Would you rather I call you or teach these kids?

Apparently I've been uber stressed out.

I'm sure it was the demo I had on Saturday, which is finally over.

I think someone from head office spoke to me everyday this week about this demo and I even had the hiring manager leave a message for me to call her while I was in the class that I have right before the demo.

Um, would you rather I call you or teach these kids?

I got through it though.

Although it still went super fast (I ended up with the same number of kids as my other News Camp demo) we managed to drag it out a little bit. I had to do give comments about each student to the parents. Although, I didn't realize I was going to have to do that in front of everyone.

Naturally I thought I would speak to each student and his or her parents one-on-one.

I tried to do the usual give a compliment and an area to work on.

A couple of the parents were actually really nice. One mom even told me that her son called her and asked her not to come because he was so embarrassed so she was just happy I managed to get him to speak in front of everyone.

After the demo I played scattergories with the kids using different sections of a newspaper as the categories (i.e. national, international, entertainment, sports). After watching that the parents commented to Anita that they think the kids really did actually learn a lot.

After all my classes I came home starving. The only thing I had eaten all day was an apple at 8 a.m. By the time I had returned to my apartment it was almost 7 p.m. Of course, despite my hunger, I managed to eat the tiniest bit of pasta and then I just wasn't hungry anymore.

The exhaustion was setting in.

I watched The Hangover and passed out waking up about an hour later when one of my roommates came home.

I still didn't end up going to sleep for the night until about 1 a.m. I find that a bit disappointing.

I was supposed to go to Yangmingshan to go hiking today but I opted to stay home to rest and read. I realized how stressed out I had been when I woke up and realized my body was as stiff as can be from clinching my muscles all night in my sleep. Obviously I wasn't well rested and definitely not rested enough to climb a mountain in this heat and humidity.

I probably would have been awake enough once I got to the mountain since it would have taken a couple of hours to get there, but I was just not in the mood to travel.

Instead I slept and read on and off all day until I decided I was hungry enough to make myself finally eat something besides the bowl of cereal I ate this morning while I contemplated whether or not to take the hike.

I went to Debbie's (the little American-ish diner nearby) and then Starbucks for some coffee. I still only ate half of my tuna melt and a couple of french fries.

My appetite has been strangely small lately. I honestly have no idea why.

I'm going to force myself to resume yoga tomorrow. I bought a ribbon and a couple of other accessories to make it a better workout. Hopefully I can get into a routine.

I'm also debating a hike up Tiger Head mountain a couple of times a week. It's close and a relatively easy hike (according to everyone else at least). I think would be nice to do in the morning time.

Besides, if I'm going to be hiking in the Chocolate Hills in The Philippines in a month I had better get in shape!

Teacher, Do you speak Chinese?

So today started out really crappy and has slowly gotten better.

My alarm clock didn't go off and considering I've still been sleeping late every day, that sucked. I didn't wake up until almost 10 a.m. and I had to be at my school at 10:50. I just barely made it and I didn't get any breakfast. :(

My co-teacher kind of made me a little mad in that class because I was about to teach New Century and she straight up told me no and to do something else. Something I wasn't prepared to teach because I had prepared for New Century.

I do most things off the cuff anyway so it wasn't a disaster, but it really threw me off. Mostly, I think, because it's unusual for the co-teachers to do something like that.

After class she was saying something about how she had already taught New Century and that's why. She kind of apologized and then essentially told me I'm responsible for these other three books and that's it. She also basically told me how to teach the class. She's been with them a lot longer than I have, but none of them like to talk and I don't necessarily think that's my fault.

Then I had 20 minutes to get to another school to teach the second week of my second News Camp. I made it, but only barely. I tried to go in with a good attitude. I asked all the kids how they were doing and no one responded. Then I asked what they did this week, no one responded. Then I started talking about the brain because that's what our article for the day was.

Me: OK, what does you brain do?
.......................................................
Me: You use it to think right? You use it to make your body move. You use it for everything!
......................................................
Me: OK, are you guys understanding me? Do you know what 'brain' is?
.......................................................
Me: Seriously guys, say something. At least say yes or no when I ask if you understand.

I had a smile on my face the whole time but none of them would speak. I would probably hate my parents for sending me to a freaking English camp on Saturday afternoon during the summer too, but I was trying SO HARD.

I essentially had a meltdown. I wanted to cry because the day was going to badly already and I felt defeated. Instead of crying I went and found a secretary to speak Chinese to the kids and ask them if they understood me and tell them that if they don't they need to at least tell me that.

She did, things were a little better. Then 20 minutes later the school director came in and talked to them. She actually sent me out of the room. I went upstairs to vent.

THEN Anita, the hiring administrator, called and told me that Asian children think it's rude to tell their teachers when they don't understand and that's why they didn't tell me. I think that was a load of crap though. They tell me when they don't understand me any other time. In fact, last week these kids would tell me.

I decided that maybe I started off on the wrong foot. These kids are used to playing games all through their English classes. That's the general environment around here: English is fun!

We played 20 questions for the next 45 minutes.

That actually helped quite a bit. After our regular break in the middle of class we slugged through the article. Even this article — which I found on an ESL Web site — was still difficult for them. We spent so long just going through vocabulary.

