On Thanksgiving day, we, along with our local English teachers, were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at Chris Castro's house, the chief of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Kaohsiung.  AIT is essentially the US Embassy here in Taiwan, but they can't call it the US Embassy due to a need for diplomatic relations with China.  But anyways, AIT in Kaohsiung has done a lot to ensure that we are safe and enjoying our time here in Taiwan. 

So, even though I'm in Taiwan, I'm truly thankful that I was still able to enjoy an American Thanksgiving with an extended family.  And I still had turkey, mash potatoes with gravy, and more importantly, PUMPKIN PIE WITH VANILLA ICE CREAM!  I definitely had a food coma, and I still had work the next day!  Let's just say, I was definitely not myself on Friday.  Normally, I can control my yawns, but not the Friday after Thanksgiving.

But I have no regrets because pumpkin pie is pumpkin pie.  To Chris and the AIT Family, I sincerely thank you for providing us with such a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  We had a blast!

For more photos from this event, please click here.

       Pearl of Eternal Love               Pearl of Industrious Mind      Pearl of Delicate Happiness
                 孔雀之珠                                         勇士之珠                                       幸福之珠

Where did the above pearl necklaces come from?  Well...I made them last Sunday, when Joyce, my host sister, and her family took us, Shiela, Kate and I, to Ping Dong (屏東) County and more specifically, Sandimen (三地門).  These necklaces are rather famous now in Taiwan due to a very popular movie, Cape No. 7 (海角七號).  It's a romantic movie, and it miraculously became a big hit.  Its popularity is surprising because there are no famous actors in the movie.  However, as a result of the film's growing popularity, all the actors and actresses are now famous and are seen regularly in Taiwanese commercials.  I even saw the movie two times. 

So, I was very excited last weekend, when we went to the Dragon Fly Beads Art Studio - the factory that provided the movie with the necklaces - and learned how to make them.  The necklaces are actually the handiwork of Taiwan's aboriginal tribes. 

When we got to the factory, we first had lunch at a cafe above the factory.  I had a strawberry waffle, which I haven't had since leaving the States, and let's just say angels were singing.  While eating, we were thinking about which pearl we wanted because each one had a unique meaning.  I ultimately settled on a pearl for eternal love, brave and industrious mind, and delicate happiness.  Then I also made one that means rich in harvest for my co-teacher, Jenny.

At the factory, everyone who wanted to make a necklace was paired up with a teacher from the Paiwan tribe.  Making the pearl takes approximately 10-15 minutes and then 40 minutes to an hour for it to cool down.  For 10-15 minutes, my face was pretty darn close to some rather intense flames.  You have to melt a chunk of glass-like material, shape it, add color pigments to it, flatten the color pigments, and then reshape the whole thing.  Here's a video of my teacher making one of the pearls for me. 

As I mentioned before, we had to wait approximately an hour for the pearls to cool down.  So, while they cooled, we went to an aboriginal village, known as Taiwan Indigenous Peoples Culture Park, where we saw some amazing cultural performances by local aboriginal tribes.  I really liked the intricate and colorful costumes that they wore.  Here's a video of one of the performances that I really enjoyed. 

So, after a day of making necklaces and visiting an aboriginal village, we then went back to Joyce's mother's home and had duck soup, which is supposed to keep us warm since the weather is getting cooler here in Taiwan.  And by cooler, I mean from 90 degrees to 60 degrees.  A lot of my students already have their down jackets out, and oddly enough, I'm considering wearing a sweater because I think I lost all the tolerance I built up going to college in Maine.  Well anyways, after eating some delicious duck soup, we went along with Joyce's family traditions after Sunday dinners: going to the night market, where all the children would play a night market game and bring home a toy prize.  Honestly, the fun never stops when you're with Joyce and her family.  Thank you for bringing us on such a wonderful trip, Joyce!  Kate, Shiela, and I had a great time!

For more photos from this trip, please click here.

