Yaward Hotel Taoyuan

... We all tried it! I was super excited because I have always wanted to try ceramics but never had the chance. They set us up at our wheels and we had someone teach us some different techniques. It was really nice because she spoke great English. I ended up making a cup. After you finish making it you can decorate it. We all had them write our Chinese names in them. They will be mailed to us in about 2 weeks! It was nice because it was only $10 to make it and have it ...

For Halloween this year I decided to be a Taiwanese Junior High School student. I bought a uniform at a local uniform shop (which was way easier than I had ever expected it to be) and completed the look with a long black wig and thick black-rimmed glasses (like most of the Jr. High School students wear here). I had a dress rehearsal on October 24th, when I had to teach a class at the Taoyuan Junior High School (the ...

... have achived my goal weight just before birthday. July is now almost finished...in two months...I will have been in Taiwan for one whole year. It's amazing how time flies so quickly at times. I have been going SCUBA diving a lot recently. I got certified back in Thailand (February) and hadn't gone since. Turns out Emil is a licensed instructor...and so I had refresher course ask with him and then went diving two weekends in a row with 3-4 other ...

... went unanswered (Alex: I'm busy, I'm working, I won't be home, it's too late, etc...) and I never did get an exact hypothetical 'moving in' date from him...and so this lead me to re-think the option. I knew that I wanted to stay in Taiwan for at least another year (let's face it, I make good money here) and also knew that I did not want to continue living in the dorm. Sharing a bathroom, kitchen and two showers with 12-18 people is NOT as cool as one would think (that was sarcasm ...

... the one talking to parents about their kids. Kind of a bizarre twist on things. Thankfully they went well and I didn't have any problems. This one father actually wanted constructive criticism of his son (I had only sung his praises). Anyway, the administration was quite pleased with how things went and they complimented me on my professional look (I wore a black skirt and black blazer...company suit-wear I had from my Brazilian Oil Company stint). Item #4: Some kids ...

... country that gets snubbed by the world (because they all want to do business with the largest 'market' in the world), I can feel for Somalilanders. Though I'm not sure what is really interesting there (they supposedly have some nice Red Sea beaches), I decided to put them at my Top 10. 9. Easter Island, Chile: Moved up to No. 9 from No. 10. Even though I traveled to Chile last year, I visited only Chile's central valley and Lake District. Not only I did not ...

... are within a very small margin. Picked up a couple of items on the wishlist but soon realsied that this was a "dangerous" place to spend any amount of time as you keep seeing bargains that reach out and tempt you. Credit cards are very much in danger of being over-used!! Time to get out. The temperature outside at the time of night of 7 pm was still 30 deg C and humidity still way up there as well. This is like the west Indies in that respect only - definitely a two shower-per-day place.

... in the aboriginal tribes, who had to give up their nature based beliefs under the Japanese rule and also because of the prejudice they felt from the majority Han Chinese. It is a common phenomenon around the world that minorities are seen as inferior by the dominant culture and will therefore protect themselves by turning to a world religion. I have seen several churches who perform very active social work and health care services and have an ...

... s party - it was a bit of a joke, just a load of foreigners half heartedly shaking a few bits of material, but there are specialist lion dancing troupes that put on amazing shows. There's two people in each lion, one the back legs and one the front, and by various acrobatic tricks, they make the lion dance and wiggle. They kind of look like a small dog, but it's really lifelike, with lots of tricks and jumping around. The dance often is accompanied by ...

... After Bon went back to Toronto, lab test came out that she had a parasite causing campylobacter disease. It is basically a bacteria that got into her system either through water or undercooked poultry. The symptoms of diarrhrea, fever and stomach pains appear 2-3 days after being infected, and may last 7-10 days. We both remembered drinking a fruit shake at the Suan Lum night market in Bangkok on our ...