Dream: Back by popular demand

Not only do the kindergartener's love her, but my parents do too.

Dream is quite the popular kid in kindergarten. She gets most of the attention from the Chinese teachers at the Old School and it should be our job as the kindergarten teachers to ensure that she isn't overly spoiled. Well it is a nice idea but she really is quite entertaining so she continues to garner a lot of attention. We recently reintroduced "She'll be coming 'roung the mountain" to the kindergarten class. This was the first time Dream had learned the song and once she begins to learn a song it tends to stick in her head. She started singing the song by herself but did need a little prompting before she finished.

Cleaning the Church

Like every Latter-Day Saint congregation in the United States we are also required to clean the church at least once a year. Here in Taiwan they allow us to clean the church even more often than that. It is a great excuse to leave Fong-Yuan for the day and live it up cleaning toilets and having some fun in the big city of TaiChung. Not all of us love it though. Laura as you can see was a little bit frustrated that she had to spend all day cleaning. But she was able to get through it and after cleaning toilets she got over it.

Cleaning the church does have some advantages to it though. It gives the guys a chance to really show off their talents. There is no better way to impress a girl than washing windows. Joseph always says that it's the hat that get the girls but I think it is the huge muscles.

Either way the windows got cleaned and we are all grateful for it. Well, while Joseph was busy cleaning the windows I was doing other things, like being less-effective. Someone told me that the men's bathroom needed to be mopped and since I had previously been employeed in a bakery cleaning it after hours I thought I had the skills to make the bathroom shine. I did alright for quite sometime but then Destiny decided to come pay me a visit and see how the cleaning was going. She checked it out, told me that she could do a better good than me and then we started singing. I was a little disappointed in the acoustics found in the men's bathroom and the microphone wasn't working properly so I decided to move on to the women's bathroom.

I would love to say that I was effectively mopping but pretty soon Sara walked in and decided that she wanted to do it instead. On my way out of the bathroom a notice a stairwell leading to the roof. Naturally being a man, who was once a boy, I had to check it out. So I jumped on the ladder and climbed up. I must say that I was pleasantly surprized with the outcome of the climb. I ended up on top of the roof looking out over the vastness of the city. Well, not really the vastness because all I could see was the hospital across the street and the cars one story below. It was an adventure though, not very often that you get to climb onto a church roof.

Sara soons wondered where I had gone off to so she decided to pay me a visit. Our stay on the roof didn't last long and then we had to finish cleaning the bathroom. I must say that cleaning the church is quite an effective activity. It allows us to get out of the house and forces us to spend the day in a much larger city. So I would be lying if I said that I wasn't happy to clean the church.

What's in a Name?

Here in Taiwan every child is born with a Chinese name. However the custom is that whenever the full name is pronounced the family name is used first. Because Americans are not at all familiar with the Chinese language these children receive English names as well as Chinese. Most of the name are pretty decent. Take the following for example.

This is Jenny, one of the cutest kids we have in morning kindergarten. She has a full personality and she has a lot of fun. Normal American name, so no harm done. But then the names get a little scary. Dream is one of our newer students and for a girl it is a name that will work. She might not love it when she is a powerhouse broker in New York some day, but today and for the next little while it'll work.

Her cousin on the other hand is going to have a few more problems. His name is Sky. I don't know of any boy that wants his name to be Sky, especially when he grows up and decides to go into business with his best friend Stacey. I can see some problems developing. But Sky's name isn't the strangest I've heard. We have a new kid in kindergarten that hasn't been caught on my camera yet. His name is Zero. I don't know why the parents want to set their child up for failure but I guess it really does sound like a cool name. But being called Zero by your classmates probably would be tough if he turns out to be a bad student.

So now here is where things get a little tense. This is Peggy in the blue shirt with her one old-year daughter who had her birthday day. I was suppose to get a picture of just me holding the baby but she started crying before it could get taken. Anyways, Peggy's child has yet to receive her English name and today she asked if I could give her a name. She said that she wanted something special. It must be intense trying to pick a name for your own child but now I have been asked to name someone else's. So I am looking for suggestions before I have to recommend a name. Emails, facebook messages or blog comments will all do. Thanks for your help.

Taipei Temple

This blog is for all of you people that lie restlessly awake every night trying to imagine exactly what the Taipei Temple looks like. Rest assured, tonight will be the night you can finally sleep peacefully! We had a couple Friday off for Tomb Sweeping Festival and because of the freedom we decided to head to Taipei. We had this wonderful idea that if we did work at the temple then we could just stay in the temple housing, so we did.

