1st day

i'm back from the phenomenal land of turkey! less than 12 hours after returning, i had my first day of school. i played a game called "the pizza game" with today's 3rd and 6th grade classes. the game involved students asking "yes/no" questions about their new american teacher's likes and dislikes, adding toppings to a class pizza, and taking slices away from the class pizza. top questions included "do you like money?" (no), "do you like handsome boys?" (yes), and "do you like me?" (yes). the last time i saw the children, they went out of their way to avoid ANY contact with freaky foreign teacher-- no eye, no physical, no verbal... today was a different story. the english classroom felt like the most popular attraction in a zoo, with throngs of children peering in the windows, piling in between classes, following me around the building, and loudly reporting "eileen laoshi!" sightings. and then hiding when my camera appeared. many differences between taiwanese and american school days: for starters, the children clean the school from top to bottom (starting 2 days before the school year starts, and then 30 minutes before each school day begins). and they also serve lunch, as seen above. best part of lunch today: the vegetarian (aka pork-less) option. and of course the adorable lunch ladies.