We officially received our first package in the mail this week!!!!!  Thanks mom!  Apparently our landlord told the postman she could not read the writing on the package so she wouldn't accept it.  One of my Teaching Assistants called the number on the card that was left by the postman in our mailbox.  The package arrived safe and sound at my school later in the day.  Among the many great things in the package, mom included a bunch of photos of our family and a few frames.  Our apartment feels more homey now :)

 

A decorated fridge!

James and I have gotten a bit more adventurous in our weekday lunch dining now.  Please note, we do not eat at the same vegan restaurant every single weekday anymore!!!!  They probably really miss us when we aren't there...  We tried a dumpling place near my school this week.  They had an English menu so basically that's why we went there.  The garden vegetable dumplings were amazing!!!!!!  What's the cost of these tasty treats you might ask?!  Six dumplings cost $1 USD!!!!!  That's a good price for something so delicious.

MMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last week, I had a few of my classes observed by a British manager from the Shane Headquarters in Taipei along with my Taiwanese manager who works directly with me at my school.  I was excited to receive feedback from the British manager.  He gave me some good pointers.  Somehow he did not think the boys were wild in my class I call the "wild boys" class.  Was he blind or does he see much wilder boys on a regular basis while observing classes?!

I went to dinner on Friday with my Taiwanese school manager last night.  She said she was excited to have a girls' night with me :)  She took me a fancy restaurant in Hsinchu.  This reminded me of my meals working in corporate America.  Haha.  Anyway, she has been a manager at the school for 11 years so she had some great things to say about teaching in general.  First, she said you will always have highs and lows in teaching.  Her job, along with the rest of the support at the school, is to be sure the teachers never fall too low.  Also, a teacher must make their own teaching style.  They can observe other teachers for good ideas but they should not try to be like them.  A teacher will become exhausted over time if they are not using their own personality and style in the classroom.  She did not give me direct feedback on my actual teaching.  She said she will do this around the 6 month mark.  She insisted it would only confuse me to give me so many suggestions right now.  I have to admit I was thankful for this!  I think the feedback from the British manager is plenty to focus on for now.

That's a fancy salad! I think it might take flight soon.

These are the funny things she said about me personally!  First, she always had a good feeling about me ever since she knew my star sign (I am assuming she means a Gemini).  All of the other Gemini foreign teacher she has worked with have had kind spirits.  I have never had someone refer to my star sign so seriously but I am glad it gave her high hopes for me!  Then, she told me she was quite nervous about me working with the not-so-perfect children in the classroom.  Most teachers come in with an authoritative, powerful, 'I am the great teacher and all the students must listen to me' attitude.  She said I was so elegant!  I don't know if it was my Southern charm that creates this elegance in me or maybe it's the many years and probably lots of money my parents spent on ballet lessons or perhaps this is the mysterious "casual elegance".... Anyway, she said I was handling the students pretty darn well for my elegant personality.  She also said everyone that has observed me teach as well as the TA's all think it is apparent and obvious that I am teaching because I care about the individual students.  I really do care about my students!!!!  I think my students know that, too ;)  As a side note, James and I have discussed regularly that in all the research we did about teaching English in Taiwan, we never read about anyone finding their job difficult.  We both find this job quite difficult right now!  Not that difficult and challenging is a bad thing, I am just saying....

James had a lovely 32nd birthday!!!!!!!!!!! He had to work in the morning (lame!!!!) but his school manager and TAs surprised him with a chocolate banana cake.  That's one way to make a teacher happy about doing a Saturday morning Demonstration.  One of the TAs also had two oversized birthday cards.  The students signed the cards.  There are the cutest notes and hand drawn pictures in the cards.  James returned home to find a birthday hat, balloons and a new poncho for his scooter from his elegant wife.  (I love having a cheap store right next to our apartment!)  We enjoyed a very chill day.  James picked the dumpling restaurant for his birthday lunch.  Then, we ran a ton of errands and enjoyed a dinner at home after James took a nap. A full week of teaching will wear you out! So... James bought some new contacts.  We walked into an optical store (which there is one on every block around here), James handed an employee a box of his contacts, the employee found the contacts, and we bought the contacts.  This took about one minute!!!!!!!!!!  A box of contacts (6 contacts) cost $13 USD.  Wow.  This was a ton easier than going to the eye doctor to get a prescription (even though you know your prescription has not changed...), dealing with insurance to get your contacts or glasses, and paying for vision insurance with every paycheck.  Taiwan really does revolve around convenience and efficiency for living.

