Dear friends,
I'm behind on my blogging because I've been so incredibly busy these past four weeks. On Sunday, December 21, the Bureau of Education organized a trip for all the ETAs (English Teaching Assistants), LETs (Local English Teachers), and host families of the ETAs to go to Ping Dong county (Sandimen) & Mei-Nung. If you remember, I have already been to both of those places so I showed my co-teachers and host family around.

From left, the family of my host mom's colleague (whose son also happens to be my student!), me, co-teacher Chia-Ling, and my host family

When we went to Sandimen, I rode a swing made by the aboriginals. Two people need to be in balance to pull the rope strings that swing the swing. It was pretty fun.

Here I am on the swing...

After we played with the swing, all of the ETAs, LETs, and host families went to make clay pottery. Last time I went to Meinung, I made a cup, remember? This time, I made a wall decoration (see picture below). I had my host family and co-teachers sign it. The top two holes are for stringing ribbon through so it will hang. The bottom hole is for me to hang a picture of my host family and co-teachers.

There are lots and lots of pictures of this trip here. Be sure to check it out!

Dear friends,
This past Saturday and Sunday, right after my 6th grade field trip (Wednesday-Friday), I went to Kending with my host family. You'll notice from my earlier posts that I went to Kending last Sunday; that time was with Joyce from Ling Zhou Elementary School. This time, I went with Tai-Shia, Chung-Shih, and Scarlet to Kending.

We stayed at the Cesar Hotel, the nicest resort in Kending. When we walked into the lobby, they had talking parrots, marble staircases, and a fully decorated Christmas Tree. You can find photos here.  The picture to the right is a view outside our hotel room.

DAY 1
We began our day by dropping our stuff off at the hotel. Afterwards, we took off on a bike ride to the Southern most point in Taiwan. Just two days ago, I already rode bikes with my 6th graders on their graduation field trip. I really like riding bikes so I enjoyed this immensely. We rode from the Cesar Hotel all the way to Oluanpi Park. Along the way, we passed Chuan Fan Shih (a huge rock, see pictures in this album), Banana Bay, and ShaTao. The most Southern point in Taiwan was marked by a huge stone marker (See below).

The stone marker at the most Southern tip of Taiwan (above)

When we were at the most Southern tip of Taiwan, two bikers stopped and gave Tai-shia beetlnut. In the picture to the left, you can see me chewing on beetlenut. Apparently you put a white powder on it and it tastes like cocaine. But, rest assured, beetlenut is legal in Taiwan and when you chew it and suck on the juice, you spit out this red colored pulp. It's rather yucky when you see a person's mouth all red, but lots of elderlypeople in Taiwan and some young people like to chew on beetlenut. After I stopped to try some of this beetlenut, which I found rather spicy, we headed back to Cesar Hotel with our bikes.

I was surprised, Scarlet was not tired at all! She rode with such vigor and enthusiasm =D. We rode for about 2 or 3 hours and it started to rain on our way back. But, the rain stopped and the sun came back out so we still had a great bike ride. Later, when we got back, we went to the private beach owned by the resort. It was absolutely beautiful! I was going to go for a swim in the ocean, but the waves were so strong the lifeguard did not allow anyone to go into the water. So, I swam in the swimming pool at the resort.

Later, my host family and I went to the night market in Kending after eating at the resort's buffet and visiting the game room. The night market was huge! It was the only night market in all of Kending, so maybe that's why it was so big. Many people were selling seashell decorations and I was considering purchasing one, but it was too expensive. After the night market, Tai-Shia and I went to see a live concert at an outdoor pub. It wasn't bad, but it was very noisy so we left and went back to the hotel to play Taiwanese Monopoly with Chung-Shih and Scarlet. It was already very late by then, so we went to bed soon after the game finished.

DAY 2
We woke up at 6:45am and headed to breakfast at about 7:15am. We set out to go hiking in the morning. We went to Kending National Forest and hiked Mountain Tachien. We went to Sheding Nature Park where we hiked the Major and Minor Gorge. Check out the gorge below.

