this dude was grubbin
these guys didnt give a damn about no visitors
pink flamingos
what are you lookin at?
just monky'n aroundMonday, September 22, 2008
zoo
this dude was grubbin these guys didnt give a damn about no visitors pink flamingos what are you lookin at? just monky'n around
Zoo trip
We visited the Taipei Zoo this past sunday afternoon. it turned out to be a long, hot, and exhausting trip but it was well worth the sweaty shirts and aching feet. we hopped on the MRT and took the train for about an hour before reaching the zoo on the outkirts of Taipei city. the zoo was huge, and it was structured in a way that made you feel as if you were actually in the wild, with various species of trees and vines and foliage draped throughout the zoo, and little dirt paths that run through fern forests. the areas which kept the animals were far more animal friendly than those that were are used to seeing. the animals have wider ranges to roam around in, more toys and objects to destroy, and a more natural setting in which to live (grass and trees, rocks and water, not like the weird clay colored rock formations our zoo places animals in). they seemed to have more of a variety of species and a higher number of each animal on display. we were hoping to see a panda bear but apparantly china backed out on their agreement to give one to taiwan. we did however get to see racoons, squirrels, and mice on display. (seriously...we have them in our garbage cans at home and these guys wanna pay to come see 'em in glass cages...what a country!) we posted some pictures so go ahead and check check check 'em out. we have a lot more where these came from...
oh, and as a side note...the picture of the spider in mid-air...that wasnt on display, that spider was hangin in a web over a statue in the zoo, it was probably bigger than my open hand, no joke.
oh, and as a side note...the picture of the spider in mid-air...that wasnt on display, that spider was hangin in a web over a statue in the zoo, it was probably bigger than my open hand, no joke.
zoo
Dinner (it's better than some of the stuff i've tried)
The monkey doesn't like Mike
we love penguins!
This makes me laughzoo pics
biggest spider we've ever seen
AAHHHH!
Warning: hippos have stinky breath
baby monkey hangin upside down
notice all of the umbrellas but no rain
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Teacher Mike
Teachuh Mike (My-Kuh, as its pronounced). Thats what my students call me. All 300+ of ‘em. The whole teaching thing made me nervous at first. Kids are the toughest critics and are famous for their brutal honesty. With that in mind, the first time i stepped in front of that dry-erase board with an audience of about ten 9 year olds, needless to say, i was sweatin it. i felt like i was the white act on show time at the apollo, just waitin for one of those kids to hop out of their seats with a broom and chase me outta the room.
i got through the first class and the hard part was over. things are starting to get easier and its running a little smoother each week. the first week i taught i was only working at the cram school, Kojen (the job i originally had coming over here). at Kojen class runs from 5-7 p.m. every night. im usually there for a couple hours more each day though to prepare and grade. i dont get paid for the time im there and not teaching so i try and minimize that time as much as possible and do what i can at home. after the first week i got a job offer from one of the principals at erins school, Sacred Heart (she works at the high school, but this was for the elementary school). so after discussing a schedule that would allow me to work both jobs, I was hired as an English teacher for sacred hearts. Now with a full schedule of about 30 classes a week, I’m pickin up the teaching thing kinda quickly.
The students I teach are hilarious. I teach all ages, from 5 to 15. each class has a few characters. I get the most interaction with the kids at Sacred Heart, both in and out of the classroom. Walking through the grounds of sacred heart (which falls just short of a college campus only be cause the urinals are knee high) I get shout outs from kids in every direction. Whether it’s the 1st graders calling me “baby” (this started on my first day when they noticed my hair is short, like a baby) or the 2nd grader that loves to run up to me and say “yo yo check it out”(he runs away in hysterics when I say it back to him). Inside the class room it gets even better. When the bell rings signaling the beginning of our 40 minute block together, the fun really begins. One 4th grader spent ¼ of that time one day telling me that he thought steven segal was the best kung fu fighter hes ever seen. Another 4th grader, named lewis, is actually Canadian and speaks English as his native language. Why hes in English as a 2nd language and not Chinese is far beyond me, but hes sure to get an A so I guess hes cool with it. I have a few other students who speak English really well, either because they’ve been to the mighty U.S. of A, or theyre just really smart. Either way they are fun to talk to. The kids at kojen are fun too. I hang out with these guys more because each class with them is like 2 hours long. That’s where I teach the older kids (and younger ones too). The older kids are fun to talk to because they can understand more of what I say, and I don’t have to pronounce every letter and syllable in my words like I do with the younger ones (I often catch myself talking like this to people outside of school out of habbit. Erin says I sound like an idiot). One kid named Smoothie, like the drink, loves to talk to me about the military, and wars and whatnot. Hes a really nice kid, but im almost positive hes going to kill a couple people at some point in his life. Some classes like to talk so that’s what I let’em do. Talk to them about whatever, as long as its English, they’ll ask questions or something will just come up that I can teach them. One of the girls asked me what it was when you get holes in your lip, and I could only think of one thing so I told her. “herpes?” I said. And she said “…its like aids…” after laughing I continued, saying “yeah you mean herpes.” At that point she turned to a kid who had been bugging her during class and told him in broken English “you…have…h h herpeez.” After a few minutes I stopped laughing and told her it was mean and she shouldn’t say that. It was pretty funny.
I’m starting to really like this job. The pay is awesome and its fun to just hang out and play games with these kids all day. Ill have more stories in the future im sure. Between the Canadian kid who goes to school in taiwan, Chinese kids who frequent the U.S., and teenage curiosity, im sure the comedy will remain consistent.
i got through the first class and the hard part was over. things are starting to get easier and its running a little smoother each week. the first week i taught i was only working at the cram school, Kojen (the job i originally had coming over here). at Kojen class runs from 5-7 p.m. every night. im usually there for a couple hours more each day though to prepare and grade. i dont get paid for the time im there and not teaching so i try and minimize that time as much as possible and do what i can at home. after the first week i got a job offer from one of the principals at erins school, Sacred Heart (she works at the high school, but this was for the elementary school). so after discussing a schedule that would allow me to work both jobs, I was hired as an English teacher for sacred hearts. Now with a full schedule of about 30 classes a week, I’m pickin up the teaching thing kinda quickly.
The students I teach are hilarious. I teach all ages, from 5 to 15. each class has a few characters. I get the most interaction with the kids at Sacred Heart, both in and out of the classroom. Walking through the grounds of sacred heart (which falls just short of a college campus only be cause the urinals are knee high) I get shout outs from kids in every direction. Whether it’s the 1st graders calling me “baby” (this started on my first day when they noticed my hair is short, like a baby) or the 2nd grader that loves to run up to me and say “yo yo check it out”(he runs away in hysterics when I say it back to him). Inside the class room it gets even better. When the bell rings signaling the beginning of our 40 minute block together, the fun really begins. One 4th grader spent ¼ of that time one day telling me that he thought steven segal was the best kung fu fighter hes ever seen. Another 4th grader, named lewis, is actually Canadian and speaks English as his native language. Why hes in English as a 2nd language and not Chinese is far beyond me, but hes sure to get an A so I guess hes cool with it. I have a few other students who speak English really well, either because they’ve been to the mighty U.S. of A, or theyre just really smart. Either way they are fun to talk to. The kids at kojen are fun too. I hang out with these guys more because each class with them is like 2 hours long. That’s where I teach the older kids (and younger ones too). The older kids are fun to talk to because they can understand more of what I say, and I don’t have to pronounce every letter and syllable in my words like I do with the younger ones (I often catch myself talking like this to people outside of school out of habbit. Erin says I sound like an idiot). One kid named Smoothie, like the drink, loves to talk to me about the military, and wars and whatnot. Hes a really nice kid, but im almost positive hes going to kill a couple people at some point in his life. Some classes like to talk so that’s what I let’em do. Talk to them about whatever, as long as its English, they’ll ask questions or something will just come up that I can teach them. One of the girls asked me what it was when you get holes in your lip, and I could only think of one thing so I told her. “herpes?” I said. And she said “…its like aids…” after laughing I continued, saying “yeah you mean herpes.” At that point she turned to a kid who had been bugging her during class and told him in broken English “you…have…h h herpeez.” After a few minutes I stopped laughing and told her it was mean and she shouldn’t say that. It was pretty funny.
