O Jamników: March of the Dachshunds 2009

Imagine my excitement when I learned that, every year in the beginning of September, Krakow hosts the Marsz Jamników-- in English, March of the Dachshunds. For those not from my Pennsylvania life, my family has always had dachshunds and only dachshunds (that is, until the recent addition of Milo). They are my mom's breed of choice, so for my whole life we've always had a short-hair miniature dachshund (or two) roaming around the house.

This past Sunday was Krakow's annual March of the Dachshunds. Jonathan and I had no idea what to expect. What it was: over 200 dachshunds, many of them in costume, parading one block (from the Barbican to the Rynek down Florianska Street) with their owners and various dachshund fans, led by a marching band. After this there was some sort of ceremony, where the best-dressed dachshunds were introduced, dachshund poetry was read dramatically (all in Polish, unfortunately), and children presented their dachshund-inspired art.

As you'd expect, I took about a million pictures. I'm torn about what to put up. Some readers would be content with a few representative pictures, while others, I'm sure, would love to see all the dachshunds I managed to capture in their full hilarity. As a compromise, I've put a few pictures and a video here, and I've created a facebook album with the set in its entirety. Enjoy!

Dachshund owners and enthusiasts gathering by the Barbican on parade morning:

Many dachshunds were in costume:

Some dogs were not so happy about it:

While others took the opportunity to make new friends:

An excerpt of the parade:

At the ending ceremony, as incomprehensible Polish words washed over us, at one point the audience was instructed to raise up their jamniki (dachshunds)... and they did:

Even Jonathan, who is not a great lover of dachshunds (or small dogs in general), found this event preposterously entertaining.

Remember to click here for more pictures!

A nice card

I'm down to nine days left in Taiwan, so the goodbyes and thankyous are starting to happen. It's a rough time. I made a card for each of my 350-some students, and today I received a very nice card from a fifth grader named Vicky. It's all in English, which is no small feat. I hope you'll appreciate it as much as I did:

Katie teachers: a year to get along with you, we are very happy! Unfortunately, you want back to the United States, and if you are free to come back to see us oh! Something we all look forward to you coming back! I will often send mail to you the! I wish you happiness, youthful beauty, the right to marry as soon as possible! Married to tell us oh!

2009.6.22.
5-year
Vicky

These kids will be very hard to leave. But hopefully, someday, I will get to come back to see them.

A language anecdote

On Thursday, like every other Thursday, I was leading Fu Xing's English Village class. We have a different class come through every Thursday morning to do English-related activities. Last Thursday, we had two first grade classes come to play a simple game with post office vocabulary, then get a sticker.

Students don't start learning English in public school until 3rd grade, so the 1st graders don't really know any English except maybe "Hello" and "1, 2, 3." Maybe a few go to private English schools outside of class. We just play an easy game, make sure they say things like "Ready" and "Thank you," then they're on their way.

At the end of the game, as I handed out stickers to the winning team, one of the 1st grade boys stuck his sticker to his hand and then held the sticker back, looking confused. He said, in Chinese, "Teacher, there is no trash can, what should I do with the back to my sticker?" So I reached out my hand and took the sticker back from his. Then his face lit up and he smiled. This is the point where other students have said, "Katie 老師聽得董國語!"

But being in 1st grade and in a different linguistic mindset, he made what seemed to him a perfectly valid assumption. He said, in Chinese, "Wow! I can speak English!"

I don't think being a linguistics major is a prerequisite for finding this adorable.

Life and Times of a Taiwanese 3rd Grader

Today, as one of my third grade classes was about to begin, a girl named Emily ran up to me.

She quickly looked around, then leaned forward and whispered, "Teacher Katie. Donna like J.J." I laughed a little and started to scan the room for evidence. Emily tugged on my shirt. "Don't say! Don't say!" She shook her head as she ran back to her desk.

Later, at lunch, a boy in the same class came up to me. "Teacher Katie, call me!" I laughed and said OK. Then he started to say numbers. A few minutes later, he gave me a piece of paper with his name, class, and cell phone number on it. With a little picture of a cell phone in case I forgot.

Kids are cute. It's a fact.