Sweet Home Missouri

Well I am back in Missouri for now, working on getting my degree. I will be back to Taiwan someday, I love the people and the places too much not to return.

Rain rain go away

I know I haven't been keeping this blog updated as I should, and I apologize for that. Lately when the weekend rolls around I am stuck in my apartment due to the incessant rainfall. I will try and be better at keeping you updated at what is going on. Yesterday I was invited by my 5th year students to have a lunch in appreciation for my excellent skills in teaching. It was a wonderful time, we went to a restaraunt named Rock, whose specialty is Hot Pot. Hot Pot is where you have a pot with broth and veggies and meat and it cooks up at your table. Your table also has little bbq grills on it so you cook your own food, while the Hot Pot is going. It was wonderful, lots of different types of meats and at the end the Hot Pot was spectacular, all the different flavors of the ingredients had merged to make one overwhelmingly wonderful taste. Now I am going to include a few pictures I took a couple weekends ago when I went to a the third largest temple in the world. It is a buddhist temple and I was there on Buddha's birthday ( whatever ) It is a huge celebration for the buddhist's and the temple was very cool. I hope you enjoy the few pics, I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

It's the Ice cream man..... well not really

Here in Taiwan they have a very strange garbage system. They pick up your trash everyday here with a musical truck. I found this little video that shows a typical day at the garbage truck.

Driving Miss Daisy

I haven't been that good lately at keeping this blog up to date, but I decided today I would share a little of what it is like to drive here. I ride a little 90cc scooter here, it is my main mode of transportation like the majority of the people here. I found this little video online that shares a glimpse into what it is like riding a scooter here. This video is pretty tame as to what it is really like riding here. Although it does share some good things like the red light running and weaving through cars. This is my daily life here, but don't be afraid I try to be as careful as possible, I haven't followed the red light running. I hope you enjoy the video and I will try to update more often. I miss you all and will talk to you soon...

My gift is my song and this ones for you....

Well I spent the weekend pretty much doing nothing. Did laundry and watched some movies I had downloaded during the week. I watched "The Forbidden Kingdom" pretty good movie it had all the things I have come to love in a Jackie Chan film. I found a gym, well sort of it is a weight room and I am starting to go, trying to get back in to shape. Everything here has been good. Yesterday I got completely soaked, since I had to ride my scooter home in a downpour. I gotta tell you it is hard to see in the rain when you don't have a windshield, my sunglasses unfortunately didn't come with their own wipers. Well that's all for now, I miss you all and will talk to you soon. Oh and I wanted to especially congratulate Johnny's little Troopers they did their job and Arlie is totally preggers! I'm gonna be an Uncle..... How cool is that!

Bringing the Flavor of the West to the East

Well I decided I would introduce my students to a good old American style BBQ. It was a little hard trying to find steaks, a couple of my students had to look around for a while but finally found a butcher. So we went to the butcher and got 1500NT worth of steaks, which of course my students said was too expensive, which gave us about 30 small steaks. Got some veggies, tea, soda, charcoal, and a couple grills. I had planned on having the BBQ at Swan Lake, but my students had a better location. We had the BBQ behind a 7-11 that was on the way to the Orchid show. It is a very nice picnic area with a covered area so we could stay out of the sun. The steaks were a big hit and about thirty of my students showed up. We had lots of fun eating and chatting away. After the BBQ, some of my students decided to go to the beach and invited me along. It was about a 30 minute ride to the beach but it was a lot of fun. The girls kept trying to splash me, and I would kick a wall of water at them and drench them. A couple of them were digging up little crabs from the beach and playing with them. I would include pictures, but I had too much to carry for the BBQ and couldn't bring my camera along. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

North vs South

Well I just got back to Sinying after spending the last 6 days in Taipei. It rained most of my stay in Taipei, but it was a very nice trip. Jennifer (one of my students) was my tour guide for the entire trip, her wonderful family opened their home to me. I was treated as one of her family and loved it. Jennifer's Aunt is married to a Texan named Leroy, he was in Taipei on business so we met up with him on Friday, and ran around a while. Leroy was a great guy, he treated us to lunch at Jake's some pretty good Mexican food, with really good margarita's. After lunch we went to the American Club, very ritzy, with a well stocked bar that I took advantage of for a Bailey's and Coffee. Taipei is a really great city, but I prefer here in the south. Cheaper living without all the crowds, and mayhem. I travelled all over the Taipei area, and saw some cool things. Didn't take very many pictures due to the rain, but will post what I did take on my photobook, and put a link up in another post. Well that's enough for now, I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Into The Great Wide Open

