destiny?

so i never realized that i was an "animal lover". amy told me this factoid about myself today. granted i do comment on every single dog here [which is probably about 10 per day] and i do love my dog, we did adopt a kitten for our college apartment, and i try to hang out with horses.

BUT that doesn't put me in the "she is going to live alone with her animals in 20 years" category, right? wrong. today just made my future more clear to me and OH what a bleak future is it! we decided to visit the hot springs today and use the tickets one of our tutoring subjects had so generously given me. we get out of the bus, look around, and realize we have gotten ourselves to some sort of zoo. maybe most college aged kids would be deterred? not me. i was so excited to see chinese-speaking [yes, animals speak different languages] ducks, monkies, and birds. and even better-we got to rent this sweet ride and even do some minor offroading in it

we did figured out how to get to the hot springs but then got rained on. don't worry, we got a few dips in, some leisure reading, and on top of all that...got to wear swim caps!

and we got a peek inside childhood obesity hitting asia. or just my future children if i marry a taiwanese man? HAH. the rain turned off any chances that we might have at swimming more so we headed to the zoo and that is when i knew=i am destined to have more animals that my children will probably want. does that ever happen? amy caught me trying to kiss two animals including this mite-infested camel (he just needs some love) and this satan goat. he seriously looked just like the devil. and then we saw some ostriches whose faces only a mother could love. and yet i loved him. even though i am pretty sure he was trying to eat us [clearly misunderstood]

am i destined to be a cat [dog/horse/camel] lady? yes. and i am going to love it the whole time. take that!


oh and as for yesterday----poor legs. amy said it all too well [check out the link]

No gears? No problem.

1000 ARISE (the beauty of being on vacation)
1100 skype
1230 leave for daily adventure
200 arrive at liyu lake, get stared at.
205 take pictures of the scenery, run into a student of amy's, get stared at.
210 start up the bike trial, laugh at some of the silly looking bikes, get stared at.
230 find a cool looking path...follow it. escape the staring.
300 halfway up the birdwatching trial
400 think my legs are going to fall off and my head might explode
430 reach the top, everything becomes worth it.
500 try to find dinner, unsuccessful. dejected, we head home. amy's gears aren't working quite right...get stared at.
610 get dinner at the night market. ronald and our aborigine pull through for us again. and get stared at some more.
630 home sweet home. thought about the stare downs today. couldn't figure it out.
700 yoga yoga yoga, remind myself that those who matter don't judge and those who do judge don't matter.
800 take a much needed shower
830 add pictures to facebook. inspect myself for any weird growths/colorings that might have made me look unhuman...find nothing.
900 blog.

[not sure why we got stared at so much today compared to every other day. people reacted to us like we weren't even humans or anything. they full on stared us down, even when we looked back at them. there wasn't any shame or embarrassment over the fact that they were caught staring at us. it kind of weirded me out to be honest. note to self: don't stare at people who look different than you. no matter your mindset, it makes them feel ostracized and self-conscious. like they have grown a large lump on their nose or something]

anyways, pictures aren't loading. i might try to post them later.

The international dateline?

Somebody somewhere had the genius idea to create the International Date Line. Not like a hotline for dating (which might have been more helpful) but "an imaginary line which offsets the date as one travels east or west of it". Thank you, Wikipedia. Because of the big imagination of some child who probably had a great elementary school teacher, we missed New Years Eve. Now this didn't throw me off too much other than I was really sleepy after flying for 14 hours and then dealing with a 16 hour time difference. But I realized that I had never made any new goals for 2009 (because to me, it was not 2009 yet!)

Thank goodness we were able to start our 2009 with Chinese New Year. It gave me the time and the motivation to make some sort of resolution. I thought long and hard about them and realized that the resolutions that first popped up in my brain were just the typical "I make these every year and probably will for the rest of my life" kind of resolutions. So instead of re-making resolutions, I resolved to actually do them. Of course, this doesn't mean that I am going to...

• loose 15 pounds
• stop biting my nails
• wear actual jeans more often
  
• fit into my size 5 jeans
• get a 4.0
• stop cracking my knuckles
• give up chocolate
• write thank you cards for presents
  
• make my bed everyday

Because not doing these things have become part of me! And maybe someday, completing them will become part of me.

