KBR (Kute but Reprimandable)

So this class really isn't called kute but reprimandable but sometimes I feel like I spend three hours telling my kids to not hit one another, to sit down and whatever else that runs through my head as these children run the the classroom. The school calls it Kindergarten Basic Reading. I actually enjoy this class though, they keep me entertained and have taught me how difficult it would be to attempt to teach children a foreign language with brand new characters. The aforementioned picture was taken on Tony's birthday and as you can see he wasn't exactly what I would call happy, but his mom brought in Pizza Hut and Pepsi so the children were happy. So who are these children that I spend more time with than their own parents? Let me introduce you to my children.

This is William. William usually does not have a smile on his face because he is so focused on something else. He is a great student but zones out of class when all of the other kids are paying attention to the class clown. In my KBR (kindergarten basic reading) class we have a system were if you good you can earn stars. Five stars equals a sticker, either Spiderman or a Disney Princess. There is really no rhyme or reason as to how stars are given out, mostly depending on how well my students are behaving. You would think that in a class with seven boys I would only give out Spiderman stickers, but princess stickers are becoming much cooler. Anyways, William always manages to earn a sticker.

This is Jasper, somedays I wonder about him. He enjoys sticking his tongue out at me when he is angry or is attempting to drive me crazy. He is a good kid though and more often than not he makes me laugh.

Bairt, pronounced Bart, is one of my favorite students because he understands everything I say and he is very concerned that everyone else pays attention to what is going on. He likes have fun when the time is right, but he is smart enough to pass his tests and behave when I require it. As you can see he is having fun with Mr. Adams. I decided to rename myself that for KBR because the previous called had them call her Ms. Laws. I think it is funny when my students run up to me calling me Mr. Adams, but it works.

"Mr. Adams uppercase or lowercase?" When we have test on the letters in the alphabet I will say, "Write an uppercase T." Ray will usually ask again if it is upper or lower case. I respond but encourage him to pay attention next time. Ray really doesn't give me any problems and he understands what is going on in class. One thing to keep in mind though is that these students are younger than kindergarteners in America and they haven't yet started Chinese public school yet, so they are really ahead of Americans.

This is Michael. Cutest little kid in the world but he has no idea what is going on. Everyday we write our names on the board to keep track of how many stars we earn and when I get to Michael he can give me the first two letters of his name but then he forgets. He can write his own name but then it all stops there.

Melody is new to our class as of about two weeks ago, but she has already caught on faster than some of the kids that have been in the class for 1.5 months. She is Michaels buddy and tries to help him spell his name while he just sits and stares at me. She handles herself well in a class full of boys and she helped the boys realize that princess stickers can be just as cool as spiderman stickers, even Mr. Adams now sports Sleeping Beauty on his water bottle.

This is Jellen. They tell me that he has a speech problem, but he sounds better than some of the other kids in my class. Jellen is particular about many things, such as who he sits by, but I suppose that is required when you are 4 and a half. You'll notice me in the background and I believe I am playing tag in this picture, although I have no idea who I am playing with.

Tony. . . every teacher needs a child like him to keep them humble. Tony is a loving little kid but he can't seem to stay out of trouble. He hasn't gotten a sticker (five stars) for at least a week now but he always manages to give me a big bear hug before he goes home. He dressed up for his birthday in a shirt and tie and got to wear the sweat birthday hat, which I never got to wear. Sue, the secretary in the picture, made him give her a kiss for his birthday. Tony is full of energy though and I find myself simultaneously laughing inside while telling him to go to the corner because he is in trouble.

This is Michael and Jellen immediately before we went outside to play today. They were quite excited, if you could not already tell. So these are my basic readers that I get to entertain with my amazing wit and excellent teaching techniques. It feels more like I am practicing on this kids until I have my own someday and then the real test begins. Until then I will just pretend that these kids are my own.

A few things about Taiwan

Yesterday I got a comment on one of my blogs in relation to the names of my kindergarteners. My cousin thought that it was interesting that nearly every Taiwanese child had what appear to be strictly an Anglo-American name. In reality the children really have two different names, their Chinese name and their english name. Since I have lived in Taiwan for nearly two months now I tend to take many things for granted. The things that go on around me aren't as exciting as they were at the beginning of my adventure and because of that I assume that the readers of my blog understand my frame of mind. However, there are some major differences in Taiwan, names aside that it is important to make clear.

