Karaoke Outside Our Front Door! Literally!

Last night we came home from work and this stage was set up in the courtyard in front of our house. The stage was literally outside our front door!

Yes, my roommates and I sang karaoke on that stage :) We sang "Hey Jude" by the Beatles. It was awesome! It was my first time ever doing karaoke! What the experience! Singing Beatles on stage in Taiwan!

Today Liz and I went to Taichung! We had made some plans, but they didn't quite work out the way we planned, but we found some awesome things to see instead!
We saw this church from afar and took a closer look! The statue in the middle is of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. We thought it was beautiful!

This is the top of the church! The steeple on the right is interesting, because it's Mary with the baby Jesus on top of her with his arms outstretched.

Right after we saw the beautiful church, we saw some elders! I loved this, because they were totally at a stoplight waiting for it to change and this elder was talking to the man on the scooter, going the wrong direction.

The light changed and the elder had to get out of the way! I love the missionaries!

After we saw the elders we waited for the bus to take us where we wanted to go, but we didn't quite get there fast enough and the next bus wasn't for a while, so we changed plans and ended up going inside Chung Yo Department Store!

Chung Yo is not just an ordinary department store, but it is a huge 14- story department store. No joke, 14 stories! We were in there for about an hour and we didn't even scratch the surface ;)

After Chung Yo, we went to Taichung Park, where we sat for awhile to rest and to enjoy the beautiful scenery! While we were there an older Taiwanese man started talking to us in English. He spoke to us for about 30 minutes. (He was speaking most of that time ;) It was interesting!

In case you haven't noticed, I love the trees here! Here are some more trees that I love! This is in Taichung Park! Today was a lovely day, even though it didn't go as planned!

P.S. There's a typhoon heading our way!

Taipei- National History Museum and Botanical Gardens!

Yesterday, Whitney, Katy, and I woke up at 4 AM to catch the 5:30 AM bus to Taipei. (Whitney and Katy are from the other school that we came with from ILP. I spent the night at their apartment that night in Fengyuan). Thankfully I was able to sleep most of the way to Taipei. Once we got to Taipei, we took a taxi from the train station to the temple. We did a session. It was wonderful! I love the temple!

Then we met up with Laura, Kristi, Erin, Liz and Meg after they did baptisms (they came on a later bus) and we walked through Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, which is where the next couple of photos were taken. If you want to know more about Chiang Kai-shek, you can go this BBC website. We didn't look very long here, but it was beautiful!

This is the memorial mentioned and pictured above!

This is a path of rocks at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial. You're supposed to walk on it barefoot and it's supposed to help heal your body, because there are certain pressure points in your feet. I have this picture up so that you can see how long it is. (I didn't get the beginning of the path in the picture).

I walked on it. All of the way! It hurt, but I made it! (I can't say that I felt any better after walking on it, though;) (But one of the girls did say that her head stopped hurting after walking on it)

This is the beginning of my journey :)

I like these trees! The ones on the left are cactus trees. Actually there are lots of different kinds of trees in this picture. I could not tell you the name of any of them, but there are a lot. You can see a little bit of the memorial behind the trees in the middle!

After we walked through Chiang Kai-shek, we went to the National History Museum! I loved it! There was art and photography and artifacts etc. I didn't get any pictures there, but I loved it!

This frog phone was behind the National History Museum in the Botanical Gardens! Isn't this phone awesome?!

This is part of the botanical gardens! We stood under this pavilion for awhile while we waited out a downpour! The red building you see is the museum!

See all of those lily pads... or at least I think that's what they are since they were growing in the water. There sure were a lot of them. This pond was beautiful!

I love these trees!

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but I liked it.

At the botanical gardens!

After we finished at the botanical gardens we headed to the center of Taipei and went to Macaroni Grill for dinner. It was super good, a little pricey, but delicious! I have leftovers that I will eat tomorrow night for dinner.

Yesterday was a lovely day! I enjoyed myself and I am grateful that I could go temple and that I could learn more about the history of Taiwan!

Sitou Forest, Floating Walkway!

A few days ago Karyn, Kailey, Liz and I were invited by Kitty's parents (one of Kailey's students) to go to Shitou Forest this morning! Bright and early this morning, George, Grace and Kitty came and picked us up from our apartment! It was about an hour and a half drive to Shitou Forest. It was beautiful! It was amazing and I loved it!

