Photo34_31A.jpg
Photo34_31A.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is the bridge that we could have used to get to the beach... we ended up paying anyway when we got caught "sneaking" onto the beach.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Photo37_34A.jpg
Photo37_34A.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is a little stream that cuts across the beach at Fulong.
Photo38_35A.jpg
Photo38_35A.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is the beach at Fulong. It's a nice beach, sand bars all over the place.
Monday, August 28, 2006
A day at the beach
I went to the beach in Fulong this weekend over on the East coast. It was a good time. We tried to sneak onto this beach that you have to pay to go on, but of course they spotted us. A group of foreigners walking up onto the beach out of the water in normal street clothes stand out just a little bit here. So we had to pay the fee (which was only like $2US) to stay. Later on we realized there's a free beach just a little bit further down from where we were. The beach is a little funny here because a lot of people try to stay out of the sun. They have tents and umbrellas set up all over the place. They have a rope with bouys that you aren't allowed to swim outside of, but it's only about 20 yards from shore and the water is still only like waist deep. So we ignored it and they were blowing whistles at it, they finally had a lifegaurd try to intercept us, so we swam underwater. He finally stopped us and we just pointed to where people were surfing and he let us go. I think there's a lot of people here that can't really swim and they were worried we'd drown or something. Anyway, me and one of the girls who went rented surfboards for a little bit at the end of the day. It was so much fun. The waves were pretty small but it was perfect for learning. She had surfed a few times before and the guy at the rental tent showed me real quick what to do. I actually managed to fully stand up and ride 4 waves all the way in, I even managed to steer once to avoid hitting another guy surfing. I can totally see how people get addicted to surfing. I'm looking forward to the next time I get to do it, hopefully for a full day.
Anyway, another week of work has started and I have to get my stuff together for class.
Monday, August 21, 2006
IMG_0340.jpg
IMG_0340.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
View from the top of Taipei 101 - the highest building in the world.
I'd have to be pretty high.....
IMG_0347.jpg
IMG_0347.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Guy making a stamp with my name on it in the Silin Night Market
Photo37_34A.jpg
Photo37_34A.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
BMW 120
I didn't even know they made these yet... but it looks like they do!
Thursday, August 17, 2006
The Minx is gone
My scooter was stolen yesterday while I was teaching. I had referred to it as the Minx because it helped me remember the license plate number - MNX 169, and I'll be keeping an eye out for it. Unfortunately it's very difficult for me to report it stolen because I'm not legally allowed to own a scooter here until I have my official work permit (ARC) which won't be for another 2 weeks or so. So I have no title, no registration and no official drivers license even. I tried, with the help of one of my awesome co-teachers, to report it stolen and they basically said that I would have to find the person it was last registered to and bring them in to report it stolen. The last person to have it registered was like 5 owners ago from what I understand, so that's not likely to happen. And even if I did, it's just as unlikely that they'd ever find it anyway. It's really no more than a frustration, I've had bicycles that cost as much stolen back home. It just means I'll be taking the bus again for awhile until I have enough money to get something else. I may replace it with a motorcycle... they look a lot cooler than scooters and seem like they'd be more fun to drive. We'll see.
Monday, August 14, 2006
IMG_0270.jpg
IMG_0270.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
These are the two women we have a language exchange with.
IMG_0297.jpg
IMG_0297.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Apparently there are snakes at the waterfall that seem to shout or something....
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
News from Taiwan
I noticed I've mostly just put a bunch of pictures up lately without any sort of real info on what's been going on here. I'm starting my third week of teaching here and so far classes are going well. No big complaints from anyone yet, which I think is kind of surprising. The kids in my classes are really good and my co-teachers are all so helpful. The co-teachers really make things manageable, I'd be in trouble without them... in fact I teach one class alone for 3 hours Saturday evening with older kids alone. Its really stressful preparing for that class because I can never think of what to do, my other classes with younger kids are so structured that I already know what I'm doing in class next week as soon as I finish this week's class.
On Saturday night a few of us met our neighbors and were invited to eat some food and have drinks with them. It was a lot of fun even though it was extremely difficult to communicate with them. We hadn't been planning on staying up late Saturday night though because we were going to leave early Sunday (our only day off) to head up to a town on the north coast, Jiofen. We ended up leaving at like 12:30 Sunday afternoon and got halfway there and realized it'd be dark by the time we got where we had planned to go, so we decided to turn around. And then we noticed a mountain that didn't look too far away. We figured since we were already there, we may as well see how far up the mountain we could get by scooter. We got pretty high up and ended up in Yangmingshan National Park. It was really nice, and there's a bunch of pictures posted here that I took there. On the way home, we were driving along the coast around sunset which was pretty cool. About a half hour from home my friend got a flat tire on his scooter and after a lot of confusion trying to communicate with gas station attendents that spoke no English (we even called one of the women we do a language exchange with to try and talk to them through her...). We ended up just leaving the scooter there and both took my scooter back home and went and got his fixed the next day. I got a wicked sunburn from riding all day in the sun without sunscreen.
And the latest news here is that there are two typhoons heading our way. Looks like one will definitely hit Taiwan tomorrow and the other (stronger) one may or may not hit Taiwan but if it does it looks like it'd be Thursday. I'm hoping for a few canceled classes!
I've been learning a bit of Chinese through a language exchange where me and two other teachers meet with two Taiwanese women. They teach us Chinese and their English is good enough that we can just talk with them in English. Its a good way to learn some Chinese, and its free!
So, everything is going pretty good here. I'm having a great time and making a bit of money, not a bad deal!
Monday, August 07, 2006
IMGP3919.jpg
IMGP3919.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Me at the Buddhist pagoda thingy near Yangmingshan National Park.
IMGP3932.jpg
IMGP3932.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Me with a can of fake Dr. Pepper, tastes good enough to me.
IMG_0178.jpg
IMG_0178.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Our neighbors. They invited us to eat and drink with them the other night as we were walking home. That's a bowl of goose meat in front of me (it took us a while to figure out what it was, even after we had eaten a bunch of it.), it was really good.
IMG_0196.jpg
IMG_0196.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Lion at Buddhist temple thing near Yangmingshan National Park.
IMG_0196.jpg
IMG_0196.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Buddhist temple thing at Yangmingshan National Park
IMG_0197.jpg
IMG_0197.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Buddhist temple thing at Yangmingshan National Park
IMG_0206.jpg
IMG_0206.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
Buddhist temple thing at Yangmingshan National Park
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
IMG_0163.jpg
IMG_0163.jpg
Originally uploaded by jono1515.
This is a Buddhist Temple that is really close to one of the schools I teach at. There are smaller ones all over the place, like really all over. Most of them are just one room that's open to the street and people go in and burn incense. This is one of the bigger ones, but there's an even bigger one in downtown Taoyuan and as soon as they finish doing repair work on it, I'll put some pictures of it here too.
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