But for 2009, I, Stacey Kathleen Mork, resolve to be more satisfied with life and with the unalterable circumstances that come up. I don't mean to give up reachable goals but more to love and focus on the important things. I intend to let forgive quickly, call home frequently, read continually, dance ridiculously, pray always, sing loudly, laugh often, smile more, exercise for fun, and to continue to work on my life list. [see below]




This was started a very long time ago while still in GATE in the fourth grade and continues to grow. Feel free to guess which ones are done, at work, and in the future! (And there is at least one that is never happening)

The Life List

• obtain a pilot's license
• climb Half Dome
• visit Greece
• read all the appropriate 100 best books
  
• dive in a submarine
• eat enough vegetables and fruits daily for at least a week
  
• go to full-time GATE
  
• be Student Body President
• fall in love
• drink enough water everyday
  
• teach in a different country
• try to surf
• get a perm
  
• own original artwork
  
• play a famous work on the piano
• own all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books again
  
• and then read them all with my children
  
• get married and love it.
  
• be a camp counselor
• wear sunscreen
  
• get into Brigham Young University
• build a house
• be Prom Queen
  
• hide a duck in someone's bathroom
• make a Halloween costume
• donate hair to Locks For Love
• visit the Northern Lights
  
• stop drinking soda for one year
• become a mother
• set off fireworks
  
• train my own dog
  
• visit the birthplace of my mother
• write a book (even if no one reads it)
• play a team sport
• visit Canada
  
• speak to my children in another language
  
• own a house
  
• visit the village where my grandmother grew up
  
• go to a traditional Jewish seder
  
• learn to scuba dive
• fork someone's lawn
  
• pass on my Chinese traditions
• get a degree
  
• sleep on a trampoline
• cook like my grandmother
• make my own pasta
• get up on water skis for more than 2 seconds
  
• fly in a hot air balloon
• go skiing
  
• put all my journal entries in a book
  
• live in a French speaking country
• ride an elephant
• teach preschoolers
  
• shoot a rifle and a handgun
• sled
  
• read every verse of every scripture
  
• visit Denmark and Scotland
  
• make over $50,000 in one year (a task for a teacher)
  
• whale watch
• fix my own car
• compose a book of my parents' wisdom
  
• pray everyday
• go on a cruise with my sister
  
• camp under the stars with friends
• horseback ride on the beach
  
• visit Hong Kong with my sister and mom
  
• go orienteering
• create an entire meal out of food I have grown myself

I encourage you to write a life list. And then go do it.

To 2009!

15 miles.

So what have I not done in the past few days...

• On Tuesday, we tutored and somehow ended up with seven children under the age of ten in our apartment. We didn't try to make this happen...an odd combination of parents being late to pickup, friends having friends over, our tutoring people coming a little early. Made me realize that I will never have seven children in a two-person apartment.

• On Wednesday, all I remember is my wizard friend. He was hanging out at the Mr. Chang's bubble tea place. We love him.

• On Thursday, I did nothing of consequence obviously because I cannot remember anything other than that I had some good lesson plans about colors and shapes. We even played with shaving cream! I wish I had got some more pictures of the kids but probably should be scaffolding them instead of taking pictures...that is what I am getting paid for, right?
  

• On Friday, we taught our last day of school for a full nine days. I finished my tutoring session at 9pm and the party started! I got home after nearly being blown over by the wind and blown up by the fireworks...to an empty house. Amy was at a recital (attending, not performing). So I read and facebooked and did all sorts of time-eating things.

• On Saturday, we celebrated the fact that it was our first non-Sabbath day without work. Of course, we had to attend a party....so we went to a Barbie party! I mean, what other way would we have had some fun? We got to get PlayDoh all over our pants, fed treats by our students, and have horrible pictures taken of ourselves by camera-loving four year olds. Then we tried to be active and went on a miserable bike ride. We tried to follow a pretty popular bike path and we were on it for a full three minutes before we hit a spot that had been ruined by a typhoon and was under construction. As in, if we had gone any further, we would have reached our doom. So we turned back tried to find food. First, I was tempted to set free a warthog. Too bad I hadn't, I am sure he was eaten the next day. We found a promising hotpot place and I got a dish of raw seafood that I still cannot quite identify and then went home but not before stopping to stock up on groceries because everything closes down for New Year (and we left our PlayDoh at the grocery store on accident). And heard lots of fireworks as we hung out at our apartment.

• Yesterday (Sunday), we went to only Sacrament meeting. No, not because I am going inactive from Relief Society, but because it was Chinese New Years Eve and church was only an hour long. I finished a book and started a new one, talked my mom for a whole hour (which never happens with Jo Mork), took a nap, and celebrated Chinese New Year with our Branch President and his family. There, I ate "long life vegetable" that was the length of my arm in one foul slurp (now I am supposed to live as long as President Hinckley) and asked if I wanted to marry a Taiwanese man "on accident" by a missionary who was translating for us...turns out Sister Chen was just telling us something about the food. We got some "lucky money", took lots of pictures with our "lucky money", and did some KungFu with our "lucky money".

