What Christmas Means to Me

Merry Christmas/聖誕節快樂！
I love Christmas sooo much that I am going to keep it going by blogging about it this week!
For those of you who don't know, Taiwan is not a particularly religious country, and as a result Christmas is not a holiday.  In fact, even though I teach at a religious school, we still have school that day. Thankfully, I was given the day off.  But that meant I worked Christmas Eve…

December 23rd- my fifth graders finally think I'm awesome after having them make bread and watch Elf for our Christmas lesson.

Which meant Christmas Eve had to be special.  Summoning my inner Mrs. Claus (and remembering past bosses I loved), my fellow English teachers and I decided to do something nice for our co-workers…we made them coffee!

And some of our children are clearly acclimated to the smell of coffee.

So everyone had something to keep them warm during our morning assembly!

My co-teacher, Vicky, is Joseph

Our very focused and adorable students

I listened to the Christmas story in Chinese with my students and anxiously awaited the arrival of Santa Claus… but maybe not as much as the students once he started throwing candy.

Fun fact…children in large groups wearing santa hats = elves

Then we had even more excitement- our students went caroling to one of my student's apartment building and sang for parents and residents!  We also sold the oatmeal cookies we made the week before to support children in need.  Luckily, we were able to sell most of our cookies to parents.  But we did sell one on the street to these lovely women.

Hi new best friends!

Also my student has a yellow duck outside of her apartment building.
 I aspire to this level of cool.

And returned back to school for the BEST LUNCH EVER!

That's right…chicken wings, french fries, and pizza.  Not pictured: Coca-cola and bubble tea

Little did I know Christmas Eve would be that awesome…and the real fun was just beginning. We had a gift exchange among the teachers at my school.  The rule is simple: you can't buy anything.  So we had some interesting gifts.

Our gifts…at least we wrap them nicely. 

I got a CALENDAR! (and later some soap…but the calendar was the real gift.  It comes from our classrooms!)

After this exchange, we headed up to our Christmas Eve service (where I actually played PIANO in public for the first time in 6 years) and then to sleep…because Santa was coming!
So for Christmas we met up with some friends for a wonderful lunch!

Mmmm…Paella

Surprise!  I went to Spain for Christmas!  (or a Spanish restaurant, basically the same thing)

Unwrapped lots of presents!

(Not pictured: my awesome new yoga mat, scarf, and lots of chocolate I've already eaten)

And went to go see The Hobbit.  This was all followed by the most impressive Skype of all time.

No video…but the Taiwan--> Germany --> USA Skype was a success.

Unfortunately, I had to teach on December 26th…but what better day to have a birthday party for Jesus?

My students decided Jesus' favorite colors are red and blue, so we made two cakes.

Our cake to share with all of our friends…because we decided that the best gift we can give to Jesus  is to share!

I have been trying to keep the holiday magic alive…and will continue to try to do so… at least through next week.

Magic: American cafe with adorable mugs

Magic: Double decker burger. I have now won at life!

That's all I managed to do this week!  Check back next week for my New Year's resolutions, additional festivities, and to see if I have finished all my chocolate!

Best Week Ever?

Quite possibly so.  I have spent much of the day following all of your epic journey's home- travel safe y'all! It's a little strange to see everyone heading home, when of course, I am here...in Taichung...til at least July.

But thankfully I haven't had a moment to feel homesick- because I've been busy having the best week ever! 

The joy started on Tuesday, when I was invited to Ai-yi's house.  Aiyi (which is the word for aunt) is what we affectionately call the amazing women who cook in the school kitchen. Xiao Chou Aiyi's birthday was on Tuesday, and to celebrate she had us all over for hot pot.

I LOVE hot pot.  Especially when it's cold outside and with good friends.  And when there's also cake.

Yummy

So much food for my wonderful co-workers and I!

Happy Birthday Xiao Chou Aiyi! 

Hope you enjoyed the fantastic cake!

