Settling In

The past week has been spent settling in to life at my new job. Right now at my school there are just a handful of students in a two week summer camp. All the regular teachers are on vacation so this camp is used for easing all the new teachers into their new job. Poor kids. For this camp there is no set curriculum, so they just give us topics to teach. The first week we were to teach them about the topic of "sky." I, on the other hand, wanted to start teaching in areas with which I am more comfortable, like literary theory or classical amd medieval philosophy. It took some work, but I was able to meld the given topic with my own desires. My first period with the kindergarten class started well:

"Good morning children! Today we are talking about the sky! The sky is very big! Any where you go you can look up and see the sky! If you were in Italy, you could look up and see the sky! This means that when Saint Anselm was your age he could look up and see the sky! As a matter of fact, when he was little he would play outside all day long! When it was getting late, his mother would step out of the house and yell, "Saint Anselm, it is time to come in!" He would often reply, "Mother dearest, please observe that the sun, which is but a dim reflection of the glory of its Creator, though it can in truth scarcely be compared to its source of light for it is mutable and goes through phases and will some day cease to exist while the One who uttered it into being is immutable and eternal, has yet to come down from the sky!" After hearing this, Saint Anselm's mom would remember that her son was a saint and would give him five more minutes under the sky! But storm clouds sometimes form in the sky and bring bad weather, just like the theological storm clouds that formed over Saint Anselm when he took on the established doctrine of atonement...!"

You may have noticed from the exclamation marks I was quite enthusiastic about the lesson. The children were enthusiastic as well. One girl was enthusiastically screaming at the boy next to her for hitting her. Another dear little blessing was enthusiastically zooming around the back of the class pretending to be an airplane. I took this to be a good thing, since at least he was pretending to be in the sky. Over all, I am fairly pleased with how things are faring. The regular semester starts on August 23. At that time I will try to figure out the regular flow of things at my school.

I will end by offering up a particularly tasty morsel for the "Good said" segment of this blog. It comes from my favorite place of business here in Taiwan. About two minutes from my apartment is a wonderful little bubble tea shop that I love to frequent. If you have never had a bubble tea, go get one right now. Well, wait until you have finished this blog, and then travel however far you have to travel. Just get one. The best place to get one is the GuDi Tea shop which, as I mentioned earlier, is close to my place. Don't just take my word that it is the best, though. Listen to what is found in the fine print at the bottom of one of its advertising posters just after the copyright information: "GuDi Tea. It is yummy and feel like sweet a gourmet feast." Even if I didn't like bubble tea I would up and buy one from GuDi immediately after reading that presentation, for it is a statement that compels patronization. Anyone who feels similarly moved may send me money. I promise to buy sweet a gourmet feast with it.