Merry Christmas from Taiwan

<- Check out the video of Mary and me.

So I have seriously slacking in blogging and emailing but I have not done much since I went to the beach for Thanksgiving. Due to my parents demands that I save my money and the fact that I want to spend a whole lot in Hong Kong this weekend! I have been keeping busy here on the weekends. One of the third grade teachers has taken me in as her own daughter. Her daughter is my age and she is currently applying to go to grad school in the states. She just applied to OSU! I have spent friday nights and sunday afternoons with them. I feel like a part of the family. She even brings me chopsticks to lunchs just like she does for her own kids. Their whole family speaks English even grandma. Grandma went to an Elder University to learn English....what a cool thing! So I enjoy staying around on the weekend to hang out with them.

I finished up my 5 weeks in 5th grade last week and today was my first day with 6th grade. I was terrified. I am only used to teaching the young kids and these students are taller than me and they freak me out. But I dont let them know that, I layed down the law today, and they are terrified of me. So i think I am off to a good start. I am teaching them the 12 days of Christmas for the first class then the second class this week we will have a gift exchange. The gift exchange will be fun because the students have to find something around thier house they are going to throw away and then wrap it up real pretty and try to convince their classmates to take the gift. Examples of gifts can be a broken pencil or a banana peel. I think it will be really fun and the kids will love it.

This weekend the weather took a turn for the worse. It dipped down to a chilly 65 degrees. I had to get out my mittens and put an extra blanket on my bed. Today I went out and bought a space heater. You'd think the way people dress here for 60 degrees it was about to snow, but honestly its really cold. I wore my mittens when I was taking a nap today. Its supposed to warm up to 75 later in the week so i wont have to wear my winter coat for many days.

Currently my room is decorated for Christmas, I have a tree with all the presents my mom sent to me. They still remain unopen, honestly! I have done so good with not cheating. I am opening them on Friday morning before I head out to Hong Kong for the holiday.
I am headed to Hong Kong on Friday night. I will meet Mary at the airport then we will set out on our adventure. We will hopefully see all that Hong Kong has to offer, we also plan to cross into mainland China. Shenzhen is a huge city where 400 of the 500 biggest companies in the world are. Shenzhen is where they make all Apple products amoung many many other things. Of all the things we want to do WALMART may be number one on our list! yes, i said WALMART. I come all the way to the other side of the world and I still want to go to walmart, for me it provides a sense of familiarity and comfort at a time when I cant be home during the holidays. A trip with Mary to walmart is the next best thing!

I have been really homesick lately and very sick of Taiwanese food. I have been eating McDonalds, grilled cheese, easy mac and subway like its my job. I just have to get thru the next 2 weeks and everything will be all good.

We just finalized plans to spend New Year's in Taipei. We will watch the countdown and see fire works from the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. After New Years we only have 4 weeks until we head to Thailand and I can have a break from school!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Videos from "Merry Christmas from Taiwan":

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