Then on Thursday, I got a visit from an old friend!  My friend Carol is in Taiwan visiting family, and was able to take time out of her busy schedule to have coffee with me.  When Carol and I met, we certainly never expected to meet up again in Taiwan in December 2013.  It was great to see an old 

friend and even better to see how happy she is. 

*** Lama Fail: I have no pictures of Carol and I together!  Sorry!!!***

Thursday also was our Christmas party!  All the teacher's crowded in to the seventh floor room for our Christmas lottery/raffle.  First we have the lottery- where everyone is a winner!  With prizes as gift cards for a department store ranging from $60-$150 (yes, USD) we are spoiled indeed.  

Also, real life: I have already used (half) of my $60 gift card to buy Whiskey, Shortbread, and    Canned Pumpkin (which, previously has been unattainable here.  And my purchases clearly demonstrate the impact both my parents have had on me.

Red envelopes = happiness!!!  Ignore my horrid chipped nail polish please:)

The Department store where we're going shopping!

Then, we had a HUGE surprise in the raffle.  Of the 4 prizes, two of them were won by the English teachers- and one by me!  I am now the proud owner of a hot plate, which promises to facilitate more cooking classes with my delightful students- including santa claus pancakes and ginger bread tomorrow.  I can also apparently use it to have hot pot...if I knew how to make hot pot...so that's something I need to learn.  My roommate also won an air fryer, so clearly we will need to up our cooking game in the future.  

I have a hot plate!
  This might be even better than the lunch box I won at my school Christmas party last year!

To top that off, we had a little holiday party/ Love Actually viewing on Saturday.

So what could make the weekend better?

Well, I could be home for Christmas...but that's not the way life goes.  In fact, I'm not sure where home would be.  With family spread out this Christmas, I think this may be the best place for me to be. 

So instead I will be happy with some extra fun surprises this week, which I promise to take pictures of, and with having Christmas Day off from school! (and with New Year's Day next week, that is TWO Wednesdays off in a row!  So check back next week for some Christmas fun...and my New Year's wishes and resolutions!

Merry Christmas everyone!  Sending you joy, peace, and love from Taiwan!

Life without Headphones!

Merry Christmas everyone!

After our Christmas shows are over, I am officially in the holiday spirit!!!  And being in the holiday spirit has allowed me to have some very strange experiences this week.  Not bad, not good, just…strange.

I titled this post life without headphones because I really like my headphones.  They give me something to think about on my runs other than my life and my problems.  They allow me to avoid people encouraging me to buy things on the way to the gym.  They stop people from trying to approach me at Starbucks. But this week, I decided to live my life "without headphones"- throwing myself headfirst into the full immersion of Taichung in December.

Mostly this involved watching adorable children at our elementary school Christmas show.  Our Christmas show had an "around the world" theme so my students sang in Italian, Gaelic, and I sang a little in French.  (Why just pick one language?) 

I'm not going to lie- things like "Christmas in other cultures" are hard for me sometimes because I feel so un-cultural.  Unfortunately, being British/Canadian/American really doesn't seem cool compared to all the different traditions that people have to share from their backgrounds.  But this is clearly a privilege problem (because let's face it, those are three extremely privileged country) so I chose to use my privilege and expose my students to a few different cultures.  I think they enjoyed it!

The program…Including my Italian and Scottish songs!

We started things off at home in Taiwan...

We had some Hawaiian songs and then we moved to "O Tannenbaum" in German

My students rocked some Italian and their pom-pons

My proudest moment- when I convinced my fifth grade boys to wear "kilts"

And some exuberant "Feliz Navidad" performers

And we ended things with our teachers…we only have 2 male teachers in the elementary school (which is 2 more than we have at the preschool)

And our female teachers (and principal) in their Christmas dance (not their sexy costumes)

