bin shoppin

Man do I love Taipei. I went shopping and I found clothes that fit me, nice clothes and cheap too, well sort of. I spent a few thousand dollars (Taiwan dollars) and got some amazing stuff... ahhh American clothes that come in real sizes. I finally found a watch strap ( I have been looking for weeks) and a funky new bed for Tai. It's a little tent that folds up and it's really great because it is so portable. I didn't get it but I will go back for it another day.

Not much else to say, the weather is great during the week and nasty when I want it to be nice. My friend Lexi is here from Korea and it has rained all weekend, sad but true. I went to Elton John on Thursday night and it rained the whole time, but the sun is shining when I inside my school, I swear. It's not fair. Elton John was great even though I was wet the whole time and when I am old I can say that I saw him in the pouring rain in an outdoor soccer stadium and sat on cement bleachers.

Well that's it because it is late and I am tired, tomorrow is Monday already!

Why??????

Why does my 5 year old write his F backwards.
Why is your classroom so small?
Why does child A hit child B?
Why does your room smell like shoes?
How do I make my child be on time?
How can I make his printing neater?
Why isn't my child reading yet?
If my child is tired can he have a nap?

Take one of the following answers and insert where applicable No, I don't know or I don't care!

We had open house tonight... it was a really long day and now I am writitng in communication books... a long day, a long night and then another long day as I am going to Elton John tomorrow night... ahhh life in the fast lane. NOT. Till the wekend that is all there is.

J

okay i am loving teaching......

BUT there are moments when I would like to take one or two of them and throw them out a 3rd story window!!!!!!


I think it would be a problem if I did and so I will restrain myself but man I think some of the little monsters sit around and try to think up ways to drive me crazy.

Innoncent (not) boy #1
Hmmmm... says the little boy, I'm bored, what to do. I am sitting beside my teacher and her chair looks like a good place to crawl under... I wonder if she would notice, well why don't I just try it and see what happens. Well this working so far, I am under the chair and she seems not to care, oh wait I feel a hand grabbing at my shirt and hear a loud voice yeling something in English... ohh she wants me to get out here... okay well if I just back out the way I came all should be well. Oh wait, my head is stuck, now she is yelling louder, she is saying that she is not happy, maybe if I pull a little harder.... owwwwww I am stuck. She says that she hopes I am stuck and have to stay there all afternoon, well I'll show her and get out, if I just tilt my head this way and then push with my hands.... look I am free. So there lady, I got out.

Hmm what can I do now, oh look there are some scisors on the shelf I am not allowed to touch, what if I grab them and start poking other kids....

No word of a lie, he did get his head stuck under my chair on the carpet today and I think that he did it on purpose and YES I did tell him he could stay there... maybe next time he will think about it before he tries it again.

Innocent child # 2

Amazing teacher says, "okay boys and girls listen for the words that rhyme, remember that ryhming words have the same sound at the end and usually the same last 2 or 3 letters. Teacher points to the pictures and says " cat, pin, mat, six"

Child shouts out "pin and six"

"umm no, good try though and please put up your hand" says the teacher, frustrated as we
have been working on rhyming words since the 1st week of school.

Someone answers corectly and the teacher moves on to the next one "pan, flag, van, map,"

Same child shouts out "map and flag"

Teacher " uhhh no, sorry those words don't have the same end sounds so they don't rhyme, can you please put up your hand! "

"Okay Ms Kruz".

Ms Kruz had 10 of these questions to get through and he shouted out the wrong answer for every single one!!!! Man was I frustrated.

Our day went downhill from there... but it's done now and it's Tuesday and in 3 sleeps it will be Friday and I am going to Elton John on Thursday night. I figured then I could say that I saw Elton John in Taipei!

Ciao.
J

and because folks have been asking about the youngest princess in my life here she is... cute as ever and working really hard to learn to walk before her 1st birthday. She is almost 10 months at the moment. 

Recent knitting, a little bag crazy...some worked better than other. These are all headed to Toronto. Not many people can say they had bags knitted for them in Taipei! Tai is dying to eat the bags, she has already tried to snek up and take one away, she thinks that is she moves slowly enough I might not notice. 

