"...AND THEN THERE WERE FIFTEEN"

Ni Hao! I bet you thought I was going to title this posting "...And Then There Were None," am I right? Well, that isn't the case here. We had our three volunteer teachers leave today, and so our staff size has decreased from eighteen to fifteen. It was weird to see people leaving when you know that you still have four months left...The end seems so far away, and yet I am sure that when the time actually comes it will feel as the time just flew. That is hard to imagine right now.

So the following pictures are just some random photos taken by other teachers here. (I kinda' borrowed them...) They haven't made it into the blog yet, so here they are:

This was taken at a store appropriately titled "The Bear House". We walk past it every Sunday on our way to church. (This was taken on a Saturday :)

This photo was taken during our orientation soon after arriving in Taiwan. We are in the planning room at the school. (A room we are all too familiar with!)

Here we are at a park in Taichung trying out a (very painful) Chinese foot massage. You start out barefoot on one end on smoother stones and progressively advance to the rougher more jagged "rocks" (these were a hard plastic). I have seen several approaches to this type of massage since I arrived. It is supposed to be very effective. This is my one and only try... I have even seen home-care products such as sandals and mats that perform the same type of treatment. Hmmm.

Chopsticks are becoming my new favorite kitchen utensil. They are pronounced "kwai-dzur" in Chinese. This is me eating birthday cake and ice cream with them. I have found many uses for them, including flipping tortillas on a skillet...

I would like to call this one "Chaos in the Kitchen." It can get pretty crammed in there when we have fifteen people trying to make dinner at the same time. This has become especially trying now that we only have one burner on our stove working, and no dishwasher.

I guess that is all for now. If you look closely in these pictures you will notice that I am wearing pretty much the same shirt in each of them. They were not taken on the same day, but it seems as if I was always wearing the same thing when a camera was available...It has certainly brought to my attention what I like to wear!

WHEW, I SURVIVED ANOTHER WEEK!

Ni Hao! This week was probably the most stressful to date. There wasn't anything specific that set things off, it was just frustrating... Probably the most frustrating part was that I was informed that I would be starting a new class on Monday which "conveniently" (note the sarcasm) fits during the two-hour block I had open for my dinner break. Thus changing my schedule so that I teach from 1:30pm-8:40pm straight Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. (I already teach on Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30pm-6:40pm) We will see how it goes on Monday, but I am guessing that I may have to request that some compromise be made, because I feel the schedule is a bit overwhelming. If it stays, I most likely will be burnt out by October. Aaahhh!

If you were a doctor, you might agree that I am feeling an extreme case of "cabin fever" coming on as I deal with the fact that I can never leave my work because I live in the school. I didn't realize when I signed up for this that I would feel so suffocated. For example, we have a phone paging system that is used to connect everyone in the school. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, the announcements are wired into our bedrooms, and begin on Monday morning at 7:30am and don't stop until 8:40pm everyday, except Sunday. I don't begin teaching until 1:30pm, but it feels like my work begins once they start paging people... We also are waiting for our first paycheck, and have been living off of a meager food stipend for the last two months. That, on top of everything else, has put a majority of the staff on edge...

So to cope with that stress, we go out to eat at cute little restaurants! This is one of my favorites, it is called Pear Coffee. I took several pictures from my most recent visit this last Thursday.

This is Hannah, she is one of the volunteers who will be going home this week. :(

Anyway, other than that, things are good. My kids in all my classes are still super cute. In Afternoon Kindergarten we had two kids leave so that they could attend Chinese Kindergarten. This was a bit of sad news because it was a bit unexpected (we hadn't been given much warning), and they were two of the "well-behaved" kids. I also started a new Kindergarten rotation this week. So now I teach kitchen and arts & crafts. I scheduled a thumbprinting activity for arts & crafts, but it wasn't as successful as I had hoped, because the ink pads were permanent and got everywhere. They took forever to wash their hands between colors and we probably spent 75% of the time at the sink. Plus, one of the girls developed a phobia of ink pads after the first day of stamping...Go figure. It was a difficult unit to get through... Kitchen went a little better, although some foods worked better than others.

Today, to combat the cabin fever, I went with two other teachers (Liz M. and Heather) into Taichung to do a little more exploring. We rode the train and walked from the station down to a mall we had been told about. It was a really cool mall that was built up about 10 stories. The major difference between this mall and what we are familiar with in the States is that everything is so open...The shops don't usually have a defined entrance or let alone boundaries...Very different.

This picture was taken earlier, but it shows what the "slow train" looks like...

Also, there was a central common area that was open all the way to the ceiling, and on the ground-level they hosted a fighting tournament. We watched for a little bit. They had set up a boxing ring and had a DJ playing the song "Eye of a Tiger" from Rocky, over and over and over... At first it appeared to be boxing, but there was some kicking and mostly wrestling, too. We didn't stay long enough to see who won, but there was a hot shot guy that appeared to be a black belt in some form of martial arts discipline. (The belt kept getting in the way of his fighting, and his opponent was able to use it to grab onto and manipulate.) Maybe not the smartest thing to wear?

They also had a movie theatre on the fourth floor. This was probably the most confusing of all theatres I have been to. It appeared to be a full-blown theatre similar to a Harkins, but wih no designated ticket booth. It was open from all sides and we walked around for quite some time before we figured out where you actually purchased your tickets...at the concession stand! We went to the movie Monster House (really fun!). I decided to splurge, and so along with my movie ticket I bought the "Snack Combo B" which included a medium drink, small popcorn, and a hot dog. Believe me, I won't ever be tempted to do that again! The food was mediocre at best and awkward to carry around. They gave me a simple lunch tray, which didn't secure the food, and I almost lost everything when the drink tried to slide off, taking everything with it. (Don't worry, I caught it with my "cat-like" reflexes, thanks to the three years of Tae-Kwon-Do!) The hot dog was pretty gross, as it was literally soaked in ketchup and relish, and there was more bun than meat... Yuck! Very disappointing. The popcorn was cold and didn't have much butter. So yeah. During the whole movie I was kicking myself for spending so much. Together it cost $400NT ($11.50USD). After thinking things over, however, I realized that the whole day's events cost me less that $20USD. This included two train rides, lunch at the mall, buying two movies (video CD format, which is similar to DVD), a trip to 7-11, watching a movie, and eating food from the concession. Not too shabby.

A giant hanger we found at the mall today. (Sorry, the picture is little blurry...)

Boom-Chika-Boom

Afternoon Kindergarten Singing Time Ni Hao! I took this video a last week, but hadn't figured out how to upload video until recently...The following clip is a video of the Afternoon Kindergarten singing a song called "Boom Chika Boom". I don't know how well you can hear the words, but they are really cute anyway! I also found out their ages recently. One funny thing about Asian countries is birthdays are not a big deal. Children often don't know how old they are, or even when their birthday is! These kids range between 4 and 7 years-old. Please note: I have made a lot of changes to my blog in the last day or so, so please keep scrolling down and check it out! (and any comments you wish to leave are always welcome!)

CHINESE NAMES

Ni Hao! A new addition to my blog is the Chinese characters off to the left by my name (profile). It means "story". I haven't received my Chinese name yet, so in the meantime I'll use this. If I find out it sounds like a nice name in Chinese then I will keep it, if not, I may choose something else. That is a big deal here (for the teachers), receiving a Chinese name. The school secretaries help out. They may just give you a name, or have you come up with an idea and will assist you. I have even heard of students coming up with names for their teachers. The kids here all receive English names, so why not have a Chinese name? The Chinese place a great importance on names. It is very common to have business cards, stamps (called a chop), and/or stickers with their name to label everything they own (or pass out). I probably will have a chop custom made with my Chinese name on it.

"Story"

"Storyteller"

Monster Claws

Adternoon Kindergarten Monster Claws

"MONSTER CLAWS" explained...

Ni Hao! I am having fun with the video clips...The one above was taken during the middle of one of my drama classes. We read the Little Critter book by Mercer Meyer entitled What A Bad Dream. It is a story about Little Critter having a bad dream where he turns into a monster. He makes a potion and grows bat wings and monster claws. I made the little bat wings for the kids, which you can see taped to their backs. They are pretending to have "monster claws". I like this video because they are actually talking...Which proves that I am teaching them something...

Here are some pictures that were also taken during the same class.

In other news... Wait--What other news? Unfortunately things are not all that exciting right now. The broken toe, as small as it is, has caused much frustration, and has kept me bound to the general vicinity. Other teachers have gone out and seen a lot of wonderful things. Hopefully I will be able to get out soon...If you want to read about their travels there are a few blogs you should check out. The links are to the left on the sidebar.

WE'RE BACK ONLINE!

Ni Hao! So the Internet at the school went down Saturday morning, and was out until this morning (Thursday). This happened a few weeks ago, and was much more traumatic at the time then it was this time around, but it still throws everything off when you can't connect with the outside world. It wasn't all that bad, however, becuase during that time it seemed everyone picked up a good book and read a lot. As for myself, I read two books in three days. It was nice. This also will explain the reason I didn't make any new posts until today.

The final verdict on my foot: it is definitely broken. I went to see another doctor on Monday (that makes three) to get another x-ray now that the swelling had gone down and to see that it was healing properly. The doctor is the mother of one of the students at the school and spoke very fluent English. That was a relief. You'll never truly appreciate the fact that the doctor speaks English, until you have tried several times to explain what happend to one who does not...I think a lot of things could have been solved had I been able to explain directly to the doctor how the injury occured, instead of to a translator. I first took an x-ray which showed a much clearer picture and an obvious break this time. The doctor gave me some good advice how to treat the swelling and tape the toes. I expect this to take a few more weeks before I can go running again. At least now I know what exactly is wrong and a time table on when to expect it to heal.

So tonight I went with some other teachers to a Taiwanese spa. A local family invited us to go and gave us free tickets to get in. It was pretty much a fancy swimming facility with a few traditional pools (complete with waterslide :) and then a wing devoted to really cool jacuzzis. There were all these different stations designed to massage different areas and at different pressures. They also had several different hot tubs at various temperatures. The whole area was decorated in a tropical theme and Chinese lanterns. It was pretty cool, and quite relaxing after a long day.

"CH-CH-CH-CHANGES..."

Ni Hao! Notice anything different? Yes, you guessed it, I decided to change the template here on my blog. The other one was doing some funny formatting things, and wasn't showing up as it was supposed to. Also, it is always nice to mix things up every once and a while...

I haven't posted anything recently because not a whole lot has happened. Just doing a lot of teaching, and hobbling around on my broken toe. I had crutches for a week, and I used them on and off as necessary, but we had to return them on Sunday in order for me to receive my deposit. Luckily, on Monday I was able to get a post-op boot that allows you to walk on a broken toe. When I originally asked the doctor for one of these, he said they didn't have any in Taiwan. I couldn't believe it, because my dad found a company that manufactures them here in Taiwan. I guess my request must have been lost in translation. After printing a picture out of what they look like, I was able to communicate what I wanted, and the school director picked one up for me at the hopsital. It only cost 250NT (aprox. $7.50USD)! The boot is working out very well, and has made things much more enjoyable. (It was a frustrating week on those crutches...) I can actually leave the school again!


Top Left: A "poultice" on my foot, a.k.a. Chinese medicine
Top Right: Me and my trusty crutches
Bottom: My post-op boot, which will be my dearest friend for the next few weeks...

CHINESE MEDICINE

Ni Hao! Well, as I stated earlier, I had a little run in with one of the beds last Saturday night. It was about 12:30am (so technically it was Sunday). I was talking with my friend Liz M. and was just turning the corner in our room to lay down on my new air mattress bed when I hit my foot on the corner of her bed. I thought I had just stubbed my toe (as is often the case). Doubled over in pain, it took some time until I could focus enough to look down at my foot and assess the damage. I was shocked to see that my toe was not pointing the same direction as the others, but was in fact pointing horizontally...Without thinking, except for realizing that this was wrong and trying to "fix" it, I pushed the tow back into place. I was in so much shock that I don't remember if this caused more pain or not, but even after trying to put my toe back in place I was disappointed to see that it was still sticking out at an odd angle. This is when the realization hit me that maybe this was more than just a stubbed toe. My friend ran to grab me some ice. Word soon spread to those who were still awake, and one of the girls who was a life guard at BYU-Hawaii brought in some medical tape to tape the assumed broken toe to it's neighbor in an effort to treat it until some more formal help could be reached. The next two hours my friends help me with ice and elevating my leg. ome stayed to keep me company and to distract me from the pain. I don't really remember a whole lot...

Well the next morning I wasn't sure if I should make the trek out to church (it is an hour commute each way as we walk 15 minutes to the bus station, take a 35 minute bus ride, then walk another five minutes to the church). I felt in high enough spirits to go, and decided that if I could get a ride on a scooter instead of riding the bus, then I would go. My friend Elizabeth (the only one in town that weekend with a scooter) said she could take me. It was a fun ride, although I was afraid of bumping my foot on the surrounding cars and scooters we passed.

While at church I felt I a stronger desire to go see a doctor and it was decided that we would go to the hospital on our way home. After reviewing the situation I thought it might be nice to ask one of the Chinese speaking members to write a note in Chinese stating what happened, just in case we could not find an English speaking doctor. The man I had planned to ask had already left by the time I had this thought, and so I asked one of the senior missionaries, Elder Miner, if he knew of someone. We introduced me to two sister in one of the Chinese wards who were very helpful. They suggested going to a clinic instead of the hospital because of the expense, and conveniently there was a clinic just around the corner from the church house. Elder Miner, who speaks Chinese rather fluently, offered to accompany me and my friend to translate, as this was a Chinese clinic.

At the clinic I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude that Elder Miner accompanied us, as there wasn't a single person working there that spoke English. I was asked to fill out a form (all in Chinese) and then go upstairs to see a doctor. As with all Chinese medical facilities, I am learning, this one required the patients to take a number and wait for their turn. I was number 82. It was maybe 20 minutes before I was able to see the doctor. He spoke some English, but preferred to explain things in Chinese to my translator. We unwrapped my bandaged foot and he said that he thought it was broken, although I needed to get an x-ray to be sure. We were told I would have to wait until Monday, because they don't offer x-ray services on Sunday.

After seeing the doctor, I was escorted to another area of the clinic and told I was to see the "Chinese Doctor" next who would wrap my foot. This wing was devoted to the practice of Chinese medicine and was all natural. The doctor was very nice. He too spoke some English and tried in ernest to pronounce my last name (Lauritzen). He massaged my foot and applied some herbs in a bandage and then wrapped my foot. The herbs smelled really nice, and cooled my foot. He instructed me to leave the bandages for "4 or 6 hours". He made a kit with a second set of materials he had used so that I could replace the bandages later that evening. I asked for a set of crutches, and made arrangements to rent them for 500NT ($15), which I learned would be returned to me when I returned the crutches the next week. We then paid for the medical treatments. Unfortunately do not have insurance yet, and so had to pay full price up front: 300NT ($9) and then 100NT ($3) for the doctor's note I asked the doctor to write. So it cost me $12USD to see two doctors, rent crutches, and get herbal medicine. I love Taiwan.

Well, you may be wondering how I got those crutches home on a scooter. Elder Miner suggested we slide them through a handle on the back of the scooter. This proved to be an ingenious idea, and we rode home without complications, although we did attract a lot of attention...

On Monday I went to a clinic in Feng Yuan with one of the school secretaries. They took an x-ray but the doctor couldn't tell if it was broken or not but felt something was definitely wrong. He suggested we come back the following week for another x-ray if it is still giving me trouble. In the meantime, I was told to stay off of my foot as much as possible and keep it elevated. They made me a cute little splint for my toe and gave me some medical tape to reapply it as necessary. These services cost 600NT ($18) I made arrangements to have a substitute cover my Afternoon Kindergarten classes for both Monday and Tuesday, but still taught the older-aged classes. Since then I tried to get off the crutches by Wednesday so I could teach Kindergarten. It went well, but by Thursday night my foot was swelling, and I felt I should return to the crutches in order to prevent further injury. So that is the latest update. If you sat through and read this whole explanation, then I am rather impressed. Thanks for listening. :) Sorry there were no pictures this time, I took some of my bruised foot, but they are kind of gross...