TEMPLE TRIP!

Ni Hao! So our branch went on a trip this Saturday up to Taipei (pronounced "Tie-bay") to attend the temple. They rented a charter bus, which cost each member $300NT ($10) round-trip (a good deal). It took around two and a half hours each way, but was very enjoyable because the buses here are so nice. They are very tall, almost "double decker", with a storage area in the first level that is probably close to five feet in height, which is accessible through a little door in the stairwell. The passengers ride in the second level, while the bus driver is on the first in an isolated box (with all the comforts of home, including a sink!) You have to climb a steep set of stairs to get to the passenger level. It had televisions to play movies, or the option to do KTV (kareoke), which we did NOT do, thankfully! Although, conveniently, the back seat passengers (where I was sitting) were able to take advantage of the KTV microphones to address questions to the front of the bus. Pretty much the only thing this bus didn't have was a bathroom...One the ride up we watched The Lamb of God, although I slept most of the time, and on the way back we watched Toy Story 2.

We arrived at the temple at around 1:30pm. When we turned the corner and saw the temple among all the other buildings it was like a rose among all the thorns. It was so beautiful. I wonder if the people who pass by it everyday understand the worth of that building... On the same property as the temple is the church headquarters here in Taiwan. It is a seven story building, although the first three are undergound. Between the two buildings was a courtyard with some fountains, trees, and flowers.

(Church Office Building and a Stake Center)

After attending the temple we took a side trip to Costco. It appeared like most Costcos I had been to in the States, except that it was two-stories and you enter the store by stepping onto a moving walkway (like you see in airports) except for a gradual incline leading to the second floor. I thought that was pretty cool...I didn't buy nearly as much as my friends (who stocked up for a famine :), but just purchased the necessities: three bags of Tostitos ($75NT/$2.50USD), 6 MiniDV camcorder tapes ($500NT/$15USD), and an awesome double-layer queen size air mattress ($1,035NT/$30USD). We got back to the school just after 9pm.

Now I would like to say I slept well that night with my new, beautiful bed, but sadly it all came to a crushing halt when I caught my pinky toe on one of my roommates wooden beds...Hey, I told you these beds are hard! Since then I have been to two doctors who both think I broke my toe (although the x-ray was blurry because of the swelling...). So now I am hobbling around on crutches up four flights of stairs...and trying to keep my foot elevated. More about that later...

(Above: I rode to church on my friend Elizabeth's scooter, afterwhich we went to see a Chinese doctor near the church who gave me the crutches...It was fun riding the half-hour back from church with the crutches strapped on the back...)

DISCOVERING THE JOYS OF TAIWAN

Ni Hao! On Wednesday night I went with my friend Lindsay downtown. We went looking for a DVD store, but unimpressed with the place we went, decided to walk around. Lindsay suggested trying another area that she thought had a better store. We walked for quite some time and never found the store, but we did stumble upon the Wednesday Night Market.

Here in Taiwan they have several night markets (and morning markets for that matter) on different nights of the week located in different areas of town. Now the easiest way to describe these night markets is to compare them to a county fair. There are vendors set up in a configuration winding around a once empty parking lot allowing only a very narrow walkway to pass through. These vendors range from food stands, to carnival rides and games, to women's clothing. The sights and smells take you through an experience that is both enlightening, and nauseating at times. I have really enjoyed attending these night markets, as I have been to one on Saturday nights twice before. There is an energy of excitement, in a city that "rolls up it's sidewalks" at 9 o'clock, this is a place where even small children are allowed out past their bedtime.
(Left: A man blowing the glass creations right at his stand) (Right: ring toss, one of the Berhan staff favorites!)

Well, on Wednesday night I really enjoyed myself and decided to be bold and try some food at a food stand. Here are some pictures of the different food stands.

I chose something that looked "safe". The vendor started by steaming a bread/bun thing(which had a sweet taste to it). I then was asked to choose the type of meat I wanted. I selected the ham. They added some cooked eggs, crushed peanuts, and some other weird vegetable like item which I didn't recognize (even after I tasted it...). It was very good and tasted like a breakfast sandwich. It was also only 35NT ($1). Here is a picture of the stand I bought it from:

After trying the food, I decided I wanted to try one of the games. I've had my eye the air-gun game for quite a few weeks, and decided to try it. The object of the game is to shoot out as many balloons (on a spinning target) as you can. It cost 40NT (just over $1). I was under the impression that you got a whole cartridge of bullets, but I think I got around 10 tries. Fortunately I was still able to pop 3 balloons, and awarded a Snoopy hand mirror.

