Oh my...so Taipei is having it's wear and tear on me. Today I spent allllllll day in the office building, came out to the hot stuffy humid air and immediatly began to sweat. I walked onto the street and almost got trampled by a stampede of mopeds. The stinky tofu seeped into my nostrils and I gagged in my mouth...that stuff is NASTY...how anybody could ever think of putting that stuff anywhere near their mouth is beyond me. It smells like vomit...and I am not kidding. Well now that I have officially turned everyone away from ever coming to visit me...ha...I must say the good things thus far that I have discovered. First and foremost..the people...everyone, and I mean everyone has so much respect for all teachers. Not just English teachers but all teachers. When people find out you are a teacher they immediatly smile, and offer help in any way possible. Also, the fresh fruit (when it is fresh) is fabulous!! I love waking up and having a buffet of dragonfruit, and melon and tomatoes...mmmm. Yea they add tomato into every fruit dish..I love that!
I think the thing that is most wearing me down, is the training. I honestly don't know if I have the energy to be an effective teacher. I mean the curriculum for these schools are crazy....the teacher is go go go go..like full throttle...for hours and hours. I mean whenever our trainers go over a lesson they are all sweating by the end....! We had our first demos today..and my group seemed to do ok. I know for me personally I was in charge of the alphabet, phonetics and some vocab words...it was only a 15 min lesson and my brain was shot after. Ha...maybe i'll just blame it on jetlag. So to counteract all this craziness during the day, we all end up at this local 'pub'. So that always makes things better!!! Alrite, well I hope all is well. Miss you all!