Illī Qui Vagantur

台北市中山區中山北路2段115巷10號4樓

Taipei, Zhongshan District, Zhongshan North Road Section 2, Alley 115 #10 4F

I think using the Chinese one will be easier.

Hey everyone!

Sorry I have not posted for a while. I have been incredibly busy. I was going through Hess's training program for new teachers. I had no idea it was going to be so intense, but then again I am in a country where the people themselves have voted to get rid of a few national holidays so that they can work more! Training was a 9-day long affair and about 10 hours each day. We went through an entire textbook of material on child development, Hess philosophy, and the curricula for the different Hess grades. We had to prepare lesson plans for the different grades and then do a teaching demo in front of an experienced teacher who evaluated our teaching. Let me tell you that singing in front of 50 total strangers is not an easy thing, especially when you sing like I do. haha. There was one guy who dropped out of the training because he could not handle it.

But, the training was actually really good. I have been through training before and my usual impression is that it is a complete waste of time. This time I am really glad that I had it. It was really, really helpful and most schools do not offer it. Last night was our graduation. We went up to the 12th floor of the building to celebrate (Mr. Hess's home). They had red wine, white wine, and tons of food. It was really nice.

I have to go back tonight to observe classes for a few hours, which is basically what I will do all week. The next week I will start teaching my own class.

Now its time for a funny/disturbing story. This was told to us by one of the NSTs that has been there for six years. He was teaching a kindergarten class and on that particular day they went on a field trip. The field trip was to the police station. One of the kids was a really, really chubby boy. Chinese people LOVE chubby kids. They think chubby children are the cutest thing on earth. So, as soon as the police officers saw this chubby little boy they had him come up to the front to have his picture taken. Well...one of the police officers thought it would be cute if this two year old boy was holding a gun in the picture, so he pulled his LOADED gun out of its holster and handed it to the kid. The NST told me that at this point he thought he was going to have a heart attack. He turned to the two Chinese teachers, expecting them to be freaking out, tripping over one another to get to the front and get the gun out of the kid's hand. Instead, they reached into their purses and pulled out cameras and were snapping away saying "ohhh how cute, that is so cute!" The Chinese teachers have the final say on what is okay and not okay, so he just stood there feeling the blood drain out of his body. Then, one of the other police officers went to the back and got a bullet proof jacket for the kid to wear and they took pictures of that. But that wasn't good enough, they went back and got an even bigger gun to give the kid, so he had a handgun in one hand, the jacket on, and a giant gun in the other. The police officers then said it was unfair that they only let the chubby kid hold the gun, so they decided to pass around the handgun so that all the kids could hold it.

Luckily, nobody died, but the NST said he aged 1o years in those 10 minutes. After they got back, the Chinese teachers put the pictures of the kid with guns into his treasure chest, which is a book of pictures taken throughout the year to share with parents. When the parents of the children found out they were really mad, but not because their kids held guns, only because they didn't get a picture of their kid with guns. Apparently, in that particular branch, there is still a big picture of the chubby kid holding the guns and it is on the lobby wall.

Strange, crazy, but true.