The first and maybe even the most important: Pink is not a girl color. Everybody wears it in Taiwan and the young men even where pink ball caps with furry white coats. In America it would never fly but in Taiwan it is "fly". With that thought in mind I thought it was quite interesting when I walked into my basic reading class on Tuesday and Melody and Ray had on what looked to be the same pink shirt. I found it odd that I really could have been the same shirt and in America someone would have made fun of Ray about it.

But in Taiwan all of the student have to wear uniforms to school that really aren't at all flattering. Most of the kids wear sweatsuits and usually they come in amazing colors like purple, magenta or blue. Kids are use to wearing the funky colors and I think it kind of carries over when they grow up a bit.

Taiwanese people also love to go to the night markets. This is something I really don't understand. To me it feels like a carnival except that there are so many people you just kind of get pushed along, especially when they are held in the narrow little alleyways. It seems to be the same market no matter where you go but people still show up. There is really nothing like it, at least from what I have seen, in Utah. It feels like a swapmeet, except for the fact that they happen all the time and they seem to be selling the same food in every market. But it is fun sometimes and I have even tried a few goodies and Joseph has ridden some kiddie rides.

This is one of the more spacious markets we found during the Chinese New Year break in TaiChung. You can see Joseph of course and perhaps one of the reason I took this picture is because there were not one hundred other people who would have been in the picture too. But you can see the food stand on either side of the aisles, but they all seem to be selling the same thing so I don't understand how they stay in business.

However, some stores have figured in out. This particular, women's accessories, store has some merchandise on the street and then they open up the rest of the shop to the street for easy access. Maybe they do business, or it could all be for show. So by now you are probably wondering why I took the picture and had the belt on in the first place. Unfortunatly I don't remember the answer to either question but I do now that the belt almost broke when I tried to take it off. I still haven't managed to buy any clothing at the night market's or even in Taiwan. The following picture might explain why.

When we first walked by this thing we had no idea what it was. But then after a second glance we realized that people can try clothing on in this tiny stall. Joseph got in for the picture but a little while later we saw the curtain moving around and we assumed that someone was changing. It would be a little strange having the whole world watch as you try on a pair of pants or a sweater with a tiny neck. I thought that the real stores would have real changing rooms but it turns out that a few still have these space effective curtains.

There is still a lot about Taiwan that I do not understand but I am trying to figure things out and hopefully as I discover the reasons for the ways things are done here I can share it with ya'll.

Kindergarten

Being a teacher in Taiwan requires me to be around children for a good part of the day, who would have guess. For those of you who know me, you know that I always have my camera with me and I try to get random pictures. With teaching it is the same concept and my kindergartener's and basic reading class still enjoy getting their picture taken. As I have been able to document many interesting moments in the classroom. Have my camera has also been a good thing because most of the time I forget to bring a watch to the playground when we are on our breaks. I can take pictures though and find out the time. So with that introduction here are the children that have become the reason for my existence. In this blog I present the kindergartener's.

At the beginning of the day I get to see the group called the Teddy Bears. They are my favorite group because quite frankly I think they are the cutest group. They don't talk much but they make me laugh and start my day out with a smile. So going around the circle clockwise and begining with me I start the introductions. Directly to my left is Owen, followed by Jenny, Oscar, Dream, Angelica,Yvonne and Brandon. This picture was taken during snacktime. Kindergarten consists of three groups and after I see the first group I give them a snack of some kind. Then I get the Dolphins followed by the Dinosaurs.

The second group I teach is an older group that understands a lot more English. From left to right: Sean, Teresa, Louie, Zach, Stacey, Paula and Corey. Sharon is the other Dolphin but she tends to run around like crazy whenever I'm not telling her to sit down. Other personalities of note include Paula who hates kindergarten and cries nearly everyday. Stacey knows the answer to everything and the rest of the kids are just a barrel full of energy.

As you can see in this picture they managed to drag me across the floor while we were reading a story about how Papa Bear gets rescued by Brother Bear and his friends. We decided to reenact the story, though it wasn't quite as successful as I would have hoped.

This is a small portion of the Dinosaur group, Aden and Jerry. Neither one of them really want to speak english at the moment but they are trying. Aden runs around the room with a smile on his face and Jerry, on the left, will copy everything you say in the hopes of getting a token. "Jerry do you want a piece of bread?" Jerry responds, "Do you want a piagag bred?"

Here again we see Yvonne and Stanley. They have become better friends as of late. It is quite interesting to see the way children pick out their friends in kindergarten. Sometimes I wonder if the kids have crushes on one another. Owen always wanted to sit by Angelica for about a week and now Stanley likes sitting by Yvonne. Who knows, maybe someday these children will be able to say they meet their spouse in kindergarten.

