Childish games and nine vacation days left.

The break can be attributed to the twelve days I spent over-stimulating my baby nephew in South Carolina at the end of January.  As a result of said over-stimulation he can now play air guitar to Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock".  I firmly believe he is much better equipped for life with this particular skill.  But back to Taiwan I went, and the following is what has happened to me since I arrived:

• I poked a kid in the eye yesterday.  I didn't mean to, obviously, but in the heat of an intense game involving rolling a dice I gesticulated wildly and got him with my pinkie.  I felt terrible, but he was a trooper; I couldn't tell if he was more upset that he was blinded in one eye, or that he missed his turn to play (he seemed quite annoyed that he was made to sit-down).
• My wild and crazy class got into full swing after a two week break.  It was fun to see the kids again, but they didn't get any more tame with a break; I can feel my raspy throat happening already.  My goal of containing the craziness, whilst playing awesome games geared toward English learning and keeping the children's crying to a minimum is a continual challenge.  I am determined to perfect the art!
• In addition to the adorable shoes that I purchased at Hilton Head's Target, the best purchase has been the children's book Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom.  A classic from my childhood, I brought a copy back to the kindergarten class; it has become an instant favorite for them, as well.  The kids shout out, "Chicka chicka, boom boom!!!" when I cue, and they point out which letters of the alphabet their classmates' names start with.  It has become a fun daily activity and despite my attempted rotation of books during story time they request this one every time.  Success!
• Last weekend I attended Taipei's Lantern Festival at Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall.  The warm and sunny weather was a nice teaser of the Spring that is to come--staying inside was not an option.  Around the grounds of the hall there were floats of all things related to the year of the dragon (a badass year to choose to live in Asia, just sayin'); we walked around exploring, and I even got a flip-flop tan on my ghost-white feet (hopefully an omen of successes to come in the tanning department).  When we stumbled across a small child in a folded paper dragon hat that lit up, our mission became quite clear: secure possession of awesome dragon hat.  Ready, break!  We found them.  We wore them.  Mission accomplished.

• I've been teaching for four months now and, as it is a favorite word in my vocabulary, I have been calling my students "buddy" for as long.  Two days ago one of my students raised their hand and asked very seriously, "Teacher, what is 'buddy'?"  Perhaps I should address my other classes to clear up any confusion that this mysterious vocabulary word may have caused.  Poor kids have probably been so puzzled that I've been calling them all the same name.