Taipei/Danshui

Today we took a day trip to Taipei and Danshui. In Taipie we were soaked from head to toe as we headed to the Chaing Kai-Shek Memorial. Chaing Kai-Shek was a the first President of Taiwan. He help to establish the democracy of Taiwan. At the memorial we were able to witness the changing of the gaurds. After the memorial we road the subway system (MRT) out to Danshui were we had intended to visit a dutch fort. Another lost in translation moment took us to the bridge of lovers. It was a fun day and great to smell the sea.

Pirate Time

For a drama activity, with morning kindergarten, we were piaretes. We sailed on a ship, walked the plank, had a sword fight, and a treasure hunt. This video is of my one group of the kids singing "Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pirates Life for Me." http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7621114861069743700&pr=goog-sl&hl=en

Family Meal

Tonight I enjoyed a traditional Taiwanese meal with a family. They brought all the food out to the table. There was a whole fish (the eyes were fought over), vegetables, sweeten cabbage/papaya, sausage (very sweet), and a pork egg mixture. You get a bowl of rice and with chopstick in hand grab whatever you would like. Everyone ate off their chopstick then dug in again. After you are finished eating you use your rice bowl and have soup. I cannot even describe the soup. It was weird and I forced myself to finish it. Dessert was a seaweed gelatin with sweeten condensed milk drizzled on top. Yes, it was not very tasty. However, it was a fun and interesting eating experience. They want me to come over again really soon. We will see what happens. The pictures are of a swing they had in the middle of their living room and some of the fun food.

Lost in Translation

As much as I try to practice Chinese I feel that I am doomed to live my life her illiterate and lost in translation. An example of this would be my adventure to the ward activity. Today ward activity was to meet the member from the branch at a swimming pool in Taichung. Because I had gone to the amazing spa/pool just this week I had high expectations. Because there are 15 of us we all left in different groups. My group consisted of Liz Merket, Brett, and Sergio (nothing can go wrong with the boys). We boarded a train and got off in Taichung. Sergio said that he remember how to get their an why pay the expensive taxi price (200nt). Instead we set off to take a bus (20nt). After waiting for what we thought was the right bus it turned out we were waiting in the wrong location. We went to the correct bus stop and when the correct bus came them driver would not let us on and told us to wait for another bus. This bus took forever to show up. We boarded and enjoyed the right. Segrio, as the only member of our group who spoke Chinese told us it was time to get off. I do not know where we were, but there was no swimming pool. We asked for direction every block and finally arrived at a swimming pool. It turned out we were at the wrong swimming pool. The people as this pool were very nice and called other pools and found our party. A taxi was called and we finally arrived at the correct location.

This took us three hours to finally get there. Sadly the swimming pool was not as amazing as the one I had already been to and everyone was leaving. Since we had paid we were determined to have a good time. We stayed for about an hour and then headed out. When we went home paying the extra money did not matter We took a taxi to the train station and then home. It was along day.

Luckily since I was with Liz we were in good spirits. We discussed former
spring break trips, future reunion trips, how to take over the world, and
other excite topics. When we got home we enjoyed some bing-shaws and movie to top of our exciting day.

Spa/Swimming Pool

When it comes to swimming the Taiwanese know how to do it. Last Thursday (August 17, 2006) I went to a swimming pool/spa. At this location was a two lap pools, swimming area, kiddie area, slide, sauna, steam room, a shower that beats so hard on your back it gives a massage, hot tubs, and the best way I can describe the last two things is bubble chair and bed. You lay or sit in these beds and chairs press a button and enjoy a massage. It was heaven!!! The best part, it was free! A wonderful Taiwanese family had extra tickets and invited us out.

Jack and the Beanstalk

In morning kindergarten we begin our day with an opening activity. This include songs, weather, calander, greeting, and exercise activity. Next, the children are broken up into 5 groups. They spend between 20-30 min with each teacher and then rotate to the next teacher with a new activity area. The 5 activity areas are Kitchen, Drama, Games, Art & Crafts, and Gym. Right now I am the drama teacher. This week we are doing Jack and the Beanstalk. In the pictures were the kids are wearing a hat, Jack is selling his cow. In the other pictures they are climbing the beanstalk. The focus was on action words. Climbing the beanstalk, running from the giant, and other fun senerio's.

50th Anniversary Celebration

Today we learned some Taiwanese cooking. Our Head Secretary Gloria and another secretary Gina taught us how to make homemade dumplings. It was a wonderful chance to be able to bond with our secretaries. Gloria also asked if I would be staying until for a year. I told her no because my family would miss me. Then she said that she would miss me if I left. I love her.

We also got on a train and headed to Chung-Hua for the fifty year anniversary celebration. When we got to the location there was a cement slide that we played on. Before we knew it we had an audience of Taiwanese children who had joined us.

After we were done playing we headed into the stadium for the performance. The fifty-year celebration of the church in Taiwan was amazing. There was traditional martial arts performances and dancing. After this they showed, through song, dance , and skits the church entering and spreading through Taiwan. My favorite part was when they showed a traditional Taiwanese marriage and then introduced the temple dedication with older couple dressed in white ballroom dancing to I Love to See The Temple and Familes Can be Together Forever. At the end the had a medley of faith in every footstep and called to serve sang as all the missionaries who had every served in Taiwan joined the performer. It was a fun experience.