It is early Friday morning here in Taiwan, but I am writing to let everyone know I am still quite safe! I leave for Taiwan and all of a sudden typhoon horror stories are all over CNN. Crazy. Although Morakot damaged many parts of Taiwan, and several trees and buildings were blown down in Kaohsiung, the Fulbrights did not experience more than a thunderstorm. We are lucky and thankful.
Since the typhoon ended, we have spent the week at San Min Elementary School learning about how to teach. This is especially helpful to me since I have never been a classroom teacher. And I now realize just how poor my English grammar is; this blog alone is filled with hundreds of grammar mistakes! Hopefully an emphasis on American culture and colloquial language can make up for some of my grammatical shortcomings.
I really like several of the LETs (Local English Teachers) that we met this week and hope I will be placed with my top choice for the rest of the year. I find out in about 2 weeks which schools and teachers I am assigned to in Kaohsiung. During this week of learning, we were also able to practice preparing a lesson plan and teaching in front of the group. When my group acted out our lesson plan (for 4th-5th graders), I was one of the co-teachers and I thought the demonstration went well. I'm starting to think I will be a natural at teaching young children...Many of you know me as shy, but would you believe that here I am one of the charismatic, energetic and outgoing people?! Funny, huh?
I have also been riding a scooter! Not in the road, but around a courtyard and small street for practice. It is really fun and I'm getting better at it, but know that I will probably never buy one and drive around in the busy streets. Traffic laws are not obeyed here very often.
My birthday celebration was also a success. Everyone came to my apartment for dinner and we went to KTV for several hours after. The next day we explored around the Love River (the river that runs through downtown Kaohsiung) and had my birthday lunch at Outback Steakhouse! A nice break of Western food, but not as good as Outback in the States. On our way home from that part of town, we stopped at a 17 story shopping mall. One of our funniest discoveries to date: a t-shirt that reads, "Velocity. I just want to ride my bicycle. I love shadow art. Snappy snap, I accidentally crossprocessed my film."
...whose job is it to make up these ridiculous English t-shirts?!
TGIF and I promise to post photos/videos this weekend when I have some free time!
No comments:
Post a Comment