Meet Ethan...

This is Ethan. He's one of my preschoolers. Cute, right? Yeah, don't let it fool you! He drives me up the wall and more often than not I want to tear my hair out over him. But then he'll do something and all the anxiety he causes is tossed out the window.

For instance...I was teaching the T2 class (preschool) PE and having them run through a series of hoops and hurdles. Anything to tire these kids out. Anyways, Ethan (at two years old) gets this burning look of competition in his eyes he runs through this mini-gauntlet and finishes with this triumphant FIST PUMP and howls, "YES!" I should get a video of it. It's hilarious! Just wanted to share...

Even better, is that in two days I will be on my way to Bali. Yeah, be jealous!

Gone Hiking...

Last weekend some of us went up into the mountains northwest of Taipei. In a word it was: AMAZING! It's interesting. Taipei is vast and populated much like Los Angeles is an urban sprawl of humanity. But Taipei butts up to this mountain range that runs from the top of the coast down through the center of the island. We took a bus some distance up the mountain and set off into the forest. Most of the time there was this really cool stone path that was laid by God-knows-who.

We probably hiked a good 7 - 10 kilometers that day. The forest was a vibrant green and lush. I wouldn't call it a jungle, nor a rain forest, but it was pretty close. Off in the distance as we hiked thunder rolled trying to let the rain come down. We wound our way back up the mountain heading for this magnificent waterfall. After a bit of a breather and some pictures of the waterfall that didn't turn out, we were trying to figure out our next path -- up or back down? Thunder rolled again. "It wants to rain," I said.

With that, it started to rain. Then pour. It was awesome. We decided to keep going up and eventually the forest gave way to hills of rolling grassland. It was pretty spectacular. We had gone so high up that there was just mist and clouds around us. The sprawl of Taipei was lost from sight.

Where have you been???

Dear readers, it has been waaaay too long, i know. Let me take a moment to explain my recent absence...Where do I begin? Okay, I'll start with the loss of my internet several weeks ago. A few Saturdays ago, my friends and I went bike riding up the Northern part of Taipei where a river cuts through the city. We had a great morning ride of maybe 20 kilometers. I brought the camera, had some good pictures -- I think, to put up on the blog and after a long bike ride there's nothing better than chillin' in the air conditioned apartment blogging....

Okay there are some better things than that, but I'm trying to play up how frustrating it was to come back and find a total lack of internet! Usually it goes down and I'll just unplug and restart and go through the whole process and it will be fine. No dice. Turns out it has nothing to do with my computer and everything to do with the building's network -- something I have no control over whatsoever! Then the company that's changing the cables and making the repairs tells us (via my translator at school) that they've decided to upgrade the whole system and it's going to be super fast. Cool, whatever, I still don't have internet. When will this super awesomeness be done? Oh, they don't know. They're killing me!

So this goes on for several weeks, then there's the neighbor...One night at around midnight or so, I am awakened by my next door neighbor yelling! He's not yelling words so much as he is letting out howls of rage. He's pounding on the walls (the walls that I share with him!), yelling out the window, throwing things. This goes on for about an hour. I put on my shoes and shirt ready to tell him to put a lid on it -- none of the other tenants have done anything yet.

Just as I'm crossing my apartment, I hear his door open and close and there's HUGE and FEROCIOUS pounding on my door! My door! And he's still yelling and trying to break down the door. That's it. No ONE in the States would be getting away with this. I open the door and shove him back yelling, "GET OUT OF HERE!" Yeah, that always works. Turns out the guy is drunk -- not just drunk, but belligerent. When he stumbles back he brings up his hand to steady himself and I see that he has a knife. A big butcher's knife. Perfect.

I close the door and bolt it and find myself reflecting: Here I am, the farthest from home I've ever been. In a country known for it's pleasant attitude toward foreigners. I don't know the language. My internet doesn't work. I can't make calls to Taipei numbers from my cell. And my neighbor is beating down my door with a large knife. I'm not sure this is exactly what I expected when I set out on this adventure.

In the end, my neighbor passes out in his apartment as drinking copious amounts of alcohol will tend to do. My landlord "asks" him to move out. Doesn't apply any real pressure and tells me everything is okay now. I'm sorry, I don't agree. The internet still doesn't work and now if and when i see my "new best friend" I'm going to put him through a wall! So no, things aren't okay now. I move out. Blessing in disguise....

My new place has faster internet; i can fit three of my old apartments into this new one; it has a kitchen, washer, dryer, and a balcony with one of the best views ever! My old place had a window that looked out on an alley...

So there you are, I'm back!

My Kids...

Finally, I got some pictures of my kids that I'm currently teaching. These aren't all of them. I teach six classes a day ranging in age from pre-school up to about 3rd grade. The school has this fun tradition that if it's someone's birthday that month they entire grade gets to have a party! They cancel one class period and we just play. I wish my school was like that growing up. Anyways, these kids are all adorable and I love 'em to bits and pieces. Not to say that there aren't a few students that definitely drive me up the wall -- or will in the future.

These three are my Grade Basic kids. Essentially, they are old enough to be in grade school but don't speak a word of English. They're definitely some of my favorites. Though they can't really express themselves yet, I can tell they are here to learn and are excited. Right now we're working on greetings: "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you." So they may actually hate this place and hate my face, but as far as I know -- they're fine! My ignorance is their bliss. Or something to that affect.

Shilin Night Market

Ever since I got here -- nay, before I even left the States -- I've been hearing all about Taipei's Night Markets. For those of you unsure as to what a 'Night Market' is, well, it's exactly what it sounds like: A market at night. But it goes much further than that. By many accounts, the Shilin Night Market is the biggest and best in Taipei. So my thought, why not make that the first one to go to? The Shilin Night Market is as follows:
One Part Carnival complete with games for the adults and kids.
Two Parts Food randing from various meats on skewers to Watermelon Juice Smoothie. (It should be noted that some of the best food to be had in Taipei can be found here)
Equal Parts People and Merchandise Stalls --- and there's many of them! It was veritable sea of humanity. You had vendors shouting out their latest wares, shoppers haggling over prices (always a good time). Much of the merchandise to be bought were of a clothing variety and there was much to choose from.

All in all, I felt pretty drained afterwards, but it was fun to feel the rapid energy of this part of the city.