We also saw lots of very colorful insects and huge spiders on the hike. See this album. Afterwards, we went to Hengchun to visit famous film spots from the movie, Cape No. 7. I already went to many of them last Sunday, so we went to Chateaux, the hotel where the movie was filmed. It was absolutely beautiful! The view of the beach was spectacular.

Please check out all the photos in this album: Taiwan Photo Set 23.

Later, on our way back to Kaohsiung, we stopped by Dapeng and saw the sports arena they're building. They're planning to turn this past military base into a hotel and sports place where you can fly airplanes, row boats, and do many things.

Now, I must tell you, after three days of playing and traveling around Taiwan with my 6th graders, I was exhausted by this fifth day of touring Kending. So, during the car rides from place to place, I was sleeping. I had so much fun with my host family and I was surprised I still had so much energy.

It must've been that fish soup we drank at the last restaurant we went to =D Haha.

Thank you, Tai-Shia, Chung-Shih, and Scarlet for taking me on this wonderful trip, filled with so many adventures! I look forward to the next two weekends with you guys when we go to Pingdong County and Taipei to see a piano concert!

All the teachers on the graduation field trip

Dear friends,
Last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I went with all the 150 sixth graders from my school on their graduation field trip around the Western and Northern part of Taiwan. We went from Kaohsiung to Taichung, then Xin-zhu, then Taipei, Taoyuan, and finally returned to Kaohsiung. I took over 500+ photos, which I have split up into two albums--Taiwan Photo Set 22.A and Taiwan Photo Set 22.B. I hope you have time to take a look at the pictures because they are pretty good, especialy because Chia-Ling took some artistic shots of our trip.

Day 1
We set off from Hua Shan Elementary School at about 7:30am on Wednesday morning and on 4 tour buses carrying 150 students, 9 teachers, and 5 tour guides, we set off for our first destination: bike riding in Taichung (I don't know the exact name of the place we went to ride our bikes because it's in Chinese). The bike route was pretty level and somewhat short, but we the scenery was pretty cool because we crossed a huge bridge and rode through tunnels that used to be for railcars. You can see pictures of the bike ride in this album. After our bike ride, we hopped back on the bus and headed to an amusement park in Xin-zhu.

The amusement park was awesome! There were so many spectacular, and scary, rides. I rode the ride pictured to the right, whose horizontal track turns vertical 180 degrees and then drops you straight down into lots of upside down turns. Chia-Ling and I rode it twice! You would think I would be scared, but I wasn't because of the following story I'm going to tell you:

So, the teachers were all excited to ride the amusement park rides, but they were especially excited to ride the water park ride (pictured below). We put all our stuff down in the storage area and then got into the boat. Look at how happy we are =D.

The ride was so much fun. I'm sitting in the very front with Watson and we both have our hands up. It was exhilarating and we all got very wet.  After the ride, we got out to get our stuff, but when I looked around, my backpack was missing!

First off, let me tell you the backpack wasn't even mine. I borrowed it from Billy, my apartment mate. Secondly, I had everything in that backpack--Alien Resident Certificate Card, Health Insurance Card, ATM card, NT$4,500 dollars, MP3 player, Fulbright business cards, two jackets, an umbrella, and tissue. So, it was pretty valuable. Luckily, I gave my camera to one of the teachers who didn't ride the water ride so I still had my camera. But, I LOST THE BACKPACK that wasn't even mine and all my valuables! I was freaking out!

All the teachers immediately called the theme park managers, all tour guides, and told fellow students to look in bathrooms and trash cans for my backpack. When the teachers asked me to describe the backpack, I told them it was all black. That was only my guess because I couldn't quite remember what it looked like since I only had it in my possession for that morning (I borrowed the backpack only for the three day trip).

We searched for about an hour, students, teachers, and all tour guides (including some tour guides that weren't even part of our tour group!). Finally, Watson, one of the teachers I was with, receives a call from one of the other teachers, "We've found it." "Is there anything inside?" I ask.

"I don't know," says the teacher.

I run over to where they are and see the backpack. Wow. Everything is there.

"How did you find it?" I ask.

