A few more pictures of our happenings. Zach turned 25, so it only seemed appropriate to have a pirate birthday party. We ate yummy food, played guesstures and four-square, and opened unexpected presents (yes, I wanted to open them too). - You know, the typical things a 25 year old would do at his/her birthday party.
About a month ago, we went paragliding. Incredibly exciting! We're waiting for more family to come so we can go again.
Zach also went for a 6-8 hour hike on a Sunday afternoon. I was busy party planning for his birthday (as was my excuse for not going).
Oh yes, the last picture is from a fellow teacher of ours who found it on his toothbrush that he bought at Costco here.
We're getting eager for Thanksgiving break (I actually get one this year) and for Christmas break- Jan is coming for a visit! Until then....

Pictures of the last few months

Here's a few pictures to capture what we've been up to the last few months.
I had my students give an oral book report in costume; hence the Chinese looking bandit to the left. This kid was so excited to tell about his story, and instead of telling it in 3-5 minutes; he took 20-25 minutes. It was very entertaining, though.
We also happily attended the 21st Summer Deaflympics. It's just like the Olympics, only it's for deaf people. We were able to see javelin, sprinters relay races, high jump, triple jump (like long jump), pole vaulting, basketball, and ping pong. It was awesome watching these events, and great finding thousands of foreigners. But, yet again, we couldn't communicate with them, because we don't know sign language. We did, however, see some signing from an American towards the Swedish team. Good thing we don't know sign language; it didn't look nice. It was a litle eery being in a huge auditorium or stadium, and not hearing many cheers. Sometimes when a person was up for their event, their team members in the audience would start cheering. Unfortunately, this cheering (to us) sounded more like booing. It was a very unique experience (being around so many hearing impaired people and experiencing Olympic events), and the best part about it...it was all FREE! Unlike other countries who have held the deaflympics, Taipei decided to make all the events free to the public. Once we found this out, we headed to every event we could make. One of the teachers at Zach's school even had a friend (from the US) competing in the pole vaulting, and he won the gold. It was quite amazing.
I also added a little video of 2 of my students playing with Chinese yo-yos. They're pretty good with them, and they've tried to teach me during recess, but I haven't had instant success. I'll try to write more again soon.

Typhoon Morakat

Oh yeah, I was going to say-we're alright from the typhoon. It hit the bottom of the island, and hardly affected us at all. It's the worst typhoon to hit Taiwan in 50 years, and it has
really done a lot of damage as well as taken quite a few lives with it. It has been encouraging seeing our students who have everything'd ever want, give up some of their clothes, food, or money to help these people. So, please keep the people in Southern Taiwan in your prayers. Here's a few images we've found online. We haven't gone to the South yet, but Zach is driving the van down to his school to drop off all that my school has collected for those people.

We're Back!

It's been a bittersweet experience coming back to Taiwan-mainly because we left the States before raspberry season. J/K We really enjoyed our time at home-home (because Taiwan is home, but it's not really home-home). It was SO great eating all that rhubarb, enjoying the non-city life, and hanging out with family and friends and not having to worry about when the last bus would leave for the night. Yet again our lives are filled with sprinting to the bus stop just to realize that we missed the little bus that drops us off close to our compound (it only runs every 4 hours), gecko poop accumulating everywhere in the house as well as the most irritating ants (I'm determined to keep all of our food from the States ant-free....it's getting harder every day!), and working-go figure that we have to work.
So, I love my students! Yeah, it's only the 3rd week, but I enjoy them so much more than last year's class. It's still weird seeing my class last year walk into 6th grade and not my classroom. This year I have 11 students (also makes my life more enjoyable with less students come less grading!). 2 of those students are girls. These kids are really energetic, but they are excited to learn. I was showing them a powerpoint at the end of lunch time, and they kept begging me to keep going even when it was time to quit. Or during reading time, they also persuade me to read another chapter when it's definitely time to quit. Sometimes I know they just don't want to move on to the next class, but it amazes me how much interest there is even on what I'd consider "boring lessons." But with energy comes a lot of noise and excitement. I'm still trying to get used to having students that are not only taller than me, but are also a whole lot louder. On the second day of school right before lunch, 2 boys just stood right beside me. I felt like I was going to become a Mrs. T sandwich. (They're both much taller, bigger, and louder). But they both just wanted to pray. It was great seeing kids interested and excited to pray.

