No, David!

Yesterday, my all-time favorite school activity took  place for the first (and last) time this semester: first grade storytelling.

If you don't know any first graders personally, they are THE BEST!  And the real best thing about the first graders is that they LOVE me.  They would passionately and unquestionably follow me like little lemmings off the edge of a cute, Hello Kitty shaped cliff.  They are my groupies and I am their fearless, awesome, super-tall rock star leader who speaks funny Chinese.

We read the story "No, David!" which is about a little boy who never ever ever in a million years listens to his mom when she tells him, "No, David!" or "Not in the house, David!" or "That's enough, David!"  ***Spoiler alert*** But in the end, after David breaks the beautiful flower vase while playing baseball in the living room, his mom gives him a hug and confesses, "Yes, David.  I love you."

Here are some highlights from yesterday's lessons:

A picture of David's naked little butt shows on the screen.  All children scream and cover their eyes.  While writing the worksheet, most children write that the book was "funny" but one little boy writes that it was "a kind of porno."  Whoops.

~~~

FG1 (to me) : "MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO ... are you from America?"
FG2 (to me) : "MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO MISS ZHAO ... good morning!"
Miss Zhao: "Miss Zhao is over here"
FG1 and 2:  "Ohhhhhhh noooooooOOoOOOoOoo!!!! MAAARIIIIAAAA!!"

~~~

Me: "Can we all say, "No, David!"?  Go!"
FG: "NO, DAVID!"
FG Kevin: "NO, KEVIN!"
... pause ...
FG Kevin (to everyone):  "I said, "No, Kevin!""

~~~~

Me: "Why does David's mom say "I love you" even though David is not a good little boy?"
... silence ....
Miss Zhao: "Maybe because she is still his Mom.  Would your mom would hug you at night even if you were naughty?"
FG 1: "Once, my mom locked my little brother outside for a whole day!  Until it was night!"
Miss Zhao:  "Wow.  Did she hug him at the end of the day?"
FG 1:  "No, she spanked his bottom!  Bam bam bam!"

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.

photo upload OVERLOAD! pt2

three of my students from 6D. not having the expected typhoon holiday was rough on us all...

more 6D students

FIRST GRADERS!!! we read Chicka Chicka BOOM BOOM

the first graders break it down during daily morning exercise break

and for life outside of school...

fave tepanyaki restaurant

macro'd leftovers

teacher eric is so strong! uprooting trees post-typhoon

Thanks, Darby

I find myself with extra computer time this morning since my English classes were rescheduled, so here’s an update that will hopefully hold ya’ll over for a while.  Photos to follow at some point in the hopefully not-too-distant future.

After a grueling 3-day workweek (I kid, I kid), the entire Fulbright Yilan crew headed out for the official orientation in Taipei. We stayed in the Howard Plaza Hotel, a 5-star hotel in the Shibuya-esque shopping district of Taipei, where each morning began with a perfectly prepared Western breakfast buffet complete with BACON and real coffee. Over the weekend, we got to know the other Fulbrighters- the researchers as well as the Kaohsiung ETA crew, who are all super awesome.

The Foundation hosted a fancy dinner on Friday night where we were able to meet and chat with all the important people at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) aka 'the embassy that is not technically an embassy' since Taiwan is a country that is not technically a country. The banquet was hosted on the 33^rd floor in the World Trade Center building, with an incredible view of neighboring Taipei 101, the surrounding mountains and sprawling city.  This magical night of city livin’ was followed by Saturday at the National Palace Museum and another fabulous 10-course meal. Taiwanese know how to do food, seriously.

      

On Sunday, I went surfing with my buddy Cool again. The surf shop people know me and now give me nice discounts on board rentals / hook my friends up with free lessons.

Thinking of discounted surfing leads me away from my chronological account of my weekend to the broader topic of Taiwanese hospitality. Taiwanese people, at least in Yilan, are incredibly hospitable. I’ve met countless people everywhere who are willing to go above and beyond the typical American perspective on the call of stranger-ly duty to help my friends and me out – whether that means giving us free surf lessons, pulling over and offering us rides to the train, remembering our curry orders, putting free cheese in our fried pita sandwiches, inviting a few foreigners to participate in a traditional tea ceremony in somebody’s someone’s brother-in-law’s art studio, helping me painstakingly fill out Chinese language forms for something as stupid as a Carrefour card, and slyly skipping scanning items in the grocery store line. Loosen up, slow down, make some friends, drink some bubble tea...

But for now, it’s back to school! As we in the 6^th grade begin Lesson 2 “Where are you from?” in the thrilling (that was sarcasm) Hello Darby Level 7 textbook, cultural understanding abounds. Yesterday, we looked at a map of the world and discussed (in Chinese) the reasoning behind the Union Jack motif on Australia’s flag, the language differences between North and South America, why Russia is no longer called the Soviet Union, the possibility of standing with one foot on either side of the international date line, and whether Brasil should be known for its soccer or samba. While this didn’t lead to much English speaking in either class, it was encouraging to have students openly questioning, volunteering answers, and considering the world around them. Thanks, Darby.

 Since textbook-based lessons aren’t always as fulfilling or stimulating as the first day of “Where are you from?” I’m allowed to design my own textbook-free lessons for weekly English Club and Storytelling class. This week, I polled my English Club students (again of widely varying English levels) to find out what they do and don’t want to do in English Club this semester. Here are the results:

#1.  Listen to American music / make American food (tie) 14/16

#2.  Learn about America / watch American movies (tie) 13/16

#3.  Read English-language stories 11/16

#4.  Watch American TV 10/16

#5.  Practice speaking English with other Americans (Maria’s friends) 5/16

This provides me an excuse to bring PB&J supplies to class for a PB&J making seminar later this semester.  We began English Club with a lesson about The Beatles, learning the lyrics to “Help!” and that John not only married a Japanese woman but was later shot dead.  As it turns out, the English word for “gun” is a homonym for the Chinese word for “fuck.” This not-so-excellent discovery was quickly announced to the class, who all thought it was especially funny that a “gun” is what killed John Lennon.

I taught first-grade storytelling this week. We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and practiced our alphabet.  This was the conversation between the first graders, my co-teacher Jackie, and me:

First grader 1 (FG1): “THERE ARE TWO TEACHERS! TODAY THERE ARE TWO TEACHERS!”

All first graders (all FG): “TWO TEACHERS??!!! THERE ARE TWO TEACHERS! TWO TEACHERS!!!” (in English) “HELLOOOO TEACHER! HELLOooOOOoooo!!!!”

FG1: “WHY ARE THERE TWO TEACHERS? TWO TEACHERS??!! WHY??!!!”

Teacher Jackie: “You’re right, today we have two English teachers!”

All FG: “TWO TEACHERS?!!! WHY???!!!! WHY TWO TEACHERS??!!!”

Teacher Jackie: “Because today is special. Today, you get to meet Teacher Maria.”

Teacher Maria: “HELLO! My name is Teacher Maria!”

FG2: “Teacher Maria…....... are you FOREIGN?”

Teacher Maria: “Am I foreign?  I am, you are right!  I am from America.”

All FG: “OOOOOOOHHHH….. AMERICA!?!! AMERICA!!!!! AMERICAAAAAA?!!”

FG1: “........Teacher Maria, did you walk here from America?”

I love first grade.

It’s moon cake time of year again and I’m addicted, fiendin' for the purple ones in particular.

http://www.fulbright.org.tw/dispPageBox/CtEn.aspx?ddsPageID=FOSEENG04&dbid=3852968141