"Were you on a mission?"

Before I begin this blog I must say that although I have returned from my adventures in Taiwan and Thailand I still plan to write about everything that went on while I was away so look for it in the future. So with that out of the way. . .

I have heard quite a few interesting phrases since returning back to America yesterday and have also had a few random thoughts pass through my head as well. For those of you who don't actually believe that I have returned home I have included proof:

As I walked down the escalator to meet my family I got a little nervous and considered returning back to Taiwan. I had everything I needed to live another few months but decided to approach my family so I could at least drop off a few of the extra items I brought home with me. Somehow my family managed to grab a hold of me and that naturally led to my kidnapping and dragging home. It was at this point that the awesome comments began.

My mom asked if I had lost weight while I was gone. I told her that I probably had and that some of the people in Taiwan actually thought that as well. I thought really nothing of it at the time. But then when I returned to my house my Grandma asked if I had lost wait too. I decided that I should probably come up with a theory or two about how I lost weight, if only to convince myself. I decided that it was probably because I was sick for three days in Thailand but secretly I was hoping that maybe I had grown taller and simply redistributed my weight. Well you tell me what you think about it.

This is during my experience in Taiwan and probably the place that I should still be, but alas I am still camping out in America a few days before I head to Ephraim to be an EFY counselor.

I went to the library today and checked out the only book they have about Taiwan, which I myself requested that they purchase. This is now as close to Taiwan as I can get. So did I lose weight? Maybe a little and probably in the right places.

So other comments I have receieved include:

"You look tanner." I liked that comment.

"Where are the pictures of you riding an elephant?" Apparently there was a fued at the library about whether I had actually done it and people wanted proof, so I give it to them.

"What are you going to do with all of your free time?" I have EFY for the next two weeks. Followed by my sisters wedding. Then I might drive with a friend down to Phoenix to help her move. Then I start one of my classes and go down to BYU for education week. The next week I start my final semester at Weber State University. In additional to that I have to find a real money-making job and find a place to live in Ogden. So I might have a little free time before now and December.

"Did you already get car insurance?" No actually, but I still managed to drive my car all around town before my mother asked me this question.

And perhaps the best of all "Were you on a mission?" No I wasn't on a mission I was teaching English. This question came from on old co-worker. Apparently she forgot that a mission is two years not six months.

So am I happy to be home? No, not really, but it is a necessary part of life and I think that I will get use to it. Except for the fact that I eat lunch at a park today and I didn't see any children. It was kind of a let down.

Random Thoughts

Since returning home less then 24 hours ago I have had thoughts cross my mind that I thought I would share with other members of my Berhan family and decided it might just be easier to write them down instead. I went to Panada Express today for my authentic American-Chinese meal and I was kind of let down when I walked in the door and didn't see any Taiwanese people. Everyone there was hispanic, it was kind of confusing.

Upon entering the LAX airport I realized that American bathrooms smell different. Maybe sweeter, maybe good, but really they do smell different.

I hate have to pay consumer taxes again. In Taiwan you saw the price of an item and that was all you paid. Now I have to have more money than the sign says in order to make a purchase. On top of that I am having trouble realizing the value of items based on the American dollar. Six dollars in Taiwan equates to about twenty cents here and six dollars in America is a lot of money to spend on a meal for lunch.

I paid for gas today and spent nearly fourty dollars on a nine gallon tank. I could have gone on six two hour train rides from my home in Taiwan to Taipei with that much money. It kind of made me sick. Not only do I have to spend money on gas, but I'll gain weight just being lazy and driving rather than biking around town.

I had tacos for dinner last night and then again for breakfast. I realized that I probably should have made them while living in Taiwan because it made me happy. It was also night to eat homemade chocolate pie which my grandma made for my mini welcome home party.

There are plenty more thoughts which have crossed my mind but I will end now. Although I would like to mention that the thought of returning to Taiwan has already crossed my mind and I believe I intend to do it sometime in the future. So that is enough for now.

Corey

Yes, unfortunately Corey does get a little overshadowed by the rest of the Dolphins. You see Corey is a cute kids but all of the other Dolphins are great speakers and Corey, although he is a cool kids doesn't demand a lot of attention and therefore doesn't get a lot of attention. Perhaps that is why he doesn't have a smile on his face all of the time. If he was in the Teddy Bears he would fit right in though and everything would be all fine and dandy.

But Corey does manage to attract a little attention from the ladies. He likes to show off his muscles and Teresa, Sharon and Stacey are alwas quite happy to swoon over his bulging biceps.