I have pretty much decided that I'm going to spend the rest of the camps playing word games to build up the kids vocabulary and just doing writing exercises. Reading the news is too hard and they all seemed to actually have fun when I gave them a bunch of funny details for them to write a fake story about.

I think that's as close to news as we're going to get.

In my last class today I had three more new students. That's six new students in two weeks! The class is up to 14 kids now, which is fine. I really don't want to have any more than that though. Wow classes are already pretty hard and our time is already limited. I only see them for an hour and a half each week.

Either way, we had a lot of fun in that class. The boys that sit in the back were asking Anna if I understood or speak any Chinese.

Anna: Well, why don't you ask her!
David: Um, Teacher Jimmie... Do you... speak Chinese?
Me: Ummm, a little? I only started learning a few weeks ago.
Tall Kevin: What can you say?
Me: Wo shi Meiguoren. Wo jiao Jimmie.
Anna: Can you order anything?
Me: Oh! I can order green tea!
David: Say it!
Me: Wo yao yiga da bei lu cha.

All the kids in my class oohed and aahed and laughed.

David: Say it again! That's so cool!

Apparently I was actually saying everything correctly. I think the kids think it's cool simply for the fact that they know more Chinese than me and I know more English than them. We are all in the learning process and that's a good thing. I think it makes them less self-conscious about not knowing everything.

But the BEST thing to happen today was that I got a care package in the mail! Flannery sent me a box full of Texas.

There is a book about Texas; Texas postcards; a Texas Longhorns pennant; Texas Longhorns confetti; Mac 'n' Cheese from HEB; a pen with the top shaped like Texas!

She also made me this great little bulletin board. The background has all of these cars piled on top of each other.


Can you tell that I love Texas? I really miss it sometimes.

Why would you buy a shirt that doesn't make sense?

Today was such a long day.

I had seven hours of classes with only a 30 minute break. I don't understand how these kids go to school all day like this. I'm exhausted!

My news camp went a little better today thanks to Breaking News English. They actually have full lesson plans for ESL classes that revolve around a news story.

We had a fairly thoughtful discussion and even one of the girls who never talks in class actually got in on the conversation. Her brother was still non-participative. Oh well, you can't win them all I guess.

I think next week we're going to have to start working on demo stuff though.

I had two yellow book classes tonight. The second one is the class that the administration has been freaking out about. Apparently, the kids and the parents didn't like the past teachers' styles. They wanted someone that was more fun? Warmer? I don't know. I actually got mixed information on what it is the parents want to change. That's unhelpful.

We had a lot of fun in that class today though. We played a lot of games but still got everything we needed to done. I feel like they probably liked me. It would be nice to have another regular class.

After class I walked from school to the night market. It's kind of a far walk — about 25 minutes — but it felt pretty nice out. Ya know, considering I'm in Taiwan.

On the way, I stopped at this street vendor to look at the shirts. Taiwanese fashion is so... hilarious. I bought this long shirt (almost like a dress). It has big silver letters that look like they belong on a sign at a record store and it says "Time 2 Make 2 Street Burn." It almost makes sense, but it falls just short.

I know it sounds ridiculous: "Why would you buy a shirt when you know the words on it don't make sense?"

Because of the Taiwan-fab party at the Romantic Paris Mansion tomorrow night!

The other awesome thing that happened today: Meghan bought her plane ticket to Taiwan today! Meghan is my roommate from college and she is one of my best friends. I convinced her to blow tons of money on coming to Taiwan in October and we're going to The Philippines together.

Vacation is now certain!

What is Obama's last name?

Yep, my co-teacher yesterday asked me what Obama's last name is. The class had learned a QA during her solo-class with them that asked "Who is the president of _________." We always fill in the ROC and the USA.

I informed her, and all of my kids, that he is President Barack Obama and that "Obama" is in fact his last name. That whole first name/last name thing really screws people up sometimes.

My classes went pretty well yesterday. I actually kind of like teaching at Dar-Nan. It's a simpler school, but that's OK. I like that, as far as my regular classes though, I have a pretty good spread. I'm at two schools that are in areas with less money than most and then I'm at two schools where most of the kids' parents are kind of loaded compared to the average.

Actually, I'm at either Dar-Nan or Dar-Chu four out of six days this week.

Also, it's fun to just walk around out there. There is a little market right down the street from both Dar-Nan and Dar-Chu. I love to just walk around and look at everything. I can't wait until the day when I can actually stop and talk to the people who have stands at the market. Then I can really learn more about what's going on there.

Maybe I'll take some pictures out at the market at Dar-Chu today.

I think I have a few more ideas for my news camp. Also Anita asked me if I would like to take another news camp that might be opening up on Saturdays. That will really fill up my Saturday schedule, but that's OK. I need the money, not to mention it sucks having that big four-hour gap in the middle of my day.

I think if they put it during that time then I'll say yes. I don't want it to be after my 6 p.m. class though. That would make for a super long and annoying day.

Plan for today: Yoga, lesson plans, Dar-Chu to sub two of Megan's classes since she's in Thailand (and I'm obviously super jealous), then making up some materials for that news camp so that hopefully this Friday goes better.