week, I spent time recharging my battery. i.e. ate lunch, and spent time by myself. Around 3:50 I realized that I didn't remember what time the after school class started. So I ran around the dorm trying to find someone who knew. I finally located someone and learned that class started at 4:10! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!! I rushed back to my room, fixed my hair, put on my shoes, grabbed my bag, and quickly walked to school. I got there right at 4:10. Whew!
The first period of class consisted of: getting basketballs for the second period, getting the students to sit down and be quiet, telling them about 10 times why Karita wasn't there, introducing myself (we forgot to do that on Wednesday), and playing a game to practice English. It went pretty well, all things considered. I only had to act angry about 3 times and only had to whistle once (Several years ago, I learned how to whistle with my fingers, really loud. It has proved immensely helpful in getting noisy kids attention).
Second period, we went out and played basket ball. Actually, we went out to the basketball court. I think only 3 of them actually played basket ball. The rest either sat and talked with each other or went over to the long jump sand pit and started digging a hole. When I went over there and asked them what they were doing, they said, We are digging a hole for oil. Oh, really? I asked them if they were also trying to dig to America, but I don't think they got it. I told them I didn't think they would find any oil in the long jump pit. They didn't believe me. I then told them that they should fill the hole back up. They were very adamant that it should remain. However, after I explained, through a mixture of English, Chinese, and maniacal gestures, that if they didn't fill it up, someone doing the long jump could hurt themselves, and that I would be very angry, they finally complied and gave up "digging for oil."
By that time, the second period was drawing to a close. So, I rounded up students and basketballs and we headed back to the classroom. When we got to the classroom, they immediately started getting their things and leaving. I stopped them and told them that it not time to leave yet. They assured me, however, that Karita always lets them out 15 minutes early. I tried to tell them that I was not Karita, but I don't think they got it. After arguing back and forth for a full 5 minutes or more, I finally gave up and let them go. I then finished cleaning up the classroom, locked up, and walked home with yet another one of my teammates whose name rhymes with Dauren.
On the way home, we picked up supper. This evening, supper consisted of spicy fried chicken, sweet potato fries, and a pearl milk tea. Dauren also treated me to a little whatchamacallit that consisted of a small fried pie crust, about the size of one of those bagel bite pizzas, filled with red beans and another small fried pie crust which fit over the top, encasing it. It was pretty good, even though we accidentally got the wrong kind. The one Dauren normally got was filled with a pudding type substance. But as it was only 10NT (about 25 cents) it wasn't bad.
I came home, ate supper, and...get this...I was social for a whole 2 hours at least! Meaning I sat in the living room at talked with teammates. I then went back to my room and...hey! That brings me up to date! 'Cause when I got to my room, I proceeded in finishing this post which I had started earlier this afternoon.
The only things that were very much different from this week to most weeks are (1) the 4:00 call with my church, (2) headaches, (3) helping with Karita's after school class, (4) teaching Karita's after school class, (5) sitting in on the advanced Chinese class, and (6) biscuits. I would add whatchamacallits but I am frequently trying new things that I have never eaten before.
Well, if you made it all the way to the end, kudos for you!!!!!!!!! And if you did it without skipping the middle I am even more impressed!
Wishing all y'all a Happy Sabbath!
:o)