The title works because it is true that I've never seen Readers' Theater before coming to Taiwan.  Today was Kaohsiung's Citywide Readers' Theater Competition.  My school did not participate, but a lot of my English Teaching Assistant (ETA) friends' schools were competing.  So, I decided to go watch and boy was I impressed. 

For those of you who don't know what readers' theater is all about, it basically involves a team of approximately eight students reading a uniquely written script of a fairy tale together.  The script can include musical performances with popular American songs that are slightly altered (One team was rocking to "We will rock you" but changed it to "We will make you happy.").  The students can also wear costumes and use small props, however nothing too big or elaborate. 

The competition really allowed me to see some incredibly creative performances, like the one seen below.  The team is from Qi Xian Elementary (七賢國小), where my friend Dani Belko works.  The team probably would win even if they were competing in America, don't you think so?  They sound like Americans or British.  Also, another interesting fact: the student playing the princess is actually a boy. 

Just a quick release of emotions after administering the midterms for my grade 5 and 6 students:

The midterm luckily had an oral portion to help the students earn some points because the English curriculum emphasizes spoken English and not so much on written English, which is why I'm very excited to start a writing program for my sixth graders soon.  But anyways, back to my story.  One question on the oral portion required the student to tell me his or her phone number.  And honestly, the student could've just given me random digits, as long as there were seven digits.  They can even count up until seven for all I care.  But so many were struggling with that question because: a) they don't know their phone number and were stumped, or b) there was a zero in their phone number and didn't know how to say zero and subsequently lost confidence.  What upsets me is that these two possibilities always happened for the students who were already struggling with the language.  From their facial expressions, I see their confidence dwindling, which eventually causes them to simply give up for the rest of the oral portion.  Administering the oral portion of the test was almost like watching a plane crash; you see their confidence level tipping over, more over, and then burn.... 

The same situation happens in English Village, where students practice buying things in a simulated shopping mall environment.  Why do the students who go to cram school and speak pretty good English always get to buy a "hat" or a "blue shirt," but the students who already have an inferiority complex when it comes to learning English get "blue sneakers" or "black sandals"?

So, I ask: why must the students who are struggling to learn English always have it much harder? 

Jenny and I took the students on a field trip this week: the bookstore right across the street from the school.  So, what was the purpose of this trip?  To encourage students to practice buying things in English. 

In Kaohsiung, I believe most elementary schools established a partnership with a local business - either a bakery, 7-11, or, in my case, a bookstore - that allows students to practice buying things in English.  To encourage students from our school to go to the bookstore, Jenny has prepared a prize bucket for students who have received three stamps from the bookstore, which means that they have practiced buying something in English three times.  The prizes are pretty neat stationary products, which I kind of need.  Unfortunately, I am not eligible for any stamps. 

Before going to the bookstore, we ran over the lines a couple of times with the students and explained the meaning of each line.  At the bookstore, Jenny and I became the store clerks, and the students became the customers.  The girls practiced their lines with Jenny, and the boys practiced their lines with me. 

Taking lower graders (Grades 3 and 4) to the bookstore was a little stressful because it was so hard keeping them in line and not breaking anything.  With the upper grades, Jenny and I would have an opportunity to look at the books as well, but with the lower grades, we were running around, catching balls, telling students to only look at the music boxes and not to touch them.  I even had to tell one Grade 3 student to stop looking at the “more mature” magazines. 

Regardless of the chaos and monotony, I still enjoyed my time with the students and working with Jenny.  And I loved hinting to the students the last line of the dialog, which is, "Thanks!  You too," which comes right after the clerk's line: "Thank you!  Have a nice day!"  For "you too," I would point to the student, and then after he says "you," I hold up two fingers.  Most students got the hint. 

Also this week, I had hotpot with one of the teachers at my school and her family, which I discovered meant having dinner with one of my students: Charlie from Grade 3.  I did not expect to have dinner with her and the family because I thought she was just giving me a ride to my Chinese class, but then I discovered this new plan when I met her at her classroom and out pops Charlie.  Therefore, Charlie now knows my secret and knows that I can speak Chinese. 

