a few re-runs for you

Back when Myspace was cool, I used to blog on there. I'd totally delete my account, but I want to go through and save all my blogs first. I was looking through them this morning and LOL-ing.

Here are a few stories from my days as a nanny...

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 an anecdote from the workplace. can anyone relate? Current mood: amused Category: Jobs, Work, Careers i was helping sean in the bathroom this morning, and he told me, "elly, you can't say 'peepee' cuz you're a girl. 'member that? you're a girl! so you can't talk like that!" five minutes later he had to go again, but this time he said he had to go poo... and he was running, so i asked him if he already went in his pants. he said "nooo, not in my pants, but maybe it's stuck in the crack--you check!" is this really my life?

Friday, November 17, 2006 someday, when his wife asks him, "honey, does this make me look fat?"... Current mood: amused Category: Life today sean was sitting on his bed watching star wars while i cleaned out his closet and re-folded everything. i decided to take a little break and flopped down on the bed on my stomach. sean looked over at me and said, "elly, why is your big booty right next to me? move your big booty!" i was shocked, but i laughed. a while later, he laid down on his stomach and i said, "sean! now YOUR big booty is right next to ME!" and then he explained, "elly. i have a small booty. it will be big when i get bigger."

...

I've missed a few days of posts--the one tiny bar of wireless internet access I've been sneaking from somewhere in my building has been fading away (or hiding from me?).

I'm soooo enjoying my new apartment--I love, love, love coming home. I get so excited turning that key and walking in to my beautiful place. I'd post pictures but with this internet access, it would take a year and a half--so I'll wait till I get better access.

Winter Camp is so far successful--just extremely busy. I have zero breaks between classes (usually I have 10 or 20 minutes to regroup) and everything is very last-minute and confusing with having some classes combined and being told to teach different curriculum at the last minute.

I think the kids are enjoying the "Yoga Movements" class (um, their term for it, definitely not mine). Yesterday was Chicken Dance day, which had them all in stitches. Today it was Macarena Friday... can you picture 30 Taiwanese kids doing the Macarena?

OO

Today I was checking my 1st grader's workbooks as they finished each page... walking around the semi-circle of desks slowly, drawing red "checks" and stars on their pages (they are obsessed--the whole world will surely end if we move from one page to the next and they don't have a mark of crimson affirmation slashed across their fastidious work). One boy stopped me as I was cruising past with my red pen.

"Teacher!" he announced. "Look!" He pointed to his page, where near the bottom he had written "oo" several times, with the "o's" pushed together.

"Teacher, 'oo' looks like a bumbum!" He was clearly delighted with this discovery and thrilled to share it with me. He even drew another one while I stood next to his desk, just to make sure I got it. I scolded him mildly, then turned away quickly so he couldn't see my smile.

It's ironic and also very fitting that his English name is "Swat." He could probably use one on his OO.

8 MINUTES!

That's how long it takes me to walk to work from my new place. EIGHT! And today they were eight sunny, breezey, 70-degree-warm minutes. Yum!

Winter Camp starts Thursday and I have 26 kids signed up for the yoga/dance class! So I'm doing some preparation now--for the dance part of the class, I'm going to teach them several silly American dances. How's this for starters...

Cha Cha Slide
Macarena
Chicken Dance
Limbo
Hokey Pokey
Conga Line
YMCA
Country line dancing
... plus some choreography from "I Like to Move It" (Madagascar 2)
(see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a91pJDut50E)

I know you all wish you could see us in action!

happy herb-y high-rise home... hopefully!

(Pronounce the usually-silent "h" in "herb-y," it flows better!)

I've never seen seeds here before! I'm sure they're around... I've just never found them. Till today! I bought coriander and basil seeds, and some precious biodegradable pots in pea-green and yellow. I had tantalizing visions of me standing at my counter, snipping fresh herbs, my little green friends traveling from pot to pan in less than five seconds to zing up my dinner!

Maybe instead of daydreaming, I should have been paying attention to the actual purchasing process, because now I'm home, with pots, water tray, and even DIRT (yeah, hard for an Iowa girl to wrap her head around the fact that you can't just go outside and dig up some soil)... but no seeds! I have no idea what happened to them or where they decided to jump out of my backpack, but if you happen to see two little seed packets running around unsupervised, tell them they're grounded! (Couldn't resist... I get it from my dad...)

new house!

