I attended work training this weekend and aside from the fact that I needed 2.5 hours to drive from SLC to Provo due to the storm, I really enjoyed myself. The English language program I will be teaching disallows any type of communication in the children's native tongue, so we simulated Taiwan experiences by feigning ignorance of English and allowing immersion teaching to take place. We then watched some videos of other teachers in action. The methodology is thrilling to me and I can't wait to start teaching the kids.

A portion of our training was dedicated to Taiwanese Cultural Quirks. I am excited to see how many cultural norms I unknowingly disobey. Following are a few I was made aware of: 1. Do not be alarmed by the multitude of extra long pinky fingernails. The men grow them out as a symbol of honor to their families. Funny, cause most people I know here in the states grow them out to facilitate their snorting and picking habits. 2. The longer one lets his/her mole hair grow, the more luck will come to that person's life. I wonder what they think of other body hair, because if quantity also lends itself to luckiness, then I am definitely one of the luckiest people alive. 3. Taiwanese people don't say they love each other like Americans do. A wife could go her whole life without her husband telling her he loves her. Largely influenced by Confucianism, they feel they show their love for each other through their actions. Interestingly, my family would fit in well there. Rarely are the words, "I love you" audibly heard, but they are definitely felt through kind deeds. Which means more? Would your opinion of me change much if I came home with extra long pinky nails?

Eastern healing...mmmm

My grandma has a massage therapist that travels occasionally to her home to give her a rub. He comes all the way from St. George, so to make it worth his time, she tries to schedule as many clients for him as possible. Well, Grandma decided to give me a call and how could I say no? This is the lady cooking me fried shrimp, sweet and sour pork, chow mein, and fried rice for Christmas dinner for crying out loud!

I have had massages before, but not the type that Leroy was offering. He is a massage therapist/chiropractor, which basically means he warms the muscles up really well through massage and then snaps clients' spines back into their proper places. I was thrilled with the prospect of being plagued less by my stiff neck and boy did he snap it back where it should be! I think the best part was when he put this menthol rub all over my back. It smelled heavenly! I am not planning on showering for quite a while, because I want this smell to linger as long as possible.

Leroy is extremely passionate about natural healing and it was refreshing talking with him about how holistic eastern medicine really is. I have been a yogi (a practicer of yoga) for quite some time now, but he encouraged me to look more into tai chi. He lauded it as a great form of exercise, stretching and also as a great spiritual boost. As a martial art it is concerned with the study of appropriate change in response to outside forces; the study of yielding or 'sticking' to an oncoming attack rather than attempting to meet it with opposing force. Maybe we should have a worldwide tai chi day...right after we kill all the drug lords...who's with me?

Kill the deviants???

I just sent in my visa application and directly above the signature line I read these words in bold, large print: WARNING: Drug trafficking is punishable by death according to criminal law in the Republic of China.

What if the U.S. adopted a similar policy? Would it serve as a deterrent to crime? What would be the positive and/or negative externalities of such a decision? Would the "war on drugs" be more effectively waged if we treated it more like an actual war and killed people?

Welcome to a portion of my brain...I was caused to consider a number of questions after reading this and decided to leave my crack at home this time...

zai jian Cedar City

Saying adios to Cedar City was surprisingly easy as I looked forward with great anticipation for my upcoming teaching job in Taiwan. I am completely convinced that the lighthearted farewell was facilitated by my almost complete social isolation this past semester, as my main source of human interaction was with my 7th and 8th grade classes at Cedar Middle School. Luckily, the good Lord has seen fit to endow me with an "out of sight, out of mind" type of mentality when it comes to people and places, generally speaking. Certainly, I have a few close friends with whom I will remain in contact from SUU and Cedar City holds many memories that are dear to my heart, but the more conversations I have with my computer in Mandarin Chinese (via Rosetta Stone--a wonderful program as far as I'm concerned) the excitement seems to swell and flood out any other thoughts that may be crowding my heart.
Let not my lauding of the Rosetta Stone deceive you. I am by absolutely no certain terms anywhere near proficiency in Chinese. Like a child with a new puppy on Christmas morning, I try to play with these new sounds and feelings they produce as often as possible. It was with great delight that I attempted to communicate with one of my Chinese students a few days previous. I have always enjoyed placing myself in uncomfortable situations, which I do firmly posit has resulted in much personal growth. Language learning seems to inevitably provide ideal circumstances for discomfort. Instead of the uplifting, "You are beautiful," out came, "You crap beautifully." I guess I need to be more sensitive to the tonalities of the language....