"Well, Tsui-Zhu [another teacher] and I thought the backpack must be nearby the water ride so we went around the little souvenir shops. Then, we saw a backpack laying on the floor in one of the shops. But, we didn't know if it was yours because the backpack was GRAY and BLACK. But, I recognized your umbrella sticking out of the side, Shiela, and knew it was yours!" exclaimed Chia-Ling.

Wow. I was SO incredibly lucky. Lots of students lost their items that day, but I was so lucky to have found my backpack with EVERYTHING inside. Apparently, somebody--probably a student--just grabbed the wrong bag and when they discovered it wasn't theirs, they probably just left it where they were. I'm SO surprised they did not steal anything. I thank my lucky stars for that.

So you can see why after two hours of frantic panicking, that incident made me fearless! I rode everything after that. I rode the ride that vertically drops off, the boat ride that swings back and forth, bumper cars, roller coasters, etc. You name it, I rode it. Let me tell you, I had the courage of a lion.

After the amusement park, we went to a hotel in the mountains of some place in-between Xin-zhu and Taipei (I don't know the name, sorry to disappoint. I'll try to find out later). Now, I felt okay after all the rides, a little dizzy, but still okay. Once I got in the car and we headed up the windy mountain roads and, oh dear, I threw up! Terrible, just terrible. A teacher throwing up before her students! Ha! So much for the courage of a lion, eh?

Anyway, the hotel in the mountains was pretty cool. The teachers, later that night, all got together and karaoked. I was terrible at singing, but I still sang because it was fun. We hit the sack at about 1am.

DAY 2
The next day, I woke up rather cold. There was no heater in the hotel and Chia-Ling (my co-teacher) and I suspected that we left one of the windows open. But, to this day, we will never know. Chia-Ling even wore gloves to go to bed!

Anyway, the next morning we got up at 7am and headed to Taipei at 7:30am. We went to the Taipei Zoo. I kept my bag very close to me throughout this excursion...

We saw all sorts of creatures, but the white rhinosaurus was everywhere! The picture to the right is a pretty good shot of the white rhino. We had a lot of fun at the zoo and the class I toured with was pretty photogenic so we took lots of photos. So many photos in fact, that we were late in meeting back up with the rest of the school. Oh well. When the other classes were waiting for us, they enjoyed McFlurries from McDonald's while we took pictures =D

See how photogenic this class I toured with is?

And then, I played with some of our students. My student is killing me with a blow-up sword...

After we spent about an hour and a half at the zoo, we went to the harbor. On the way to the harbor, we visited the house of Dr. Mackey, a Canadian minister who was famous for establishing a hospital in Taiwan. He was also famous for something else...Chia-Ling will have to fill me in on the story again. In the photo to the left is a picture of me and a teacher in front of a Dr. Mackey statue head.

The harbor was absolutely beautiful. But, I can't put anymore pictures of it on this blog because  there's already too many pictures. You'll just have to see the pictures yourself in this album.

When we went to the harbor in Taipei, which is called Danshui, we headed to "Old Street." There they sold lots of "Pi-Dan," or what literally translates into "leather eggs." The eggs are black, small, and the outer layer is very thick and leathery, hence the name. It tasted, different. Anyway, those eggs were very popular amongst the students and teachers; everybody bought a bag. After visiting old street and eating some dessert, we took a a boat to a nearby island (again, the name is in Chinese and my Chinese isn't that advanced).

Check out one of my students enjoying the boat ride to the left. The boat was pretty neat and we all got sprayed by the water (See pictures here). When we got to the harbor, there was an amazing bridge called "Lover's Bridge" that was for pedestrians only. It was huge and beautiful! Check out the architecture in the picture below.

The 6th graders in the picture above is the class I toured with the entire three days. Chia-Ling, Tsui-Zhu (another teacher), and I walked the bridge. It curved so beautifully. Since coming to Taiwan, every single bridge I've been on (two in total so far, hehe), I've jumped on. So, here's a shot of me jumping (see below). The other bridge I jumped on was in Sandimen's aboriginal park. You'll have to look for that picture in one of the photo albums.

Ta da! Me jumping on the bridge. There was also one more bridge on this island that I jumped on. I was jumping against the sunset. You'll have to find it yourself in this album =D.

