Iowa Buff

The weather has been crazy lately because some days it's really hot and others it's been sort of cold. I left my apartment this morning and it wasn't AS hot and it was a little rainy. Me being lazy, I decided just to tough it out and not go all the way back upstairs to my apartment to get my jacket. I figured that as long as I have my umbrella I should be fine. I was walking to get some lunch anyways so I wasn't really cold.

When I was at work, some people asked me if I brought my jacket and I said I wasn't cold. Of course I get funny looks but after my last class, I went with my coworker to get a dessert at small eatery to take back to work. A lot of my Taiwanese coworkers thought I was weird because I wasn't wearing a jacket. I know it was getting colder but I'm just not that cold. I hear from people back home that it's snowing a ton and I'm definitely used to that cold. I think tonight it might have gotten down to the 60s and yes, it was rainy but it wasn't bad at all.

Some days it does get cold and I was wearing a shirt tonight but I wasn't too cold. My coworker made a joke with me and said what is this? Are you being an Iowa buff or what? lol I know January and February it will get colder so I just enjoy the weather now before it gets super chilly.

On a happy teaching note, today's classes weren't too bad at all! My half-day class is such a hit and miss. Some days it's a really good day and others it's bad. One of my students wanted me to sign my name on this piece of paper and I was really suspicious at first because it was in Chinese and I thought it was something for them to get out of (like homework or a project in Chinese school) but as I was reading it, it was an information sheet about her favorite teacher. She chose me as her favorite teacher and I had to sign my name on the sheet of paper. I thought that was really sweet of her. They really like cursive writing since they've never seen it before so I wrote my name in cursive and they were so astonished. Her English name is Tania and she thinks that her English name in cursive is ugly lol

My other two classes went really well and I'm starting to just have more fun with one of my classes but it's because they are getting smarter and they are usually good. My last class isn't the brightest but they can be really funny. They really wanted me to speak Chinese and my Chinese teacher made a good bargain. She said that I can say one Chinese word but they all have to write vocx1. One of the students actually agreed to it lol It's incredible how badly they want me to speak Chinese and they try so hard to have me speak it. For example they are learning "feel,taste,smell" and we're talking about food and one of my students said Korean kimchi in Chinese. During break they asked me how to say helicopter in English. Then they say it's your turn. Say it in Chinese. But I haven't cracked yet..I haven't said a Chinese to word them yet although they know my Chinese name.

-Chihchat