This weekend was the official Fulbright orientation in Taipei. It was a long long weekend filled with information, meeting new people, and late nights. Hearing what the junior and senior fellows were studying was interesting, and has made me start thinking about maybe getting my PhD some day. Not planning too much, or anything. Unfortunately, while there were plenty of photo opportunities this weekend, I left my camera in the hotel most of the time.

One thing that I would have been unable to capture on film was the earthquake we had in the wee hours on Friday morning. Apparently the epicenter was in Yilan, so I suppose it was lucky we were in Taipei all weekend (although, we returned to find nothing had changed in our apartment). Another cool thing: Jenny and I were on the train home from Taipei on Sunday and saw dolphins as we rode by the ocean. You know, just a normal day in Taiwan.

School today was good. I'm trying to balance teaching the first grader who can spell "insect" and the ones that refuse to repeat their names. Weekly English starts this week: I'll tape myself (and Anne, probably) teaching "useful" English phrases ("Where is the bathroom?" "Down the hall, on the right side." useful.) which the students will learn, then have to fill out a chart, proving that they've said these phrases to at least 6 people. I'm struggling with this sort of "crash course" English- just the basic stuff that the students need to communicate. So much of the teaching is just having the students repeat, with no indication that they actually understand what they're saying, let alone if they're actually saying it correctly (29 second graders all repeating "Let's play a game"- you're liable to miss something). It's hard on occasion trying to figure out what this method is accomplishing.

But then that first grader named Lucky looks so excited when you tell him his "Big Bs" are good that it totally makes up for the frustration.