 

The crew at James' school.  I am still jealous they don't wear shoes at his school!

 

James shamelessly giving his students lessons about his upcoming birthday.  A few of his students brought him treats ;)

 

Birthday surprises from me!

 

James' birthday cards from his students.

 

If you can zoom in and read these, they are so cute and sweet.  Teacha James is the best!

A panda at the Taipei zoo had a cub!  It's all over the news here.  The cub is the first panda ever born in Taiwan.  Every time I see the cub, I can barely handle the cuteness!!!!  James and I plan to go see the little panda at some point in the future.  http://www.upi.com/Science_News/Blog/2013/08/14/Baby-Panda-born-at-Taipei-Zoo-meets-mom-for-the-first-time/2901376515325/#!/1/ The videos of the cub on the link are addictive...beware...you can't stop watching the cute panda!



AWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week one of my school days ended with a pleasant surprise.  A mother of one of my very shy, sweet female student brought some homemade pita-like bread (or maybe more like naan) to share with the teachers.  As she offered me a bite, the mother stated the bread had no egg or dairy.  I told her that's how I eat.  She was so excited!  She had never met a foreigner who didn't eat meat. Her whole family eats vegan for religious purposes (Buddhist).   Well, it turned out that the bread was cooked by my student.  The mother sent two pieces of bread home with me so I could share with James.  It was delicious and still warm. My student cooks on a regular basis and wants to open her own restaurant one day.  My student doesn't like to learn English since she has to speak in class.  I hope she at least likes her teacher though!  Anyway, the mother wants to introduce James and I to her favorite restaurants.  Maybe one day we'll be invited over for a meal cooked by my student :)

James decided to use his birthday gift money to buy a book of very detailed maps around our area of Taiwan.  Although the book is in Chinese, it is quite helpful to match road names to google maps to find trails. He picked out a trail in the neighboring mountains for a Sunday adventure.  Well, we got to the trail.  A group of Taiwanese men just walked off the trail.  It turned out the trail was about 200m long.  One of the guys spoke English quite well.  He did not know what trail we were looking for.

 

We were determined to find the trail from this map!

As we started a trek back down the road to find the trail, we saw a bunch of people walking up a hill so we followed them. We ended up at a persimmon and lime orchard that included a family campground.  The views were great!

 

I can't imagine having the job to individually bag each persimmon! 

 

 

Limes

 

 

That's the campground below.

 

Look!  It's a 32 year old!

Next, we followed a brown sign that included the Chinese character for "mountain." This was a must learn Chinese character for us! At some point while driving up the mountain, we decided to stop and park the scooter.  We started hiking up the mountain.  A guy stopped his car and asked us if we wanted a ride.  Ha.  We found out the cars were going to the "Café in the Clouds."  For some reason we had to pay $7 USD per person to enter the gates.  We decided to keep following the road up.  After an hour of hiking up, this mysteriously appeared. 

How random!  We had not seen a car on the road for the last half hour.  Unfortunately, we were in a cloud so we did not have much of a view. However, we found a random trail after that and enjoyed a few minutes on the dirt before turning around.

 

The last character means "mountain."  Don't ask me about the rest of the characters though!

