Oh gracious.
I got so excited about the sushi on Wednesday that I forgot to write about the fact that one of those palm-of-the-hand-sized spiders was in our kitchen! Well, it was outside on the window, so it was close enough. I went into the kitchen to look up a book for class (the computer is the in kitchen/living room area) and I looked up and saw something odd. I went over to check it out, and it was the front legs of a very large spider. It stayed in the exact position for half of the day, and then I checked later and it had moved down so that it's whole body was showing. It barely moved from there, but was gone by morning.
Today Kaylene, Nancy, and I went for our morning run, then when they went off to buy breakfast I just went home to have toast and an orange. Unfortunately my orange was nasty and I only took a bite of half a wedge.
I'm trying to think if anything exciting happened at school today? A couple little girls ran up to me and said "teacher, you so beautiful" that helped my day go by better. And, I don't know if it was in the last post or in an e-mail, but I wrote somewhere that I need to work on being more patient and just accept that when the kids were quiet for me the first two days, it was a fluke. But maybe it wasn't a fluke, because I got them to be quiet today! Yay! (That's for you Dana, you smarty pants, I've always had a problem with yeah and yay.) Oh, for my first class of the day I reviewed shapes and had the kids make shapes with their body- that was entertaining. Some kids obviously did things that didn't make any type of shape, but others came up with some pretty good ways to make triangle, rectangles, circles, squares, and ovals. Then for the second class, we did a treasure hunt for things that make us special. The dang little kids were too good at finding the hard ones, but were totally stumped by the obvious ones. Go figure.
After the second class, it was lunch. I got to try bamboo. It wasn't too bad. It's not terribly good, so I wouldn't just go out and buy it to gnaw on, but it definitely had flavor. Then it was the same old rice and ground pork with potato like vegetables, oh, and slightly pickled cucumber-ish things that were really good in the rice. After lunch Nancy and I talked to Teacher Stephanie (one of the Chinese teachers) she was telling us what fruit was in season. It started out that we were asking her if we could find avocados around here and she said "ava... what is?" So I ran and got the fruit poster and pointed. She told us that we could find them, but they wouldn't look like the picture instead of rough skin, it's smooth, but it's the same color. Then I pointed to a couple different fruits and asked her if they were good and if they were in season. There is apparently this one pokey fruit that stinks super bad, but it tastes so sweet and creamy and good, so you just have to make sure you refrigerate it right away. And then there was this funky mango that she said was good and had a cool (as in temperature) taste. These two fruits and coconuts are in season during summer, but are cheapest in Thailand, so Nancy and I will have to try them at the end of June.
I didn't go anywhere during the lunch break because Nancy and I both had to get materials ready for the third class. And, once I got mine done, I went down stairs to help Nancy finish hers, and we got to chat it up with Yuling for a little while.
After school I only had two 20 minute tutor sessions. One was with Kristy who is still shy, but already she started warming up to the idea of speaking to me in English. It's weird, because I know she loves me and I know she's really smart because she shows it in class, but when you get her one on one, she seals up and if you ask her a question she just starts laughing. I walked Kristy downstairs because I had to go find the second preschooler, Mathew. He ran into the classroom to get his book, and he grabbed his hat too. His hat was too big, and it reminded me of Roman and how he loves his McQueen hat even though he looks like a total goof because the bill of the hat is bigger then his head. But it got even better, because the book that Matthew brought to read was "James Goes Buzz Buzz" so the Thomas the Tank Engine book reminded me of little Rojo even more.
After tutoring I did my student evaluations that are due at the end of each week. That took a while, and then I went to the night market to pick up a smoothie for dinner, then I went to the bakery and the store to buy lunch for tomorrow. Nancy and I are hiking in Taroko Gorge tomorrow, and since it's kind of an all day thing and we're not sure if there are places to eat, we're bringing lunch and snacks and stuff. I'm super excited to go to the gorge. I've seen a few pictures and it is gorgeous, and it's like the most famous thing in Taiwan. Yay!
I got so excited about the sushi on Wednesday that I forgot to write about the fact that one of those palm-of-the-hand-sized spiders was in our kitchen! Well, it was outside on the window, so it was close enough. I went into the kitchen to look up a book for class (the computer is the in kitchen/living room area) and I looked up and saw something odd. I went over to check it out, and it was the front legs of a very large spider. It stayed in the exact position for half of the day, and then I checked later and it had moved down so that it's whole body was showing. It barely moved from there, but was gone by morning.Today Kaylene, Nancy, and I went for our morning run, then when they went off to buy breakfast I just went home to have toast and an orange. Unfortunately my orange was nasty and I only took a bite of half a wedge.
