No, my name's not Kevin. It's Heaven.

I had some spare time tonight so I uploaded about 70 pictures to my flickr account. There's more of Australia and then a bunch more from Taiwan. I hope you like them!

New Pictures

I just added 60 pics or so to my flickr from Australia so check 'em out! More on the way from Taiwan!

I'm not afraid of bats! I'm afraid of my mother!

It's been almost one month since I wrote a blog so get ready! It's been a pretty crazy month. I think the last time I blogged, it was a few days after I got back from Australia. Since then, my sister and friend Dylan came and visited me for one week. It was awesome! I am so glad they came and got to see what it's actually like out here. For me, one of the hardest things about being out here has been trying to convey to people with words what it's like in Taiwan so it was great that they came and got to see it for themselves. They had a lot of fun and will potentially visit again in the future. The first day they arrived, we did some sight-seeing around Linkou which was fun. Although it is really dirty here, it's pretty interesting too and having them see it all for the first time sort of made me realize how unique it is here. After cruising around town, we met up with my cook from school and she took us on a hike in Yang Ming Shan national park. Unfortunately, it rained pretty hard so our plans were changed slightly. We ended up running/hiking on a road in the pouring rain. We did see a ton of little frogs and a green snake, which my friend thought was probably a pit viper. Apparently, they bite a lot but they're not poisonous. We also went out to eat after with a group of about 10 Taiwanese and that was a pretty cool experience.

The second day they were here, we went to Wanli to a Hash run. This was the usual for me, a crazy Sunday. But for Emily and Dylan, I think it was the highlight of their trip. I remember my first hash, and it completely blew my mind. The hash run was actually a little disappointing compared to some of the other ones, but it was still fun and the bash afterwards was awesome! The whole group was in a good spirits because Emily and Dylan were there and the Hash always likes when new people are there. And we convinced Dylan to eat part of a chicken's foot. Afterwards, we went and sampled betel nut where Dylan proceeded to pass out for about a minute. Drama ensued when one of the hashers broke a light by accident on a storefront and the shopkeeper came out and demanded we pay him 7000 NT (about $230 US) to replace the light. After a lot of arguing, we gave him 1500 NT and then he called us his brothers and said we could come back anytime. Yeah right! It was crazy but...only in Taiwan.

The next 5 days they were here, I had to teach so they did a lot of sight-seeing on their own. They saw a lot of temples and other touristy things like that. We did check out the Shilin night market which was very cool, for the second time. We also had the privilege of going to the top of Taipei 101. It's a very striking building and it had a great view at the top. One thing that was a little strange was feeling the building move occasionally. It was a little unnerving. There was a cool informational video talking about the construction of the building that played in the observation area. We did go at night though so all we really saw was the glow of the city. Going up there during the day would be more interesting, but unfortunately the air is hazy here often so it's tough to go up on a clear day. We were lucky enough to have the cook from my school host us that night as well. We really lucked out!

Dylan and Emily also came and observed me at school. That was a lot of fun and the kids really liked them. The highlight of the day was probably when they helped me make clay airplanes for the kids in two of my classes. It was adorable, ha ha. So I'm not sure exactly what they thought of Taiwan in general, but I can safely say that I am SO glad that they came and I had a great time with them.

