long time

Ok, it has been forever and I reaally apologize for my lack of updates as of late. Things have been insane here with trying to prepare for classes to begin (starting day= Wednesday!!!) and I have had a hard time forcing myself to sit down to do battle with this severely handicapped laptop. I am going to try to respond to all of your lovely emails that I haven't gotten around to answering sometime in the next week, so please excuse me for now and know I loooove you and if this computer was nicer to me I would have responded ages ago.

Things with me are going well, just very very busy! I am finally understanding what it means to ..ahem.. work! (hello 8 to 5!) and the resulting exhaustion. I spent the past week and a half at the school preparing lesson plans, observing classes and doing all things school related. On top of the 10 classes of little ones I'll be teaching, I'll also have 6 classes of 3rd graders, two 7th grades, one 8th and one 9th and two 10th! The junior high classes will be the class English and the Arts which I have naively decided I could create on my own with completely new lesson plans and some idealistic vision of liberating the creative spirit within each highly focused and rigid student. haaaa. This is the first year that the school is having a 10th grade as a part of their move to extend the school to include a highschool and I was told just this past week that I will be teaching the 10th grade Speech and Debate Class........ ok, speech and debate.....hmmm well remember that time I loved public speaking in front of millions or that other time that I won the state debate championship for a brilliant closing statement on why chocolate marshmallow tastycakes are far superior to peanutbutter tastycakes? right. So in other words I can't believe I have to teach this class, without a book!, planning the entire curriculum on my own in less than a week! It's cruel! I'm trying my best to remember back to 9th grade speech class with mrs. whatsherface? and all the awkward activities and speeches we had to give. Naturally, I'm forcing everyone to make a collage/poster that describes themself to present an autobiographical speech (Kelly, this is how we first met, right?). I tried to drink coffee in the morning for the first time today as a way of possibly tackling the massive amount of work on my plate, but I ended up being TOO wired. What I long for is a tall cold Rockstar to kick me in the pants after lunch and naptime (yes even the teachers bring pillows to put their heads down on their desks). Julia snapped a few excellent shots of my face smushed against a very cozy textbook this past week since I decided I am definitely suupper into Taiwan if it means naptime for life. Really this is something I think should be brought back home... it might be why Asia is taking over the world.. that or the fact that for grade 9 the school day lasts from 7am to 9pm officially before the kids go home for homework! Imagine!

Ok, on other more exciting fronts I've made a few friends besides the girls I live and work with. It's nice to have each other around, and especially nice when you can have someone knock on your door each morning making sure you get up to go to work with them each day, but still I'm sure it will be a bit much after awhile being around the same people. Most of them have lived abroad either in the States, UK or Canada for large portions of their lives so they are pretty eager to have Westerns to hang out with (and of course dance with!). It's definitely so much easier having someone to show you around, take you to new places and order food at restaurants for you when they speak Chinese! My friend Chie hooked me up with the cellphone people to get me connected without all the proper documents and a few of the girls were able to bargain down the prices for us to get into some club this weekend as well. I'm wondering what I'll be able to bring to these friendships as payback? I mean, the benefits of having an American friend who sticks out is...? I'm really disappointed that one of the girls, I've hung out with the most, Kate, is heading back to the UK next week where she works as an interpreter for the rest of the year.. boo! We are expecting quite a late night out to say goodbye on Saturday,that has to beat this last Saturday night of dancing until.... again I'll repeat that walking out of a club in the Taipei morning heat and sun is maayybe the worst thing ever.

Lastly, maybe the best thing that I've done since I've been here happened a week ago Sunday. A guy living in Taipei who also went to McGill let me know about this hike thing he goes on every Sunday. With LOTS of reservations I pushed myself to go, thinking "hey, a hike in Taiwan's forests with a few of his friends, can't be TOO bad". So I arrive at the meeting spot to find an evergrowing number of people, some SERIOUS hikers and oh wait runners, cause this is a race of sorts! Turns out the group was the local chain of this club the HashHouseHarriers who are located all over the world and pretty much act out the whole hound/fox chase thing but with one person going again and creating a trail of flour and symbols in some pretty harsh terrain/mountains/streams/crawling spaces/you name it and the rest of the group trying to follow the trail and track him or her down. I think some guy talking to me then mentioned he trains 5 days a week?! So I somehow make it onto the bus to the unknown location on some mountain somewhere an hour outside the city and was pretty much sure I was using up all my energy being nervous (and trying not to look it) and just walking from the bus to the starting area! By this point I had met quite a few nice people, lots of them men well out of college but really into an underlying fraternity feeling and so I pumped myself up just enough to embark on what would definitely tbe he hardest physical activity I have ever done evverrr. really ever, I can't say it enough. Fine, Jackie your spinning class was really up there and had it been in the midday sun with wet running shoes it may have taken the cake! The whole thing was absolutely breathtaking though. WIthin the first 10 minutes I was winding my way on some steep, slim and slippery path when I looked to my right and saw a yellow and black spider the size of my HAND and then just as a few of us passed a HUGE grey snake moved out of the way and slithered up a nearby tree. Besides being terrified, it was gorgeous and the trail continued on, past a modest churchhouse, through the grounds of somekind of beautiful temple, through streams, alongside farmers with huge round hats working in their fields and their families yelling the equivalent to "GO!" in Chinese. I would have stopped and cried it was so awesome, cause well that's me, but I was too busy trying to keep up because if you got lost by yourself you were pretty much screwed! And so yes I was running far more than I could have ever imagined! At one point there was a swimming hole a few people stopped to take a dip in and I'm pretty sure that the blister that was forming on the back of my heal is infected due to the stinging sensation the water caused. Once back on the trail I pushed myself serriously the hardest ever and broke ahead of some of the women I had been with most of the time, and found myself with a group of only Chinese speaking men who I occasionally gave looks of "kill me now" to as we made the last neverending hike straight up and then down another area. When I got back to the start all I could say was "wow so I'm so happy I'm still alive" to the guys that had finished beforehand and were already cracking open the celebratory beers. Half an hour later I had recovered enough to join in the festivities and the rest of the afternoon/night turned into a college party and a slightly hazy dinner at a roadside traditional Taiwanese restaurant where I remember some kind of fried minnow looking fish that was reaally tasty and then of course lots of toasting with Taiwan Beer. Let's just say Monday morning 8:30am having to go in to the office was reason enough for me to say I'll be sticking to the water next time I go.

Anyways that is all for now, tomorrow morning the foreign teachers get showcased on stage in front of the entire faculty and staff and you KNOW I still haven't decided what to wear. Real quick before I send my emails out: Mom & Dad hope your weekend in New Orleans was great and Meg hope you are feeling better and relaxing in Aruba!!! Trish, hope the summer is winding down ok and have an amazing first day of Senior year!!! Laura, an impressive email is headed your way, and I'm thinking of you darling. My Montreal girls and philly loves, this week I missed you soooo much, I put up lots of photos and made people hear so many stories that I think my roommates will be sick of you soon. You will be getting seriously detailed updates soon! Josh- technology rocks and so do you. I can't tell you how much it meant to hear your voice! thanks for the call and try to view the slideshow CD! Jer- your email was the happiest ray of sunshine on a particularly sweaty no-like-Taiwan day. Know what would make it even better? a mix cd of original so nervous material!
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ahah I'm sorry to try to squish it all in like that...how much did that remind you of yearbook messages and shoutouts?? In which case K(eep) I(n) T(ouch) and Never Change! Math class was awesome together, have a good summer and see you after vacation.