Chapter the Twentieth: It Begins

The last few days we, the foreign teaching crew at Concordia Middle School, have been going to our offices, getting oriented and started working on what needs to be done before the start of classes in roughly a week. Every day that I am in there and sitting in the classes I get a little more excited about what is going to start to happen in my life. I am a very relational person, I love to meet people and get to know them and have a personal connection to them in any way possible, some of you that read this might scratch your heads and say, "Really"? But it is the truth...
The last two days I have been going to where the students I will be teaching hang out and take their summer classes if they are enrolled in them and just getting to know how they work, where they are, and what they need to improve uppon as their exams come closer. It is going to be a difficult year from the aspect that the Taiwanese School Calendar has not breaks for students or teachers but one and it is much longer in length that the traditional American Calendar. I will be in class from Sep 1 until June 30, with about a 2 week break in January, and then sacraficing two Saturdays a month to teach. I cannot complain, and will not complain, because this is not American and I am no longer an American. It is a hard concept to grasp for those of you sitting in your dorm room, or computer room in Texas, Colorado or any other state in the Union, and if you are sitting in another country beside Taiwan, and you have been there for any length of time no matter how long or short, you understand. This is going to be the second greatest thing that has happened in my life to this point, it has been a short time, but there is something about this place, and the believers here that captures my heart and mind.

In a few days I will be able to thave pictures for you of my students. This picture is of the campus we are on and one of the courtyards that lies within the grounds.