The last discovery at the night market was a LED desk lamp for 50NT (less than $2). I had been looking for something like that for quite some time and was very happy to find it for so cheap! Lindsay and I both bought one. We had been told to not purchase any electrical devices from the night market which plugged-in as they have a bad history of causing fires, so to find a battery-operated light was also a plus. (and yes, those are chicken feet in the pictures below...)

A SLICE OF HEAVEN...

So the night market was fun, but an even better experience was dining at the Leisure restaurant on Thursday night. I won't go into a ton of details, but it is the first restaurant that I got so excited at that I felt the need to take pictures of all the food everyone got. There were twelve of us that went after a long day of lesson planning and teaching.
(Heather, Hannah, and Liz) (Brett and Julie)
Eight of us decided to splurge and get the "set dinner" which comes as a complete 3 course meal (my meal was only 330NT, or $10). They served soup and salad, the main coarse (mine was chicken, but others got beef or fish), a fruit drink, and dessert (Yes those are red beans on my ice cream...)

The waitresses always bowed everytime they brought a new dish to the table, or cleared a dish away. There was a full spread of, get this, silverware (NOT chopsticks--hooray!) It was probably one of the nicest dining experiences I have had so far in my life. (I think the price really influenced this opinion.) So here are some more photos from that restaurant:

(Top Right: Julie with her "Hot Pot", Top Left: Me with my fruit drink, Bottom Right: Our friend, Mr. Shrimp, not yet cooked, Bottom Left: Liz and Mashell with their "split" meal, still served on two beautiful plates)

It took over an hour (after we ordered) to have the complete meal served to us, with each course served and cleared away. We didn't get home until after 11pm. I think it is one of the few restaurants that is open that late.

THE MANY FACES OF HANK

Ni Hao! So yesterday we had a "typhoon day". Similar to a "snow day", the government cancelled school because of the possible typhoon hitting this area. Unfortunately the government also said that while school was cancelled, everyone still needed to go to work. This was quite problematic because many of the children had two parents who work resulting in a need for daycare...well, to make parents happy the school said that the kids could still come to classes if they wanted to. We were instructed to not move on with any new material, but just to review in our classes.

Well, we were hoping that the kindergartners wouldn't show up, but there were still six (of 11) in class yesterday. We kept everything really low key and relaxed. We combined the two classes and I was able to attend the kitchen rotation which I normally teach another class during. This allowed us to take some time for pictures. It was a lot of fun. These kids really enjoy hamming it up in front of the cameras, and kept saying "my turn" to ask for another picture. The only problem was that they have a hard time standing still long enough for the camera to focus, so several attempts were rather blurry. Hank, one of my favorites, was especially photogenic and I took several of him trying to get a photo that captured his personality. Here are a few:

Of course the other children are fun too, so here are some we took:
These last two "children" were rather misbehaved...and don't usually look like this... :)
One of the other kindergarten teachers I work with is "Miss Kat" (as the students call her, because they can't say Katherine). She is also in the picture above with Hank and his twin sister Krista, which may be a better example of how she normally looks. :)

FENG YUAN SKYLINE







These are some pictures I took on the roof of the school last night. (It is pretty common to have roof-access as they don't really have backyards here... This is what the city looks like, although we live in a more residential area. I'll try to get some pictures of the downtown with it's sea of neon lights sometime. Just a quick post before I go teach...

SATURDAY IS A SPECIAL DAY...

Ni Hao! Hooray! It is Saturday! We are all enjoying our day off. It is the only day of the week when everyone can go out and do things together so we are making the most of it. Some people went to a nearby city by the beach, some went hiking in the hills, and the rest of us went exploring Feng Yuan. One of the teachers introduced us to a wonderful restaurant today. If any of you have been to a Mongolian barbecue restaurant, it is like that, only better. The restaurant is probably about 25 foot-square, or less, and only seats maybe 10-12 people at a time. The seating wraps around a bar where the food is prepared right in front of you.

All the food is served on sheets of aluminum foil placed on the edge of the grill.

...and the best part is the whole meal only cost 110NT (around $3.50)! I think I have found my new favorite restaurant.

So after lunch a small group of us went exploring. I find that the more I do this, the more I feel at home. We discovered a wonderful bakery which carries a wide array of tasty treats. All the different items were individually packaged. (One thing I like about Asia is their emphasis on presentation, all the packaging is very delicate and beautiful) I found a dessert that would best be described as a Neapolitan pinwheel. It had three different types of cake (chocolate, strawberry, and white) spun into a pin wheel, and held together with a little creme filling. The pastries here are not nearly as sweet as the USA which makes desserts satisfying without making you sick...very fun, and for only 20NT ($0.65).

