Grand Hi Lai Hotel Kaohsiung

... Uinuva jattilainen heraillee ilmeisesti pikkuhiljaa silla potentiaalia kaupungissa kylla olisi kai vetaa suurempiakin turistilaumoja (Kaupungissa panostetaankin kovasti talla hetkella mielenkiintoisen matkailukaupunkikuvan luomiseksi).

Samoin kuin muissakin Taiwanin kaupungeissa paivarytmi tuntuu taallakin olevan paalaellaan. Kaduille on aivan turha lahtea ennen puoltapaivaa koska mikaan ei ole silloin viela auennut. Ollaankin ...

... ball but apparently wasn't. The players went down the court and threw the ball into a basket with no back board to get a point. The neat thing, I thought was that each side of the court had set players so when the action moved across the line into the other zone it was picked up by the other half of each time. We watched the Netherlands clobber Australia. We were trying to go see the tug of war and ended up having a really nice walk along the water ...

... get to take a nap, but first have to get through these boring classes. I also hear that the Abott will be talking to us later- what an honor!

During break time, we went to a tea house near the dining hall. I got chocolate milk tea, others got coffee ice cream, almond milk tea, fries, and dumplings. Browsed gift shop- what would everyone like for souvineers? I bet ...

... teh burning over the back sides of my ribs, up to my neck and shoulders. I try to tell myself that this will get better with time and practice, but I'm not very convincing.

It's been rumored that a typhoon is coming in a couple of days. I hope so- I love the rain and wind, at least prefer it to wet, sticky sun. They sky has been darkening all day today, the palm trees are trembling!

Note to self: buy monk shoes!

... roly poly fish heads - fish heads, fish heads, eat them up yum. See the video here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx9KjdUj Kzc (FF to 2:15 in the video for the song). Right outside of the restaurant there was a stall grilling whole squid, including the tentacles. We ordered one. They grill it with soy sauce, sesame seeds, and spices. It was really good! We got a good picture of it. After lunch, we walked up to ...

... and Alan mentioned that it is a popular place for wedding receptions. Tonight I sat in between Alan and Shuying for dinner, and for the first time Alan did quite a bit of talking in English. His English is actually quite good and we had a very pleasant conversation. Also at our table was an English speaking post-PhD igneous petrologist who is working in Taipei at the Academia Sinica IES. Ted sat next to him (he was across the table from me) and they seemed to ...

... s very convenient but it's driving the smaller merchants out of business and what affect with that have on economic stability. It was now about 4pm and we set off for the hotel so that Melinda and I could do some laundry. Along the way we stopped at a small pet store so that I could take a photo of a type of pet fish that is for sale in Asia. Seth (my son) and I had watched a show about jelly fish and in the show they described how the gene for the fluorescent green light jellyfish ...

... sind und entsprechend kein Fleisch essen und in buddhistische Tempel gehen, um zu beten, aber ansonsten bekomme ich im taeglichen Leben wenig von aktiven Buddhisten mit. Der Konfuzianismus ist zwar mehr Staatsphilosphie als Religion, nichtsdestotrotz gibt es aber in jeder groesseren Stadt einen grossen Konfuzius Tempel, der als besondere Sehenswuerdigkeit ausgepriesen ist. Diese Tempel sind i.d.R. auch gross angelegt, aber innen drin relative schlicht ...

... ist ein Tradition mit allgemein unbekanntem Hintergrund, in die Tassen kommt Alkohol, oder Getraenke. Auf den Tisch kommt ueberhaupt dass, was die Leute gerne moegen, weil die guten Gaben naemlich selbst verschnabuliert werden. Der Fisch hat jedoch eine Bedeutung, denn der Glueckwunsch "Nian nian you yu" (Jedes Jahr im Ueberfluss) liest sich gleich wie das Wort fuer Fisch. Und das Saetzchen "Sui sui ping an" (Jedes Jahr Friede) beinhaltet ein ...

... Reise-Tanz. Und als Jungs durften wir tatsaechlich einen Kriegstanz mitbekommen und vor allem mitmachen. Es war auf jeden Fall eine sup** Atmospha**e und es war viel geboten; eifnach ein kroenend** Abschluss fu** das Language Camp. Am naechsten Tag hiess es dann nur noch aufraumen und packen bevor wir von uns**** Gastfamilie, uns**** neuen Familie, abgeholt wurden, so dass es schliesslich los geht, uns** "real life in Taiwan"!! ***mehr photos kommen bald***