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!

Thanksgiving Intermission!

Slight intermission in my Hong Kong posts to say.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Hope everyone has an amazing couple days full of turkey and stuffing because I sure won't be eating that. Therefore, everyone I know has to eat enough for the both of us. Being away from home during holidays has really shown me how much my family and my friends mean to me. I am definitely thankful for all of them. Even if I am not home to show it. 

Three small things to update on!

1. Atlas was neutered last week. He was pretty depressed for the first few days but he is back to his happy self! We haven't been making him wear the Cone of Shame lately except when we are not around to watch him. Today, we went shopping and when he returned, he had managed to take it off his own neck. I would love to know how. Hard to be mad at such a smarty pants.

2. We went to see Gravity last night. Such an amazing movie. I was so stressed the entire time. There really isn't a better way to put it. I highly suggest going to see it, and going to see it in 3D, If you have been to the movies with me, you know that I HATE 3D. I always leave a 3D movie with a pounding headache and its generally because the 3D was not done right. However, leaving Gravity I was left with the feelings of a movie that finally did 3D perfect. I was also nauseous but that is because of how much stress I felt for the characters during the movie. Our scooter ride home was terrifying because of my stress level. Seriously. Go see it.

3. Since our vacation time off to Thailand is booked (currently planning the trip!), we e-mailed our boss to let her know we would not be renewing our contract for a second year and that we are planning on returning home once it is finished. We have to give them at least two months notice in order to get our contract completion bonus and I didn't want to give them ANY reason to keep that from us. Plus, I need to know our official contract end date so I can book my ticket home. (Probably in the next week!!)

Off to do some student comments and then continue writing Hong Kong blogs. 

Gloria Banquet

During the day on Sunday, everyone relaxed after going out the night before to celebrate Zach's birthday. I spent the majority of my day reading and watching Big Love. Big Love is an amazing show which I just recently started watching and I can't stop. After we all relaxed all day, it was chaos with everyone trying to get ready in time for the banquet. Gloria apparently has this banquet every year before Chinese New Year to thank all the teachers for their hard work.

We made it just in time to get raffle tickets and to get the last seats at a table. Apparently if you were late, you wouldn't get a raffle ticket and too many people showed up so they had to open up another room with four lonely tables in it who were watching our room on a video feed. I was glad to be in the big room.

The Banquet was a lot of fun. I was so nervous about the food because I had heard horror stories about previous years but I was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of it and it just kept coming. They held a raffle for probably over 25 prizes and Rick was one of the winners!! 1000NT for a big department store that is in downtown Taoyuan, we're gonna go check it out during our break for CNY. We decided not to go to the after party that all the teachers were going to at a bar downtown called Monster. I was way too tired from Zach's birthday the night before.

I don't understand how I used to go out two, or sometimes even three, nights in a row. It is way too tiring. Maybe this means I'm getting old, or just boring. Either way, I like my sleep and I like waking up at a decent time so I don't waste my day away. I can't decide if that is old or boring. Maybe I'm just growing up.

Chicken soup anyone?

The love of my life: