goodbyes

Seriously, don't have a heart attack...

I've been taking pictures at school, so I thought I'd post them before I forgot...

This is my last week with two of my favorite classes, and let me just say: It's not easy! They are great kids with great personalities and we have really bonded and had some fun over the last year. I said goodbye to my Beaver class tonight - my favorite night class, and couldn't even get out more than one sentence. :( I don't want to begin to think about what tomorrow's going to be like when I have to tell my Tiger class goodbye. They are the main class that I teach, and we are pretty close. I have heard all sorts of stories about all of their families and even been lucky enough to meet a few of their parents. They are a bunch of sweetie pies, and will be dearly missed by me.
As I was driving home to school tonight (mostly in tears), I started thinking about some other jobs I've left. I don't think I've actually ever been as sad and reluctant to say goodbye as I am with this job (sorry to any of you reading this who are former co-workers, you know I've got nothing but love for you). It occurred to me that people, including myself, almost always leave jobs because they don't like them or some other not so positive reason. That's just not the case with this job, which is what makes it so hard to leave. I have loved teaching my kids and loved my coworkers and my boss (99% of the time), and have been very happy here. I don't know what kind of an impact I've had on the lives of my students or coworkers, but I know they've had a pretty big impact on mine. I've got about 6 weeks before my goodbyes are official, and I head out of here, but this week has certainly made me realize how fast time goes by. The next 6 weeks are going to fly, and I'm just not sure if I'm prepared for the finality of it all.
I don't usually ask this, but it might help if some of you keep me in your thoughts and pray that I can be strong tomorrow and over the next 6 weeks as I have to say goodbye to my students and friends...

Pictures:
#1 My sweet little Kevin, a.k.a. "My Little Turtle"
#2 Jamie, looking GOOD : )
#3 Kitty and Christine (Kitty is on the right, Christine on the left)
#4 Luke and Leo, the two naughtiest and cutest little boys on the planet
#5 My Beaver class, who I taught for the last time tonight :(

Meishan

I know, I know... Twice in one week -- don't stroke out.
So, I had the opportunity today to visit a Taiwanese mountain school today. It was, without question, the coolest thing I've done and seen here in Taiwan, and probably the most beautiful sight that I can remember seeing in my adult life.
A professor at the National Chiayi University is pretty heavily involved in the English program at this school up in the mountains. He called Nick's school last week, asking for a couple of foreign teachers to volunteer to go up and meet the kids at the school. Nick and I and our friend Chris, who is here for a visit, were the lucky three.
We met the professor and the school principal in Chiayi and they drove us an hour up the mountain just outside of a small (and I think aboriginal) village. Most of the people who live in the village have lived there for their entire lives and work in the tea fields. The kids at the school have never seen foreigners before, so the point of our trip today was for them to meet us and get a chance to talk with some native English speakers.
After we arrived at the school, we spent about an hour with the kids, giving them one-on-one oral tests (about eight questions each). Some of them were pretty nervous, others were EXTREMELY excited. One of the first little girls I talked to leaned in and whispered, "I don't know," when I asked her what her name was : ) I whispered back, "Yes, you do," and pointed to the name tag on her shirt. Another little boy answered, "My name is Kevin1" when I asked his name. Apparently there are two Kevins in that school -- he was "Kevin1" (his name tag actually said that) and there was a "Kevin2". He also proudly told me that he goes to an English school (probably about a 45 minute drive down the mountain, twice a week) and that he knew English very well. He also told me to drink the tea, it's good for my health. One of the questions we had to ask was related to going into a fast food restaurant and we had to say, "For here or to go?" A girl in the 5th grade didn't quite understand the question, so I tried to explain it to her by saying the phrase "wai dai" which means "to go" in Chinese, and when that didn't work, I rephrased my question and tried to explain that "to go" means to take your food and go outside of the restaurant to eat (in much simpler words, of course). She thought I was telling her that she could go, and stood up and started to walk out of the room! Hahahahaha
After the oral tests, the principal took us outside and showed us around the school. It was absolutely incredible! She has been there for two years and has literally transformed and decorated every last nook and cranny of the place. There is art work and calligraphy hanging in the hallways and sitting areas for the kids and visitors outside so they can eat their lunch or have class out there on nice days. We were told that the school wasn't much to look at before she came, and she enlisted the help of parents and teachers to build beautiful fences and walk ways. My favorite area (in one of the pictures) had beautiful, brightly colored pinwheels hanging all around and a handmade stone table and seats, with a bamboo fence (made entirely by the parents) surrounding the school perimeters. There was a nice cool breeze and lots of sunshine with the incredibly beautiful mountains in the background. As Nick and I walked around the school, we gasped and "ahhh"ed and "Oh my goodness"ed at every turn. The mountains were breathtaking; covered with tea fields and palm trees. It's a very strange thing to be up on a mountain and have palm trees all around...
Unfortunately, though I try, neither words nor my pictures can accurately portray the beauty and amazing-ness of this day and that place. I said several times that one thing I really wanted to do before I left Taiwan was visit one of the aboriginal villages. This was nothing like I expected it to be (the kids looked exactly like the kids I teach every day and there weren't any mud huts or people walking around in handmade clothes and no shoes with baskets on their heads), but it was so much more. I can't begin to express how happy I was to have that experience today. It was truly awesome.

