My Taiwan Adventure

Whew. It's busy busy busy here. Classes ending, and waiting till my new (easier) schedule starts. Saturdays I am so tired I sleep through the afternoon if I can but I have a farewell party to go to. So let me get ready. We went to Longshan Temple and snake alley last weekend. I'll tell more later...

Officially overworked... Thank you, goodnight.

Hey nothing much to report. The weekend's flown by. Today I'm going swimming and to an art gallery. Now I'm going to study some Chinese, learn some drawing from a manga book and maybe knit some more. Ciao!

Hello! This Saturday and Sunday Albert and I went to the Taipei Zoo. It was fantastic! It's not as big as the ones in San Diego but it's still impressive. We saw Tuan Tuan and Yuen Yuen the two pandas. Their names are kind of controversial because of the relationship between China and Taiwan. China wants Taiwan to become a part of their country and they named the pandas "Reunion" as a message. We saw animals native to Taiwan: sika, waterbuffalo, and quite a few others. I'm going to post pictures sometime this week or over the weekend. We had to go two days in a row because we went a little later in the day and daylight ran out on us. We still didn't get to see everything and I really want to check out the dinosaur museum. Maybe next weekend...? PS- I touched a huge tortoise's shell while he was sniffing Albert's waterbottle. Whew I'm tired out. Hopefully this will be an easier week than usual.

I miss writing. I miss writing poetry and how it sounds schizophrenic and incomprehensible to most people. I miss reading and sharing my work with other writers. I could only write when I had something I wanted to share but couldn't say out loud. I remember I had a date years ago where we had a poetry duel. We picked a word and each wrote a poem based on that word. They came out entirely different and it was so cool to feel that simultaneous inspiration. I hadn't had the drive to write anything for about a year now, but I randomly stumbled upon the files on my computer and somehow I have the urge to write something. Or revise something. I had an amazing poem I started while I worked at the Bakery in Ann Arbor but it's on a misplaced scrap of paper. I'm really bummed I can't find it. Oh man and I found a story about a period in my life that I wrote in French back in sophomore year. It's soo good! (at least to me I'm super proud I could write that in French)...

Posting videos might actually be easier than writing...

This weekend was pretty big. My Xin Hu branch had a performance, and it was really nice. My kids sang "If you're happy and you know it," "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes," a Chinese song, and a song about loving their family. And at the end the kids gave a handmade flower to their moms. I think it went really well! The English teachers also had to do a performance. We decided to do a quiz show with baby pictures: can you guess which teacher this is? And also about famous landmarks/countries. If a parent answered correctly they could get a prize and one of the prizes was "free dance lesson with Teacher Rachel!" Haha! It was pretty crazy, but the parents seemed entertained. I'm so glad it's over. It was a big weight on my shoulders. Afterwards, we got a free buffet dinner at the Sheraton hotel. It was nice- a lot of Western-like food! No mashed potatoes though. :'( Love to everyone!