• You know, just the usual lucky money ritual. Take note of the amazing dinner that was prepared by us by the one and only Sister Chen. (Okay, so probably not the only, but still, OUR one and only Sister Chen) We also stopped by the store on the way home to pick up the PlayDoh that we had left there yesterday. It wasn't there, but our consciences were eased by the fact that 1. it is either in the hands of a very lucky child and 2. that it wasn't mistaken as an explosive and we have not been taken to jail...yet. And then Amy and I spent a romantic New Years Eve together watching the fireworks from our patio for ten minutes then retreating into our rooms to read/watch Enchanted/talk to Jeffrey. And of course, to hear lots more fireworks.

• Today (Monday) we went on a exploration ralk-a cross between a run and a walk-to the foot of the mountains, visited a temple, prayed to someones' ancestors, talked on Skype with the parental unit, rode 15 miles to the beach and back, found some sand volleyball courts, met some surfers on our way, ate a very large fish then ate two scoops too much of delicious ice cream, touched Taiwan ocean for the first time, discovered where all plastic bags go when people are done with them, saw a man approach some "niyou" (we think they were wilderbeast??) and then lead them presumably to the factory where they will be eaten, and to finish the day, I lusted after Amy's new comfortable bike seat. It was a great day and so far, a great break from work. Six more days to go! It is only 630pm here and I am excited to settle in for the night and listen to more fireworks. Someday, I might miss the lullaby of children potentially blowing their hands off. For now, I just turn up my music and pretend that it is really only licensed professionals setting those crackers of death off every five seconds.

And just some cheesiness to end the post. I am just so happy and grateful and content and ______ (insert adjective) that I get along so well with my roommate/coworker/only English speaking companion. My life would be either very boring or very dangerous if I didn't have her to go adventuring with me. And she takes wonderful pictures! I am so lucky to be living here and with her.

P.S to Amy: Now now, don't get too teary-eyed that I am scared of expressing my gratitude in person and thus have to do it on a blog. Hah.

Fold your arm, close your eyes. We say a prayer.

Hualien Hualien Hualien. Anything bad I ever thought about you, I take it back. The people here are some of the kindest that I have ever met. I am finally getting settled in (who knows how many times I will say that) and starting to feel a sense of...community. I didn't even realize that was possible when I can barely communicate but it is happening and I am loving it. The ward members here treat us like princesses. Actually, more like malnourished missionaries. They are ridiculously nice and accomodating and most importantly, are willing to act out what we are about to eat. Should I be worried that I am eating stuff that needs to be acted out? Eehhh, I will consider it part of getting used to Asia.

This past weekend has been insane and rewarding and most of all SUNNY. There is too much to include all the details especially since I have to tutor again in ten minutes. But a short rundown...

Friday
9am-10am: teach three 20 minute lessons about "our houses being our homes"
10am-1040am: scramble to prep for three 30 minute lessons where we listen to these creepy songs and watch an even creepier video. the kids love it though.
1040am-1210pm: watch a hour and a half of a poor middle aged man trying to make a living by singing songs for 3 year olds to learn. and you might think I am weird...
1210pm-1230pm: eat delicious lunch that our cook prepares for us. yes, the kids do have a cook and she is wonderful and buys fresh veggies from across the street everyday! total hippie style and i love it.
1230pm-1pm: prep for my two 45 minute lessons
1pm-2pm: laid out on our patio because it was sunny and amazing. skyped.
2pm-3pm: lengthy teachers' meeting
3pm-430pm: teaching two 45 minute lessons, massive review of the home/schoolroom vocab
430pm-500pm: rush to the night market to buy dinner, we get a free (man tao) sweet steamed bread just because.
530pm-630pm: tutor this girl who hates learning english. we play hannah montana games in english for a treat for being "so good". the things you do for kids to like you...
650pm-900pm: tutor these darling wonderful children that are so smart and love learning. the five year old read an ACTUAL book to me in her second language. impressive, yes. and the mother made me a delicious meal with brown rice and good nonfatty meat and VEGGIES. and sent me home with two tickets to the hot springs and a thing of grapes, which are kind of pricey here. talk about hospitality, right? it gets better.
900pm-1am: journal, talk to people from home, email, read, listen to the CES broadcast which was amazing. and listened to President Holland's devotional to BYU. that was even better.