Like I mentioned, we left for Taipei on Friday at about 9:20 a.m. We had to catch the 9:45 train and so we were a little rushed for time. Joseph and I decided that we should probably put our ties on before we made it to the temple, so we stop here. I got really lucky and tied the perfect length on the first try. Joseph had a more difficult time, but eventually we were able to make it over to the complex.

Whenever the church hires someone to take a picture of the temples it seems as if magically there is nothing else nearby. I am here to tell you that is not the case. Directly in front of the temple lies a beautiful gas station, as you can see. I suppose it is essential. You can meet your cars physical needs before you meet your own spiritually needs.

Along with spiritual needs we also have physical needs. Some of us need to stay warm, just like in this picture of Mary and I. I am really not exactly what I was thinking when we took this picture but I wasn't using my head. I might have been just a little too excited to hug Mary. Actually this picture is from the last time we attended the temple. I decided that I would try to redeem myself and take another picture acting a little bit more normal.

It is kind of a funny contrast. The second picture reminds me of a couple who has been married for a few years and is on one of their weekly outings to the temple and just happened to bring their camera. I do prefer the second picture and I hope that you all feel the same way too.

The temple shares its space with a stake center, mission office, distribution center and everything else they have decided to put into the building. It is a nice complex except for the fact that the distribution center was closed so I couldn't pick up a Book of Mormon. I even tried going across the street to pick up a copy at the store owned by a member but the only copy they had was a display copy, so I never got one. Guess I'll just have to rely on my jumbo sized scriptures and bring them with me during my travels through Taiwan. It was a nice weekend filled with short walks to the temple from our amazing patron housing.

The beds that we got to sleep on were soft. It was kind of a different feeling because the beds we usually sleep on are hard as boxsprings. As you can see the beds were also quite close together. Luckily we knew each other and were only awake long enough to get into bed. But it was nice having a place that kind of felt like home.

Of course we did more than attend the temple but I'll end this blog and eventually come back to all the other exciting things which we did. I'd give you a clue but it really would ruin the surprize. Just know that not much sleep was had and I learned how to get around on the metro all by myself.

Purses

After KBR today I handed out stickers to the children who had successfully earned five stars during the day and most of the kids had gone home except Jellen. Jellen is a cool kid but sometimes a little bit different. I have Spiderman and Princess stickers along with a bunch of others that I let my kids choose from. He decided that he wanted the princess stickers which happened to be in a bag that I had gotten from another teacher to use for KBR. Let me clear things up, she gave me that bag because she received it from another teacher when she found out she was teaching that class. It isn't even a bag really, it is a full blown purse and a big ugly one at that.

Well Jellen walked over to it and proceeded to pick out a sticker with The Little Mermaid and then had to pose for a picture.

Ever since I purchased "the manbag" things have been different. I don't get stared at walking around like a tourist with a backpack. I feel like I belong in Taiwan along with all the other thousands of men walking around with a man bag. But I am beginning to wonder if there really is a difference between a purse and a man bag. When he walked over to the bag I got a little defensive. I didn't really want him looking through the purse. I wasn't quite sure if it was because everything in it was mine and I didn't want him to have access to it, or if that is the feeling which comes from having a purse in one's possession. Is there a power which comes from a purse? Then I started wondering about how I felt about my manbag.

Would I care if anyone looked inside of it? This is what the manbag usually looks like all of the time. I keep a camera in the pocket, a water bottle and all my spare change. I have a bag for shopping in the outside pocket and a few flyers that I like to keep track of. So there you have it, I have given you a complete verbal tour of the manbag. But would I feel comfortable with a person going through it while fully loaded? I would have my money clip, a book for reading when I get bored with the world, food and maybe tissue to use in case of emergency. It sounds simple enough but something went off inside of me today when Jellen reached inside the KBR purse.

Hopefully it won't drive me crazy for the rest of my life but I think I can kind of appreciate what girls go through when guys grab their purses. I don't really need a six year-old boy going through my purse and girls don't want men who act like six year-olds going through their purse either.

Another Engagement

Rather than posting an April Fool's blog and then having to rescind it I decided to wait a few days and pretend like these pictures really mean something. Living with eleven girls you are bound to take what another teacher might describe as an engagement photo, simple because of the fact that we literally take thousands of pictures and so the chances of one girl and one guy ending up in the same picture turns out to be pretty good. Hence the following pictures may or may not be used as engagement photos in the coming months. I hope you enjoy. The first photo is at the beginning of training when both Joseph and I thought we would have had a chance dating Tammy while in Taiwan. Our hope were soon dashed when we finally made it out here and found out she had a boy back home. So let us start out with a truly happy story first.

