it's amazing how many injuries one sustains when teaching small children. so far in the past two weeks, i have had my foot stepped on so badly that it seriously hurt to walk, i have had to get myself a bandaid at work at least 3 times, i have been hit in the head with a wayward eraser, and once...i had my entire arm closed in the door. granted all these injuries were accidental, but those kids are rough. i'm going to start wearing full body armour and kevlar to work just to be on the safe side.
speaking of work, there are many funny stories to tell. yesterday, in an effort to implement some crowd control, i decided to haul my class outside for some hardcore game-playing time. our classroom has no windows, and 2hrs is quite a long time for them to sit...so, all 11 of us haul out of the school to the park across the street. we all held hands in a huge line and somehow made it across the street. *i must add that jhubei is the windiest city ON THE EARTH and some of them were about to blow away. even my poor ta was freezing to death, and i kept asking if they wanted to go inside, but they were so happy out there that i think they sucked up being "cold" and played anyway.* so there we were, this very ominous group of taiwanese children screaming at each other in english in the middle of this park, in 230498203948 mile an hour winds and i couldn't stop laughing, it was just so much fun! we played a version of red rover where instead of saying "red rover red rover send xxx right over," they had to ask a question in english and the other kid had to answer. needless to say that the boys went nuts over this game, and it was quite entertaining, esp when they kept calling for me and tammy, my ta, to come over! seriously, how much better can this job be. one of my kids gave me this really hilarious envelope that she had made. the front was drawn a picture of me and "KATIE KATIE KATIE LOOK." so i opened it, and inside was a picture of me that said "KATIE KATIE KATIE LOOK." hahaha. they crack me up.
my school is in the tallest building in jhubei city, so yesterday ally and me and some of the kids went to the top to look out at the city! IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL. i can't wait to go up there again with my camera :) i like this city alot.
last tuesday, we had a halloween party at work, which was sooooooo~ funny. i was a ladybug :) all the kids came to school early and i told ghost stories and carved a pumpkin, we played "pin-the-nose-on-the-witch," and trick-or-treated. even some of t
he kids were dressed up! 
he kids were dressed up! 
a couple wknds ago, my friends mary and kristen came to hsinchu to visit me! we had nice weekend of good old fashioned american fun. it was so nice to speak fast, slang english without having to stop and explain after every other sentence, and to have them understand my jokes, and for me to 100% understand what they were saying to me without having to fill in the blanks :) saturday night we went to this really cool restaurant (i guess its name in english is something like "the big teapot"). anyway, i had never been there with people who couldn't read and write chinese, so when they handed us the menu, we just looked at each other and started to laugh (and worry). i ended up having to literally draw a picture of a chicken and go to the counter and play the most epic game of charades yet. we didn't even end up with any food: we got a bowl of really bizarre beef noodles, about 234823098 glasses of iced coffee, and some really strange rice-y things that i'm still not sure what it was. so, this is one of the hilarious things about living in a country where you struggle with the language.........anyway, we spent the weekend shopping and looking for all things jay chou (we were quite unsuccessful) and practicing the song and dance to "sorry sorry sorry" in my apartment. good times were had :)
last wknd, i went to taipei to visit with my friend jayson and his friend tina. we went to danshui (which is this undescribable place in taipei that is sooooooooo~ cool) and then to MACARONI GRILL. yes, there is a macaroni grill in taipei. granted it costs about 3 times as much as in greensboro but who cares? it was so nice to hold a fork and be able to 100% identify what i was eating and oh, it was worth every penny. but it was so surreal- almost everyone in there was western, and they were all speaking english, and even the waitress asked me in english what did i want! the menu was english...for those couple hours i was there, i really felt like i had stepped back into america. it was SO BIZARRE. i can't even describe how strange it felt. it was borderline really creepy, actually. the waitress asked me all the usual questions: do you live here, how long, what do you do, do you speak chinese...and i realised that my answer of "yes i live here" doesn't sound as strange as it used to and that the "do you speak chinese question" can now be answered in chinese with "yes, but not very well" instead of with tears. hmm.
lately, i have been dreaming the strangest things. i dreamed that benjamin franklin was the drummer in a band with fred mertz. i woke up and i was really freaked out by my subconsious.
TAIWAN WEATHER REPORT: fantastically debilitating winds, and...dare i even say it...almost cold.
ps i have lived in taiwan for 4 months. WHERE IS THE TIME GOINGGGGGGG AND WHY IS IT GOING SO FAST.
wow, this post is really random and follows no trajectory at all. sorry ^^
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