The rest of the pictures are in Shitou Forest! I love the bridges here!

Isn't it beautiful?!

The gorgeous mountains covered in fog!

As Karyn pointed out, I matched the orange moss on the rocks :)

My feet in the cold water pictured above!

So you see that tall tree in the background?! Of course you do... well that tree is 2800 years old!
It's called the Great Tree and it IS old!

I loved these flowers, which were all over the place and the Great Tree is looming above it :)

More fog covered mountains!

Posing by one of those cool orange flower trees! I think they are so beautiful! As Karyn pointed out again, I matched the flowers :)

See that floating walkway amongst the trees... well we got to walk on that floating walkway!

Here you can read about that floating walkway!

My feet on the floating walkway! I guess it's actually called the sky walk :)

Liz and I on the walkway! We just walked among the top of the trees today. We literally could reach out and touch the leaves and branches of the trees. Those were NOT short trees.

Look how far down the ground is! The walkway shook as we walked on it, but it was not scary!

The sky walk from below!

It almost looks like they're not walking on anything!

Beautifulness! The big leaves are Taro Plants. The leaves are poisonous to eat, but you can eat the root!

More beautifulness! I loved this trail we were on! The view, the squishiness of the trail, the company.
The trail was wet and muddy, but we didn't sink in the mud, we just squished on top (if that makes any sense.) It was pretty awesome!

Self-portrait!

A real live suspension bridge! Look how cool that thing is! It shook quite a bit while on it, but it was not scary at all :)

Liz, Kitty and I on the suspension bridge!

Karyn and I on the suspension bridge!

Another real live suspension bridge! Just in case you haven't noticed, I love suspension bridges :)

The view as we were driving into the park!

After we went to the park we went to this awesome factory where they make these mini pineapple cakes, which are amazing! (The factory is not in the park, but it was on the way home.) We all got a free sample and then we went and looked in the factory windows to watch them making the cakes fresh! This is the sign pointing the way to the factory!

Today was a marvelous day! The forest was beautiful beyond description, the company was entertaining and the food was delicious!

McDonald's Night and Super Students!

Every month at our school, each teacher chooses one or two students from each of their classes as Super Students. The Super Students and the teachers go to McDonald's as a treat for their good work and behavior. Of course other students are invited to come along too :) These are my four Super Students from my 2A class for the months of July and August! (I have a 5A class too, but they get a gift instead of coming to McDonald's if they are Super Students.)

Sean is on the left with the red shirt looking straight ahead. Peter is next to Sean looking the other direction. Joan is next to Peter with the glasses on. Angel is next to me. I love these kids! They're good kids!

Sean with a bag on his head :) He's the oldest in the class by a couple of years. He's a smart kid and has a good memory. Peter, cute little Peter. He loves to volunteer to answer questions and come up and speak in front of the class. Joan, one of two girls in that class of nine. She's super smart and does well on all of her assignments!

Emma and I. Emma was in my beginner class. Although she no longer comes, she was Super Student in July, so she came tonight. She's a cute girl! It was good to see her again :)
(Emily is in the picture to the left. She's one of the secretaries at the school and she is awesome!)

Penny is so cute! She does not like getting her picture taken. This is the best picture I could get of her tonight ;) She's in my beginner class. She actually speaks pretty well and can read a little bit, but she's quiet. She can be so much fun, when she opens up :) I love this girl!

Stanley, oh Stanley! What can I say about this kid?! Well he's in my beginner class also. He can be a little difficult. He doesn't like to listen to teacher sometimes, but he can also be very good when he wants to be!

I love this picture of Stanley! He put his hand up right after this because he didn't want his picture taken, but I got this awesome picture before he got his hand up :) I also love this kid!

Barbi is on the left and Eilleen is on the right. They're sisters. They are so cute (at least most of the time:) They're both in my beginner class, but Eilleen actually goes to a more advanced class too. They both learn quickly and remember well.

Here's an entry from my journal on Friday, August 27, 2010:

"We've been here a little over two months now! It's crazy! I love it here! I really look forward to the weekends and the adventures we'll go on. I'm starting to love my students. They're difficult at times, but I am definitely starting to be attached to them. :) Teaching is still hard. In a way lesson planning is getting easier as I get more into a routine, but it's still hard to actually get up in front of the class and stay enthusiastic and keep the kids quiet. As it is with any job, some days are better than others... I really do like [teaching] but it just is challenging."