Welcome 2008!

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed their New Year's Eve and their day of rest afterwards.
After work on New Year's Eve, Nick and I went out to the home of a couple of my coworkers to ring in the New Year. When midnight hit, it was a whirlwind of action - shooting bottle rockets off the balcony of the apartment (everything is legal in Taiwan), drinking champagne, watching fireworks from across the lake. In the midst of the (fun) chaos, time sort of slowed down for me... I'm celebrating New Year's Eve in a completely different country, and am lucky enough to be on this great adventure, with so many exciting possibilities ahead.
I've spent some of my time over the last month being homesick, missing my family, and missing Christmastime at home. But, with the end of the holiday season comes the beginning of a new year. One to enjoy and explore, where anything can happen, and one to celebrate. I'm not saying I won't be homesick, or miss my family (or my kitties), because I'm sure there will be times when I do. But, I'm saying that I'm happy that last year brought me to Taiwan, and I'm ready for this year to start. I'm ready to have fun and enjoy the freedom of being young.
I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, because they're often forgotten by the second or third week of January. This year, instead, I will set goals for myself. I plan to spend the next few days (or maybe months) deciding what those are, specifically. But... to name a few:
#1 Be accepted to anthropology graduate school for the Fall 2008 semester.
#2 Become more serious and committed to running and yoga (both the keys to my inner peace, I believe).
(side note: more concrete goals to come)
#3 Take better care of myself, physically and emotionally. I need to treat myself with love and compassion, and simply just stop being so hard on myself!
and...
#4 (and most important) When I hit a bump in the road, I want to remember what I felt like at midnight this New Year's Eve. Luckily, I have all of you to help remind me of that.
I hope this finds you all happy and well, and I wish you the very best in 2008.
Much love,
Katie

p.s. These pictures are from my New Year's celebration!

Shocking!

The two artistic bones that I have in my body worked together to make this Christmas tree picture for the classroom. The kids each made their own ornament to hang on the tree. They also made stockings to hang on the wall, and wrote their Christmas wish lists. We decorated the rest of the classroom together with some shiny garland. Quite a good time, and the classroom looks so pretty I don't want to take it all down!

Pictures from the Christmas party

Picture #1 Mark from the kindergarten class (he's a cutie!)
Picture #2 Two of my girls playing one of the Christmas games
Picture #3 All of the afternoon classes and their teachers, bosses, secretaries... Give or take a few.
Picture #4 Me with my class
Picture #5 My kids doing their song and dance (Away In a Manger)

Pictures!

A couple of Nick's students took us up to a sort of amusement park/tourist location outside of Chiayi. We had a good time!

Quickie

I'll post a new blog this weekend to let you all know what I've been up to over the last month. I've been SOOO busy, so I've really been doing badly on this blog thing for the last two months! Anyway, I hope you all are doing well, and watch for a new post after this weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First, I should make an amendment to my last post... The pictures go: Vivian, Christine, Samuel, Kitty. Christine is the cutest and sweetest little thing and I could take her and her sister home forever! : )
So, I have survived my first major holiday away from my family! Those of you who know me well know that's quite a feat for me. It wasn't easy, and I'm sure Christmas will be much harder, so I'm bracing myself now...
I did have some turkey rice and a pumpkin muffin on Thanksgiving Day, so I still remained festive! : ) Also, Nick and I are going to celebrate together tomorrow. I'm going to make some chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, maybe green beans in the make-shift kitchen in my apartment and there's a place here to buy pies, so the meal will be complete! It should be nice. I'm so happy I have him here because it certainly made it much easier to miss the family gathering.
So, in the true spirit of the holiday, let me say how thankful I am to have a wonderful family who loves and supports me, and who I miss very much. I am thankful for Nick who makes makes me laugh and who lets me be myself (for better or for worse). I am thankful for my friends who are great people and whose words of encouragement and support keep me going sometimes and who I love hearing from. And last, but far from least, I am thankful for this opportunity that I've been given to experience a new culture and to learn about myself and find what I'm really made of.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope to hear from you all soon!

Love,

Katie

pictures of my students

Here are pictures of some of my students and my friend Jennifer from Canada (she's in the first picture). The pictures of my students are of Vivian (hard at work), Samuel (he's in love with me, and he's a cutie), Christine (my FAVORITE, along with her older sister, Grace, who's in one of my other classes), and Kitty (named after "Hello Kitty"... seriously...) They are all in my first grade class, and I love them, even through their naughtiness. : )