Sun Moon Lake

The day after the Easter party was our Branch activity. We spent the day touring around the Sun Moon Lake area. I am the activities coordinator in our Branch. Which means that I do what ever the branch president or his counselors ask me to do. This time I collected the money for the bus. I had quite a bit of money for about 10 minutes on Saturday. . . to bad it wasn't mine. Anyways, it is a nice way to get experience planning activities with out being fully responsible. (he he he)

Our first stop was the Chung Tai Chan Monastery. It is a Buddist monastery. It is huge and beautiful. The building we toured had at least 12 floors. The campus also houses a boarding school for grade 1 to 12. It would be interesting to have a monk for your teacher.

After the monastery we stopped at a temple that was in front of Sun Moon Lake. I had seen it last time I was at the lake so I spent the time shopping. I bought a cute piggy bank, which was much cuter the the pig in front of the temple. It was part of some kind of offering.

Our last stop at Sun Moon Lake we hiked up a ton of stairs and found a pagoda. I can't remember what it was called. It was fun because you could climb to the top of the pagoda and gong the gong as I like to say (it is fun to say fast "gong the gong, gong the gong, gong the gong.") Here I am gonging the gong. Not only did they have the huge bell you could whack there was also a huge drum that you could jump and whack . It was great for letting go of any pint up stress.

Easter In Taiwan

It was time to celebrate Easter at Berhan. It fell under my responsibility to plan the activity. I was nerve about being in charge. Both the morning and afternoon classes all had Easter parties. We played games, made treats and of course had an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids appeared to have a good time. They were all smiles.

I ran the egg hunt for two of the three groups and they were ecstatic about their 3 plastic eggs filled with candy and toys. I also started to have fun once I realized that it wasn't hard to organize a "party" with all the help I had from the teachers and secretaries. Emmy, the secretary over the Easter party, even gave me a shoulder rub during the last egg hunt of the day. Easter was a success!!!

By the way, I wasn't the only one tired by the end of the day. Check out these cute but very tired MKers. The spent at least half of the day running around. I was covered in kids sweat by the end of the day.

Together, Together, Everyone!!!!

This past month I have be teaching the story and music class in AK. At first I tried teaching the types of song I used in MK. The kids quickly let me know that they were "baby" songs, yucky song, crazy songs aka they did not want to sing them songs. So I started searching, vented my frustration about all the songs they didn't like and finally found a solution I hoped the would like. I decided to teach them a song from High School Musical. The result were absolutely adorable. At least I think it was cute. Here you go. . . straight from the Afternoon Kindergarten Berhan Class Winter 2008! Enjoy!



I have two videos because there are two different groups. Each group was a little different and being their teacher I couldn't imagine just putting one group on my blog. I won't be offended if you only watch one. Their last semester teacher will watch both so the space won't go to waste.

I adore these kids but as you will see they are not the best behaved kids. There are no tears when 4:30pm rolls around and we all say goodbye. In fact Friday is Happy Day for a reason. We all know that we will be back tomorrow (or Monday) and 3hrs, five days a week with this group of kids is just right.

My Amazing Dinner! Yes I am proud of it!

Okay, so I have been trying to eat better this semester. Last semester I had a grand time trying new foods, stress eating, social eating, teaching kitchen and all other sorts of digestive fun. As a result I gained about 15 pounds. Wonderful, I know. So this semester I have refocused and I am trying to eat better. Which hasn't been easy. So far in the first two months of this semester we have had 3 birthdays (mine included) and at least 4 holidays. For example, the Chinese New Year sugar feast. Still, I am trying hard to avoid the junk. As a result I have been spending time looking for recipes on the internet. One website I found was about Bento lunch boxes. They are the Japanese equivalent of a lunch box but much cuter then the ones you find in America. I have seen the in the store here and had wondered about them. They seemed awful small. But the whole ideas is to pack a colorful space saving lunch which equals low cal and good eating. Here is my first and so proud attempt at Bento eating (it is even vegan). Yes, I took a picture of my food. I really like my bento it has monkeys on it and only cost 55 NT.I ate my dinner during my night class and the kids were all over it. They liked my bento but were not convinced about eating raw veggies. For some reason it is a strange thing to eat in Taiwan. They prefer their veggies cooked in oil over high heat. Got to love cultural differences! They all approved of my fruit selection. I have no idea what they are but I really like them. It's a cross between an apple and a pear. It was a great dinner and I got to eat before 8pm this way!

MY FAVORITE!!

I have been meaning to do a post about my favorite class @ Berhan and today is the day. I love MK kindergarten! For some reason that class clicks with me and my personality. I am thrilled to be heading teaching MK but hate that I don't get to teach. Still I manged to have fun every time I go to MK. As a head teacher I mostly observe in the classroom but every now and then I just have to join in the fun. I need my daily wrestle with a kindergartener! In the bottom picture I am doing a better job of just observing. I have to take down quotes from the kids for their progress reports. Yes, even at 2 to 3 years old these kids are accountable for what they do at school.Don't feel to bad for them their teachers are American so they have a lot of fun at school. This semester has added fun because they have boy teachers. This is a novelty for Berhan and the kids are loving it. Rumor states that past experiences have showed that on average most guys don't like teaching MK. I don't know if the guys (Steven and Joesph) are enjoying it this semester but the kids have no problems with their boy teachers. Okay, there is one problem. Since the kids have only had girl teachers the guys are often called Miss Steve and Miss Joe but the kids are catching on. Here is just a peek at why the kids are loving MK this semester.