Saturday, July 30, 2005

ZOMG! Things!
I'm sure my subject titles are absolutely riveting to everyone. I do my best. Haha.

First, I need to apologise for being so lax with my e-mail. I checked my inbox today to find two e-mails from almost everyone I knew- one saying what was going on, and another saying what was going on, and also, wondering where I was.

I promise I didn't die!

I'm still alive, honest. I think. I'm pretty sure.

I spent the last month working. Not just my normal job, but I was also suckered into a babysitting job.

Now, a babysitting job isn't a big deal. I can suck up almost anything to take care of two kids for two hours a day. I dont' care, honest.

But this was so much more aggravating than that. Turns out, I was hired so that I could tutor them in English while I was there. Surprise! We're not paying you for it, but you get to be a teacher here every morning too! Hee!

After many cases of the children ignoring me or not really caring how to say 'car' in English (Throwing blocks at my head is much more entertaining, apparantly,) and the parents complaining to my boss that they weren't learning anything, and hearing 'Ten little indians' about a million times, I completely lost it and just quit. I'm not giving up on something thats my responisibilty. I'm just not a damned babysitter. Not when I came here to do it.

If I wanted to make next to nothing watching bratty kids, I could have done it in Victoria. If they want their kids to learn English, they could enrol them in our cram school...


My Adult's class was also postponed this month. There were a lot of things that happened to a lot of people (One of my students has a Father who is dying, one just had a baby, and two of them had to go to Taipei for something for all of August.) leaving me with one student, and we all decided it would just make more sense to put it off until later.

My Kindergarten class starts when my older kids go back to school in September. Tomorrow I start teaching an Advanced kids class at the school.

I love my kids. Teaching them has become something I actually look forward to. I love seeing them every day. I spend my days at the school just so I can play with and read to them.

Everything's becoming pretty simple to me lately. I'm accustomed to the culture, I can now use chopsticks, I can sing 'Tian Kong' by Jolin in Chinese, and I've started to like rice. Luke is coming to visit in December, and he and I are going to Thailand for Christmas. Terri is supposed to come too. It makes me pretty excited.

Months have gone by now. I can't believe how long I've been here. Sometimes I wonder what home will be like when I go back. Every time I return to a place I've left, it changes.

I'm excited to see.

If anything, I've become closer to my family since I came here. That really brings me up a lot. Nothing's as good as coming home to an e-mail from someone I care about.

Even if I promptly fall asleep after reading it and then forget in answer for a few days. D: How horrible of me. I'm going to stop doing that, I promise.

I am reading the new Harry Potter book now, so no one need worry whether or not I've forgotten to jump on the bandwagon. I've read all those books now. I'm not sure if thats good or bad. But it really makes me happy..

And yesterday I went to Taichung City to finish renewal of my visa. I had Starbucks. Starbucks tastes awful in Taiwan too, unless you get something that isn't what they call normal coffee.

I had normal coffee. The sandwich was good though. At least I had coffee. It's hard not to start my mornings without coffee here. It's also hard to eat Taiwan's bread. I swear, there is nothing good for you in that bread. At all.

I can't stand the grain bread my Dad eats, but I do eat whole wheat now thanks to Luke. I miss that.

Anyway. I've droned on long enough. I'm going to answer my e-mails and then.. write a lesson plan so tomorrow I can sleep until noon.

I may be lazy, but at least I have it down to a science.

-Chris
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