I'm trying to think if anything exciting happened at school today? A couple little girls ran up to me and said "teacher, you so beautiful" that helped my day go by better. And, I don't know if it was in the last post or in an e-mail, but I wrote somewhere that I need to work on being more patient and just accept that when the kids were quiet for me the first two days, it was a fluke. But maybe it wasn't a fluke, because I got them to be quiet today! Yay! (That's for you Dana, you smarty pants, I've always had a problem with yeah and yay.) Oh, for my first class of the day I reviewed shapes and had the kids make shapes with their body- that was entertaining. Some kids obviously did things that didn't make any type of shape, but others came up with some pretty good ways to make triangle, rectangles, circles, squares, and ovals. Then for the second class, we did a treasure hunt for things that make us special. The dang little kids were too good at finding the hard ones, but were totally stumped by the obvious ones. Go figure.
After the second class, it was lunch. I got to try bamboo. It wasn't too bad. It's not terribly good, so I wouldn't just go out and buy it to gnaw on, but it definitely had flavor. Then it was the same old rice and ground pork with potato like vegetables, oh, and slightly pickled cucumber-ish things that were really good in the rice. After lunch Nancy and I talked to Teacher Stephanie (one of the Chinese teachers) she was telling us what fruit was in season. It started out that we were asking her if we could find avocados around here and she said "ava... what is?" So I ran and got the fruit poster and pointed. She told us that we could find them, but they wouldn't look like the picture instead of rough skin, it's smooth, but it's the same color. Then I pointed to a couple different fruits and asked her if they were good and if they were in season. There is apparently this one pokey fruit that stinks super bad, but it tastes so sweet and creamy and good, so you just have to make sure you refrigerate it right away. And then there was this funky mango that she said was good and had a cool (as in temperature) taste. These two fruits and coconuts are in season during summer, but are cheapest in Thailand, so Nancy and I will have to try them at the end of June.
I didn't go anywhere during the lunch break because Nancy and I both had to get materials ready for the third class. And, once I got mine done, I went down stairs to help Nancy finish hers, and we got to chat it up with Yuling for a little while.
After school I only had two 20 minute tutor sessions. One was with Kristy who is still shy, but already she started warming up to the idea of speaking to me in English. It's weird, because I know she loves me and I know she's really smart because she shows it in class, but when you get her one on one, she seals up and if you ask her a question she just starts laughing. I walked Kristy downstairs because I had to go find the second preschooler, Mathew. He ran into the classroom to get his book, and he grabbed his hat too. His hat was too big, and it reminded me of Roman and how he loves his McQueen hat even though he looks like a total goof because the bill of the hat is bigger then his head. But it got even better, because the book that Matthew brought to read was "James Goes Buzz Buzz" so the Thomas the Tank Engine book reminded me of little Rojo even more.
After tutoring I did my student evaluations that are due at the end of each week. That took a while, and then I went to the night market to pick up a smoothie for dinner, then I went to the bakery and the store to buy lunch for tomorrow. Nancy and I are hiking in Taroko Gorge tomorrow, and since it's kind of an all day thing and we're not sure if there are places to eat, we're bringing lunch and snacks and stuff. I'm super excited to go to the gorge. I've seen a few pictures and it is gorgeous, and it's like the most famous thing in Taiwan. Yay!
4 comments:
That spiky, creamy fruit is called (at least in Thailand) Durian. It smells so bad that the hotels post signs that say Durian is not allowed in the rooms. It does smell bad, but I hope you won't miss the chance to try it. It's amazingly good. Just eat it outside.
MsL
That spider was hugh! What does the rest of your apartment look like? I hope you post pictures from your hike.
P.S. I love reading Ms Leslie's comments as well!
Brooke,
Marlynn loved that stinky fruit. She ate it all the time. Leslie said it was real good if you could get past the smell. I didn't try it because I couldn't get past the smell. I wish I had . Good for you.
So Shelly is on a first name basis with that spider; Hugh, but does she know his last name?
No, it's not Hugh Grant
It's Hugh Tarant....ula
MsL
Post a Comment