Oh, the excitement!
Well, no culture shock this week (though slightly lower than normal toleration level for long sermons... i'll get over it)
I just sent in my weekly report, which reminded me that it has been a few days since i reported in here too! Of course, it was the weekend, so i'm sure you were all too busy with your exciting lives to check my blog anyways!
Friday was another school visit, which was a lot of fun! I'm getting excited about teaching... one more week! Though i have a lot of work to do before then!! Friday evening we had a "thanksgiving dinner" here with Jeff and Sherly's small group. We contributed stuffing and sweet potatoes which everyone was quite interested in! We met some really fun kids (the children of one of the teachers we will be working with actually! Everyone is connected here, it's crazy!) And they warmed up to us this time! We went to the night market after the Bible study and when the little boy saw some of his classmates he proudly grabbed my hand as if to show off that he was hanging out with a foreigner, it was so cute!!
Saturday was a long and fun day, we went to a children's program in the morning where we got to spend some time with some of the kids we know! The cutest little girls, Ming Ting and GiGi gave us hugs and let us pick them up, they wanted to be our partners for any song or activity that required one, it was so adorable! I love the kids here, they are just precious! It was great to see Liz, Phil, Jason and Libeck! I realized how much I missed Libeck! She is so great! We had lots of hugs and fun stories to share. The afternoon was teacher training, and the evening was a youth group activity which was interesting! Pastor Dzang was preaching about everything from being a baby to the evils of dating before university! I wish I had a video of him preaching! He is the most energetic and expressive guy! The things he was acting up in his sermon were HILARIOUS! If he ever decided to go into acting he would probably make it big!
Sunday already, I'll try harder to write every day so each day gets a better description instead of a little blurb! Church was kind of long for me due to lack of a translator or a fellow foreigner to whisper too (aren't i terrible?), but Hope was talking to her parents so we left at different times and it ended up being a really full service so we didn't sit together. Fortunately, she sat beside one of the English teachers at the bushiban nearby our house, and was able to fill me in later as to what happened! After church we went for lunch with Jamber (a psychiatrist) and Sabrina(his wife and a teacher we will be working with), their three adorable (but really shy kids) and two more Psychiatrists to a really nice restuarant. In case you are wondering why we know so many psychiatrists, it's not because we are experiencing any mental problems, but because this area has a large mental hospital and a veteran's hospital, so actually, every third person we meet is a Doctor! It's crazy (bwahaha).
After lunch we went to the famous town of Gwang Fu, which is home to an old sugar factory among other things. It is about halfway between here and Hualien. We got to take a ride in an oxcart which was quite an experience! And ate their famous ice cream. It was a fun day but a little tiring.
Speaking of tired, we spent the day wandering around the metropolis of Hualien! Well actually we were chauffered around.... it's really nice that everyone here really wants to take care of us, but I'm worried that they really inconvenience themselves sometimes! We called Peggy before we left to ask her a couple questions about buying a train ticket and she proceeded to drive us to the train station (about 30 seconds from her house), help us buy tickets, and walk us to the platform! She was worried that we might get lost in Hualien, or get ripped off by a taxi driver because we're foreigners, so she called Dr. Su's father to drive us around! We felt really bad about it, but she insisted! So Su Xien Shung picked us up at the train station and drove us to Pizza Hut where we had lunch! Then we wandered around town a bit and even bargained for some shirts! We felt really good about that until we realized that really, we only saved about 85 cents in American money. Next we had Starbucks, mmmmmmmm, and then called Mr. Su to take us to the ocean, it was very beautiful! There is a path above the shoreline with a lot of landscaping that we walked along. Then we went to Carrefour which like a big department store, and I spent too much money... lol that's ok
We met up with Mr. Su again and then went for supper at McDonald's with him and his wife, they are so cute! We tried to pay and she practically pushed us out of the way... it was quite funny actually.
So anyways, here I am in my room that could use a good cleaning (though not as bad as my dorm room back in the day), wondering if I should go to bed or work on the game show we are planning to have on our first day of English "Club" it's going to be so much fun! Though I am wishing for a thrift store right now so i could find a cheesy 70s game show host jacket or something... ah well.
Oh yeah, speaking of our English Club, it will be our first time teaching here! We are holding it in the public library and i believe it has been advertised in the schools as well as in the youth group at this church. We are calling it an "English Club" but it is actually an English Bible study... I don't totally know how i feel about that little discrepancy, but it has been explained to me that not as many people would want to come if they thought it was a formal "Bible study" which it really isn't... we are talking about the bible, but there will be quite a bit of English teaching, and hopefully a lot of fun too! And also if it were adverstised as a Bible study some teens wouldn't be allowed to come, anyways, I am REALLY excited about it, and I hope we do have students come to our first one! Lots of planning and technology work ahead for this week!
