The End is Near

So our boss emailed us back and our last day of work is January 26th. I will be booking my flight home in the next week or so and then we can all start the official countdown. The second I told my mother, she started counting the days. 

I don't think I mentioned it on the blog yet but Rick is not coming back to Canada at the same time as me. He wants to stay in Taiwan for a few more weeks to do some more travelling around the island. After that, he is planning on going to Sri Lanka, then Vietnam and possibly Cambodia. I still don't believe he will actually go through with this travelling alone thing but only time will tell. If anything, I really hope he does go to Sri Lanka. One of our very good friend's (Tarisha) is from there and her father had told us before we came to Taiwan that if we wanted to go to Sri Lanka, all we would have to do was book our flight and the rest would be taken care of. So Rick is taking him up on that offer. I really don't have any interest in doing any more travel than we already have done/will do. Plus if you take into consideration my debt from school, along with the fact that I will be making more school debt when I come home, I can't justify travelling any longer. I also just really wanna get home.

I think I have found a friend to watch Atlas while we are in Thailand. He said yes but on the condition that his roommate is okay with it. His roommate has allergies and was concerned about Atlas staying there for two weeks so we are doing a dry run this Sunday. Let's hope it goes well or off to the kennel for my baby!

This Sunday, we are headed to Taipei so it worked out well that Kyle wanted to watch Atlas for us. Rick is participating in a research study, he will be getting an fMRI procedure done. They will be watching how his brain reacts when he is shown English words in comparison to someone who is a non-Native speaker. Originally, we were both supposed to do the study. But when they called to confirm, they mentioned if there is a history of epilepsy that you cannot do the procedure. While I didn't have epilepsy, I told them about my seizure disorder. They then said I couldn't do the study because the procedure has the ability to cause a seizure. So I will go to support Rick and watch him get poked and prodded. Before the study, we are going to eat some nice Greek food and cupcakes. I am pretty excited. 

I leave you with pictures of the cutest dog in the world...

My own personal minion

He really needed a haircut!

Wo men you xiao gou

This post is really just for random life updates.

1. Wo men you xiao gou = WE HAVE A SMALL DOG.

Probably one of the most exciting things to happen in Taiwan. Small dog! His name is Atlas, he is five months old, cutest little boy around. We have already looked into bringing him back to Canada and it should be relatively easy. I've already started the process. He is so adorable. When we first got him, he was such a clutz. He couldn't understand the concept of a step, he would just fall off but he is learning. Here is a couple pictures of his first time swimming this past weekend.

2. Our Chinese lessons. Personally, I feel like I have hit a plateau and I am really unmotivated lately. I know how to order food, answer questions when people ask me but past that, it is getting harder. I am trying to focus but I just don't have the motivation right now to learn more. We shall see where this goes, we still have six months left here, I should probably keep trying.

3. Most people already know this, but I have decided to apply for teacher's college for September 2014. That means I have to apply this December. I've started to look at what the applications entail already and I am hoping to stop being lazy and start preparing soon.

4. I was just given a new kindergarten class (MY FAVOURITE) so I am now up to 26.5 hours per week. Rick was also given a new class so he is up to 23.5. I really think where we work is having a foreign teacher shortage right now. I know of 8 people who are leaving in the next two months. It will definitely be a different environment with all of those people gone. Especially since a lot of them definitely helped me to get used to living in Taiwan. I will miss all of them.

5. My cousin, Stefan, and his beautiful fiancee, Amy, are getting married in May 2014. And.. they have asked me to be a bridesmaid! I am so excited! I was already very excited for their wedding because Stefan is the first of my cousins on my mother's side of the family to get married but now I am even more excited. I can't wait and I am so honored to be a part of their special day!

Pot stickers

Pot stickers are officially my favourite thing to eat. I had a lot of free time yesterday as I didn't teach until 7 and I was subbing a class that was having a test so my lesson plan was pretty simple. So once Rickie left for the day, I walked to get some pot stickers. There is this place right by the dorm that sells them for 4.5 NT/pot sticker for the pork ones but I decided to branch out.

