The Bean Jar

 Sometimes my kids are animals. Climbing on tables, jumping off chairs, drawing on the board. It's a zoo. Even the bellow of my whistle can't stop them.

When those times strike, I shake my bean jar. Most of them stop immediately. Some cover their ears because they don't like the noise, but eventually, they all shut up. Bliss.

I know it seems like I only post pictures of Nini, but girlfriend loves the camera.

 The way the bean jar works is that if the class is good, they get to put a scoop of beans in the jar. If they're bad, I take a scoop out. When they fill the jar up, we're going to have a class party. They're pretty stoked.

 My Aunt Pat is a retired teacher and alerted me to this little gem. We had a nice long-distance chat in which she imparted priceless wisdom for my use whilst abroad. Thanks for the idea, Pat!

Game Time at Stanford

Just a quick vid of one of the after school games the kids sometimes play.

Chocolate Bananas

The kids copied this in their drawing books while waiting for their turn.

We made chocolate covered bananas as a class a few weeks ago. We were learning about cooking with gas in science and I wanted to use a camping stove to melt some chocolate and make something easy, but I guess they misunderstood my request form.

They brought me this chocolate-like spread. I tried some and it had a heavy shortening flavor, leaving the roof of your mouth coated afterwards.

The setup: bananas, popsicle sticks, sprinkles, and chocolate spread.

The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and kept asking for more. Good times were had by all, until Beckham dropped his banana on his jacket and got chocolate everywhere. That boy is so accident prone it's ridiculous. He's spilled his lunch bowl on himself 3 times in almost 2 months of school. Sigh...

Mina

Hank

Eric

Nini

Ethan

Thomas

Mini

Beckham

Abha (aw-pha)

Ian

Foodie Adventure

We went to see The Lucky One (was an "eh" , kind of movie with some poor casting choices) in Hsinchu today, and instead of hitting up McDonald's at the food court, we tried this Asian restaurant instead. They had an English menu, so we were understandably pumped!

We each ordered fried rice and fried pork and shared an order of pork dumplings. It was delicious! The dumplings were amazing and the rice very tasty.

In Taiwan, they don't seem to care if you bring outside food into other restaurants. This place only serves drinks by the cans, so Craig went and bought us some drinks from McDonald's.

While he was gone, a waitress brought two cups of tea to the table. By the time Craig got back, the food had just arrived. Craig picked up the tea, looked at it, (it was a yellowish orange color), and proceeded to pour a little on his rice, all the while I'm saying to him, "Craig, it's tea. It's TEA, Craig. IT'S TEA!" This said after he poured some on his rice.

His face was priceless. He thought it was sweet and sour sauce or something. I was cracking up hardcore!!

I enjoyed the meal, and I think we'll definitely go back again in the future. Good food and it was about $14 USD for everything. Nice price.

Cute Kids

The kids decided they wanted to try on my sunglasses. So I let them. I'm kind of a sucker. I think they're catching on...

Nini trying on my sunglasses

Eric rocking the shades.

Nini and Thomas. I love her face here.

Thomas again.

Nini, Abha (pronounce ah-pha) and I after the photoshoot.

Nini is pretty much my favorite girl in class. She listens pretty well, answers questions, gives me hugs, and wears lots of bows on her clothes. She's my kind of girl.

Champion Green Vision Field Trip and Other Ponderings

This week we went on a field trip to Champion Green Vision, I guess that it's a solar energy company or something. The whole spiel was in Chinese, so I obviously didn't understand a thing.

Anyways, on the way there, I got to see more of the Taiwan countryside. It totally reminded me of the beginning parts of Romancing the Stone when Kathleen Turner a.k.a. Joan Wilder is riding a bus to Cartagena , Columbia to help her abducted sister.

The greenery was super cool, and I kept wishing my mom were sitting beside me so we could giggle about how exciting it would be to see Michael Douglas (when he was still hot) appear alongside our broken-down bus. He was so foxy. Sigh...

Jack T. Colton. My first real love besides Johnny Castle.

We also drove through a couple of tunnels. All growing up, it was a game in my family to unroll your window, and hold your breath while driving through a tunnel.

In honor of my family, I took a video of us riding through a tunnel while I held my breath.

Back to the kiddos.  They seemed to enjoy it, even if it was a little boring. Here are some of the shots I got of them.

They all really loved the mirrored columns in front of the office building. I thought they were so cute. I took more pictures on my school camera, and will try and post those when I upload them.

Hoppy Easter

Happy Easter from the Stanford Easter Bunny!!!

He was less than impressed...

Bike Issues

So with my first paycheck I bought this super pretty, purple cruiser bike with an adorb basket. Super handy for the shopping.

Flash-forward 4 days, while riding to RT Mart for a much needed Mickey D's pickup and general fun shopping trip, my FREAKING pedal FELL OFF!

That's right, my left pedal just up and peaced off my bike. I was super upset, naturally.

So I had to walk my bike back home while Craig went forth to adventure. Anyways, I took by bike back last Saturday and got a new one.

I was scared to get another cruiser, as the last one broke. So I got this one instead. I'm not a huge fan of the colors, but I love the basket and the little platform I can hook things to on the back. I love having wheels again!! But I do miss that pretty cruiser.

Georgia

Last week, I discovered a mysterious bruise on my right leg. I have no idea how it got there, it was just there. Over a dew day period it just kept looking nastier and nastier. Craig has nicknamed it "Georgia" as the bruise seems big enough that it should have its own name.

Take a gander, it's horrendous.

UPDATE: