GAME OVER, TONY!

the first few weeks of anything new always go the slowest. i look forward to feeling "normal" again, at some point in the future when i don't have to spend an hour on lesson plans and i know all of the good places to get coffee, and i know what (and who) to expect when i walk in to my classrooms. while it's exciting to have new experiences coming at me during every minute of the day, it requires maintaining a high energy level and a heightened sense of awareness. i definitely don't have any trouble falling asleep at night! speaking of which--everyone asks if i'm having jet-lag problems. i'm totally fine. i think i somehow skipped that part! my circadian rhythms are perfectly aligned. (brittany--are you proud of me for using circadian rhythms in a sentence?)

tonight i traveled to another branch of the school in a place called Pu-Hsin (sounds like "pu-sheen"). it's about 20 minutes by scooter--another teacher picked me up and gave me a ride. first i observed a class of squirrelly kids who seemed to be around 8-10 years old. during the class, i reviewed the lesson plan i had prepared for the class i was teaching next. as the material was similar to what was being taught in the class i was observing, i assumed that i'd have a similar group of kids.

...or not. i had a tougher crowd. it was the same level, but these kids were older. i guess maybe they'd started learning english "later in life," and they were about 12-15 years old. the atmosphere was restless and uneasy; bored. i think they've figured out that they shouldn't have to spend two hours at night in school, and they're more than a little resentful. as everyone was filing in and finding their seats, i immediately noticed a taller boy loitering in the back, and could tell he was a potential disaster. as i walked toward him to introduce myself, he started beating on the kid in front of him. i greeted him and lightheartedly mentioned that there was no killing allowed in english class, and he would have to wait until 8:50 to beat up his classmate. i'm not sure he understood what i was saying, but as i got closer to him i could tell he had been smoking a cigarette quite recently. yikes. when asked, he told me his name--tony--and that he was 15 years old. and in not so many words, that he was hereby challenging me to a battle of I Am Cooler Than You.

class began, and i kept one eye on tony, waiting for the crucial moment when i could possibly slip, unnoticed, past the macho iron curtain and into his world. the QA (question/answer) of the day was "what do you want for your birthday?" tony said he wanted a motorcycle. of course. i'm sure he wants some other things too, but luckily he probably doesn't know the words in english! i saw a glimmer of hope during a round of what i called "teacher basketball." i'd brought a little squishy basketball but forgot to bring something to use for a hoop, so i just stood in the front with my arms making a circle, and the kids had to answer a question and then shoot the ball through the hole for points. tony seemed to think it was semi-not-stupid. during the ten-minute break between the two hours of class, tony pushed around a few of the kids in the back of the room and then headed for the hall. a few minutes later, i stepped into the hall and found a crowd of kids and a few teachers in a circle around tony. he was on one shoulder with his legs up in the air, break-dancing.

he may as well have been waving an enormous white flag in the air, rather than his feet. i sauntered toward him and said, "watch me." i crouched down and did "parsva bakasana," a yoga pose where you balance on your hands and your torso is twisted so one hip and knee are propped up on your elbows, and then you can straighten your legs out to one side, in the air. that was it. as the kids say here (they're all pretty obsessed with video arcade games), "GAME OVER, tony!"

the second hour of class flew by, and i had tony's attention for each of those 60 minutes. he participated and answered questions and didn't have to use any of his negative attention-seeking behaviors.

after class my taiwanese co-teacher told me she could tell the kids like me and that i'm doing really well, and she nodded her head in his direction. i walked out of the school, feeling victorious. maybe it's just the competitive nature of the classrooms starting to infect me--everything in these classrooms is turned into a game between two teams, with points and stars and stickers turned in for prizes. after games the kids chant "WINNERS, WINNERS, YEAH YEAH YEAH! LOSERS LOSERS, IT'S OKAY!" but then the losing team has to do jumping jacks or sing a silly song. in the parking lot outside the school, i saw tony jumping on his scooter to leave. he smiled and said "goodbye, teacher" without the slick coolness he had met me with a few hours before. i smiled back and waved as he zoomed away. i think it was a winning night for both of us. game even.