Cement Slides

All the parks in Taiwan have playgrounds like in the US, but there are a few major differences. The one that always baffles me is the cement slide, which does not look comfortable. But I tried one, and my butt was fine!

Sexy Nightwear

This is scandalous...

Death Floor

As you may know, and as my mom has so often points out, many buildings in the US lack a 13th floor because of superstition. In Mandarin speaking countries there is a similar omission: the 4th floor. In Chinese 4 and death are the same word just with different tones, so it is unappealing to say I live on the death floor. In hospitals especially the floors go right from 3rd to 5th. In addition, the 5th floor is often the baby floor because it is better to bring new life on the real 4th floor than to have the really sick people be cursed.

Lots of Balls

I think a lot of our lessons were written by non-native English speakers, and sometimes they end up with some ridiculous stories. For example, today my roommate Katie has to teach this lesson about Lisa's balls. Try teaching that with a straight face.

In all classes to induce the right response we ask questions like "Is Sue tall? Is she? Is she?" This is intended to avoid an answer like "Yes it do." So today maybe Katie can ask "Does Lisa have big blue balls? Does she? Does she?"

Drama Camp

This month I am teaching summer camps to kids at Gloria during the day. I am doing 3 weeks of songs and rhymes, and last week I put on a drama camp. This sounds kind of ridiculous as I have never taken part in any form of drama, but really what it came down to was me simplifying some plays and having my kids go wild. I did the true story of the three little pigs, Snow White, Goldilocks, and some fables with sock puppets. The last day I let the kids make up their own play. The story was about a zoo where the animals revolt against the mean zoo boss. Obviously the charge is headed by a king robot. Here are some pictures of their cuteness.

Everyday I had them make props for the play. They got very into it and were really creative.

Some of the kids before Snow White. The girl on the right is Snow White. Her mom watched the entire camp from the window and would come in at break time to give her daughter lectures on how to act better and to fix her costumes. The boy in the middle is the hunter - he has a quiver with arrows on his back. The boy on the left is the price. He has a sword and shield.

This girl was the 7 dwarfs. She had a face plate for each one.

Anna the turtle in the Zoo Fight (the play I let them make up).

Willy the Zoo Boss in jail.

No zoo is complete without a king robot.

Stuart the pet lion in the made up play.

One day I made my kids do a photo shoot. I think this was 'I found stinky tofu under my bed'.

Gondola, Danshui, and Shida

Yesterday I went to Taipei with two of my Taiwanese co-teachers and my roommate Katie. We started the day at a gondola outside the city that goes between mountain peaks. It is a nice escape from the craziness and crowds of Taiwan, and has a gorgeous view of both the mountains and the city while you are surrounded by trees. After the gondola we headed to Danshui, a spot where a river meets the ocean. There is a boardwalk packed with people and shops, and there are tons of food stands and restaurants. I even saw a street performer making a Bart Simpson puppet dance to Play That Funky Music Whiteboy. After Danshui we headed to the Shida night market and did some serious shopping.

On the train with my co-teachers Linda and Viola

Linda and Viola on the gondola

Me, Linda, Katie, and Viola at a restaurant in Danshui. Apparently it is very traditional to pose in these windows facing the water.

I have been resisting a lot of the fashion since I got here, but I now realize a long shirt and leggings is the most comfortable thing ever and plan on making the most of it. This is my best Taiwanese pose.

Would you like some rock sugar burns a chicken?

Nice view in Danshui. Look at all the shui!

Giant sized ice cream in Danshui.

They are delicate ladies.

Chinese Name

All over Taiwan you can buy personalized items like stickers and stamps with your name on it. I have been wanting a Chinese name for a while now, so with the help of my Taiwanese friends I picked my own:

愛麗山

This is said 'ai li shan' and translates into 'love pretty mountain'. Although it is not a real name in Chinese, ai li sounds like Ali, and I am tall like a mountain so I thought it was appropriate.

While on a role with my Chinese, my friend Viola taught me a tongue twister. In Chinese there are 5 different tones meaning you can say the same exact word in 5 different ways and it has 5 different meanings. This fact has put a major damper on my speaking skills thus far as I am incapable of hearing a difference between the tones, let alone being able to pronounce them correctly. The tongue twister translates to "Mom rides a horse. The horse is slow. Mom scolds the horse.' and uses 3 tones of the word ma:

mā mā qí mǎ, mǎ màn

mā mā mà mǎ.

Another cool thing about Chinese is that often the characters look like a picture of the word they represent. For example horse looks like a mane, legs, and the tail of a horse:

馬