My plane landed around 9:30 PM Sunday night, and two buses and 2 taxis later, I was home in my apartment a little after 1 in the morning. With jet lag clamping it's claws around my head, I didn't make it to school on Monday, though I did manage to (just barely) pull myself together for my Chinese class Monday night (I was immensely regretting it about halfway through when all I wanted to do was sleep).
Anyway, now I'm back to work, nose to the grindstone and I'm glad of it. I like routine. I like my routine. Yes, I'm one of those people. Too much spontaneity makes me anxious. And nauseous. And well, I like having plans. It has occurred to my somewhat well ordered mind that while many of my posts have given you guys a peek into some of the special events I've gotten to go to since I got here, I really never gave you a good look at the everyday hustle and bustle that is my life.
Here it is, isn't it pretty?
The gray blocks are time that I'm required to be at school but don't have any classes to teach. During this time period I blog, study Chinese, make PowerPoint presentations and worksheets for the first and second grade, and grade workbooks.
Mondays I present the Weekly English sentence to the whole school out on the basketball court. I'm glad the sun isn't in the eyes of the small children...I wish it weren't in my eyes either. Maybe one day I will remember to bring sunglasses out there. After that, I go to either first grade or second grade (depending on the week), and teacher 4 (or 2) periods of story time. So far we've covered Rosie's Walk, Go Away, Big Green Monster, and Harry the Dirty Dog. Monday afternoons I have to be at school, but I don't teach any classes so I can use the time to work on PowerPoint presentations or find other ways to try to make myself useful. Monday nights after dinner I've got 2 hours of Chinese class. It really gives me a big appreciation of what I'm asking of the first and second graders. There's generally not much Chinese involved during our story time and my Chinese teacher only speaks the rare word of English here or there, a word she happens to know after we spend 15 minutes trying to explain random concept X in Chinese.
Tuesdays start out bright and early with Newspaper English for the faculty at 7:55. I find an article about something important (usually I virtually thumb through CNN) and make a PowerPoint with the most important words from the article title (and a few from the article), and present them. The ever awesome Yvonne translates for me. I've got one period after that to rest (or grab breakfast across the street and bring it back). Tuesdays I work with Richard and it's the only day of the week I get to see the fifth grade. Starting at 9:35 I have 3 back to back classes with the 5th graders. Lunch comes and goes, and I have another free period after lunch. Then I've got 2 more classes with the 5th grade, finally ending about 4 o'clock.
Wednesdays I'm supposed to be at school at 7:55. I teach 3 fourth grade classes from 9:35 to noon with Yvonne. I'm not sure if this is throughout Taiwan, or just throughout Yilan County, but Wednesday are half days...for the students anyway. We're supposed to stay at work 'til 4 as usual, working on whatever needs to be done. Every other Wednesday the Fulbrighters have a workshop at the teacher's center, or a field trip to enhance our cultural enrichment experiences. Two weeks ago we went to Lanyang Museum--this week we have a workshop about teaching about American culture and holidays. Workshop days feel really long--the workshops don't end until 4:30 and that half hour feels like it makes a difference when I've only got so much time to bring stuff home, settle for a bit, have dinner, and leave for Fo Guang by 6:30/6:45 for class. Days when they've got us in workshops 'til 4:30...not all of those things happen. And let me tell you, being gone from 7:30ish in the morning 'til 9:30ish at night is a long day if I don't get to make it home.
Thursdays, oh Thursdays. Thursdays are my day for going to English Village. We've got to be there by 8:30 (Woo! Sleeping in...Oh wait...It's twice as far away as school...No sleeping in...) A fully filled English Village day has 72 students and 8 English Teachers. Six of the English Teachers take a group each (12 students or less) and lead them around to four stations in English Village. The stations are Restaurant, Multimedia Room, Dance Studio, Bank/Post Office, Shopping Mall, Health Clinic, Airport/Airplane. Shopping Mall and the Health Clinic are small stations, so one of our auxiliary ETAs takes half of the group at the shopping mall to the Health Center. This ETA stays at the Health Center for all four station rotations. Our other spare ETA is at the airport. The airport/airplane set up is impressive, but it's the sort of place where it would be very easy for things to get out of hand, so it helps to have an extra teacher there to cover you. The second auxiliary ETA spends his or her day at the airport as the rotations of students go through. By lunch time, we're free to go and explore our own cultural enrichment--hiking, museums, acupuncture, Taipei, are just a few of the options on the menu. 7 PM I have to be back in my apartment though--I tutor from 7-8 PM.
Friday--is it the weekend yet? Not quite. Friday I deliver the Weekly English sentence at 7:55. After that I'm free until 10:30--I teach with Yvonne from 10:30 to noon. After lunch, the afternoon is pretty open for grading workbooks or finishing PowerPoint presentations or whatever else needs doing 'til 4. I just added a new item into the mix--Yoga from 4:30 to 5:30 on Friday afternoons. The class started last week and I wasn't here, but no worries, I'm sure I can catch up.
Anyway, this is what a typical week for me looks like. I'm thrilled to be back here. Who knows? Maybe I won't go back to the terrible land where winter exists. I'm learning to appreciate 63 degrees being considered "freezing."
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