I’m starting to really like this job. The pay is awesome and its fun to just hang out and play games with these kids all day. Ill have more stories in the future im sure. Between the Canadian kid who goes to school in taiwan, Chinese kids who frequent the U.S., and teenage curiosity, im sure the comedy will remain consistent.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
First week of school- Erin
Well, I survived my first week of school and so far I absolutely love it! The commute does kinda suck but I just read my books so it is not that bad. I thought I was going to be extremely overwhelmed because I had 24 different classes but a lot of the classes are the same so I get to teach the same lesson a lot which is nice cause that is less lesson plans that I have to make. The first day with all of the girls was a lot of fun, I did a couple activities so that I could learn some things about them and then I allowed them to ask questions about me. They all wanted to know if I had a boyfriend, I swear every girl asked that. Some of them even asked how many boyfriends I had! I was really nervous to teach the class full of teachers but it went very well. The one class is a basic level teachers class and they know some English but they are very sweet. For the first class I wanted a chance for us to get to know each other better and I wanted to get some feedback from them on what they wanted to learn. I introduced myself to them as Erin and they all kind of looked at each other (my name is extremely hard to pronounce here) so then I wrote Air-in on the board and in unison they all started saying it over and over practicing saying my name, it was pretty funny. I had a bunch of different categories(introducing yourself, shopping, talking on the phone, ordering food, going to the doctor....) on the board and I tried to explain all of the categories to them and told them to pick what they wanted to learn the most this year. That didn't go as well as I planned, they kind of just let me talk at first and stared at the bored. Not knowing where to go from there I asked them, "Do you understand me? Is this okay?" And then one of them replied while laughing, "No thees is too much wook." I guess I scared the crap out of them because they thought they had to learn all of the categories that I had listed on the board and didn't understand that I wanted them to pick what they wanted to learn most out of the list. I explained myself better and they understood better the second time me so they started shouting out different categories and kept shouting out, "NO HOMEWOOK." It was really funny because they are all grown ups and the one thing they are nervous about is me giving them homework but I promised them that I would not give them any homework. For the rest of the class I had them introduce themselves to me and the class and that went very well. I think it is going to be a fun class. Right after the basic teacher class is my advanced teacher class and I only have 3 teachers in that class that speak much better English than I do. That class was a lot easier to talk to and they wanted to learn swear words!! Ha! So now I have to come up with a lesson plan on English swear words. That is going to be a very uncomfortable class for me. Whenever I walk down the hall now and see a teacher that I teach they greet me with, "Hello teachuh," I keep telling them to call me Erin, it's just so funny because they are all older than me calling me teacher. I think teacher is easier to pronounce than Erin. I will keep you updated on any funny teaching stories.
Erin's birthday dinner
us
us'n up
this chick was hittin on mike right in front of me!
we heart up
one wall"everything happens for a reason..." Erin said this to me at one point during dinner on Saturday night. She's a firm believer in this saying. As with anything relating to faith, I am stuck in the middle of the argument, unable to lean to one side or the other. Although the events of that night weren't anything dramatic or life changing, it's fun to believe that there was a reason our plans didn't unfold the way had them mapped out.
As you may, or may not know, Sunday was Erin's 26th birthday. Naturally we wanted to to do something to celebrate on Saturday; a nice dinner, some KTV (Taiwan kareokee) a cake, maybe a drink or two...The night didnt really end up that way though. After taking up a co-worker on his suggestion of a local Mexican restaurant (actually owned and operated by a Mexican who's from Canada) called Eddy's, we blindly headed in the direction that I thought it was. (of course Erin had her doubts that we should try and find a place that we actually did not know of its whereabouts but, eventhough we both know better sometimes, she followed as I lead the way)
Usually when we walk around our city, ANYWHERE in our city, we see a place we can go inside and grab a bite to eat to settle our gargling stomaches. This time however, it happened to be that the direction we chose took us down a street inhabited by street vendors pushing cheap plastic toys, homemade crafts and food that was unsuitable for even the hungriest of creatures. After searching for a little over an hour and a half we decided to call it quits. As were walking past the riverbank area, a stretch of carnival-like tents selling squid cooked every possible way imaginable and 18 inch ice cream cones, Erin recalled a restaurant that we had seen the last time we were in the area.
BEEF AND BEER. That's what it says on the sign. we walked in and were greeted by a bunch of college aged workers who took us up to the second floor. Right away we liked this place. the sign alone, BEEF AND BEER, is marketing genius. the atmosphere was fun, a bunch of colleged kids working together and chatting it up with the customers like we were all friends. at this point erin stated that this was the reason our hunt for the canadian mexican spot was unsuccessful, "everything happens for a reason...see...we're suposed to be here tonight. then we noticed the pictures all over the walls. the walls were being covered in polaroids of couples kissing. guys kissing girls, girls kissing girls, dudes kissin dudes...you get it. little did we know we would soon be a part of the restaurants new renovation project. after an introduction to our waiter, who's english name was Up , we ordered what was probably the best beef i've ever tasted in my life, no joke. after getting to know Up as he cooked our beef for us at our table, we had a few drinks and wanted to include our new friend in the celebration. all of a sudden we are rushed by a crew of waiters pushing beers on us and shoving cameras in our faces like were Sean Penn and Madonna. after a few kisses and a couple flashes of the camera (at this point Erin was beat red; those who know her know she is not shy but when it comes to PDA she is heavily opposed, whether in good fun or not. but she'll admit it, it was funny) there we were, a permanent fixture on the walls of homo and heterosexual lip-locking. after that we were brought some free meat. HAHA. i guess thats what they do here. anyway we spent the rest of evening hangin out with the waiting staff drinking beer and treating them to a few rounds of Saki as they closed up. it was pretty fun, and a good way celebrate ones birthday in a foreign land.
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