This first picture is a pig couple that I purchased while in Sun Moon Lake a few weeks ago. I am not the year of the pig but I just thought they were cool. They might even be the only thing I bring back to Taiwan to show my family. At least they will be together forever, even if no one else will.

You know, on second thought lets go back to Tammy. I think that the real reason we didn't work out is because I had to use her hair as a mustache because I don't have the capacity to grow one. Whatever the reason, she no longer appears interested and I can't really do much about it now so let's more on to a different possiblity.

Katie Marie and I really have a lot going for our relationship. Our boss decided that I should ask Katie out and so we drove to Costco together. It was quite the exciting date, she was even willing to drive her scooter, mostly because I don't have one. It was kind of difficult though because Joseph was tagging along on a borrower scooter and would interrupt us ever time we came to a red light. But I am still holding out hope that something will work out between us. I am hoping that the teaching connection will hold us together. I took her KBR kids and she is teaching my old Afternoon Kindergarteners. Is this a strong enough bond? I only wish I knew.

If Katie and I have a connection because we switched classes then Whitney and I will have an even stronger connection because we switched a greater number of classes. She took on three of my classes and I took on her morning kindergarten shift. She is one of the nicest people I have ever met and I think that is what worries me a bit. She might be just a little bit too good for me. I think she has her eyes on Joseph, mostly because of the fact that he knows a foreign language and I still struggle with the English language.

If I still need help learning the English language I can turn to Mary to help me out. I love Mary because she ranks up at the top on the most honest people list. It is great having someone around who is always helping me to improve myself. The only problem with Mary is that she lives in Waco, Texas. Nothing against Waco of course, just Texas. I have never been to the state and I don't know that they would accept me down there. I suppose if things worked out then they'd have to though.

Destiny on the other hand is trying to run away from me. I know that Mary is planning on moving back to Waco and would thus be easy to follow, Destiny is going on a mission which would make her off limits for the next 1.5 years. I suppose that I can wait but I have been waiting since I got off my mission 3.5 years ago to get married. I don't want to push it off too long.

The last possibility at this moment in time is Jessica. She and I have had an instant connection since the day we met. On the day we met she told me that I reminded me of her family. Whether she meant that I should become a part of her family I know not, but I can hope. We taught afternoon kindergarten together, well faked our way through it. We managed to do well enough that no one complained about how we were doing. We are also the only two teacher who have yet to finish our bachelor's degrees so maybe we can go back to school together. Besides, I think that our photo turned out to be the best one. I mean were are matching and everything, we didn't even plan it.

March Fool

This year April Fool's day came twice. Monday March 31st and April 1st. The 31st started off innocently enough. I had the Teddy Bears to deal with and really they aren't much of a challenge. But I should have known when Dream took over my chair. I was sitting in the front of the room and she decided that she wanted to share the chair with me. So I consented and she became the teacher. I sat in her chair and then the entire class decided to take over. They enjoyed yelling random things at me, I'm sure it was all in English, but you never know. The rest of morning kindergarten went quite well. I did not have to send any children to the corner today, a real first.

But the best part of the day was yet to come. When I got to KBR at 1:30 for my three hour class I found out that one of my students had broken the boys squatter. Of course it was one of my own boys so I suppose I deserved what I got. As you can see and rather hear from the video above, there was a jackhammer going for about the first two hours of my class. Also the boys enjoyed laughing at who knows what, but after being in class for a half hour I knew that all attempts of teaching would fly out the window. You will also notice that Melody doesn't seem the least bit entertained. After we had eaten our snack she threw it back up. Apparently that is all she needed because she felt better after that. I had to scream so that my students could hear me over the sound. It wasn't the most pleasant experiecne but we somehow made it through. Actually we didn't make it through. At 3:15 I asked if we could go into another classroom or outside and the secretaries consented and let us leave at 3:30 to play in Gerald's yard. Usually when we got outside for an extended period of time we try to get the children to speak English and draw out the language, but I must admit that I really didn't try too hard. Truth be known, I did not try at all. As you can see it started out as semi-organized play with the balls and other happenings.

After they got bored of that they decided to hunt for snails, just like they always like to do. They found plenty and this time, since it had rained, there were still live snail inside of the shells.

After about half an hour I realized that I should probably come back inside and finish up the last half hour attempting to do something productive. So I sat them all down and told them they could come up and tell me about they wanted to draw and with what color they wanted. It entertained them for a while and then I had a parent look in the window and realized I should probably make it look like I was doing something productive. So I had them make the sounds of the letters we are working on this week so I could maintain some semblence of order in the classroom.

I finally got through the day but then the next day was the real April Fool's and the ladies decided to switch my bed with Joseph's. They also decided to dye his milk purple. They thought it was super funny but Joseph wants to kill them.