A field trip--part I

I guess I have done all the exercise I need to take for 2004 in one day—to be more specific, in one afternoon. :P Yes this afternoon I took 40 teens—my cute but very naughty students, out for a field trip. Our destination is Taipei Water Park—a nice place to go when it’s sunny and warm like today. :D

We had lunch at school, cleaned the classroom up, and then we left our school happily for the MRT station. I, the homeroom teacher, was smart enough to bring me with the speaker and microphone I use in class—yeah sometimes I would have to ‘shout’ at them. :P ‘Follow me, and watch out while you are crossing the street!’ After we got to the Taipei Water Park, a ‘tour guide’ was there waiting for us, since I booked this trip 2 weeks ago and they could arrange it well for us, you know. The lady led us to take a look at some old equipment which were used to pump water, and watched a video clip telling us the development of our life with the very vital material, water. And I am too tired to type the whole story now. *chuckles* Let me finish it some other time when I have enough energy then.

Happy Teacher's Day and Moon Festival :D

Well I got more cards and presents yesterday and I felt grateful. In fact I told students not to give me anything—this is my job and I do get paid already. I don’t think there is a need to give me gifts, but maybe people in this country still pay teachers a rather higher respect. I don’t know. :P Since I never went abroad to study, no idea if students in other countries would do so too. Teachers there have the same high social status also? I learned earlier that guys in Taiwan think the # 1 choice as picking up their wives is concerned is—not surprising, teachers. *chuckles* no wonder I never worry. :P However, my advice is: if a guy would like to pursue a teacher, he had better be intelligent enough and always keep update with this high tech world. Otherwise, it’s really boring to talk with a guy who has poor knowledge, and worse, that he is only good at making a great brag of his ability. *chuckles* I don’t think I am very wise or what…but it’s always interesting to learn something new and know about trendy stuff. That’s why I can talk with teens at school about Internet affairs, movies, pop songs, fashions and so on.

Here in Taiwan, most of my good friends are from the same educational world, and somehow I would like to, and I did try to, make friends from other fields. I think maybe they can teach me something different; that’s the reason I knew the guys—the real estate agent, the architect, and the Scorpio guy who works in a bank, via the Net. Well…I found they are quite boring. Once I asked the choir master, who studied in the U.S. before and got her master degree and now she is still active in teaching music here in Taipei, how come I find it’s easier and more fun to talk with friends who are also teachers. She replied me easily: well because they ( not teachers ) don’t read or keep up studying. That’s why it is so difficult for me to build up friendship with some people. I guess. Even a guy from a channel, in which I am a regular, talks silly—he is to get his PHD soon can you believe it. We have an idiom here for such guys: man2 nao3 jin1 chong2. Well, in English, the direct translation is: his brain is full of sperm only. Sorry if it doesn’t sound elegant at all. :P A bit rude, but to the point. I wonder what kind of girl will fall in love with this PHD-to-be. LOL~ Anyway I don’t care about that. :P

Oh my dad got some brand-named mooncakes—it’s Tian1 Ren2! In fact this company is well known for its tea leaves. And now they make some tea-flavored mooncakes. Too bad I cannot have any since they are not vegetarian. So…can only had some fun taking pictures. Anyway…after my silly monologue, I hope everything is fine with all my good friends here in Taiwan, and my lovely friends Yuppy and Kenny in OZ. 祝大家心想事成! :D

Rainy weekend--good for ba gua

No need to turn on air con these days—it’s rainy and cool in Taipei. Most of the time rainy days don’t affect my good mood. And our choir went to a church in Wanhua to have a performance yesterday evening. Even the Father came tell me that our songs could rock all Taipei after the Mass—he’s kind enough to say so. *chuckles* I had a good time there, and the best for me was I didn’t take the choir leader’s car. In fact I told my family what he did to me in his car this evening at the dining table when we were having dinner. My parents said he was very passionate—he hugs people from time to time. But I don’t think he would take anyone’s hand and put it on his lips, or hug someone tight ( yes, tight ) from behind. So I asked the Scorpio guy if he could come give me a ride and lucky I ended up sitting in his car safely. He wouldn’t do anything to me—thanks Goodness! :D

As for today, I didn’t do anything important. My sis came back home with a bigger tummy and her son will have a bro or sis next January. We discussed where she would spend her maternity leave—must choose a good after-maternal care center. Of course you guys know it’s very painful to give birth, and the process also hurts a mother’s health a lot. I will accompany my sis to see the care center near our place and my mom said she would check it first. We all hope she can get the best treatment this time. Ok…bs enough, you know. I parked my Justy under a tree and I think I will have to leave home earlier tomorrow—to wash my car, which got quite a few leaves on the cover and the windows. My car is neither new nor expensive, but I would like to keep it clean. If a guy who wanna pursue me is to give me a ride, he had better wash his car first…otherwise I would feel ‘yike’. ( Just like when I saw Martin drive a dusty car…all the 3 times we met, you know. ) LOL~ ok ok…I admit I am so hard to be pleased. :P

Coffee

One more, this is a big heavy present. In fact I told all my students not to give me anything expensive--10 NT cards will be good enough. So I didn't wanna accept this when the gal student handed it to me at school. But she insisted and said her parents would like to thank me. Ahh...bu hao yi si again. BTW, the 2 photos were taken at my place and I did use flash. Still I look so tan. LOL~ well well...anyway I am not the focus, but the presents are. :P

Chocolate

This is the chocolate I got yesterday. Very pretty the package is! The gal student's dad runs a cram school in Taipei, and she told me they had this chocolate and her dad thought it's nice--so got one for me. *chuckles* bu hao yi si.

A bit cool but nice :)

It’s been rainy and getting colder now in Taiwan. I feel good and it’s pleasant to walk on the street…at this autumn time. Of course if there is no rain. :P Yesterday evening I went practicing with the choir—we will have a performance tomorrow evening. These days I got too many potato chips ( yes, the lemon flavored ones ) and not only I got a few acnes but my voice became not so good. :D Sure I know why—potato chips are heaty enough. Well since I cannot give up the yummy chips, I would have to drink as much water as I can. *chuckles* It seems another good example of my ‘never give up’ motto here.

Teacher’s Day is coming, and I got some presents for that already. The class in year 8 gave me a heavy one—very useful stuff, a dozen of Lux soaps! One gal student in my class gave me very expensive presents: coffee and chocolate ( both are brand named ). I’ll upload the pictures later when I have more free time. Ah…sleepy.

Bye now, my degree 3

‘As soon as I got up, I miss you…On my way to work, I miss you…When I have a meal, I miss you…As I am online, I miss you…While taking a bath, I miss you…The time I go to bed, I miss you. Oh I just cannot stop missing you! I miss you so much!’ *claps* :P

Well…it seems my prayer last night did not work well. And I still got a mushy sms today and a missed phone call. In fact this guy left me a message online that he KNEW I was busy working and I could call him if I had free time for him. See? But I have no free time for such a guy, who wants nothing but a free ‘that’. :P He must think a single woman like me in Taipei would be so desperate…so needy…she wants a guy who can hold her tight and enjoy something for only one night? LOL~ great…he will get nothing but my pretty much coldness. It’s a pity that I wouldn’t tell him what is the right thing to do if he wanna woo a woman? *chuckles* Well I do think guys should figure it out themselves how to pursue the ones they want. Whatsoever! I am not to be bothered by such a guy anymore! :D Now I have decided to switch off my cell phone for degree 3 for a period of time. I hope he can forgets about me…as soon as possible! I bet there are plenty of desperate women in Taipei and it’s easy to find ONS nowadays, you know. Leave me alone. I am happy to stay in my solitude…*smiles*

Got gifts

We finished watching Tomb Raider—The Cradle of Life this afternoon. Well…I don’t know if I have such great courage to kill a partner who I loved before for all the others’ safety on earth, just like what Lara Croft did at the end of this play after she finally found the Pandora’s Box. Yeah she is cool, and this action movie is entertaining. I don’t mean the ‘killing someone who’s the beloved’ part though. :P

In class, one year nine boy student gave me 2 gifts—a mirror with lovely pink covers, and a cute comb. Honestly speaking, I didn’t know this boy’s name until…you know. :P Since he is not like those who always perform actively, or look very brilliant. Well you guys might think what kind of teacher I am—so cruel to ignore the students that can’t do well on tests? No it’s not like that. I know some students are interested in learning but others are not. That’s why I don’t usually pick on the latter, you know—I only hope they enjoy my teaching and have a good time watching me in class every now and then. He seemed shy when I said ‘wow~ my first present for Teacher’s Day!’ I think he blushed. LOL~ Other students in class also said they would like to give me gifts. * sob sob * I feel so touched… Being a teacher I don’t get a high pay, but the warmth and happiness I get from those adorable teenagers is a nice complement. :D

I still got calls and sms from the Martin guy. And I didn’t answer any of them. WW called me and we talked on the phone for more than one hour this evening. She told me not to go out with that guy again. I NEVER would ok. If he was the last man in this world, fine…I would rather go directly to the heaven than go seeing him. *chuckles* A great challenge? I hope not. And please give me up...

