Always an Adventure...

I didn't have the opportunity to celebrate much on Canadian Thanksgiving except for a phone call home where I got passed around to a bunch of family members. Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Taiwan, but around the American date, more Thanksgiving-y stuff becomes available at places like Costco which sell turkey. On Thursday, Sylvia, a coworker who I work with at one of my schools, invited me to her church. They were having a Thanksgiving service/outreach event with a turkey dinner afterward. The service was good, but quite long, with a number of testimonies from different people in the church. The dinner included turkey, tofu, sushi rolls, red bean cakes, you get the idea... but it was a fun time and I got to meet the members of Sylvia's small group, which holds its meetings in English! Here are some pictures taken by others to give you a taste of my celebrations. But the celebrations weren't over there! On Saturday a bunch of us gathered at a co-worker's house for...

In case you couldn't tell, I love my job! Here are some highlights from the semester: Teacher, it's raining inside. (Water from the air conditioner was dripping onto his desk) When students were supposed to do a writing task, some hadn't quite gotten started yet, so I'd pick up their pen for them and put in their hand as a gentle reminder to get a move on! Of course I'll put it into their right hand since 90% of students are right handed and not lefties like me. Once I did this and the student asked... "Umm, can I write with my left hand?" which got a lot of laughs from the students around, and from me. Maybe it was one of those 'you had to be there' things. Practicing the past tense... "Before class today did you go to the bank?" - Yes, I robbed it! "Before class today did you put on makeup?" - No, because I'm a NATURAL BEAUTY! And finally, during a game I've been playing lately, known by some as "psychiatrist...

Well, with Christmas only 32 days away, I thought it would be a good time to adopt a more wintry theme. Let me know if you have any problems viewing it! I received a package from my parents last week with some Christmas gifts in it! My mom wrapped them so I'll have something to open on Christmas. Isn't that sweet? Oh that reminds me, I should be putting my package together pretty quick too. Tonight I went to a new English fellowship that's starting up here in Yilan. It was really cool. It's held every Sunday night and really had the feel of a house church, though it had a number of seekers too. I had an interesting conversation with someone who said he didn't believe the Bible because he's a vegetarian... Anyways, another busy week coming up, i need to finish up my Thanksgiving lesson before bed!

I'm on my way to an English Bible study I teach at every week along with some other teachers. It's actually a really big event with over 300 students each week. It starts with a warm-up, music, and drama before being split into small classes for the second hour. I teach one of the small classes and a couple of weeks ago, I took part in the drama - even though my acting was a little rusty! It was our rendition of 'The Parable of the Lowest Seat at the Feast'. Hazel and I were two clueless ladies who sat at the head table because we thought we were VIP's! The "bride" and "groom" are outraged when we suggest that we can squish! "We don't mind" And finally, after we get kicked out, worrying about where we'll sit.... last words: I want my red envelope back! (Red envelopes are gifts of money given at weddings in Taiwan instead of actually buying gifts for a couple.) Thanks to Phil for the photos!

I can't believe it's Wednesday already! Time has flown by, and it's almost the weekend again. I had a good time at ETA and had lots of inspiring ideas, though I had to sift through a lot of other stuff to get them. I enjoyed the conference as my first since my last year in college. I was excited to go to the workshops, but found that some of the workshops were not exactly what was promised. There were a few that were more advertisement for a certain textbook than teaching tips, some that were grad students presenting their papers, and one that was only peripherally related to the title. But there were also some excellent presenters, and some extremely academic ones. I think I need to relearn some of the TESOL lingo before going next year! I took tons of notes though, I almost felt like I was back in college. I got to hang out with my friends from Yuli, Robert and Michelle, and they came to Friday Night Live too! I haven't seen them for ages. On Saturday night I met up...

Iverson breaks arm playing basketball! Ok, so it's not huge sports news, since it's the 16 year old "Iverson" in my class, whose chosen name implies his love for the sport. But having broken a bone in the last year, my heart goes out to anyone in a wheelchair, cast, sling, or on crutches. So best wishes to Iverson, who really did break his arm playing basketball... poor kid! And since I was going to take a nap, but keep coughing (which is why I'm blogging instead), here is a summary of some of the English verb tenses I was teaching today. Simple Present I am sick. Simple Past I got a cold one week ago. Simple Future I will still be sick tomorrow. Present Continuous I am coughing a lot. Present Perfect I have had a sore throat all week. Present Perfect Continuous I have been coughing all day. Present Perfect I have been sick since last week. Past Perfect I had taken some medicine before class, but it stopped working halfway through. Future Perfect By tomorrow I wi...

Sniffle.. I'm slugging through my yearly cold this week, and the constant rain is not helping much (actually it's one of the suspects), I've been extremely thankful for microphones in class this week! I was about 15 minutes into my class last night when two tall, white people walked in and sat down! It was very unexpected since it's an English Bible study for ESL learners... later I discovered that they're friends of the pastor who were visiting Yilan. Turns out they're missionaries from Finland who are working down in Southern Taiwan. I don't have any pictures unfortunately, but it was really neat to have them in my class, and the rest of the students were really eager to chat with them. They were really interesting. In Taiwan for 18 years, then went back to Finland, and spent 2 years doing Chinese ministry in Israel, and are now back in Taiwan! I'll have a chance to chat with more teachers this weekend as I head over to the ETA (English Teacher Associa...