Chinese New Year usually goes off like a cracker but the relatively recent ban on sales of fireworks to individuals has certainly lessened the nightly cacophony. I seem to remember the ban of firecrackers in Australia in the 70s at some point, which was no doubt a good thing for uncoordinated dads in backyards with a few beers on board. I remember my dad making some fumbling attempts to run away from whirling fence fire spitters and escaping with all his fingers from a few big bungas...those were the days!
Well, Taiwan eventually getting a few safety laws in is a bloody good thing all in all, especially in the presence of the insidious Coronavirus which has recently reared its ugly head in our near neighbour, China and seems to have ominous overtones of the other deadly virus that saw us quarantined for a week, SARS. The school has just announced an extended break for Chinese New Year till the following Thursday, February 6th, and while we're ecstatic to be getting a few extra days off work and extending our break, it is certainly a quite murky rationale for the extension. Many of our kids and their families, let alone staff. go to many different places in China to visit family for CNY, so I suppose they're being cautious until everyone returns safely.
Cass and I received nearly 100 poems each for grading just before the break, so a few extra days off teaching will be a life-line. Not only did the kids craft a persona or perspective poem, but they annotated it for techniques as well as the effects the techniques have on the poem/reader. So, quite a lot of material to wade through, and it's always difficult giving a grade to someone's creative work such as a poem. One of the series of warm-up exercises we gave was to re-format and re-configure the words to a published poem in a creative way: the photos above show my period 8 class being proud of their attempts and here in the video, all 26 of them!
We recently celebrated our anniversary downtown on a school night and fellt very decadent: how wicked to be up late in the big city and drinking (!) We Ubered down and back for convenience and because we're mature adults (also, !) and had a delightful meal at Saffron 46 overlooking the mighty Taipei 101. We watched the building slowly change moods as the fading day left its walls and the colours festooned down its sides from the New Year celebrations gradually came to life. It was a magical transformation and we'd been lucky to snare one of the tables adjacent to the mega floor to ceiling windows: you could almost reach out and touch the giant's shining candle! Cass got a dazzling new diamond bracelet recently for a couple of celebrations, so she was keen to give it a first "airing" as well. We shared a fancy dessert to cap off a wonderful Indian feast full of curries, breads, rice and papadums enhanced by some fine gin and wine.
Everything was shut down on Friday night as it was New Year's Eve, but Wal invited me around to his place for a few beers. We had more than a few and I ended up staying for a good stint. The boys are full of zest and being 3 and 4 years old respectively, they certainly have a lot of energy that needs an outlet! I'm always greatly entertained as well as being part of the entertainment I'm sure, and their bath-time routine is just hilarious!
Our friend from many years ago, Leon, is also in town at the moment having brought his son to have a look at the country he was born in. Riley has no memory of the place, of course, as he left as a tiny toddler, but what a cool present to give your son! We saw them both and had a bit of a chat on Friday at school, but we were inundated with before-said poems, so we couldn't devote much time. I've just tentatively arranged a get-together on Wednesday, so we'll have a bit more of a catch-up then...stay tuned!
On-island holidays give us a real chance to re-charge the batteries ready for another tilt at work. Not only that, but we can dive in to long neglected tasks that we tend to put off in the normal grind of daily life. We've been giving the house and files and cupboards and drawers a long overdue examination, and it's amazing some of the trash (a lot) and treasure (a little but gold!) we've discovered. Suffice to say the garbage trucks and recycling trucks will be getting a workout soon! It also gives us a chance to have some big sleep-ins, some long, lazy breakfasts and some languid days, unfettered by class timetables and Pavlovian responses to deadlines and schedules...bliss!
Photos; all previously mentioned except the Moop!