During our hike, we had a heart to heart conversation from a question James' mom asked him on his birthday.  "Are you glad you moved to Taiwan?" Are we glad?  Well...that's too difficult to answer.  Do we regret coming to Taiwan? No.  Living and teaching in Taiwan is definitely a character building experience.  Are things easy here?  No!  Is literally everything challenging and forces you to be brave and face fears?  Yes. Did we come here only dependent on God and each other?  Yes.  Are we having some incredible experiences enjoying the mountains and cold springs?  Yes.  So, we don't really have an answer to that loaded question!

After the hike, we found a lovely cold spring to rinse off in.  Oddly we were cold! We found a thermometer that read 26 degrees Celsius.  So, we were cold at 80 degrees Farenheit?! When we returned back to Hsinchu City, the thermometer read 39 degrees Celsius or almost 100 degrees Celsius.  Wow!

Happy Birthday to James!  I think he enjoyed the weekend and his many sweet birthday treats...like eating cake and coffee for breakfast :)

Weekend in Taipei

Last weekend was good.  We met up with my friend from college who is in town from Malaysia.  We had originally planned to have a crazy busy weekend, going down to Taroko Gorge early Saturday morning through Sunday evening.  It required Rachel and I to get on a train leaving Hsinchu at 4:30am Saturday morning.  Well, my buddy had been mountain climbing with his girlfriend on Thursday / Friday and arrived back to Taipei at 8pm Friday night.  We spoke on the phone and jointly decided to cancel our crazy plans for Saturday and Sunday.  He had been up since 1am summiting a mountain and Rachel and I felt whooped from another week of emotionally draining children.  So we decided to just meet up in Taipei around noon on Saturday and go for a chill hike in the tea country on the south side.  I think that was the best decision.

We met in Taipei Main Station and took the MRT down to Maokong.  Rachel and I went here back during our training week in Taipei and were able to ride the gondola but not able to do any of the hikes.  So it was nice to get back here again.  When we all arrived to Maokong, we were informed the gondola was closed due to potential bad weather headed our way.  Rats.  Luckily there was a bus that took us to the top where all the tea houses and trails were, so we were still able to get where we wanted to go.  We identified one hike in particular that went back to a waterfall and a temple.  At the trailhead, there was a stray dog that was just lying in the trail.  As soon as we passed her, she got up and came with us.  She stayed with us for the next 2-3 hours of the hike - pretty cool.  I think she was just waiting for someone to go down the trail with.  We named here Wonton.  Won for short.  She actually showed us the way a few times.  There were 6 or so intersections where we had to decide which direction to take.  She knew the way well.  

Wonton

the crew 

We arrived at the waterfall and it was pretty nice.  The water was not super-flowing, but the temple was built in to the rock behind the waterfall.  You could walk up the stairs in to the temple and look out from behind the waterfall.  Pretty cool!

walking up to the backside of the fall 

Wonton worshiping 

behind the falls 

view from the temple

After we finished our loop and got back to the main tea house area, we walked around for a bit and grabbed a few snacks.  By this time any potential bad weather had passed through so the gondola was back up and running.  Perfect timing for us!  We were even lucky enough to get one of the 'glass bottom' gondolas (the line wasn't too long) and rode down the mountain during the sunset.

me.  falling.

it was pretty wild looking down

We grabbed some dinner with our friends then said our goodbyes because Rachel and I were heading back to Hsinchu.  We had to walk by the train station to get to the bus station so we ducked in to use the restroom.  Crazy enough, we run in to a man and his son who we had met a few months prior during a visit to Taipei.  Now Taipei is not a small place.  With a metro population of 7 million people, the odds of Rachel and I seeing one of the very few people we actually know are rather slim.  So pretty wild to run in to someone.  Even CRAZIER is that, when we got to the bus station, we ran in to ANOTHER person we know that is from Hsinchu.  She was in Taipei for the day and was taking a bus back to Hsinchu.  EVEN CRAZIER is that a man we met in Chinese class was ON OUR BUS going back to Hsinchu.  What the heck is going on?!?!?!?  We know like 6 people in all of Taiwan and have just seen 4 of them in Taipei.  Ha!  I don't quite know how to interpret that situation, looking for the meaning in it, but it makes for a good story anyways.  **

