2 Months!

I've been in Taiwan two months today! It's crazy how time flies. I'm already 1/3 done with my time here.

Just so you get a feel for how my time at the preschool is going. This is the 3 year old class's attempt at making an H with everyone. About two minutes after this, every kid was piled up on top of the chinese teacher. She was brave to lay down to help complete the H. 

The 4 year olds are a little bit easier to handle. They just lay down and then we drag them to the right place to make the letter. They really love this game, and always giggle a lot when it's their turn to be dragged. The tricky part is getting them to stay put once they're where they're supposed to  be.

This was flying around the office, so I caught it. I showed it to the kids during class. We were playing a game with an elephant toy that blew fake butterflies out of it's trunk. I showed them this real butterfly along with it. So far, whenever I catch a little critter, it goes along well with the lesson being taught.

This last week I didn't have quite as many tutoring students so I was able to go out before the sun had set one of the days. One of my favorite things to do here in Hualien is just get on my bike and go explore. A lot of times I get lost, but I think trying to get un-lost again is part of the fun.

Saturday I wanted to see the ocean because the waves were supposed to be really big. Apparently the ocean was closed. A typhoon is coming in and is supposed to hit Sunday night or Monday morning and might last all the way until Thursday. So far it's just been raining a lot. Thankfully we were still able to go to church, but school is canceled for tomorrow. 

I was able to still see the ocean by going up on a bridge that wasn't blocked off. Back at the preschool we had to tie all the playground stuff down so it wont blow away. It's quite the job just preparing for the typhoon.

When the typhoon hits, we just have to sit inside all day and wait for it to be over. If it was like a snow day, you could at least go out and play in the slow. But a typhoon is different, it's too windy, wet and dangerous and to go out and play.

Taroko and Seven Stars

I'd been wanting to go to Taroko Gorge ever since I've arrived in Taiwan, and this Saturday I got to go! It was so amazing. This is the famous Taroko Gorge archway sign thing, so of course we took pictures there. Christina took us (me, Adam and Josh). We saw giant spiders, monkeys, lots of butterflies and a gorgeous view that even the scenery in Avatar has a hard time measuring up to.

This sign made me smile. It says, "What a spectacle except for the dam"

These things are huge, and they were everywhere. They're fast too. I threw a leaf into it's web, and it was on top of that thing in the blink of an eye. We were going to feed it a caterpillar, but the caterpillar was very persistant on staying alive and went to the other end of the stick we were holding it with. We went on a trail through part of the jungle, and we held sticks in front of our faces just to be sure we didn't get a mouth full of spider web.

This is a cool bridge that's suspended a bunch of feet over a very blue river. There was a trail at the other end that required a permit to go on it, so we turned around and went back on the bridge again.

This is my shadow while I'm on the bridge.

Cool...Clear...Water... And it's so blue too!

Behind Christina and me is the memorial house(?) built for a bunch of workers who died building part of a highway through the gorge. We walked along a cave/cliff trail to get there.

We found a spot to put our feet in the water. Hiking there was kind of hot, but the water was cool. While I was at Taroko, I kept looking around and asking myself, "Is this real life?" It was just so incredable. Like something you read in a book but only think you can go there in your imagination.

After Taroko Gorge, we rented some bikes and Toni and Greg Chu met up with us. We biked by Seven Star Lake. But it's really the ocean, I dont know why the call it a lake. I guess someone was confused.

Part of the trail. The bike I use from the preschool has really bad brakes, and only the front ones really work. On the other hand, the bike I was renting had good brakes. I almost threw myself over the handle bars a few times from braking too hard on the front wheels.

This is the big rock that tells you that you are at Seven Stars Lake.

We also biked around in there. It was super awesome. We went to the beach, and this time it really was a beach, and not just bunch of big rocks.

Yilan Adventures

On Monday I biked around getting lost. And I found this cool cemetary. There were hundreds of graves and a lot of them were crumbling, and overgrown. Eventually, I figured out where I was and found my way home.

After tutoring on Thursday we went down to the playground. It was raining and dark but we found this snail. It's about 3 inches long- it looks a lot smaller in the picture.

While on our search for interesting creatures we also spotted a toad jumping around. I caught it in this jar.

