Mountain Hiking Expedition!

Hi Guys!! It has been a while since I have last posted something on this blog! I just wanted to let everybody know that teaching has been going great! I really love where I teach! It has been a blast! I am so thankful that God has brought me on this journey!! :) I could have never imagined myself being in Taiwan teaching English, but I am...and I love every minute of it! I look forward to going to school and teaching! It has been so much fun! :) I also would have never have imagined myself climbing a mountain in Taiwan either....don't worry, you aren't seeing things, that's what I said...I said climb a mountain! :)

On Saturday October 30th, our team was invited by one of the teachers at the school I work with (Bo Hao) to go hiking with him up in the mountains! It was a blast! There was a trail that made it's way up the mountain that we just followed....The view was AMAZING!! It was a nice day for hiking, and besides being cloudy, the weather was nice too! On the way up we were hiking up the side of the mountain that faced the sun, so it was really hot, and so we all were sweating like crazy! On the way down, we were on the other side of the mountain which was in the shade, so it was cooler, and there was a nice breeze. Along the way, we saw these HUGE spiders, and their HUGE spider webs! For instance, we saw one spider web that had been spun in between two trees, and the distance between the two trees was at least three to four feet long! These spiders were huge, probably the biggest spiders I have ever seen! They were cool, but nasty at the same time! We also got to see this cool Gecko/Lizard thing trying to hide itself on a tree... I believe Hannah called it a Glizard. :)

After we had hiked up, and down the mountain, we drove down to this river that for the most part, had been dried up, and we spent some time climbing around on the rocks. David and I were trying to figure a way across the small river that was still there, but we never did! Actually that's not true, we found a way across, it was just getting back that would have been a different story!


The view from on the mountain! Isn't it just beautiful!! :)

Another shot of the incredible scenery!! :)

This is the trail that we followed that took us up the mountain!

Follow the "yellow brick road!" :) Well, in this case it would be...follow the brown dirt road! :)

Grace, Stephannie, and Hannah posing for a nice picture under this little resting place! :)

David and I posing for a picture along the trail! :)

This is a picture of one of the huge spiders that we saw while hiking up the mountain! As you can see I took this picture, at the same time as the spider is spinning her web! Just so you know, I cropped this picture so you could see it a little bit better! :)

This is the Glizard that we saw...isn't it sweet! :)

This is on our way down! As you can see, David is being very kind and is carrying my backpack! lol!! :)

Some cool scenery on our way down the mountain!

Flowers! Oh wait, you guys already knew that.... ;)

Walking through the river bed and climbing on the rocks as we went! :) If a Typhoon comes through, this river bed fills up, but for the most part, it is dried up like you see in this picture.

Here is my version of the song..."I went down to the river to pray!"

"I went down to the river play...studying about how to find a way across Lord show me the way...."

Well, we found a way across, but like I said before, getting back would have been a different story! :)

Snorkeling Trip in Kending Taiwan!!

Two weeks ago, our team and four of our Taiwanese friends (Tony, Phoebe, Kitty, and Kitty's friend) all drove down to Kending to go snorkeling in the ocean! It was an hour drive, so we were all on the road by 7:30am. Once we got there we all got our mask and snorkel. To rent the snorkel and mask for the whole entire day, was only $100NT (3 US dollars)! That is really cheap! :) The weather was just perfect, clear and sunny! With it being sunny, the water was really clear, so you could see everything. We saw many different kinds of cool fish! We saw neon blue fish, we saw puffer fish, we saw a lion fish, we saw black and white fish, we saw angle fishes, we saw orange and blue fishes, and we even saw a jelly fish! Stephannie has a waterproof camera, so we were able to get some cool pictures under the water! The salt water didn't taste good at all! Oh, and when you would accidentally swallow it....it was disgusting!! My lips felt like I had just eaten a whole bag of popcorn! :) After snorkeling for a while, we decided that we would take a break and go get something to eat. We went and ate lunch at a Thailand food restaurant. It was really good! After lunch, we decided that we wanted to go back and snorkel some more. We snorkeled for a few more hours, and then decided that we wanted to go shopping in the night market they had there. For an hour and half we all shopped, and had dinner. After we were done shopping, we went home!

Kitty and Pheobe wanted to take us all out for what is called: "Hot and Cold Ice" it is like shaved ice, except that on the inside is like this warm soup stuff. It's hot on the inside, and cold on the outside! I didn't like it! In fact, none of the teachers liked it!

Oh, and that whole entire day while we were snorkeling! I had been swimming without my shirt, and without much sunscreen. With it being hot and sunny outside, and with the sun just shining right on the ocean, I got extremely sunburned!! OUCH!! My whole back was sunburned, my calves were sunburned, and even my arms and the top of my hands were sunburned. Next time I am wearing a shirt while I swim, and putting on a bunch of sunscreen. My hand and the bottom of my foot also got cut up a little bit from the rough corral! I was trying to jump off a rock into the ocean, and instead I kind of fell/slid off the rock. Even though I got extremely sunburned and cut up, it was worth it! My day at the beach was AMAZING!! I had so much fun!!


