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.

BIRTHDAY TIME!!!

Celebrating my birthday in Taiwan was hilarious because of the kids trying to sing happy birthday to me. I love when they sing. It is to darn cute. My MKers were the most excited. They all shouted happy birthday when they saw me. (Thanks to their teachers for getting that into their head, it made the day.) I miss teaching those kids.

The teachers suprised me with a great pop out card and angel food cake made from scratch. Making angel food cake was above and beyond my expectations. It is my favorite dessert and I think everyone else enjoyed it.


A shout out/thanks to all of you who emailed, facebooked and sent packages. It was great to be remembered. I can only imagine that with such a great start year 28 will be a good one!

Two week later and I 'm enjoying sugar but not so sure about meat.

I Katie Laws lasted only 14 days abstaining from sugar. Honestly, I surprised I lasted that long, I like my sugar. I ended the sugar fast with a butterfingers sent to me by one of the last semester teacher. You can not buy butterfingers in Taiwan. I love butterfingers.

As a side note I am now considering an even weirder new eating habit. The other day I was innocently looking for recipes and ended up on the PETA website encouraging Veganism. (not sure if that a word but I am using it) They encourage the giving up of meat by advertising the grim world of the meat market. It is disgusting world and I am traumatized.

Today as I was trying to find something to eat images of tortured animal in small dark cages keep popping into my head. Animals that never seeing the light of day and force feed until they're so large they can stand on their own two feet. . . Needless to say I didn't eat meat today or eggs or dairy. The thought of it was repulsive. Did you know that humans are the only animals that continue to drink milk after infancy and the only animal to drink another's animal milk, kinda of gross when you think about it.

Words of advice do not go to the PETA website even if your are curious. It is addicting and requires major rethink of the meat you eat. In fact don't think about, STOP! It fills your head with random facts and cause your basic thoughts about what you eat to be challenged. This is one situation were innocent really is bliss. Remain blissful, I hope to return to such a place. My my vegan phase be shorter then my non-sugar phase.

I need to limit my time on the internet.

Tim Tam Slam

After deciding I was never going to eat sugar again, I needed to get rid of all the junk food that I had bought before declaring my war on junk food. The war started due to my pigging out over Chinese New Year. We (Sain, Destiny and I) were given American chocolate and ended up eating it all. It was good but disgusting, especially when I stopped and thought about how much we had eaten including a box of See's chocolate, a package of Reese's Peanut Butter cups and 9 plus truffles. I haven't had any chocolate or junk food since Chinese New Year. I figure I need to detoxify my body from sugar. I'll have to see how it goes. . .
Since I wasn't going to eat chocolate for awhile I decided to give my Tim Tams to my 2nd grade class. Tim Tams are great biscuit type cookies. They are chocolate biscuit sandwiches filled with chocolate frosting and then dipped in chocolate. To eat a Tim Tam properly you must eat them with hot chocolate. You take the Tim Tam and nibble off two corners that are diagonal from each other. Then you stick one end into the hot chocolate useing the cookies as a straw. As you suck up the hot chocolate the inside of the cookie melts. Once you taste the hot chocolate you stuff the cookies into your mouth and enjoy the chocolate explosion of melted Tim Tams. It is a chocoholics paradise aka Tim Tam Slam. YUM! You have to time it just right, if you eat the cookies to soon. . . no chocolate melted goodness. You wait to long and you end up with chocolate ever where but your mouth.

Disclaimer and comments about the video: I was talking to the kids while filming you can tell when I forgot I was filming. Sorry. Also the hot chocolate wasn't hot enough but they still had a good time. Lastly, a couple of times in the video I sounded like my mom when she would talk to us when we were kids. It made me laugh and just a bit homesick!