The Quadra-Thanksgiving

 #1. 5th Grade Class

#1 Thanksgiving

On Wednesday I celebrated Thanksgiving with my class by teaching them how to make crescent rolls, playing pin the hat on the turkey (very traditional, I know), and eating a surprisingly healthy meal.  These kids brought tons of fruit and veggies- so in essence, it didn't really taste (or feel afterwards) like a true Thanksgiving meal.  

#2 The Real Deal

2nd Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving day we celebrated with fellow teachers at Stacy's house.  It was a rainy day, and it felt all the more comfortable to stay inside.   Half the day was spent (for me) making stuffing, crescent rolls, and berry pie.  It was a great feast!  The highlight for me was special K loaf, a rarity over here.   The evening was followed up with a blanket fort. 

#3 The Real Deal with turkey

We were invited by Ashley and Oliver, a couple who work for one of the English camps, to visit their camp and spend Thanksgiving with them.   The camp, which is located in Kuolai, is quite a ways outside of Taipei in the mountains.   Since it's quite removed from Taipei, it's beautiful there.   We spent the Sabbath together by gobbling down Thanksgiving food once again, having a more laid-back sermon and discussion time, and skipping rocks along the river.  These rocks were made soley to skip along the water, and it was the best rock skipping I've ever seen. 

#4 I think I'm getting tired of stuffing

On Sunday my principal and his wife had another Thanksgiving meal at their house.  Yes, by this time I was getting a little tired of stuffing my face.   It was good, but it also marked the end of our vacation and so the blanket fort had to come down.  It was a good run. 

Since then we've been quite busy planning our Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia trip, coaching basketball games (that was Zach), dealing with troublesome students, and planning-school, church stuff, etc..  You name it, we've been planning it, or so it feels at least. 

An evening of decorating cookies with the Webbs & Burketts

Knowing our lives would only get super busy, we spent an evening a week or so before Thanksgiving decorating cookies with the Webbs and the Burketts.   We've really enjoyed becoming friends with Ashley and Oliver as well as other people at the English camps. 

Cookies that Zach & I just made for the staff at both our schools.

The last few months...

So, it's been approximately a year since we've written on our blog. Oh well... Sometimes it's hard to get in the mood of writing about yourself. Today, however, is a rainy day which is perfect for writing in a blog.
My class is amazing this year! Of course I only have 9 students, but they are so well behaved. I find myself forgetting that they are even in my class sometimes when I am busy grading. It's a good change from last year, but I do miss those rowdy, rambunctious boys too.
I find that even though I have such an easy year, I still keep myself busy. With what I honestly don't know. Zach and I have both taken on more responsibilities at church and school. Zach is coaching the boy's basketball team at TAPA again this year. Things are going much smoother than last year. I am busy taking a class on autism from the States and have been planning our upcoming trips. During Thanksgiving we're planning on staying in Taiwan and exploring the southern part of the island. Even though this is going on 3 years, we've rarely gone south. For Christmas we are planning a trip to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. I am eagerly anticipating this trip. We're still working on where to go and such, but we plan on seeing Angkor Wat and the killing fields in Cambodia, going through some old tunnels from the Vietnam War in Vietnam, visiting the Tiger Temple in Thailand (where we get to pet Tigers!), snorkeling where possible, stocking up on Thai food for Zach and Vietnamese food for both of us, and of course getting a plethora of Thai massages. Mmmmm.... I can't wait.

I've composed a list of other random things we've been up to. (I love making lists!)
*During 10/10/10 weekend, we went with Tell, Lacey, and Nic to the middle of the island to revisit Taroko Gorge. We also went rafting, similar to white water rafting but just not deserving of "white water." On this trip, we saw monkeys in Taiwan for the first time, and we stumbled across a cattle camping place which was quite eery on a rainy night.
*I've started my own cooking blog.
*I sent Zach on an Amazing Race birthday adventure. (Note picture at the end.)

*Zach visited the Taipei zoo for the first time, and I have lost count. (more than once is too many times in my mind).

*We have a scooter! We recently just got the tire fixed and now we're ready to do more exploring with it. A month and a half ago we biked over the mountains to the beach. I love the drive except for the bumpity bumps. The drop in heat as we climbed the mountains was refreshing.
*Swing dancing- even though the majority of it was in Chinese
*Hosted a birthday party at our house for Zach. The highlights of the evening (for me) were playing Family Feud and cream puffs. Zach enjoyed playing football.
*Hosted 2 separate couchsurfers
*Biked around the city 3 Sundays ago. Got completely drenched during a random thunderstorm.
*Zach preached at church again. It was said to be his best sermon by the pastor, and one of the better ones he has heard.
* Zach visited snake alley while I aimlessly wandered about. Zach, as well as multiple other teachers, were video-taped and aired on the news. Evidently, they videoed Zach and company at snake alley, because they were blaming foreigners for the reason they perform such cruel acts on the snakes and turtles. They claimed that these foreigners were "demanding" to see a snake being skinned. Of course, it didn't help when Zach and other teachers turned around, discovering they were on tv, gave a thumbs up. And the only reason we know they were on tv is because multiple students told us on Monday.
*Zach is avidly learning to play the guitar.
*Made berry strudel (apfel strudel didn't seem as exciting) and watched "The Sound of Music" reminiscing of all the places we had visited on our Europe trip this summer.
* Experienced a vegetarian barbeque for Moon Festival.

Well, I guess that's it as my mind is running out of new things to add. A few nights ago, Zach and I strolled out to the school's playground with a blanket and cups of apple cider (for Zach) and hot lemon water (for me) in hand. Fall is coming/here. It has been teasing us lately. It gets cool enough to pull out a sweater, but the next day we are scorched with heat. Even so, I appreciate those random cool days.

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