it's happening

I decided last night in my class that I have been in Taiwan too long. Well, okay, maybe it has nothing to do with being in Taiwan actually, probably more of being a teacher for too long having to teach the way American's sound. I said "zee" last night instead of "zed" without a second thought and it felt comfortable.

Well, there must have been a second though however because I am writing about it today. But it felt so natural to say "zee" and I never, ever thought I would be a "zee" person. I think I need to get back to my Canadian "zed" roots. I take comfort in the fact that it is only my "zee" and "zed's" that this is happening too. I still have to make an effort to write without "u's" in most of my words: colour, favourite, honour. I always feel the need to explain the fact that I don't actually spell words that way. It is scary what I think about when I am teaching.

earthquake

so, in light of the earthquake that occured on Tuesday people have been wondering if I'm okay. Well, yes I am thanks! Even though the earthquake apparently "was felt throughout Taiwan" I didn't feel it, nor did anyone I talked to around here. In fact, I didn't even know about it until I read on a message board someone asking if I was okay. I did feel one on Saturday though. Maybe more because of was at a friends apartment on the 16th floor of the building, but regarless, I felt that one. Didn't seem to make any news though. I guess I only feel the weenie ones.

ah Christmas

Being in Taiwan you don't always get right into the proper Christmas spirit. This being my third Christmas, it was still hard but definately more manageable (got a little depressed, but I didn't cry at all!) I think it's due to the people I spent it with. I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I have the most amazing friends here in Taiwan. We have become a family here and I was glad to have spent Christmas with them.

I hope that everyone had the greatest Christmas and that you were able to share it with the people you care about most

Merry Christmas from my kids....

My kids send their best wishes for this holiday season...



we were on our way to the office thus the Merry Christmas teacher Elaine...aren't they the freaking cutest things in the world?

(if this wasn't working before, I changed the youtube settings so it should be okay now. Let me know if it's not working properly.)

the best Christmas movie ever...

watch, enjoy, Merry Christmas, happy holidays!

(psst...you might not want to let the kids watch)

the preliminaries...

I thought that I had done a post on here about how I have three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, but I can't seem to find it. Anyway, I had three kids in a speech and writing competition for work, Cynthia, Scott and Ricky. (I feel fine using their names as they aren't their legal names anyway, just their English ones) Well, actually four, but one was through HLS which my co-teacher really does most of the work.

For my other three who are in my treehouse class, it's all me. I help write the essays, I proof-read the essays, I help them with their presentation (2 nights a week after class) and I get to go and watch their competition. Two weeks ago we had the first round of preliminaries and all of them got through, I was so happy for them! Yesterday we had the area preliminaries. They all did so well, they had so much confidence (this is a 3 minute speech all spoken in English, having to have good pronunciation, intonation and fluency, eye contact and everything else that you need to have in a good speech) I was really happy with the way they performed and very proud that since they are actually only in grade 3 (yes, grade 3!!) They were able to get up in front of everyone and say a speech in a language that isn't their first language.

Scott won the competition. I was, not shocked because my kids were good, but I was surprised and very happy for him. So now I have to get him ready for the semifinals in January.

So shout out for Scott, Ricky and Cynthia for doing a great job yesterday and making me feel validated as a teacher (thanks guys!)

(I am under no illusions that it is my doing as to why they did so well...it is all their work, I just encourage and help with pronunciation really and make them practice twice a week)

something weird is going on with my blogger...yes, I mentioned in my last post that my Chinese is getting better, but having my whole blogger system in Chinese is a little ridiculous. Seriously, everything that I am looking at on my screen is in Chinese other than what I am writing at this moment. Perhaps it picked up on the fact that I wrote the word "Chinese" in my last post (is my computer THAT smart?)

Well if so,


I CAN'T ACTUALLY READ CHINESE YOU FREAKIN COMPUTER! GO BACK TO ENGLISH!!!





Do you think it will get the message?

the farm

So we went off to the farm today for our field trip. Let me just tell you again how excited I was...I WAS VERY BLOODY EXCITED! I had all my kids excited about seeing the cows. We left late because one of the kids mom thought it was tomorrow. I said we should leave without him (probably could have too because he wouldn't go anywhere near any animals) but we waited.