We also explored "Stinky Tofu Alley" and the local mall/department store called "Sogo". "Stinky Tofu Alley" smells like stinky tofu, and runs down a long, very narrow alley. It has a lot of food stands and shops, which from first glance look like a bunch of cheap temporary stands, and yet it surprisingly has a lot of chic little clothing and accessory shops. These people love shoes and purses! One of the teachers found a really cute leather bag for only 390NT ($13). I have considered returning sometime to buy one for myself. It was all very enlightening. It definitely taught me to not judge a book by it's cover.

"Sogo" was similar to the department store we went to last Saturday in Taichung. Every floor is designated for a different type of service. The bottom two floors are all different types of restaurants (and even a convenience store--totally out of place!). There is a nice book store on the lowest level, but unfortunatley not a whole lot of English books. The next several floors are geared for women selling makeup, shoes, and clothing. They have a children's floor and a men's clothing floor. There is home decor floor which sells a lot of kitchen supplies, dishes, and bedding. The top three floors has a gym, sewing machines (for tailoring?), and an arcade. I think it was 12 floors in all. I assume this is a standard layout here in Taiwan. They also had elevator operators in uniform :) but most people use the escelators which run up and down the center of the buuilding.

Tonight we have plans to return downtown to see a movie. I love the weekends.

RESORTING TO DESPERATE MEASURES

Well, a few days ago a new girl was added to the staff, but the directors didn't have enough beds for everyone. We took a vote, and Julie was voted off the island. She was very resourceful and found a box to sleep in in the hall. Then things got a little carried away and we voted Sergio out as well. He has a perfectly nice bed, but we decided he should sleep in a box as well. That is how it goes when you are making decisions at 12:30am... and all you have to watch is Chinese television...

O.k. only part of that was true. We did have a new staff member arrive a few days ago, and there was a shortage of beds, but no, we didn't force anyone to sleep in a box...We took these pictures last night when we were in a sleep-deprived-silly mood... The picture at the top of this posting is another one we took. We are trying to open our eyes as wide as they will go. Don't ask me why we decided to do that...

Yeah, our schedules are a bit odd in that we don't finish with classes until 9:00pm. Therefore, it is a bit distracting when you have 17 other really fun people to talk to, resulting in a general standard of going to bed in the wee hours of the morning. I am trying to force myself to go to bed at a reasonable hour, but I am not always successful.

It is Friday! I am excited that I only teach three more classes until the weekend begins. Yesterday was rather stressful as we all struggled to finish our lesson plans on time (they were due this morning at 7:30am). When we took these pictures we were all thrilled that we had finished...and yet it is a never ending cylcle...

BACK TO TEACHING

Ni Hao! Now that the weekend is over we are sadly back to teaching. I really enjoy teaching, but boy was that weekend nice! I am settling into the routine and enjoying my classes. Last night I took one class into the kitchen and made crazy pancakes (or German pancakes for some of you...). I used the lesson as an introduction to build familiar context for a story we will begin on Wednesday. It is about a girl who tries to bake some muffins, and it turns out to be a disaster. I thought it would be fun to teach the kids how to read a recipe and make a "cake" only to have the crazy pancakes rise to a ridiculous size and then ask the kids what they did wrong...It went over very well and they were all freaking out thinking they had messed up the recipe. Once the pancakes were complete I explained the real name of the food. They all enjoyed it very much. One of the boys even requested the recipe to take home, so we turned it into a writing assignment and copied the recipe off the white board. Lots of fun.

Here are some more pictures I took today of my Afternoon Kindergarten class . Some are from a game we played in class, and the rest are when we were singing the song "Going on a Bear Hunt." These kids are cute.

"Do you love me?" "Yes, but I just can't smile."


This is Levi. He is probably one of my favorite kids, but he has the shortest attention span and will often act-up when he gets bored.









These are some more candid photos of the kids when they aren't posing for a camera...


"We're going on a bear hunt!...with big green eyes..."


"...and a bushy little tail!"

Tonight I started taking Chinese lessons. We met at McDonald's with some sisters in the Chinese Ward here in Feng Yuan who were willing to come and teach us. We paired up with a Chinese speaking sister who then was able to give us individual attention. I think I did an o.k. job. It definitely helped that I have been trying to learn Chinese for the last year or so by myself. I was happy with the progress I made tonight. Maybe I will retain some of it... We are planning to do this every Tuesday. Wish me luck!