No introduction would be complete with the famous Sky and Dream duo. They are cousins and started kindergarten just a few months ago. They are really good friends and so for a while it was difficult to get them separated but now Sky is willing to part with Dream and Dream hates coming into the classroom. Sky turned three on Tuesday and dream is a little bit younger. Sky loves to sing the songs and he has done great. I think that he understands what he is saying most of the time. Dream on the other hand can be a handful. She hates kindergarten and never wants to go to class. She usually spends the three hours in the hallway with the secretaries but she is just too young.

So now you have met a few of my kids. I hope I haven't bored you, but I have decided that I am allowed to brag about my kids because I play with them probably just about as often as their own parents.

The Apartment

So I live in Taiwan and I currently live on the top floor of my school. I say currently as if I am planning to move soon but I won't be leaving the top of the school until I move back to America. So living on the fourth floor of the school sounds like it would be a little boring, but let me tell you, we can do a lot with four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 1 lounge, 1 kitchen and a laundry patio. We have been here for two months and still we find things that surprise us. Let me share a few of the things which manage to keep us busy while residing on the fourth floor.

This picture has a few different meanings. Of course we spend a lot of time in our rooms, sleeping, although perhaps not as much time as we should because we tend to go to bed late. The girls also like jumping on Joseph's bed while he is trying to write in his journal, I think that the girls all have a crush on him and want to figure out which girl it is that he likes. Joseph, always the ladies man, if only he could find a girl to settle down with. While looking at the picture we may be concerned that jumping on the bed could do a little bit of damage, however the beds already feel like your sleeping on the ground so no harm done really.

As you can see we all enjoy one another's company and this is no exception. I was blogging at my desk and Sara came in to work on her computer. Then Tammy showed up to prepare her lesson for Sunday. Laura followed us in shortly after and in this picture she has resorted to reading a mouse pad. We are willing to have a party wherever the people are, simply because we don't have a wonderful gathering place, although we tend to have a lot of parties that begin in the kitchen. People start cooking and everyone gathers around to make their meals and then one thing leads to another and we are either making treats or playing games.

This was the evening that girls decided to make fortune cookies to bring to church the next day. Apparently fortune cookies really aren't too popular in Taiwan. Some of the teachers made them with their classes and the kids had never seen them before. I am beginning to think that everything "Chinese" in America is really just America's belief of what the culture is. Taiwanese food tastes nothing like the food we call Chinese in America. Strange but true, although they Taiwanese eat a ton a rice.

Some of the most popular kitchen games include Phase 10 and Canasta. I'm not sure if it is because we enjoy playing them or because we really don't have any other games to choose from. Sometimes I try to make things interesting though and I will break out my laptop to keep score for us. In the photo below you can see the bottom half of our graph along with our nicknames. If I recall correctly they were as follows: Pain Threshold, Dollface, Sweet Checks, Deathstar, Forever Cache and Poison Dart. I will let you decide which nickname belongs to each player. At this point in the game though, Mary or Posion Dart was ahead, hence why her beautiful face now graces the photo. Some of the games aren't the most exciting, but watching someone's score jump from 80 to 230 if really quite exciting and there is no math involved.

The photo below was taken last night. After a hard fought battle, Sara and I lost Canasta. We kept score on the cardboard that held my Costco chocolate muffins, we are kind of into recycling here, and a little short on paper. Mary and Whitney managed to slaughter us. I always say that it doesn't matter who wins of loses as long as we have a good time. Last night was no exception, however I usually follow up with, "It doesn't matter who wins or loses as long as I win." I'm a bit competitive I'll admit, but I never brake things when I lose.

Other kitchen activities include sorting the garbage and washing the garbage. In Taiwan we have to separate everything and clean the recyclables before we throw them away. Living in Utah this is not something I am familiar with but I have grown quite use to it, in fact it is almost fun. Well not really fun, but manageable. On the far left of the photo you can see the general trash can follow by the bag for paper and then two more for plastic. Metal and glass comes last and the little round one in front is for left over food. Throwing trash away becomes more of an experience in Taiwan and not something to be done absentmindly. When I move back to America I'm sure that I'll still wash my trash and maybe even try to sort it out.