And you're probably thinking, why is it a secret?  Shouldn't more students know you speak Chinese, and shouldn't you be using it in the classroom?  Well....not exactly.  I act like I don't know Chinese when I'm in school cause it forces students to practice speaking in English with me. Even if they can't really express themselves in English, I still can understand them because they say whatever they want to say in English in Chinese first.  So, I hear it.  And the fact that I understand them creates the impression that their English is great and provides them with confidence.  Honestly, I think confidence is the key to learning a second language.  So, I told Charlie that he cannot tell anyone else, not even his best friend. 

For more photos, please click here.

What's been happening and why haven't I been blogging?

Well, I'm going to take ownership for my lack of discipline when it comes to blogging.  But hey, it's my first time keeping a blog, so cut me some slack. 

A subsequent reason for why haven't I been blogging is also because my life in Kaohsiung has been extremely packed with fun-filled adventures and things to do that makes sitting in front of the computer blogging lame.  And if you know me, you would know that I would much rather be out and about, spending time with people, then sitting in front of an inanimate object (aka. my computer), writing posts. 

I know.  I know.  A blog is a good way to keep people updated on my life, so no worries, I will make a greater effort to blog. 

Now, really.....what's been happening in Taiwan?

A lot.  Teaching takes up a lot of my time, since that's what I came here to do.  But I'm going to talk about this later on because there's so much to talk about, and I honestly would not know where to start.  So, I'm just going to give you some quick highlights on on the month of October. 

1) Going to an amazing Double Ten Reception in Taipei

October 10th is Taiwan's National Day (aka. the equivalent of July 4th in America), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited all the Fulbrighters to Taipei to attend an evening reception.  It was NICE....!!!  I mean I was sweating like a pig in my new suit that I bought for the event (which I got a really good price for, by the way), but the food made it all worthwhile.  It was essentially an outdoor buffet, and all the top restaurants in Taiwan had stations there.  Also, the President of Taiwan and the first lady were there.  I SAW them.  You can see pictures of this amazing night in my photo albums.

2) HALLOWEEN OLYMPICS!!!

I don't think I ever had this much fun celebrating Halloween.  In early October, my co-teacher, Jenny, asked me if I had any ideas for what the students could do for Halloween, and that's how Halloween Olympics came about.  We initially had the students compete in three events - Mummy-wrapping (an idea from my roommate, Kate), Doughnut on a string (which I proposed, but didn't think that it would've been possible - boy was I wrong), and drawing the scariest pumpkin.  However, due to time constraints, we took out the last event.  Also, every class had two periods of Halloween: one period to learn Halloween vocabulary and one period to do Halloween Olympics.  

Jenny and I and the kids had tons of fun.  It was extremely exhausting for us, but seeing the kids laughter and excitement makes it all worthwhile.  We saw some mummies that were gangsta and some sweet gender role reversals (the girls kicked butt in doughnut on a string and were not afraid to get their faces covered in sugar at all). 

Mummy Wrapping
(Some groups, like this one, were strategic.)

Doughnut on a String

Zuo Ying, the school that I teach at, really went all out for Halloween.  Not only did they rearrange the class schedules so every class had two periods of English, but on Friday, October 31st, they even hired a magician, who is the brother of a teacher at the school.  He'a truly a cool dude.  I saw Quantum of Solace with him and he taught me a magic trick that I think I can pull off.  You can see pictures of Halloween in my photo album.

It's been two weeks since Halloween, but I'm glad that kids still remember their Halloween vocabulary and certainly did not forgot the phrase, trick-or-treat, because they also got candy too.  With Christmas around the corner, I don't know if I can think of activities that will top Halloween. 

3) My parents visited me in Taiwan!

(My mom and dad eating at one of my favorite hot pot places in Kaohsiung.)