Sunday was packed full per usual.  We got up and hit the ground running, doing chores, errands, etc before we rode the scooter out to a trail we hiked a few weeks back.  It was the Five Finger Mountain trail (you may remember the 'finger' pictures) and we decided to speed hike / run as much as we could to make for a good workout.  We completed the trail in 1:59 so now have a time standard to try and beat next time.  When we finished there were some cute puppies in the parking lot.  They were difficult to film because they move so fast - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUG-6ZQH7dA&feature=youtu.be  On the ride back home we stopped off at some cold springs to cool and rinse off.  A nice finish to our sweat-fest trail run ;-)  We made it back home just in time to de-funk and re-rag before 5:00 church.  Another action packed weekend in Taiwan is in the books!

Now...back to work for the week.  My birthday is this coming Saturday when I will be turning 32 years old.  And I get to work for my birthday!!!  Frown.  I have to give a demonstration lesson to prospective students / parents on Saturday morning.  But I am sure Rachel and I will find a way to pack every moment of the rest of the weekend full with some kind of adventure.  Will write more soon!

** Rachel's editing note: So, on Monday we were going for a run and our buddy from New Zealand drove by on a scooter and stopped to talk to us.  Make that #4 for seeing the few people we know.  Then, we ate lunch with him at our college dining hall spot and we ran into the Polish family from our church that introduced us to the dining hall.  That makes #5.  My mom always said I have a talent for running into people I know.  I did not think this was going to prove true in a country where I barely know anyone!!!!!!

gettin in the grooooooove

This week has been....just fine!  I think this has been the first week that was just normal.  So I guess that means we are finally getting in the groove of living & working in Taiwan?

It is Friday morning and I have few minutes before getting lunch and heading to work so I figured I would write something.  It seems I always think about writing a blog, then Rachel writes one, so I decide to wait till the next time to write, then Rachel writes one, then I decide to wait till the next time to write, then Rachel writes one....  You get the point.  I am not as good a blogger as my wife ;-)

I am getting much more comfortable at work.  It has been a wild beginning for me with LOTS of hours and no other teachers to look to for direction, etc.  Every class felt like an experiment with me trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.  It still kind of feels that way, but now I have at least a few things that I know work well and can always fall back on.  All my classes are pretty good - except one.  I have one class that is always crazy.  It is my largest class, 17 students, and they are all 7-8 years old.  It is also my longest class.  2 hours, 4 days per week.  Luckily it is my first class of the day so I look forward to getting through that class and having an 'easier' rest of the day.  They can just get so crazy!  And their attention spans are much shorter than the rest of my classes.  I think it has to do with the size of the class.  Lots of distractions for all the students.  I need to be the most prepared for this class because if I don't have a plan of what to do, they go bonkers.  And I don't want to turn in to the Angry Teacher from Taiwan picture Rachel posted the other week :-)  I do have to put on my calm costume for this class though...

Not a whole lot else to report other than its hot.  I seem to be dealing with the heat pretty well though, I just can't run as fast or as hard when doing any speed workouts.  Oh - and I just discovered a small 'group' on Facebook that get together for some longer runs / trail runs around the Taipei area and will be joining one weekend soon.  Pretty excited about that.

A few random things:

Rachel and I went to 7-11 to buy some drinks after a weekday trail run (love my weekday trail runs!) and when checking out the clerk indicated for me to put my hand in a box and draw a number.  Kinda weird, but it is some promotion with Angry Birds and I saved 25% off our drinks.  Draw a number from the box.  It seemed really cheesy, reminded me of a Family Guy episode.  "You can take the boat, or the mystery prize in the box" (for the Family Guy fans out there).  And did you know in Taiwan there are more 7-11 stores per square km than anywhere else in the world?  

