Jenny Lao Shur!

Those of you keeping up on your Weekly Mandarin already know that this entry is about teaching--specifically, my first day at my school! I'm going to be working with Sing-Sheng Elementary School in the lovely city of Yilan, co-teaching classes for 2nd, 3rd, and 6th graders with my partner teachers Hopkins and Angela. Everyone at the school is GREAT. All of the teachers and administrators, despite a sometimes wide language-gap, are unbelievably helpful. We're talking help switching apartments, walking me through my scooter purchasing and riding, help finding ballroom dancing classes in the neighborhood, and the suggestion that, really, the vegetarian lunch is much better than the meat.

And the kids run the gamut from precious to precocious in the not-so-good ways. Here are some of the best questions I heard during my self-introduction:

• Are you married?
• Are you rich?
• Is it fun to play in the snow?
• How big are the bugs in America?
• Are you pregnant? (Misinterpretation of the belly-rubbing gesture for "yummy")
  
• How old is your boyfriend? Is he rich? (By the way, sweetheart, they decided you were cool.)
  
• Do dogs in America listen to commands in English? (This is a sign of higher-level thinking, seriously)
  

One class started off by guessing I was 35 years old. No, I only feel that way after having 5 classes today.

Baby, I was born to ride

(Just for my wonderful Bruce fans at home in New Jersey)

But check this puppy out:What you can't tell from the other side of the Pacific Ocean is that the decal says "Fever" and my awesome helmet with the pink visor says "Sprot" instead of "sport." And the license plate is WUG.

I'll try to get some video of me driving my scooter. I must have spent a good hour on it today between school and running errands. And it is very fuel efficient! The bad thing is that the drivers here are pretty nuts. So left turns scare the living daylights out of me; so rather than turn left, I turn right at a stop light and turn around so I can go straight later. Maybe once I'm more comfortable with driving in general I'll do some real left turns by choice.

Of course, the day I get my scooter is the day the city starts tearing up streets to repave them. The new pavement is great, the gnawed up pavement-base is a nightmare. But don't worry, I drive fairly slow, always wear my "sprot" helmet and I have insurance.



I'm seriously considering trying to get a vespa back in the States:)

Vroooom Vrooooom

I have my first motor vehicle license! I can legally drive a 50 cc scooter in Taiwan! The scary thing is that all I needed to do was pass a test. I don't even know how to turn my blinkers on but I can drive legally. And to pass the exam, you needed to get an 85.... guess what score I got: 85! Fear not, I will wear a helmet.

Tomorrow I'll go to purchase my first motor vehicle--- and I am sincerely hoping for hot pink. It would make Brian feel extra special when he's forced to ride behind me on the seat during his visit. And it would make me feel extra special all the time.

Pictures to come!

What Used to Be the World's Tallest Building

This is Taipei 101. It used to be the tallest building in the world. The entire 5 bottom floors are filled with designer boutiques, mostly from Western fashion lines-- I now know where to find the Tiffany's in Taiwan if I'm in the market for some bling. But, more importantly, I found a shop on the map named Piaget. And I got to joke, with someone who understood, that it would sell developmentally appropriate toys... like water glasses that pour into each other, or things that temporarily hide. We thought it was funny and it proved that I am not alone.

In Taipei, we also...
... watched a super cool underground-esque Tap Dance show. It had tappers with an attitude from all across the world. My personal fav was "Summertime," that's right, from Porgy and Bess.
... stayed with a hostile hostel-er. He cursed. A lot. And made me stay up most of the night wondering if I would be slaughtered in my sleep. No, I was actually safe considering it would have been one against nine.
... ate superb American breakfast... complete with French toast.

Weekly Mandarin:4

4th Edition: Xie

Today was my first contact with real live Taiwanese students. To be honest, they were the winners of an English language speech contest, so they were about twice the proficiency of the average student, but they were awesome kids. Considering that today began sick, rainy, an-hour-and-a-half earlier than most days, and with a classroom lesson that was fairly rough around the edges, today was also awesome.

Why? Because we had a field trip to the Crab Museum! And I thought the day was going to get significantly worse when I was assigned two rambunctious boys from 4th grade as my charges for the field trip. They were bonkers during lunch, and definitely excitable during the guided tour of the Museum. But once we were self-guided with a few discussion questions (which I wrote, but got unfortunately formatted into something that looked like a classroom worksheet), the little guys were sponges of information. They had the most amazing observational skills and I almost burst into tears of joy when the one guy said "Teacher! Teacher! This one is missing a leg," and then continued to synthesize information from the guided tour about how crabs can regenerate limbs.

And that is why this week's word is "xie," meaning crab. Now, put on your critical thinking skills and figure out how to say "crab meat." You'll earn points for your team. I promise. Or a sticker.

Weekly Mandarin: 3

Edition 3: Ji-ro

This week my friend Kate and I had a big milestone: We ordered dinner for ourselves. This wouldn't be impressive except for the fact that neither of us had ever used any Chinese until we arrived here in Taiwan. And I'm picky and she's a vegetarian. But one night this week, instead of relying on someone else to translate for us, we decided to go out to dinner with our trusty Chinese dictionary.

Yes, there were pictures, but there were only generic pictures for the page, not for each dish. And, ok, we only pointed to the part of the menu where it said the name of the dish. But let me tell you, that meal tasted fantastic because it was hard-earned.

So my word of the week is "ji-ro." It directly translates to "chicken meat," since "ro" is the ending added to any animal to indicate that you're going to eat its meat, rather than requesting it as a pet. And I can even independently recognize its characters on menus without checking my dictionary.

The Next Step in Transportation

Grab your helmet and stay off the roads-- I'm learning how to drive a scooter. Unfortunately, I've finally moved somewhere that public transportation isn't amazing, so I have to upgrade my personal modes of transportation quickly. Apparently 42 of the past 42 English Teaching Assistants have purchased and rode scooters and it is very clear, looking at the streets of Yilan, Luodong, and even Taipei that scootering is the preferred mode of transportation. What isn't clear is how people manage not to kill themselves: all of the laws seem "flexible," at best, including which side of the street to drive on or red lights. I guess you just have to be very very aware of others around you.

With their pretty good gas mileage and relatively low maintenance, I may even work on getting a scooter in the States... assuming I can eventually stay on top, turn, and remember which hand is the brake. Don't worry, Vi, I always wear my helmet even when I'm only practicing.

The scooter driving test includes a test for driving slowly, but balanced, stopping at railroad crossings, and a written exam. We'll be taking it at the end of the month, so I'll just have to keep working on the scootering until then:)