- That was my first attempt at taking a "nice" picture on the first day of school. As noticed with the next picture, I gave up achieving that "nice" picture.

Anyways, this year is going much smoother than last year, and I actually feel I have a lot of free time, but that'll probably all end next week when I get my book and materials for a distance learning class I'm going to start taking. Oh, the life of a teacher...always learning something. I'm taking a class Gender Matters- How Boys and Girls Learn. It seems like the perfect class to take with a year like this. Unfortunately, Zach doesn't seem to have much freetime at all. He is in class from 8:00-4:30 with breaks inbetween. It was nice having him come home early last year.

Well, like I mentioned above, there are a bunch of things that I miss from home-home, but it was great coming back here and being familiar with the city already. Of course there are still new places to explore. Yesterday we got a huge icee thingy at Ice Monster- picture below. It took us about 3 hours to get there, walking through crowded, humid humid humid streets. Nothing ever felt better!
According to Zach, the following are the best things about being back in Taiwan: being back to our "first" home together, passion fruit, stringy tofu and seaweed concoction (note pic below...Zach loves this stuff, I on the other hand think it tastes fine but it just reminds me too much of snakes-the look and feel, but he cooks it so I guess I don't really care), Bible studies with our pastor, feeling like I (Zach speaking) have a mission or purpose-I agree (vacation is nice, but you get tired of not working, and yet when I'm working I get tired of not vacationing. Interesting.), happy with my (Zach) students,
I like experimenting with tofu. Just tonight I made lemon tofu bars. Despite not having 2-3 ingredients, they turned out pretty good. But I have to face the consequence of having a hot house due to the oven that just won't cool off. Tomorrow night I'm planning a date with Zach. We found a place exploring yesterday that sold pitas and I'm going to try to make a tofu hummus. So, speaking for both Zach and I, we will miss the abundance of tofu here when we leave.
In the grocery store last week, we hit sample day. It was amazing. I felt like it was Friday at Supersaver in Lincoln, where I used to get my supper from the samples. I sampled yummy, yummy ice-cream, bread, and bipassed quite a few samples. Well, I was in search of a new type of soy milk when a lady offered me a sample. Why not try this weird looking
juice. Mmmm....it twas so good. I offered Zach some. Later upon reading, we discovered that it was fermented apple milk. After learning that the juice didn't sound so exciting. Did I mention that it was a real ugly cloudy brown color. Oh well, I'll just skip that the next time I come to sample day.
When I started this I wasn't sure what to write about, but as you have read, I have written oodles and gaboodles. One last quickie....Zach is having his students write math journals 3 times a week. I read through them on Friday. One student commented how she now knows the word flabergast and some other crazy word thanks to Mr. Timothy. Sounds like a fun math class to me! Have a great morning everyone!

Life these past few months

So, I (Sarah) haven't been the most diligent blogger. As I watch Zach pack for Japan I need something productive to do. Let's see...we've been exploring more of the night markets and have been trying more strange food. Hey, we've even tried stinky tofu. I don't recommend that, but whatever floats your boat.
So one night before prayer meeting Zach and I found this fun little vendor who sells pancakes in the shape of animals, guns, you name it! We totally played with our food!












In February I had spirit week at my school. Zach also had it the following week, but the high schoolers were kinda boring with their week. My students chose to dress in black. We look like we belong in "The Nightmare Before Christmas". We also had culture day. I tried to blend in with the Asians, but bad Chinese accent gave me away (or so my students said). I finally thought I had mastered how to say hello, and I said it to a student, but according to them, the tone I used meant "bird" instead of hello. I give up.