Also during Halloween, my parents came to visit me.  It was great having dinner with them and showing them my lifestyle in Taiwan.  My dad keeps on saying that I look like a Taiwanese man now, but I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing.  Since I still had to teach, my parents found alternative means of occupying their time, like going on tours to Kenting and Taipei.  I'm jealous that they got to go to Kenting.  It's a really beautiful beach area, and it's also where Cape No. 7 (an amazing Taiwanese movie) was shot.  But no worries, I will be going there in January for a mid-year conference.  My parents stayed in Taiwan for approximately a week and a half, and I think they had fun.  My school was so nice.  My principal treated my parents and I to a lovely dinner at a five star hotel and allowed me to take two days off so I can spend more time with my parents and go with them to the airport when they left. 

(Wow...I'm like a kiwi that day.  I mean my shirt totally screams kiwi, and I'm kinda brownish.  I mean, people in Taiwan all think I'm Singaporean.)

Just thought I might share this method of unwinding with you all.  So, Kate and I have been doing this for a while, but after a long day of orientation or work, we would typically come home, sit in front of the TV, eat a kiwi, and watch a horribly bad movie on the Hollywood Channel.  It seems simple, but it works. 

Kate and I got this idea from watching a Taiwanese kiwi commercial sometime in early September.  It basically depicts a girl riding gleefully on a bike with a kiwi, and then the commercial would immediately cut to her eating the kiwi. 

Kiwis never appeared so appealing to me than it did in this commercial.  I had never seen a kiwi being eaten like this before.  The kiwi was cut in half, and she would use a spoon to spoon the fruit out.  Normally, I would peel the skin and then cut the kiwi into slices.  Kate and I were both starring at the commercial in awe , and we both thought that we needed to go buy a kiwi the very next day.  We did, and then turned on the TV, and there was “Derailed” with Jennifer Anniston and Clive Owens.  Needless to say, it wasn't a very good movie.  So, Kate and I now have our “Horribly Bad Kiwi Movie Nights.”  Recently, however, we've been having “Horribly Bad Pomolo Movie Nights” because this past Sunday (September 14) was Moon Festival. 

Moon Festival is a Chinese holiday when the family comes together and appreciates the moon.  The reason for appreciating the moon is because, according to an ancient legend, a beautiful goddess  lives there.  However, Niel Armstrong crushed this legend.  It was very funny when Jenny asked the students what they thought of when they thought of the moon festival, and they replied, “Niel Armstrong!”  Nevertheless, people continue to celebrate this holiday.  Unfortunately, the moon was not visible this weekend due to a typhoon. 

Also, around the time of this holiday, people give each other pomolos and moon cakes, so all of us have been getting a lot of moon cakes and pomolos.  The Bureau of Education sent us a big box of moon cakes – 12 individual boxes and each box had 8 moon cakes, so that makes a grand total of 96 moon cakes.  Also, our landlord sent us a box of pomolos, which contains approximately 30.  So from now on, we will be eating moon cakes for breakfast and pomolos after dinner. 

(Moon cakes - these are the smaller ones)

(The box of pomolos from our landlord)

(What I had for breakfast on the first day of work - dumplings.  I document everything...just kidding.)

I learned a lot about the lifestyle of a teacher after experiencing it for a week.  My major lesson for the week was to sleep earlier - way earlier.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I need to wake up at 5:45 in order to get to my school on time because it takes approximately an hour and 15 minutes to get to my school.  Hence, my habit of sleeping at midnight must change.  I'm going to make sure I hit the sack by 10 pm during those nights.  For the first week, my body was still used to sleeping at midnight (which is already pretty early for me.  Those who know me in college would be gasping.).  But I must confront reality and realize that my body just does not function the way it used to.  I'm getting old, and that means I will need my eight hours every night.  Man...whatever happened to rolling out of bed and taking a five minute walk to get to class.  I'm nostalgic for college. 

However, I should not really be complaining because the students need to show up early to school as well.  All the students in the school work together to clean up the school.  I think American schools should adapt this practice.  it creates a much more communal learning environment. 

Speaking of the students, they are SO adorable and precious.  None of them thought I was from America because I look just like them.  But they will eventually learn that America is a very diverse country and there are people of different race and ethnic backgrounds.  Also, they're very interested in my love life - ironically, the lower grade levels were less shy about asking whether I had a girl friend.  This phenomenon substantiates how kids are no longer drinking organic milk these days.  

