more pics from Taidong

Here's Janice and I with a couple kids from the aboriginal village we stayed at... aborginal dance performances...

our morning coffee...

haha, when you're desperate, you're desperate!

Visit to Taidong

Here are a few pics from a recent trip to Taidong, a beautiful city on the east coast of Taiwan. I went with Dennis (a friend from Canada who was visiting Taiwan), Janice, and about 200 others from her church. Dennis and I were the only foreigners along on the trip, and of course everything was in Chinese, but it was a great experience!

We enjoyed lots of good food...
bike ride around a scenic lake...
The oceanside was magnificent. I wanted to stay there all day...
Taidong's hot springs...

the cutest mummies you ever saw

Here are some pics from the recent Halloween parties in my classes.

The toilet paper mummy game was a big hit...

It was a real novelty for me to see Peter stand still for a good chunk of time while the other boys wrapped him up in toilet paper. He's usually bouncing off the walls. I think his mother feeds him pure sugar (and maybe an espresso?) before she sends him to class. :-)


Another beautiful mummy...



He looks so serious but he's loving the attention of being wrapped. This kid is a real card. My class would be dull without him.


uh oh... these boys are getting carried away. I told them not to wrap the face!


Super Hero Carl!!!

hiking and caving on monkey mountain

Here's a group of us who went caving on the weekend. Sean, at bottom right, is standing at the entrance to the cave that led to a very narrow passageway. It was terribly fun crawling through the cave and getting dirty. :-)

Here's a few pics from a different hike we went on a while back . . .

Moon Festival BBQ

My friend Kyle invited a bunch of friends over to his new house in Pintung County (just south of Kaohsiung) for a Moon Festival BBQ. Moon Festival, AKA: Mid-Autumn Festival, is a big event here in Taiwan and most families get together for a big BBQ.

My 25th birthday

Ya, I know it's been a loooong time since I posted anything. That's mostly because my camera broke so I couldn't take any pictures and what's a blog without pictures. As of yesterday, I now have a working camera once again, so I hope to post more pictures soon. Until then, here's some pictures that were taken with my friends' cameras.

This is my friend, David You. He stopped by to visit me on his way back to Korea from Canada.

This is my surprise birthday cake that David bought me. We were just finishing up the Bible study and then he brought this out. Wow, what a fun surprise!
Here's a shot of the girls (plus David -- ya, I forced him to come to my "women's Bible study" -- poor guy, lol)...
Another good shot...
At Dream Mall on August 23rd morning... this is supposedly the biggest mall in Asia.

Janice and I inside Dream Mall
My friend Emily and I
Starbucks inside Dream Mall

David's visit

David "fit right in" in Taiwan. Here he is riding my scooter. It was funny, because everywhere we went people tried to talk to him in Chinese but of course he couldn't understand them.
me...
Liuhe Night Market...
Janice and David after we enjoyed "baobing" which is a shaved ice dessert with fruit
Janice and me

Barking Class

It's been stormy and rainy for the last several days and today once again it was pouring most of the day. So, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies. It took up a big chunk of my afternoon because we only have a little microwave-size oven so I could only bake 6 cookies at a time. I made about 9 batches of 6.

Before I made the cookie dough, I needed to buy some more white flour, so I went shopping at the newly-renovated Pineapple Store, which is basically a big supermarket full of baking supplies. Just before I exited the store, I noticed a sign by the stairs leading up to the second floor. The sign read: "Barking class, 2nd floor." Oh, my goodness, I had to laugh out loud. I thought to myself, "My, my, the Taiwanese really do think of everything... even a class to teach people how to bark." I was tempted to sign up, since I'm really not a good barker, but I had to run. Maybe next time. :-)

Anyway, speaking of interesting signs, I was reminded of a very interesting sign I saw while touring in China:In case you can't see the words clearly, here's what it says:

Warnings of consumption in tideviewing scenic spot
Dear visitors:
You have entered the Yanguan scenic spot. For make your visit safe and happy, we make warnings with you together.
1. Various kinds of ticket are evidences that make your rights ensured, keep appropriately, please. If you have aesthetic mood, they can be collected as treasures.
2. Step into the scenic spot, when being so enchanted by the scenery, keep your own personal articles well, and look out for the safe suggestion of every beauty spot at any time. make sure not to smoke, not to play with fire, pay attention to the personal security.
3. Enter the tideviewing park, obey the regulations of viewing tides and don't be crowded.
4. Ask the price clearly when consuming in scenic spot, shrewd quality. If your legitimate rights and interests are damaged, please keep the good evidence, complain in time. . .

More China Pictures

Here's a few more pictures from my China trip . . .

Disong and his father . . .Disong and his grandpa . . . Jonathan and Robbie . . . Eating breakfast in LongSheng . . . Here's a close-up of the local noodle-dish that I'm eating. It tasted fabulous. Our bus suddenly stopped while on route to Guilin because the bridge was out. We just had to wait for another bus to come from Guilin and pick us up on the other side of this bridge to transport us to Guilin. Enjoying a scenic river boat ride . . .

These monkeys were the cutest things ever! I wish I had some close-ups of them. Or better yet, I wish I could've brought one back with me! :-)

this lady was so sweet that I just had to have my picture taken with her. . .Shanghai at night . . . foot massage . . . ah, this is heaven! touring in Larry's hometown . . .

inside the famous Guilin caves . . .
a typical home in the countyside . . .