Right after spring break Zach's school had a masquerade banquet. Being faculty was great! We got a free supper (nothing too special), candy, and these sweet masks! Try to guess which one is me and which one is Zach. Yes, I turn everything into a game, especially when we're in a store looking for something. "Whoever finds the cooking tofu with the orange stripe on the side, not the black and white one that we can't understand any of the characters of and are scared to try first wins."


Also during my extra week for spring break, Zach took off a little time to explore more of Taipei with me. We saw online that they have the biggest ice-cream cones in Danshui (a section of Taipei), and we HAD to go. When we got there our tummies only desired the small, but still it's huge! The large was more than double the size of this cone. The potato wrapped around a long chopstick was also quite tasty. We truly felt like Taiwanese by snacking on food while exploring town.












Oh yeah, we also went the dentist - not usually an enjoyable experience. However, since we're "adults" now and have to pay for it, it really isn't enjoyable in the States. But we only paid $300NT for X-rays, check-up, and a filling. Wow! For those of you unknowledgeable about the NT, 300NT is a little less than $10 US. Amazing, right? That actually made my day that day. Now, I just need to have any broken bones or things like that here.
Well, that's it. Don't have much more to say. I just told my students this week that a picture is work a 1,000 words- s0 I've written a Phd dissertation. (not actually but it sounded good to say). Bye

Visit to the Philippines

Sarah and I decided to visit Aunt Yvonne and Uncle Keith in the Philippines for spring break (all courtesy of our tutoring money - oh yeah!!) First of all, let me give a plug for EVA (Evergreen) airlines. Our flight cost less than $200 and lasted less than 2 hours, and they gave us a meal!!!! Just try to find that in the United States (you won't). The picture at the left is one of the gates at the new terminal at Taoyuan Airport. I was sooo excited! I got to meet Hello Kitty herself!!

When we arrived at the Division compound, we were astounded!! We couldn't believe that anything Adventist could look so good!!
The South-Asia Pacific Division overlooks countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. When they built the compound, they incorporated a little culture from each country. For example, this archway is a Cambodian design. Sadly, though, the most startling thing may be the stark contrast between the compound and what lies outside. As soon as you step outside the gate, you see the Philippines for the third-world nation it really is (no offense to Filipinos). Most of the people in the area live in shacks built only a few feet from the busy road. They often have large families,
and usually only one parent has work (if even that). That one income will "support" a husband and wife, the children, and usually multiple other family members. If you add that up, it equals a lot of people with nothing to do, so they just sit around, playing pool, talking, or trying to sell what little goods they have (especially to foreigners). They do not keep their country very clean. As a result of this, most everything is dirt cheap, including labor. For that reason, one of the biggest exports for the Philippines is actually Filipinos. They go to other countries to get a job and better wages. Every single maid I have seen here in Taiwan has been a Filipino. Anyway, one of the biggest reasons for all the unemployment, dirt roads, trash, and overall lack of development is that the government is corrupt. Sarah's aunt told us a story about a dirt road that the Adventists were requesting be paved. Their request was denied because the government's books showed that the road had been paved three times. Basically, the money had been given out three times to pave the road, but it had always ended up in some official's pocket rather than being used for its intended purpose. It is sad to see that the only "Christian" nation in Asia is one of the lowest in morality and progress.


Ok, enough of that. Aunt Yvonne took us (and Sieg Roeske - the world IS a small place) to Taal Volcano. It was a relatively short, very nice hike (except for the Filipino who followed us halfway to the top trying to get us to rent his donkey) to a beautiful location. It hasn't shown activity since the 60's and 70's, but it still has many areas where the sulphur bubbles up in the lake sitting on top of it or where you can see and feel the steam coming out of holes in the rocks.

On Thursday, we decided to go on the Corregidor Island tour. This island guards teh entrance to Manila Bay. During WWII, the United States turned it into a full-fledged military base. It was really interesting from a historical point of view, but the best part was that the tour had very little "yellow tape." We got to walk around on the ruins of all the bombed buildings, like the barracks,
<--- movie theater, etc. We got to touch and look through the massive guns. We got to explore the tunnels that the Americans lived in for 5 months straight while defending and where, later, after setting up a massive amount of explosives, 3,000 Japanese committed suicide because a belief that it is better to die in service to the emperor than be captured by the enemy. In any event, it was well worth the money.