After walking the bridge and boardwalk, we headed to a five-star hotel in Taoyuan, the Howard Hotel. It was amazing. They had a swimming pool, game room, sauna/jacuzzi, beautiful view above a reservoir, workout room, game room complete with a mini golf course for children, ping pong tables, pool tables, a nice restaurant and lots of other stuff. I was so exhausted from the day that I headed straight to bed at 10:30pm. Once my head hit the table, I fell asleep.

DAY 3
The next day, we went to yet another amusement park. This time, it was in Taoyuan. This amusement park is very special. It's called LeoFoo Village Theme Park and it is equivalent to the Disneyland of California. I think it's even better than the Disneyland in California, though. Granted, I haven't been to Disneyland in over 15 years, but this theme park was AMAZING!

There are four villages in this theme park--a safarii park, an arabic-like-Taj-Mahal theme park, a water park, and a Western cowboy and indians themed park. It was awesome. The teachers and I went to the safarri park first.

We rode a bicycle trolly above some of the animal cages and we also rode a small train.

The train ride took us very close to the tame animals. Look at how artistic this photo of Coach Pao is to the right. Chia-Ling took this picture. The animals came very close...

See Ms. Liu, my dean of student affairs, to the left and the ostrich running after us? We were very close to the animals. We later took a carnivorous bus ride to see the lions and tigers. It was a great safarii ride.

Later, I also rode a camel with a fellow teacher who was just as daring as me! See picture below.

In the photo above, we were just about to head into the Western Cowboy and Indian themed park. There, Chia-Ling and I rode a roller coaster ride called the Screaming Condor. It was pretty crazy because the ride was very very high and it twisted. We also rode something like the Tower of Doom back in Denver, a normal vertical drop with no twists and spirals. Lots of fun, but only some of the teachers joined us because the others were too scared =D.

At the end of the amusement park trip, about 1pm in the afternoon, we headed back to Kaohsiung. The four and a half hour ride back to Kaohsiung was very long. Our tour bus passed the time by singing KTV, all four and a half hours. Amazing, eh? The kids, teachers, and I sang for four hours straight, no sleeping!

When we got back we were all exhausted. We got back early, though. It was only 5:30pm!

The trip was so much fun. Thank you Hua Shan Elementary School and Principal Liu for inviting me to go. I got to know my 6th graders better and saw lots of Taiwan.

Below, you can see some artistic shots that Chia-Ling took on our trip. She's quite the photographer.

What a fun three days. But, the next day, I had to wake up at 8:30 to go to Kending with my host family! It was non-stop fun. I was jumping from one place to the next. I visited the North part of Taiwan and the next day, I visited the South part. Keep reading for my exciting adventures...

Dear friends,
I was not able to update about my first trip to Kending last Sunday because everybody that went to Kending wanted to surprise our apartment mate, Billy, that we went to Kending that same weekend. However, I think it is appropriate to update now because any later and I'll forget what we did =D.

Last Sunday, I went with Joyce's family to Kending, the Southern peninsula of Taiwan. It was absolutely beautiful, although very windy. We began our trip at Hengchun, the town made famous by the movie Cape No. 7 (See earlier posts about this movie). Along the road, were various fruit, wine, egg, and other small stands (see below).

In the photos above (from left to right) you can see wax fruit (Lein Wu, my new favorite fruit), rice millet wine, and all sorts of duck/chicken eggs. Wax fruit tastes a bit like apple, except sweeter, juicer, and not as dense.

After we walked along the road with all these various stands, we went to the famous film spots of Cape No. 7 in Hengchun. If you've seen the movie, I will let you know that we went to Aga's house, the old postman's house, the elderly lady's house to whom the Cape No. 7 letters were directed, and the West gate. We also passed by a lot of the other film spots.

A map of all the film spots in Hengchun that was displayed outside of Aga's house

After visiting the film spots, we went to several scenic spots including Nanwan (pictured below).

We only spent one day in Kending, but I have over 200 pictures that you can view here. Just a warning, it's a long album...

