Dear friends,
Today, the faculty and staff took pictures with the graduating sixth grade students. Click to enlarge each of the pictures! Congratulations, students!

Dear friends,
This past weekend, I went with my host family to Alishan Mountain in Central Taiwan. Last week and this week are special weeks that the cherry blossoms bloom, flowers given to Taiwan by Japan as a gift. We woke up at 6am and drove four and a half hours to Alishan National Forest Recreation Area. There were SO many people there! The blooming of the cherry blossoms is a very special event and it attracts lots of tourists from all over Taiwan.

At Alishan, we also saw lots of gigantic trees. The picture to the left is a red cypress about 2,000 years old! When we went to Alishan, the weather was fantastic, clear skies and very warm. We hiked the trails up the mountain and then came back down on the train. Most people took the train up, but the line was too long at the bottom of the mountain so we decided to just walk up.

Be sure to check out photos here! There are lots of jumping photos of me and my host family.

Dear friends,
Last weekend, I went to Nantou and Jiji in central Taiwan. My host mom is a high school English teacher and her school participated in the Natural Disaster Youth Summit (NDYS) 2009. The NDYS Summit is a conference for high schoolers all over the world to discuss how to prevent natural disasters. Students present their country's most common natural disasters and then discuss with others how to prevent, control, and anticipate these events. NDYS was formed by a group of teachers in 2004 and the first conference was held in Kobe, Japan. This year, the conference was hosted by Taiwan because it is the ten year anniversary of the devastating JiJi earthquake that struck central Taiwan.

The participating countries this year included Russia, Turkey, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and Taiwan. The two-day conference was filled with lots of activities. The students each gave 7-9 minute presentations on their region's natural disasters, participated in a video conference with other NDYS teams around the world, and visited Nantou & Jiji, the places struck by the September 21, 1999 earthquake (the picture to the left is a piece of the Earth's crust where distinct layers in the Chenglongpu fault line are visible). The students also discussed with each other their different cultures, lifestyles, and education systems. I think NDYS is a really rich experience for these students and I wish I could have had something like this back in the United States. Perhaps when I go back to the U.S., I can do something similar to NDYS.

The September 21, 1999 earthquake was one of the most devastating earthquakes to ever hit Taiwan. At 1:47 am that day, Nantou and JiJi in central Taiwan were hit by this 7.3 magnitude earthquake. According to the 9-21 Museum brochure, the earthquake killed 2,415 people, injured 11,305 and caused NT$300 billion dollars in property damage. To reflect on this event, to remember lost loved ones, and to educate people about earthquakes, the Taiwanese built the 921 Earthquake Museum in Nantou. We visited this museum on the second day of the conference. The museum is really interesting because it's built on the Chenglongpu fault line and there are many structures around the museum that reflect the devastation the earthquake caused. If you look at the pictures, an elementary school building that is a part of the museum has utterly collapsed except for a few columns.

The museum and the conference was a really memorable experience. To see such enthusiastic and passionate students engaging in discussions on how to live in harmony with nature was really refreshing.

Feel free to look at more pictures from the conference here.

Dear friends,
In English Club, we are doing another cultural exchange project in addition to the Flat Stanley. Check out this page for more information!

Dear friends,
Hua Shan's basketball team just recently competed in a citywide tournament. The girl's and boy's team each took first place respectively. CONGRATULATIONS!!! They are number one in all of Kaohsiung City. Next competition is in Taipei for the national championship.

The Girl's Team, #1 in all of Kaohsiung City (above)

The Boy's Team, #1 in all of Kaohsiung City (above)

Dear friends,
One of the requests by the Bureau of Education in Kaohsiung is that each school that has an English Village must create a video introducing their English Village. Since their specifications and requirements for the video were very vague, my co-teacher, Ashley, and I exercised our liberty to create a funny video that could be used to teach our students what to bring and what not to bring to an airport. A professional film crew came to film us last Friday and we all put on makeup and costumes for the video. Below is a picture of some of the students that were in the film. In the center is my principal, Mr. Liu.

Here is a picture of the professional film crew filming my principal saying a little bit about our English Village.

The film crew will give us a copy of the video/DVD later in the semester. At the time they filmed us, they had already filmed nineteen schools with English Villages. The Kaohsiung Bureau of Education has really put a lot of money into building these English Villages.

Dear friends,
My school, Hua Shan Elementary School, recently went to English Village at a nearby elementary school. In the above picture, I am acting as the waitress and teaching my students how to order food in English. Normally, there is a foreign teacher who works at the English Village. It was not supposed to be my turn that day to work at English Village, but my friend had an emergency so I had to cover for her. My students were pleasantly surprised when they saw that I was the foreign teacher working at English Village that day. Although I thought they would be disappointed that they didn't get to meet another foreigner, my students were actually excited!

At Tai-Ping Elementary School's English Village, my students went to 8 stations, 4 in the restaurant/hotel and 4 in the supermarket. At one of the restaurant/hotel stations, my students had to put together a puzzle that me and my fellow Fulbrighters made (see above picture). At another station, the students had to unscramble some words (see picture to left) and at yet another station, they had to make a paper airplane (because the simulated environment was an airport). I previously spoke about English Village in these blog posts. To understand more about English Village, click here.

My students with their homeroom teacher (above) at the airport simulated environment. All in all, I'm really glad my students had a good time at English Village.

Dear friends,
Flat Stanley Pictures are in from New York City. Be sure to check it out at the Flat Stanley Page!

Dear friends,
As you may have noticed, I've made lots of friends in Taiwan. From little children to grandparents of co-workers, I have a mixed age range of friends. My Chinese professor (I'm taking Intermediate Chinese classes here in Taiwan) recently introduced us to some of his other foreign students.

Some of my new friends that I frequently hang out with, pictured from left: Andres (German), Finja (Taiwanese), Kevin (Taiwanese), Olivia (Taiwanese), Alex (German), & the other three Fulbrighters you already know (Gered, Rebekah, and Dan).

Dear friends,
Of the many restaurants I've been to in Kaohsiung, I've really enjoyed Korean barbecue style restaurants and a restaurant called "Sweet Dynasty." I went with my host family to the Korean barbecue restaurant a few weekends ago and I recently went to Sweet Dynasty with my co-worker, Joyce from Ling Zhou, and her family. Sweet Dynasty is a Cantonese style restaurant so they had what I really missed, dim sum! Be sure to check out my food album, as I update frequently.