Neihu Area/Xihu MRT

I live on the border lines of Neihu District and Zhongshan District. Today, I decided to walk around and take pictures of restaurants and popular places in the area. I have a daily struggle of deciding what I want to eat and a" hungry girls blog" doesn't have a lot of options when it comes to my area. So, hopefully this will help. The majority of the places had menus in Chinese only, but if they have pictures then I can work with it. I never knew how meaningful pointing to pictures could be. Lol! It was another gorgeous day! It felt like a Sunday. After roaming around, I decided to go to the Riverside park near my apartment to rest and read a few chapters of the Bible. While there, I found out that they have a volleyball court. This is great news because I have been looking for a court to play on since I got here. I only get to play in Tianmu once a week so this should help my skill levels. I do have a team to coach when I get back.  Only 4 1/2 months until I return to the States. I will try to get out and take more pictures because that time will fly by. Check out the pictures of the sidewalk. Most of the sidewalks are made of tiles. It gets really slippery on rainy days! Enjoy!



Taipei City Zoo

I went to the Taipei City Zoo to relax and enjoy the nice weather. It was 79 degrees with the perfect amount of sunshine. There were lots of people out and I saw some very interesting animals. I haven't been to the zoo since I lived in Memphis. I felt like a little kid all over again. My pictures include regular zoo animals, what they call Formosan zoo animals, and some popular clothing trends. A lot of people here wear boots, tights, short skirts or shorts, long socks, and long shirts. Everyone has their own sense of style. Enjoy the pics!



Jihu Lu Temple

There is a temple at the corner of my street. Tonight, they had a parade, fireworks, and a form of worship. It lasted for about 30 min. No, it didn't help my slight headache, but it was quite interesting to watch. I'm getting better at not being so scared of the fireworks here as well. Yay, me! Here are some photos and a video of their celebration.



Saturday=School Day

We had to work Saturday to make up for a day that we took as a holiday. I'm not sure why a holiday would need to be made up, but we went. We had to attend a full day like it was a regular school day. I learned that they used to go to school regularly on Saturdays. I'm so glad that was changed before I came! We let the kids play games. They played a heart match up game where they had to put hearts together. Each heart had a part of a poem printed on it. After they correctly put the heart together, they had to put the poem together in the correct order. If they were really good, then they had to recite the poem without reading it. The second game was sort of like horseshoes, but we used plastic food products from our Supermarket Situation Classroom. The students had to toss a mini ring into or near a bigger ring. No one was able to ring the items, but they got pretty close. The students received points if they touched or made it inside of the ring. Winners received a small prize.



Lantern Festival - Part 1

Today, marks the start of the Lantern Festival. That means lots of locals and foreigners going to the same place. Big crowds!!! It also means that I will hear fireworks from 5pm-10pm, again at 12am, and again at 2am. I don't plan on getting much sleep because the fireworks wake me up and shake the building. Enjoy the pics!

Week 1 - English Club

Today was our first day of English Club for the semester. The students created personalized bookmarks, filled out an interest survey, and watched 2 video examples for their semester performance. The interest survey results will be used in a family feud game for a future class. Their performance for the School Fair will come from Do, Re, Mi (The Sound of Music) and In The Jungle. The kids seem really excited and I look forward to working with this very energetic group of kids. Enjoy the photos!

Below are some videos showing some of the kids getting into it!

2nd Semester Dialogue

Here is a video that we showed the students. This is what they will be learning this semester.

Worship Day - School Staff Field Trip

Our school has a Worship Day each year. In previous years, they would stand at the front gate of the school. Not sure what kind of worship would take part, but I do know that this year they wanted to do something different. So, they got a bus for us and took us to Yilan. Yilan is on the East side of Taiwan.  It used to take 2 hours to get there, but they built a tunnel and not it takes only 30-45min. There was a disco ball with working lights on the bus along with karaoke. I was surprised to hear that one of my many directors could sing quite well.
We toured a museum, went to a temple, had coffee at Mr. Browns, and stopped at a souvenir bread shop on the way home. We had lunch a small restaurant located down the street from the museum.  The people here at 10 course meals almost everyday! I was full after the first 5 dishes. Yes, I tried everything, but the squid. I was being very brave!!! I have quickly learned that I am not a seafood person. 
It was a very tiring day, but I'm glad that we went. It was a great way to fellowship. It started raining so a lot of pictures have rain spots. Sorry! Enjoy the photos!

Danshui Area

After cold weather and lots of rain, the sun magically appeared on a Saturday. The weather was great! I decided to take a trip out to Danshui, which is on the red line via Taipei Metro. It took me about an hour to get there, but it was a nice ride. I was able to see some different areas of Taiwan because the metro took us through tunnels and out in the open. The water was very calm. I noticed on the metro that a lot of people were looking at me. It was weird! I just smiled, said hello, and acknowledge that I saw them by nodding my head. They looked at me from head to toe, but paid special attention to my hair. One kid even got on the metro, pointed at me, and said "black!" I just smiled and laughed because that wasn't the first time that has happened. It is amazing how many people here that have NEVER seen a black person before. I love how they try to sneak and take your picture. I will take the picture with them if they would just ask or gesture. I guess I will work on that with them while I'm here. The line to ride the ferry was super long so I didn't even attempt to get on it. I will try again when it stops raining so much. Enjoy the pictures!

In-Service Video

We had to send in our video for teacher in-service so that others could see our school, learn about our responsibilities, and learn about our students.  Here is a video about the duties given to me during the 1st semester at Bin Jiang Elementary. Of course, I had to be silly. I was second to last in presenting during our 3 day stay in Taichung. Enjoy!