Enjoy the beautiful scenery of Taiwan! Thanks, Joyce for taking me and Kate =D

Dear friends,
Today was a very fun day. Patty, a local English teacher, took me and four other Fulbrighters to Mei-Nung, a Hakka Village 40 minutes outside of Kaohsiung. The Hakka are a type of tribe in Taiwan. This particular Hakka village is famous for their hand-painted umbrellas and hand-made pottery. The name, "Mei-Nung," means "beautiful (thick) mist." It is nestled among several small hills that are covered with bananas trees and beetle nut trees.

You can find the photo album for this day, here. We walked around the shops, saw the beautifully painted umbrellas, and then...made our own pottery! You won't get to see the grand masterpiece that I made until the end of this month when they send it to me. So, sit tight, and I'll post again when my hand-crafted artifact comes in =D. After making pottery, we had lunch and picked lemons at Patty's lemon farm.

Dear friends,

Since coming to Kaohsiung, I have been very impressed with the MRT system. Just a note--the Taiwanese do not say "metro," they say "MRT." If you say "metro," they'll look at you funny =D. In America, we either say "metro" (like in Washington, D.C.) or the "subway" (like in New York City).

The red line on the MRT system (running north and south) opened last year and the orange line (running east and west) just opened last Sunday. The MRT is so clean and there's really cute music that plays whenever the train arrives. There's also television sets in mostof the waiting areas for the red line trains.

There's one station, Formosa Boulevard MRT Station, that is the transfer station from the orange line to the red line. It is absolutely gorgeous because there is a "Dome of Light." That's what they call it. It's literally a huge structure that has glass art all across the top. It's supposedly the largest glass art structure in the world! Check it out.

Also, the announcements on the MRT are in Taiwanese, Mandarin, Hakka, and English. Quite impressive.

Dear friends,
This past weekend, I went to Confucius Temple with my host family. You can find the pictures here. The Confucius Temple that I visited in Tainan was the first school that was built in Taiwan. The entire complex of "Confucius Temple" is made up of a temple and a school. There is a gate that connects the temple and the school. If you pass underneath it, you will become inspired and full of wisdom. See picture below.

The entire complex was very beautiful. We went with a tour guide and she told us all about the significance of the architecture and explained the placement of the plaques in honor of Confucius and his forefathers.

Next week is Confucius Teacher's Day. When we went to Confucius Temple, many people were rehearsing their performances for the celebration next week. So, we got to see a preview of what's to come. It was yet another fun filled day!

Dear friends,
My first week at school (last week) was so incredibly fun, exciting, busy, and full of adventures that it's hard to distill just a few of those memorable moments down into a blog entry. But, here we go!

On Monday (Sept. 8, 2008)
In the morning, I went to English Village at Ling Zhou Elementary School (not the elementary school I teach at) to finish up last minute activities for English Village. As you may recall, English Village is a program that was launched by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education to create simulated environments (e.g. hotel, airport, supermarket) where students can practice their English with foreigners.

For example, a post office where students can play with the environment and speak.

The Fulbright English Teaching Assistants created station games in addition to a dialog station at English Village to help the students practice more English. English Villages, or simulated environments, were built in many Kaohsiung Elementary Schools. However, we are only running three English Villages this semester. Fifth graders from all over Kaohsiung go to one English Village once a year. We prepared for English Village on Monday, but it does not officially start until Tuesday (Sept. 9). On Monday, I just finished up last minute touch-ups to the station games to get ready for Tuesday's opening ceremony and full run through of English Village. Though, every Monday I will spend the morning at Ling Zhou English Village. In the afternoon, I go to my school, Hua Shan Elementary School by walking from Ling Zhou Elementary school to the MRT, take the MRT to the last station on the red line (Xiao Gang), and then bike to my school for about 15 minutes, depending on traffic.

When I got to my school on Monday afternoon, I  brought Moon Cake for all the staff and faculty for the Mid-Autumn moon Festival. I was already introduced to the staff last Tuesday, but I introduced myself to my classes and began teaching today.

Teaching was so wonderful. The kids are so cute and they love to play games! They can pronounce my name pretty well because it sounds like the Chinese word for "Greece"---Xi La. Ashley & Jia-Ling are very good teachers and I've already learned a lot about how to plan for classes and what to go over first in class.

