Beacon Hotel Taichung

... I will also be subbing all week. I will be subbing for our youngest students....the 3 yr olds....16 of them!! Yikes! They are really cute but I know they are going to wear me down! It should be interesting. So much for me saying I never wanted to teach any younger than 2nd grade! haha It should be an interesting week but I am excited. I will be sure to fill you in on all the details at the end of the week!

Until then...love ya and miss ya!

... Chinese name and my chop (a stamp with my Chinese name on it to use on official documents). My Chinese name is pronounced Dai Shur Lee (I think, I haven't quite mastered saying it yet) I also went on Monday and opened up a bank account at the post office. Yes, we do our banking at the post office! We went with one of the Chinese teachers who helped with all the translating and helping us get everything set up!

Well until later.....love ya and miss ya!

... poncho normally zipped all the way up the front but the zipper began opening from the bottom up. By the time I got home my jeans were completely soaked! It is times like these that I miss my truck! But when I am filling up my scooter with gas ($3 of gas lasts a week) it makes me love my scooter! Once we got home from the museum and done battling the rain we were tired and called it a night.

The weekend went by really fast and Monday snuck right up on me. My roommate and I ...

... are very loud and energetic (to say the least)!

This weekend has also been nice. I stayed in Taichung to explore and get some rest. On Friday night I went out with some teachers to see some live music at a bar called 89K. I got a little taste of home...they had the Twins game on the TV! I was excited! Even though it was a taped game and I knew that they were going to lose it still made me feel like I was at home. It was fun to get out and meet some other foreigners in Taiwan ...

... to your local Shangri-La and take a big whiff. At first you may not like it (like me), but like any other smell, you get used to it and eventually become part of the smell yourself.

When we first arrived in Taiwan I was convinced that I knew how my life would end. God didn’t have the power, it was the Taiwanese with their little devil scooters driving around calculating which foreigner ...

... about the whole situation is that, despite the fact that none of us had our driver's license, we all drove our scooters to the DMV, and those who failed at the end of the afternoon hopped on their scooters and drove home! When we arrived at the DMV I could only think of one thing: just like home. The building consisted of lots of people sitting around, waiting and wondering when their turn is going to come next. There are rich businessmen ...

Beach day! Today was our first official staff outing, which we all voted to spend a day at the beach on Taiwan's west coast. It was an absolutely beautiful day for lying around, catching some sun, enjoying some fine Taiwanese cuisine, and even risking our lives... We all met at the school around 8am and waited for our charter bus to take us to a small campground/resort for the day. When the bus pulled-up, I knew we were in for a special treat ...

... from home. I asked if they had any questions for me. One student quickly ran up and started rubbing my legs and stated to the whole class, "Teacher! So furry!" Then, the remaining 9 students proceeded to run up and rub my legs and arms with a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs." I felt like Dorothy when she realized she "wasn't in Kansas anymore." The remainder of the day went pretty well. Although, the students seem to have a problem with not raising their hands ...

... on their desks the day before they arrived. I even wrote one for the classroom's Chinese teacher/translator, Iris, who will be working with us for the whole year. They were pretty simple notes consisting of Dear_______, Thank you for coming to school today! I know we are going to have a great school year and I hope you enjoy our 2nd grade classroom. Sincerely, Teacher Scot To make the note extra special, I attached one of my Batman ...

... was about a 30 min ride to the mountains, and it gave us a chance to experience different areas and attractions Taichung has to offer. Everyone was impressed with the city's science museum- it appeared very modern with a lot of interactive exhibits. We had an absolutely beautiful ride up the mountains to the take-off area for our hike. The air quality is so much cleaner in the mountains than it is in the city (to be completely honest, you ...