So my first morning in Taipei, I woke up at 5:30 because I went to bed around 11. After I took a shower and got dressed, Jennifer’s older Auntie, who is staying here until Tomb Cleaning Day, was awake and opened the security gate for me so I could take a walk. I walked down to the corner 7-11 for a Cafe Au Lait, which here in Taiwan I had to settle for cold (7-11 has no hot drinks, kind of strange). It is lightly raining on and off, so the streets are wet and early in the morning the city, at least in this area is just waking up. It was a very nice walk, I enjoyed it. I think we are going to the National Museum and some other places today. I will try and update tonight, if not it will be an early morning memory session. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

Today I started my Spring Vacation trip to Taipei. I met Jennifer in front of the school at 3pm, well it was supposed to be 3, but she runs on Island-Time like everyone here. Jennifer’s Auntie took us to the Chiayi HSR (High Speed Rail) Station. There we had to exchange the tickets I had purchased online earlier in the week, because we changed stations and time. High speed rail travel is the way to go; we went from Chiayi to Taipei in an hour and 32 minutes. We paid about ten dollars extra to ride in the business class car, it only has two seats per row and they give you complimentary drinks. A very smooth and fast ride, everyone should try it at least once. We arrived in Taipei and took a taxi to Jennifer’s Grandmother’s house, where we will be staying. Jennifer’s Mother lives about ¼ mile away and she prepared a dinner for us. Jennifer’s family is so sweet, they are all afraid that I am not being taken care of well enough. Jennifer’s mother was making curry for dinner, and after about five minutes of them trying to get me to understand that she was making curry, I mentioned Thai curry. They had never tried curry with a coconut base, so Jennifer’s mom reached under the counter and pulled out a container of coconut milk and put it in the curry, it was a huge hit. I met Jennifer’s younger sister and her voice just busted me up, I had to constantly bite back laughter. She has the voice of an Anime girl when she isn’t getting her way, it slays me. After dinner we sat around and Jennifer caught up with her family. We headed back to her Grandmother’s where they were talking on Skype to Jennifer’s Auntie that lives in Texas. Her Auntie married an American 25 years ago, so after a while Jennifer dragged me in to talk with her auntie. I had a wonderful conversation with her Auntie for about an hour; well it was Jennifer, her Auntie and I talking. Her husband is in Taiwan right now, and will be taking us out for dinner Friday. Jennifer’s Auntie had a lot of good ideas of things to see while I am here. I am going to sign off now; I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

We all live in a Yellow Submarine.....

Today I had the best sashimi, I have ever tasted in all my life. Probably because it was swimming in the ocean hours before it was put down in front of me. I spent the day in Budai, it has a very famous fish market, well known throughout Taiwan. I snapped some pictures of the fish market but I left my camera in my Scooter and I am too lazy to walk downstairs and get it. So I am posting a photo, from caveman_lee (go check out his photo's, he is pretty talented), that best represent the wonderful sashimi I ate. Not only did I have wonderful sashimi, I was treated to a 8 course meal by one of my students Aunt's. All super fresh seafood, sea bream, prawns, chow mein, chow fun, some kind of small fish that was heavenly and two different types of clams, one in a broth and one in a sauce, amazing food. Budai is about a half hour ride from my apartment. The seafood there is so cheap, Jennifer (my student) bought 6 tuna steaks to take home nice large cuts for 350nt, that's less than 12 dollars. There were so many types of sea life in the market, some fish I have never seen. The only problem is I have no idea what their English name is. Well I am going to end this post I am heading out to the night market for dinner. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

A Feast for the Senses

I spent my Easter Sunday wandering around the streets of Kaohsiung. After a 1 1/2 train ride I arrived in Kaohsiung. The MRT Kaohsiung's new subway, is free to ride for the first month. It was insane how many people were taking advantage of their new public transportation. I got on the MRT and went to the shopping district, 3 stops away. There were their major department stores, each at least 10 stories high. I went in one store and browsed around for a while, until I made my way to the 14th floor. There I had lunch at a wonderful tea house, where I had some excellent Dim Sum. After a very filling lunch I made my way back to the MRT and travelled to the Love River, there I took a boat down the river to Kaohsiung harbor. I walked around the harbor for a bit and then grabbed a cab and went to Central Park. The shopping around Central Park is amazing, anyone that enjoys shopping would be in heaven. I snapped some pictures of the crowds shopping, I also took a picture of a stores sign, the store was named Marijuana. You have to realize in Taiwan there is no illegal drug culture, mainly due to the fact that they put drug traffickers to death. I also took a few pictures from the boat on Love River. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. The sights and sounds and smells of the shopping district all swirl together to make for a most enjoyable experience. I imagine Harajuku must be something close. Tweeter you would love the stores there, they have many shops from all around the world, and little boutique stores. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

A flower by any other name.....

