Did his shoes dirty?

*I haven't had Internet access at the new apartment, so this new blog post should actually be dated July 30. I will write a new one tonight after my classes as well.

I ran a red light tonight…. On purpose. I think that officially makes me a Taiwanese driver.

Although, I actually came to a complete stop and determined that no one was coming for a long time before I drove through.

Maybe my Taiwanese driving skills still need some work after all.

I also finally moved into the Romantic Paris Mansion!

I brought over a couple of bags yesterday, mostly just books and random stuff I don’t need every day. Today I brought over everything else except my fan and bookcase. I think I’m going to grab those tomorrow.

While I still need a few things (i.e. a mattress cushion because mine is hard as a rock, my own wine glass, queen-size sheets) I already feel really comfortable. I’m glad Tess and Katie decided to let me move in.

It’s nice to have something you can call yours. That and I think that once I have my own scooter, my own cell phone and my own apartment, I get to call myself a resident of Taiwan.

I’m still far from Taiwanese, but it’s the next best thing.

As far as school went today, my classes were complete opposites. They were both yellow book — all the kids are in middle school or early high school.

The first class was well behaved and talkative (i.e. they knew when to zip it so I could teach them something and feel productive). We played a lot of games and the kids were super smart so it was fun having to come up with ways to challenge them.

The second class was out of control. The co-teacher warned me before we went in that they were crazy but they always say that. I took it with a grain of salt.

In all honesty, I felt like I had no control over that class at all. It was as if it were my very first time teaching a class, except even worse than how my real first class went.

These kids were bouncing all over the place, out of their chairs and speaking Chinese 90 percent of the time (we try to provide a “whole English environment”). I felt like that mean substitute teacher that every kid hates, but now I understand why the teacher is that way.

It was extremely difficult and I found myself just thinking to myself, “Well, it’s not my class so if nothing gets done it doesn’t really make a difference to me.”

I hate having that mentality though. It makes me feel like a crappy, unprepared teacher. It was certainly two hours I could learn from.