Happy Birthday to the Best Woman Around

Today is my mom's birthday. It also happens to be Halloween. When I was younger, I imagine my mother was often sad on her birthday because it was pushed to the side for the best holiday (according to children, who doesn't love free candy?) But as I get older, I see the importance of her birthday.

My mother and I often haven't seen eye to eye. During my teenage years, I really gave her a run for her money. It is a wonder how all of her hair didn't fall out with worry. I guess that was left to my father. If you know my dad, you would know that the top of his head is looking mighty shiny these days, but I digress. Back to my mom. I really believe that everything I put her through made our relationship into what it is today. (Or that's what I like to tell myself so I feel better...)

I can safely say, without an hesitation or questioning that my mother is one of my best friends. Looking back, I feel very awful about when I didn't appreciate her as much as I should have. A lot of people think that we skype every day solely for her benefit but I don't think I could've gotten through this part year without waking up her to face every morning. My mother is the kindest, strongest, humblest, and most passionate person that I know. If I end up being a quarter of the woman that she is, I will consider that to be an amazing accomplishment. No matter what happens, my mother can always forgive and keep on going on. She is so precious to me and I have no idea where I would be without her. I love her so much. Whenever she is upset, I get just as upset because I hate to see such a kind and amazing woman feel anything but awesome.

Happy Birthday to my Mother.
Mom, I love you, and I will see you in three months.

Halloween Week in Taiwan

Day One of Halloween has gone pretty good so far! We had our classes at Ching Si and I had a lot of fun with all of them. I decided not to wear a costume but now I am wishing I did. They all had a lot of fun talking about Halloween. At the end of each lesson, I showed them a bunch of pictures that have "ghosts" in them. The last picture is of a forest and tells you to focus on the middle of the picture, and then a very scary face pops out. Rick said I shouldn't show it to the kids but they LOVED it. A lot of people believe in ghosts in Taiwan so they were sooo into the ghost stories I told and 100% focused on the picture when it happened. Everyone screamed. It was amazing. Happy Halloween! I'm also getting to know my students better and better every week. There are these two girls who come to see me throughout the day. Today, they told me who they have a crush on in the class. Soooooooooooo cute. They like the meanest boy though, I tried to tell them they should like the nice boys. The one girl said to me, "But because he is mean, he is more handsome!" Ughhhhhhhhh. I feel sorry for her later on in life haha. 

Today, I have a demo in one of my kindergarten classes. I'm always so nervous for these days but so far, they have gone pretty well. I'm really worried about this one though because we rushed it. Since next week I will be on vacation, we pushed the demo backward one week instead of forward. We shall see how it goes!

Last night, Rick and I got into the Halloween spirit by finishing watching the latest season of True Blood. Also, we made cut out pumpkins to play a game in our upcoming classes. Starting tomorrow, we get to dress up in our classes for Halloween. I'll post a picture of me, Rick, and Atlas in our costumes when we get all dressed up.

Day Two: We headed off to Costco with Rick's coteacher Julian to grab some candy for our kids. Planned some games, dressed up and we were off. Where we work, we are expected to have regular class for one hour and then a Halloween party in the second hour. The students are allowed to trick or treat to the other classes if they want, or we can do Halloween related activities. My class wanted to trick or treat so off we went. The kids have to sing a song and then, the kids in that class give them candy. The song is kind of dumb and having to sing it really ruins it for the older students who are still torn between participating and not caring. My coteacher was genuinely shocked when I told her we don't actually sing that song when we go trick-or-treating in Canada, that we just say, "trick or treat." 

Anyway, the students had fun. We taught them some Halloween words and played a couple games. They got some candy and a lot of them gave me some candy. I'm actually really excited for the next day of my Halloween week. My first class is so adorable, my second class has a test so I get to relax, and my third class is a lot of fun too.

Me and Atlas as matching minions

Day Three of Halloween was my longest. Three classes. One of my favourite classes in the afternoon with one of my favourite coteachers. The kids were adorable, my coteacher's costume was fabulous, and they got a shit ton of candy. It was a great time. My second class was an older class but we have so much fun. 

Unfortunately, it was a test day for them. Since I am going on vacation for the next two weeks (and so is my coteacher actually), we had to have the test during Halloween week. Since they were older, they didn't really mind and they all enjoyed the candy I gave them after they finished the test.

My last class was a bit older but not too old to have a Halloween party. We played games, listened to music, had some Halloween fun.

 Is it bad to have favourites? Oh well, I do. These are them. 

Our crazy boys.

Day Four was my final day of Halloween, and it was actually Halloween. On this day, I have one younger class who were totally excited and another class who are too cool for school. Regardless, I had SO MUCH fun with my first class. They were all totally in the Halloween spirit. It was amazing. So much fun.

Getting pretty hyper before the party started. We're required to do half a class of actual work and then we are allowed to have a party, they were pretty excited for the party.

Ruby is one of my best kids in this class. So helpful, always so excited and so dang smart. She is the one shooting her arms out and looking like its her birthday,

Bob (with his tongue out) made his own costume and was so worried it wouldn't be good enough! Me and my coteacher took lots of pictures to try and show him how great it was!

Singing their little hearts out. "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I can see your underwear!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

BOO

It is almost Halloween and I am getting pretty excited to dress up and do fun stuff with my classes! Lucky for Rick, my parents brought him his Thor costume. I was originally planning on being Minnie Mouse but I have recently decided to change my costume. I am going to be a minion from Despicable Me! I am so excited and I can't wait to see my costume when everything comes together. Since I already bought the Minnie Mouse ears, I am going to bring them into my classes for any student who forgets to bring a costume.

The past few days I have been trying to think of inexpensive, but still fun, ideas for the classroom during Halloween. At the elementary school, it will be easy because I am just going to make a Powerpoint about Halloween with a bunch of games in between the information. But at Gloria, it will be a little more difficult. Especially considering this isn't the first Halloween a lot of my students have had so impressing them on Halloween will likely not happen. Some of my older kids aren't really that interested in Halloween so we will just have a party and do some Halloween themed games. I'll post all about my Halloween week as it is happening. 

Another aspect of Halloween where we work is Trick of Treating. My older kids refuse to do it, they don't even want the younger kids to come to our class to trick or treat. But the younger students really love it. I would love to go trick or treating, even now. Who can say no to free candy? Rick and I bought a bunch of candy in bulk from Costco because we need candy for our own classes, AND for whomever comes to trick or treat. But we're getting worried we don't have enough. We decided that after Tuesday we will see how much we have and decide then to get more or not.

We are just putting the finishing touches on Thailand. We have all but one of our hostels/hotels booked. We splurged a little at one point on the trip but it was easy to justify considering staying at our hostel in Bangkok is costing $5/night. Once we get all of our places to stay finalized, I will start looking into booking trains/planes/ferries to get around the island. I can't believe how close it is. We are both getting so excited for our vacation. ONLY NINE DAYS TO GO!!