You will also notice that he has a lot of things on his head. Probably because us teachers trust him enough to just allow him to leave it there. He probably won't rip it off and he isn't the type of kid to go looking for trouble.

But apparently he has some sort of fascination with pirates. It doesn't matter if it is a headband with hearts all over it or an eyepatch, the expression will remain the same.

Yvonne

I must admit that at the beginning of the semester I didn't think that Yvonne was overly cute. She seemed like a kind-hearted kid but not one of the favorites.

However in light of recent events things have kind of changed. Amy, one of the secretaries recently approached me and told me that when Yvonne gets in the car after school she tells her mom how much she likes me. I was slightly surprised but then I started to notice that she continually giggles whenever I give her any sort of attention, so I decided to play my cards a little differently and cater to her.

This picture was taken two days before school let out. All of the morning kindergarten kids were just playing around and again Yvonne thought it was quite funny. She couldn't stop laughing plus she thought putting her backpack on her head was quite humorious too.

She is willing to put just about anything on her head and face to make a laugh, peanut butter included and she is quite the little dancer even with her eyes closed (as seen above).

The craziest thing about Yvonne though is that she runs whenever anyone tries to hug her or hold her hand. It will probably be a good thing in the future when the boys start calling and it also forces as to focus on the needs of the other kids so they don't feel quite so left out.

Jemmy

This is Jemmy, the brother of one of my other students Harry. The first day I met him we were kind of forced to bond. We were outside playing with bubbles with a whole bunch of kids, teachers and secretaries and I looked over and saw that Jemmy had spilled bubble mix all over himself. I decided to step in and give him a hand. He didn't speak any English at the time and didn't have an English name yet. But we still had a pretty good time together.

For the first few days of kindergarten all we did was hold him and try to get him to stay in the room with us. But then the secretaries decided to buckle down and didn't allow us to hold him anymore. Since I had been doing most of the holding I recieved most of the negative attention, meaning that now he will barely even say hello to me. But it really wasn't always that extreme.

One day during my KBR class he popped in and decided to hang out for a while. I don't think he understood any of what I was saying and yet he was content enough to just hang out for a while and stare at all of us. He does look a litle confused but that is what happens when you come into a basic reading class and still haven't grasped the full concept of speaking Chinese.

Jemmy still likes to hang out during the school hours and it doesn't help that he always shows up about an hour and a half late to kindergarten. But he seems happier now and he gets to see his brother. Although Harry is a little jealous of all the attention Jemmy has managed to win over from all of us.

Jerry

Jerry has come quite a long way since the first days of morning kindergarten many moons ago. He started off being kind of a loner who never wanted to talk to anyone, especially the teachers. He didn't always have the best of moods and stayed away from the teachers. But luckily he decided to get over his fears and has developed some pretty amazing English skills in the last couple of months.

We find that song works quite well for teaching the kids such important phrases like, "True to your heart." Jerry was able to pick up quite well on this song and it wasn't until we began learning this song that I realized how impressive his English had become. He has the capability to request this song whenever the urge to sing it hits him, which is quite often.

We also found out that he has got a pretty good little smile too, even if all you see is one eye and crazy teeth and no he isn't telling me to die in this picture he is trying to be Captain Hook. You see the outing to Peter Pan introduced an entire week of language based on the Disney classic.

It is also a great thing that we have the gym rotation in kindergarten because it allows the children to beef up and then show off their muscles to one another. Jerry is by no means the strongest but his personality has been growing on us. I think we are also fans of his hair being a little shorter, like that pictured above. Oh, Happy Fourth of July, I'm somewhere in Thailand right now.

Sharon

I must admit that when I started teaching morning kindergarten I was not a huge fan of Sharon. Perhaps the look on Sharon's face was one that I would find myself making if we could rewind a few months. Sharon didn't quite know what it meant to sit in her seat or listen to the teacher.

But since the beginning she has begun a wonderful transition towards becoming a normal Chinese student who loves sitting nicely in her chair but still tries to help out the teacher in every possible way. Though the transition has been painful, as seen able it has also been worth the wait.

The day we all decided to be doctors Sharon patiently waited her turn for her checkup from Sean, Candy and Corey. She looks almost too clam and relaxed, it even had me worried for a little bit. But she managed to snap out of it and within a few days she had decided to rekindle her energies once again.

The day we talked about kissing she was the first in line and continued to kiss me on the check even after the activity came to an end. It was quite impressive the turnabout she went through and I was grateful that "Sharon, sit nicely" is no longer a part of my everyday vocabulary. Sharon will be missed because of her spunkiness. Hopefully her next teacher will be able to figure out how to handle all of her energy but it's worth the wait when she finally decides to come around.