Jieke Pigu

Well, we'll start this post off with an update on Jayden's language skills - he may just have started a new slang term in Taiwan. His older brothers, to be fair, actually came up with the expression in the first place, which is a direct translation of the English expression, "Jackass." Jieke is the romanization for "Jack" and pigu is "bottom," "butt," "bum," "buttocks" "ass" - ah, the beauty of English to have so many synonyms. So, of course Taiwanese people hear jiekepigu and have no idea what it means. But to the foreigners who've heard it, it is both hilarious and infinitely useful.

I've been busy with classes since a week ago Thursday (9/14). My classes continue to be fairly popular which is both gratifying and exhausting. My Spanish class, for example has 60 students. It's enough for my brain to switch between Chinese, Spanish, and English for two hours but then to have to try to give individual attention to 60 people - I feel spread fairly thin sometimes. I guess I can't complain since I'm coming off a 2 month holiday, right?

I also got suckered into being the Feng Chia University Parliamentary Debate Team coach. Somehow, I just can't say NO to that kind of thing. Fortunately, the three students on the team not only have excellent English, but also are very dedicated to the cause. Being given three weeks to prepare for an international competition and the inherent potential for major loss of face which would be incurred by a poor performance, can be fairly motiviating, I guess.

Rudy started his English lessons this week. The other kids just shake their heads and whisper, "What the hell's that kid doing here?" when I come to pick him up. He is attending Hess Language School which was basically chosen for its close proximity to our apartment. If he could jump off the balcony, he'd pretty much land right in front of the school. He tested off their charts for his oral ability but his reading/writing level puts him in a level 7 (out of 10) class. "He doesn't seem to even know what an apostrophe is," the test administrator told me in a rather admonishing tone when she told me the results of his placement exam. I guess I'll just chuck that onto the top of the already teeteringly large pile of "Heather's short-comings as a mom."

My diet is going fairly well. After the shock of getting back here, stepping on the scale, and finding out I'd gained 3kg over the summer (plus the two I already had to lose to begin with). Those damn Dove bars...I've lost 2kg since we've gotten back and I've finally pretty much gotten over that awful sensation of my body devouring itself. It is a drastic modification to reach for a hard-boiled egg, a plain yogurt, or a banana instead of an ice cream.

Josh finally seems to be adjusting to his new school which is located on the Tunghai University campus. He comes home every day with a different kind of creepy crawly - today it was a grasshopper and a praying mantis. He apparantly caught a little snake today but thankfully didn't bring that back. Since there are cobras in the tall grass on the campus, I try to dissuade him as much as possible. Especially after the untimely demise of the Crocidile Hunter.

Jason and I are back to seeing each other for 10 minutes a day - just long enough to pass the responsibility for Jayden between us like the Olympic torch. Then, Jason comes staggering home bearing my nightly cup of ginger tea around 10:30pm and we chat for another 10 minutes before we both slip into unconsciousness. Since he leaves 15 minutes before I do in the morning to take Josh to school, I've taken to leaving him notes in Chinese for him to find upon his return. Good for my Chinese and one of the only ways we have left to communicate during the week.

That's all that's fit to tell and bedtime is fast approaching so, until next time, zai jian ni jieke pigu!