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.