Let's see it has been a little while since I last updated. I went to an Orchid Show last Friday, because 2 of my students were working there. I got a few good macro shots of some Orchids, and I was introduced to the fact that there are hundreds of different species of Orchids. They also had some Bonzai s I will put a picture of my favorite. The two girls are my students Jen and Judy, Jen was my tour guide for the show. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Just another day in Paradise

So another week of school has gone past, had a lot of fun teaching. I have some pretty cool students, went to lunch with a group of them yesterday and then they invited me to the Yenshui night market. A lot of fun, even though after a while I began to feel like an ape in a zoo. People can't help but to stare when they see the giant white guy, it kinda cracks me up. Some of the girls from my class today wanted to have their picture taken with "Teacher". I only took one picture of the group, trying to maintain the teacher student relationship at least for a little while. I will include the pic of the girls, and some random shots on campus. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Swan Lake - SinYing City, Taiwan

I had put up another slide show but it bogged the page down too much, so I am including a link to the next series of pictures. I took these at a local man made lake, it's about 5 miles from my apartment. I hope you enjoy the photo's, I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Swan Lake

Temple Time number 2

Temple Time

Ok the next three entries are going to be all pictures that I took today of two temples here in SinYing City.

Shake Rattle and Roll

Well my slumber was disturbed last night by a 5.0 earthquake centered about 30 miles away. The shaking woke me up, but like every jaded Californian, I just laid there till it stopped and went back to sleep. I guess they don't happen all that often here because I heard people wandering around afterward. Well I am going to go and run down something for dinner, pictures will be posted sometime this weekend. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

An Apple for Teacher

I am writing this blog to you all from my desk in my office at NJTC, cool huh? I am teaching 5 classes a week for two hours each class. I will be preparing the students here to pass the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). I purchased a scooter today a Yamaha 90 for 8000nt that comes out to about $250us, pretty cheap! Everything is going wonderful here, and now that I have transportation besides my two feet, I will be taking a lot more pictures to post for all of your eyes. Well it's lunch time here in Taiwan so I am going to sign off and go get some food. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Classes Begin

Well I attended my first Mandarin class here today, and it was very laid back. I am in a class with 5 French and one Japanese student. We have class every Monday morning from 0810 - 1000, the class uses a textbook designed to teach Chinese students how to speak to tourists. Tourism is a major industry here in Taiwan. I was given my class schedule today and an Office of my very own, it's way cool. I teach Monday through Thursday so I have a three day weekend every week. The French guys are very cool, they invited me to join them on a trip to the coast this weekend, if they can wait until I finish teaching Thursday, I will probably join them. I was given the choice to teach two different curriculum's this morning and I need to go and read through both of them to see what will be better. But I think I will leave it up to my students, since they will have to purchase whatever book we use, and one of them is expensive here, like $30. I miss you all and will talk to you soon.

Meet the Neighbors

I found the easiest way to meet most of my neighbors at one time last night, just go out for trash time. I posted earlier how they pick up trash like everyday here. Last night I heard the now familiar sound of the garbage trucks melody playing, so I rounded up my trash bag and headed downstairs. When I got downstairs I found that I was waiting along with around ten other people for the trashman. I don't know if I have said it before,but Taiwanese people are so nice. Everyone greeted me with a smile and a Ni Hao. I went for a four mile walk yesterday to scout out some places to take pictures this weekend, and to basically get to know my neighborhood. There are a couple of really cool looking temples that I will be posting pictures of this weekend. Well I have to go, much love to you all, and talk to you soon.

Quick Update

Since some have asked I figured I would post on the food here. If you like Chinese food you will be in heaven. Yesterday I went for Chow Mein with beef, pork, shrimp, and squid. It cost me about $1.50 for a huge plate. Last night I walked a block from my apartment and got a bento box with bbq pork, duck, vegetables and rice. That plus my milk tea, total cost for dinner $2.10, talk about a deal. Food here is wonderful and it is so cheap, well I have to jump in the shower and start another day. Talk to you soon

More of the Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival

Ok for all of you wanting pictures, tonight I went to a Lantern Festival and took some so without anymore of my yammering. Blogspot was having major problems with me and the pictures so These are all I loaded. Hope you like them.