This one is a few weeks old but also her getting into trouble! It's what she does best.  

This is what she can do in an hour by her self! This hallway was clean when I put her out of my room this morning and I already picked up most of the red foam!

sucky

okay it's saturday, well it's almost over and I have had a migrane all day, actually this is day 3, it's almost 10 and I am feeling a little better but I have taken enough medicine to kill a small horse.

On a brighter note I dragged myself out of the apartment to take tai to the vet for some much over due shots. Since we were unsure of her actual age it was fine to wait but now i have to take her back on time for the next ones. Anyway to point is that I was so impressed with the minimal cost. When vets are affordable it makes pet ownership so much easier.

Okay that's all I am going back to knitting in the dark living room, the light hurts me head and I don't really need to see as I am knitting a purse/bag and it's just straight around although i have added some cool stripes.

I am aware of my lack of photos lately, sorry. Things are really busy I will try to get on it soon.
cheers
J

puppies and puddles

Did you know that my dog is afraid of the rain, and has rained for 3 days here. It's been a bit of an issue for her. She is also afraid of loud noises and stairs, also an issue as I live in the city on the roof of an apartment building. She will now go upstairs with a lot of encouragment but not down.

It stated raining on Friday and poured and poured and poured, get the idea, I was stuck inside for 2 days. I did got out but was soaked the whole time, not worth it.

So since I was trapped inside all weekend, I knit and read. My sister sent me great books and knitting projects. I am a happy girl. I finished some purses for some friends in Toronto ( M and J they are finished and one for S too, M the 1st one didn't work so well so you are getting two and J you need to got to knitty.com and find a vest pattern or 2) All I have to do now is mail them and that could take awhile knowing me.

Well it's monday already and I have to go to work, now!!!! or i will be late, this is so much more fun though. Have a good week all.
J

Did u know....

that it is impossible to plan the coming week when you leave your planning book at SCHOOL. It was a long day and as a I packed up all my treats (tell u in a minute) and my books I some how neglected to stick it in my bike bag... dumb, dumb, very dumb. Oh well nothing i can do about it now, I'll do it tomorrow with my communication books and my spelling books and the million other things i have to do!

On a brighter note my sister mailed me the most amazing birthday/care package and I got it today. Books, wool, Justine friendly brownie mix, a shirt died with chocolate and various other exciting things including gold band aids! It was definitely a mid week spirit boost.

On my way home today in the pouring rain! I stopped to buy some fruit as I usually do on my way home. Well the man who runs the stand really likes Tai (everyone does) and he discovered last week that she likes mango, he gave her a piece when I stopped on Friday night.. Likes is not really a strong enough word, she goes insane as soon as she smells it. So Monday he was all sorry because he did not have anything for her, she was practically leaping out of my basket she was so excited to see him, actually she was. So today when I stopped he had a whole mango for her, before I could even pick out my guava he was peeling it and feeding it to her, she was over the moon she was so happy. What's she going to do when I move to a land where mangos aren't 2 for a buck and there is not fresh guava... ahh life in the mid tropics ain't so bad.

Okay I am off to bed. Night

I am always forgetting bout the good stuff

I realized as I was walking home from the movies that I am forgetting to tell you about the small things that happen that are interesting... days are jut starting to run together.

This past week has been "ghost week" when Buddhists remember/honor the spirits of the deceased. So as a result there have been ghost money fires all over the city. So what's that? Well people haul a table out in front of their office/store/house and pile with fruit, bread, and such(I have seen coke) as a gift for the spirits and then burn incense. Then takes these piles of beautifully decorated paper called ghost money and burn it in a little tin on the sidewalk(can be dangerous for cyclists such as myself). The ghost money is burnt in order that it gets to the heavens and the deceased and in return the mortal folks down here get real money in return, or so the theory goes. I'll tell you if I get rich.

