Holiday Taoyuan

... Some of them are so hard to make. Besides learning the sounds we also worked on the 5 tones that they use in the language! So much to learn. Our teacher is great, though she wants to only have 2 classes where she uses English and then wants to switch to all Chinese! That might be a little overwhelming but I guess it will make me learn it! It is fun to be a student again too. It keeps things in perspective with what my students are going through learning a second language ...

... to keep their comments PG13. So now...they say things like 'Doing things that are tiring'. (when they are referring to sex. One day I was talking about how magazines like to use pictures of sexy men and women on their cover. Sam immediately put his hand up. 'Teacher, you said we couldn't talk about sex'! 'Sam, baby...I WASN'T. Sexy is an adjective...you are allowed to use adjectives...you just can't use the NOUN or the VERB'! (You know you're a ...

... travels till it runs out and then comes back to make more. It's funny because he's a white guy...with bleached blonde dreads. It's an interesting combination...but I think it works for him. Anyway, he's a dance-floor-*****...so we were just havin' a blast. We started partying at like...5 PM and I think I was all done by 9 PM. It's weird...leaving a club right when most people would start getting ready to go out! Back in June, I decided that I ...

... Some hours later he messaged back saying he had already planned to have dinner with his friends. I started to get a bad vibe. Monday rolled along and I politely asked him if he had any plans on doing something with me before he left the country. His response was 'I'm going to be really busy. Plus, I have more important people to see'. I was like...OUCH. You know...forgive me for the stereotype...but I can only base my observations on my personal experiences...but I had forgotten ...

So far, 2007 is the best year in travel for me. I finally reached a lifelong goal of "100 countries by 40" (now I've been to 106). Aside from my overland, 10 country trip in Africa, I made another trip to the Balkans (also my 14th Euro-trip), and finally, took an Alaskan cruise with my parent. So two of my "Top 10 Places I Wanted to Visit but Hadn't been to" at the beginning of 2007 were just visited. Another former Top 10, Venezuela, due to its crazy ...

Trying to change flight times for tomorrow's flight to HK. Qantas, AA, Cathay - who do we ring?? Finally confirmed. Afternoon took a tour to YangMing National Park and then on to a mineral spa place. The National Park was a little low-key with some ok garden landscaping but would have been quite a spectacle a couple of months earlier when all of the azaleas and rhododendrons were in bloom. The spa gave you a choice of going into the gender-separated public pool area or a private bath in a ...

... passing by. They suggest me to look for the janitor of the church, who is also the janitor in the school. I just want to walk there, when they call a lady, who then makes a cellphone call to the janitor. I shall wait at the church, the lady would then come. After a short while the lady comes and shows me the tong pu. I am again alone. Later the priest comes and we talk about his church, a Presbyterian church and the other 2 churches in the ...

... in their red envelope! The celebrations really start to kick off on New Year's Eve, when the whole family gets together for a reunion dinner. Apparently this is the largest human migration in the world, with people going incredibly long distances sometimes to the home of the most senior family member. It's the only time of year it's possible to get a direct flight to China from Taiwan - the rest of the year you can only fly to Hong Kong. I have to ...

... time we went into the international departure side, after paying the $500 bahts departure fee of course. After the customs, we walked through a long shopping area to get to our gate. Once at the gate, that is where security is, when you have to go through the metal detector and where they check your bags. But once we passed through security, there was not much to see at the gate except to sit and wait for ...