Camping In Tainan, Eternal Flame and Towel Factory!

This weekend, Kailey, Liz and I went camping with two of our students from school. Barbi and Eilleen are sisters and they are so cute! They're both in the beginners class. Eilleen speaks English quite well and Barbi is learning quickly! Eilleen and Barbi's parents are super nice and invited us all to go camping this weekend with them. (Their parent's names are Sandy and George.) (P.S. Karyn didn't come, because she was sick).

Let's just say it was quite the experience! Can you say cultural immersion and adventure?!

Well it rained all day on Saturday. And we didn't want to try to set up our tents in the rain and worry about our stuff getting wet, so we set up camp under this pavilion. It was huge! And it was quite humorous to me that we were going to sleep under a BBQ pavilion :) But hey, it's all good! It kept us dry! I must say, though, that cement does not make for a very comfortable bed. But that just added more to the adventure ;)

The tents we used! Those are the BBQ pit tables that people normally use to cook meals, but we used to put stuff on ;)

When we first arrived, we set up camp and hung out under the pavilion and chatted and played with our students. Then some more of their family arrived. Sandy's parents and her sister and brother-in-law with their five children came to join the party :)

Also there were some other families that were camping under the pavilion too and we soon became friends with them. It was a party!

(Most of the kids spoke English decently so that we could communicate with them pretty well but Barbi and Eilleen's parents speak only a little bit of English. That was fun sometimes trying to speak with them:)

I loved this lane of trees on the way to the pavilion!

Eilleen (in the white), Irene (in the red), and Sophina are cousins! They are all so cute! We played balloon games. We blew up and made funny-shaped balloons. We played card games. We ran around chasing each other. We played Duck, duck, goose. We ate dinner. We chatted. We had "scary" bathroom adventures with cockroaches, spiders, and funny smells. We ran into big snails. We walked through the rain to see the round temple in the misty darkness.

Penny (on the left) and Sandy helping prepare dinner! (Penny is one of the secretaries from the school, who also came with us.)

Taiwanese people know how to eat. Let's just say we ate a lot this weekend and I'm pretty sure that's they way they always eat. And yet they are so thin.

The round temple in the misty darkness! This picture really does not do justice to how awesome it really looked in the misty, rainy darkness.

In front of the misty temple.

Duck, duck goose. I did not play, but I enjoyed watching and capturing this action shot!

A candid photo with Barbi and Eilleen! We were trying to get a real shot of us three when they started pushing back on me and it threw us all off :)

One of the many snails we ran into on our camping trip! It was actually quite large; at least larger than any snail I've seen.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning (around 6:30) and took a walk near the dam by our campsite. This was the view on one side of the dam!

This was the other side. The Wusanto Reservoir! Apparently it's the only dike-earth dam in the world. I'm not quite sure what that means; but it's the only one in the world, so that means it's cool ;) Right?! No, seriously though, it was beautiful! The sun reflecting off of the water was magical in the early morning light!

This is a statue honoring the man who came up with the idea to build the reservoir! When the reservoir was first built, it helped over a million farmers. They were very grateful for the dam.

I like the pose of the statue. It's different.

Of course a cool tree! This is near the statue above. I highly enjoyed the cool, clean air and beautiful scenery!

After we went for our morning walk, we went back to camp, ate breakfast and broke camp. Then we left and ended up at this spa in a hotel.

I must admit when I first saw the spa and saw that the water was not clear, I was a little worried. Then I soon realized that there was clay in the water that helps your skin become smooth. It was lovely! The water was warm and slimy and I liked it :)

Liz and Eilleen, Kailey and Barbi and Me! We spent about an hour or so here! It was very relaxing! I enjoyed it!

It amazed me how unafraid Barbi and Eilleen were of the water. Especially Barbi. The water came up to her neck (she looked like a floating head) and yet she still insisted on being by herself. She was a brave soul in the water, especially for a little girl.

Then we went off to this other place. I have no idea what it's called, but it had this awesome fire and water! The fire was on the water, but it was not going out. They said that the fire is on 24/7. Obviously there's some trick to it, but I don't know the details.

It was actually quite fascinating to watch!

Our whole group from Changhua! Left to right, George, Barbi, Sandy, Eilleen, Kailey, Liz, Penny, and I. It was a fun little place! This was where I first tried stinky tofu and candied yams (which I need to write about sometime).

After we visited the eternal flame above, we went to a Towel Factory! They had these welcoming signs on towels lining the walkway to the factory :)

This was a hopping place! There were so many people there! Inside the gift shop, they had so many things made of towels, such as these ice cream cones, cupcakes, cakes, donuts, baby dresses and shirts, purses etc. Pretty much anything you can think of, they had one made of towels. It was crazy funny!

Those are not real donuts, but towel donuts. I must say that the sight of all of these items that looked like treats, made me really want a treat ;)

A tree made of towels!

Some of the factory machinery! We took a tour of the place, but it was in Chinese, so needless to say we could not understand what they were saying. It was quite fascinating to watch the machinery though!

A beautiful field of gold flowers near the towel factory!

Papaya growing on the tree!

We headed home after the towel factory! Overall it was an adventurous and memorable camping trip with our Taiwanese friends!

My 5As!

So I believe this is a long-awaited post about my 5As. I love this class! Sometimes they have their moments. For instance, occasionally they like to be smart alecs or they like to answer questions with just one word, just to bug teacher. For the most part, though, they are a good class!