This evening I went out to walk the dog and take out the garbage. Here you have to physically take your garbage to the truck which stops in your neighborhood 2 times a day for 10 minutes. Well it is supposed to come everyday but Wednesday and Saturday and so I cleaned out my fridge, grabbed my recycling and headed out. The street was unusually quite but I plodded on with my dog, recycling and garbage. I got to the park and there is only 1 other person there, a bad sign. Well needless to say the garbage truck never came and everyone else in the neighborhood knew it. So we both left, well I quickly decided that I was not bringing my huge bag of "cleaned out fridge" garbage home, so I left it there. It was bad I know but the truck will come in the morning and I am assuming someone will chuck it in. Sadly I am not usually home when the truck comes so if it's not out on Sunday I may have it for a another week.

So I left it there and then went to walk Tai, well as we passed the local temple there was quite the party going on, they had taken over the street and had all these table out and were eating. Someone was singing and it all seemed very festive. I wish I had my camera.

Anyway not much else, the weather here was sad today so I went to the movies, The Terminal with Tom Hanks. It was good but slow, I see why it got bad reviews. Then I walked home from the mall and had Sushi on the way, it was good.

I came home to a very excited puppy as she had been alone for a number of hours. So that's it, my weekend is over and I will be back at work in 11 hours. It goes really fast. Here's to a better a better week this week, if it is bad at least I will have root beer (got some Dad's at Costco) and Lasange, I made it on Saturday night for me and Su as Shauna is a goddess and mailed me some gluten free noodles, yes my Mom and Celeste are goddess' too as they also mail me noodles.

So I am going to have my daily ration of Reese pieces (also Shauna), do the dishes and head to bed. Maybe I will start a new book, I have Mother of Pearl and Wild Swans waiting and I just finished The Rock Cried Out, it was okay.

be well
J

Ahh Saturday

well another week is gone, it was a long one but it's Saturday and I am enjoying a day of house cleaning, reading and marking. Not the most enjoyable activities (except the reading) but I have to get them done and this is really my only time. I work until 6 everyday and then by the time I get home the last thing I want to do is clean the bathroom! So today it is, besides it's hot and I don't want to go anywhere until it cools down in a couple of hours.

Hmmm what can I tell you about... There is a another typhoon warning for Monday - part of me wants it to hit (day off) and part of me dreads all the water but I know I'll survive and my apartment won't blow away. The last one was the worst one Taipei has seen in 30 years! Hard to believe co considering that the city was left unharmed aside from some downed tress and power outages.

No big sight seeing plans for the weekend, I am hoping to get tomorrow and go to TeinMu, a really nice neighbourhood with lots of great shops and such, including a used bookstore. Last weekend I wandered around another great neighbourhood near my school, lots of fun restaurants and fun clothing shops. Not that there was anything that would fit me!

I really wish that stores here sold regular sizes. Yes there are lots of small Asians but due to the increasing fast food industry there are also lots of what we would consider average size folk, ( obesity is becoming a problem in children but it is a new problem) anyway but nothing in most shops goes beyond a 8, I can buy men clothes or I can look for american chains that sell large. Many stores like Roots and North Face simply only stock small and medium... It is a very annoying dilemma.

Aside from wandering neighbourhood plans I am afraid there won't be anything to exciting going on for the next few weeks. My friend Lexi is coming form Korea at the end of the month and that will bring some sight seeing and finally some new photos.

Okay I am going back to my book. Hope all is well out there .
J

Finally

I am finally online at home! It was a huge production and after a phone call to the states and a helpful sister and brother-in-law it is finally working.

It has been an interesting week, as you heard there was a typhoon but I wasn't any where near the bad parts ( huge flooding in lots of areas of the city). The meter of rain we got did cause me and my apartment to get very wet. It is pouring with rain again as I type this.

School started on Thursday again, my classroom got wet, and of course it was the corner where my stereo and books are kept. The stereo has been replaced and I am drying out my books hoping that they survive. I think that I will have to replace most of them, very sad especially since they are mine and not the schools.

Aside from that all is well, my class seems to be good, even though there are 15 boys and 6 girls, this is not usually the case in our school all the other classes are balanced just not mine! I also have the biggest class. It's okay though, most of them are great kids and are really happy to be at school.

