city kids and the kitten

City kids are so funny man!

All my students here are afraid of animals. And I mean just about any kind of animal. I think it's pretty normal for a kid to be afraid of bugs or snakes or spiders. But a puppy? Or a kitten?

I mean, my students physically cringed one day when I showed them the tiny little ball of fur that my boyfriend Rick had found on the street. It was a little orange tabby kitten, about 5 weeks old. Its eyes were still baby blue. It didn't have any coordination yet.

It had a face that melted even the hearts of betelnut-chewing, blue-slipper wearing, internet junkie crowd that upholds the somewhat sordid reputation of the internet cafe next door to our school. They give me heck when I tell them to park their motorcyles elsewhere, but when they saw that little kitten, it was like all my past transgressions had disappeared.

So at about 7pm, after a day of enduring cringing, screaming, and the general revulsion of about 90% of our student body, the kitten was sleeping in a little box behind the secretaries' desk. One of my students, Jason came up to me and said, "Teacher, where is the... lao shu?"

Umm... lao shu is "rat" in Chinese. I said, "Do you mean the cat?"

"No. Lao shu." He starting gesturing it's size and shape with his hands.

I was baffled. My eyes were getting wider. He couldn't be serious. "What color is it?"

"Orange."

"Jason, that's a cat." I pulled it out of his box. "This is a cat."

He seemed just as baffled as I was. "Oh. I don't know," he said sheepishly, which was his way of saying he didn't realize.

Now I realize he must have just never had much contact with cats, but you'd think he might have seen one on TV or something?

I was just thinking... maybe the other students all thought it was a big rat, and that's why they were so afraid. A big... orange ... tabby... rat.

snakes!

DSCF0966
Originally uploaded by jadewingz.

This sign was in a national park in southern Taiwan. It says, "Be careful of snakes and bees!" Or maybe it says, "Don't feed bees to the snakes!"

beck and freya

beck and freya - noble
Originally uploaded by jadewingz.

This is me and my girl. I found her in a park called Gold Lion Lake when she was a mere pup of 7 months. She's one of the best dogs I've ever had except for her wild rat obsession which often leads her to the no man's land of Taiwan's park trash cans.

Typhoon in Town

Seems a bit early to me for two typhoons in four days, but here we are...

I had at least three blown-down signs pass me on the way to school today. I was literally checking my rear-view mirror to make sure there weren't any following me, and planning the quickest and easiest way to communicate to the people around me who were also waiting at the railroad crossing for the 6:45 train to pass, "Get off the road! There's a giant 'Sushi Express' about to run us all down." Just in case.

People never believe you when you say that kind of stuff though, and they've always gotta look for themselves, and by that time, the toddler holding on to grandma on the scooter in front of me would have been another casualty of the fast food industry's marketing.

Help wanted!

My boss, my boyfriend, and I run a set of free Bible classes every Monday morning at a local elementary school. It's early. The kids are sometimes brats. It's a Monday morning! We don't always like it. It's tempting to quit, but isn't this what laying up treasures in heaven is? What will a few more hours sleeping in on Monday morning mean to me in eternity, in comparison to being able to see one of these kids there?

Sometimes, when we ask other Christians for help, they aren't so keen on it. It isn't paid and it's a yucky time. However, we recently asked two buddhists/daoists to help, and they said "yes" with almost no hesitation. Make of that what you will.

Just when you think no one's watching

I’ve been wondering lately if people who live in big cities, by necessity, become less self-conscious and uninhibited.

What made me start wondering was a girl I saw in Hong Kong once. I was walking down one of the maze-like sidewalks in downtown Hong Kong Island, looking for the American embassy, when I saw this young woman. She was maybe 27, about the same age as I, and professionally dressed in a gray, linen suit. However, despite her professional appearance, she was skipping down some stone stairs, tossing her hair, and laughing out loud. Her laugh was so carefree and loud, as if she had just had a wonderful unexpected encounter with an old friend who made her laugh and did her heart more good than she’d had in ages. She didn’t even seem to notice the people around her. If I was being mean, I’d say she could have looked slightly unbalanced, but if I was being honest, I was jealous, and wanted to laugh like that myself.

I thought to myself, “Well, maybe that’s what you have to do in a big city where you are never alone. If you want some alone time when you just let your hair down, maybe you just have to take it, whether you’re surrounded by people or not.”

Kaohsiung’s not nearly as crowded as Hong Kong, although with 2 million packed into about 20 sq. km, it’s crowded enough. And lately, after four years here, I’ve also caught myself taking those little moments. Moments when I start talking to myself or singing or gesturing, and suddenly realize I’ve forgotten that the world is still going on around me. I think it does help me keep sane.

Today, however, I saw a guy who perhaps could have done with a bit more self-consciousness. He was walking down the side of a busy road, and had his arm UP-TO-HIS-ELBOW-!-! down the back of his pants picking a wedgie.

Look at me. I’m laughing now just thinking about it, and right in the middle of a crowd in the park who has no idea why.

From 5/1

Our school’s budget broke even this month. We still can’t pay ourselves, but we’re not running off investment any more. Thank God!

The Fourth Reich

This is when you know your boyfriend’s reading of “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” is going a bit too far.

Today Rick and I were talking about our ideas for our school’s summer English program, and Rick had this idea:

“Let’s have our students come in every morning and do extensive training exercises. Then, they can swear allegience to us. ‘I pledge my allegience to Super Kids and a to it’s teachers, Rick and Rebekah. I will do what they tell me to do. I will say what they tell me to say. I will turn my friends in for speaking Chinese because it is my duty as a student of Super Ki….”

“Rick!” I stopped him there.