My Taiwan Adventure

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Hm so I kinda had a traumatic event on my way to the MinQuan branch today (for both me and an old lady). This school is right across from a big temple where there are dozens of old ladies trying to sell you little things (I'm not exactly sure what). Well, I see this particular woman almost every time I go there. Unlike the others, she doesn't wear a farmer's hat and she seems to have a disability. Well today, it's raining like crazy and it's not that warm outside; and I see this woman again with no hat and NO UMBRELLA. So I think to myself- I have two umbrellas, why don't I give her mine. It would be much worse for her to catch a cold than for me. So when I'm crossing the street she walks toward me saying something in Chinese to get me to buy from her, and I try to give her the umbrella "gei ni hao ma?" (here, take it. okay?) She looks apprehensive and says something else in Chinese. "Xia yu le!" (it's raining) I say and move th...

So on my way to work the other morning, I met something on the stairs going out of the apartment. It crawled down a couple steps and I thought it might be a baby bat because it was as big as my palm. I get closer and see it is a freaking, huge spider! Its legspan was slightly bigger than my palm and it's abdomen was as big as a ping pong ball! It was brown with long, slender legs and ran faster than I could see. It was terrifying! The spider was obviously afraid of me because as soon as it sensed me coming it ran down the steps, but I was still as afraid of it as it was of me. The steps aren't exactly super wide- it could easily run and bite me faster than I could run down the stairs. So I just took a deep breath and ran down without looking where the spider went. Every time I go up or down the stairs now I look out for that spider... ick! Despite all that, I'm really curious what kind it was. And PS- My English is regressing, having to talk to second-language learners all...

Just finished another LONG week. Sunday's my only day to relax. Whew! So maybe I'll go get some much-needed clothes for this hot weather. The temperature's picking up! Sorry- no pictures to upload today! I played the new Monopoly with the credit cards last weekend! It was really fun! Also, had a grilled cheese night with my friends from Xin Hu- so I'm still having some fun outside of work! love, Rachel

 Here's one of my schools: San Min This is my classroom for Treehouse 2 class  Last month we made a trip to the National Palace Museum  It had a beautiful garden with a koi pond! You could feed the fish!  Here's Xin Hu! I teach my favorite class here! It's a kindergarten! It comes with a nice porch area for most classrooms and a really beautiful playground. More later......!

Nothing much to talk about/no time. Still working like a dog- 6 days a week. I love my classes though! The 2-3 year olds are my fav! It feels like they're my own kids sometimes. Their English comprehension is so much better and so is my Chinese comp. because of them. I hesitate to say anything I learn from them though, because I don't want to get laughed at for speaking baby-talk. I'm going to try to make a couple videos soon- about nightmarkets and Taipei 101. Love everyone and miss you! But I'm also super happy here! So glad I went!

Yuck! Last week was super busy and LONG! I'm starting to notice all of the unpaid hours I'm working (grading homework, writing progress reports, calculating grades)... This week won't get any better. I have to make phone calls to students after 8pm every night but Friday and Saturday. Luckily, I will get paid for it.... I got a chance to go to Taipei 101 last night. We couldn't go to the top because we didn't have NT$1000 to spare. Instead, we went into the Taipei 101 Mall. There were a lot of super expensive stores: Louis Vuitton, L'oreal, etc. It was fun to look in. I'll have to find time to put up some pictures. I don't have much. I am working on a video for Taipei 101- I have to wait until we get to the top first!