The End of the Quest

This Saturday our branch went on a temple trip.  I started the same as any other, we met at the church, the bus was late.  But we stopped at a rest area and I found something amazing. Fancy Land.  When I first saw the sign I didn't know what to expect, but it defiantly not what we found.  It turned out to be a statue park full of dinosaurs.  What?!  Yeah, thats what I said, dinosaurs.  I guess that Fancy land was probably intended to be Fantasy Land, but of course that's what happens when you let spell check be your translator.  But fancy or not Shannon and I had fun with it.  

After the temple Lish, Karen and I went to meet up with one of Lish's old teacher friends. We walked around downtown Taipei for awhile and then headed toward Taipei 101 to met up with the rest of the teachers.  But I don't know what's wrong with me, when ever we go on the Metro I always put the tokens on my eyes, sadly this is not the first picture of me doing this. Even though I just know that there has to be a billon different kinds of bacteria, and crap all over those things, pink eye or no pink eye, I probably do it again. We walked to the from the Metro Station to Taipei 101 on the way we saw a rabbit.  It was Karen's Birthday that day before, and since the rabbit is her Zodiac sign, we stopped and took a picture.

And then of course there was Twilight at the end of this lovely day.  Page One has to be the most amazing bookstores I have been to ever. That could be an overstatement but at the moment when I lifted "Breaking Dawn" over my head and and spun around singing the Hallelujah chorus, it wasn't. Plus it was on sale.  We went to eat quick dinner at the food court, but like all temple trips it was over too soon, and had to get take out so we could catch the bus.  But in similitude to the beginning of the trip, the bus was late and we just ended up waiting around anyway. This quick trip has made me excited for the rest of my travels here in Taiwan. There is still so much to see and to do, I can't wait to get started again.

The Floating Market

On our first day in Thailand we woke up at 5:30 and went to the famous floating Morning Market neat Bangkok.

Bangkok: Getting there

There was so much to our Thailand Trip that I even have a separate slide show for getting there.

Alishan

After Kinding we went to Alishan. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I can't wait to go back again.

The After Math

After all the loveliness of Green Island, Sara and I were in a accident. That was the end of Green Island, and since I didn't feel up to much after that, this includes Kinding as well, at least my version.

Slide Shows Promised

I know that these are a long time coming but I finally got them to work!

This is after Graduation and our travels on Green Island

This first picture is me doctoring Steve after he cut his finger being manly bring heavy suitcases down stairs. He almost passed out. *Sad*

MK kid of the day: Candice

Since I have over 30 kindergardeners now  that I'm over, I though it might be a good idea to introduce them to you. 

Today was Candice's Birthday. She is(I'm guessing) 3 now. So so so cute.  She sounds like a little mouse, and even though you know that she is trying, knows no English.  But she sure dose know how to pose for a picture.

Good-Bye First Grade, Hello Morning Kindergarten

For just about two months I have had a first grade class every morning. 4 boys that are as smart as can be but lets face it, not even I want to be there at 8:30 every morning how could I expect 9-7 year old boys to.  But for the most part I think that our time in class was well spent and we had our fair share of "extended" brake times.  But last week I was told rather suddenly that I would no longer have to joy of this class any more, but rather the joy of Morning Kindergarten.  I didn't even get to say good bye, or the say any of the Chinese that I promised them.  But I feel that they have transitioned rather well, they have a male teacher now, and they only have one more week and then they start back up at their regular Chinese school, and will no longer be attending that class.   But the sadness that I felt when I left to peddle my way to Kindergarten, was quickly relieved.

Morning Kindergarten is wonderful. I love these kids.   I teach kitchen so I get to make a completely random food product with 2-ish-5 year olds, and I have so much fun. They rub peanut butter on their faces and think that it's the funniest thing ever. Matter-of-fact I think so too.  It's hard  to comprehend why any one wouldn't want to experience this level of unconditional love.  I been a bit low on the hug count these past few weeks, but being MK has brought me back to the level of emotional health. I know that I'm in the honeymoon phase right now but I'm so happy to get up at 7:00 and go to school. I hope the feeling lasts. 

