Snack Time

So everyday in kindergarten they give us what is suppose to be about twenty minutes to feed the children. Usually it turns into at least a half an hour and sometimes even longer. Let me expound upon the challenge.

Take a gander at the snack that Joseph has to distribute and encourage them to eat for fifteen minutes. It is not a giant sandwich nor a small bowl of fruit, it is a little roll covered in seasame seeds. Today they gave us a tiny little cupcake and we were suppose to take fifteen minutes once again to eat the snack. But to tell you that the only task to accomplish during snack time is eating would be a lie.

We have to get them to all wash their hands with soap, which use to last a while when we let them play in the bubbles, but now we can acccomplish the feat in about two minutes flat and have them inside.

Then we force them to look at the food while it is being prepared. Look at their little faces, they just wanna eat something and they wanted to eat it yesterday. But they know if they reach too quickly the secretaries might run in and slap their hands.

But once the food is in their hand it doesn't matter if the secretaries are already in the room. They go to work on the snack and usually end up with a mess.

The glory of snacktime of course, is that they also feed the teachers. Laura was in heaven with this homemade fudge. Actually this picture has also been fudged. She made this during her basic reading class and then fed the extras to the morning kindergartener students who were still around. But regardless, I'm sure you can understand the situation. So back to the point of the picture, this allows me to eat a lighter breakfast and sleep in a few extra minutes in the morning. I know that if I can just make it until 9:30 then something will be waiting for me.

Then of course we have to wash our snack down with something to drink. The kindergarteners all come to school with a bottle full of mysterious liquid. Most of the time it appears to be water but sometimes I think that the parents sneak tea in the bottles. But regardless, let me just tell you that even the honey drinks taste disgusting. But by the time I have effectively managed my time and it is 9:55, the proper time to switch groups, I have not yet heard the knock to tell me that I have four minutes until I receive my next group. So we move on to other more exciting activities.

Most of the time the kids opt to climb on top of us and then we, the teachers, pretend like we are horses and pretend to buck them off. For those of you wondering, my lap will only effective hold four children at one time, unless I wrap my arm around another the fifth and sixth kids stomachs. But sometimes we draw out the language, or at least some kind of sound.

Today for example I tried to be funny and confused snack with snake. The kids went along with it and we all pretended to be snakes and then chased one another around the room making random snake sounds. I have fun and really it allows me to crawl under and table and have recess again. But then Joseph walks by knocks on the door telling me I have two minutes to regain control and then teach two more groups of kids. So snack time turns out to be more of a mini party complete with food, drink, games and most of all good times.

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me!

We had the great opportunity to see Peter Pan on Tuesday afternoon. It was a Japanese production with Chinese dialogue. I am happy to report that most everyone was excited about the show although for many different reasons.

You'll notice Oscars huge grin in this picture. He has come to an awareness that indeed he is adored by all of the ladies and he is just now figuring out what to do about it. As you can see he has Sara at his beck and call and he is working it with his smile. One might wonder if it is his brown eyes or sweet hair that attracts all of the attention. Well, take a look at the next picture and tell me if he has lost his adoration.

Today as a follow up to the theatrical production we made awesome pirate hats. Most of the time the kids were really into the pirate thing but some of them decided that Peter Pan was cooler. I am not sure what it is about a guy in green tights that the ladies found so attractive. It is probably cause he can fly and pirates just kind of throw their sword around. Sometimes I wish that I had just one of those skills and then I could land me someone as cool as Tiger Lily, but I'll never learn to fly and me getting beat up by kindergarteners probably isn't overly impressive. But back to kindergarten.

As you might have noticed it was most of the ladies that had their hats turned like Peter Pan might wear his. I think that they all enjoyed making the hats but let's be honest folks, the hats don't always make the pirates, the eye patches make all the difference in the world.

This is Weslia, throwing her arms up in the air, most likely because she just found out that is was time to count tokens and go home. Her group, the dinosaurs, have pretty much decided that they "don't want to be my friend." It is a sad story, but the Teddy Bears still think I'm the coolest thing ever, or at least they still pretend like I am worth talking to. So let's just move back to the Teddy Bears and rewind to the end of Peter Pan.

This is Jenny and Brandon. After the show they began some deep soul searching. They were quite contemplative for the next few hours but by the next day they decided that clapping for Tinkerbell was the right thing to do, even if she really does hate Wendy. After this realization we were able to make the pirate hats as previously seen.

