Into the Archives...

So, my good friend Connie, posted an amazingly awesome video of our time in Taiwan, and it reminded me that I still needed to post this beaut of a vid.

Date:                The last day of school
Class:               MK
Song:               Sorry, Sorry by the one and only Super Junior
Dance moves:  Classic

It's so cute, I couldn't not post it!

So this is a holler back to my days in Taiwan. I've already done a post of the Christmas dances that we had, but here's a video of the practices. My students are just too cute!

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What I've been up to...

So, you may have noticed that my blogging has increasingly decreased this past month. The last month of teaching was packed full of all sorts of things but mainly just dancing. Let me explain...

Every other year at Berhan, Halloween and Christmas trade off as the big holiday of Fall semester. Last year it was Christmas. As a result, my boss was trying to come up with something fun and different we could do this year, but have it not take a lot of effort. Hmm...what could we possibly do?

Perhaps, a school wide dance? Perfect!

You may be thinking, so what? Every school has dances, right?

Nope. Not even close. At least here in Taiwan. Due to academics being the main focus at school, kids have little time for social interactions. They start school around 7:30 am and some don't even return home until 10 pm. Yeah. Pretty crazy, huh?

As a result, most Taiwanese enter adulthood totally awkward with the opposite sex. Even more awkward than your typical American. My boss, in his quest (and a mighty good one) to expose our students to all kinds of good, positive experiences decided that we have a Christmas dance, and teach all of our students the waltz. I thought it was fabulous.

Each day for about 10 minutes, we would practice in our classrooms. Then every Thursday or Friday we would go upstairs to "the big room" and show our boss our progress. At first my students moaned and groaned--especially my fifth graders. But as the weeks went by and the dance grew closer, I could tell that they were secretly excited.

The nights of the big dances (we had two because not all students have classes on the same day) were the Thursday and Friday before the last week of class.

My boss really wanted to teach the students manners, and especially treat boys to treat girls with respect. Their way of getting around girls feeling left out is by putting all the girls' names in a basket and having the boys draw. It ended up being pretty funny. I danced with my student Simon (the girls were lacking), and we decided to make a game of it. We tried to see how many people we could poke from our class (a class joke of sorts). I think it made it less tedious for poor Simon. 

Overall, I think it was a success, and I hope it's a tradition they will continue each year.

Giggles, Tickles, and Dancing

Days with my first graders are never dull, old, or ever lose their gleam. I can never get enough of their little giggles, and high pitched shrieks of delight. They think they are so smart, clever, etc. They've taken to trying to scare me every time I walk into the classroom. Today I had to leave class briefly, and when I returned the only girl present looked at me with bewilderment--the boys had disappeared. And where to? It took me only a second to discover them hiding behind the trash can, under their desks and squished up against the wall trying to disappear into the side of the cupboard. What gave them away was Derek's little giggle.


AND, they are tickling fiends. Some days it's an all out war. Derek and Koala will sneak up behind me and start tickling my knees or try to get to my feet. Most days I win, but on occasion they outsmart me and have me rolling on the floor. Last Friday I let the kids decide what they wanted to do for their activity and immediately Stephani raised her hand and said, "Tickle Miss Shannon." Oh, no, I thought. They promptly held a vote,  there wasn't much I could do...I was out-voted 6 to 1. And let me just say that I much rather be the tickler than the one being tickled--being tickled hurts. It was a great act of charity and good-will on my part to actually follow through, and honor their vote. Though the tickle session was short lived.

AND we've recently started teaching all of our kids how to dance. Not your booty-shaking, break dancing, free-styling bit, but the cultured, distinguished, refined kind. The owners of the school decided that they wanted to teach the kids etiquette and manners and it's going to culminate with an end of the year dance. I'm pretty excited about it. Let's be honest, I'd never refuse to attend a dance party, at least not now. Last Friday we had an assembly if you will, and two of the teachers demonstrated how to do the waltz. They had several of the students come up to try it out, to help them warm up to the idea of dancing in pairs. I didn't think it would work, but I'm AMAZED at how much enthusiasm all of my students have displayed!Today in both of my first grade classes, I taught my students the basic steps and then had them practice. My second first grade class got so into it, and the boys even wanted to dance with the girls. They picked it up so quickly and are going to be pros by the time we have to learn a second dance this Friday.

Anyhow, I'm grateful for the little joys in life: giggling, tickling, and dancing.

{Derek attaching himself semi-permanently to my leg.

This is at least a bi-weekly occurrence}

What are three girls to do on a fabulous, sunny, Taiwanese Saturday?

Bike to Taichung of course! For some reason we thought it would be a splendid idea to bike from Feng Yuan, the town in which we live, to the nearby city, Taichung. The last time I was here I though it would be a fun adventure, but didn't think anymore of it.

Well, until Leia, a student of mine, told me that she and her dad biked to Taiwan last weekend.

Me: Really?
Miss Leia: Yes, really.
Me: How long did it take you?
ML: Hmmm. About, about, about....I don't know.
Me: Really, you don't remember how long it took you?
ML: Miss Shan, I got new gloves. See! Oh, maybe two hours?

Only two hours! I had been thinking that it would take much longer. And, Leia most distinctively pointed out to me, they had ridden to the mountains, not the town.

My mind started mulling over this new bit of knowledge. I mentioned it to my roommate Connie, and immediately we decided it would be a cool thing to do. This past weekend promised to be the perfect opportunity for such a jaunt.

After my Saturday morning class, Connie, Erin and I loaded up our bikes with our waterbottles and bags, and started pedaling. And...it didn't take us very long at all. Granted most of the way into town was downhill, but still. I was shocked to find that it took us 55 minutes to get to the center of Taichung--that's only 10 minutes slower than the bus! And we weren't booking it by any means.

{Connie and Erin on the road}

{Yes, that is a building with Britney Spears plastered on it's side}

We ended up parking our bikes at the Church, and then set out to go exploring. We didn't get far. Only across the street where we found a Sushi Express, and had to go in. And it was fantastic!

We decided to go to Chung Yo, the big department store, and Connie and Erin got there makeup done at the MAC counter (Mindy, you've converted me!). As we were leaving we heard some pretty cool music coming from outside. Often there's some sort of concert going on on Saturdays so we went and investigated. It ended up being a belly dancing contest. And it was pretty much amazing!

It was interesting to see the different variety of women--and man--who made up the different teams/groups. Culturally in Taiwan one cannot be beautiful and big at the same time. Asians do have a tendency to be smaller boned, and I think because of that women have a lot of pressure to be slender, and sometimes unnaturally so. It was refreshing to see these middle aged women not ashamed of their bodies, even though they didn't necessarily fit what was culturally acceptable.

One of the teams singled out Erin and asked if she would film them. They were from Taipei and didn't have any friends to do it for them. They happened to be really good. Allen was the only guy belly dancer, and man did he have some amazing moves. His partner, Maggie, was absolutely gorgeous.

{One of the performing groups before the actually performance}

{I loved the colors}{Maggie and Allen performing}{Allen and Maggie after the show}

Good times, good times. I think I might have had more fun taking pictures of the the crowd than of the actual performers.

{Taiwanese school girls}{The most adorable girl wearing a mask at the show}
{A dog wearing goggles. Totally normal, right?}

{Cute Asian fashion}

{Gotta love the Hello Kitty umbrella}
Here's to a day of complete awesomeness! One of tans, endorphins, and amazing memories!

{Erin, Connie, and I with our bikes. Just about to ride back to Feng Yuan}