Anyway I should be off as I have a lot to do for next week. Enjoy the photos of the puppy, they are recent, I will put up some of her when she was small but they are on my computer at work at them moment... maybe on Monday.
J.

she's gotten really big 

ain't she cute 

First day

I made it... through my first day with my first class, well sort of. We let the monkeys come in today with their parents and stay for awhile, then we kicked them all out and went for lunch. I made it through the parents and the kids and am excited for tomorrow when I can wear regualer clothes and just have to deal withthe kids and not their parents too! Although I must say that all the parents were very well behaved and no one asked me to turn their son or daughter into a rocket sciencist in a year.

Happy that it's almost time to go home, 4 mintues and counting. Here's hoping that tomorrow goes as well as today did!

Cheers
J.

stupid, stupid, stupid

Hello World,

It has been a long and crazy week, I have been setting up my classroom and planning my year. Those of you who are teachers will relate well to my feeling of .... oh my god I am never going to be ready for the munchkins to arrive!...... My friends here where amazed at my level of exhaustion after two weeks of vacation and then a week at work with no kids, they have no idea how much work was actually accomplished! But it's done my classroom is ready and my first days planned and life is good, I think. I still have to organize what I want to say to those lovely parents when they arrive in my classroom tomorrow morning for their 30 minutes of listen to the teacher babble at you before you leave your children with her tomorrow and she warps their little minds to her western cultural practices, like chewing with their mouths closed and cutting their food instead of putting it all in their mouths at once. Just little things that they need to learn, reading and writing will come along as the year progress' I promise.

Aside from a long week at work I have done nothing else my friend Lynn arrived on my doorstep on Wed. night after a miserable job experience just outside of the city. She hummed and hawed about her choices and in the end decided to go back to South Africa. She left last night and it was lovely to have some company for a few days... someone to chat with and play with the puppy. Who by the way is getting big and last night slept through the night for the first time... what a good dog she is. I hope the sleeping pattern continues as I am tired(literally) of getting up to let her out in the night.

In regards to company my friend Lexi is also coming from Korea next month, very excited about that! It will be great to see her and I even have a day off while she is here, Moon festival. Should anyone else feel the desire to visit, please do! I'd love the company and have the space. Visitors are always welcome.

Not much else to let you know I am off to meet Su for some... can you guess... shopping, her shopping not mine, (yeah right!) and then dinner later. But I must go home first and get the puppy so she can come too, she has one of those nifty little puppy bags and she goes all over the place on the weekends, it works very well for both of us. So I will think of you while I am shopping and enjoying the heat, it is really hot.

Hope all is well in the rest of the world.
love
J.

Things I will never get used to

Okay there are few things here that are driving me crazy and I feel the need to share them with the world because even though they are driving me crazy they are kinda funny.

Tiles, instead of paving sidewalks and other surfaces they put tiles on them, very annoying because tiles are slippery when wet and it rain a lot here. Someone was sleeping in the design department. The other thing is that as the tiles age they come lose and then you walking along on will move on you causing you to trip, slip, or slide and end up on the ground.

Nose picking, if you want to do please do it at home... not on the street corner while waiting for the light to change, that and spitting are driving me crazy.

Heat, it's hot, really hot and all the time, even at night.

Traffic, okay there are lots of things that drive me crazy about the traffic here but my favourite two things are that cars don't stop for red lights, they might stop after it has turned red or if the oncoming traffic is blocking the intersection. And yet pedestrians will stand at a deserted street corner waiting for the light to change so they can cross, there is not a car in sight but yet none of them will cross the street until the light changes. It's very strange.

Bugs, there are heaps of them, everywhere all them time. I found a large spider in my house last night, I have never seen anything so big, the broom and I convinced it to leave after I took a picture. There are cockroaches, mosquitoes and they huge flying red ant things, to many bugs for me.

Puppy obession, okay my dog is cute but they are all crazy about her, she is getting bigger and so the attention getting is not as great as before but they stop and pick her up while we are walking, ask to take her picture, whistle at her to get her attention and generally make the process of walking her very difficult. Last Sunday a mom stopped me so her 2 year old could pet Tai, okay who am I to say no to a cute little kid, then the kid grabbed the leash and tried to walk away with her... she didn't get far.

Space cadets, people are on there own planet when walking on the city streets I am not sure how they survive, people will wander along with scooters honking at them or bike bells ringing in their ears and they don't move, they are practically run over and they still just wandering along contemplating their belly buttons (poopitz gazing). The sidewalks here are huge and it's not like they couldn't move over, bikes and scooters are always on the sidewalks, it's nothing new and yet people seem shocked when the scooter gets frustrated and tries to move them by knocking them over.