For 56 NT (Just under $2), I got 12 pot stickers and I was full after 6. The rest were left to feed Rickie later in the day. I think we are starting to see how much cheaper it actually is to eat out rather than to cook. While cooking is more convenient sometimes because you don't want to always get dressed before you eat, eating out seems to be cheaper. Going to try and investigate this more.

My class for the day was so easy. I had to meet with the coteacher beforehand because of the test and the fact that I had never given one before. She told me exactly what to do and it was a very simple day. It is funny the way it works here for grading. She literally told me that no student should receive below a mark of 90. It made me nervous so they all ended up getting 95+ but they were all so cute and a lot better than I thought. Did they deserve a mark of 95? Probably not but I guess that is the way they do things here.

After I was finished teaching, Rick and I decided to try this soup place that is right beside the dorm. We heard amazing things about their won ton soup and the lady was so helpful and sweet. It was amazing soup but the aftertaste was so peppery that I wasn't enjoying it and I felt bad not eating it. I decided I wanted to go elsewhere to eat so I had Rick fake call my cellphone and we pretended that I had to go meet someone. Even though she spoke no English, I still felt bad about leaving the soup there. But I ended up getting Mos Burger (which was amazing) and getting to see my favourite little puppy on the way (Pudding).

Have I mentioned how badly I want a puppy?

I'm off, going to get pot stickers haha

Three Weeks in Taiwan

Sorry that it has been so long since my last post, I had some computer problems so I wasn't able to come online. Since my last entry, we both started our own regular classes and subbed some more. Subbing has been fun, especially on Saturday when we were both at Tung-An School (which is the school where our dorm is located) so we literally had to get out of bed and walk downstairs to get to class. Very easy money, I would love to get a regular class at Tung-An but I doubt I'll be that lucky. It will be easier and less of a hassle to get to class once we own a scooter, let me know if you know anyone who is selling for a reasonable price!

Now I will back track to our regular classes. Mine was a red book (10 years old around) and I was warned, thankfully, beforehand that they are a difficult class. Apparently prior to the teacher I was replacing who just left without saying goodbye to any of their classes, they were without a foreign teacher for four months. Prior to that, they had a horrible Taiwanese teacher who used to hit them. Safe to say, they're not very trusting of teachers and coupled with the fact that most of them are lazy, I did not have fun during this class. They were so hard to motivate and I left feeling so exhausted and worn out. I'm still looking forward to this coming Thursday when I get to see them again though, I've been thinking all week for ways to motivate them and I'm excited to attempt it. Wish me luck.

Rick's two regular classes on Thursday went amazingly. His first one was a Kindergarten Beginners class (we call it a kindy class) so they are usually 5 or younger and this is their first time learning any sort of English. Rick had a lot of fun with them and they liked him a lot, not to forget his amazing coteacher who was with him for his next regular class as well. The next class was a Gloria English 1 class so they have just finished the previous class that Rick was teaching so this class was around 7 years old. Again, he had an amazing time with them and breezed right through it. Rick is so amazing with children, in general, so I would love to get to watch him teach one day. (Don't tell him I said any of this though, I don't want to inflate his ego too much.)

Saturday night we decided to try out the night market again. I couldn't not stop at the pet store and this time I got to hold my little puppy. (Big mistake on Rick's part for letting that one happen considering it just motivated me even more to buy the puppy.) Still working on convincing Rick, help me out! I need more positives to getting a puppy while we're here to bring home, all he can think of are the negatives haha. I went and got the chocolate banana crepe again, except this time Rick was smart enough to get his own and David and Monica were there as well to enjoy it. I swear that lady is going to know me by name the next time I go there. I also tried this baked potato that everyone had told me about and it really did live up to its reputation. It was amazing, and thankfully Rick was there to point out that she was about to put tuna on it and we stopped her just in time.

Tonight we went to see Zero Dark Thirty. Jury is still out on that one. Yes it was an amazing movie but should it really have been made into a movie in the first place? Who knows. Regardless, it was fun to go to the mall. Tomorrow I am subbing a kindy class at Tung-An (YAY) and Rick is at a further school for his second week of subbing two classes there. Sometimes when you get asked to sub somewhere, it will say x3 or x2 which lets you know that they need you for however many weeks.

Maybe the next time I write in the blog, I will have my little puppy named King sitting next to me. A girl can dream...

- Melissa