First day of school!

Things are off to a smooth start at Tai An Elementary, everyone is very kind and welcoming, and a lot feel comfortable speaking to me because I understand their Chinese... they don't feel the pressure to use English. If they can't find the words, they just use Chinese and I understand, which is pretty cool.

There was an assembly this morning, it is so different to an American school! The students had to stand in very straight lines in exact rows, and the teachers walked around correcting students posture as commands were being barked at them like "attention!", "at ease!", "kneel", and "sit!". So interesting. But the students didn't make a peep, no one had to tell them to quiet down, it was truly amazing! The principal introduced all the teachers to the students, and last but not least was me, the "young, beautiful, intelligent foreigner". She also told all the students I could speak Chinese. Oh well, now they know.

Lunch was cool, they have vegetarian food for us, and then the woman who really reminds me of 淨媽媽, I don't know what she does, I think some kind of secretary, but her size, shape, tone of voice, and talking speed are so similar, it is really amazing.

Most my classes were canceled today as it is the first day, but I djd have one 6th grade class. I was warned that the levels were varied, but I didn't think they would be SO varied. Some students were great! They understood everything I said with no help or translation at all, whereas others didn't understand a word, they even could not remember their English names! One little boy was really cute though. He forgot his name and I brought over a name list for him to look at. He picked the name "Roy" because it was only three letters. I really feel this name suits him so well! I saw him later on in the hallway, and I said, "Roy, don't forget your name!" and he looked at me blankly. Then he yells something at me in Taiwanese, none of which I understood except for the last two words which were "Tia bo!" which means "don't understand". So I walked back and said in Chinese, "Remember you English name, ok!" and he was so shocked that I knew what he said. He asked, "Do you understand Taiwanese?" I just smiled and said "A little". Such a cute kid, I'm sure I'll have a lot of "Roy" stories by the time this is over...

Another thing in class was that I had the students work in groups to come up with questions they wanted to ask me. Sure enough, one group asked, "do you have a boyfriend?" I repeated the question louder and asked if everyone understood the question. The giggling told me they understood. Then I asked everyone who thought I had a boyfriend to raise their hands. Every single kid raised their hand, it was so funny! I asked everyone who thought I didn't have a boyfriend to raise their hands... not one. When I finally told them I had no boyfriend they seemed disappointed... "not even in America?" they asked me. I might let them ask a few more questions next period :)