A Scoot a root toot

Oh my dear scoot has had some problems as of recently.  The first was a lost or stolen gas cap. I don' t know why any one would want to steal a gas cap, so I think that I didn't push it in hard enough and it fell out.  

Even though I was plagued by images of my scooter bursting into flame  with a stray  cigarette being tossed into my scooter at a stop light. I still drove it around for a whole week before having it replaced.  But the replacing of it is what more or less what

 this story is about.  

So Saturday I went to the Scooter Guy. In my mind I thought that I would be in and out with little or no unconvinced to myself, and have the rest of the after

noon to look for a new wallet( Eheem...Steve). But it turns out my scooter is old and they had to order a new gas cap from somewhere else and so there was waiting involved.  But it was doable.  I went for a walk to my local and friendly Government store, to pick up a snack. When I returned I found my scooter waiting for me, with a new scooter cap.  But as I was already there I asked them to check my tires.

When he looked at my back tire he was a bit concerned, and told me that I would need a new rear tire as well. I  looked at it and saw that yes, it was bald and cracked, so I said yes.  I didn't have the cash with me for a new for a new gas cap and tire, and so I tried to explain.  But even with 6 months of broken Chinese under my belt, did not make my concerns understood.  They set to work flipping my scooter on its side and taking off the wheel. Boo... So to be able to get my scooter back after this repair I asked where I could find a ATM, or 7-11.

  I was able to ask and receive an answer to this question. Most likely do to the fact that 7-11's are as common as drinking fountains in a park, here in Taiwan.  He pointed in a direction, and I knowing that 7-11's are easy to find, set out on my marry little way.  But after walking for 15 min and not hitting a 7-11 I was concerned. To those of you that don't know why this would be a concern for me, let just say that where I live, there are 3 or more 7-11 with in a 15 min walk.  So not seeing one should have told me that I was on the wrong path.   But I did find it after taking a picture of a lovely flower I was back on my way with enough money to get my scooter out of the Scooter Guys grasp. 

 

Everything was going well until I returned to my scooter  the next day and there was a HUGE puddle of oil under my scooter. What did they do to her!  I hope that it can be fixed with a few turns of a wrench. But if not I hope that it's not the end for my dear friend, the scoot.

The Quest for Twilight

If you think that I am referring to a time of day, don't bother to continue. But if you are one of the millions of people that know what I am talking about, read on. The Twilight series's last book came out last Saturday, and though I was in Taiwan I was still hoping to feed my addiction. So I went to Costco, Sogo, Chung Yo and any other place where there might have been a selection of English books. But my hopes were dash again and again. I found a rather large selection in one stores. I took a picture to commemorate the utter disappointment that had after scouring each and every shelf and not finding anything resembling it, not even anything remotely vampirey either.



The only good part of the day was, while at Chung Yo department store I saw a Taiwanese Pop star, Will. It was odd that I knew the song that he was singing, and had the urge to sing along. I have been in Taiwan too long.

SO I don't have "Braking Dawn" yet so please don't ruin it for me. I will "Brake" you if you do. Hahahah. Even in heartbreaking disappointment, I'm still funny.

I'm the Worm

I've been teaching a 1st grade for about a month now. They are 4 very bright boys, but they drive me crazy! Sometimes I get tired of yelling at them so I take pictures instead. Today when they saw that in our book there were worms they went a bit wild, and during brake this happened.

That wasn't the only time it happened today. The whole class got in on it. So instead to yelling to much I took some video, and then told them to get back in their seats.

But unfortunately I was a bit parched, from all the yelling, and stepped out to get a drink of water. When I got back they were hiding, trying to scare me. But after faining a mild, and rather sarcastic heart attack, to realized that not all my kids were in class. But I was mistaken. This kid should be in the circus. I found him hiding in a cabinet. Unsurprisingly, this is not the first, nor I fear, his the last attempt in squeezing his gangly little body into a cabinet where I perhaps could fit my legs.( Maybe)