Dear friends,
Here is our second video, "Learning Some Chinese Songs!" to our pen pals in the United States of America. We have aleady begun writing our second letters to our pen pals. Enjoy!

Dear friends,
On Saturday, April 18, my school had its Spring performance in front of Xiao Gang Hospital.  There were twenty to twenty-five performances slated for that afternoon. Some of my advanced fifth and sixth graders performed an English Reader's Theater Script that I found on the web, which Ashley and I revised. We've been practicing with these fifth and sixth graders for nearly a month and a half now for 45 minutes every Monday and Tuesday during their required mid-day naptime. It was a lot of work on the part of the students and the teachers.

However, it all paid off when we saw our little students perform! They were so nervous when they got up on stage and the wind blew all their witch hats away, but they still were enthusiastic and happy about performing. Ashley and I are so proud of our students.

The Spring performance was not just for my school; it was for the entire Xiao Gang District community. So, there were many different performances from high schools, junior high schools, and other elementary schools. Performances ranged from playing the harmonica, to singing, to rap dances. Check out more photos here!

Cast of characters: (Top row) Witch 1 pair, Witch 2 pair, Witch 3 pair (Bottom row) Cowgirls, Janitors, and Narrators

Yi-Ling & Ashley (above left), the MC & I (Remember him from Hua Shan's ten year anniversary? He was my co-MC at during the 10-yr anniversary)

Check out their outdoor Reader's Theater Performance:

Dear friends,
Last weekend, Joyce (my co-worker and friend from Ling Zhou Elementary School) took a couple friends and I go barbecuing at Sugar Park in the Nanzih District in northern Kaohsiung. We spent the day barbecuing lots of meats (pork, beef from Costco, and fish!), riding bikes, and playing frisbee.

Nicole and I love to eat the fish balls (picture to the left). You'll see in the picture below that Derek loves to play frisbee.

There is also a special type of barbecuing that takes place in Taiwan. In Taiwanese, it's called Kong Tou Ye. It's a style of barbecuing that takes one full day and the effort of the whole family. A few people use stones to build a little oven (see picture above). Meanwhile, other people use water, newspaper, and mud to wrap eggs, chicken, and other meats they want to bake.

When the stones get hot enough, you take the all the charcoal inside the oven out and put the things you want to bake inside. The Taiwanese call it "men." Then, you cover the entire thing with dirt. That is, you cover the entire oven with dirt so it bakes the entire stuff inside this little mound of dirt and stones. It's really cool. The picture to the right is a picture of all the foods you would want to bake wrapped in newspaper and mud.

You can check out more pictures here.

Dear friends,
As you may know, our English Club students are participating in a pen pal exchange with a class in the United States. Check it out here.

One of the activities we're having the students do in English Club is making videos introducing their language and culture. Here is our first video.