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.