Trick or treat!

Dear Blog,

Sorry I’ve abandoned you.  Please take me back.

Maria



My life in Taiwan has definitely settled into a rhythm - work, tutor, study, sleep.  In between, of course, there’s lots of good eating, talking and cultural exchanging.

Despite my awesome wolf costume ("I am NOT a husky, I'm a wolf!"), my kids weren’t as excited about Halloween as I would’ve hoped seeing as I was feeding them straight-up sugar while talking about zombies.  We watched the Nightmare Before Christmas, ate candy, and learned the three most important Halloween-related words of all-time: TRICK OR TREAT (which is now shouted in my classroom whenever my kids catch me sneak eating the left-over Halloween candy... not that happens very often or anything....).

Lately, I’ve been teaching a lot of storytelling classes -- 40 minute self-contained lessons that I create based on an English language storybook.  I LOVE storytelling classes, I try to make them as fun as possible to encourage the kids’ interest in English.  While I can usually avoid using Chinese while teaching my 6th grade classes, speaking the language really comes in handy when teaching the younger grades.  We draw pictures, act like animals, and use homemade paper telescopes to “Look left! Look right! Look at the sky!  Look at the ground! Look ALL around!”

Since finishing our pen pal project, my 6th grade English club students and I are starting work on our next big objective: Gu Ting TV!  We’re going to be conducting interviews with students and faculty on such intriguing topics as “What’s your name?” and “What color is it?”  It should be fun.  So far, the only worthwhile moment I’ve managed to capture on video is my student, Ting, accidentally tipping over a desk:

There's also this gem of an audition:

The weather has been unusually amazing here these past couple days -- meaning, IT’S NOT RAINING (like it is now. damnit).  Scootering an hour each day in the pouring rain really makes one appreciate 1. anytime that it isn’t raining, and 2. scootering anytime that it isn’t raining.  I am now the proud owner of an Yilan rainjacket -- a full-length GIANT raincoat with an unintentionally 80’s color scheme.  As you can imagine, I look pretty awesome when I scooter.

Typhoon Megi brushed by Yilan a few weekends ago (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/10/22/typhoon-megi-taiwan-china.html), spurring a 3-day typhoon weekend of flooding, rock slides and general destruction.  While Yilan City incurred some flooding, it was the surrounding farmlands and southern townships that got hit the hardest.  Safe and dry in our apartment, we didn’t realize the extent of the damage until worried calls began coming in from the states - apparently, Yilan had made American news headlines.  

Although the rain was gone by Saturday, many local Yilaners had been evacuated and many were displaced after losing their homes.  The creepiest news to emerge in Megi’s aftermath: an entire tour bus went missing somewhere along the coastal highway and the only clue to its fate was an arm that was later found on the side of the road. AHHHH!!!!!  On a less creepy note, the Yilan ETA crew are luckily all safe and sound.

The rain’s been reminding me a lot of the good ol’ Pacific Northwest.  I’ve been living almost entirely off cereal for 2 weeks by choice.  Yes, I think there is a problem with this.  No, I am not worried.  See what 3 months of rice can do to you?  On especially rainy days (aka every other day), I find myself longing for a good cold microbrew and a hot cup of real coffee.  Ah, all that is good in the PNW.

I’ve been distracted lately with thoughts beyond Taiwan, mainly, “What the F am I going to do after Fulbright ends in June???”

And... I’ve almost arrived at an answer: I will hopefully be moving to Atlanta, GA as an elementary school teacher and Teach for America 2011 corps member!  Even though I’m SUPER EXCITED about my TFA placement in Atlanta, I haven’t been able to officially accept the position due to scheduling conflicts.  So there’s still a pretty big chance I’ll be re-assigned to a new region , but until then, my heart belongs to the ATL.