Wow....I haven't posted an article on here since November 2nd! I'm sorry, I am sure, you have all been wondering: What happened to Kyle? What has he been up to? How are things going for Kyle in Taiwan? What exciting new adventures, has he been on? Well, after a couple of months of being lazy about writing a blog post, I am finally sitting down and writing an article! Whew...Before I go into what has been happening recently, first, let me recap you on what's been happening the last couple of months! I just have one word: AMAZING!! Lol...okay okay, I will be a bit more descriptive than that! God has truly blessed my team and I these past couple of months with some really awesome and exciting opportunities! Since it has been a couple of months, and there is a lot to tell you about, I am going to go month by month, and bullet statement all that we did during that month! If you would like to see pictures, click here to visit my Picasa Web Albums.
December:
- We went to the island of Xiao Leo Choe for two days mostly to have vacation, but also to teach! The island is about a twenty minute boat ride, off the coast of Taiwan! The island was beautiful! The island is also really small, so by the end of the first day, we knew our way around the whole island pretty good! By the end of the trip, we had already been around the island two, three, or four times!
- We went Scuba Diving! That was a blast! We were 8 meters (24 feet) below the surface! It was awesome; everywhere we looked we saw huge pieces of coral! We also, got the chance to hold a non - poisonous puffer fish
- Christmas Caroling, and Christmas Party with the Team! This was my first Christmas away from my family! It was quite the experience!
- Christmas Party at Nan Jung Junior High School!
- Nan Jung Junior High School's Anniversary! Our whole team performed a Chinese Christian song, based off of Psalms 103! David and Grace performed a piano duet! All of the Pingtung Girls performed a dance that they had been preparing for a few weeks!
January:
- Happy New Year!!!!
- David and I went to Taipei for the weekend to stay with our good friend Roy! Roy is a Taiwanese guy we met when we were in Oklahoma for two and a half weeks getting our TESOL certification! Roy was in Oklahoma for the VOICE conference. VOICE and TESOL run at the same time. (For more information on VOICE, see the VOICE journal website under my Blog List section on my home page.) Staying with Roy, was probably one of the best weekends David and I have had since being in Taiwan! We hung out in Taipei, went shrimp fishing, went out to eat at an awesome Thai food restaurant, went to dinner at an awesome Italian restaurant with more friends from VOICE, went to a movie, we played Halo, and even went to Taipei 101! It was a very relaxed weekend! Roy and his family were GREAT hosts! Thank you so much Roy for letting us hang out and thank you for Roy's family for letting us stay in your house! We had so much fun!
- King Car Winter English day/living camps! Two full weeks of nonstop English fun! Day camp was the week, that the students didn’t spend the entire week at the school, they went home at the end of each day, and then returned that next morning. For living camps, the students slept at the school for all four days! We played games, we told stories, we had English class, we had science class, we had dance class, we had art class, and we had an outdoor adventure in the local town of Kanding. The theme for this year camps, was adventure. Each classroom was turned into something with that theme. The store, turned into the camping store, the bank become the cave, the airport became the jeep, and the market became the plant place. We also had an outdoor drama class, and a trail mix making cooking class! We got the chance to work with several Taiwanese King Car teachers. They were known as our TA’s (Teachers Assistant.) Each AT (American Teacher) was assigned a TA. It was their job to help us AT’s in any way they could. King Car camps were a blast! It was so much fun getting to have my own team of students for an entire week.
February:
- Visa renewal trip to Thailand! We spent ten days in northern Thailand teaching English for our visa renewal trip. It was Amazing! The first four days were spentin an extremely rural area up in the mountains. It was a two hour ride up the mountain to where we would be staying. We all rode in these canvas covered pickup trucks. They looked like the vehicles they used to transport soldiers in during World War 2. The town we were staying in was called ChaingRai.The view was beautiful! The kids were so much fun to teach. In all the schools that I have taught since being in Taiwan this school was the hardest one I’ve had to leave. The next four days were spent down the mountain in the local town of ChaingRai Thailand! We only taught one day at this school, the last three days were spent touring the city of ChaingRai Thailand. The last two days, were spent touring Bangkok,the capitol city of Thailand,. While in Thailand, we got the chance to visit and see many different touristy locations. We visited the Golden Triangle, the Royal Queen’s mother’s villa, the Royal Palace, some temples, and the list goes on. One of the highlights for me about being in Thailand was visiting this school that was built to give kids who are at high risk of being forced into the slave trade, or human trafficking a safe place to go.We didn’t go there to teach English, we were there to see the kids and just show them our love, and hang out with them!These kids didn’t speak a word of English, or Chinese, but yet we all got along so great!
March:
- Okay, now that I have you pretty much caught up, here is what has been happening recently: After having quite a few weeks off of school, classes have finally started again. Before classes started, we had to revamp the entire EV, for this next semester of class, as we will be having repeat students. We either came up with new classes entirely, or we just thought of new ways to teach the old classes. Also, starting this semester, each teacher will be going to an outside school once a week, and help teach their English curriculum. This gives us the opportunity to work with the same group of students longer than one day. Teaching has been going really well, these past couple of weeks. We have all been staying busy. Besides teaching at the English Village, and at an outside school, I now have a guy that I privately tutor once a week. I am helping him learn how to improve his English conversational skills.
- I praise the Lord, for all these exciting opportunities, he has blessed my team and I with these past few months. I am so grateful to God, that He called me on the incredible journey; I certainly never would have decided this on my own. It has been the experience of a lifetime. I am excited to see what God has in store for us next!