I just sent in my weekly report, which reminded me that it has been a few days since i reported in here too! Of course, it was the weekend, so i'm sure you were all too busy with your exciting lives to check my blog anyways!
Friday was another school visit, which was a lot of fun! I'm getting excited about teaching... one more week! Though i have a lot of work to do before then!! Friday evening we had a "thanksgiving dinner" here with Jeff and Sherly's small group. We contributed stuffing and sweet potatoes which everyone was quite interested in! We met some really fun kids (the children of one of the teachers we will be working with actually! Everyone is connected here, it's crazy!) And they warmed up to us this time! We went to the night market after the Bible study and when the little boy saw some of his classmates he proudly grabbed my hand as if to show off that he was hanging out with a foreigner, it was so cute!!
Saturday was a long and fun day, we went to a children's program in the morning where we got to spend some time with some of the kids we know! The cutest little girls, Ming Ting and GiGi gave us hugs and let us pick them up, they wanted to be our partners for any song or activity that required one, it was so adorable! I love the kids here, they are just precious! It was great to see Liz, Phil, Jason and Libeck! I realized how much I missed Libeck! She is so great! We had lots of hugs and fun stories to share. The afternoon was teacher training, and the evening was a youth group activity which was interesting! Pastor Dzang was preaching about everything from being a baby to the evils of dating before university! I wish I had a video of him preaching! He is the most energetic and expressive guy! The things he was acting up in his sermon were HILARIOUS! If he ever decided to go into acting he would probably make it big!
Sunday already, I'll try harder to write every day so each day gets a better description instead of a little blurb! Church was kind of long for me due to lack of a translator or a fellow foreigner to whisper too (aren't i terrible?), but Hope was talking to her parents so we left at different times and it ended up being a really full service so we didn't sit together. Fortunately, she sat beside one of the English teachers at the bushiban nearby our house, and was able to fill me in later as to what happened! After church we went for lunch with Jamber (a psychiatrist) and Sabrina(his wife and a teacher we will be working with), their three adorable (but really shy kids) and two more Psychiatrists to a really nice restuarant. In case you are wondering why we know so many psychiatrists, it's not because we are experiencing any mental problems, but because this area has a large mental hospital and a veteran's hospital, so actually, every third person we meet is a Doctor! It's crazy (bwahaha).
After lunch we went to the famous town of Gwang Fu, which is home to an old sugar factory among other things. It is about halfway between here and Hualien. We got to take a ride in an oxcart which was quite an experience! And ate their famous ice cream. It was a fun day but a little tiring.
Speaking of tired, we spent the day wandering around the metropolis of Hualien! Well actually we were chauffered around.... it's really nice that everyone here really wants to take care of us, but I'm worried that they really inconvenience themselves sometimes! We called Peggy before we left to ask her a couple questions about buying a train ticket and she proceeded to drive us to the train station (about 30 seconds from her house), help us buy tickets, and walk us to the platform! She was worried that we might get lost in Hualien, or get ripped off by a taxi driver because we're foreigners, so she called Dr. Su's father to drive us around! We felt really bad about it, but she insisted! So Su Xien Shung picked us up at the train station and drove us to Pizza Hut where we had lunch! Then we wandered around town a bit and even bargained for some shirts! We felt really good about that until we realized that really, we only saved about 85 cents in American money. Next we had Starbucks, mmmmmmmm, and then called Mr. Su to take us to the ocean, it was very beautiful! There is a path above the shoreline with a lot of landscaping that we walked along. Then we went to Carrefour which like a big department store, and I spent too much money... lol that's ok
We met up with Mr. Su again and then went for supper at McDonald's with him and his wife, they are so cute! We tried to pay and she practically pushed us out of the way... it was quite funny actually.
So anyways, here I am in my room that could use a good cleaning (though not as bad as my dorm room back in the day), wondering if I should go to bed or work on the game show we are planning to have on our first day of English "Club" it's going to be so much fun! Though I am wishing for a thrift store right now so i could find a cheesy 70s game show host jacket or something... ah well.
Oh yeah, speaking of our English Club, it will be our first time teaching here! We are holding it in the public library and i believe it has been advertised in the schools as well as in the youth group at this church. We are calling it an "English Club" but it is actually an English Bible study... I don't totally know how i feel about that little discrepancy, but it has been explained to me that not as many people would want to come if they thought it was a formal "Bible study" which it really isn't... we are talking about the bible, but there will be quite a bit of English teaching, and hopefully a lot of fun too! And also if it were adverstised as a Bible study some teens wouldn't be allowed to come, anyways, I am REALLY excited about it, and I hope we do have students come to our first one! Lots of planning and technology work ahead for this week!
Wow! Sounds like you had a fun weekend, ya busy little beaver!
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