On to more current stuff...today was my first day tutoring Brian from my K3B class. I am going to tutor him once a week for the rest of my time here in Taiwan. He's the cutest kid in my K3B class and he's really funny too. We read books for about an hour today, and then his family took me out on an adventure for the day. We went to Keelung on the northeast tip of Taiwan. This was a gorgeous area and I'll post pictures soon to better describe everything. We ate at a restaurant first, where I made sure to crack open a prawn and have the inner juices explode all over my arm and shirt. Then we went on an hour long-ish hike along the coast. This was very scenic! I felt like I was in Hawaii! Unfortunately, it did sort of drizzle the whole time, but it wasn't that hot as a result so that was good. (At this point in the blog, carpal tunnel is setting in, ha ha). Then we went to Jiufen, a small town on a hillside close to Keelung. This was a very unique town with narrow streets and shops stuffed in every imaginable crevice of the city. This was very cool and a very authentic experience. I ate a Taiwanese dessert that consisted of ice cubes floating in a soup, accompanied by sweet chunks of vegetables and beans. It was pretty good, but kind of odd at the same time. Apparently, it's a very popular dish though...when in Rome. We did see a fair amount of tourists though, but not white people. They looked Chinese but they were speaking English, so they were probably ABCs (American-born Chinese) on vacation. Come to think of it, I think I only saw two white people today total, and we were in some very touristy places. Oh well. There were a lot of cool shops and scents and scenery so that was great to see! Afterwards, we headed to the Keelung night market....crazy! I thought Shilin was crazy but this was crazier for sure! There were so many people. It was ridiculous. You could barely walk. Again, I'll add pictures to better describe it. I did eat two more dishes that Keelung is famous for...when in Rome. I had "pow pow bin" or something like that, which is basically Italian water ice. I also had some fried sandwich filled with mayonnaise, tomatoes, cucumbers, sausage, and eggs. It was pretty good at the time but I felt sick after (and me typing about it now is not bringing back fond memories). I got home at about 10 PM. So yeah, that was the first day of tutoring...11 hours with Brian's whole family, 3 popular authentic Taiwanese dishes, 2 popular tourist destinations, and a partridge in a pear tree. Also, Brian's sister is 3 I think and she was so adorable. She kept calling me "Mister Ryan" all day, but that's practically the only English she knows. It was quite a day, to say the least. And the plan is to do something like this every week, but more on that later. I'm tired now and not sure what else to ramble on about. I hope this makes up for the last few weeks of time off, but hey, it's been busy. Yeah yeah, we're all busy.

Last thing, in the running world...Galen Rupp is amazing and Dathan Ritzenhein is back in the game. Perhaps Alan Webb too. It's very exciting stuff! I did attempt to sign up for my first race in Taiwan, but unfortunately registration is closed because they gave out all the entries already. Now the next race in Taiwan isn't until October. Oh well. Now I'm actually going. Goodbye!

(fill in the blank) Chicken Platoon

Well, school was pretty entertaining today. My boss wanted me to help her choose a song for the upcoming K3 graduation ceremony. She said she wanted the song to sound joyful but also have meaningful lyrics related to graduating. She had narrowed it down to 2 songs for me to choose from. I listened to the first and it was some passionate love song with lyrics like "if you fall, I will catch you" and "you're the only beauty in this world" so I didn't think that was too fitting. Then the next song was about someone dying. I'm not sure how my boss carefully chose these two songs but she did. My co-teacher Dan and I are thinking we're going to play "Good Riddance" by Green Day on our guitars while the students sing. That's a pretty common song for occasions such as this.

Later in the day was rehearsal time for the upcoming Drama Night we have next week. This was very entertaining to watch because many of the kids are like 15 years old and they have to sing these really slow love ballads and dance on stage like ballerinas. My class is singing "YMCA" which is pretty funny to watch. That song is like 5 minutes long! Oh well, I'll put up videos of the final performances next week. Get excited...

I did put up about 70 pictures so far from Australia if you want to check those out! I'm probably gonna end up putting like 200 more pictures up so get ready. Then again, the pictures are of an amazing place so maybe you won't mind. Oh and the last thing...in my K3B class today, while I was talking to the class, one of the kids got out of their chair and came up and started sniffing my arm for about 15 seconds and then he said it smelled good. It was very odd and funny to think about. Oh and one more last thing...I've finally decided that the bathroom at school smells like a zoo stall. And there are a lot of random bugs in it. And the funny thing is that the cleaning lady cleans the bathroom like 3 times a day. She must be using dirty water. After having been in Australia for a week where the air was clean, now I notice even more how horrible the air is here. It just smells bad pretty much everywhere. Emily and Dylan, get ready to experience that!

