Who is as kind as a deer in your class?

Tonight at school I had the pleasure of doing phone-testing for two classes. My boss promised me it would take about two hours to call 30 kids. After being on the phone for three, I was able to get a hold of 21 kids. They said I can make up the other nine when I call for "two" more hours on Thursday night. Some of the questions which I found interesting were as follows:

Who is as kind as a deer in your class?
What do you use to dry your body?
How do you put out flames?
How did Warthog like his meat?
Make a sentence with the word "creep"

Bear in mind that I was asking all of these questions to kids I called at home late at night. It did seem a little awkward and strange to me but it's part of the experience. My favorite response of the night was when I asked a kid what his Mom looked like. He responded "My Mom looks like a dog." He was dead serious. I had another kid take about 2 minutes to find his textbook, and then while he was reading to me, he put me on hold for a minute while he did something. I gave him a bad score as payback so there!

On Sunday, I participated in yet another hash. It took place in Pinglin, which is a large tea-producing area in the mountains outside of Taipei. It was a gorgeous run, cutting through tea fields at the tops of lush mountains and scampering through thick jungle vegetation. Unfortunately, the bus I went on arrived around 30 minutes late so our group was WAY behind everyone. We did have to deal with a torrential downpour that lasted for at least 45 minutes. It was pretty crazy but a lot of fun too. It was definitely another one of those "this'll be a story" moments. Unfortunately, you really had to be there for the full effect. I did find out that earlier that day, the Taipei 101 stair climb was held and I'm pretty bummed I missed it. That would've been pretty cool to try, but probably absolutely horrible during it.

On Saturday, I went to the Baishawan beach again with Andrew and a few of his friends from Honduras and El Salvador. It was pretty fun having the opportunity to practice my Spanish for a day. In a way, I wish I was learning Spanish instead of Chinese because it's a lot easier, and then I wouldn't be wasting all the Spanish I studied in high school and college. Oh well, there's always the future I guess. Anyway, it's Tuesday night and I'm leaving for Australia on Saturday to see Kelly and the fam so I'm very excited, anxious, and agonizing over how slow time seems to move when a big trip approaches. Isn't it funny how that happens?

I have two more facts about Taiwan I'd like to share:

#1: Every cop car here always has its blinking lights on. Always! They do turn the siren on when there's actually a problem, just so you know the difference. Luckily, ha ha.

#2: At the beach on Saturday, it was totally packed. But then I was puzzled by the fact that first of all, you can't really swim in the ocean because of strong rip tides that surround the ocean. And second, Taiwanese do not like getting tan so they practically avoid getting sun exposure at all costs. This of course prompted the question: why are the Taiwanese flocking to the beach? Perhaps for the same reason we all go to the beach...to do absolutely nothing but feel like we're doing something. But ain't it fun? I'm looking forward to it in Australia. G'day mates!