I also attended my first Taiwanese wedding this weekend!!!  Congratulations to my co-worker Ruby.  First of all, because Ruby's proposal was basically something out of a movie- involving her boyfriend participating in a school rendition of Snow White and then proposing to her in front of all of our pre-schoolers.  Second of all, because she had a beautiful and joyous wedding.  Taiwanese women are clearly much smarter than American women- they RENT their wedding dresses instead of buying them.  Think of all the money we would save y'all!  They also wear more than one dress during their ceremony- because if you're renting, you can do something like that.  This was not the actual wedding ceremony- that will be celebrated in the groom's hometown with his family- but this ceremony was a celebration of the wedding for the bride's friends.  That's right, two ceremonies- one for the bride's friends and family and one for the groom's.  This would solve the problem of too many awkward relatives at once…

As you can see, it was beautiful

First course: Cheesecake and Wine.  I could get used to this

Taiwanese weddings have slideshows too!  

The teachers sang a song for Ruby…presumably they didn't ask me as I can't read Chinese
…or because I can't sing

More delicious food

The Bride and Groom dancing

And many toasts to the happy couple!

Me and my principal at the ceremony!  Selfie time!

In other news of my life without headphones, I went running and got some great feedback:

- Running!  Good!  Not all Americans lazy (random man walking with his friend)

- You are so white!!!  (woman at a stoplight- this is a compliment here)

*I also got told at church I looked very pale.  Clearly my trip to Australia in January needs to hurry up and get here before I waste away and become ghostly.  Unfortunately, this means I also become the envy of Taiwanese people, which is just depressing*

I also did some great crafts with my preschoolers:

I made it snow!  Glue + Borax + Water + Glitter = Happiness 

We can make snow!  (Not pictured: one of my co-workers who came to play with the snow)

The stockings were hung in the classroom with care

And a Christmas tree made from our handprints!

SPOILER ALERT: I  hope my students are surprised and excited when they see what I did to our classroom door this weekend!

That's all for me y'all!  I'll let you know more about life without headphones next weekend- for now I'm off to enjoy it!

Christmas Shows and Bachelorette Parties

Hi y'all!
After months of planning, many marshmallows to bribe children with, and many debates over reindeer costumes, this Saturday was the preschool Christmas show!

Aren't the chairs nice???  

Does it look pretty?  Because at 8 am, we (the preschool teachers) met to decorate the auditorium of the local middle school.  It was there, only hours before the performance, my fellow English teacher and I were told (and I quote): "this is the prettiest you need to look all year."  Thanks for the advanced notice.  So this is what we managed to pull off.

The Santa Hats were a part of our required uniform

My coworkers, on the other hand, were much better informed.

Teacher Vicky (left) is my co-teacher!

Then it was time to greet my adorable students, who were all super excited to see me…

Ok, maybe this one not so much… but mom was happy!

and get ready to watch the performances.  We were given front row seats to watch and it was truly adorable:

Some classes did dramas…and this child was a fantastic angel

This is one of our smallest classes…and unfortunately three of them froze once on stage and could not move or dance.  One burst into tears… but they all looked cute!

This class has adorable costumes

And this class has some sparkles

And of course, glitter fringe

Then it was time for my delightful children to perform.  They were great, and thankfully, there were no tears (on stage.)  We gave them their presents at the end (calendars with pictures of them throughout the year) and rushed off to do the English teacher performance.
(*I remain hopeful there were no pictures of that performance*)

Yep, they had the sparkles too!!!  And hats!

If you can't read it, Oh! Jesus was performed by the perfect Starfish and Deer classes!  (I teach the starfish class!) And my name is in the program! (my Chinese name, 馬若蘭)

So what are some preschool teachers to do after a long day's work…BACHELORETTE PARTY!
Our dear friend Ruby is getting married next weekend and we had to send her off in great style…with some KTV,  scandalous games, and silly dances. Thankfully I haven't seen any videos of our singing or dancing, and can only hope they don't exist:)

Our bachelorette, Ruby- after hearing one of the many silly things she would have to do that night.

All of us at KTV (and no one told the english teachers we were supposed to look silly…oops

So check back next week for more adorable pictures (of the elementary school Christmas show) and my first Taiwanese wedding banquet!!!