Friday!!!!

Warning: If this is more non-sensical then normal, it's because I'm listening to music to drown out other noise and I don't multi-task very well, Dad trained me not to multi-task with his no homework in front of TV rule. So, sorry.

Oh gosh, so I shouldn't be this excited for the weekends, because I don't want to be tired of teaching. But, this was just a rough week, so I was so looking forward to today. But all of my classes went pretty well today, so I'm not dreading Monday, and I'm not losing faith in a teaching career just yet. Just kidding, it's really not that bad, but when lessons don't go how I want I get really down on myself and there were multiple lessons that didn't fly how I wanted them to.

There is nothing too exciting about my day today. Except that many cute little girls came up and told me that I was beautiful, and I got a new compliment today "teacher, you're cool" And, May told me that I was beautiful because I was wearing a skirt, and since I was the only one wearing a skirt, I was the only beautiful one. Today while we were riding out bikes, Nancy asked me if I was going to miss being so hot when I got back to America. I thought that she meant temperature wise and I was confused, but then she said because everyone makes sure to say hi to us and they always stare and look when we go by, she was asking if when I went home I was going to miss being a hot thing to look at. I told her I would miss the little girls calling me beautiful more then I would miss the guys driving by in trucks calling out the window.

For an hour of our lunch break today, we had a teacher meeting with Yuling, the Chinese teachers, Nancy, and I. Yuling said that the meetings aren't to make any one feel like a bad teacher, it's just a way for all of us to know how to improve. However, it was a straight hour of Yuling talking about things that I do and letting me know that they're not right. I mean, we were talking about notes that the Chinese teachers took in class, so we weren't talking about their teaching habits, and Nancy's only got 5 weeks left, so she says that the meetings don't apply to her because they figure that if she hasn't changed by now she's not going to. I HATED that meeting. Plus, there were some things that she said that I wanted to explain because it sounds like she didn't get the whole story or something, but I just sat there and nodded my head like I understood what she wanted me to fix. And, it wasn't all that bad, because Yuling is a big talker, so we only talked about a few things, but it was really focused on my flaws. Which, okay, I need to learn how to take corrective criticism, but not in front of everyone, and not for an hour. So I was terrified that my afternoon class wouldn't go well because I'd be depressed, but that was actually the best class of the week. And, I had already been planning on doing a lot of the tips that Yuling had given me in the meeting today. I know that I'm not a stellar teacher, but I'm not terrible either. But Yuling did keep pointing out how difficult it is to teach preschoolers, especially 3 year olds, and that if I can learn to handle these kids who are not only really young, but are from a different country then I am, then I'll be able to handle ANY class they give me back in the states.

After school I was supposed to tutor two preschoolers and then a first grader. Both of the preschoolers were not in school today, so I had an hour break before my 6-7 tutor session. The boy came up early, so I started early and ended early. But, I hear "Teacher Brooke, Teacher Brooke." Yuling was calling me and so I went downstairs and she was checking to see if I was still supposed to be teaching Willy. I told him that he came up early and so I started early but that it had been an hour. It turns out that his mom can't pick him up until after seven, so it's not good to start early. But, not my fault, Yuling is the one that sent him upstairs early. So, I talked to Yuling a while while we waited for Willy's mom to come. It turns out that the mom had told him to stay upstairs because she knew that she wouldn't be there on time, but he forgot. Well, now we know for next time.

After Willy was finally gone, I went down town to the market there to pick up some dinner. Last time Nancy and I went there (to get the dumplings) I saw something I wanted to try, and so I went down. Although it's not too hard to get around and order food around here, I do hate that I can't read the prices sign. And, I've never been worried about being ripped off because I'm white, but tonight I worry that I way over paid. The guy handed me a plate and told me to choose. Last time that happened to me, it turns out that it was an all you can eat place and I vastly under loaded my plate. So, I didn't want to make the same mistake, so I loaded my plate with new things to try. It turns out that this is not like the other place and you pay for each thing you get. Suck! It was especially lame because practically nothing was good. So, I paid a whole lot (comparatively) for some food that was nasty and room temperature.

I decided to walk around the market a little bit, but then decided that I wasn't going to buy anything so I headed to the beach (I was already pretty close to it). I didn't go onto the sand/rocks, but I rode my bike to a pretty close over look. I sat there for a while, but told myself that I should go because I had no idea what time it was and if I let myself, I could stay and watch the water all night long. It's so peaceful and gorgeous.

There is a slight change of plans. Tomorrow Nancy and I were going to go to the Relief Society activity where we were going to learn how to cook something. Well, it turns out that their learning to cook sticky rice that Yuling says isn't very good and we couldn't even make back in the states. The guys, however, are going on a hike near Taroko Gorge that is apparently a legitimate hike. So, Nancy and I are going to crash the guy's party. Yuling says it would be okay, but she thinks it's weird and doesn't understand how we could go hiking for fun. So, the other reason I pulled myself away from the beach was because I had to go to the bakery and super market before they closed so that I could pick up some lunch to pack tomorrow for the trip.

One other change in weekend plans that I keep forgetting to update is that the Green Island trip has been moved to June 7th because the weekend we wanted to go (next weekend) was already booked by time Yuling called.

So, I think I hear Nancy coming home from her tutoring, but I hope that we don't keep each other up because we have to meet everyone at the church at 7:30am so we can leave at 8:00am. And I desperately need my sleep. I definitely have not been getting enough.