Asian Prom!

(First of all, sorry I haven't posted in a while, it's been CRAZY BUSY. I decided to split the two posts up so that you don't feel like you're reading a novel!) 


You read that right...
Asian.
Prom.
When I was preparing to come over here and thinking about lesson ideas, I never would have thought that we should do a culture lesson on high school dances. 
How commonplace, right? Well, that's what I thought until I brought it up in passing during class one day and my students were so confused. 
You see, elementary, middle and high school here kind of suck for kids (no offense intended if you're a Taiwanese person reading this! wo ai ni!) 
The reason I say that is because, from an American perspective, the kids never have a chance to be kids. They go to school and then cram school (usually for English or test preparation) and then lessons (dance, piano, etc) 
On Wednesday, I went to a preschool/kindergarten cram school.

The atmosphere of the school was really great!

That's right, 6 year olds are already in cram school. Now, to be honest, the cram school wasn't desks and lecture, but still! I talked to a little girl who is 8, and she said that after she goes to school she goes to cram school, and then, depending upon the day, either piano or dance lessons. That means that she is busy until at least 9 at night. 

I think I will take one of these home with me. :) SO CUTE!

crazy.
Anyway, back to prom.
So, Dayna was the first one to notice the discrepancy in knowledge about prom and spearheaded the whole prom throwing business. 
You know how long it takes a Junior class to plan prom?
months.
We planned it in less than three days. 
in a foreign country.
It was pretty intense (let me tell you, explaining what a streamer is is not an easy task!), but it ended up being SO AWESOME!

It's pretty easy to tell they're in my class :) 

 We had a prom king and queen, we danced to fun music and ate seaweed chips. 
Overall, a fantastic success. 

Our king and queen were so cute!

I felt very mei guo ren buying so much junk food! 

The summer camp had 150 students approximately, and the attendance at the prom was roughly 50.

This might not sound impressive, but we only gave them one day of notice that the dance would be happening. 
SO COOL! 

sometime girl penguin not such a good dance partner with boy penguin. Oops!

Also on Wednesday, my class and I decided to eat lunch together, so we ordered dumplings and bubble tea and ate them in the classroom. They also shared some Taiwanese and Chinese singers they thought I would like, and I did! Chinese music is so pretty to listen to :) 
It was wonderful. 
I love my class so much! They are all crazy and fun and kind and so motivated! 

 Eleen's got attitude! 

I love how much happiness there is in this picture!

I'm extremely sad that summer camp is done. 
When I say this has been the most amazing experience of my entire life, I'm honestly not exaggerating. 
I have always wanted to be a teacher, but teaching for these past three weeks has made me realize how much it fits. I just feel so blessed. So many people wander around wondering what they want to do with their life, but I just know. 
So, so blessed. 
After prom, I spent the evening looking at all of my belongings and hoping they would pack themselves... Unfortunately, they didn't, so I had to pack because we moved out of the dorms and into a youth hostel (which is so nice! Except it's far away from Jingmei) 

Every prom needs a post-prom ;) notice the fancy cups!

What an amazing night. 
With love from Taiwan,
Lauren.

snack time!