A nice encounter

I talked with a monk today. Well…he is not a pretend monk, but a real monk. *chuckles* So, no ‘woo’ please. He is a student in year 7 at my school. In fact I noticed him because of his cassock when we had a school meeting on the court all together at the beginning of this new semester. I was thinking…too bad I was not his homeroom teacher. Otherwise I could take good care of him since I am a vegetarian too. School doesn’t afford vegetarian lunch boxes. So I am the one who orders veggie lunch boxes for other teachers and some students—3 options: rice, noodles, and rice noodles.

So maybe it is fate. I couldn’t open my car door and I had to walk today. After I stepped out of our school gate, I found he was walking ahead of me. Then I walked faster to catch up with him, and said, ‘erm…hey…’ He turned his head and looked at me—a total stranger to him of course. Then I told him I am a homeroom teacher and I am a vegetarian too. I wondered what he had for lunch at school. He then told me he lives in a Buddhism Centre in the neighborhood. I know that place. And the monks there would come to school and bring him lunch. But it’s troublesome—he said they have a lot to do every day. Thus I told him to find me at my office and tell me what he would order for lunch from tomorrow onwards. ‘But you ask your masters there first.’ I told him before we said goodbye. We had a nice chat. The feeling is very different because he is not like any other boy student at my school. Most 13-year-old boys are just like little monkeys! The way he talks is not anyhow like them—sure thing though, at 13 and has been a monk. I think he must be very enlightened. Maybe I will be a real nun in the future as I am enlightened enough also. :D

I had 3 sessions in the morning, hardly had enough time to grade students’ homework, and got a meeting in the afternoon. After the meeting I came back to my office and felt so tired that I took a rest at my office desk for almost 1 hour. The colleague sitting next to me never saw me sleep like that before. :P My eyes are tired… I think I will go hit my bed early tonight.

Double trouble when we get together?

I did have a lot of fun playing with my cute toy, the mini digi cam, and you guys saw some of the photos taken recently with it. The quality is ok, and sometimes it’s blurry since the kids who took them couldn’t keep their hands steady enough. You know I am always willing to teach students if they wanna learn. As soon as they saw this lovely baby, they asked me how to take pictures well. So I showed them the basic functions and they were eager to try it. Of course they don’t make it sometimes, especially our vice class leader. He trembled so much while taking photos of me that all of them were like those taken in Ghost Month, you know. And the best is I have long black hair. LOL~ That made it a very vivid effect I think. :P Anyway, the thing is I will have to send the camera back to the company since there’s something wrong—the ‘flash’ can’t work at all. Sure I read the user manual carefully and tried several times—no flash. They will have to either fix it for me or give me another one which can work well.

This early evening, my best friend WW called me. Being long-winded always, we talked on the phone happily. She said she told her husband, the Canadian artist who stays in Toronto now, that she paid me a visit yesterday. Her husband said he’s so worried when we 2 get together—he called us ‘double trouble’. LOL~ Yeah we should be flattered, right? :P He thinks we are pretty enough to make guys on the street fall? Talking about ‘fall’, once I was walking on the street in my neighborhood, and there was a guy passing by on his scooter. He turned his head to look at me too much to make it balanced, so yeah…he fell, and so did his goods on the scooter. Well…do you think it’s my fault? :D WW’s husband also thinks we would do something crazy—‘double daring’? :P He thinks too much I have to say. The only thing that’s real crazy is WW would like me to be her neighbor after she moves to Vancouver! She told me, ‘Flo, my husband said you had better give up Taiwanese guys. You should look for the One in western countries…find a westerner!’ What…hahahahaha~ The couple think too much I have to say it again. WW and I went to a shi jie’s place. She sells crystals…and we had a wonderful time watching those beautiful stones. WW told me she could buy some and sell them at the night market in Vancouver’s China Town. OK then…now I know where I can go during my summer vacation in the future—bring crystals to Vancouver and make a fortune with my best friend. Sure, I know I know…WW said it too, we will wear very sexy Chinese gowns and try our best to boost our business there. :P

The poster for Teacher's Day

Okay...here it is! The poster for Teacher's Day made by my lovely girl students! Isn't it cute! :P ( Taken in my office, and I know the light seems a bit dim there...both our faces looked tan. :P )

Drawing a poster

My girl students were drawing a poster for the coming Teacher's Day. School always asks some classes to make posters for certain occasions, you know. And my class is responsible for this very important date--Sep. 28th. I will also upload the finished poster for you all. :D

My colleague and good friend

My colleague and good friend--the math teacher, who's a bit younger than me but much smarter for sure! Her husband 'fixed' my teeth this summer vacaion, you know, for free. :P

My new toy--Praktical mini

Yes I got my new toy right today! It's so much fun to play with it...you see, even got the 'frame' function! Altho it's not a brand name stuff, I think I will have a good time taking some craps and sharing with you. :D The pic was taken in my office...ain't the 2 girl students of mine cute!