We save all of our receipts here.  Everybody does.  There is a 'receipt lottery' sponsored by the government.  Every two months, numbers are drawn and you have the chance to win anywhere from $200NT - $10,000,000NT.  A good motivation to hold on to those receipts.  It apparently was started to promote 'above the table' transactions by businesses.  Patrons will want their receipts so businesses must provide them.  All so the gov't gets their taxes.  Makes sense.  http://www.tealit.com/article_categories.php?section=living&article=lottery  And if anybody was wondering, we didn't win last month.

My school is very new, just two years old.  Why we only have a squatter toilet in the bathroom is beyond me.  Most places we have been (unless it is out in the country somewhere) have normal sit down toilets.  And if you don't know what I am talking about, here it is:

I paid $100NT for a haircut the other week.  That is $3.33 USD - I thought Great Clips was cheap!  My hair was much shorter than I have ever got it cut before, but it grows back.  I am happy to find cheap hair cut places.  

That's all for now.  Heading up to Taipei to meet a friend from college who is in town for a few days.  He has been working on a project in Malaysia and has been wanting to come hike some Taiwanese Mountains.  Till next time!

A big golden Buddha and a walk in the woods

Spending our weekends in the Hsinchu area is typically quite enjoyable (unless there is a typhoon) and we always find new things to do and see just a scooter ride away.

We enjoyed a leisurely Saturday morning.  I felt like a teenager because we slept until 9:30 am.  That means the sun has been up in Taiwan for about four and a half hours.  Here's our morning fruit fest!

We left the apartment around lunch time and headed to visit the large golden Buddha statue.  We saw it from the peak of a mountain we hiked recently.  The ride to the place was gorgeous.  We drove through rice fields.  The rice is perfectly planted!  James said it reminded him of the movie "Last Samurai" with Tom Cruise. We arrived at the golden Buddha and found the gates were closed during the lunch hours to enter the large "temple." Luckily, a vegetarian restaurant, Joyful House, associated with the place was open.  The meal was by donation there.  We enjoyed a big bowl of noodles, veggies and tofu that looked like meat (but fortunately did not taste like it, too).

Rice fields

I spy a Buddha!

These rules from the restaurant are going on our front door: Non-vegetarian food, smoking, alcohol, and pets are strictly prohibited  :) ....well cute dogs are permitted for a short stay (Clifford & Layla)

We took the "Nature Loving Wonderland" walk around the lake as we waited for the gates to open.  The name fit the lovely walk. 

When we entered the gate, the greeter gave us a long list of rules.  We were not allowed to wear our sleeveless shirts.  Fortunately, we had our long sleeved shirts to prevent sunburning while on the scooter with us.  I was also required to wear this wrap they gave me so my knees would be covered.  I saw a few other women with these lovely "skirts" on, too.  I am dressed like a yellow Big Bird!!

We entered through the arch on the far right - the arch of joyfulness we were later told

These clocks (and matching wrist watches) are promoted within this group.  Each number is associated with a "good attitude" such as cheerful, amicable, faithful, etc. 

Meeting our English tour guide, James

James in front of the Buddha. The Buddha is almost the same height as the Statue of Liberty. 

As we were walking to the main temple and taking pictures of the many Buddha statues, our surprise English tour guide, James, met me with an UV protection umbrella.  He is not the normal English tour guide as his English is only "simple" he said.  He took us to the large building you can see in the pictures.  We were required to put footies over the bottoms of our shoes to protect the floor in the building.  The building and statue were completed in 2011.  They are welcoming of all religions.  James was an engineer for the project and now he volunteers and lives full-time on the grounds.  I think he might be training to be a monk but he never said that in English I could understand.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside.  We saw many, many, many Buddha statues. The values are incredible and very true that are practiced by this religion.  I say "this religion" because by the end of the tour we were confused exactly what religion this group actually is.  We think it is a mix of Buddhism and Taoism but there seems to be an extra emphasis on loving nature. From what we understood, the principles are great to live by! They addressed the religion as "The Universal Family." Also, the tour included a world map with locations. There were maybe thirty-ish locations around the world.  The US location is in LA. Here is the website but it does not explain much: www.naturelovingwonderland.org

