The Other Side of the World

I did it! I officially have another stamp in my passport! At approximately 11:00 P.M. on 12/24/07 (only 30 hours later than originally scheduled) I received my second stamp...the first being from Belize.

Thirty hours, you may ponder. I can say that the journey to Taipei couldn't have been more tumultuous. At 3 A.M. on the 22nd, after only a two-hour nap, I woke up to begin the final packing and preparation for departure at 7:45 A.M. from Austin. Ning's family and I arrived promptly at the airport. We stood in line for 30 minutes as the International Customer Service Rep helped only two customers! Since we were about 15th in line, this was alarming. As luck would have it, there was no pilot for our flight, and it was therefore delayed until 11 A.M. Since there was then a mechanical problem at 11 A.M., our flight was further delayed another 30 minutes or so...just enough so that when we got to the gate in San Fransisco, we saw our jet pulling away! No lie! Since there is only one flight leaving for Taipei every day, we had to stay the night in San Fran. We did see the Golden Gate Bridge and ate some mediocre seafood. Upon prompt arrival at the San Fran airport Sunday, we were told that our flight that was scheduled to depart at 1:10 was delayed for 4 hours.

I am happy to say that all of this misfortune led to a very relaxing experience known as Business Class! We were bumped up, and I am oh so thankful. Wine was free, so needless to say, I slept six out of the thirteen hours. :o) The food was very good for airline food. And I will be sad to travel Economy on the way home!

So I am now in Taipei and have already eaten. Ning and I walked around for about 30 minutes and now we are bonding at the Internet cafe. I will continue to blog every chance I get while I'm here, but I am tired of typing for now. This set-up is not ergonomically sufficient!

Tastes Like Chicken

I can honestly say that I grew up in a fairly rural part of Texas. I raised sheep in FFA; I sustained my first broken wrist when I was bucked off a horse. However, these did not prepare me for what I saw yesterday as I left school. Just to set up the scene a little better, you should know that some of my kids have told me stories about riding burros (donkeys), which I thought were just for keeping the coyotes from attacking cattle (told you I was rural), and fighting cocks (chickens), which I think is illegal. ? Anywho, as I exited the parking lot of the school, I spied a young boy walking down the road with a white something in his hand. As I approached, it took all my might to not stop to take a picture of this young boy, for in his hands was a dead chicken! That's right, a dead chicken! I'm thinking that this fellow was carrying dinner home...no joke. Either that or he was the weaker cock. Regardless, I find it fairly amusing that I blog and and shop in stores like Banana, Ann Taylor, and teach students who wrangle up their own dinner, literally.

Truth Be Known

I haven't blogged in quite some time, but it's not because I am forgetting. So I asked myself this morning if I was really this boring, and truth be known: Yes, I am! :o( I had a wonderfully filling (literally) Thanksgiving, but nothing magnificent. My classroom stinks this morning as it is the first time I've turned on the heater. My principal will observe me this week for which I am totally unprepared...and should be fine tuning lesson plans as opposed to blogging!

Oh - I just remember something AWFUL! I ran over Ning's laptop last weekend, the one that he has so generously entrusted me with on a semi-permanent basis. Although I didn't fully run over it, I did nick it with my tire. I messed up one little LCD thingy and now the whole darn screen is haywire! How, you ask, did I manage this? While loading up, I left my stuff behind my truck as I went inside to get my keys to unlock it...then I forgot about it after bidding my grandparents farewell. It was quite the tragedy.

But on a lighter note, I am going to Taiwan for Christmas! (the 22nd through the 1st) Surely I will have something to blog about then! I'm really excited and nervous...and I've been practicing what I'm going to say when I get there: "What did they say?" "What are they talking about?" :o) I have a feeling Ning is going to get sick and tired of translating for me!

I think this turned out to be an okay blog after all.

If I had only four words...

If I told you to write a sentence using any four words in the English language, what would you say?

I learned quickly as a teacher that my instructions can NEVER be too detailed! Today I gave my 4th graders their vocab quiz, which included the instructions, "Choose four words and use them in a sentence correctly." I, of course, meant vocab words. You probably see where I'm going with this...

The first little boy gets done WAY too fast so I ask to see his paper. Under these instructions he has written the sentence, "I love you mom." Not a single vocab word...nothing to do with a vocab test at all. I couldn't help but to laugh a little out loud at how literally he took my instructions. And I almost think that I should call his mom to inform her that if her little angel only had four words to choose in the entire world, that's what they would be!

Boycotting MySpace

I have never been a huge fan of MySpace, mostly because it's so time consuming on my end to keep it updated or really communicate with friends. So after running in to a long-time friend this weekend and reading some of her blogs, I realized that this is much more suiting to my needs. So while I will not delete MySpace yet, I will gracefully accept that Mandi will remove me from her Favorites after reading this blog.

I have so many people that I want to keep in touch with, but find that there just aren't enough hours in the day (nor do I have the energy most days after work). So I'm really excited about blogging and hope that my friends are able to keep track of me better...who knows, maybe I'll get others to join this band wagon!