Not Alone...from Gothika

I am still sick today…my throat hurts. But I didn’t stop working since my students need me so. :P One boy student, Jason, who is in year 9, said he will be my fan forever in class. You can imagine my facial expression there… :O awww~ my ‘fan’?? Well I am no star ok. I told them I wish I could be the teacher who teaches Chinese—I think those teachers are cool…can always come up with elegant Chinese terms and sayings. I pretty much hope my students don’t learn from me if I happen to spit out curses when I go mad. :P

We watched Gothika today for our Movie Club. It’s not bad. A boy student said he’s afraid to watch scary movies. Sometimes he covered his eyes and ears even while I was sitting near. This movie is not scary enough! Basically there were some murders, and the thing was those who got killed didn’t rest in peace—they would like the truth to be revealed, the murderers could be punished. Thus, the only way was find someone who could ‘see’ them, and finally ‘work it out’ for them. Most students don’t understand the concept at first—the cause and effect. But for a person who used to watch a lot of TV programs about ghosts like me, it’s just too easy to miss the general idea. *chuckles* I enjoy guessing who the murderer is while reading a detective novel or watching a movie like this. And it’s easy this time. :P

Got sick...

Ahh…I am sick today. In fact I felt my throat hurt ( not serious ) last night. I was wondering if I caught a cold. This morning I overslept for almost an hour! :O As soon as I got up, I found I really got a sore throat, but no runny nose—thanks God. *chuckles* why? Because I can still lecture in class with a sore throat. Just the voice may not be so cheerful, low pitched I think. If I had a running nose, I would be busy sneezing, blowing my nose, and consuming a lot of facial tissues.

I also felt extremely tired in the early morning due to my dreams before I woke up. There were two parts…I can’t remember them very clearly now. In one part I was late for a class, in which a teacher was there teaching students making some potion. ( Yes it reminded me of Prof. Snape in Harry Potter. ) My best friend WW was making her potion already on the desk. WW was once my classmate when we studied in NTNU. She showed me the outcome by putting a cloth into the boiling potion, and the cloth immediately changed its color! I thought she did a good job… Then it went to another scene; I walked on the street with another friend of mine—no idea who the person is in my life though. I was lead to a forest at night…I felt something dangerous approaching, and I started to run. I couldn’t see anything, running in complete darkness hastily…lucky I didn’t hit anything. But finally I stopped; I touched some stuff which was rough on earth. Weird I knew I was in a dream, and I hoped to wake up since I wanted to ‘see’—I still couldn’t see anything that time. I fainted I guess. After a while I was up—seemed a couple saved me and put me in their kids’ room. I saw 2 little kids sleeping near me on the bed. The hostess came, and I talked to her. She told me I was doing something terrible, like hurting myself, when she saw me. I kind of…couldn’t believe that I would do so. ( I never got a thought to hurt myself no matter what…or I did? But I was not aware of it…)

That’s why I was so tired in the morning. This thought came to me unavoidably: Am I sick? It seems so. Am I sick both physically and mentally? I don’t know… But I know what to do. And I hope my good friends, no matter from this cyber world or from the real life, can be doing fine. I am to say goodbye to you here now. Please take care.

Went shirking

The extra session for this new school term started today—we teachers can get extra pay for that. So…yeah it’s more tiring, but I still feel lucky that I can work OT. On Monday afternoon we used to have meetings, but not today. Yes, I did slack off—no classes for me, and other subject teachers would teach my class this afternoon. The weather was fine, warm and sunny. I happily walked out of the school and ran into a boss near the school gate! He asked, ‘not had lunch yet?’ I didn’t reply but smiled to him…LOL~ It’s very easy for me to go out and have a coffee with friends, see? :P Most of the time when I have a longer break, I would stay in the office, read something, and listen to music on the radio if I have finished grading students’ homework. But sometimes while I am in a good mood, I would go out for a walk, maybe do shopping, or just look around on the streets. Taipei is never boring to me! :D Therefore, I had a good time shirking, hey…by myself ok. Anyway…a coffee a day in the early morning seems quite enough for me at this moment. :P

