Taking a day of silence...

Teaching English definitely requires one essential ability...speaking English.  Unfortunately James and I have a cold and guess what it stole from me...my voice!  I am at home taking a vow of silence while James attempts to make it through another day of a cracking voice.  Wasn't I the person that received a perfect attendance award 7th through 12th grade?!  What is wrong with me here?!!!! 

I learned why we are sick though.  During the current ghost festival month in Taiwan, there are specific things you are not supposed to do.  No whistling at night, wearing black, or leaving your clothes outside overnight to dry.  The ghosts wear your clothes at night and you get sick!  James and I need to be sure to do our laundry in the morning now!  Ohh, I think a ghost must have pushed me down the stairs a few weeks ago...

I went to the Chinese Medical Doctor on Monday.  I have painfully been drinking a bitter herb mix three times a day.  Yuck!  However, I have to admit yesterday when I completely lost my voice I headed straight to the regular doctor to make sure it was not strep or anything serious.  My experience at the Chinese Medicine Doctor was really not as exciting and magical as I had hoped so I don't have much to write about it!

Anyway, there were a couple of fun things about my students I wanted to post on the next blog.  First, I wanted to share some of the fun names of our students.  The parents pick an English name for their children that typically start with the same sound as their Chinese name.  I have only had one student who's name started with the "L" sound for that reason.  Most of the names are common names in the US but here are a few of the fun ones: Apple, Sweet, Milk, Shadow, Cherry, Angel, Yummy

One of my classes just learned how to describe what someone looks like - long blond curly hair, blue eyes, etc.  Since all of my students have black straight hair and black eyes, I had to be creative in what we did to practice what they learned in class.  I would have loved to have 15 Guess Who? games!!!!!  Anyway, here is the difference you see in giving assignments to young girls versus young boys.  I asked them to create a description of a person and draw a picture.  

The assignment completed by a sweet little girl named Cherry...and...

Wow...what boys are brave enough to hand into the teacha!!!!  It says "He has long poo-poo hair and purple eyes.  Lovely!  I have come a long way with my nonchalant reactions to the things the boys say in my class.  I have been told I look like a monkey before. I hear the word poo-poo often and must erase it from the board. Also, I am thankful to not teach the class with the daily armpit flatulence noises anymore as the substitute for the
"I'm here." roll call response.  Is there an all-girl English cram school here? 

Wow!  I was about to post this blog and look at what our new "family" here in Taiwan delivered to my apartment by scooter!  My student's mother who is vegan (I wrote about them in a past blog) brought me some good home remedies for a cold and sore throat.  James and I went to lunch with her and her friend last Thursday.  Now, she is like our loving mother here in Taiwan!  She said vegetarians must take care of each other.  She also does not think we are American.  She thinks we are Taiwanese :)  Well, she brought a porridge, ginger powder and black sugar to mix together with hot water, a lemon plum vinegar to mix with hot water, and some VERY tasty vegetarian flakes.  I don't know exactly what they are but we have tasted them before on wraps and sandwiches.  She has already invited us to spend Chinese New Year with her family in February.  Then, we can see how it is celebrated.  As a quick side note, vegetarians here strongly believe they are vegetarian in order to bring about world peace and that all vegetarians are one big happy family.  I guess we picked a good country to move to with our dietary restrictions!  It used to exclude us from eating with others  :) 

James' Section: 

I came home from work/school (unsure what to call it...its both I guess) surprised by all the stuff that Rachels veggie lady brought her.  Well, for the record, I have people that care about me too!  My manager at school brought me a pack of throat lozenges and some traditional Chinese plants / herbs / things.  She said to boil one of the big balls with 8-10 of the little almond looking things and drink the tea it makes.  She warned me that it wouldn't taste very good, but would fix my voice.  My voice has been HORRIBLE for the past two, well I guess it's three days now.  I feel fine, its just that my voice is 85% gone.  I can't speak very loud or change the pitch of my voice much or it goes away.  Super annoying.  But anyways, it is so nice that we have people in our lives here that genuinely care about us.  Makes it feel like we are not so alone out here.  

The stuff in the bowl is the weird plant things steeping in water.
I have no idea what they are but fully expect it to be disgusting.