What a day! I moved (for the fifth or sixth time in the past year, which is just ridiculous) because my last apartment was too far away from work and the construction in and around the building was slowly but surely pushing me over the edge.

Everything is still scattered around my new apartment, still half-packed and in boxes, but I managed to make a delicious dinner of oatmeal, topped with nuts, blueberries and bananas, and had a truly memorable shower under my 9" rain shower head. I'm watching a little TV on my very large flat screen (which I'd never buy for myself, the apartment was already nicely furnished), and soon will collapse onto my king-sized pillow-top mattress bed. Tomorrow I'll wake up to light pouring in from the large windows facing west, and if it isn't hazy I'll be able to see the Taiwan Strait in the distance. It's a great view from the 13th floor! I'm so happy!

Maria wondered if I moved everything over on my bicycle (I'm just a 10-minute car ride from where I lived before)... the answer is NO WAY! I took taxis. Three of them. A lot cheaper than a moving van!

I'll post pictures when things are a little more ordered around here...

a dongxi a day... can i do it?

A little late in the game, I'm deciding to add something to my short (but sweet) mental list of resolutions for 2010. I've been bad at blogging this time around, for a few reasons--first, I think that things aren't "new" anymore... there's not much culture shock, and Taiwan is just, well, my regular life at the moment, and last year seemed more of an adventure worth writing about. Secondly, I am really busy! I know, it's everyone's excuse for everything... but it's true, and I'm using it--cliche as it is. But I know I'm having plenty of incredible experiences and I want to try to record more of them. Oh, and thirdly--some of you have been harassing me in not-so-subtle ways about my blogging deficiency.

So... I will attempt to write one dongxi a day! "Dongxi" (pronounced 'dong-shee') means "thing" in Chinese. I'll just try to record one miniscule (or maxiscule, should I be so lucky) happening from each day. I'm not promising perfection, but will be giving more attention to nimen, my readers. ('Nimen' means 'you, plural.' I appreciate languages that have a word for 'you, plural.' It bothers me that English is lacking in this department, and NO, y'all doesn't count!)

Okay. Here's my dongxi for the day. I watched a lot of CNN this morning before work and was really upset about the earthquake in Haiti. Every sip of water I've taken today is preceded by feelings of immense gratitude, sadness, guilt... knowing how many people have been without it for upwards of 50 hours. I wanted to share these feelings with people. I think that as humans, we need to connect on a deeper level when we find out about extremely tragic situations that trigger in us grief and helplessness. Though what we really want is to be able to solve this massive problem--to make it all better for the Haitians who are suffering, to find the lost children, to give water, shelter, food, to be a doctor mending the broken--the fact is, we cannot. But what we can do is to be aware, even if it feels disturbing or too sad. Since I'm not in regular contact with many English-speaking adults, I decided to talk about the earthquake with my students.

Children are naturals at compassion. They feel deeply, instinctively, and without prejudice. The kids looked intently at a map of the world, murmuring exclamations when I showed them the tiny island of Haiti. Teacher, it's smaller than Taiwan! Yes, I told them, and has about half as many people. And most of those people only have 80NT per day to buy all of their food and water. Teacher! That's not enough! They groaned. They all know about "921," the 7.0 earthquake that hit central Taiwan in 1999, killing around 2,500 people. They remember stories from that event and have seen pictures and films--it's part of their small country's collective memory.

I told them that maybe as many as 100,000 people are dead. They fell silent, their eyebrows tilting downward. One girl asked what we could do, and wondered if she could send money. I told her if her mom and dad wanted to, they could find an organization online. I took my older students to the computer lab and asked them to look up some news about the earthquake (on Chinese sites) and then tell me in English what they found. They remained somber, respectful, and interested throughout the assignment. It made me proud to see how wonderful and full of heart they are. The more time I spend with them; the more experiences we share--both happy and serious--the more I love them.

I'm grateful for my students today... for having an unlikely outlet for my thoughts about the tragedy in Haiti... for having human connection... for the hopeful hearts of children.