Anyway, we saw a ton of Buddhas and learned the values of being cheerful, putting people before money, loving nature by eating vegetarian, etc.  We thought the tour was almost over...  We entered the building with the big golden Buddha so we could walk around the top.  Well, instead we were given a tour of the first floor of the building with more Buddhas.  Then, after going to the top, Tour Guide James asked if we wanted to watch a Chinese movie about the place.  We said no but somehow we ended up watching the movie anyways.  I guess he did not understand our English. After two and 1/2 hours, we left the grounds!  We felt like we were there for six hours for some reason.  Apparently, the normal English tour is one hour but we received the VIP tour instead :)  Overall, I would recommend the place for a visit as the big golden Buddha is quite impressive!  Ohh, as James was explaining the clock to us, the hands happened to be pointing at "Casual Elegance" and "Actualized."  He asked us if we were feeling that way currently.  My James and I looked at each other and told tour guide James, " I am not really sure."  We discussed later that "Causal Elegance" sounds like a dress code at a fancy event.  I suppose these are an awkward Chinese to English translation?

JUST in case you are interested in purchasing a watch :)  http://www.dmg-brighttime.com

On Sunday we headed to Neiwan with our hiking buddy.  Neiwan is a small town in the mountains about a one hour scooter ride east of Hsinchu. 

The bridge over the river in Neiwan.  People swim and fish in the river in this area. You can rent boogie boards and floats!

Old Street Neiwan - Lots of food and drink vendors (and stinky tofu smells...yuck)

We continued into the mountains after a short stop for food on the old street and drove up a wild mountain road to get to the trail head.  The hike was pretty wild!  We hiked for four and a half hours!  The hike highlights included climbing wooden ladders, using ropes to climb up the steep areas to the peak (my arms were sore on Monday), a waterfall, VERY large cypress trees, and meeting a hiking group of retirees.  The retirees hike every few weeks in different places.  They carry a very large amount of food with them and cook lunch on the trail.  They offered us a full lunch that had cooked.  Seriously, they carried a massive pot to make a soup, lots of water, tea pots, and other such things. What?!  We wanted to make it to the peak, so we continued on our way after a short conversation.  The whole hike was extremely humid and muggy.  I think all the moisture in the air made the pictures blurry (that were taken with my handy iPhone 4). We had a rough climb to the peak since we took the trail less traveled (and did not know what we were about to get ourselves into).  Some of the sections of the climb required full use of your legs and pulling yourself up using a rope. We would have turned around but we did not want to go back down the stuff!  I was so focused, breathing so hard, and sweating so much that I forgot to take pictures of these climbs. The peak was disappointing.  We were literally in a cloud so there was absolutely no view.  We did have a lot of pride by making it to the peak the hard way though!  I completely forgot I had a sinus infection after all of that!  We took the much more enjoyable hike down on the well-traveled trail. Anyway, on the way back down, the group of retirees were still hanging out.  We were not surprised that retirees would still be hanging out :) We enjoyed some tea and coffee with them (James was sooooo excited about the coffee).

Wooden bridges

Ladders

That's a big tree and a good looking guy!

This waterfall seemed so magical that I took a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2H7NmBuP1Q&feature=youtu.be

We don't know the other hikers but I decided to include them in the video!

This large tree was actually hollow and mostly dead.  We assumed it was hit by lighting.  

Action photo!

The prettiest part of the day was actually the drive down the mountain.  Sigh...the views were gorgeous!!!!

That's about it for now except  I officially opened a Taiwanese bank account today!  Also, James has a friend from college traveling to Taiwan that we look forward to sharing next weekend's adventures with.  

Zai jian!

If you can't take the heat, then get out of the kitchen!

