Time flies when you’re having fun! The fourth week of the second semester is about to begin. The last few weeks have been very rewarding for me as I’ve begun to see the children really putting forth an effort to communicate with me in English. Even though we ask each other the same questions every week – “How’s the weather? What do you like? How old are you?” I can see that they’re becoming more and more confident in speaking to me. I’m going to miss these kids! They’ve become a part of my life. Even though we aren’t able to talk about a lot of things, we have been able to communicate to each other that we’re friends. And so when I leave the island of Taiwan in less than four months I’m going to be leaving over 400 small friends.
With as much as I love being with the kids teaching is still a lot of work and can be very tiring. That’s why weekends can be so nice! This weekend has been great so far. I’ve just experienced one day of it but it was relaxing and a lot of fun. Here’s a rundown of what I did today.
To begin with I didn’t set my alarm. It felt good to get up and feel rested rather than having the alarm wake me at 5:45. After I got up and got ready for the day I spent some time journaling and reading my Bible. I checked my e-mail and wrote some letters. By this time it was 11:00 and time to get something to eat. Most of the rest of my team had the same idea so over breakfast (or was it lunch) we discussed what we should do for the rest of the day. Josh, Jo and I decided to meet at 1:00 and go to Carrefore to buy groceries.
On the train Josh befriended a little guy that was about a year old. The two of them kept the two of us (as well as the other adults in the train car) entertained for the duration of our fifteen minute ride. The little guy was so cute and we have pictures to prove it! When we got off the train and were standing on the platform we could still see him smiling at us.
After buying our groceries we got something to drink and then Josh said we should try the massage chairs that they have for sale. I’d never tried them before. The next fifteen minutes were wonderful! Now I wish we had one of those chairs here in our dorm. I guess that’s why they let people try them. They know you’ll be hooked if you do.
Instead of taking the train home we took the bus. Buses are a little less predictable than trains but after waiting about half an hour our patience paid off and we were on our way home.
We got home at about 5:00, unpacked our backpacks full of food and started making dinner. We had a special Mexican supper. Cheese, beef, salsa, taco seasoning and tortillas are more difficult to find in Taiwan. We were able to find the cheese and beef today. We bought the salsa and tortillas in Taipei and the taco seasoning came in a package from home.
After we ate dinner we cleaned up and played games for the next three hours. I’ve played a lot of Rummikub before but rarely have I played the game with such intensity and competition! We definitely needed the two minute time limit per turn. Christina got a new game from her family for her birthday that we ended up trying as well. It’s called Swap and I have the feeling we’ll be playing it more often! It was a great evening spent with my team.
That pretty well sums up the day. Now it’s time for me to go and get some sleep!
Katrina Nisly
Hualien, Taiwan