For my introduction for the rest of the week, I used pictures to show my students where I am from in the United States and I made a name card for myself. All the students "oohed" and "ahhed" when they saw the beautiful mountain pictures of Colorado! When I taught this week, I also made a poster of "American Culture" vs. "Chinese Culture" to help my students understand some differences. The examples I went over this week were:
American Culture: Calendar starts on Sunday & American students do not take naps during the day at school
Chinese culture: Calendar starts on Monday & Chinese students take naps during the day at school

It was so cute because when I told the students that American students don't take naps during the day, they were so surprised and thought that the American students must fall asleep in class! They were all very intrigued by the differences.

I later went home by bike, MRT, and bus (I call that my "triathalon commute back home"). Travel to and from my school takes about an hour. I absolutely love my school, though, so the commute is worth it.


On Tuesday (Sept. 9, 2008)
English Village started on Tuesday morning at Ling Zhou Elementary School and it was rather difficult because some of the logistics were not planned out. The kids had a lot of fun, though. It was good that we had this run through because we figured out some of the problems with the games and the rotation to different stations at English Village. I was exhausted after that two hour English Village session at Ling Zhou. Then, I commuted to my school, Hua Shan Elementary School, in the afternoon.

At Hua Shan, I met the principal, the staff, and the faculty. They are all very friendly and fun. They kept on teasing each other about how shy they were to talk to me, a foreigner. However, when Friday came along, I noticed that if I spoke Chinese, my teachers were very talkative! I told them that my Chinese is like their English, "still learning." So, I told them to don't be afraid to talk to me, because as long as they speak slowly, I will understand, and I will do the same.

Hua Shan Elementary School has been so welcoming. They've already given me a bike, moon cake, "Beauty" tea, a temporary helmet (because my permanent helmet is being decorated by my classes as a gift), free lunch, lunch bowls and chopsticks, and more mooncake. They are even going to make a display case for me at the school to show all the students and parents. I already designed it so when it's up at school, I'll take a picture to show you. They're calling my display case, "Shiela's Column". It sounds like a "column" from a newspaper, but it's actually my display case  =D. After I taught three classes on Tuesday, I played basketball with the basketball team after school.

Basketball with the Hua Shan co-ed basketball team was SO MUCH FUN! The kids are quite good and the coach told me they were number one in Kaohsiung a few years ago and took fifth place in all of Taiwan Elementary School Basketball 5 years ago! While I was not that good, the kids cheered me every single time I got a basket. At the end of practice, the girls did their team cheer and the boys did their team cheer. Their cheers were so cool! The girls's cheer goes like this: "Hua Shan--clap, clap--Hua Shan,--clap, clap--Hua--Shan--Guo--Xiao--clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap... (repeat)" The clapping is rather difficult, but it sounds really cool. The boys cheer is different and I don't remember it. When I asked my "sports class" (yes, I have a sports class...) what the boys cheer was, none of them wanted to tell me because they were too shy. The reason they were shy was because the boy's cheer is like a war cry. They say "Hexia!" and then say something else while contorting their faces into an intense competitive look.  It's very cool.

While I enjoyed the girl's and boy's basketball practice, I do not think I can go every Tuesday afternoon because I am so tired after going. I love practicing with the kids, though. I'll try to go at least once every month. It's hard because on Monday and Wednesday, I have Chinese class in the evening and Tuesday is the only day I get off to study Chinese. Plus, it's the only time I can lesson plan for my meetings on Wednesday morning with Ashley and Jia-Ling. I will have to time manage if I want to go to basketball practice.

On Wednesday (Sept. 10, 2008)
On Wednesday morning, I was introduced to all the students at their flag raising ceremony. It was so hot on Wednesday and the kids had to sit outside. I gave a little speech and said hello to everyone.

