Am I a Grown-up Yet?

All signs point to "yes." Aside from marriage and children, I am now as grown-up as one could be. I am nearing the closing date on my very first home! It was quite a simple, suprisingly simple search. I knew that I could not afford the suburbs yet, and quite frankly, since I'm kid-free, there's really no reason for me to be a suburbian.

My mother, on the other hand, has a major issue with me moving into WACO! I understand the complex about WACO, and am not the biggest fan myself. I mean, when you think about all the social opportunities in Dallas, Austin, etc., Waco is a sad little place.

That being said, I can't express how much I appreciate being near my family. Since I am now teaching, there really aren't any financial advantages to living in a big city. So I am sadly accepting my role as a Wacoan, but proudly and excitedly emerging as a bona fide adult!

Although my house isn't as big as what I was in the market for, I absolutely fell in love with it as soon as I walked in. The feature that reeled me in: this huge window in the front. This will be my view from the living room. The opposite wall also has three not-quite-as-big windows, so the house just lights up.

Other features I loved were the remodeled kithchen and refinished original hardwood floors. Once I have closed, I will post a picture of me pulling out that "For Sale" sign! I absolutely cannot wait!

One Student at a Time

One of my 4th graders, I joke, is as tall as me and probably has 20 lbs on me! He has failed 3rd grade once and 4th grade once, which explains his size and cynical attitude. I have, as many of the teachers have, made an effort to ignite an interest in being successful. He enjoys drawing and comics, so while I was in Taiwan, I bought a Chinese comic book with this student in mind. I make copies of the pages for him to write stories about what he thinks is going on or white out the Chinese characters for him to write in his own dialogue.

On Tuesday, after class I sat down at my desk and saw a small note that read "Thank you. You have been nice to me." Under the note was a very cute black and silver bracelet. My heart sank and a smile crept upon my face. This is exactly why I decided to become a teacher! Unfortunately, immediately after that, I was out sick with the flu and unable to see how I could further nurture this child. But I can't wait to get back to school tomorrow and hopefully ignite the self-belief in another child.

On a funny note, I wonder if the bracelet was legitimately purchased, i.e. a teacher walking down the hall is going to say to me, "I lost a bracelet just like that about a week ago!" :o)

Better Late Than Never

I will try to show you some of the highlights of my trip on this blog...keep in mind that I have posted only about 10 out of 150 pics!We got bumped up to Business Class on our way to Taipei! It was so luxurious compared to coach. I slept 6 of the 13 hours thanks to a fully reclining seat and free wine!When we visited Ning's uncle in Taichung (don't know if that's spelled correctly), his uncle put us up in the nicest hotel there. We were far from roughing it. In addition to the personalized welcome on the TV when we turned it on, we had surround sound, DVD player, cell phone to which room was forwarded, bath/shower with view out the window, laser printer in the room, and other thoughtful amenities! This was the view of Taichung from our room on the 36th floor of Hotel 1.
I wish that I had the video of this one-man band. I was very impressed, but after an hour or so of shopping in that market, I became less appreciative of his artistic ability. I didn't feel bad though because true artists are only appreciated after they are dead.
In this concrete pool were tons of shrimp. We had tiny bait and spent several hours shrimping. Although my skills would not have aided Bubba Gump Shrimp, I was very proud of the three that I caught. I'm certain I caught the biggest shrimp of all that night...sorry you can't see the little fella better. He wouldn't hold still.

This is a night market we visited in the mountain so there was a lot of climbing to visit the various stores, many of which were closed due to the rain that night.
When we took a break from climbing, Ning's cousin served us tea very traditionally. I enjoyed the simplicity of entertainment while I was there. We would sit and play card games and other things. No kids sitting at the dinner table playing with their iPod or Nintendo DS. Ning's uncle took us into the mountains to an "English" castle. It was much like a park...many families...beautiful view.

While in Taichung (sorry these pics aren't in order) I got to go to Maggie's school (the cousin on the left). They were having a sort of carnival/fund raiser. I played games with the kids. Their English was excellent. I even got to dump water on two of Maggie's classmates. I wish I had that video too!

Ning and I with four of his cousins.

Karaoke is very different when it's Asian style. We sat in a room only with our friends and got to pick the songs from a computer. It was very fancy. I rapped all the words to TLC's "Waterfalls." I was so thankful that I had spent hours with my nose in the cassette jacket learning the words in 1994!

We watched fireworks explode off the 101 - the tallest building in the WORLD! It was impressive.


I had a very sweet farewell breakfast the morning I left. Ning's grandma is the one to the farthest right.

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!