So, August is hotter than July so far.  We have been told by the majority of people here that August is the hottest month in Taiwan.  So, if you can't take the August heat and humidity, then don't come to Taiwan! The weather reminds me of New Orleans or Central Florida during the summer.

We have become social butterflies once again.  Last weekend we enjoyed a laid back weekend in Hsinchu. Our friend from New Zealand (who also dropped out of our free Chinese classes) introduced us to one of his favorite vegetarian restaurants for lunch.  After lunch he showed us some quiet running trails at the Hsinchu Botanical Gardens.  We met up with another friend from Vancouver for dinner to introduce her to our favorite restaurant.  She is actually more obsessed with the fruit here than we are!  We have made plans to have a mango tasting party together one day soon.  We'll buy all the different types of mangoes here at once so we can decide which one we like the best.

On Saturday James surprised me by bringing home a used iPhone 4!  He found a Hsinchu college student who started an used phone "store" through facebook called the Panda Store.  What a sweet husband!  Being the great salesman he is, James made a good deal with him.  I am officially a proud owner of an Apple product now :)  We use a pre-paid minutes and texting service with our phones to avoid the monthly bill (plus how many people are we going to chat with that live in Taiwan on the phone?).  Also, we have wi-fi in our apartment and wi-fi is available in many places around Taiwan (like James' school, restaurants, etc) so we are able to use the data function regularly.  The main reasons we use the iPhone here is for the map that show your current location and the camera.  We also downloaded audio for learning Chinese.  We've learned more from listening to lesson 1 about three times while walking, running, hanging laundry to dry, etc than we did in our six hours of Chinese classes!

On Sunday, we set out to explore a trail about an hour and a half drive outside of Hsinchu.  However, when we stopped for gas about 40 minutes in I told James I really was tired of the sitting on scooter (and no patience this particular morning).  For the first time in our explorations in Taiwan, we just followed brown road signs (usually indicates a park, trail or temple) written only in Chinese.  We had a pleasant surprise and discovered a whole new trail that is a loop (not just an out and back)!  We liked it so much we returned on Tuesday morning for a trail run.

I would like to live in one of those houses!

A typical map at parks that we somehow manage to figure out where to go on the trail...or someone who speaks some English will come ask us if we need help!

Sunday ended with a potluck after church where we contributed daily eaten items in the Rockwell apartment - cut fruit and frozen veggies.  I am very thankful we found this church.  It's a good place with good people :)

Teaching is fine.  I am not writing about James' teaching experience because he keeps promising to write a blog posting...  I had two favorite parts of this week.  I have been giving a 7-year old boy from my beginner class private lessons (so he can catch up with the rest of the class).  He is so polite and focuses so well!  I really wish I could communicate more with him but he would need a lot of more private classes to get to that level!  Anyways, James' grandmother, Gammy, sent us some Care Bear stickers in the mail to give to our students.  I pulled out a sheet of the stickers to give him at the end of our lesson.  I intended to tell him to pick out a couple of the stickers.  He got so excited that he grabbed the whole sheet and said "Thank you Teacher!"  I decided it was best to let him keep the whole sheet, plus he deserves all the stickers he wants!  Also, my Friday evening ended on a good note.  One of my students offered me a bite of his snack (which was dried ramen noodles so I kindly accepted a small bite).  Then, as I was walking out the door, he was in the car with his mother.  He started yelling "Goodbye Teacher!!!!!!"  I went over and gave him a high five.  I like feeling loved by my students much more than feeling that I make their life miserable from learning English!  By the way, even living 8,000 miles away from Atlanta, my favorite part of every weekday is still coming home to hang out with my husband, eat dinner, and exchange stories from the day ;)

A few other things of note:

1.  I received my official Alien Residence Card!  I am a legal teacher in Taiwan.
2.  James and I have been keeping track of our expenses monthly for quite some time.  We have cut our expenses by more than 70% from living in Atlanta.  The reasons are rent, gas for the cars, car insurance, cell phone bills, and James' business expenses.  Living simple has its advantages.... James spent a grand total of $30USD last month in gas for the scooter.  Awesome.
3.  We had to give our hiking buddy some information so he could apply for hiking permits for a specific trail we would like to hike soon.  We realized we had no one to list as our emergency contact.  That has never happened to me before!  We used my school manager's information and I know she would come rescue us if anything happened.  She loves her English teachers!
4.  Unfortunately, I had to go to the doctor's office this week.  I have a nasty sinus infection from who even knows what from living here - pollution in the air, the humidity, something in our AC, swimming in pools, cold springs or the ocean.  Anyway, I went to the ear, nose, and throat doctor.  The whole process was incredibly efficient.  My school manager took me since I had to fill out some info in Chinese for the first visit. I was assigned a waiting number.  Within five minutes, I was called to the back.  The doctor saw me immediately.  I walked to the front counter.  The receptionist handed me a slip of paper with my prescription. We walked to the pharmacy next door where the prescription was filled in about 3 minutes.  With the National Taiwanese Health Insurance, the doctor's visit cost $5 USD and the prescription cost $0.66 USD.  Unfortunately, I had to return again (they are really funny about giving you medicine for more than 3 days at a time which is not cool if you need some serious antibiotics...).  The doctor told me a needed an x-ray of my sinuses.  I walked upstairs, immediately had an x-ray, walked back downstairs, and immediately saw the doctor who had my x-rays on his computer.  Apparently most of the doctors in Taiwan speak English pretty well which is a plus!  One of the other English teachers at my school sees a Chinese herbal doctor when he is sick which is also covered under the National Taiwanese Health Insurance.  Maybe I will try that one some other time....

I told James we should start a nightly tradition of telling each other one thing that was awesome about our days.  I have decided to list a few reasons why living in Taiwan is awesome to fight through the homesickness that comes when you are not feeling your best:

1.  We don't have to deal with the stress and expense of owning a car.
2.  We have not been stuck in traffic since we arrived in Taiwan.
3.  We eat at restaurants and buy pre-cut food for 75% of our diet.  It is quite convenient.  It's incredible and odd that we pay less to eat out than to cook our own food.
4.  The non-existent crime is very nice.  One of our buddies accidentally left his scooter keys in the scooter while parked at the train station for over a week and it did not get stolen.  Where else could that happen at a busy train station?
5.  Our work schedule is actually great for us now since we are more used to it.  The ability to be relaxed and take your time in the morning is great, especially for us morning exercise fanatics.
6.  We stand most of the day at work except when lesson planning.   When I used to sit all day at work, I thought I had a hamstring injury because they would get so tight.
7.  It's easy to get around the country without a car.  The bus and train systems are great.  It would help if we knew a bit more Chinese though...
8.  Exploration leads to beautiful scenery 100% of the time in Taiwan.
9.  The AC is never freezing anywhere here except the RT Mart.  Although the heat is brutal, not having to bring a coat for the arctic to work everyday and to walk in every store and restaurant during the summer is nice.
10.  The best tasting fruit in the WORLD!!!!!

For a final note, I have been enjoying this song recently by one of my favorite Christian artists, Steven Curtis Chapman.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpYEwbHPjrs

A short blog for a short story

I forgot something in the last blog!

Last weekend James and I were at the bus stop in Hsinchu.  A guy at the bus stop asked James if he had run the Georgia Marathon since he was wearing the race T-shirt.  It turned out the guy is from Atlanta, graduated from GA Tech one year before me, and is working at an Industrial Park in Hsinchu for a one year contract. So, for the count, 1 for GA Tech (or the entire southeast) and 3 for Grand Valley State University (and about 30 for Michigan).  

Also, a friend who has been teaching in South Korea for a few months posted this chart on culture shock on Facebook.  I really hope this is wrong for James and I! I certainly don't feel like I am in a honeymoon phase after two months but I may be in denial. I think we hit the crisis phase on Day 4 so maybe we are way ahead of schedule :)