The Beach we swam at!

Another picture of the beautiful beach we snorkeled at!!

Stephannie, David, and I standing on a rock in the ocean getting a picture together!

Megan taking a dive to the bottom of the corral reef!

Hannah and I readjusting our snorkels! :)

One of the many different kinds of fish we saw!! I believe this is known as a angle fish! :)

Another picture of the beautiful angle fish!

Trying to get a picture under the water! :)

Puffer fish! We tried so hard to get it to puff! David tried chasing it around at hitting it with his snorkel! It never puffed for us, it would always just swim away! Oh well, still a cool fish to see though!! :)

A really cool shot of Wes under the water!

Another picture of Wes. Anybody know what that thing is that Wes is pointing at?

One of the awesome neon blue fish that we saw!!

A cool little black, white, and yellow fish!

Another one of the cool looking fish that we got to see while snorkeling!! God is so creative!!
:)

Group shot at the restaurant, where we ate delicious Thailand style food!!

This is what happens when you don't wear sunscreen in Taiwan, and you are swimming in the ocean on a bright hot sunny day!! OUCH!! :)

First Day of Teaching!!

My first day of teaching went great!! It was really fun! We only taught Wednesday and Thursday!

9/9/09 - Normally at the EV we have elementary aged kids from schools around the area, but for our first two days we taught the Nan Jung students. We had the privilege of teaching the ninth grade class. Before our first two days of teaching, Wes, our team leader had us write lesson plans for one of the stations in the EV. I wrote a lesson plan for the market. Well, Wes ended up not using the market for our first two days of teaching, so he put me in the Airport and Cafe. I had to come up with new lesson plans. I wrote one for the airport, and decided that I was just going to go off what Hannah had written up in her lesson plan. So for the airport, I was a little bit more prepared, whereas the cafe, I wasn't as prepared. I mean, I had an idea of what I was doing, but I wasn't totally sure because I hadn't written this lesson plan myself. It helps to write up something yourself, even if you take ideas from other lesson plans, you have a better idea of what you are going to be doing with your kids.

For my first class I taught in the Cafe. In my opinion it did not go well at all. The kids were not paying attention, and my class didn't seem as fun as some of the other classes were. I am sure they had fun, it just didn't seem like it! Anyways....so after my first class, I felt a little discouraged! :( Don't worry, that is not the end of the story. My Airport lesson...it went great!! I had a lot of fun teaching the airport. My lesson was better, the kids were better, everything just went a lot better. My discouragement from the previous lesson, was turned into happiness!! So basically, other than the first class, my other classes went really well!! I still had to teach more cafe lessons, and as they went on each one got better. Out of the two, I would rather teach the airport!!

Me teaching the airport!!

Me teaching in the airplane!!

David Teaching the Airport!

Hannah teaching the Cafe!

Megan teaching the Store!!

Stephannie teaching the Bank!

English Village!!

Okay, so you have all been wondering where I will be teaching for the next year. I am going to tell you, so hold on tight...are you ready for this: I am teaching in the English Village! Okay, I know what you are thinking: "What is the English Village?"

The English Village (EV) is a place for students to come and practice speaking their English in an English only environment! In this EV there are five different stations that the kids go through in one day: There is the airport station which has a mock airport, and airplane set up, there is the bank station, the cafe station, the fashion store station, and the market store station. Throughout this year, all of the teachers will be teaching these five stations. Each teacher is not assigned just one station for the whole year, however. We will be rotating through and teaching the different stations. Our team leader's desire is to have us master each of the stations so that if need be we can just step right and teach that class.

The EV is connected with the Nan Jung Junior High school. They are the ones that take care of the building and are our go-to people if we need anything, or have any question. The grades of this school are 7th, 8th, and 9th. Occasionally the kids from the Nan Jung Junior High School will come to the EV, but normally it is elementary aged students from other schools in the area.

Really the only downside to the EV is that the kids only come for one day, (unless we are doing camps) and then they leave. Meaning, we won't have the same kids every day. We will have a new group of kids every day! Other than that, the EV is great!! It is pretty awesome! It will make teaching all the more fun!! :)

The English Village!!

Standing in front of the English Village!!
From left to right: Stephannie, Hannah, Megan, David, and yours truly!! :)

My Housing Situation, in Chaojhou Taiwan!

My roommate David, and I share a apartment with this Taiwanese man named Dirk. Dirk is a elementary school teacher, and gets reimbursed by King Car who is funding our time in Taiwan. I get to have my own room! I have never had my own room before! I plan to repaint the walls in my room sometime soon. I am thinking of painting them a royal blue color. I had to buy myself some shelves to put some of my belongings into. The apartment does not have a dryer, so we have to hang dry our clothes. In Taiwan, it is not healthy for you to drink the tap water, so you have to get it out of a water purifying machine. Our apartment does not have one, so we have to go to the girl’s apartment if we need water. Most of the time so far we have been eating out, but if me and David ever wanted to cook something at our apartment, we would have to go the girl’s apartment to use their kitchen. Our kitchen is really small! Other than that, our apartment is great!


ere is my room!!