Rainy Sunday

It’s been rainy these days, and the CWB urged people to maintain their guard against heavy rain, especially when the storm Haima will still effect our weather here. ( Lucky it’s not coming to Taiwan. ) But many districts in Taipei got heavy floods caused by nonstop rains since a few days ago. In some areas, the floods ran as high as over one floor—oh my God…big loss you can imagine! Fortunately I don’t live in any of such areas. My shi jei called me last night and her house is even higher—it stands on a hill. So when I asked her if everything’s ok, she laughed and said, ‘hey if there was a flood in my place, Taipei City would disappear then.’ ( It would be in the water, that is. ) Anyways… I had a nice, relaxing Sunday, not doing anything important at all. I had shabu shabu in a new opened restaurant. They even give customers puddings and red bean flavored ice blocks as snacks. All the hot pots are 20% off—pretty good! :D

Teachers-Parents Day

Raining all day, sometimes very heavily, I couldn’t help worry if there would be less parents coming to the Teachers-Parents Day in the early morning. I planned to wear a sleeve-less black blouse, and a dark green long skirt, but finally I changed my mind since I don’t think it’s a good idea to wear something long while it’s raining. So I put on a red ( like red wine ) blouse, and a black short skirt ( the length is to my knees ). Well, I must say I still look like a pro. :D

So I was early to school, on a Saturday morning: 8 a.m. you know. Some girl students came too and gave me a hand—since school said we had to tell parents to sign their names on a paper. But I would be busy talking with parents who were eager to know about their kids’ performance at school. I really appreciate their help! :D I will give them extra marks later in class. Therefore, the meeting started at 9 a.m. I stood in the front on the platform like what I used to do at work, and began to ‘lecture’. LOL~ not really. I should say it’s more like communicating with all the parents, to inform them what my expectations are—both for students’ grades and their behavior. Then some parents asked me how come their kids couldn’t do well on their tests. Well trust me I kind of know I would encounter such problems, year after year. The solution is so easy: kids got to concentrate in class and then review, brush up on what they have learned. How come we have this saying both in English and Chinese—Practice makes perfection. See? Everyone knows it. It just depends on how much effort one makes. I think I will still state like this here, if I am still blogging as the next TP Day comes. *chuckles* Most questions are the same old stuff, except one. Sandy’s mom sort of ‘questioned’ me, ‘hey didn’t you say you’d wear a super short mini skirt today? We came to school for that you know?’ *falls laughing* However I met around 30 parents and it was good enough comparing to other homeroom teachers’ record. *claps*

When I was home again in the early afternoon, I found I got a missed call and a sms in my ‘degree 3’ cell phone. I checked them. The vegetarian architect who lives in Taichung called. What did he want? *chuckles* He’s a few years older than me but still seems so immature, never made me feel he’s interesting although his self introduction said ‘I have good looks.’ So what? I have better looks. :D I guess this time is just like last time: ‘hi Flo I am in Taipei now, just finished meeting for a case. I have free time at this moment. Can you have lunch with me?’ LOL~ too bad, Larry…I have no free time for you! Because I am NEVER spontaneous. :D And the sms is from Martin, who just doesn’t know how to pursue a woman with a proper way. Thus these 2 guys go to the ‘lousy tao hua’ group for sure. Poofed! :P

Autumn's coming...

It’s been rainy these days…turning to autumn. A girl student told me today she thinks autumn is a romantic season. Awww… I don’t know…In fact it’s pretty much a state of mind. That Martin guy’s leaving me messages online still doesn’t make me feel anyhow romantic. But you know, while I was walking alone on the street in the very noisy big Taipei City, I sort of felt it’s perfectly peaceful, and romantic... *smiles* Too bad I was not poetic enough—should have written something for such a beautiful mood, you know.

Yesterday evening I went choir practice as usual. We have a performance this Saturday morning, but I will not be there. :( Since tomorrow morning we will have Teachers-Parents Day at school, and the homeroom teacher, moi, is the most important role right there in the classroom. *sob sob* Hey it’s Friday…and I have to sleep early for this situation! No fun…I would like to spend more time watching something interesting, or chatting online more with my friends on a Friday evening! Anyways, the other members in the choir were like ehh… :O after they heard me say, ‘urm sorry I am not to sing with you tomorrow.’ I wish I could. There will be other performances in September and October—I think I can attend the others. As for the PT Day, of course we homeroom teachers hope parents can come, the more the better. I told students in class: ‘hey tell your parents to come and see your homeroom teacher. I am to wear a mini skirt and a very sexy blouse tomorrow!’ Well, kids understood me enough to know I was just kidding. *chuckles* Honestly speaking I have planned what to wear for this meeting—in black, like a pro. ( or a witch? :P LOL~ )