My Taiwan Adventure

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Hm so I kinda had a traumatic event on my way to the MinQuan branch today (for both me and an old lady). This school is right across from a big temple where there are dozens of old ladies trying to sell you little things (I'm not exactly sure what). Well, I see this particular woman almost every time I go there. Unlike the others, she doesn't wear a farmer's hat and she seems to have a disability. Well today, it's raining like crazy and it's not that warm outside; and I see this woman again with no hat and NO UMBRELLA. So I think to myself- I have two umbrellas, why don't I give her mine. It would be much worse for her to catch a cold than for me. So when I'm crossing the street she walks toward me saying something in Chinese to get me to buy from her, and I try to give her the umbrella "gei ni hao ma?" (here, take it. okay?) She looks apprehensive and says something else in Chinese. "Xia yu le!" (it's raining) I say and move th...

So on my way to work the other morning, I met something on the stairs going out of the apartment. It crawled down a couple steps and I thought it might be a baby bat because it was as big as my palm. I get closer and see it is a freaking, huge spider! Its legspan was slightly bigger than my palm and it's abdomen was as big as a ping pong ball! It was brown with long, slender legs and ran faster than I could see. It was terrifying! The spider was obviously afraid of me because as soon as it sensed me coming it ran down the steps, but I was still as afraid of it as it was of me. The steps aren't exactly super wide- it could easily run and bite me faster than I could run down the stairs. So I just took a deep breath and ran down without looking where the spider went. Every time I go up or down the stairs now I look out for that spider... ick! Despite all that, I'm really curious what kind it was. And PS- My English is regressing, having to talk to second-language learners all...

Just finished another LONG week. Sunday's my only day to relax. Whew! So maybe I'll go get some much-needed clothes for this hot weather. The temperature's picking up! Sorry- no pictures to upload today! I played the new Monopoly with the credit cards last weekend! It was really fun! Also, had a grilled cheese night with my friends from Xin Hu- so I'm still having some fun outside of work! love, Rachel

 Here's one of my schools: San Min This is my classroom for Treehouse 2 class  Last month we made a trip to the National Palace Museum  It had a beautiful garden with a koi pond! You could feed the fish!  Here's Xin Hu! I teach my favorite class here! It's a kindergarten! It comes with a nice porch area for most classrooms and a really beautiful playground. More later......!