Rain Rain Go Away

Well I don't have all that much to add for today due to the rain. I went for a walk this morning to get some breakfast and found a really cool Temple less than a block from my apartment. If the rain lets up I will get some pictures tomorrow. In addition to my taking a chinese class and teaching an english one, I was offered the opportunity to take a beginners french course, so I say what the heck let's go for it. I also found out I will be paid to teach the english course, how cool is that. Here is something really different; they pick up trash here everyday! They come by in this bright yellow garbage truck that blares ice cream truck music. I missed getting a picture of it today, but count on a picture of it tomorrow. Well this will be all for today's installment. Talk to you all soon. By the way here is my attempt at a panorama of the view from my window.

Yenshui Beehive Festival

As the full moon rose above the small village of Yenshui, crowds of one hundred thousand plus swarmed the streets to celebrate the beehive festival. Walking through the streets pushing my way pass the throngs of people, sometimes barely visible due to the copious amounts of acrid smoke billowing from the fireworks. Explosions rock me from all sides as all types of fireworks are ignited, people are running to and fro trying to find a safe haven from the bottle rockets that zip into the crowd. This is one of the most insane and dangerous activities I have ever witnessed, yet it was so much fun. I had planned on sharing a lot of photographs of the festival, but I made the ultimate rookie photographer move, I forgot to load my memory card. I took it out of the camera last night in Kaohsiung to share the photos of my hotel room. All is not lost however due to the diligence of another foreigner here in Taiwan. Here is a link to some pretty cool photos of the festivities. Yenshui Feng Pao
On another note, the University threw a welcome dinner for me tonight, which was wonderful. I was seated at a table with only beautiful Taiwanese Girls. Can I get a woohooo? I am writing this to all of you from the desk in my new apartment in Sinying City. I got here today and found an apartment and moved in. I have to go to the government so I can open a bank account and get a cell phone out here. I will update that little piece of trivia when I get more information. I am currently dead tired, so I am going to end this diatribe and get some shuteye. Just to let everyone know I am 16 hours ahead of Missouri.

One Night in Kaohsiung

Well my plane got in too late to make the night market, but here I am in my hotel and all I can say is wow. Here are some pictures of this splendid establishment. Imagine I had to fly half way around the world to find a shower taller than me. I will try and update with pictures from the beehive festival tomorrow.

I'll Fly Away

So I bid a fond farewell to the grand old US of A as I embark upon my Asian Journey. I hope all of you wonderful readers are doing well. Someone do me a solid and check up on Katie and Jimmy, had a bad dream about the two of them, just wanna be sure they are alright. The next post you will read from me will be in Taiwan or maybe at the airport in Hong Kong if I have time. Keep me in your prayers and I will talk to you all soon.

California Luv

Well and update I am sitting at my Mom's house in Hayward, I was able to run down Dr Fang Friday, he suggested 2 bottles of wine(1 is an unlucky number). I am going to Pier 39 in San Francisco today. Well I am going to get another cup of coffee, talk to you guys later.

Leaving Missouri

So we are waiting for Allie to show up so we can head to the airport. Rapper is leaving to Sacramento to visit his cousin for a week, and I am off to Oakland to spend a few days with my Mom until Tuesday when I fly out to Kaohsiung. I will arrive Wednesday night at 10:30pm, I hope to make it to Liuho night market. So my next post should include some photos.

The Final Countdown

Happy Valentines Day!
Well yesterday I drove up to Kansas City to get my Visa squared away. I also stopped by AAA and picked up an International Drivers Permit, I whole heartedly recommend this for anyone traveling abroad, a small $15 fee and you can drive legally in almost every country. Well thats all for today

Last days in Missouri

Well it looks like the time for me to leave to Taiwan is rapidly approaching. I still need to get my Visa, thanks to a lack of funds for my passport, this is cutting it to the wire. I have my tickets, my passport will arrive today or tomorrow morning, then it is off to Kansas City to get the Visa. I am wondering if I should bring a gift for Mr. Su, he is my contact at NJIT and had graciously opened his home to me for the first few days of my arrival. I'm pretty sure a gift is warranted, just don't know what it should be. Hopefully I can run down Dr. Hou or Dr. Fang and get there opinion. Well there is not much left for me to write today. I will talk to you guys soon...