Backblog: Preface

Backblog is what I think happens to me when I have a good story, but I forget to write about it. And now that I'm getting ready to close up my blog, I'm getting ready to post the stories, out of context. I'm backblogged.

Weekly Mandarin:47

47th edition: Coo

Emotional woman + last day of classes with very small, very cute people = coo

Good-bye dinners with people who have taken care of me all year = coo

It is, unbelievably, that time of year. My little first graders are going to grow up into 2nd graders. My fourth graders, who have come SO far in English class this year, are going to be 5th graders, which are practically graduating 6th graders.... But I won't be here to see it. And despite my frustration with our school and program administration, I love many of my fellow teachers and the kids we teach.

"Coo" means "cry," something that is essentially unavoidable during transitions in my life.

Every first grader was given a little heart-shaped sticky note. Which they then took turns trying to stick to me. It was difficult to communicate to them "No, sticking it to my skin will not work. I am simply perspiring too much." They did, however, cover the front and back of my shirt, part of my capris, and even one on my glasses.

One of the first grade homeroom teachers made me a handmade book with photos from teaching her class all year. And she collected all the students' notes into a little portfolio. When I started looking at these, one of the first graders turned to my co-teacher, who was taking pictures. He said "She's going to cry. 3...2...1.... she's crying." Smart boy, learning to read women that early in life.

I don't pick favorites. Really. But if I did... Ken (on my right shoulder) would be one of them. He spent the entire day of Dragonboating with our team. And he was the little guy who ran along the bank of the river with our flag while we were racing.

I'm tearing up just thinking about these kids.

Weekly Mandarin: 46

46th edition: Bing Chee Ling

I can't believe it has taken me this long to admit it.... I have an obsession with Taiwanese ice cream. While my friend was visiting Taiwan this past week, I realized that the things I really felt that I had to feed her were the ice creams (or "bing chee ling).

Properly, the foods are more like "ices", since they don't usually include milk, but "ices" to me are shaved, unflavored ices with drippy syrup poured over them. (Think Jersey Shore in summer time "ices") These bing chee ling are closer to sorbets, but really unlike anything I've had before.

(Pictures to come-- sorry for the loser post)

Weekly Mandarin: 45

45th edition: Lei

They promised us that the second semester of our program would feel about 6 seconds long. That was inaccurate, but I've officially been in a time warp for the last month.

I successfully adjusted my sleeping schedule to wake up everyday between 5:30 and 6:30 so that I could dragonboat practice. Plus, the dragonboating itself. And we're in final assessment period for our students. My Chinese teachers have a fresh dedication to getting me through as much of the textbook as humanly possible.

So suddenly May is over, June is half over, and woah, I have been crazy busy. Now I'm exhausted-- lei. This term can also be put into one of my favorite phrases "My (tiredness/hunger/....) is killlllling me."

It's nine-thirty. It's past my bedtime. Gnight!

Then you kick.... bum

This is officially my favorite Taiwanese holiday. I mean, Moon Festival had fruit hats, and Lunar New Year had sweet red envelopes, but dragonboat festival is better than all the rest.

As I previously mentioned, we had two races during the preliminary races on Saturday and we had an unusually bad seed in the tournament, but it was awesome.

First race (Runs 1 and 2): Chinese Language Students (FOREIGNERS) vs. The Iron Barbies of Ilan University
We didn't get to warm up on the water, so this first run was kind of like our warm up, only it counted.

(Our boat is the one with the blonde girls) The team that rows together...

Wins together. Suckas. We beat the Iron Barbies on both runs, by a larger margin on the second run. My students, Chinese teachers, co-teachers, haircut family, and the rest of the cohort were there to cheer me on, and they really made all the difference!

And this is where we gave it our ALL. We were against a team with a ten-year history and a tradition of doing very well. Last year, they won second place in the entire race. But on our second run against them, we had them, as recounted by a bystander, "So scared, poo was coming out their bottoms." We lost by about two feet.

Despite the killer headwind on our second two runs, our race times improved with each race. (Down to 2:28 on our final race run-- race times can be slower than practice times because you are also fighting against the water the other boat is sloshing around)

And we ran into the shore on our turn-around after the race.

My friends tell me that I should send this picture to any potential employer as a simple statement of "THIS is what you could have. THIS kind of effort and row-till-you-almost-puke energy."

Weekly Mandarin 44

44th edition: Mai

As I'm now in my final month of living in Taiwan, I have a new justification for just about anything: I'm in my last month of living here. I'm running out of chances to _____.

So, tonight I had ice cream for dinner (great for dragonboat training, I know). Because I won't get to eat delicious icecream and peanut brittle type icecreamburritos when I get to the US. And this month's goal is to average snowflake ice every other day.

And, even though I'm packing up my things and hoping to go home with fewer suitcases than I came, the "running out of time" argument justifies lots of... buying (mai). This also leads to one of my favorite Chinese nouns dong xi which literally translates to "east and west" but means "stuff, things, chatchkis, gadgets, widgets, etc, " anything that you could find between the east and the west. So I'm buying silly stuff. Like a dress I'll only wear once (but, hey, it didn't cost me much), presents for other people (stocking stuffers can be purchased at any time in the year, right?), and a fabulous "solar powered" frog on a swing. I'm solar-powered, it's solar-powered.... I needed it.

So if you want me to mai anything to gei (give) you, now's the time to send an e-mail.

Oh, and try not to cry

Lately, dragonboat practices have been pretty brutal. But that's not why I almost cried yesterday.

As we were doing a coloring thing with our first graders, little Geoffrey (who always finishes first) finished first. So I told him to turn over the paper and draw a picture of him rowing a dragonboat. He didn't want to do that. So I suggested he draw Teacher Jenny rowing a dragonboat. He shrieked, started shaking his head violently, and insisted at a yell "You are a girl! Girls can't row dragonboats! Only boys can row dragonboats."

If he would yell this at his teacher, what would he say to his female peers? It broke my heart. He's such a little guy and he's already thinking in "can't's" and "boys can do things that girls can't."

So I ran a lot at the gym yesterday for cross-training. And today our boat shaved 15 seconds off our 400 meter sprint. (From 2:41 to 2:25)

We got an unusually bad seed in the tournament: We must win two races on Saturday to move on to races on Sunday for the main festival. And our second Saturday race is against a team that annually competes, and competes well. The good news is that even if we don't win and can't be competitive, we can still do scrimmage races on Saturday afternoon so we don't feel like we trained for two-and-a-half-minutes of disappointing racing.