back to reality (kind of)

in a couple weeks i have another week long break! they didn't tell us we were even going to a have a break at all.

more time to party with these guys

so i spent all day planning a trip to thailand (skymiles work with vietnam air) but figured it would be slightly out of my budget. so close. sad day. next time.

this is how i felt inside when i learned couldn't go to thailand

I'm seriously considering living in shanghai or beijing for a few months. there's lots of jobs and there's other English-speaking YSAs

nunnery + garden. what is a nunnery anyway? i thought that was catholic

We started auditions for Shakespeare's 12th night. i thought it was so funny when the students got over dramatic in the audition. even tho it was bad acting i gave them higher points just for some comic entertainment.

recordings to come

i also thought this horse was funny

I went to costco! it's expensive here. it's much cheaper to just eat out. 

costco is like a tourist attraction here in taiwan. 

if they want to see a real tourist attraction they should go to costco in utah. now that's a real cultural experience

look at the trash sorting! i bet half of these end up going to the same place anyway

My first day back at regular teaching was a surprise (it came a day early.) Our school is so disorganized! You really can't plan anything in advance. Even with that, the students must be getting high math and science scores because the parents pay a lot for them to be there

this is beautiful.

So they change the schedules and rooms all the time and have random activities without telling us. like today in class the students were playing with bloody machetes and giant lobster claws in the back of the room. they also decided to change the textbook without telling us.

looks like they are building a hipster community

Some of the students are hilarious. they say the funniest things and make me laugh a lot

not 1, not 2, not 3,  but 6D

In my new classes class we spent like 20 minutes discussing the principle of agency and how they can choose to disbehave and suffer consequences or behave well and have fun in class. It was very Lehi-like

why is he breathing in a sheep?

I have a point system that is very rewarding to students who behave well and very harsh to students who misbehave. I pretty much have the flexibility to give them the grades I want, so I'm going to give anyone who behaves well and participates a good grade no matter what they score on tests. the good students will also get all sorts of free time and privileges

the fish eat the dead skin off your feet!

I think I'm going to sneak in a bunch of self-improvement/TED talk kinda things into each of my classes. just cuz i can! These kids need to see that there's more to life than school and American pop culture.

he picks the lettuce. she picks his ear

Our lil group of byu teachers here does everything together. it's funny. we work, play, have all church functions and eat every meal together.

eating out takes a significant amount of our time. it's an event. i haven't had time to do my laundry all week!

So I signed up for erhu lessons. it's a chinese stringed instrument. the master told me, "if you give me three months, I'll give you the world." I was sold

Yesterday as we were leaving, our boss said, "no work tomorrow afternoon and we're in a parade friday." it's gonna be fun. we get costumes!