For the first week, I had a question and answer session with all the classes in each grade level and observed for a majority of the time.  I really got a sense of how every class operates and now know which classes are more introverted and extroverted and how Jenny teaches and disciplines the students.   

(Being broadcasted and introduced to the whole school on Friday.)

The most memorable event this week was doing my introduction on TV.  I work with grades three through six because students in Koahsiung do not start learned English until grade three.  Therefore, in order to make sure students in grade one and two know who I am, the principal decided to broadcast me to the entire school this past Friday.  It was such a cool experience.  This will also be the way Brother Mango will run.  I will record myself in front of the camera, and then the episode will be broadcasted to the entire school. 

All in all, the first week of work was exhausting, but I had a great time.  I truly love my school and the students.  I'm glad that they're all so willing to speak with me despite their restricted vocabulary and sentence patterns.  I have a feeling that I will be an expert in playing charades by the end of this year.   

Zuo Ying Elementary school, the school that I am working at for this year.

Riding the High Speed Railway to Taipei from Kaohsiung

This is Little Richard, Amanda's son.  He comes over and plays "52 card pick up" with me. 

What have I been doing since getting matched up with a Local English teacher (LET) and being placed in a school? 

1) Going to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in Kaohsiung

The AIT is essentially the US Embassy in Taiwan, and even though they perform essentially all the same responsibilities and serve the same purpose of a US Embassy, it can't be called an Embassy due to a need for diplomatic relations with mainland China.  They even need to change the titles of positions.  So, the head of AIT is not the ambassador but the director.  The AIT invited us for a briefing in which we learned that they will always be there to support us, which is very comforting.  As a boy, I was also advised to be careful when hitting on a girl because she might have a very confrontational boyfriend, and AIT does not want to see me get beaten up as a result of being a flirtatious American.

2) Preparing for English Village with other ETAs

This is the first year all the Grade 5 students in Kaohsiung will have an opportunity to come to one of three English Village.  Many schools have a "mini" English Village, but currently, only three schools have a fully established village - San Min, Fu Dong and Ling Zhou Elementary School.  So, we had to figure out how English Village was going to run, and we ultimately decided on having four stations in order to give students more opportunities to interact with us, "the foreign teachers."  There are twelve ETAs, so four ETAs worked together to develop the stations for the three English Villages.  During the course of three long days, we developed three fun activities to stall a majority of the students, while we chatted with one group of students.  We had three full days of debating what would be enjoyable and educational for fifth graders, creating work sheets, and laminating - a whole lotta laminating.  Then, before leaving for Taipei, we had a test run of the English Villages because they were going to start immediately the week we return from our trip. 

(We were finally able to sleep peacefully after our test run of English Village.  Just kidding. I don't even know when this picture was taken.  But isn't this a cute napping formation?  I don't think Shiela and Kate knew they napped the same way before this pic.)

3) Learning how to get to my school & Meeting the people in my school

I'm glad that after orientation, Jenny, my LET, decided to show me how to get to my school by public transportation because if she didn't, I would have missed my first day of work completely.  Currently, getting to my school requires a long traveling time, which is why I really want to get a scooter.  It took us a little over an hour, but by scooter, it would only be 25 minutes.  So, let's see if I will pass the scooter licensing test.  At the school, I met a lot of the administrative staff, who are all VERY warm and friendly.  One of the teachers, Mr. Xie, even took us on a scavenger hunt in his car to find the nearest bus line for me because they were all appaled that I had to travel an hour to get to work.  Honestly, after college, I find it a little disorienting having to travel so far.  I mean, what happened to rolling out of bed and walking like 5 minutes to get to class.  

(The School's Principal and me.  She's extremely kind and really wants to make my time in Zuo YIng Elementary School enjoyable.  She really wants to keep my hydrated, it seems like.  The first time I met her, she gave me this really cute cup with a cover that has two mouse ears.  Then just recently, she gave me a nalgene.)

