Dear friends,
Our pen pals in the United States have sent us wonderful correspondences (Please see this page). In return, we have created lots of videos for them. "Pen Pal Exchange Video 3: Let's Introduce Our School" is now up on this page.

Check it out!

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.

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)