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.