Dear friends,
I had an early birthday celebration with some close friends and the ETAs last Thursday. Although my birthday is not until July 12, I wanted to celebrate it early with everyone I met in Taiwan. We went to the Cuckoo Restaurant behind Pasadena on Heping Yi Lu near the Cultural Center. It was delicious and I had a great time. Thank you everybody for the early birthday wishes!

You can find more pictures here!

Dear friends,
I raise my glass of grape juice to all the wonderful mothers out there who work so hard to raise good, kind-hearted, morally conscious children. Happy Mother's Day!

To my host mom (above picture) and my host family for all the wonderful adventures I have spent with them in Taiwan and the laughter we have shared, a toast!
To my apartment host aunt, Joyce from Ling Zhou Elementary School (below right), for all the fun times we've spent at restaurants, traveling around Taiwan, and laughing at our inside jokes, a toast!
To my Fulbright coordinator, Amanda (below left), to all the wonderful conversations, trips to see the doctor and dentist, and tea times we've had, a toast!

Dear friends,
To celebrate the new year, I went to Taipei (again). I was just there the weekend before to see Lang Lang play piano. I went with Kate and a friend from college, Chao-Wei.

When we got to Taipei, we walked around a lot because we got there super early. The outdoor concert started at 7pm; we got there at 6pm. It was also lightly raining in Taipei and it was much colder than Kaohsiung. The wind chill is not as awful as Iowa winter weather, but it was colder than the 70 degree weather in Kaohsiung. I borrowed Chia-Ling's coat because I didn't bring any real winter clothes because I thought this tiny little island wouldn't be cold. Well, I sure was proven wrong when I got a cold last month during the weather change. Anyway, thank you Chia-Ling for letting me borrow your coat; it kept me very warm =D.

When the concert started at 7pm, it was pretty cool because Kate, Chao-Wei, and I got pretty good spots considering we were so early. There were many famous singers at the concert, but I don't really remember their names. However, I did see S.H.E. sing several songs, this guy from Tainan who wore cool glasses (see pictures below), and I really wanted to see MayDay (Wu Yue Tian) sing, but they were last. We left our good spot in front of the concert early because we wanted to be near the MRT to beat the mad rush home after the fireworks. I was really grateful that did that because we got to where we were staying at 1:30am and not 2 or 3 am.

The Famous Singers at the Outdoor Concert (at least up until we left for a closer location near the MRT)...

Click to enlarge the pictures

The next day, I was very tired, but I had an excellent breakfast to start the New Year. Check it out:

We met up with some of Chao-Wei's friends in Taipei and we had lunch at Din Tai Feng. After lunch, we headed to the biggest night market in Taipei, Shi Lin Yie Shi. Lots of fun! You can see lots of photos in Taiwan Photo Set 27.

Dear friends,
Winter is such a splendid time--making snowmen, putting frosting on cookies, having a feast with the family, and giving gifts. In celebration of the many different ways Americans spend their holiday season, I showed my kids pictures of what some Americans do during this time. I made a powerpoint that explained:
1) shopping and exchanging/giving gifts
2) decorating your house with lights
3) how families get together and eat lots of food
4) the many celebrations that happen in America (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, winter solstice, etc.) during the winter time
5) how some little children leave milk, cookies, and a letter out for Santa Claus
and 6) the many winter sports that people do (skiing, snowboarding, snowball fights, etc.)

To me, the holiday season is incomplete if I do not give gifts to people who are close to me to show my appreciation. For Chia-Ling, Ashley, and my host family, I made each of them a photo album (idea was given to me by Joyce from Ling Zhou Elementary School who gave me my own photo album! We have a surprise for Joyce and her family later this year...shhh! I can't say anything right now because she's reading this blog). Each album took about two hours to make, but I really enjoyed making them because these people really mean a lot to me. They have made my experience in Taiwan so special!

My school celebrated Christmas with an end of the year performance. In Taiwan, not many people are Christians, but they still celebrate Christmas. It is not as sensitive of an issue here as it is in the United States where some people may be offended if you celebrate Christmas and are not a Christian or introduce Christmas into the classroom. In any case, I did my best to let my kids understand the diverse ways Americans celebrate the winter season and get together with their families.

In regards to the end of the year performance, I was not originally planning to go to the performance because I got the day-off and was going to leave for Taipei with my host family. However, some kids let me in on a secret: they were going to surprise me with a performance...about me! So, I decided to check it out.

The surprise was:

The...

...BAND!

Click on the pictures above to enlarge.

During the Christmas performance, there were classes singing holiday songs in Chinese and there was even a kung fu performance by a second grader. The parent's association of our school also got up and performed a little dance right after the aboriginal student club performed a dance. At the end, there was a plethora of classes pretending to be rock bands. The very very last performance, though, was the surprise: The Shiela Band, performing "I am falling in love with you!" Talk about a surprise! The students were lip syncing to a song and it was so cute. It was such an honor to have a band named after me and the students really touched my heart. The performance was in front of the entire school (See picture above).

I am so thankful to have such a warm school and loving students. I have really developed a strong relationship with my students and the faculty at Hua Shan. I hope my students know how lucky I feel to be their teacher. They make me smile everyday =D.

You can find more pictures here in Taiwan Photo Album 25.

Dear friends,
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope my family and friends around the globe are celebrating with their loved ones and giving thanks. My family traditionally celebrates Thanksgiving by inviting my extended relatives and grandparents to our house for a feast. Well, two feasts--one for lunch and one for dinner.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because the whole family gets together and we'll sit around chatting, laughing, and watching movies.

For Thanksgiving this year in Taiwan, all of us went to the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to eat a delicious, Thanksgiving meal. It was a feast complete with green bean casserole, fruit salad, salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, and carrots. Some of the Fulbrighters helped bake chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and apple pie. For dessert, I had fruit and my favorite dessert of all--pumpkin pie! On the car ride home with one of the local English teachers, she commented on how there actually weren't that many dishes, which is true according to Taiwan standards where they'll have anywhere from twelve to twenty dishes at one sitting. I thought it was pretty funny, though, because the dishes we had are considered plenty according to American standards =D

While I missed spending Thanksgiving with family this year, it was very nice to spend it with new friends in Taiwan.  I'm thankful for my wonderful local English teachers Chia-Ling & Ashley, my students, my school, my friends, and my family. I love y'all!

Dear friends,
This week was Halloween. Chia-Ling, Ashley, and I had our students make face masks. We made basic face masks out of paper plates and had them decorate them last week. This week, they could wear it in class and if they said, "Trick-or-Treat," they got candy. We also showed them a short video about celebrating Halloween (See Teaching Tab for more details). Many of the students made excellent masks. We gave prizes to the cutest and scariest masks.

Ashley & Chia-Ling were witches for Halloween and I was a vampire (who didn't have vampire teeth). One day though, Ashley was an angel =D. You can find more pictures of Halloween in this album.