Pictures below:
#1 The basketball court/track/recreational area of the school with the mountains in the background.
#2 Nick and I with the mountains in the background.
#3 Mountains and palm trees.
#4 & 5 The pinwheel area with the handmade bamboo fence in the back.

pictures

The first picture is Nick and I at a housewarming party for two of my coworkers.
The second is of my four naughty kindergartners.
The third is the swimming pool overlooking the mountains in Beitou, at the resort we stayed in.
The fourth is me at the top of Taipei 101, the second (?) tallest building in the world.
The last is Nick and Chris (for those of you who feel confused "Little" Nick : ) and our friend who is here for a visit), looking out at where the Danshuei River meets the Pacific Ocean.

May/June

Hello everyone! (well... anyone who is still reading this sparsely posted blog... : ) It's been a while since the last post -- things have been pretty busy. But, that just means I have more to tell you now!

May
May went by like the blink of an eye. It seems like now that it's getting closer to the end, time is going even faster than before. I worked a whole lot and had to start planning my 9 week summer camp/summer school schedule (that is still a work in progress). Nick and I also finished up our Chinese class. While I enjoyed the class, it's nice to have my Tuesday and Thursday mornings back. Nick and I made a short weekend trip to Taipei, just to get out of Chiayi and eat some American food (a.k.a. Chilis and Subway). It was a relaxing and welcome break for both of us. We were able to get our hair cut which was GREAT! : ) Taipei has several Aveda salons, and their haircuts are so much more... Think head and shoulder massage and essential oils. That was about all May had to offer me, actually (work, work, and more work). ...maybe that's why I didn't post anything...

June
I really can't believe it's almost the end of June already. That is pure craziness. Being half way around the world, I have really lost all concept of what time of year it is (except for the fact that it's been un-godly hot here). I nearly missed the fact that Memorial Day existed, and am just now coming to realize that kids in the US have been out of school for almost a month now. As I mentioned up there in "May", we have a summer camp/school at my cram school, but that doesn't start until June 30th. The kids in Taiwan go to school from September through the end of June and only get national holidays, a couple of weeks and Chinese New Year, and two months in the summer "off". They spend the majority of their time "off" doing homework or going to some type of cram school, whether English, math, or another subject that their parents feel they should be doing better at. Some of the lucky ones get to do stuff like sports camps or magic camp (I laugh every time I say that... if you watch "The Office", you'll know why). At our summer camp/school, the kids get to go do fun stuff, like see movies and go swimming in the mornings, then come to "class" in the afternoons. The difference between the school year and the summer, is that the teacher of each class gets to plan their own curriculum. We can teach about nearly anything we want, and try to make it as fun and interesting as possible. I don't think any of you will be surprised to hear that some of my weeks are "Exercise/Nutrition", "Maps and Geography", "Food" (NO ONE will be surprised about that one!), and "Global Warming". I think we'll have a great time, but it sure is a HELL of a lot of work for me (excuse the superlative).
Aside from school... Nick and I took a weekend trip to Beitou (a small mountain town just north of Taipei) and stayed in a resort/spa. It was wonderfully amazing and beautiful up there. We laid by the pool (overlooking the mountains), had massages : ), and enjoyed the natural hot spring hot tub that came right into our own hotel room! After we checked out on Sunday, we went into Taipei and wandered around for a while, of course stopping for dinner at the Macaroni Grill.
The following weekend, our friend Chris from Hastings flew into Taipei, so we went back up to show him the sights there and ease him in to his Taiwan experience... He'll be staying with us for about a month, and although Nick and I will be working most of the time, luckily Nick's adult students have been MORE than anxious to take him out and show him around (they're all women, too, so he's a lucky man).
As of today, I've got just a little less than two months before I come home. It is really a bitter-sweet feeling... I am SO excited to start grad school and will be very happy to come home to my friends and family (and cats... oh, and the food). But, things have never been better in my relationship and it's going to be ridiculously hard to leave Nick. I am so incredibly happy with him, it's hard to put into words. (I may have said all of this in my last post, or my last two posts, or my last however many posts, but it's still true, and is becoming much more real to me as the time to go approaches.) I have also made some great friends here and met some wonderful people. As difficult as it's been at times over the last year, Taiwan is a good place to live, and somewhere I hope to come back to visit more than once. There are incredible sights to see, EXTREMELY interesting customs (top 10 lists coming soon), and some truly genuine and caring people.
Anyway, I think I've got you mostly up to date with what's going on in my life. I hope to hear from you soon, and would LOVE to see as many of you as possible when I get home!
OH -- forgot to mention: My flight will be arriving in Omaha on Monday, August 18th at around 4:00 p.m. I plan on making my mom drive me through either Runza or Amigos on my way home. : )

Best wishes, and more to come SOONER THAN LATER!

Katie