4th of Julyness

The first half of the 4th of July was spent at the school getting ready for their graduation which is on Friday (tomorrow!)  But also, the kids made bug hats that they could wear home.

They're a crazy bunch.

•••

So being as my current social life is 15% that of what I am normally used to, I had to do the best with what I've got for the 4th of July.

So I rallied the troops together (troops being: me, Kristi, my 2 other American roommates, and our new additional South African roommate who is replacing one of the other Americans in a week) and suggested we celebrate our homeland's birthday.  So we all pitched in and got stuff for steak burgers, kabobs, grilled mushrooms (I passed...), and fireworks and sparklers.

I know food pictures are as boring as C-Span but I'm posting them as a memory for me to remember in the future...because it was also fun.

After a while we walked a little ways away to a more deserted area (and not near the gas station we live across the street from) to light the fireworks and sparklers.

It was fun.

Happy birthday America!
Sorry I left you to work somewhere else in the world, but I'll be back...

along with that 85% social life I've been missing, please.

Thanks.

Going to Thailand

A month from now I'll be in Thailand!

Plans on the list:

• Trek through the jungle on the back of an elephant

• Ox-cart ride through rice fields

• Zip-lining through the rainforest

• Bangkok temple tours

• Floating markets (apparently they also shop by canoe in Thailand?)

Can't wait!

Rainbow Village Awesomeness

This past weekend I went to a tiny (I mean, tiiiiny) little village inside of a huge city.

The huge city was called Taichung.  The tiny village was called Rainbow Village.

The entire village is painted with quirky designs and tons of colors.

The following is taken from a website describing the village:

"It’s hard to believe that one man can change the fate of an entire village.

Huang Yung-fu, an 86-year-old war veteran has done just this.

Huang lives in a village in a corner of the Taiwanese city of Taichung, a community that was created for Nationalist soldiers in the 1940s and 50s. Over the years, the place slowly changed into a permanent settlement, suffering from urban problems like abandonment, decay and housing dereliction. However, none of this is visible in the settlement today, thanks to the transformation brought about by Huang’s colorful paintings. The streets and the walls of practically every building in the village are covered with Huang’s simplistic paintings of plants, animals, TV personalities, birds and buffaloes. Considering the fact that he began painting [in 2009], his accomplishment is pretty huge. The bright colors and simple strokes used by Huang only add to the attractiveness of his work...

 Born in Hong Kong, Huang is quite a healthy man for his age. He doesn’t drink alcohol, smoke, or gamble. He started painting just to kill time, but it has now become a passion for him. A self-taught artist, he started off painting for himself, but was soon discovered by students of a nearby university. They took pictures of his work and spread the word. The pictures soon went viral, making the small settlement a major tourist attraction in Taiwan. Rainbow Village is now listed as one of the must-see spots in Taichung City."

Pretty cool.

Almost every inch was painted, including the floor.

The black cat all the way to the left is kinda creepy and random amidst all the happy children.

Nobody home.

The one above reminds me of my mom and her love for quirky things.

It was crowded.  Lots of people in a tiny space.

A stranger asked to take a picture with me.  Another 10 seconds of fame.

A faceless man making clay ornaments of Disney characters.

This is the view from the Taichung train platform.  Crazy!

It was a cool day and a neat tourist attraction.

Secret Agent Church

I finally found a closer church that speaks english!

Well...they have translators and I get to wear those cool secret agent ear pieces.

It's such a blessing because going to Taipei 2+ hours away for full-english church was a struggle (yes, I know there are people in Africa who start walking Friday night just to make it to church by Sunday...I know, I know)...

and the 10-minute-bike-ride-away church was in full-chinese (of which I do not speak)...

but...

the one I found (as told by a missionary) is a 50/50 mix of both english and chinese speaking people and only a 20-minute train ride away in Jubai.

Holla!

It's a huge stake center and the ward is half english / half chinese.  So the english speakers wear the ear pieces and then go to our own classes afterwards.  Only took me 4 months to find out about it!  Everybody was extremely nice and made me feel welcome.  The Bishop's name is Bishop Who and came up to me to introduce himself...he can speak both english and chinese.  A recent convert invited me to sit next to him and showed me around to all the classes.

Also, there were at least 4 sets of missionaries that I met...five of them which were american...and all five being from the exact same city in Utah: Kaysville, of which I know people from there...all five knew at least one person that I know.  What are the odds?!