So, what will I be doing at Zuo Ying as a foreign English teacher?  I will be co-teaching with Jenny grades 3 through 6, running an English workshop for admin. staff and teachers, working on the school's mini English Village, and a rather exciting project.  I'm very excited about creating a five minute children's television show in which I will become Mr. Mango (芒果先生)!  But I learned from Chris that I should probably be Brother Mango (芒果哥哥) instead of Mr. Mango because Brother Mango sounds more personable.  The show will teach all the kids in the school a simple exchange and will be aired every Monday during lunch time.  I might even get to dress up like a mango.  Honestly, I'm was apprehensive at first but now, I'm very excited at the thought of personifying my favorite fruit.  I guess my day of becoming a You Tube Internet Star has finally come.  FYI, the reason why I'm a mango and not any other fruit is because the school has a row of mango trees, and when students graduate, they go and pick mangoes.  It's a tradition.

(This picture was taken during our school visits of all the possible schools we could be teaching at.  But this is Zuo Ying's mini Engish Village.)

4) Going to Taipei for a conference

(A board with all the Fulbrighters' signatures that became complete the night of the reception.  It's like the signing the red cloth at a Chinese wedding.)

After a week of English Village and having meetings with our school, we took the high speed railway to Taipei for a two day conference.  We arrived Thursday night, and the conference was on Friday and Saturday.  We had to head back to Kaohsiung on Sunday because we started work on Monday, but we were given the liberty of leaving Taipei whenever we wanted to on Sunday.  We just had to check out of the hotel by 11. 

At the conference, we met all the Fulbrighters who will be in Taiwan from 2008-2009.  There are many types of Fulbright Fellows - researchers, guest lecturers, actual professors who will be teaching in Taiwan universities, and the Yi Lan (northern Taiwan) ETAs.  Dr. Wu, the director of the Fulbright Foundationin Taiwan (a.k.a. Foundation for Scholarly Exchange), planned many presentations and invited people from the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) in Taipei to come speak with us, it was more or less an opportunity to mingle with the other Fulbrighters and get their information.  So, if they ever come to Kaohsiung, they can stay at our place, and if we ever find ourselves in their neck of the woods, we can look them up.  There was also a fancy reception on Friday night in which I became a man who did not need an introduction because when the director of AIT gave his welcome speech to all the Taiwan Fulbrighters, he gave me a shout out and said that I looked very young.  So, for the rest of the night, I became that "young man who Bob Wang talked about" and my age became questionable for the remainder of the evening.

But besides going to the conference, I was able to go sightseeing thanks to Chris and Shana's dad.  On Friday night, Chris, Kate, Maya, and I went to Taipei 101 and Shilin (士林) Night Market.  Taipei 101 is the second tallest building in the world, and we went to the top floor, the observatory.  Taiwan looks beautiful at night.  But unfortunately, the window ruined my pictures.  Then, we went to Shilin, where I bought a really neat outfit, pork jerky, and lots of drinks.  First, papaya milk, and then passion fruit juice.  I really had to go to the bathroom when we went back to the hotel.  But Kate had to go even more cause the lady gave her a complimentary passion fruit juice.

On Saturday, we were all exhausted, and after having a neat buffet at the Howard Skyline Restaurant, which is located on the top of another tall building (that's the picture), we all simply went back to the hotel and slept.  The hotel we stayed at was amazing.  We all had singles, and every room was different.  Some rooms had flat screen TVs and a full size jacuzzi.  My room only had a normal shower and tv, but I was still grateful because for the first time in a while, I had a hot shower.  My shower in my apartment has hot water, but I need to buy a new shower head because the current shower head cannot create enough pressure to get the hot water going.  However, I'm too cheap and lazy.  So, until the "winter" (when the temperature will still be 50s or 60s) comes, I'm quite satisfied taking cold showers. 

