Baishawan Beach and Elementary School

Last Sunday we headed to Baishawan beach with a bunch of other foreign teachers. I was hesitant to go because a good friend of mine had told me it is a really big hassle to go there and not worth the time it takes. We did have a really good day but I definitely won't be going back to Baishawan beach. It was a hassle to get there! First, we had to take a bus to Taipei (30-45 minutes). Then we had to take the MRT to the end of one line (30-45 minutes). THEN we had to take a bus from the MRT stop to the beach (45 minutes). It was exhausting and we weren't even at the beach yet. Once we got there, we did have a lot of fun! I am really glad we went. It was nice to spend time with some of our friends. Especially since a few of them are leaving pretty soon. 

Another negative to Baishawan is you are not allowed to swim in the water unless you have rented a boogie board. The Taiwanese are really nervous and odd about water, which is super weird to me considering they are an ISLAND. Surrounded by WATER. A lot of my co-teachers don't know how to swim, as well as the students. So they have a roped off area that you can freely swim in. By freely swim, I mean there are 100+ people in this roped off area. Or the open sea where you can also freely swim.. with a boogie board attached to you. I am really making it sound like we had a horrible day but totally not the case! It was a lot of fun, Atlas got to swim and relax on the beach. It was his first time in sand which was super cute. I brought my camera but beaches always make me nervous about taking pictures, I know I am a child. My friend, Emily, took a lot of pictures and as soon as she posts them, I will add them here!

The day after Baishawan, Rick and I were starting our new job at the elementary school. We weren't really sure what to expect but it definitely went a lot better than either of us thought it would. Forty minutes per class goes by really fast. I had hoped to learn all of their names and that definitely isn't happening. It is such a different environment compared to our cram school. No co teacher and 25-30 students in every class. By the time we had our lunch break (an hour after three forty minute classes), we were exhausted. We're lucky to live a two minute drive from the school so we went home to see Atlas and we just sat in silence. So so tired. Hopefully tomorrow we are better suited to the hours.

Today is Sunday, our day off! And we have a lot planned. There is a restaurant across the street from our building called Hot Dog Man. We kind of love it. The lady there speaks really good English and she is super nice, we really want them to succeed. Every time we have gone, we are the only people in there. They are having a promo day today with free hot dogs so we are going to that. After that, we are going swimming at Bobo's apartment (our amazing Chinese teacher). Then she invited us to the Performing Arts Theater. They are having a free festival there, not really sure what is going on but will update later.

HOT DOG MAN

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends back home! Miss you all lots!