After the flag ceremony, I taught my three classes for the day. Just to give you a snapshot of the classes I co-teach, let me tell you which grades I co-teach and on what days. On Mondays, I co-teach one fifth grade class and two fourth grade classes. On Tuesdays, I co-teach two fifth grade classes and one sixth grade class. On Wednesday, I co-teach first graders, a sixth grade class, and a fifth grade class. On Thursday, I co-teach two fourth grade classes, a third grade class, and a sixth grade class. Finally, on Friday, I co-teach English Club with Ashley and co-teach second graders, and two sixth grade classes. It's a very busy week. But, if you think this is busy, just wait 'till next week when I add my Chinese classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. My schedule will be booked with Monday being the busiest where I travel to three different locations (Ling Zhou in the morning, Hua Shan in the afternoon, and San Min Elementary School in the evening for Chinese classes).

On Thursday (Sept. 11, 2008) & On Friday (Sept. 12, 2008)
These were my most relaxing days. I lesson planned, taught my classes, and chatted with fellow teachers. Walking down the halls, students would say, "Hello Shiela Lao Shi" (Chinese for "Hello Teacher Shiela"). I kind of felt like a celebrity because I kept on waving my hand, smiling, and saying "Hello" back. My students are so excited that it makes me so excited and happy to be at my school. I really love my school. Also, check out the very nice welcome letter the principal wrote about me at the end of this blog.

Later Friday evening, I met my host family. It turns out that they live near Hua Shan Elementary school where I teach! Isn't that amazing?! My host mom Tai-Shia, my host dad Chung-Shih, and my cute little host sister Scarlet (9 yrs.) are so funny, curious, and talkative--just like me! You can check out photos here. When they announced the host family and Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) pairing, my host family and I couldn't stop talking to each other because we had so much to say; we were so excited. Well, we immediately made plans for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival weekend. Mid-Autumn Moon Festival falls on Sunday, but we spent the whole weekend together.

On Saturday
My host family took me to Pineapple Mountain, a little mountain near Chengqing Hu (Crystal Clear Lake). We hiked up the little mountain and saw the pineapple fields. Did you know pineapples grow in the ground? I didn't know that; I thought they grew on trees. Anyway, let me tell you, this hike was very windy. It was windy because a typhoon was coming! We went hiking in typhoon weather.

Look at how windy it was up on Pineapple Mountain!

Later that evening, we barbecued and ate lots of moon cakes. A fellow teacher at school told me that the reason why barbecuing now occurs in Taiwan is because a very popular television commercial showed people barbecuing with soy sauce and ever since then, people wanted to cook this special way on Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. I don't know if this is true, but it's very interesting. I only stayed for some of the barbecue because it was a fellow English Teaching Assistant (ETA) and Local English Teacher (LET)'s birthday so I went to celebrate with them later that evening.

On Sunday
It rained a lot and the wind howled so loudly, some of my apartment mates could not sleep. Despite the rain, my host family picked me and two of my apartment mates up and drove us to Chung-Shih (host dad's) grandparent's house for homemade hot pot! The dinner was so incredibly delicious! Check out the photos here.

I ate so much moon cake this week. The Bureau of Education also sent each of the 12 Fulbright English Teaching Assistants a huge box of moon cake, so I've been eating one a day...quite a lot! I could write more because I left a lot out, but I think this is enough for one post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next update!


This is my school website where you can find the Principal's post below:
http://www.hshanps.kh.edu.tw/show.php?index=1

席拉！華山的四海一家~ Welcome Shiela to Huashan 作者 weitow | 10 九月, 2008 | read_nums (1)        海上生明月，天崖共此時！       

        一到中秋季節，月餅和月亮就自然成為我們生活與感受的焦點。今年的中秋前夕，很多華山人都有個共同的感受：沒想到，今年的第一口月餅，竟然是來自Shiela小姐－這位遠從美國來做客的朋友手中。

      Shiela小 姐－華山的外籍英語客座教師，經意願選填而到本校，擔任為期一年的學童英語課協同教師，是一位美麗大方又親切近人的好女孩。她是高雄市政府教育局，透過與 國際學術交流基金會的合作，由該機構引薦美國「傅爾．布萊特」獎學金得獎青年，而來台擔任學童英語協同教學的一位外籍教師。