After a good night's rest, Shiela, Shana, and I had a phenomenal Sunday tour of Taipei that was given by Shana's dad.  In his amazingly cool car (the car could call someone on the phone for you), he took us to Taipei 101 to see it in the morning, a really nice buffet that had dim sum and a type of bean that I love (Shana's dad, if you're reading this post, can you please tell me the name of those beans again?), Shana's home, and the National Palace museum.  It was mad sunny at the National Palace Museum, and Shana now has all of worried about the UV rating in Taiwan and getting skin cancer.  Apparently, the UV rating in Taiwan is seven and in the US, it's zero.  So, I'm seriously contemplating buying a parasol to protect myself from UV rays.  I'm also advised to not go out in the sunlight between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm.  So, Shiela, Shana, and I did not leave Taipei until 4:30, and we got back to Kaohsiung around 6:30.  The high speed railway is seriously amazing - great leg room and very clean and fast. 

(The three of us at the National Palace Museum trying to hover under Shana's parasol.)

I think I'm finished detailing what happened since my placement at Zuo Ying Elementary School and my first full week of work (which I will talk about in my next post).  So, I apologize for falling off the face of the planet, and I will try not to do it again.  Take care everyone. 

First off, I apologize for not posting in such a long time, but it has been really hectic.  This blog is long overdued and has been saved as a draft for mad long.  So, all this stuff happened two weeks ago. 

Orientation is over.  That's me eating an amazing mixed fruit ice at a lovely desert place right across from my apartment, Ice Art.  It's basically a mountain of mangoes, strawberries, and kiwi, topped off with a scoop of mango ice cream.  I was in heaven.  And it was costly, but Shana convinced me to get it because yesterday officially marks the end of orientation.  So, what happened the last couple of days and when will I be in the classroom teaching?  I don't start teaching until September 8th, after I come back from Taipei. 

IN THIS BLOG

1) "Speed dating" with Local English Teachers (LETs)

2) Hearing our placements for the year

3) Going to KTV (Karaoke) with LETs

"SPEED DATING"

I'm glad that Fulbright took so much into consideration in terms of where I will be placed and who will be my co-teacher for the year.  During orientation, we spent a week with 12 local English teachers (LETs) in Kaohsiung, and we learned all about co-teaching models and English learning games with them.  We also got an opportunity to visit their schools.  Then, on the Monday of the last week of orientation, we had a "speed dating" session with the LETs.  "Speed dating" entailed spending ten minutes with each LET, and when the bell rung, the ETAs, us, would rotate.  So, it was 2 hours of nonstop talking.  Luckily, Chris, one of the Fulbright coordinators, was around to pour us tea whenever our cups were empty.  After "speed dating," the ETAs and LETs would separate and submit preference forms to our two Fulbright coordinators, Chris & Amanda, and Fulbright adviser, Phillip.  Then, our fate for the rest of the year rested in the hands of these three individuals. 

"AND THE ACADEMY AWARD GOES TO..."

After submitting our preference forms, we all went home and came back to San Min Elementary School the next day to hear the results of the pairing.  The day the results were announced, I think the room's atmosphere resembled that of the Academy Awards.  I think everyone  was on the edge of their seats - not because of nervousness, but because of excitement. 

So, Phillip was the announcer.  He posted the statistics for what's the percentage that got their top 3, top 5, and top 7.  They numbers looked really good.  But anyways, I bet you all are wondering who the beautiful lady standing next to me in the photo.  She's Jenny!  And she will be my co-teacher for the year.  We were both extremely lucky to get our top choice.  She's extremely nice and warm.  She also always has a smile on her face.  So, I think (more like know) that our personalities will be compatible. 

KTV

After hearing our placements, we went to lunch and KTV with our teachers.  And I was able to ride a scooter for the very first time; it was SOOO MUCH FUN.  At first it was scary, and I held on tightly to Jenny.  But on my second trip, I was just leaning back and enjoying the breeze.  Riding on a scooter makes me happy (even just thinking about it).  KTV was a lot of fun.  Jenny is quite a singer; I, on the other hand, am not.  We sang a Chinese song together.