Push Ups

During one afternoon while I was gathering quotes for the Kindergarten, something across the hall was a little bit more interesting. In Lindsey's class one of the little boys likes a little girl in the class next door and in order to impress her he decided to do some push ups. Of course when you are 7 years old push ups are bit difficult so he was doing something that looked like a worm. So not wanting this boy to embarrass himself further, I showed him how to do a real push up. Then the whole class started to do it. It was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time.




The only bad part was when about 7 boys dog piled on top of one of the only two girls in class, poor Melody.

My last Day in Gym

I've had the joy of teaching gym the last 6 weeks. We jumped, spun, rolled on the ground and pretend to be all-sorts of animals, and mystical creatures. The secretaries think that because I'm a girl I can't do the same things the boys do in gym. In some part this is true. I can not do a push up with 8 small children on my back, or other amazing feats of strength( Thanks Joe and Steve you have ruined them for life). But while boys have arm strength I have mine in my hips. So I decided to give my kids a treat on my last day in gym and let them ride the teacher.
It started off well with just one at a time, but them kids started to jump on willy-nilly and I soon lost all control.
But the end of the fun I had some many little hands and feet grabbing on to me they didn't care what they were holding on to( hence the pained look on my face). I'm sad that I don't get to crawl around on the floor pretending to be a spider, or roll around like a pumpkin, but there still is opening and closing to mess around with, so all is not lost.

James Bond

The New James Bond

I went to see the new James Bond film tonight, and came out of theater feeling neither motion sick by the high speed car chases , non anoyed by a Bond Bimbo. Unlike like most Bond movies where the Bond is understuctable, the new Bond has depth and scars. Though he keeps the suave, sharp shooting, tux waring, arrogant persona, he becomes human. I saw in an interview, that Daniel Craig is trying to bring the dark and the light into the role, and he dose it it wonderfully without jeopardizing the studlyness of "Bond". It makes James Bond more of a believable person, and less of a superhero. Full of anger, revenge driven rage which builds and tells a story, and instead being annoying makes the viewer glad when the bad guy finally gets shot in the face, or stabed, or punched, or foced off a cliff, or brunt to a crisp. And the kind of villain is a bit different as well. The villains are more relevant to today, which makes them more compelling. He is not selling nuclear weapons to Russia anymore( hey, we all know they have them any way), wearing an eye patch( which can still be cool), petting a cat(which is more fruity than cool), or stopping a giant death ray. They are buying water rights and extorting governments. And Bond is helping put down governmental corruption and helping others fulfill their personal vendettas. It's a new gentler bond, that can still kill you with no more than a single glance, and I like it, and totally recommend it.

Tricker Tricker

Warning: this post includes an obscene amount of pictures

This last weekend was Halloween all over the world. Everyone celebrates there version a bit differently. In Spain and Mexico they call it "Dia De Los Muertos ", the Day of the dead. Here In Taiwan they have a month called ghost month which usually is as close as they get to Halloween. But this year in at Berhan we had our selfs a (sorta) real American Halloween.

I took it upon myself to plan 2 separate events at the school this year.( What was I thinking?) The first was for all the morning classes, these included Morning Kindergarten and Kindergarten Basic Reading. While I was trying to teach the kids about tricker treating though-out the week I would ask ever so often, " what do you say when we go up to the door?", most of the time the response was "Tricker, Tricker". It was pretty much one of the cutest things ever.

When the day came I was excited to dress up, but I also wanted to see what the kids would come as, because for the majority of them this would be there first American Styled Halloween. Most of the kids were excited to do something new, and get candy, but for one sad looking pumpkin it was a troubling event. Sharleen to put it nicely looked out of it the whole day. While others got in to there costumes, she walked around aimlessly probably wondering why people insisted having pictures taken with her. I didn't see her smile once the whole day the poor kid.




The Afternoon kids had a fun time too. But they just weren't as cute as the younger kids.



( he didn't have costume when he came to school and told his teacher he wanted one. She pulled out a balloon and told him he was fat man. It would have worked too but he kept on stroking it and laying his hands on it in a rather maternal way. So he turned out that he ended up just being a pregnant man. It was hilarious.)

It was exhausting affair, and after a whole day scheduled Halloween Fun the teachers went out to Karaoke. We had fun with the random English songs that were available, and the crazy music videos that went along with most of them.



This was an Asian version of "Yellow Submarine" it was so funny.

I had a blast, but at the end of the day I was just happy to not be a cat any more.

I am a Kindergarten teacher

I am a kindergarten teacher, and as such I ....

Make a complete fool out of myself for the amusement of small children. Examples include Tuti Tot, pretending to be frogs, snakes, witches, and rolling pumpkins.


Get to make complete fools out of the small children that I teach for my amusement. Examples include Tuti Tot, pertending to be frogs, snakes, witches, and rolling pumpkins.



am on the receiving end of a lot of uncomplicated love.


get to make projects that even a mother wouldn't love.

get to make projects that mothers will always keep in a box somewhere,and when they take it out they will smile.

Get to become a child myself for 3 hours( sometimes more) a day.

Get to hang out with some of the cutest kids in the world for 3 hours(sometimes more) a day.


Have to become more of adult then I have ever been.

would be dead a few times over if looks could kill.


know all the songs and hand motions to Dr. Jeans Favorites CD.

want to punch Dr. Jean in the face for coming up with all the songs on that CD.

have learned how to deal with, whiners, cry babies,and kids who don't listen.


have learned that even though the kids won't always remember me, I will always remember them.

Enrichment, and a movie

This Weekend the ward invited the wife one of a man that one of the teachers does a language exchange with (Whao!) to teach us how to make dumplings. We met at the chapel near near the school and had a good old time, and ate dumplings till we though we where going to burst.


It turns out that most people that attend Berhan are related some how. So we also had 3 of the kids we teach there as well( were all cousins).

After we got back we all were hanging out digesting when in walks in our boss, no knock, no call, no warning. She dose own the school that we live on the 4th floor of but still it was strange. I guess she was trying to figure out how to get a huge water pump up to the fourth floor. She decided that my room would be the easiest. She had some workers pop out my window, move my stuff and drill in my ceiling so they could hoist it up though my window. But in the end it didn't work out and I was left with my room in disarray and concrete dust on the floor.


Later in the Afternoon I and another teacher when to the the new Carrefour in Feng Yuen( eat your hearts out old teachers). It was almost like being home, except for all the Taiwanese. Carrefour is French Superstore and has lots of European foods to tied me over till I get back home.

And that Evening we went to see a new Taiwanese move called Cape 7. It was cute, but could have been a lot better. But the best part of the evening was getting my picture taken with James Bond. He is the epitome of manliness. I can't wait to see the movie when it comes out next month.