Feeling like we are in Atlanta...

The rain seems never-ending as of lately.  We have experienced our third typhoon.  Thankfully, school was not cancelled.  James and I could not handle another full day in our small apartment!  Is this what it has been like all summer in Atlanta?!  On our way home from a wet run this morning, James and I saw the thermometer was 23 degrees Celsius or 74 degrees Fahrenheit.  We were freezing!  In fact, for the first time since we have been here, we turned on our hot water heater in order to have a warm shower.  So, here's a blog dedicated to our recent limited adventures in the rainy weather plus a few extra things from my teacha Rachel life....

I received my first real gift from a students last week!  Not that I cam competing with James or anything.  I would need a lot of gifts to catch up to him :)  My vegan chef student traveled to southern Taiwan last week. She brought me back a bracelet from a temple.  She picked out this one for me specifically because it brings protection.  She is in my class that was cancelled the day I fell down the stairs!  Well, so far so good.  I have been blessed with protection and assurance that one student and her mother like me!

One of my classes has older students.  Probably around 6th grade.  I struggle to find ways to teach the simple lessons without incorporating silly games, but they are not advanced enough to do in-depth assignments during class.  I finally had a very successful class with them!  They are learning: first, then, next, after that, and finally. We did a group fun word chain in class on the board.  I had them write a funny story in groups of 4 using at least five of the words from the word chain.  They loved it! I liked this story because it was about a students named James and it included fun drawings.  

Friday was the first day of school in Hsinchu.  At my school, our schedules changes, new classes were starting, a new/old teacher started (he used to work at this branch, then moved for a year, and now he is replacing the teacher that left), and the school was a mad house!!!!  For the most part, I enjoyed my two new classes and think they will be good in the long term.  However, I think the students were feeling pressure and stress from their first day back at school.  I even had one class start 20 minutes late.  I went to the classroom and no one was there!  In the first class, I had three students cry!  What?!  They cried over other students cheating while playing a game.  Weird.  I thought the class was having a blast and then someone starts crying.  Ohh well.  By the way, it was all boys that cried!  Ha.  I felt like a new teacher again with the two new classes and moving to a different classroom.  

After the crazy day on Friday, I awoke on Saturday to read a relevant prayer to me in my women's devotional book.  I liked it so much that I wrote it all nice and puuuurteee on paper and hung it on the wall. It's a good reminder for me and why I wanted to work with children (although I question that desire some days).  I thought some of friends with new babies and children would enjoy the prayer so here it is - 

Just to add to the student/school section of the blog on this rainy Sunday afternoon, I often have dreams about my students and being in the classroom.  It's never anything weird or crazy.  In fact, most of the dreams seem real.  Like I dreamed a couple of nights ago that my favorite student in one of my classes decided not to attend Shane English School any more.  I suppose school and my students are always on my mind!

Earlier in the week, we visited the statue park in Hsinchu after a morning run.  This place was so random!  We entered the park at a temple with a good view of lots of green trees.  The, we walked down into the trees.  The place was not well-maintained and no one else was down there despite the tour bus parked outside the temple.  None the less, we enjoyed seeing the huge amount of random statues.  Ohh Taiwan...everything is so random here!

James with the dinosaur. 

Ohh no!!!

Just going for a ride. 

The sign says "Mythical Beast."  I am so scared!

Unfortunately, we did not have a coin to see if this machine works.  I told James that he would probably make a wish and we would have something crazy happen like in the Tom Hanks movie, "Big." 

Where's the "say no evil" monkey?

Go USA!

Hmmmm.....

View from the temple

We had no problem finding the place with a statue of that magnitude!

Saturday was a depressing rainy day.  James and I actually went to a gym for a long workout!  We could handle the rain no more! We can only spend so much time at Big City. Well, the rain decided to give us a small window of opportunity to go outside, so we went to the Hsinchu zoo.  The zoo is small (it took us exactly 58 minutes to see the whole zoo), but it costs about 66 US cents to visit!  It's not the best maintained zoo and the animals looked pretty crazy.  They are not given much room to roam.  We were told from someone else the zoo is depressing.  I wouldn't call it depressing but it's definitely not on my must-see list in Taiwan!  It's interesting to visit a zoo in a foreign country.  They have animals they would never have at the Atlanta zoo.  We saw rabbits, raccoons, wild turkey, ponies, and turtles.  I know where they can find a few more of those animals no problem!

Everyone crowded around the monkey exhibit although there are monkeys in Taiwan!

Turtles from the south eastern US.  I think I've seen a few of those...

The tigers were the most popular animal at the zoo.  They seemed extremely bored...

Dinner time!  He has a papaya and bread. 

These are some nasty thorns for such a pretty flower. 

So, the bird exhibit was a bit too close for comfort.  Here I am nervously posing for a picture with the peacock...

A few random photos: 

Family Mart potatoes!!!!  Please note the faces on the potatoes on the sign.  Mr. Potato Head!

James artistic abilities have really improved since becoming a teacher.  I was amazed by his drawing on the whiteboard attempting to teach students about a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!