Adventures in Taiwan

Living in another country has opened my eyes. I cannot believe that I live here.

Teaching

I am in my third week of teaching. My kids are so cute. I teach kids between 7 and 8. They are in the basic reading program. They are beginning to read. Teaching english has taught me a lot about our language. There are so many random things about english that are difficult to teach. It is something that you just pick up through listening to it. Now I have to figure out how to teach kids, that are never around english, to understand the weird quirks of the english language. I am hoping to take pictures soon of my kids to show you how cute they are.

Explorations

A family from the school to me and my roommates/other teachers hiking in Tianjhong. Their hiking consists mainly of stairs. So we hiked stairs/mountain. At the top was an amazing tea farm. And on the way was just forest around us. The pictures I took did not do it any justice. And we saw so many fruit plants; pineapple and dragon fruit were my favorite to see. In the village just beyond the tea farm was a cute family that came out to say hi. I don't think any of them could speak english but it is amazing to see the communication the goes on between people of two different languages. Smiles go a long way. They offered us some hot tea.

At the end of the day the family took us to a restaurant that serves 7 courses. It was amazing! I could not finish it. After being in Asia for a while you get used to eating less. Just rice, vegetables and a little meat. Going from those meals to a 7 course meal does things to your stomach, but it was SO good! It cost 500 NT... which is about $18 USD. But it is an expensive meal for Taiwan.

Random quirks of Taiwan

1. When you hear car with music... it's not the ice cream man, it is the garbage man. It confused me so much. I would get my hopes up, only to have them crumble when I saw it was just the garbage.

2. Traffic laws are more of a guideline. Scooters control the road and if you are near a bus, you feel the life sucked out of you.

3. As I bike around my city, it is the greatest site ever to see a temple or monastery pop out of no where.

4. Korean artists are HUGE here! One of the most popular songs here is called Sorry Sorry by Super Junior. Super Junior is a band of about 13 boys-- Backstreet boys on speed!

(I cannot figure out how to post the actual video one here... Stacy help!!!!)

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7782808975148694939

Here is a Korean Girl Group singing Nobody But You, another big song out here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mF7mKabAZQ&feature=related

Pictures

From our hiking trip... this is the baby dragon that is being protected by its momma at a temple in the village near the tea farm. I think it is so cute!

A lady working in the tea field.

Angry dog... I think this was the first dog that actually growled at me!

Someone that it was a good idea to dig a hole to China, too bad they didn't that far

I will post more soon... once I get a new camera to use... I dropped it while hiking, and now I can't see the screen.

Ps. I think I have started to change, for the better. When I dropped my camera and couldn't see the screen anymore, if I were still in the states I probably would have been really upset and angry, but here I did not care. It just goes along with the adventures. I have a new outlook on things. It is only a bad situation if you think it is. Think positive and look for the brighter things. If you are in a bad situation, just think you are alive.