Swallow Castle Hotel Taichung

... to be quiet. But once they figured it out they were silent for the rest of the story. They thought Spanish sounded so funny and they loved hearing another language. It was fun for me to try and read Spanish to them too.

This weekend was alumni weekend at St. Mary's so I was sad knowing that all my friends were back together for the weekend. I did call them on Friday night and got to talk to them all so that was nice but Katie, my roommate who graduated from St ...

It is hard to believe that I have been here for 2 months already! I am amazed at how fast the time here has gone. Summer is almost over, we start our regular program on Monday in conjunction with the students' Chinese school starting. Next week will be a week of adjustments and my schedule will be changing. Just when I was getting a routine that was working for me I have to go and readjust everything. Oh well it will be a nice change except for that I will ...

... was up to the parents standards. The parents expect their students papers to be completely marked. Each piece of work my have a grade on it and each problem must have a check mark or an X on it. After grading something it is a little overwhelming so it takes a little getting used to. Also as far as homework the parents expect their kids to be doing a lot of work. I assign 3 pieces of homework a night for my 3rd graders. I haven't had this yet but they have ...

... at the resort enjoying its tree house feel and its many hot tubs, personal and public. They also had a small pool where you put your feet in and tiny fish nibble the dead skin off you feet. This was extremely tickling and hard to bear at first but as you get used to it, it feels rather satisfying. I must have had a lot of dead skin cells because they were flocking (if that is what fish do) to my feet!! Tania too! Enjoy the pictures of our tree house hotel.

... to kill it for me and then get rid of it. I then work up to another one dead in the shower! That is one thing I will not be able to get used to!

Overall I have really been enjoying it here and have really started adjusting to life here. My roommates and fellow teachers have been so helpful with pointing me in the right direction for anything I need and giving me all the tricks of the trade for living in Taiwan!

This weekend we have an all ...

... up her garage door and started getting the grill ready with the other Chinese teachers. They could not get the charcoal (which is not the same kind of charcoal we are used to, it looked more like black woodchips) to light. So, her uncle (who came out of nowhere) rolls a humongous tank of propane gasoline and brings the huge welding torch over where he proceeds to light the grill like he is Tim Taylor from Home Improvement. Now that is what I ...

... home before nightfall (the swim began on Sunday morning). We declined taking our scooters to the mountains in what would have resulted in about a scooter ride of over two hours. Instead, we went to the bus station in hopes of obtaining a quick ride to the lake and returning before it got too late. When we arrived at the station, we had just missed the bus. However, the bus manager organized a taxicab ride for us to take for the price of about $10 each (the bus ...

... or more scooter accidents in our first two months in this country. Finally, my ARC allows me to open a bank account in Taiwan. Which means another important thing: I can finally get paid. Yes, it was a glorious day to finally receive my first paycheck as an overseas educator today. All of the stresses that come with teaching 2nd grade, then team teaching 2nd grade, then teaching 3rd grade, and then back to 2nd grade suddenly ...

A family friend of ours, Rees Roberts, e-mailed me this morning with a rather alarming message. The message asked, Hey, just noticed you had a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. I suggest you update your blog with your impressions. Rees The message was accompanied with an official announcement from the National Earthquake Information Center/US Geological Survey showing that, indeed, Taiwan was hit ...

... way to come up and find me to wish me a happy birthday. It really made me feel pretty special. However, after working at school and on my way home, things got a little rough. On my way out the door, for the first time the whole trip, it started pouring outside. What made things even worse was that I left my poncho at home! So, I had to walk out to my moped and drive home in the rain (despite my attempts to kill time for an hour and a half by ...