Betel nuts, they are kinds they equivalent of chewing tobacco, people, men mostly chew on them and as a result always look like they have a huge wad of gum in there mouth, they die your mouth this horrible shade of red and cause you to spit, (see earlier complaint) except that it is the same red as blood is and so the sidewalks often look someone has just bled to death on them.

Escalator, in the subway there are big signs and announcements that say please leave the left side of the escalator open for people who are in a hurry. Stand on the right, walk on the left... not a hard concept to understand, right. Well why is it that people here don't understand, they stand on the left and then when someone like me tries to get past they get all angry and give me these dirty looks, I don't understand.


Just a few things to complain about, it could be a lot worse though. Other than the general daily annoyances all is well, I have enjoyed my time off and am sad but excited that works starts again on Monday. I am looking forward to it but wish I could still sleep in. Okay must be off, lots to do today.

love
J.

feels like home

Okay so I am vacation and generally just being a lazy bum as a result... and lovin it! So yesterday I went to work to photocopy some stuff and then went to my local Starbucks and when I walked in they were playing Dar Williams ( one of my favorite musicians). It was like walking into a Starbucks at home, Dar Williams, a caramel frappucino and a good book, what more could I need.

Taipei is a lot like home, a lot more so than Seoul was and I am amazed and the differences. I mean yes I am in Asia and there are lots of cultural differences but I can get everything I want here (almost... clothes is an issue, they are ugly or to small).

Hmmm not much to tell you all about, the puppy is good, annoying but good... she definitely makes me rethink motherhood! Maybe I don't want little people. Speaking of little people my niece is officially ours to keep, Riley's adoption went through on Monday so my sister is stuck with her now, she is crawling and pulling herself up on things and generally driving my sister (who has a broken foot at the moment) crazy, in a good way of course. Riley seems to think that her age and developmental stages (she's 8 months) are not at all linked and is trying really hard to walk long before she is supposed to. Anyway needless to say every one is quite happy that the adoption is now official and they are all heading to Victoria this weekend to visit the grandparents.

Alright back to me, so I am still trying to get internet access at home, it is proving to be more of a challenge than I had anticipated and I probably won't have it till next week. I have no big plans for the coming week, I am hoping to get into the school to start setting up my classroom and such and maybe take another trip to the beach. It's really hot here and as a result I am not to motivated to do much except read in my nice air conditioned bedroom. Nights are better but then I am tired and then there is the puppy that adds to the equation, I can't leave her for to long so I either have to take her or come home to let her out. We'll see what happens, I'm sure I'll tell you all about anything exciting that I do do.

Time in the cafe is up. Be well
J.

Beaches

Did you know that the pacific ocean is more salty over here... Apparently the warmer the water the saltier (chemistry says more salt closer together in warm water than cold) I am not sure about the technical aspect of the whole thing but I can assure that it is saltier here than at home. The waves here are great too!

All that to say that I did make it to the beach yesterday and it was lovely, had lots of fun swimming and lying on the beach. I must admit that it was weird to play in water that wasn't frigid whe you first got in. We just sort of strolled in and it was like a warm shower. Those of you who have been to the southern part of the world know what I am talking about... I didn't really realize that it was possible for the water to be so warm. I mean it would be warmer but it was really warm, oddly as a result not really very refreshing, nice but it didn't cool you off as you would expect it to.

Okay so enough babbling about the water temp. After he beach we rode the bus back to the MRT station and stopped at the 7-11 for some Smirnoff Ices... you can drink in public here so we strolled through the night market and along the board walk drinking, it was really lovely. Being that we were on the coast it was much cooler and the air was a lot cleaner than here in the city. It's only abut 45 minutes away and then a bus ride to get tot he beach were you can swim, sadly I forgot my camera (I've been doing that a lot lately) so there are no photos but I will have to go back so there will be photos eventually.

Alright well enough typing I am off to enjoy the fact that I don't have to work today but am still getting paid... what a novel concept paid vacation is.

J