Dragon Valley Hotel & Spa Taichung

Well it was a pretty quiet week here in Taiwan compared to last week. No big trips over the weekend and earthquakes. Though it was a quiet week I did have some fun new adventures! <br><br>Our principal throws a big Christmas party every year and this year's theme is Latin. She is a big ballroom dancer so she has hired a ballroom dancer to come to school every Wednesday night and give free lessons to any staff that want to go. Of course I am taking advantage of these lessons! I have been ...

... prepping the classroom that I will use to teach my new class. I will have 2 classrooms now. It was a lot of work but I am excited to start on Monday with the new students. We are going to treat Monday like a first day of school. It is cool that I get a second chance at a first day of school all within my first year of teaching. There are some things that I will be trying differently right away! We will see how things work this time! :)<br><br>This weekend was one of the ...

... very comfortable. Taiwan's HSR is also very clean which is nice. After the train we were going to catch a bus to get to the hiking trails. While we were trying to figure out where to find the bus a man approached us asking if we needed a taxi. After telling him that we didn't he proceded to help us figure out where to find the bus. While talking with him we discovered that he was not only fluent in speaking English and Chinese of course but that he also ...

What an exciting couple days it has been. It is Sunday night I am I worn out from the past couple days! I don't know if I am going to be ready when Monday comes! Here are some highlights from my weekend<br><br>On Friday morning I was told that I will need to switch classrooms with another teacher because of the number of students that she will have this month. Since I will have such a small class I was the only class that would be able to fit in her small room. Luckily it was just ...

... day trips with Joanne and Donnie, (wouldn&#8217;t have been the same with out you guys!). Ben has completed his packing duties and is waiting for me to help him make our most important decision of the day. Wish us luck in our new venture! Love, Tania <br><br>"It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."<br> ~ Ursula K. LeGuin<br>

... to keep the town safe and social. This evening, as I was putting on my helmet to scoot back to my apartment, a man approached me with a rather interesting proposal. He spoke English quite fluently and explained that he as on the town board and asked if I would be interested in getting involved in local government. My ears perked up as I asked him some questions about what they do and where they meet. He said that there was a meeting going on in the ...

... Bella, the Chinese teacher who is very light weight, got stuck half-way down the wire and needed to be pulled down by one of the guides waiting at the bottom. We all thought nothing of the situation until Joe, another staff member, zipped down and came to a complete and sudden stop after his rope came to a rust-spot on the wire, causing his body to whip forward and put severe strain on his arms. What made the situation even more humorous was ...

... a Chinese lantern shop and made a few purchases. We then visited the local folk art museum where we saw some artifacts from ancient Taiwanese culture. The town is well known for a Dragon Boat festival that they hold every year (on a much bigger scale than the one that Racine holds in mid-June) so we all decided to have our photo taken in the museum's dragon boat that was on display. It was fun mini-road trip and we all hope to make quite a few more in the coming weeks.

... usual costs of getting set up in a place are rapidly paid back when the money just starts flooding in. - The country. The new hispeed rail opened up and made everything so easy to get to. Even without the rail the luxury buses were always fun to take to Taipei. Kenting beach is a bit further to get to but worth the adventure, especially in the first weekend of April when it hosts a massive music festival. There was always a ...

... distance and biggest ride of their lives. The bike trail took us through a variety of places that included the canal, a small grove of trees, and across a railroad track. We rode about four miles total- two miles each direction. We stopped half way for some lunch. Although a number of kids got tired on the way back and cried that they did not want to pedal anymore, most of them really enjoyed themselves and were extremely tired at the ...