Some of the older crowd allowed themselves to forgo the soul searching and simply enjoy the show. Sara, Tammy and Whitney have already determined that clapping for Tinkerbell is the right thing to do only because every one else is doing it. So the real question becomes, would they clap if they were the only three people watching the production? I'll let you be the judge of character.

Welcome to my blog

Because of the recent blogpost by Joseph I have decided to welcome all of his faithful viewers to my blogspot and tell them a little more about the man known in kindergarten as "Miss Josie." We can start off with the basics that I am sure most of you are already aware of.

Joseph's birthday is still May 19th and he will be turning 2? in a few weeks. If you have forgotten I suggest that you just send him an email wishing him a happy birthday and let the rest of it slide. He seems to be approaching the come year with a good attitude, no major signs of depression quite yet, although we haven't yet hit the month of May.

Joseph likes to read, another fact that I am sure you are all aware of. In fact sometimes he enjoys staying up until four in the morning and then teaching a full 7 hour day of 34 children under the age of 7. Don't know how he manages to do it but it seems that day he was dragging so slowly that his shadow seems to be creeping up on him. I must admit that I also carry a book around with me because one can never quite be sure when the girls will stop everything and decide to just shop.

Speaking of girls, this is something Joseph doesn't really enjoy: engagement photos. While I on the one hand seem to take them daily, I can never convince him to pose for them. I captured this moment on film today mostly because Joseph thought I was just taking a picture of him. He is kind enough to let me get all of the attention from the girls. As you can see in the next picture.

Joseph has always enjoyed singing. Now he enjoys, or at least pretends to enjoy singing in Chinese. We had the chance to sing at a fireside for Elder Scott tonight and sang in Chinese, just like I just said. Anyways, we'll be singing again in stake conference in the adult session as the musical number, in English, and in the general session with the Chinese choir. Luckily we both sing tenor, I have someone to complain to when I can't understand anyone else around me.

So it turns out that Joseph really does like getting attention from girls but he still tries to run away from them. Everyday we run around during our afternoon classes and since Joseph is the fastest and the most excited about running, we let him get chased by the girls and the guys. I guess the guys think that he is cool, especially when he runs, because one of his students, William, invited him over to play wii at his house. So now Joseph can say that he has played wii.

William still thinks it is cool that Joseph can run fast, but apparently Joseph is not a gifted virtual runner, as he mangaged to fall on his fact every three steps. Well, sometimes Joseph can get a little bit uptight but we are working on getting him to lossen up just a little bit. He has gotten much better since he began teaching kindergarten and now loves his kids, but he continues to struggle with his flexibility.

Encounter with the Natives

Over the last twenty-four hours I have had the opportunity to meet some interesting people. This weekend I had the chance to actually talk to some of the real Taiwanese people and enjoy their company. Last night Joseph and I went to practice a musical number for stake conference. The stake choir director asked us to sing a duet which we had previously sung during ward conference. Luckily we get to sing in English, but we'll be singing in Chinese for the fireside with Elder Scott tomorrow. Anyways, we got to practice with a Taiwanese girl and her mother at church. It was nice to talk to an adult in a real life situation.

So after the practice they offered us a ride home but we opted to take the bus instead. We got on the bus and it was quite crowded. Joseph and I noticed some Taiwanese girls kind of staring at us. They asked where we were from and I told them we were Americans. We struck up a conversation of sorts and then they produced to ask if we were brothers. I was quite entertained by that comment and asked further questions to find out why it is they thought we were brothers. They told us that we were both skinny and handsome. I guess you could say we were hit on by two high school teenagers. It was a little flattering but then again it's not everyday someone sees two American guys. The bus ride continued and we attempted to make more small talk. We survived and continued on our merry way.

The story continues into today, except this time I got pictures. We were invited by Quincy, a guy in our branch, to hang out at Lugang for the day. It all started off innocently enough. We got to the first temple and were just walking around when a huge group of Taiwanese high school boys decided they wanted to get a picture with us.

As you can see I felt a little awkward being asked to pose with so many people who were thrilled with the fact that I am an American. It was kind of course, but I felt like a celebrity and didn't want the attention. So I was happy to get away from the situation and being the tour.

We went around the temple with our tour guide and a group of about ten Taiwanese girls. They were quited excited about seeing a group of Americans too and decided to request a picture with us too. They were nice about it too but did not attempt to make conversation at this point in time.