We also went snorkeling. We saw jellyfish (which is actually really scary!), sea cucumbers, puffer fish, and all those wonderful characters from Finding Nemo! The rest of the trip was spent either going to markets or malls or just simply enjoying the amazing home-cooked meals and comfortable feeling that comes from being somewhere that feels more like home than where we currently reside.

Sometimes, when you go on a vacation, you have this mentality that you have to go, go, go all the time. You have to experience everything you possibly can, and you feel like, if you take some time to just rest, you are missing out on something. It was so nice, on this vacation, to shed that mentality and just enjoy the fellowship of our family members and the time we had together and to really just relax.

Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam

Zach and I just returned from our Christmas trip, and we were disappointed that no one was at our home to welcome us except for a cold house. Apparently, someone told Old Man Winter to stay in our house while we were gone. We're still conducting an investigation.
As for our trip, we both enjoyed it. There were moments when someone would ask what we did, and neither of us could honestly remember that we're teachers. At one time one of our tripmates brought up a student's name, and I quickly zoned them out. It was great being away from school and everything that keeps us busy here. (And I loved being away from the Chinese langauge, even though Zach missed it).

Singapore:
This country was ok, nothing special. The entire country of Singapore is just one big city, and it wasn't that amazing. However, we did find a Dairy Queen (with no ice-cream!) and other American stores. It kinda felt like being at home.

Indonesia:


We took a 2 hour ferry from Singapore to Indonesia that was less than desirable. I realized that I'll have to find a different fallback from teaching other than the Navy. We spent 4 days in a water bungalow (even though at low tide a more appropriate name would be a mud bungalow).
It was a really relaxing 4 days partly b/c there wasn't anything to do. We spent a rainy Christmas day here , but our highlight of Indonesia was going on a walk and seeing monkeys in the trees. Our lowlight was seeing a dog with the top half of his head missing chasing us down a street.

Vietnam:
Vietnam was our favorite country, although by the end, I was ready to leave due to the never-ending scooter horn honkings.
As we drove to our hotel the first night, Vietnamese people were everywhere, waving flags, banging pots and pans, and shouting. It was vaguely reminiscent of all the "riot" videos I always see on the news. Our hotel manager informed us that Vietnam had just won a very important futbol game for the first time ever and the residents were simply celebrating the victory.

Sarah and I ventured out, rather timidly, to enjoy the ordered chaos. A very excited, very generous young lady bought us Vietnam Victory! headbands so we could be fanatics too. It was unlike any celebration I had ever seen and was a great way to start our time in Vietnam.

We stayed in the Old Quarter and we saw almost as many tourists as Vietnamese people as we walked the streets and perused the many shops! We had a chance to practice our German swear words with all the European tourists. In one shop, we found an unusual item for sale and couldn't resist taking a picture:

We also took a 2-day excursion to Halong Bay (google it) to see the place which Vietnam is trying to get voted in as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The boat we stayed on was called the Imperial Junk (and no, the name is not indicative of the quality; they are all called junks). The views were breathtaking. It is the kind of place that makes it very frustrating to have a cheap camera because every picture you take looks both beautiful (because of the views) and horrible (because you know what it is like to see it in real life).
The highlight of the Halong Bay trip was definitely the kayaking. We got one hour on the water, and it was great to be the master of our own destinies for a while. You can see some of the natural sights as well as the small villages that were built on the water in the picture below:

The shopping was one of the best parts of Vietnam, and we spent far more in this country than in either of the previous two. Unfortunately, not everything made it home safely to Taiwan (probably due to Zach's momentary carelessness). But we made it safely, and that is what counts.

Some pics of the food we ate at the resort hotel in Indonesia. Not quite sure what they were thinking with the second one, but the veggie fish was great and looked so real!!

Sarah's veggie fish.

Zach's banana burger in Indonesia (bananas, chocolate sauce, mayo, and cheese)