It took an hour, one of my kids threw up. Almost on me, but luckily being the greatest auntie in the world has prepared me to move fast when a kid is going to throw up. I won't go into details but needless to say, I wasn't feeling so hot after that.

So we made it to the farm, oh yeah, I was crazy excited and the first thing we got to do was this...

I even had to give Jac a lesson on milking, my skill was definately up to par and I think I impressed the guy that was running the whole thing (the farmer!) One of my HRT's wouldn't even go near it, so I got to help all the kids...

After that we went to where we got to feed the cows.

Yes, the cows were cool, but the highlight, the coolest thing was seeing these....

It was a great day, even with the hour long trip there and the hour long trip back and the kid throwing up (amazingly we had no such incidents on the way back...after the kids had eaten)

It really made me miss the farm and realize how much I appreciate growing up there and how glad I am to start all my cool stories, "back on the farm..."

Oh and I think I'm a bit of a goat snob. These goats were cool (mostly because they were goats) but my goats were a lot cuter, and they didn't have horns.

good things

good things to happen today...

1) I put my tree up...

2) I opened my Christmas package from my mom to find these from Fisher and Mackenzie...

3) getting a great school picture of the beetle (Bailey)

4) Getting these...

my mom knows me too well, I mean really...Chocolate and alcohol!! Pulleeeezzzzz!

5) Getting my kids excited about going to a farm tomorrow for field trip. Yes, a farm, with real cows that we get to milk and everything!! I mean, I can't express how excited I am!! I AM SO BLOODY EXCITED!!! I just hope my milking skills are up to par.....

Sunday meanderings

This is where I went today...

What did you do??

(This is Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, put up for this guy. I was suppose to be Christmas shopping, but spend most of that time here as you can see from the fact that when I got there it was daylight and when I left it was dark. The National Theatre is here too (one of the red very Chinese looking buildings) It is where I went to see Phantom. It is as impressive as it seems.)

I heart Christmas

I heart Christmas
I think I have finally gotten into the Christmas spirit. All of a sudden, the schools are both decorated and you can find (very limited mind you, like one stand) decorations in the grocery store. I still haven't gone shopping but I am excited now. We have decided not to go away since it's only three days (still grumpy about this, but I'm not going to go and spend Christmas alone) so we are staying here, but I've been promised that it will be ultra-christmassy. So to prove my Christmas cheer, I've decorated. Well, okay, so I haven't put up my tree yet, but really, my lights are so much cooler so they had to go up first!

Check them out!

The ones on my stairs twinkle and sing at me too...although one string just buzzes and it's hella annoying so it gets plugged in upstairs ;)

changing fast

It has gotten so cold here. I am sitting in my house wearing wool socks, pj's, long sleeved shirt and a sweater and I'm still cold. It's raining and everytime I go outside the bottom of my jeans get wet so then they are pretty well wet for the rest of the day. I just feel so cold and I hate being cold. This is just the beginning and it's not cool because it has started earlier than last year. Hopefully it will be nice for Christmas again this year though. Nice as in hot. So yeah, think of me in my freezing cold house with no heat.

Oh, and did I mention that the temperature outside is 20 degrees?

old and new

I got new glasses, I got new glasses. And the best part is, they only cost me $1900!!! That's $1900 Taiwanese dollars mind you....which is a grand total of $66.4093 CAD...oh yeah! Lenses and frames. Although, I suspect they aren't really the proper lenses since I am suppose to have a prism in mine and I'm pretty sure these don't but that's okay! I'm not blind enough for it to matter the prescription ended up being the exact same as my other glasses so if I am experiencing a problem, I can switch for a bit.
So you want to see???!!!!

Old

New

I don't know if you can actually tell, but they're blue and they're hott!!! and yes, I know the pictures look stupid, but that's okay, it's raining and I'm not really into doing nice hair when I'm going to work in the morning :) and I don't think I've ever noticed how big my forehead is!!!