My buddy O-len invited us to his parents’ house in Dahu 2 weekends ago.4weeks ago. He’s invited us a few times in the past. We’ve been putting off going because, well, how much fun could that be, right? In fact we had a brilliant time. The good times did not start for a while, though. Amy got car sick on the way and on the last very windey bits of road, her complexion matched the lush green of the surrounding vegetation. Here she is giving me her “gimme a break!” pose.
I had no idea Olen’s folks were farmers. They grow, depending on the season, 2 kinds of plums, oranges, strawberries and an assortment of leafy vegetables. For this time of year, plums were the fruit-du-jour. We went up one of those ubiquitous narrow winding farmer’s roads that you find all over the island. The kids had a blast picking and eating (mostly eating) ripe, juicy plums. Deep burgundy, fleshy plums that made them look positively vampiric. These are the moments that make living here more than tolerable, if not entirely worthwhile.
(those of you using an rss reader, the embeded slideshow probably won’t show. This is the case with Google Reader, the one I use.)
This is me at the top of He Huan Shan last Tuesday. I was wet and cold. The plan was to meet up with some Taipei friends and camp at one of the parking lots up at the top. I arrived much earlier than the others’ ETA and took a fraction of a second to decide I would NOT be camping on wet, cold tarmac. Since it had been raining hard most of my trip, even my rain gear was not enough to keep the seep from reaching every part of my miserable, shivering body. But the air was crisp and wonderful. I decided to stay at a “guesthouse”, a few kilometres down from the top, where the road forks into the “He huan shan tunnel”. For 300 NT, I got a 2.5m x 2.5m room with a mattress and 2 damp blankets. But I hardly noticed. I was too busy whining about the damp air and dealing with the horrid realization that my clothes would be just as wet the following morning. I wish I had more photos, but my phone got waterlogged. Here is the last one before it pooped out on me:
As it turns out, I was the one havin a good time. One of the lads from Taipei had a terrible accident near Dahu (the place I would go plum picking with my family the following day). He is still in bad shape at the hospital and we still can’t piece it all together. He’s got a cracked skull and will probably loose an eye. He just had a baby a few months ago. Fuck. Get well soon Thierry.
Just pissing down again. It hasn’t stopped for days and apparently won’t for another week. Today was Commencement at our school. Out with the old in with the new. But it’s not really new, is it? Question of perspective. Is it possible to see with new eyes? My students, my kids, my wife? Sometimes for a brief instant I feel I can. So fleeting and expansive. Expensive? I pay with monotonous blindness, dullness of the mind.
In a Murphian twist of fate, it turns out the student was not *exactly* the culprit. The photograph which he had linked to belonged to a (financial) site, which was hacked into. I contacted them to clarify the matter and indeed, they had no idea some smutty pics were on their server. It remains unclear exactly when all this happened, thus exonorating the boy from even knowing he had it on his blog–reasonable doubt. Unfortunately for the lad, a whole bunch of porn was discovered in his email box by the parents. Oops! Here is an excerpt of my report.
Although the chances are good that the student knew about it before we brought it to his attention, there is “reasonable doubt” about this. Therefore no punitive measures will be taken against the student.
Teacher XXX and I met with the parents this morning at 10. I told them that I believed their son was not originally responsible, but that there was a doubt in my mind in regards to when he knew about the change in his blog. I also told them that we would work hard to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
Here are the steps I will take to achieve my promise to the parents.
1. Students will no longer link to images outside their control. From now on,
images will be first uploaded to a designated space that the students control.
2. I will prohibit access to email accounts.
3. Online storage space will be made available for the purpose of saving work
In addition, I will speak to all the grade 8 students to explain to them that their blogs are sometimes read by outsiders. I will use the present case as an example. Hopefully this will lead students to be more responsible. It is my belief that something like this will only empower them further, making them feel like their voice, even in English, is heard outside of the walls of their school or their home. Although unfortunate for the student and parents who had to defend themselves, this is a great opportunity for both students and teachers to learn and adapt.
As a final note, I would like to add that this is the first time in 4 years that something like this has happened. Frankly, I am surprised it took this long. That in itself is proof that overall, this is not a serious problem for our students, the CALL Department and Shin Min Junior High.
I asked myself the question did I jump the gun, or did I act improperly in the face of the latest developments in this mini-saga, and the answer I came up with was a resounding “no”. It all ended well and no one is snickering at me, at least, to my face. My boss also told me he didn’t think I acted rashly. I believe him.
July 10, 2007 
My buddy O-len invited us to his parents’ house in Dahu 
Posted in family, taiwan 
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