However, we were bound to spend more time with them and the next activity on our agenda happened to be making pressed cookies. Again we see the same Taiwanese girls, but don't worry we are about to introduce a few new faces to the scene. I think I have failed to mention at this point in time that we had been invited on more of a tour of the city. So back to the cookies. When we initally sat down at the table we were greeted by four of the same boys that appeared in one of the previous pictures. I was quite grateful when the tour guide whisked us away again to show us the grain storage machines and we were rescued from awkward conversation. So we finished the cookies and all got on the bus.

Well by the time we got back on the bus we realized that we would be spending the entire day with all of the Taiwanese kids we had previously met. But first Suzanne, our guide, decided to feed us. We went to four different food stalls for dinner and I must say that it was a lot of food and not all of it exactly what I had planned on eating. Quincy is the other guy in the picture, by the way. We had squid soup, a pork ball wrapped in taro, noodles and pork, and topped off with an ice treat. This was our third course and by this time, as you can see, I wasn't overly excited about the meal. But I was grateful that she paid for our meal.

Well, after the meal the Taiwanese guys started to warm up to us. There was one guy who decided that we would be friends. His name is Hi-Who and we got to talk about all sorts of things. Baseball, basketball, English, religion and politics were just some of the wonderful conversation which we had. It really was nice having a Taiwanese person that I could talk to and carry on a conversation with.

Perhaps the opportunity to met and get to know the Taiwanese people happened at just the right time. We then proceeded down a small alley and got to see how close we could really come to the Taiwanese people.

Well in the end I became good friends with a few of the Taiwanese people and even managed to break away from the other Americans for a photo opt. I enjoyed the time spent getting to know new friends and got to see some of Taiwan in the process.

Promised Videos

Many moons ago I promised a friend that I would upload videos of my kindergarten basic reading class. I guess you could call me a liar up to this point in time. I am now trying to repent and as part of the process I have decided to post some of the amazing videos which I have taken, well I don't know when they started, but anyways. Here you go all you people who have been waiting for however many videos I manage to upload tonight.

This first video really shows what kind of slavedriver I have become since last posting. We had a kitchen activity and I made the children help clean up after the deed was done. As you can see a few of the kids were not excited about what I called a new and exciting opportunity. I am trying to train them to be better husbands and fathers though and decided I would give them a head start.

I continue to drive the children to work harder for me so I don't have to and as you can see Ray was more than happy to help out. During this week it was his job to help put all of the chairs on top of the table so the cleaning ladies job would be just a little bit easier. He also managed to say hello to one of his old teachers in the process.

But having a class full of boys naturally leads to crazy moments. As you can see the boys decided to try and make music although it didn't work out too well, but they try real hard.

I am not sure what exactly inspired the final picture but it made me laugh nonetheless. I think Ray, the kid in the black shirt got a little bit excited and put up his shirt. Then Bairt, who loves to do anything that I approve of or think is funny decided to follow suit. When I first saw it I thought they looked like nuns but apparently I am the only teacher who had that image play in their head. Maybe I have just had a little bit too much "Sound of Music."

I is you, you is my Haha!!

Yesterday after class Bairt came up to me and asked if he could give me something. I am always just a little unsure about when my kids want to give me something. Is it a snail, which they all love probably more than me, a rat skull, or a piece of trash? Well apparently Bairt (pronounced Bart, as in Bart Simpson) decided that he would go one step above that. He delivered to my outstreched hand a note that continued the following message, which has not been edited:

"I one to geve you a big bear decause I like to gete frind a toys. and I like to play a dog. and the pig at my hous. I is You You is my HAHA!! I no you is a poo poo and the bum." I am assuming that he likes me and is not calling me "a poo poo", but one can never be sure. Anyways I thought that the fact that he gave me a note was cool, especially considering the fact that these children have only been writing since January. I haven't yet taught them words but Bairt seems to be catching on anyways. After he gave me the note he told me that he had to put something in my bag.

