Thursday 26 November 2015

Future Forfeit

So, just in case you’re confused by dates, after the weekend of 7/8 November, it was back into regular days “commuting” between Jhong Siao (school) and Cheng Da (university).  I spent the week focusing on Cheng Da homework and attending Polan's (my mentor’s) classes. 

The time had come when I would be introduced to the other English teachers – my initial training was complete.  I was filmed during Polan's classes on Tuesday and then the film had its world premiere the next day at a meeting in school.  No red carpet!  The idea was that the teachers could assess how best to use my undoubted talents in their classes.  The good news is that my talents are in demand – I have already been asked to assist some other teachers.  Sam Mendes should hear about this – I’m guessing he’ll be looking for a new 007 one of these days.  No offence, Daniel! 

My next major engagement was a dinner sponsored by some of the school donors on Friday 13th.  And who else would be attending? None other than the Wei family, of Winnie fame!  Now, given that my colleagues tease me relentlessly about Winnie, I was less than thrilled about the prospect of her attending the dinner.  (For the avoidance of doubt, I like Winnie very much as a friend.)  Despite her presence, I attended and enjoyed the evening very much.  There was nothing unlucky about the 13th.

The weekend got off to a slow start – I didn’t see Saturday morning – but it livened up when Kun Rong messaged me suggesting a 按摩 (massage).  Figuring that it would a nice, relaxing experience, I said yes.  Big mistake and definitely near the top of my "most-painful-ever experience" list!  My masseur was either a man who had no concept of pain or a man of sadistic tendencies.  He dug his thumbs deep into ALMOST every part of my body.  I can’t be absolutely sure of this, but I'm highly suspicious that Kun Rong asked the man to cause me extra pain.  I guess I’m going to have to ‘man-up’ if I want the 007 role.  

Sunday was a fairly early start with Kun Rong picking me up at 8:00am for breakfast with Xie Long and En Rou.  En Rou was heading to church and the boys were heading for their long anticipated baseball game.  To add some interest to proceedings, the winner would be the person who hit the most balls and the loser would suffer a forfeit.  Guess what?  I lost!  So, when the exchange students come to Taiwan, I must perform my forfeit.  More on that later… 

Post defeat, I was treated to lunch in Xie Long's house with his parents, sister and brother-in-law.  We watched some baseball (Taiwan vs Puerto Rico), presumably because I had some learning to do.  I freely admit that I know nothing about baseball, but I’m learning.

As usual, the weekend ended with some last minute homework.  Does that happen to anyone else?


   



Tuesday 17 November 2015

Hockey with a Taiwanese Twist

Honestly, I have lost track of time, which is why this blog post is coming so long after my previous post.  That explains why my memory may be patchy.

You may remember that I had spent an exhausting but fun long weekend in Taipei.  After I had caught up on sleep, I was straight into revising for my Mid-term exam, whenever I had a moment.  I didn’t have that many moments, so I came away feeling that I could have done more, but I was reasonably happy after it.

The final two days of that week were spent finishing off another audio book.  They are actually quite a challenge so it took me the full two days and some high blood pressure to complete it.  If you would like to learn about dental hygiene, just let me know.

For some reason, the only thing I remember about that weekend was going out on Saturday night with Winnie for dinner and a visit to the Tainan Culture Centre (台南文化中心) to watch a performance by the Vienna Boys Choir.  Now, I must remind you that this was not a date!  Vienna reminds me of hockey (watching my sister play for Scotland in the U21 Europeans in 2014), which brings me to my next noteworthy memory during the week. 

It occurred on Wednesday 4th November.  On that day, I was invited to Mr Hong's class.  Mr Hong is a PE teacher and he asked me to teach his class how to play hockey.  Yes, hockey, the one true love of my life, which has been missing in Taiwan.  I could hardly contain my excitement, but I was to learn why I had not seen or heard of hockey in Taiwan so far.  There were no hockey balls, no hockey sticks, no hockey goal and no hockey pitch!  So, we had to be creative.   We played 5-a-side in the games hall with barriers so there were no "outs" with small goals about the size of ice hockey goals.  We replaced the ball with a lacrosse ball and the sticks with a roller hockey stick.  



Despite these minor setbacks, introducing the class to hockey has been by far my favourite activity so far.   I can really see what a difference I can make here.  I hope that over the next few weeks and months I can develop the hockey and get more kids involved.  Most of the kids seemed to enjoy it.  

In reality, the opportunities to make a difference to the school day are everywhere.  You don’t have to be a hockey freak like me.  There are pupils crying out for all sorts of different activities.  It makes me think about who might be next to take up the challenge provided by this scholarship.  I have only been here for a couple of months and I'm already starting to affect the lives of the Jhongsiao pupils...in a good way!  If you’re out there reading this and thinking about it, keep thinking.  It’s an awesome experience. 

And you don’t have to miss out on the things that are the talk of the town back home.  After my hockey intro, I had one thing on my mind - "Spectre".  And yes, YuYing had come up strong again and asked if I wanted to see "Spectre" in IMAX on Saturday.  I wouldn’t rate it the best Bond film I've seen, but it was definitely worth going to see.  Keep in mind that you would do well to ignore my opinion as I am probably the world’s worst film critic.   Homework and a gym session brought me to the end of another weekend, which is where I shall leave it for this entry.  I won’t leave it so long until the next update…