Saturday
9am-430pm: copy friday's schedule here.
430pm-530pm: scrounged up some dinner/snack
530pm-700pm: found a massage place where we could get a half hour massage for $18. we thought we were being all frugal and had found a deal and then later, Yuling tells us that we totally got cheated. boo for being too obviously american.
700pm-900pm: ward potluck/activity. we got there late and everyone starts scrambling around to get us bowls to eat out of. they don't use wasteful paper plates here...they just rewash their bowls and hand them to the next person. so people find us bowls and start beckoning toward the food even though amy and i were totally already digging in. then we eat, eat some more, go back to the table and engage in a conversation like this.
Branch President: *Does a weird flying motion*
Us: *Gives quizzical looks.* A bird?
Branch President: Mouse!
Us: Mouse?!
Branch President: Flying Mouse!
Us: Uhhhh
English Speaker: Flying Squirrel!
Us: Flying Squirrel. *uncomfortably scoop some on our plates*
Branch President: *Makes a shooting motion*
Yuling: *Points at our plates* Those are illegal.
Us: Illegal?!
Yuling: The aboriginees are allowed to shoot them. *Demonstrates a shot then bullets spraying all over*
Stephanie: Yea, be careful for bullets. I got one in mine.
Us: Bullets?
She picks a legit bullet out of her dish and shows us. We just start laughing so hard and pick some meat off the bones to get. It tastes like a combination of forest and fire and lack of flavoring. Not going to be my next meal but I am glad we tried it. Then we get some dessert which is this delicious Chinese cake (so much lighter than American cake because they have different flour). We think we are done eating...but nope. The ward members start cleaning up and soon our table is the only one left standing and has all the food on it, including the whole cake platter with cake still on it. We are told that we are not allowed to leave until we finish so...we dig in! I don't think I have been that full for a long long time. But the fact that they were all around the table watching us eat and giving us more food and acting out everything they wanted to say made it feel oddly homey and comfortable and like they really do love us here.

Sunday
Not sure what I did in the morning...slept in, read scriptures, enjoyed the sunshine etc.
100pm-400pm: Church. Loved it. Got to listen to a sacrament meeting translation courtesy of Elder Sandberg (thankfully NOT yellow fever Elder Butler) with these sweet mic thingers that made me feel like I was in the CIA.
400pm-500pm: scrounged some more food for dinner
500pm-530pm: attempted to figure out a map.
530pm-700pm: threw away the map, went out adventuring. we figured if we headed east, we would find the ocean. logical? yes. correct? no. but we did find the ocean after biking to some sketch places including but not limited to an empty warehouse looking thing that was oddly painted, a ghetto of taiwan, some sort of night entertainment place, down a few streets where we just got chased out by dogs (it is becoming quite a regular thing), over a bridge that led us directly back to where we started, into a creepy eerie night market that turns out lead straight to the beach. i practically peed my pants i was so excited. we finally found OUR beach. it was crazy and scary and fun and exciting all at once. still no lights on the bikes but all the better to see the stars. A trip during the daytime to the beach is a must. just need to find the daylight hours to do it in.
700pm-1000pm: Plan lessons, read more.
1000pm-100am: Let skype take over my life.

Monday
9ooam-430pm: School day. The usual.
430pm-500pm: Eat bread & jam, yogurt, almonds, and grapes for dinner.
500pm-630pm: Tutor a group of great eight year olds. so amusing. made them run around the room when they get too riled up. seems to work like a charm.
630pm-700pm: Waste my life blogging.

And now I must run. Thank you blog and various random viewers for helping me keep my sanity. I try not to think about the weirdees that might be reading this and it makes it a lot easier...pretending I am writing to someone who actually cares rather than just cyber world. Ha how sad to live in such an age. And how much of a blessing!

The Humble Abode.

Kitchen. Love the paint color. And the kitchen gets an amazing amount of sun in the morning...when it is sunny, that is. Take note of the rain boot flower vase=our attempt at creating a home.

Other side of the kitchen/living room which we never use because we never have friends over and our beds are much more comfortable and practical than those waterproof poop colored couches. There have been thoughts of moving the couches outside on our patio for best sunray catchage. (Of course I will be lathered in sunscreen so those rays will just bounce off me. Take that, skin cancer!)

Bedroom. I love the mismatched bed covers and pillow and sheets. And for those of you who saw my Provo room, you might recognize the map above my map. It was a lot easier to bring that than my actual artwork. If we keep our bedroom doors open, we look directly into each others' room which lends itself nicely to talking when we might otherwise get something productive done.

