1 month in... week 4

Week 4 -

I started feeling better for the first time. And by the weekend was well enough to go properly exploring. On the weekend I walked up onto the ridge that overlooks ChingShuei, it was really beautiful. Was so greatful to be out of the apartment. Because up until that point I hadn't done much but sleep and work. (oh and shop of course) That walk was really cool because you could see the whole area where i live and I got to a better sense of where things were in relation to each other. I have a whole pile of pictures up on Facebook for those who want to look. I'll add one or two on here.

Basically I walked up to the top of the ridge and went exploring there. I found a reserve, and it was great to walk through trees again. I also found a really great park, I think that once I get over being a slob I'm going to start running up there. Cos its higher up and cooler.

When I walked down the mountain I went exlporing ChingShuei, and found ChingShuei elementry which has to be one of the coolest government primary schools i have seen. Their gardens are something amazing and they let people in to walk around on weekends, so i really enjoyed strolling around.

This is a first

There was a Earthquake last night...

Ok so don't freak out, it wasn't a full on earth splitting quake, just a little tremor... the quake was on the other side of the the island. It was the first time I've ever experienced a quake or tremor... and this is how it happened:
I woke up with a start to a squeaking bed... and I'll be honest, at first i thought the people next door were umm...ya, anyway... then i was i was like, no seriously, the squeaky bed is mine, and even my beads on the wall were moving around, and thats when i realised, and SCREAMED...EARTHQUAKE...I don't wanna die... mommy...
Ok seriously, I really checked the time (2am) and just kinda lay there thinking, this is a first...

so i guess i can check that off my life experience list...earthquake...check...

School in Taiwan

Okay so its my second Saterday in Taiwan... AND IM SICK!! What a bummer, but i'm thankful thats its the weekend and i can just relax and sleep it off. Hopefully i will be feeling MUCH better on Monday, my second week of teaching, I'll be picking up an extra class every evening from 6-7pm from this week on so i think i'm going to be pretty drained until I get the hang of it. iBut now i am talking about details not yet shared... so about school.

I am working at a school called 'Sesame Street' it is a kindergarten- mid elementary school which teaches English. There are two foreign English speaking teachers at the school, myself and Nandi (my flatmate) There are about 6 Chinese, English speaking teacher who i teach with and then quite a few more chinese teachers and staff.
My normal day consists of the following (i'm sorry if i am boring you with the details, but if i dont share the m now, they will catch up with me later. I'm just giving the basic timetable here, i'll explain each class in a bit.

I arrive at school at 8.30 and have prep time until 9.30.
Then at 9.30 I go to teach my first class which is called 'Betty'
I teach them until 10.45. Then I move to my pre-ESL until 11.50am.
Lunch is at 12.00 and I normally go home and sleep. Everyone has a lumch break from 12.00-2.00, the children (and many of the staff) sleep during this time.
I have a lesson from 2.10 until 2.50 with my pre-ESL class. And then move to an ESL2 class which is from 2.55-4.30. After that i have a big break until 6.00 when i do my prep and finally an older class from 6.00-7.00pm.

So thats my day. Basically i teach children under the age of 9 every day, which is quite a change from UKZN, but i'm having a really great time. Surprisingly i have had the best connection with my 'betty' kindergarten class.

Betty is a kindergarten class of about 10 chilren. The class is very new to English, some of the children have never spoken English before and others have a basic grasp of it, being able to identify a few words. I'm having alot of fun in this class, because the teaching includes alot of games and songs. The class is really about the kids hearing english and learning an english vocabulary. A typical lesson is me showing them flash cards of objects and getting the kids to say their names in a sentence. 'This is a door' 'He is Cookie Monster' etc. I've also been teaching them actions,which is alot of fun. In this class there are two kids which I am particularily fond of and one which drives me crazy. Howard is really quite, but his English is really good, he tries really hard and is so polite. He is really cute. Doris is my favourite, she didn't know any Englis at the begining of the week and was SUPER shy, she wouldn't say anything, now, one week in she is already stringing sentences together.
Then there is Allen, he has a behavouir problem, but is really clever. He knows alot of English, but is not interested. most of the time he just lies on the floor pulling tongues at me... in any other situation i would probably laugh but 2 hours of that everyday gets a tad frustrating.

okay i'll writ more about my other classes another time... but i'm really enjoying teaching them and i think i'm getting the hang of this system. I'm quite greatful for my time of temping because its made me adaptable. Apparently the last teaching 'peiter' was still getting lost on the way to class a month in... eesh.

The best thing about this week is that we got internet in the flat, its super fast and doesn't have a cap...so i'm officially available for skype calls... if you are wondering i'm using an old laptop which one of the previous teachers left in the flat, its slow, but it works and i am so greatful that i dont have to go to the internet cafe anymore and that i can take my time deciding which laptop i want to buy.

okay thats me hope everyone who is readign this is well. Please leave a comment so i know whose read it. Jos

Hi from Carol

Hi Jos

Glad you arrived safely - Taiwan sounds great.  We are very busy in Durban on the stadium project and all working hard.  Cathryn has left UKZN and is in London for a few weeks.  Gabi says Hi

I'M HERE!! Day 1

Today is my 3rd night in Taiwan... I'm sitting in an internet cafe with backstreet style chinese music playing and a chinese computer... very interesting...

About my trip so far:

I arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday at about 8am my 2 hours in Hong Kong were pretty uneventful, then I flew to Taiwan, I had a window seat, which was really great, there are lots of islands in the sea on the way to Taiwan, it was really beautiful.

I arrived in Taiwan at about 11.30 and went through customs pretty quickly, no problems there. There was someone to pick me up from the airport (with the whole name board thing) and they showed me to a car where i was chaufered (sp) to Sesame Street school, it was weird to be taxied around, but nice. I had my first real Taiwan experience in the car, cos i tried talking to the driver... he could speak a really small amount of English. He thought i was from America ( I think that most of the foreigners here are American) so i had to try explain that i was from South Africa to him, and i failed dismally, even after trying Nelson Mandel, Soccor world cup and lions... it was quite strange

Anyway then i was dropped at the school and introduced to the other English teacher, Nandi, she is from SA, and Afrikaans, (my Afrikaans is improving already, who would have thought my Afrikaans would improve in Taiwan... lol). [just by the way Nandi is a real God send, I God really paved the way for me by putting me in the same school as her, we get on really well, and she's helped me out alot already) Then Frank (the principal ) and Fanny (one of the teachers) took me to my appartment, which is quite nice, although it was quite dirty when i arrived, especially my room, Nandi says the guy who was here before me was quite messy (in everything).

Then i slept for awhile, and finished unpacking. After that Nandi took me out exploring Taiwan, i had my first cup of Taiwanese Jasmin iced Green tea, which is my new favourite thing, and went shopping for a few things at this great shop called Seasons.

We had take out stir fry for supper ( as in take out from a street vendor... so good) and then we sat chatting for a while.

so that was my first day i'm a few days ahead now, but i'll start a new post for that.