Always an Adventure...

since we have no classes this week, all of our work consists in preparing for next month's classes. What better place to do it than Taipei! haha We're leaving tomorrow and planning to spend about 5 days there, to see Hope's sister before she returns to America, to go shopping, to hopefully talk to some people about next year, to eat Subway and maybe even to go to the zoo! I'm sure we'll do some interesting things, and even get some work done... next week (when we get back) we start a 4 day camp in Fuli (about 25 mins away) and our twice a week class here in Yuli. I randomly decided to braid my hair into little braids yesterday, and it has been a matter of great excitement for all who see me... lol it's fun though, considering the number of people whose hair I've braided this is probably only like the 2nd or 3rd time I've had it done, and the first time i tried it on myself. I have no idea if the back looks terrible.... anyways, I don't have a camera ...

I made a student cry.... He was one of the most outgoing and brightest students in my class, tall for 12 and always smiling. On Friday morning we had a test. As it was nearing its end, I looked up to notice him looking at his hand and writing on his test paper. I was surprised to see this happening, but it looked rather suspicious, so I went over to him and checked his hand. Sure enough, there were vocabulary words written on it. I calmly took away his test paper. I tried to get the Chinese teacher's attention so that she could ask him to explain in Chinese, but she was chatting with a team leader. By the time she went to go talk with him, he was in tears at his desk. I guessed then that there might be another explanation. The teacher took him into the hallway to talk and I graded the test with the class. He scored 100%. The teacher came in and explained to me that he hadn't been cheating. The first question on the test required students to unscramble vocabulary words, and he h...

After our first week of camp, all of the teachers and leaders took a much needed rest at Nanan Waterfall, about a 10 minute drive from Yuli. We played, we ate, we took a million pictures. It was great fun. Now camp is over, and we're planning to head to Taipei on Wednesday.

One more day of camp and then a wonderful (though still busy) rest! This week has been a lot of fun, with fewer students, it has been easier to remember names and get to know them. I have some interesting names, including Lion, Una and Swallow. Many of the students are from Mt. Carmel church or from San Min Jr. High, and it has been a pleasure to see them again. We're preparing for a replay of "Hansel and Gretel" translated in Chinese as "The Candy House" with one of the teens from the church filling in Marcus' role - his chinese is SO good! ;) I guess being Taiwanese helps... The most memorable moment of the day was when I was watching the Enormous Turnip group run through their drama, which opened with a line that I definitely did not recall writing into the original skit... so you can imagine my shock when my 12 year old student began the play with the words "Oh, Shit" anyways, I quickly informed the teacher that that wasn't the appropriate ...

I just received some pictures from Yon Feng's graduation... this is a picture of all the teachers. Especially notice the incredible backdrop, made by the extremely creative 5th grade teacher (the last person in the 2nd row). Also note the purse I am wearing which I'd just been presented as a gift from the school for teaching there.

Yon Feng's graduation ceremony - the students are Amis (aboriginal) 

Yon Feng's grade 6 grads. 

ME in action! ;) 

reverend fun :: artchives :: cartoon display during our first meeting in Yuli we sang a song that had an amusing typo in it, which this comic reminded me of. So we're inside for the day, waiting out a typhoon. So far it isn't too bad, just lots of rain. We got caught in the rain yesterday after going out during a short sunny break. Camp is postponed until tomorrow, and will only last for 4 days. This week we only have around 46 students, much smaller than the other weeks, I hope that will make it more fun, and that because of the smaller number, we can get to know the students better. Well if our power doesn't go out, I'll probably blog some more later (since there's not much else to do!)

when i arrived in my room this afternoon, the temperature read 37 degrees (celsius) another week of camp done...had more great students this week, and our little drama was quite a success Amy and Andrea are coming to visit in an hour or so i'm tired! there might be a typhoon early next week watched Hitch last night, which had some really funny parts, though it was pretty predictable at times... i guess hollywood doesn't really have any new ideas, just keeps trying to recycle the old ones in such a way that they will keep making money

so yeah, camp is here in full force, the first week went suprisingly well, actually made me like Jr. High students again, though there were a few frustrating moments. For the most part the kids were really excited to be there and eager to talk to us (in English or Chinese) there were quite a few of our old students and church kids, which also made the atmosphere a little better (many of them taking the first step in talking to us, participating in class etc.). We had a lot of fun, and I'd have to say one of the highlights was watching them all perform their amazing dramas on Friday afternoon. Though everyone complained that they were too hard, the students pulled it off extremely well! They were highly entertaining, though I think Hope and I were laughing the most! Some of the highlights of the dramas were: the smallest student in my "A" class doubling as a ferocious tree in sleeping beauty... I don't know what was cuter, him hopping out in a tube of brown paper taped...

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan .................................93% Emergent/Postmodern ...........................................82% Fundamentalist ................................................71% Reformed Evangelical ..........................................57% Neo orthodox ..................................................54% Classical Liberal .............................................43% Charismatic/Pentecostal .......................................36% Roman Catholic ................................................32% Modern Liberal .........................

Here are 4 pictures from my class at Dukarel Church. I really like that my coteacher, Lucia, got a lot of shots of the students in mid-activity. In a typical class i'll do a number of activities like these.

More dragon boat pictures. The detail on the boats is really great.

This is a picture of me with one of my Zhuo Feng students and her parents at gruadation. I was randomly called up to present her with this gift. Anyways, she's here at camp this week, which is really cool, though I think it's really hard for her. Camp overall is really fun! Tonight we had a really fun review class, complete with lots of acting on our part, including our ever popular "Is this your dog?" skit, which illustrates emotions. We even got one of our students, Lily, to come up and be our dog for the skit! Afterward, we went to hang out at Euodia , the new centre Dr. Su's organization has just opened. They have a climbing wall which they placed mats underneath, and were allowing students to climb a little. We ended up talking with a bunch of the students for a long time. They are so adorable! Anyways, things are going pretty well, but I'm really tired!

The adorable dance performed by the 3/4 grade students at Zhuo Feng.

The opening of the graduation ceremony at Zhuo Feng. Each student had a candle (possibly made out of wood). Today was our first day of camp! We spent the weekend training the English teachers, who are really fun to spend time with! It has been pretty enjoyable so far. I was suprised today to see a number of my students from last semester at camp, including 4 out of the 6 Zhuo Feng Graduates! Only one of them is in my class, but it's really cool to see them nonetheless. Many kids from church have joined the camp this week, and a couple students from English Club. My first impression of the students was pretty good. If you remember, I was kind of dreading 3 weeks of working with Jr. High students (who I found to be not so fun to teach), but most of the students i met today had a pretty good attitude, and are willing to TRY which is the most important thing! So yeah, I slept for about 3 hours when I got home this afternoon, hopefully I won't be so exhausted the rest of the we...

This photo is taken mostly for tradition's sake. This statue is at Zhuo Feng Elementary, and we first saw it on that bike trip our first week here. You can see the first time we took a photo with him here. Today, I believe he's thinking "Now how did I end up taking these two beautiful girls to graduation?"

I didn't take this picture, but it was on the cd i received from the Yo's (whose camera I borrowed). This is their daughter, Annie, who is about 6 years old, and a beautiful background!

I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.

San Min 7/8. My favorite Jr. High class. In honor of the holiday I saved the picture with students waving Canadian flags I gave them. This has been a pretty busy week so far, though not stressful. We've had singing practice these last two mornings, and have been finalizing our plans for camp and training, which starts tomorrow afternoon. Please pray for us as we begin three weeks of camp. Pray for all of the teachers and staff, as well as the students.