Bathroom. Has really nice tile and no real tub...just kind of the floor and then a drain in the corner. Makes for wet feet the whole day if we shower in the morning.

Come, little friends, come!

So the reasoning behind the title of this entry and many others--I realize that I have not really been explaining them at all so you probably all think I have been loosing my English while being here. (Which I have, but not that badly.) Most of the titles are direct translations of the Chinese I hear OR the best quotes of the mangled English that I hear. People love to practice their English on me which I totally love--it is the teacher in me--and I take advantage of the cute things they say by quoting them on my blog.

Anyways we went on a field trip today with the kids to some sort of firemen, EMT, policemen, cheerleading, facechanging extravaganza. In order to get there, we did the pretty typical thing of getting parents to drive except we were transporting preschoolers so I figured carseat galore. When the teachers were calling to the kids to get in the cars, I realized they were saying "lai, xiao pengyou, lai!" meaning "come, little friends, come!" It just sounds so...ridiculous when translated. And instead of strapping them in all safe and American-like (since we are all afraid of getting sued), we pile in the cars without even double counting the kids and NONE of them have seatbelts so of course, I am freaking out the whole time. I was assigned to be with the three year olds and we have 5 three year olds in the backseat and then a 6th on my lap. The people of Taiwan obviously haven't made any stupid court cases over spilled hot coffee. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. And I am still not really sure what happened for the two hours we were there. We were told of this outing yesterday so of course did not plan any of our lessons around it...not sure what the kids got out of it other than being scared to death of helicopters. (One flew directly over us and pretended to save some men "trapped" in a building but only succeeded in blowing a bunch of rocks into our kids faces and making them cry. Oh the joy in taking care of 35 upset preschoolers.)

So listen. We learned another thing about the culture which I love. You know how American parents are accused of living through their children? Well all you children born to Chinese people (me included) do not have to worry about this because Chinese people just live their own fantasies no matter their age. Or weirdness. Exhibit A--50 year old cheerleaders?? Exhibit B--Micheal Jackson wannabees. Like these people danced like a combination of Micheal Jackson and the artist formerly known as Prince. Does he even still go by that? (see pictures) Anyways not important. It was hilarious. Amy and I gave each other enough puzzled, pained, weirded out faces to last for the rest of the time in Taiwan. Which is 5 and half months, by the way. Maybe the best part...in an attempt at a wonderful, spectacular grand finale, the fire trucks sprayed their water hoses in the air and it essentially rained on all of us. Seriously, what a waste of resources AND i got wet. With two children on my lap. You can't really tell, but there are two little girls on my lap, hiding under my jacket from the water. And those boots in the picture? Firemen. That did not warn us we were sitting in the wet zone. Oh right, because I still don't speak Chinese!

And tonight I got the opportunity to teach English to ADULTS. You know, like those big people children become when they finish school? Yea, they are easy to forget about when you spend all day with people under 4 feet tall. Best part of it-they sat quietly and attentively for a whole 40 minutes and there wasn't even a craft involved. I was thouroughly impressed until I realized that my standards are obviously dropping quickly and substantially. Next thing you know, I will be impressed if they hold a plate with one hand instead of two.

I am loving this country more and more everyday. Don't mistake my dry sarcasm and blatant making fun of for being unsatisified. This place has enough to satisfy me, amuse me, challenge me, and make for interesting blog entries for AT LEAST six months. And I don't even have that much time here. Hope life in America is just as exciting! More posts later about last weekend, our first true weekend in Hualian.

Oh dear.

**Disclaimer: To all the mothers, especially my own, that might read this--I reference getting lost and being chased by dogs. Just stop worrying and enjoy the fact that I am growing up!**

Sometime, someday I will get to know this city. We wanted some xiao long baos (steamed pork buns) tonight for dinner after a too hard, too long day. I think they might be becoming a comfort food? But we only sort of knew the directions so we made our way through Hualien into downtown Hualien and to our delight, it practically appeared right in front of us! I shouldn't say us, I would have rode right past it if Amy had not stopped right in front of me. They are supposedly the best xiao long baos in the city and they haven't raised their prices in years. For six pork buns, you pay 30 quai=about $1. And the place is open 24 hours a day. And not like Wendy's 24 hour drive thru but completely open, completely running all night long. Get this, there is not even a door. As Amy and I admired their skill in folding and steaming the baos, I got a major dose of gratitude for being as spoiled as I am. How thankful I am that I do not have to work 12 hour days stuffing and folding baos just to get by.