I'll start off with these two. Monica and Luke. They're twins. I think they are 12 years old. They both are really smart. They both can write really well and do well on their tests. Luke and Monica are both pretty quiet; but Monica generally speaks more than Luke and likes to talk back to teacher sometimes. She has an interesting sense-of-humor ;) Luke is a little harder to open up, but when he finally warms up he can be quite the talker too.

This is Linda. She's the oldest in the class. I believe she's 14 years old. She's a good kid. She struggles a bit with her writing homework, but she speaks pretty well! She's also a bit quiet, but once she warms up, she can be quite the talker also :)

Mia and Willy are in the front and Sheena is in the back. (Unfortunately I did not get a good picture of Sheena). Mia is really smart. She does well on her written homework as well as her tests. She speaks well and is a good student!

Willy is a deep-thinker. He asks really good questions. He's not afraid to speak in class. He always does well on his homework!

Sheena is a hard-worker. She struggles with her homework, but I can tell she tries really hard. She's not afraid to speak in class, even though she knows she'll make mistakes. She's a good kid!

I can usually rely on Sheena, Willy and Mia to speak up in class, even when I don't call on them. Monica, Luke and Linda, I usually have to prod a little more, but they work hard and strive to do their best. I love my 5As. Sometimes I really think they keep me going. I look forward to the classes every week (for the most part).

I am so grateful for my experiences here as a teacher! It has definitely been a learning and growing experience.

P.S. These pictures were taken on break time and they would not let me take a picture of them directly, so I had to do it without them knowing. Hence why none of them are looking at the camera.

Where the Sun and Moon Meet!

On Saturday, Kailey and I woke up bright and early to catch a bus to Sun Moon Lake or "Where the Sun and Moon Meet." It was about an hour and twenty minute bus ride to there from Xinwuri (halfway between Changhua and Taichung).

When we got there, I was a bit surprised by how many buildings and tourist shops there were. I didn't quite know what to expect, but I definitely did not expect it to be built up so much around it. But it was a lovely lake!

These floating gardens greeted us at the docks! I thought they were really cool and quite beautiful!

We decided the best way to see Sun Moon Lake was by boat. So Kailey and I found a boat with a good price and a few stops and went with it. Here we are on the boat.

On the boat! It was overcast pretty much the whole time we were there, but the temperature was lovely and it did not rain.

Some more floating gardens greeted us at our first stop!

Of course I have a picture of some cool trees!

Don't ask me why but I love this picture with the floating gardens and the almost sunken boat! We wandered around a bit at the first stop and walked along the lake trail to some more tourist places. I bought some awesome chopsticks here (which I do plan on using when I get home:)

We got on the boat to go to the next stop and saw this awesome fisherman's hut hanging out on the water by itself! I also really liked this!

Me and the fisherman's hut in the distance!

This rock was amazing! We have no idea what it said, but there was a line to take a picture with it. So we thought it would be pretty cool to wait in line for a picture with it too :) I think we waited about 5 minutes or so. I assume it's some sort of good luck rock or something. I don't know for sure.

This was a view of the lake not too far from the rock above! See that small island in the lake. Well that island is a floating garden island that you can walk on. I really liked it! We didn't go to it, but it looked really cool!

I put this picture up because you can get a little glimpse of the color of the lake. It's a bluish-greenish color. It's beautiful!

The tourist phrase of Taiwan! "Taiwan Touch Your Heart" We're not quite sure what they are trying to say, but we like the phrase! They have signs of "Taiwan Touch Your Heart" everywhere. I liked this one on the dock!

On the boat passing the floating garden island!

Now this little church you see here on the hill is Chiang Kai Shek's personal church. (Or it used to be since he's not alive anymore). Chiang Kai Shek was the man I talked about in my previous post. He was a Christian and he had this church built at Sun Moon Lake so that when he and his wife would come and visit, they would have a place to worship. I thought that was pretty cool!

We decided to visit the little church on the hill! This is on the way up the stairs to the church!

It was very simple inside, but beautiful! I liked it!

I wanted a picture of the bride and groom being photographed, but I didn't want to make it too obvious that I was taking a picture, hence the picture not being very good!

This was the view as you walked outside the doors of the church! Gorgeous!

In front of the church!

I thought Sun Moon Lake was beautiful! I liked it!

It's called Sun Moon Lake because the eastern side of the lake is round like the sun and the western side is shaped like a crescent moon. Just in case you were wondering :)

Also I need to tell you about the baptism we went to after Sun Moon Lake and my 5As and my 2As. Those will be my next posts. I hope. That's all!

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial!

On Saturday we had a temple trip with our branch. It was lovely as usual! I just love the temple and the peace I feel there!

The temple!

After we went to the temple, we had a couple of hours to spare before we had to meet our bus. We all went to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. Chiang Kai Shek united the country of China in the 1920s after some contention and confusion in the land. You can read more about Chiang Kai Shek here . They can tell you more about it than I can ;)

The view from the front of Chiang Kai Shek! I really like the tree and the gate and the gardens and I believe the building on the right is an opera house.


When we got to the memorial, everyone was gathered around. We didn't know why until we saw these soldiers marching out. They were doing changing of the guards. It was pretty cool!

The memorial upclose. He's smiling. I could be wrong, but it seems like you don't see very many smiling statues.

Me and the memorial!



I was trying to get a picture with the cool tree. I kind of got the tree. I really liked Chiang Kai Shek. It was interesting to see it and learn more about Taiwanese history.