Hey, where is Jessica?

If you are wondering where I'll be for the next few weeks My dear roommate Mary has blogs popping up ever so often telling everyone where she is. And in almost every case it will be in the same place, so feel free to go on over and find out.

I'll be cruising around Taiwan, and Thailand, doing all sorts of cool stuff, only if  Typhoon Fengshen doesn't stop me first. 

Tug-of-War

This last week of school we have been doing our own version on the summer Olympics. Everything went of swimmingly, well until the last day with the last group.  After the closing ceremonies there was a big Tug- of- War. Class against class, Students against teachers, Big against the little.  But at the end we had some-more time on our hands and did boys against girls.  About 20 plus on each side, it had the looks of one killer tug. But right after the whistle blew it was over. The rope snapped in half. I have always dreamed of such a thing, and it was exactly how I thought it would be, for the first 2 seconds.  Then the cries started. I turns out when people fall on top of one another, it hurts, who knew.  But for those 2 seconds it was magic. 

Who Knew that Asian Kids where so strong!

Good Bye Miss Laws

For most of the last six months I have been teaching AK with Katie.  She was the head teacher of Kindergarten, the post that I am now taking over.  She was full of new ideas that helped me become a better teacher, and kept me from  wanting to kill the children at the end of everyday.  She was sanity in the AK. She was the first of our group to leave and it made the end seem so very more near than expected.  I miss you Katie, and so do the kids, they all asked about you today.  When I said that you where back home they all cried and laid on the ground for the first 20 min of class. Not really but you could tell that they were sad, but that could have made for a better opening experience then usual, hahaha, you know what I mean.
All of her adoring fans.
Even I got teary eyed watching this, good luck Katie.

Miss Jessie's Red Specks

Since I'm is Taiwan for the next 6 months, it was about time I stated to look the part. This last week I bought a pair of super awesome red specks from the night market, and well, I rock them.

But it turns out that when I were them to Kindergarten everyone laughs. Even though these children mock me everyday, the glasses are something more tangible.   Since they were laughing at me for waring crazy glasses, I made them put them so everyone could share in the experience.  Mostly I bribed them with, "If you ware my glasses you can take a picture with Miss Jessie's camera".  It worked and they look terrific.  And my  camera was neither dropped, stepped on, or mutated in any way, so it was a win win for everyone. 
This is Jack, he was the one of the first ones that I convinced that they where cool. He's cute, but in his case looks are very much deceiving.
On the other hand Elva is cute no matter way you look at her.  She is leaving for a year and well AK will not be the same without  her.

What you get attached to

About 2 weeks ago in AK (Afternoon Kindergarten) Katie was making magic wands (how she comes up with these super cute crafts after being here a year is beyond me) and  ordered ribbon to decorate them with.  But as it with ordering things here you sometimes don't get exactly what you order.  When opening the pink ribbon there was about 8 in of it. Now how do you decorate 16 kids magic wands with 8 in of pink ribbon? Answer, you don't.  So Katie being the total AK craft disaster veteran  that she is, improvised, and they turned out looking magical as always.  But what to do with that 8 in piece of ribbon? Katie after explaining the mishap in Art, gave it to me. So I tied it in a bow and ask, like a good AK teacher should, who wanted it. One of the only people that raised her hand was Amy.  I put the ribbon under one of her hair clips and she couldn't be happier.  But day after day in AK Amy shows up with that pink ribbon in her hair, its funny what a small thing it seemed like as the time, but how much it meant to her.

The Good Parts

Just in case so of you were wondering what Jessica was doing and didn't have time to call here are the good parts of the Last 2 months here, well some of them.

This is Ershway the place with the monkeys that we went, we hiked up stairs for about a half an hour and got this, it was worth it all, even with all the complaining, mostly from me, about being hot and sweaty.
Another trip was Lukong a traditional tourist trap, with all sorts of touristy crap to buy. Good thing I'm a tourist or I would have gotten really annoyed with the real thing living up to the Tourist guide four stars. But the shoes were cool.
The wine jar wall, we spent a good amount of time looking for that thing who knew that it would be behind a police station in the parking lot, and you couldn't even climb on it, it was bummer.
Oh, Mayday. My Taiwanese music addiction.  Most of the girl teachers went saw them in concert that ended up being amazing with 5 encores and a two hour concert being extend to four. LOVE. I even bought an new outfit and had my hair done for the outing, which was an experience in its self.
I was really, really excited, just in case you did not get that from the picture.
Mayday was not my first Taiwan concert, Andre Bocelli was. It was a wonderful night of Italian music in Taiwan and being surrounded for, maybe the first time, people who could not understand what people were saying , some how it made us almost equals for about two hours. 

Before we got to Ershway I played on some old trains, fun fun.
Walking up to the monkeys, and up and up....
The monkeys were cute, but the signs said that they had a kind of virus that if it infected a human was 75% fatal. So don't be fooled by the innocent act, he is a killer.
One weekend the whole crew went up to Taipei and yes we stuffed 5 teachers in  the back of a taxi. We were laughing and so was the driver.The first and I think the last pair of shoes I will buy in Taiwan. Being surrounded by feet binding chop-sticks has its draw backs, like paying a ridiculous sum for shoes that tore my feet apart that same day. (** The feet binding statement is false, but sometimes it feels true)
The Temple  Taipei reflected in the visitor center.
We went on a hike on that trip to Taipei called Elephant mountain.  It offered amazing views of Taipei 101, and the heat of course, don't forget the heat.
Well that is bit of what I have been up to, not even all the good parts. But I'll be here in Taiwan for the next six months just falling more in love with this country. ( Ha ha ha ha get it I'm in a LOVE sculpture in Taiwan, get it, whatever I'm cheesy )