The last activity that usually occurs in the kitchen is the trip planning sessions and the blogging sessions. I believe this picture is from the evening we spent planning our trip to Taroko Gorge. Although it looks like all of us were hard at work, in reality Sara planned out most of the trip for us and the rest of us just sat there and surfed the net and wrote emails. Actually I'm not sure if everyone did that, but I know I wasn't really much help in the planning department.

Other games that we enjoy playing include murder in the dark. Except we enjoy playing all over the apartment. We dress in dark clothes and walk around the apartment, roof or in the stairwells and kill people. Then we accuse people and the detectives try to find out who it was that committed the murder. It really is an exciting game and you can read more about it on Joseph's blog.

In the lounge we have played other games such as the fruit or vegetable games. The rules for this game require everyone to pick the name of a fruit and then cover their teeth. Whoever begins the games says the name of their fruit/vegetable and then the name of another players food item, all while covering their teeth. The game could have gone on forever, but being adults and because having a fun time is more important than winning, we stop before a final winner was declared. As you can see we also have a few books to entertain us while here, although I find a lack on non-fiction titles which I would perfer to read. However I did pick up a fiction book and I am pleased to say that I am both almost finished with it and have enjoyed it. We also watch a lot of movies and recently we have all become a fan of the Japanese movies "Death Note."

What apartment with girls would be complete without manicures and pedicures. The girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves while I looked on. They tell me that sometime they will make me go through the process but so far they have only convinced me to buff my nails. We'll see how far they go over the next few months.

Finally last but not least, no foreign apartment would be complete without the bugs. We tend to have a surplus of mosquitoes here on the fourth floor. The wonderful thing about the mosquitoes here though is that they are really stupid. They fly very slowly and they do not run away from people. It is quite easy catching them in your hands and killing them. I have gotten quite good at, however, sadly no mosquitoes were harmed in the taking of this picture.

And so ends the blog of our wonderful apartment. If you have anything else you care to see please let me know. Also any other blogging ideas would be greatly appreciated. It seems that the longer I am in Taiwan the less exciting the environment is. What is still strange to most Americans I now find normal, like throwing used toilet paper into the garbage instead of into the toilet.

Happy Birthday to You!

Many of you have asked about birthdays here in Taiwan. They are not as big of a deal here in Taiwan, except when you live with 12 other Americans who care about you and try to make the day speical. It all started out with breakfast in bed made by Whitney and Tammy. It was awesome, scrambled eggs, toast, bell fruit and orange juice. Then I got to teach kindergarten and the kids sang/screamed the Taiwanese version of Happy Birthday to me. It was quite entertaining as I'm sure you can see. After kindergarten I talked to my parents for a while and they sang to me too.

When I went to my basic reading class in the afternoon I challenged my kids to sing louder than my morning class. They did pretty well and you can understand them a little bit better. The classes went well although a few of my kids went a little bit crazy with the red paint as you can see below.

After teaching basic reading I came home for a few minutes to a sad, sad story. Peggy, who works in the office, told me that I had recieved a package from home. I came back at 4:30 after class to get my package and I found out that the return address had the last name of Stevens on it and it was for someone else. But my friends made up for it later. We went out to dinner and I had my favorite meal, shrimp fried rice. Then we went to our ice cream parlor of choice, McDonald's of course, and had cake and ice cream. A special shout out to my roommate Joseph who made a great banana chocolate cake. Whitney also brought some peanut butter which really topped off the ice cream. I recieved a giant deck of playing cards from the girls which we later used to play one of our new favorite games: spoons.

I'm not sure what I was thinking in this picture, perhaps I wasn't thinking at all. But you can see my birthday cake and ice cream.

Spoons of course was one of the last activities of the night. Here in Taiwan it is 60 degrees outside and inside because heaters don't exist. We have had to come up with games that keep us warm. The version of spoons which we play requires us to run from the kitchen to another area of the apartment and search for the spoon. Here we have Destiny and Emily Joy search in the attic-ish area of the apartment. It is really storage space on the same level as the roof. I believe that Destiny found the last spoon, although Joseph one the game. Since I had one the game the night before, the spoon score now stand at Boys: 2 Girls: O.

The night would not be complete without fireworks. Sara was kind enough to buy them for us. We were suppose to light them off on Chinese New Year, but we were too lazy. We had fun though and just shot them off on the roof. You must understand that this roof is the kind that you could have a huge party on. It is made of cement and will not come crashing down anytime soon to kill people, so don't worry about that.

I hope you have enjoyed reliving my birthday as I had fun living it myself. A special thank you to all those who wrote notes, gave gifts, baked cakes, bought cakes, made breakfast in bed, bought gaint cards, paid for my food and treated me like I'm a big deal.

