Urging, Splurging, and Aging

Just a quick check in to tell you a little about the last week in my life here in the TW. That's more or less what a blog is for, and sometimes I neglect it, mostly out of laziness I guess.

Last Monday I was informed by my Chinese co-worker in a communicae that went something like this, "Hey, Loreesa, you have new class. You do demo August 28, start beginner class September 1st. O.K.?" I had been warned this was coming, and I knew there was nothing this woman could do but tell me, so I said o.k., and she kept talking. "You new class is Monday Thursday 2:30. When you have 1 on 2 you start at 12:40. O.K.?" Again, I had a heads up from my Teaching Assistant, so I knew what she was talking about...that on the days when my adult tutoring class of 2 came in, which they do from time to time at 2 on Mondays and Thursdays, they wanted me to teach them at 12:40 until 2:10, then the beginning class at 2:30. I told my co-worker o.k. again, and I continued to work on my lesson plans.

The next morning, Tuesday, before I left for work, I penned an email to the owner of the school, Serena. I told her I felt with one month left in my teaching contract it wouldn't be the best use of my time and wouldn't for many reasons be in the best interest of the school if she asked me to open a new class, demo for the parents what I do as a teacher, and then pass the kids off to someone who is not me (duh!!) in four weeks time. I asked her to reconsider giving me hours doing something that I'm good at and I enjoy, like editing the school newsletter or various other English signage that exists around the school, or anything else she could think of. Urging was the order of the day, and I did my best to urge her to be wise about this.

The next day, Wednesday, was and is always my longest day, and after being at school for 10 hours about to head out the door, exhausted, I got a phone call from Serena. She said she understood my email and agreed with me so I didn't have to open the new class. Then she tried some urging of her own. She asked me to stay at Kang Ning teaching until the end of the calendar year. She said she had been let down by two new teachers she thought she was going to have that didn't end up coming, and she really needed me. I told her I would think about it, but I know she is not as desperate as she sounded, and I know it's time for me to leave, so that's not going to happen.

The rest of the week played out pretty well, with me enjoying Thursday afternoon without teaching, working on planning. It's a new thing for me, and I love it.

I arranged with my new Canadian co-workers, Ryan and Liz, to come over this weekend for Mexican food and a swim in our village pool. (I live in a place called Holland Village, but it is not a village in the quaint and cute sort of way. More like a village because enough people live here to populate one of those cute and quaint mountain towns that we think of when we say the word village. We have a pool.) So, on Saturday, planning for Sundays visit with Ryan and Liz, I "splurged" on some sour cream at the gourmet western food store in my city. (Actually, it is kind of expensive, but something I deem necessary for Mexican food, so I wouldn't have called it splurging, but I wanted another word to rhyme with urging for my title. It costs about $4.50 for a tub of Daisy Sour Cream and it lasts for about a month.)

Lastly, I want to tell you about my Sunday, or at least part of it. My pastor, Rocky, is a retired missionary from Wisconsin or somewhere up there. (Those states kind of all run together for me. Sorry, Lea Ann.) He's boring, and that's putting it nicely. I easily get distracted while he's "preaching" because he doesn't usually preach, more like talking. Yesterday was no different, except that he sprinkled an adult believer and called it baptism. First time I've seen that at this Lutheran Brethren church that's full of people from many denominations. I don't want to talk theology but it was not very moving. I like the immersion baptisms at my church, when there's a little more drama when the person is "raised" to new life in Christ. So, that was during the sermon. We finished worship and then Rocky came back up to say, "I've got one more announcement." He's almost 70, and he came to Taiwan two weeks before me last summer. He nursed his wife about 3 years ago when she was dying of cancer. He's got 5 adult children back in the states. Well, anyway, he called a woman up to stand beside him, and I took a double take as I saw him hold her hand as you would with someone "special". Then he said, "This is Rebecca. We started spending time together in April and we're going to be married in February."

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I've never seen the woman before, never heard a peep that the dude had a sweetheart, and "married" is what he said. I was thinking, "Mawwied?" "Mawwied?" (You have to picture Long Duck Dong from 16 Candles saying that to understand what I was thinking.)

So, that brings me to the third and final point of this blog...aging. Kind of creeps me out that Rocky is going to marry this woman, about 15 or more years younger than him, and I can't decide if it's the creepy old man thing, or the he should marry someone from America who can relate to his culture thing, or if it's the secretive nature of it, or if I'm just jealous...o.k., that's it. I guess deep down inside I don't think my pastor should be making out more than me! I've said it! It's not an aging issue...it's a jealousy issue.

I'll leave you to ponder that one. Looking forward to the comments this week.

Until next time,
LC from the TW