Also, I have to share this story.  On the train ride home the train stopped in Hsinchu, and I thought it was just a normal "stop-for-20-seconds-and-those-getting-off-get-off-and-those-getting-on-get-on" deal.  But the entire train got off, and I thought that was odd.  So I waited for about a minute when I felt like something was fishy.  So I got off and looked around at all the train schedules and tried to match my ticket to something on the screen (all in chinese symbols) to see if I missed something.  But nothing matched or I just didn't notice anything. (I later figured out and/or realized that the train I was on was stopping for an extended amount of time in Hsinchu and I had to switch trains to keep going home).  So then an elderly taiwanese lady noticed me in my confused sweaty state-of-being and started talking to me, and of course I didn't understand.  She grabbed my ticket and looked at it and said something and I said "No chinese, no chinese!" and kind of laughed it off.  So she grabbed me by the hand and walked me to the other side of the train platforms and stood by me for 25 minutes to make sure I made it on the right train.  The crazy thing is she didn't even got on the train I was waiting for...she just waited for me to get on and then went on her way.  I thought that was cool; kindness has no language barriers.

This is the view on the train to church; by the ocean.

It was a great Sunday.

Fish + Sharks

Well...I've been busy.  Thus my lack of posting.

I never knew that a kindergarden graduation took sooo much work?!  It's still not for two weeks but we've been rehearsing and practicing and preparing since, oooooh, mid-April...(not kidding).

And also, I haven't really done anything recently that would warrant a good post.

Why?

Because it's been literally (and I literally mean literally) raining for two weeks straight...nonstop.  So much so that it warranted a typhoon warning.  Halfway through school on Wednesday they came over the intercom at 10:40 a.m. and said "Teachers, feed your kids lunch now, because they're going home at 11:10 for typhoon warning."  After that, the kids were completely wild and ridiculously crazily excited;  but not as much as me!  It was a fun and long day to be stranded at home with dumping rain outside.  And we were told we were in no danger and these kinds of things happen all the time.

But amidst all the chaos of the last two weeks...I somehow managed to turn 27...!?

I wanted to wear my orange shirt on my birthday, but it proved too hot to wear anywhere outside of my air conditioned room.  Oh well.

It was a fun and low-key day.

After work we quickly got on the train to go to Hsinchu and hit up a nicer Chinese restaurant at a huge mall.  It's odd though because they don't serve drinks other than tea...so we got drinks at McDonald's and carried them into the restaurant with us.  If there was a problem with that we would never know... blessings of the language barrier.  Plus, it was my birthday: back off!

Also...

I shared my birthday with one of my students, Junie, who is exactly twenty years younger than me.  It was fun because her mom brought a gigantic cake to school with an arrangement of lots of fruit on top.

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes!

Now to the reason for the post...

About two months ago in a moment of crazed classroom hysteria with Frank stabbing Oscar with a pencil and Alison crying because I took her Pretty Pretty Princess game cards she was playing with during class...I had to quickly think of an activity to distract these kids.

Thus, the birth of Fish & Sharks. 
Also known as "Chutes & Ladders" to the rest of the world.

I quickly drew a game on the white board and just went with it as I drew and it has ended up being a classroom phenomenon played every Friday from 11 - 11:30 (I use it to review the week).  

  There's three teams, each of which have a magnet of a different color.  They roll a huge foam dice and get to move the number of spaces... 

  

Doris, above, threw the dice out of camera sight, but I thought it was a fun picture.

And some kids take their dice rolling (or slamming) very seriously, as seen above.

They move the number of spaces and if they land on a "W" they have to say a vocabulary word.  If they land on "P" they have to say a phonics sound. "S" means they have to say a sentence.  If they land on a fish, they get to move along the trail farther along on the board.  And if they land on a shark, they have to follow the trail down to farther behind on the board.  I didn't think it would actually become a "thing" because most games last about 4 minutes as their attention spans can't handle anything longer...but they're obsessed and look forward all week for Friday to play.  

Also, we started a ritual where whenever I say "Fish and Sharks" then half the class goes "Yum! Yum! Yum" while the other half screams "AH! AH! AH!" three times.  It's actually pretty funny...see for yourself:

"Yum. Yum. Yum" 

(also, notice the boy with two feet in one sock. Kids are crazy!)

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Who knew that sharks (an eternal fear of mine since I accidentally saw parts of Jaws at the age of six on TV) would one day serve my purposes in teaching little Chinese-speaking kids the english language.  

Somewhere, Jaws is smiling.