As you can see he was kind enough to wrap a small bear in gold paper of some kind and put it in a box, almost like a present. This happened to be the same box which his token prize came in the day before. He just did a little work on the outside of the box and pasted some paper on it and wrapped it. From a guy to a guy I couldn't be more impressed. For those of you who are wondering why it says Mr. Adams it is because that is the name I go by. Most teachers go by Mr. Joseph or Ms. Sara but I figured I might as well use the last name. I'm kinda starting to like it. So now comes the mystery of why he would give something to me. It could be because I am a crazy teacher and not only allowed the following to happen but participated:

You can hear Michael in the background screaming that he also wants me to squirt whipped cream into his mouth too. Michael hasn't quite yet realized the concept of raising his hand when he wants something, but we are working on it. So back to Barit. It could be that I just let the kids run loose on break and then they all end up piled on top of me for photo-ops. You'll notice that Bairt let me poke him in the checks. Well this might be a classy picture but it was taken today, after the fact, so it couldn't be for this reason.

Perhaps the most reasonable reason is the fact that Bairt is just a good kid watching my back. He always wants to please the teacher, me, and makes sure the other kids are in line. Case in point:

Tony was kind enough to bring in a live snail from our break and so we spend 15 minutes talking about how wonderful it was. As you can see Bairt defending the snail from harm just as the video finishes. Needless to say I was quite pleased that one of my students liked me enough to give me a bear, regardless of the condition it was in. It was nice to be thought about and makes me realize how much I could have gotten away with if I would have brought my teachers something before the school year was over.

The Roof is on Fire!

Well I don't think that our roof has ever caught on fire but we tried once to light it on fire for the Chinese New Year. Because the fourth floor and the roof are the only part of the building which we have access to on the weekends we tend to spend most of our time on one of these floors. Usually the fourth floor wins but ocassionally the roof wins and we have a party up there. I understand that it looks more like a Relief Society get together, but you must understand that half of the male population was downstairs slaving away in the kitchen and the other half was behind the camera. Either way, welcome to our roof.

This past Sunday was just one of those days. It is starting to get hot here in Taiwan and by starting I mean that it is only 80 degrees and we are already starting to die. Yes, I understand that we all are pansies but you must remember that most of us are use to being pampered in America in a nice cool house and sitting around the house lazily instead of chasing kindergartener's around the room telling them to act like an aligator. Anyways, back to the roof. So I was walking over to get a chair on another part of the roof and I peered over the ledge and realized that I hadn't taken any pictures from the top of the roof for a while. Needless to say I got a little distracted and become a little camera happy, kind of like I always am.

But a little good did come out of it. The picture above and the picture below both encompass the view from the top of the roof looking down on the street in front of our house/school. Something always seems to be under construction these days whether it be the school, the street or our lives. This week the street has gotten most of the attention. It might not look bad from these pictures but when you have the truck traveling down the street and you have to weave inbetween them it can get pretty exciting.

From this angle you can see the lovely autobody shop. They are happy to work on your car whenever we want to sleep. Those Saturday mornings, when all we want to do is sleep, are filled with the sound of cars under construction and we can even hear their phone ringing. They must not be hurting for business though, because something is always going on.

So I'm sure you aren't very curious but you can humor me anyways. You might be wondering what is across the street from the school and this is what we look at when gazing out our window. This is a parking lot for some kind of stock brokerage company. I have my doubts though because I don't recall it ever being remotely full. It is one of the largest parking lots I have seen in Taiwan though. Since space is limited you do the most with what you have, so that's the view.

While I have your attention I'll quickly show you the view from the dong, or east, side of the roof. I think it is a bunch of apartment buildings, but it could be a giant drug factory, though I would guess it is the former. So what else do we do on the roof. We have been known to dance on the roof, play spoons and carry weather reports. As a preface to this video you must realize that we discuss the weather every day in kindergarten and the children always tell us that is it sunny and cloudy. Never just cloudy and never just rainy. So while the following was filmed in the rain. . .anyways you get the point.

So you can't really see the rain or the roof because Joseph happens to be in the way. Here is the same shot minus Joseph's wonderful yellow raincoat.

But perhaps the best use of all of the roof is the opportunity to spend quality time with the people of our choice. Sara and I have become the obsessive bloggers and we needed a breath of fresh air so we opted for the roof. I guess you could call this our engagement photo since I never posted one of the two of us. You can tell where this relationship is going based upon the excitement on Sara's face. Absolutely nowhere after we leave Taiwan. I'm hoping we might still be friends but we'll leave that up to fate.

So our roof has been the spot for mulitiple activities and the future possibilities seem endless. Sometimes though it is nice just to sit up there with a friend and listen to "Endless Love" in the dark.