      華山奉高市教育局之命，於去年設置英語村，以提供更有利於學童學習英語的教學環境，自開放教學以來，倍受師生歡迎與喜愛，使用率居高不下。但本校並不以此為滿足，總希望本校的學童英語教學能繼續有所突破。

       這學年度，Shiela小姐加入華山人行列，成為本校刺激學童提昇學習英語的第三劑強心針。

       第一劑強心針，來自於本校五年級的謝興泰小朋友。他在今（97）年暑假期間，報名參加英國劍橋英檢，通過第11及檢測，相當於國內英檢中的高級檢測，這項傲人的成就，讓他10歲通過這項檢測的事蹟，成為東亞第一人的新紀錄。

       第二劑強心針，來自於本校甫從英國修完教育哲學博士返校服務的王嘉陵老師。嘉陵師在考取公費出國留學之前，已獲得國內教育博士學位，秉於自我成長與進修的信念，考取公費留學而遠赴英國求學三年，其各項英語能力自不在話下，相對的，她的英語教學專業，更是本校特別倚重的。

       而Shiela小 姐，雖是額外且意外的成為本校英語教學的第三劑強心針，但令人敬佩的，是她並未絲毫的以過客心境而減低對華山的投入，很用心也很主動的融入這個大家庭。即 便她僅能說一些簡單的國語，且大部分表達都需要使用她自己的母語－英語，但熱情有增無減。不但很快的贏得全校同仁的認同，且非常受到學童的歡迎。

       Shiela小姐在9月2日向本校報到後，依合約規範休假，開學第二週起正式到本校任職。第一天的正式上班，她帶來一大盒甫出爐的月餅，宴請本校同仁。吃月餅不稀奇，唯有每年的第一口月餅才讓人驚艷，尤其是那份來自千里之外的外國友人的真情，不但讓人非常感動，而且有一份特別的感受。 

      一盒月餅讓彼此成為一家人，一份熱誠讓學習更提昇。

      這一年裡，因於本校英語教學三劑強心劑的投入，華山全體師生會擁有真實且難忘的四海一家（We are the world）新體驗。因此，華山人要張臂歡迎Shiela小姐來華山，也要奮力提昇全校師生的英語學習。

Dear friends,
Last weekend, I went to Taipei with all twelve Fulbright English Teaching Assistants. We went on the High Speed Railway (HSR) that was just built a few years ago.

The HSR only takes about an hour and a half to get from Kaohsiung to Taipei. When I arrived, I checked into a hotel and later toured the Chang Kai Shek Memorial. You can find pictures here. The conference was a lot of fun and I met a lot of  different researchers. Some were doing research on identity, China-Taiwan politics, mental illness, Buddhism and Chinese medicine. My hope is that when I travel around Taiwan, I can visit all the researchers and the researchers will visit me in Kaohsiung.

After the conference, I visited the National Palace Museum with Shana & Billy,  fellow Fulbright ETAs. We also visited Taipei 101 (we didn't have enough time to go up, though). I did a lot in those short 3 days. The photo album is just a snapshot of Taipei. I am sure I am going to go back there soon.

Dear friends,
This past weekend, I went to Guan Yin Shan (name literally translates into a female saint's mountain) and Chengqing Hu (Crystal Clear Lake) with one of the local English teachers, Patty. You can find the photo album that corresponds with this post here. The hike up Guan Yin Shan had lots of steep stairs and we only made it halfway because we were meeting Patty's daughters and husband for lunch. On one side of the mountain was a rope we could use to climb up. It was kind of like a beginner's course in rock climbing--pretty fun.

Kate climbing the rope

After we climbed up Guan Yin Shan, Patty took us to eat Sushi Bar. It was very delicious and with our stomachs full, we headed to Crystal Clear Lake (Chengqing Hu). We saw a bee farm, a nine-cornered bridge, and a 7-level pagoda there. You'll see all of these pictures in Taiwan Photo Album 5. We also saw a really interesting fish in the aquarium at Crystal Clear Lake. The fish looked like it had a brain.

Anyway, this is Shiela reporting that it has been yet another grand adventure in Taiwan. Tune in next time to hear about the Fulbright Conference in Taipei that happens this weekend.