Today, in my kindy class, I let my students “read books” as they finished their snack. They love this, even though they don’t so much read as idly look at the pictures and then leave the books on the floor to stomp on as they go for another. I don’t really expect much more from three-year-olds, but it’s a little hard on the books. It’s especially hard on the hard-cover picture books with regular, thin paper. For whatever reason (I’ve given up on trying to find any logic in almost anything I don’t understand here, especially as it relates to this particular job), we don’t have many board books, but lots of pretty picture books.
Guess what? A few finally broke under the stress of providing 15 3-year-olds with such unrestrained entertainment. One lost 2 or 3 pages, but the other one actually BROKE - its spine split and the covers tore apart. My co-teacher sort of lost it on the kids, and wanted me to back her up. I did, but only half-heartedly. It seems unrealistic and unfair to expect these kids to understand how and why to treat the books properly, and honestly, I’ve never heard her say anything to the kids regarding the proper care and feeding of the pretty books (in Chinese or English), and nothing I’ve ever said about being nice to the books has really registered (them not really speaking much English and all). I think if I ran the world (or just had some modicum of authority over the materials my classroom was equipped with), I’d toss most of the regular picture books (or at least hide them and use them for story time only), replace them with lots more board books (and maybe even some fabric books) of the more indestructable variety, and enjoy the fact that the kids want to read books instead of getting angry when they love them too violently. (Oh, and I’d make sure a lot more of them were in English, since it’s a bilingual kindy and the parents are clearly paying a premium for all that super English learning. But that’s another issue, I guess.)
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
Make and eat biscuits and gravy. Oh, lordy, biscuits and gravy. So good. So not hard to make, as long as you can actually get your hands on chub of breakfast sausage and have plenty of time to stir. (Once upon a time, I didn’t like gravy, preferring butter and honey and jelly, letting Mom and Dad eat all the gravy. Once upon a time, I was a so, so, SO missing out on the starchy, porky goodness that is baking powder biscuits and sausage gravy.)
Sometime last week I found this logic game (mac only, sorry) via MetaFilter’s Projects page, and wow, it’s my new favorite timesink. It’s fantastic - the guy’s niece describes it as “a cross between Sudoku and those logic puzzles we do in school”, except it feels less like Sodoku and more like the logic puzzles to me, minus the story lines that went with them.
It’s not a polished release or anything (the designer is pretty upfront about that), but it seems to be relatively bug-free (sometimes when I try to get a hint it’s all “no, you can’t have one until you fix this square that’s already been completed correctly, dummy”). Really, for a free game, it’s completely awesome. If you have time to spare (or just like to pretend you do, like me), you should give it a try. Be careful, though, as I’m pretty sure it’s as addictive as crack.1
Also, regarding my previous post: Annie lied. Stupid rain - it was back this morning like it was never gone.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
Run. Oh, sure, I can run here - I’ve actually gone running twice (woo! Two whole times!) in the six months we’ve been living in Taiwan. The first time it happened was the day before the first of my eleventy-billion colds showed up, and the second, uh, I don’t remember when that was. Between the astounding lack of time to call my own, perilous sidewalks (when there are any at all), and visibly grimy air, I’ve just completely given up on running here.
I’ve never actually done crack. I have to way to verify this comparison. [↩]
We woke up to a dry sky today, the sun struggling to (and briefly succeeding in) breaking through the cloudes. Two days in a row, people, TWO DAYS IN A ROW. Call the news stations, notify your neighbors - it’s a freakin’ miracle.
And, for a fun non-sequitor, I’d like to introduce a short series, folks. It’s called “Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan” and I’ll post one thing a day.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
Get a 32oz diet Coke, straight from the fountain, at almost any gas station.
Well, crap on a stick and call it a corndog! The sun came out today! We didn’t get to enjoy it much, since we had to go to work, but the rain-free ride there and back was a pleasant change.
It looks like we’ve found a buyer for almost everything we weren’t planning to pack, which is nice. It’s a good deal on both sides, as she’s getting lots for a song and we don’t have to worry about what to do with all of our stuff.
In other non-news, I feel like I’m coming down with something, and am actively considering going to sleep now, well before 10pm. After all, we’ve got plans to play tourist again tomorrow, so I’d hate to be a big grey cloud (with a drippy nose and gurgly tummy) hanging over our day.
What the heck happened to me? I go and tell you we’ve got big news coming, then let Seth tell you all about it while I forget to blog for two days running. Uh…that wasn’t my plan.
Anyway, as Seth said, we’re headed back home in the very near future. Lots of things factored into the decision, but really, when it comes down to it, we aren’t happy here, and that was affecting our health and our general outlook. Not cool!
Now that we’ve given notice, we’ve got one-and-a-half weeks of work left, and then 5 more days after that before we get on the plane. It’s a little crazy, and I look around our apartment and wonder how the heck we’re going to get it all taken care of. We’ll leave plenty of things here, of course - I’m not planning to lug home the toaster oven or anything. Still, it’s going to be whirlwind, but we’re excited. Seth has a pretty firm job offer already, and I’m probably going to concentrate on renewing my teaching certification, looking for a teaching job for 08/09, and finishing up my languishing master’s degree. There’s going to be so much to take care of, from finding a car to getting real winter clothes, but I’m really, really looking forward to being home.
We’ve purchased tickets to the US and given notice at our job. After much flip-flopping, wishy-washiness, mind changing, and whatever else you may call it, we’ve made a final decision to come home. See you soon!