Tzou an! (Good Morning)!

Ni hou! This week I started Chinese lessons and hopefully soon will be able to communicate a bit more to the locals. I take the class with other foreign teachers and it's a great learning environment.

School continues to be interesting and fun. As you can imagine, with lots of little bodies and immune systems, there are lots of germs. Many students are going home sick with foot and mouth disease and last week some cases of scarlett fever broke out. Scarlett fever, you ask? Yes, I thought it had been eradicated, but apparently not in Taiwan. My voice is nearly lost from singing and roaring like various animals and I'm doing my best to stay healthy, but the pollution in Taiwan is often thick and my body is having a hard time adjusting to it's new environment.

In an effort to keep the classrooms clean, the Chinese teachers are constantly cleaning everything with bleach-floors, windows, doors, etc. However, I have caught numerous children leaving the bathroom without washing their hands. So, I am now the offical "hand sniffer" of the classroom. If supposed clean hands do not smell like soap, they must go back and immediately wash their hands again. Yesterday, I caught one very smart little girl, who washed only one hand with soap, in an effort to dodge the rule. I made her go back 3 times before both hands smelled clean. Sneaky, smart girl...

In my class this week, I also introduced yoga, which has been great fun. Every day, we practice breathing and I introduce new yoga poses. The kids are very obedient and do an excellent job trying all of the poses I put them in. Some of the children that seem to have attention issues during my lessons, do an amazing job concentrating and balancing in a tree pose. It's good practice for their minds and bodies. I've noticed that the Taiwanese children also develop their large motor skills at a different rate from the children I've worked with at home. Yoga will help their muscle development and it's a good brain break from our studies.

We also sing lots of songs. This week we had a mini song fest and I introduced some new songs. The song "Pease Porridge" ("Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold...") was altered to "Peace Porridge", so they all make the peace sign when they sing it. I had to teach them that the peace sign doesn't always mean "victory" as everyone thinks in Chinese culture. However, our number one class rule is to "be kind", so this song is a good fit for us. My little flowers are turning into peace touting yogi's. It's great fun.

During the weekends, we've been driving out of the city past Taiping to waterfalls up in the hills. We'll go for a swim, relax and often meet new people. The areas are surrounded by deep, lush green jungle and the waterfalls and pools are serene and wonderful. Last weekend, we saw a family of macau monkeys near the waterfalls. There is also a very high jump from rocks to a deep pool below. I haven't tried the big jump yet, but maybe someday soon. :)

Have a wonderful weekend! Love to you all!