Here is my armoire!

Traveling to Chaojhou!!

Okay….I haven’t updated this blog in a while, so I am going to do the best I can to fill you in on what has been happening. This past week has been amazing!! Let me start from the beginning. After spending a great weekend in Taipei for orientation, it was time to depart to our new homes. The team I am living on is stationed in Choajhou. (Pronounced Chow – Joe) The other members on my team are: Our team leaders: Wes and Julianna Dudley, David, Stephannie, Megan, Hannah, and Grace. Grace won’t be arriving in Taiwan until later.

Anyways….Choajhou is on the complete opposite end of Taiwan from Taipei. By car, it would take you probably four to five hours. We traveled by a high speed train. It only took us an hour and a half to get to Kaoshiung, which is only thirty minutes from Chaojhou. Kaoshiung is the end of the line for the high speed train. After we got to Koahsiung (pronounced Gow – Shung) we then had to take a thirty minute van ride to our school in Chaojhou.


Group shot right before leaving for Chaojhou, Taiwan. From left to right: David, me, Hannah, Stephannie, Julianna, Svannah, Wes, and Megan

Wating for the train to depart from Taipei. Hannah, Stephannie, and David

Gross..I don't like that picture of me!! Haha..anyways, we are waiting for the train to leave from Taipei.

Scenery while traveling to Chaojhou.

More Scenery!! Isn't it beautiful!!

And....more scenery!!

We have arrived in Kaoushiung! (This was the end of the line for the high speed rail)

Touring Koahsiung!!

On Saturday….we went into the city of Kaohsiung. Our main reason for going into Kaohsiung was because David had to pick up his cell phone that he had ordered a few days ago. The cell phone he wanted didn’t have the right color so they ordered him the phone with the right color. Anyways…we also were going to Kaohsiung to pick up one of Megan’s Taiwanese friends named Jessica. Jessica lived with Megan’s grandparents for three years while she studied at Michigan State University! To get to Kaohsiung, we had to take a hour long train ride from Chaojhou (our home town) to Kaohsiung . We had planned to hang out in Kaohsiung for the day, but we didn’t have any plans as far as what we were going to do while there. Jessica and her friend invited all of us teachers to go have dinner with them, and then go visit the ocean. That’s right I said the ocean!! We went to this great restaurant, where I got some great seafood! It had shrimp, oysters, and squid. It was really good!! After dinner, we went to the ocean.

Plain and simply…It was awesome!! When we got there, the sun had already set, so our view of the ocean was somewhat obstructed by the darkness. It was still awesome though, because on top of this hill/mountain was an old British Con – solute, that is now a museum. We had to climb all of these stairs to get to the museum. Oh my Word, the view was amazing!! On one side of the museum, it overlooked the ocean. On the other side, it overlooked the city of Kaohsiung! Since it was night time, all of the buildings had their night lights on! To see the city of Kaohsiung all lit up a night was so beautiful!!


On the train from Chaojhou to Kaohsiung

Waiting for the train to leave from Chaojhou to Kaohsiung

The City of Kaohsiung! Notice all the taxi's...lol!! :)

Team shot , minus David. (He was the one taking the picture!) Oh by the way, the peace sign is like the traditional Taiwanese pose. In Taiwan, it doesn't mean peace, it means like Yay!!

Team picture, minus Megan in front of a cool looking fish statue. :) Megan of course was the one taking the picture. :)

I am not sure exactly what this statue is, but it looks like a big sumo wrestler! There were a few of these statues in Kaohsiung. :)

The food that I ate for dinner before going to the ocean! It was good!! :) In case you are wondering, those little yellow things that look like corn, those are squid! :) They were good! Like I said, food in Taiwan is AMAZING!!

David, Hannah, and I enjoying a delicious dinner before going to the ocean!! :)

Megan and Jessica! Jessica is the Taiwanese friend that we picked up from the train station. She and her friend were the ones who invited us to go get some dinner, and then go see the ocean!! Thank you so much Jessica! It was a blast! :)

Group shot standing in front of the ocean! It is hard to see becuase it is dark.

The stairs that we had to climb up to get to the museum that was once a British Con - Solute. :)

A temple that was at the top of the stairs by the museum! I didn't go in! To be perfectly honest with you, I kind of wanted to go inside. I am curious as to what they look like on the inside! :)

The old British - Consolute!

The view of Kouhsiung from the old British - Con solute. The view was great!! This picture doesn't give it justice. Oh well, it at least gives you somewhat of an idea. :)

We spotted this gecko eating a dragon fly as we were walking back to the train station!

On the train ride back to Chaojhou! Lol....I am not really sleeping, this picture was staged! :)