Scooters in Hualian

We returned home on Sunday afternoon from Hualian, the tourist destination of choice. It is next to Taroko Gorge on the east coast of Taiwan. We did a lot of wandering around the city and the girls bought a whole bunch of stuff from the markets. I am happy to say that the only thing I had to buy was a Taiwanese swimsuit while I was at the hot springs. It only cost about 190 NT which was a big relief. I'm not exactly sure how to proceed at this point in time with my adventures in Hualian. Perhaps I should just make this blog about scooters. But before I blog about scooters here are some pictures of where we were.

This is in the Taroko Gorge.

This is the view from one of the outlooks on our way down the coast. I would love to take credit for it but Whitney took the picture. It really was amazing though.

This is one of the pictures that I took while at the beach. I thought it was an awesome picture. We walked all of the way down to the beach and waded into the ocean. We waded a little bit too far into the ocean and ended up getting soaked. It was cold but not as cold as it would get in Utah.

For those of you unfamiliar with Taiwanese modes of transportation, the most common way of traveling around a city is either on a bus or on a scooter. A scooter is similar to the American motorcycle, but having never driven an American motorcycle, the comparison will have to stop there and you can just gaze at the photos displayed below. That said, we had some interesting experiences while on the scooter.

This is Sara's first time on the scooter. She was a little nervous but she made it to her destination and back safe and sound. I do enjoy the expression on her face though.

This is another picture of Sara talking to the policeman trying to get directions to the highway so we could go down to the beach.

Perhaps I should start out with the good experiences on the scooter. No one died and we got to see the ocean which was amazing. It was fun to be able to go where we wanted without having to rely on the buses or the trains.

Let me explain this picture. The helmet was giant but it did keep me warm and it would have kept me safe too had we got in an accident. I had to roll up my pants so that my feet would not get wet.

So now for the stories. Nothing exciting happened with the scooter that Joseph and I were on. We had a smooth ride and even if we had been dumped off the scooter, my giant helmet would have protected me from anything. Laura and Sara didn't make it out of the vacation without injury though. It really wasn't a big deal only that the roads were a little bit muddy from the constant rain and the scooter slid off the road into the dirt. Laura was not driving very fast and so the only injuries were some skinned knees and bruised pride. Mary and Jessica accidently hit a car while trying to get out of the city. They didn't have to go to jail though so we got to continue our trip down the coast. The last incident to mention was the flat tire on Emily Joy and Lish's scooter. We were two hours away at the hot springs and they had to call the scooter repair man to rescue them. They were reunited with us not long after the incident and we celebrated their safe return with good old Pizza Hut pizza.

This is prior to the mishap endured by Laura and Sara. As you can see they are still happy.

Matchmaking in Taiwan

As some people have asked about the dating situation here in Taiwan I've decided to indulge and make things up. There are two of us guys and eleven girl. So the odds are in our favor. We will all be sharing our apartment for the next six months so I don't think anything will happen. In all reality no dates will be happening and I don't think that anyone will be hooking up. But even though no one will be dating I decided to pretend that it is possible and use the pictures I have taken to recreate dates that in all reality never happened. I hope that you find this entertaining and realize that while most of the situations really happened, the dates are not real.

Marriage is a process of finding your eternal companion which will hopefully turn out to be your best friend forever, similar to Mickey and Minnie Mouse. It is no different here in Taiwan except for the fact that the only eligible native English speakers happen to be Joseph and I. We have eleven girls to pick from and invite them to be our best friend forever. Let us meet the bachelors.

This is Joseph. His current manbag looks nothing at all like this, although the motto on this bag says it all. Ladies you must love him before it is too late. He is currently teaching kindergarten and basic reading. He should have just enough training to raise his children when the time arrives. He should be attending graduate school in the fall somewhere in America studying Russian . . . something.

This is the other bachelor in Taiwan. Of course it is me trying to be superman. None of the girls currently seem to be impressed with this costume, but hopefully I will manage to change someone's mind and bring them home to meet my parents. I also teach kindergarten and basic reading and so I'm becoming prepared to raise my children too. Hint, hint.

And so now the competition begins. Girls, how much you love me? Will Steve and Joseph be able to land a girl within the next six months? In all reality it shouldn't happen and neither one of us are trying, but we will pretend that it is happening. Hopefully I'll have more pictures to post and you'll get to meet the bacheloretts soon! Until then.