Sunday, December 23, 2007

Didn't hurt yah, just scared yah.

As if working on Christmas Eve and Christmas, IN TAIWAN, weren't bad enough... This morning I got in a minor scooter accident. I wasn't hurt at all, the scooter wasn't hurt, the other people weren't hurt and the other car wasn't hurt.

However, the sheer shock of the event and trying to resolve it all in broken Chinese (ok, only "I don't understaaaand!) and hand gestures made it necessary for me to spend the next 2 hours crying.

Didn't hurt me, just scared the BEJEZZUZES outa me.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Wo de Sheng Re (My birthday!)

This year, my birthday was on a Monday, which meant I was at work. But it was pretty great, really because some of the kids really got into it. I thought my coteacher must have paid the 5th graders because so many of them came up to me and said "JENNYWEI teacher! Happy Birsday!" and... I don't teach them:)



But class 601 definitely took the cake for decorating the blackboard and singing to me. And then fabulous Kate brought the little bitties she teaches in to sing to me too! It was great!



And then afterschool, I went out to coffee with Kate and Angela, and a very good time was had by all.

I was also pretty pleased with myself for displaying enough self-restraint to NOT open birthday presents until my actual birthday. (Christmas presents haven't faired as well, hehe)

Overall, I had a pretty great birthday this year. Last year, I refused to tell anyone at work about my birthday because then they would know I really was THAT young. So this year, it was great to have a public birthday:)

Weekly Mandarin: 21

21st edition: Bu hao ting

I'm a little disappointed to admit that this is the bit of Chinese from this week that will stick with me the most, but I have yet to learn how to let insults roll off me.

I've had a sore throat for the past two weeks, but Christmas carols will wait for no man or woman, so I still had to sing Christmas carols with my kids. Unfortunately, one of my sixth graders found it necessary to shout out "bu hao ting" as I tried to get the class excited about Jingle Bells. That means "that sounds bad."

And, honestly, I would have been a lot more ok about it if she had even bothered to use the English we JUST taught the class: how to say things smell/sound/taste bad or good. Insult + injury

I will never voluntarily teach classroom middle school.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Weekly Mandarin: 20

20th edition: Fangsong (Holy Macaroni, I've spent 20 weeks here.)

Anyone who has ever met me knows I'm tightly wound. I freak out when I don't learn something quickly; I prefer not to risk making a fool of myself; and I really really hate looking like everything isn't going according to plans. Well, here in Taiwan, I'm experiencing double my usual amount of stress and craziness because Taiwan just isn't an according-to-plans kind of place. (Sometimes because there are no plans to start with!)

(Deep breath) So this week, I learned a new word: fangsong, meaning relax.

Special thanks go out to Jeannie's yoga class for using the word in a sentence (Hue fangsong hue hao-- the more relaxed, the better), Jeannie for writing it on my computer desktop, and my wonderful yoga teacher for using it again and again and again when I'm actually relaxed enough to learn!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Picture Update

Hey, finally got some pics up for Super Awesome Halloween. Feel free to check out the unbelievable cuteness under October's posts.

Weekly Mandarin:19

19th edition: Shia Yu

I've actually been working on this word for a while, but it only seems to have stuck recently. It rains a lot here. A lot. A lot. A lot. Like today will be something like the 80th straight day it has rained in Yilan.

But the other day, I had an unforgettable rain experience. Kate and I decided to scooter about 50 minutes away to the National Traditional Arts Center on what started off as a very temperate and cloudy but not rainy day (that counts as "good weather" here). Unfortunately, within 25 minutes on the road, it started to shia yu. And then it started to shia da yu (downpour). We kept scootering, but the rain was coming down in drops the size of M&Ms and felt like hail. We were both soaked when we got to the Center, and I stopped to watch the rain falling for a second, and realized that each rain drop splashed about 8 inches on impact...

Needless to say, we had a great time anyway and it makes a decent story. But, I still will never miss scootering in the shia yu.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

English Easy Go

Unfortunately, the name of the competition isn't correct. But its supposed to showcase English prowess in Yilan County. It was... a time- and effort- consuming challenge that actually wrapped up for the fall about a month ago, but I only just got around to bringing the pictures and footage home.


Me and a pretend prop. My one mission in life is to humiliate myself.


Work. It.


This is why I needed to be in the audience trying to make my students smile. DUDE--it's just a song.

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Moment in the Life of a Halfy

("Halfy" being my preferred affectionate term for being multiracial)

I had a really striking moment the other night on my way back to my apartment: I got into an elevator with 2 Taiwanese people, whose conversation stopped immediately upon noticing that I was a foreigner. We all left the elevator; they turned left and I turned right. As I was walking away, one said to the other (in Chinese) "foreigner." I'm used to that, and it's ok.

Then I walked back to my apartment, and ended up a few steps behind a white couple speaking English who apparently live in our building. I said mumbled a quick thanks to the guy who held the door open for a second so I could pass through. And then he kept talking to his girlfriend like I couldn't understand what they were saying.

I had kind of expected being too white to fit in here. And I already knew I was too Asian to be completely standard at home. But in the span of 3 minutes, that all displayed itself in shocking clarity. It's not bad or racist or a problem, really, it's just noticeable.