Lucky News Hotel Taoyuan

... to us.

While we were there we also came to some performances going on. There were some aboriginal drummers and 2 different dance performances. We sat and watched them for a while. It is always fun to see the differences between their dancing/music and ours.

After we had made all our purchases we made our way back to Taichung. It was a nice day trip and I was able to get a little bit of Christmas shopping done along the way.

Sunday:
I now have ...

... my uniform was from). So many students walked right past me...and only clued in when approached them and spoke English to them. It was great! We had our Halloween party that day and the students all told ghost stories. October 30th to November 1st were the Gloria English School Halloween days. We taught normal classes the first hour and then had parties and went trick-or-treating from class to class during the ...

... I also purchased a Canon 8.0 megapixel IXUS camera...which takes awesome pictures and video. Right before my first SCUBA outing I purchased an underwater case for it (since it already has a special underwater photo setting). Anyway, after two outings I had amassed quite the collection of photos and videos. I am also going to be traveling a bit in the next few months. I have a 4-day long weekend planned with Meghan in September (we'll stay in ...

... case you missed it ;). This then led me to think about striking out and getting my own apartment. I didn't want to go live by myself, I did that in Brazil...and you don't save much money. I then thought of getting a roomate....which then led me to start thinking of candidates. My candidate list was very short. It only had one person on it, really: Meghan. I knew we got along very well because in the times we were together (usually day-tripping somewhere) we never really had any ...

... crack me up and sometimes I am laughing so hard I have a hard time teaching properly. I have this one kindy class in which one of my students is called Chi-Chi. The other kids spontaneously started called her 'Lychee' one day. So now when I call her up to play a game...everyone is like 'go, go lychee!'. Seriously...how can one keep a straight face through that? In my other kindy class I have kids with strange names: 'Bright' and 'Smile'. I like calling them up together ...

... again last March, I remain uninspired by most of those islands. Most of them are just too touristy and too Americanized (I didn't come to Aruba for Dunking Donut and Chi-Chi's). Maybe Cuba would be very different from that. "Buena Vista Social Club" also gave me some longing for Cuban music. The tricky part is, it is more difficult to travel from US to Cuba than from Taiwan to China. It is not even technically legal for Americans to go to Cuba... 7. Iceland: Now one of very, very few ...

... was in as I reached for my card. "With Cathay?" she asked. "No, Qantas - all part of the same alliance!?..." "No sorry - only Cathay Frequent Flyers." And with that, all ideas of the birthing suite were jettisoned back to public labour ward level in Seat 68A at the opposite end of the 747. With a chattering Chinese tour group. With one hour's sleep overnight. With a three hour transit in Hong Kong before ...

... of temples (Longshan included), and you can use the oracle blocks to choose which one to use for your question. Each fortune teller has a number carved into a long thing piece of wood - you take the piece of wood, ask the blocks if it's the right one, and keep going until you get one that's ok. It an odd thing to watch - people chucking these little bits of wood all over the place in between other people bowing with bunches of long incense sticks ...

... Petersburg, and everywhere else that I'd seen it, wondering why I was here and not in Russia. Still asking myself that! The actual building was amazing - i walked upstairs onto an old tiled floor. You know where it's so worn with age that everything's a bit wonky? The kind of floor that's in so many buildings at home, but almost none here. It kind of took me by surprise - there just aren't any old buildings in this country! That brought a smile to my face. It's ...

... and it was small, old, and woody. I wonder what the new airport looks like, and where the hell is this new airport? We heard it was closer to the city so easier access. It was dark and pouring rain by the time our plane landed! Luckily we found a taxi who will take us to our Malaysia Hotel in Sathon near Lumphini MRT for $350 bahts. We wonder what Bangkok city awaits us in daylight, but we just hope that it stops raining!