We're Back!

It's been a bittersweet experience coming back to Taiwan-mainly because we left the States before raspberry season. J/K We really enjoyed our time at home-home (because Taiwan is home, but it's not really home-home). It was SO great eating all that rhubarb, enjoying the non-city life, and hanging out with family and friends and not having to worry about when the last bus would leave for the night. Yet again our lives are filled with sprinting to the bus stop just to realize that we missed the little bus that drops us off close to our compound (it only runs every 4 hours), gecko poop accumulating everywhere in the house as well as the most irritating ants (I'm determined to keep all of our food from the States ant-free....it's getting harder every day!), and working-go figure that we have to work.
So, I love my students! Yeah, it's only the 3rd week, but I enjoy them so much more than last year's class. It's still weird seeing my class last year walk into 6th grade and not my classroom. This year I have 11 students (also makes my life more enjoyable with less students come less grading!). 2 of those students are girls. These kids are really energetic, but they are excited to learn. I was showing them a powerpoint at the end of lunch time, and they kept begging me to keep going even when it was time to quit. Or during reading time, they also persuade me to read another chapter when it's definitely time to quit. Sometimes I know they just don't want to move on to the next class, but it amazes me how much interest there is even on what I'd consider "boring lessons." But with energy comes a lot of noise and excitement. I'm still trying to get used to having students that are not only taller than me, but are also a whole lot louder. On the second day of school right before lunch, 2 boys just stood right beside me. I felt like I was going to become a Mrs. T sandwich. (They're both much taller, bigger, and louder). But they both just wanted to pray. It was great seeing kids interested and excited to pray.

- That was my first attempt at taking a "nice" picture on the first day of school. As noticed with the next picture, I gave up achieving that "nice" picture.

Anyways, this year is going much smoother than last year, and I actually feel I have a lot of free time, but that'll probably all end next week when I get my book and materials for a distance learning class I'm going to start taking. Oh, the life of a teacher...always learning something. I'm taking a class Gender Matters- How Boys and Girls Learn. It seems like the perfect class to take with a year like this. Unfortunately, Zach doesn't seem to have much freetime at all. He is in class from 8:00-4:30 with breaks inbetween. It was nice having him come home early last year.

Well, like I mentioned above, there are a bunch of things that I miss from home-home, but it was great coming back here and being familiar with the city already. Of course there are still new places to explore. Yesterday we got a huge icee thingy at Ice Monster- picture below. It took us about 3 hours to get there, walking through crowded, humid humid humid streets. Nothing ever felt better!
According to Zach, the following are the best things about being back in Taiwan: being back to our "first" home together, passion fruit, stringy tofu and seaweed concoction (note pic below...Zach loves this stuff, I on the other hand think it tastes fine but it just reminds me too much of snakes-the look and feel, but he cooks it so I guess I don't really care), Bible studies with our pastor, feeling like I (Zach speaking) have a mission or purpose-I agree (vacation is nice, but you get tired of not working, and yet when I'm working I get tired of not vacationing. Interesting.), happy with my (Zach) students,
I like experimenting with tofu. Just tonight I made lemon tofu bars. Despite not having 2-3 ingredients, they turned out pretty good. But I have to face the consequence of having a hot house due to the oven that just won't cool off. Tomorrow night I'm planning a date with Zach. We found a place exploring yesterday that sold pitas and I'm going to try to make a tofu hummus. So, speaking for both Zach and I, we will miss the abundance of tofu here when we leave.
In the grocery store last week, we hit sample day. It was amazing. I felt like it was Friday at Supersaver in Lincoln, where I used to get my supper from the samples. I sampled yummy, yummy ice-cream, bread, and bipassed quite a few samples. Well, I was in search of a new type of soy milk when a lady offered me a sample. Why not try this weird looking
juice. Mmmm....it twas so good. I offered Zach some. Later upon reading, we discovered that it was fermented apple milk. After learning that the juice didn't sound so exciting. Did I mention that it was a real ugly cloudy brown color. Oh well, I'll just skip that the next time I come to sample day.
When I started this I wasn't sure what to write about, but as you have read, I have written oodles and gaboodles. One last quickie....Zach is having his students write math journals 3 times a week. I read through them on Friday. One student commented how she now knows the word flabergast and some other crazy word thanks to Mr. Timothy. Sounds like a fun math class to me! Have a great morning everyone!