a very merry christmas (and hopefully a happy new year!)

what a merry christmas it was :)

i spent a week in the south of taiwan with some taiwanese friends that studied at uncg. first, i went to kaohsiung to see my friend annie. we had such a good time! after i got there, we went to ken ting, which is a beach town in the very south of the island. the weather was like summer, the food was amazing, and the scenery was GORGEOUS. even we went to all the cape no. 7 (a really famous taiwanese movie of which fan yi chen is the star) places of filming! DREAM COME TRUE even though i didn't find fan yi chen. we hung out in kaoshuing for the rest of the time. i learned to drive a scooter (even though i almost crashed a wall and a temple), went to loads of really traditional taiwanese dinners, ate sashimi for the first time, and caught up with old friends and made new ones. GREAT HOLIDAYS. it was really weird not to be home with my family at christmas, really not to celebrate at all...it was weird for the weather to be so hot, no christmas decorations anywhere...but the hospitality of the taiwanese was enough to make up for it. i had such a good time, and it will be a christmas i will never ever forget. pictures to follow ;)

lately i have been feeling tremendous guilt about my poor chinese. i almost want to cry when people speak english to me...i feel so guilty, coming into another country and having people speak english to me. i am trying to learn chinese really hard, and i practice whenever i can...but its only been 5 1/2 months and my chinese is still so poor...

and man, its been 5 1/2 months. 2009 is almost over! where has it goneeeeeeeee?! it has been quite a year: full of wonder and terror and fun and hard times and life changing experiences and a million laughs and tears and it has been one of the best years of my life. i have completed student teaching, graduated from uni, moved to another country, started my first big girl job and gotten my first big girl paycheck (and started getting my first big girl bills), started learning a new language, SAW FAN YI CHEN in concert :), learned to spend holidays alone, survived the hottest weather EVER, and put my feet in the pacific ocean. how can 2010 be any better?! i can only hope.

i will be stalking fan yi chen on new years eve...hopefully this time i can get a picture so you can all meet the love of my life. yay.



also, the best moment of the whole time i've been in taiwan happened to me today. one of my most wild and crazy kindergarteners who i can never get to sit down or speak english came up to me today, gave me a big hug and said, in the most clear english i've heard, "katie teacher, i missed you." i almost cried. even though this kind of teaching that i do in taiwan is quite different than the kind i was prepared for in university, the reasons i do it are still fundamentally the same.