And another thing to be grateful for...we have been slowly figuring out that there is some sort of magic in Taiwan. Not sure how it really works, but whenever we comment on something not happening, it happens. And this is not a one-time occurance. A few days ago, I commented on the lack of bugs here. And I open my door, flip on the switch, and a cockroach scurries away. Tonight, we were thinking of which way to ride home so as to avoid the scary dogs and dogs come out from a place where they had never been before and CHASE US. We legitimately got chased by dogs. It was so scary and funny and scary (oh did I say that?) all at the same time. So if we ever don't want something to happen and make the mistake of saying it out loud, it will happen. I am sure I will have more examples to share later.

In six months, maybe I won't even be phased by waking up to a freezing cold room because the windows do not actually close, cutting a lot paper into triangles and squares for a craft, teaching children who don't understand English, repeating the "th" sound at least 20 times during tutoring, getting lost in a city with another young girl and no headlights on our bikes, and being chased by dogs. As for right now, it exhausts me. Zaijian, wo de pengyou! Goodbye, my friend! (I still don't know how to specify nighttime or to make something plural).

The darlings. Me&Jimmy, Jared, Leslee, Jay.

chiang kai shiek memorial, taipei 101, the food we got when we couldn't read the menu, taipei night market.

Pavlov Dogs?

garbage trucks sing here. like the ice cream trucks in america. except every time i hear an ice cream truck coming down the street, i get excited. now, i just know that i need to bring down my trash. it is a disappointment every night. and they keep singing..and singing..and singing. i can hear them for about 2 hours every night.

but the first payback as a teacher happened today! it is no wonder teachers keep teaching. i was teaching the concept of "favorites" and i had the smallest ones color while i went around the classroom having small conversations with them. not sure if they understood what we were doing at that time, but they did understand the body parts that we learned yesterday! i knelt down next to jared, a darling boy that never really seems to understand anything, and he started pointing at parts of my face and correctly identifying them! it might sound trivial and weird, but when yesterday i thought the 3 year olds would never understand what is what--i mean, they barely know it in their first language much less their second. the fact that jared could tell me what what on my face and that shawn can now spell his name (remember, they are 3!) makes me ridiculously happy. life is good. we will see how much they remember tomorrow...

and amy just taught one of her tutoring subjects the salsa. yeeaaa bringing the latin to taiwan.

teacher, you is so pretty.

did our first tutoring session tonight. guess what the kids brought us? wait for it...apples! totally living up to american-made sterotypes. so amusing.

even better-we met with an english professor at the university here and we are all set up to teach 25 college students once a week. we asked if we might be able to sit in on some classes like yoga or pottery or something that doesn't require intense knowledge on the language. so they offered us tai chi. if this all works out, life will be grand.

You will have many fun here.

Highlights of my new life in Hualien, Taiwan. And this is only the start of it all!

• meeting the children that we get to teach for the next six months
• smartest kids i have ever met.
• instant love for the teachers because they loved the ones before us
• and our classrooms are darling--everything is mini, including the teacher chair.
• dialogue every time we start class
• me: Good Morning Class!
• them: Good Morning Teacher Stacey. We Love You!
• (and they do it when we dismiss them too.)
• how could you NOT feel good about yourself when you hear that 16 times a day?
• having a 2 hour break while the kids take naps on cots
• bike riding at night in the pouring rain
• almost getting run over by a scooter
• then almost getting run over by other moving objects when crossing the street
• amy wearing a pink, green, and blue ankle length poncho with a plastic visor installed.
• pointing at pictures to get our dinner
  
• admiring squid on a stick at the night market
• and chicken feet
• and chicken butt
• and pig innards
• and duck head
• and chicken gizzard
• hanging out with a legit Taiwanese aborigine
• he comments on our weight, our skin, and my beauty mark
• and asks us to come back for dinner tomorrow at eight.
• yea, we got asked on a date by a 40 year old.
• meeting Ronald ((who makes my heart go thump thump. according to aborigine man.))
• he makes us delicious fruit smoothies
• and gets jealous of our aborigine friend
• and asks us if "poncho" is always a funny word
• walking in to 7-11 at 830pm and being greeted by a "GOOD MORNING!"
• trying to kill a cockroach...but not succeeding
• that little shiester somehow escaped the wrath of amy
• even after we moved my lego carpet and armoire.
• realizing that we have to three lesson plans to prepare and it is 1100pm
• crap.