Saturday, Kim and I went with Teacher Stephanie and her family to Yilan. We took our bikes on the train with us and biked from place to place. We went to a toy festival/water park. After we went swimming we found a spot that showed off a bunch of cool toys. This is what we found. They also had safe toys.

After I was done swimming, there was a magical tree top walk. This is a birds eye view of the park. It was very crowded. 

This was a cool tunnel that looks blue.

This is the group of us at went. Behind us is the large water bed. It was hard to stand up on them because there were so many people making ripples in it.

Before we left, there were two giant kittens taking pictures with people. They were leaving, so I had to practically race this one down to get a picture with it. They had lots of cool stuff at the toy festival spot. We listened to live groups from Cuba, and Poland. And they gave out free stuff like kitty stickers and tissues.

This was at the train station. I was amused that they wanted to make sure those who know english know where they are. Or maybe they just forgot to add the map.

Single Awareness Day

This last week was pet week, and it was pretty fun actually. Wednesday everyone brought their pets to school. One of the dads brought a ton of pets. He taught them about how to hold them, and then let 2 birds, 3 bunnies and 2 hampsters loose for the kids to hold. At one point I had a bird on my shoulder, and was trying to give a hampster to one of the kids. They wanted to hold them so bad, but were kind of afraid to take them. We also made pet rocks. A lot of the kids had fun mixing the paint so much that they painted their rock the color of rock brown. I've realized that painting is a craft for the very brave teacher. Why? Because the kid, the classroom and the teacher all end up with paint all over them, and not enough time to clean up the mess.

 

Friday I went to the movies with some friends. We saw Captian America. This is some wintermelon tea, which is word of wisdom ok. The dark stuff on the bottom is tapioca balls. When it has the balls in it, they call it bubble tea. It was very good.

Saturday was Valentine's Day here in Taiwan. Kim and I went with two ladies, Mia and Ying to Liyou lake. This was just a cool marble sculpture by the visitor's center.

This is Kim, Ying, Mia and me on a bridge walkway.

We went on a trail that went around the lake. There was a path that went almost straight up the mountain. Kim and I went on it. It was fun being in the jungle. I ran part of it because we only had 20 minutes. I saw a spider as big as my hand and a small snake skit out of my path as I ran by. There were also lots of cool sounds. I was hoping to see some monkeys, but I didn't.

After I had ran to as high as we had time to go, I took a picture. I was a bit tired, hense the interesting expression. I dont think I have ever sweat more in my life. It felt like I had jumped into a swimming pool I was dripping so much. But it was worth it to run in the jungle!

This is a view of the lake which was completely surrounded by beautiful mountains.

After our little hike, we went to a fishery. I'm not a huge seafood fan, so I thought I would have to gag down the food. But surprisingly I actually liked everything we had there. Maybe my taste buds have changed from all the weird foods I've been trying lately. We had balls that were made our of clam and fish, little clams, veggies with clam, and fish with lime. It was actually pretty fun to pick the clam meat out of their shells with chopsticks.

This is a very big spider that we saw by the lake. It was almost as big as my hand! One of the ladies we were with, Ying, is studying to get her PhD. She said when she studies she sees them in the corners of her room. She doesn't try to get rid of them because they eat cochroaches and misquitos. They're not poisonous, but I don't think I would be ok with living with them.

Poisonous Toads, Bikes with suitcases, and the ocean!

This last Saturday, our Branch had an activity/walk. We started at an elementary school and just walked around. We saw cows and trees and there was a cool man-made stream we stopped at and put our feet in. It was a lot of fun meeting new people.

We saw a toad. I wanted to pick it up, so I did. A lot of times toads are poisonous, so I used a banana leaf instead of my bare hands. It's a good thing too, because as soon as I picked it up, the toad's spots oozed white powder stuff.

Saturday after the ward activity, I found the beach again. It only was about a 20 minute bike ride, and plus I couldn't resist. I love the ocean!

One of the girls in our branch is going back to the states on Wednesday. She had a bunch of stuff that she wanted to either give away or throw out since she couldn't take it with her on the plane. We went over to her place to get it, but the problem was, we didn't have a car to bring it back. So we got creative and tied the suitcase full of stuff to my bike with a scarf. It worked!