Bats, Bats, and More Bats

I'm back in Taiwan...already. First of all, I can't believe how amazing Australia was, and second, I can't believe that the trip is already over! But hey, at least I got to go so I shouldn't really be complaining after all. So yeah, Australia was awesome! I'm not sure what I expected to see, but I was pleasantly surprised. The fam and Kelly and I spent the first few days in Brisbane. We got to see Emily's school campus, which was huge and very beautiful. We made sure to have Emily take us to all of her classes to make sure that she was actually going to school. We also saw a few different art museums and ate a lot of great food. That was one of the highlights for me: the food. It was all very, very good, but also very expensive. A lady at the airport told me that wages in Australia are typically pretty high though to help offset the high price of food. She said a job that might pay around $8 an hour (like a retail job) in the US would actually pay about $15 USD per hour in Australia. It seemed like every meal we had cost like $100. It was a nice break from the Taiwanese food though.

The weather was pretty much perfect the whole time we were in Brisbane, except for a few rain showers. The city of Brisbane was very nice. It was very clean, modern, and filled with lots of friendly people with very entertaining accents. The roads in Brisbane are a lot like San Francisco because of all the hills. The next part of the trip was definitely the biggest treat of the vacation: North Stradbroke Island, or Straddie to the locals. This is an island just a few miles off the coast of Brisbane. It almost felt like I was in Hawaii, but it's far less developed which I really liked. There were no high-rise buildings. And not many people for that matter. Because it's winter in Australia, it's kind of their slow season (what a rough winter huh? 75 degrees as the high). We stayed in a very funky hotel that was set back into the woods off the main road. It took about 2 minutes to walk to the beach. We did a lot of lounging on the beach, some hiking, and again, lots of eating. One thing that was pretty crazy to see was the bats, aka Flying Foxes. One night, we witnessed a mass migration of at least 1,000 bats flying down the coast. I would say these bats have at least a 2 foot wingspan...they were big. I had never seen bats this big before, and definitely not this many at once. My mom and I were also lucky enough to see 2 kangaroos in the wild. Needless to say, the rest of our party was quite jealous. I'll be posting some pictures shortly because they're gonna do a much better job showing you what Australia was all about. All I'm trying to say is that I'd highly recommend a visit!

Today was my second day back to school and I'm definitely having a hard time adjusting and getting back into the groove. I'm missing everyone now but luckily the kids keep you busy enough that you can't think about it too much. I have one highlight from today that was pretty memorable. It was the third field trip of the year today. We drove south into Taoyuan to the National Taiwan Sports University campus. We attended some sort of Firefighters' Benefit or something. It started with 8 guys dressed as women in bikinis, lifeguards, and people who looked like they belonged to a bomb squad. They were wearing one piece, white plastic suits. They must've been very hot. It was around 80 degrees today and very humid. They did some sort of dance combined with a life-saving demonstration. It was very odd. Again, a video or picture would better describe it. Once they did this, more guys came out with sheets to make ocean waves and the guys in the plastic suits put on monster masks. Then another life-saving demonstration ensued, followed by a 3 song dance sequence which included "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Then the monster people ran around a chased and scared all the kids.

After this were the boat races. They had 3 boats with 4 firefighters in each racing across a pond. This was fairly anti-climactic because one team won convincingly. The capper for the day was when all of the kids were allowed to catch baby catfish out of a baby pool. There must've been at least 500 catfish in this pool. It was pretty gross but a lot of fun too. I caught 5 and now I have them in a bowl in my room. Of course the next challenge will be trying to find fish food somewhere near my house. Luckily, I have that little "language barrier" I have to contend with. After we got back to school, I had two science classes in a row where we experimented with different kinds of paper and how they reacted to water. One of the students thought it'd be a good idea to put the pieces of paper on their face and of course, their fellow students followed suit. Before I knew it, I had 15 kids roaming around the classroom with 6 pieces of paper stuck to their faces. They all looked like Uncle Sam.

To sum this rambling up, I'd like to thank my parents for an awesome trip to Australia, thank Emily for being our great tour guide, and thank Kelly for being there with me to experience it all. Now my mind is spinning trying to gather my thoughts and also try and sort through the hundreds of pictures I took so I can post them on flickr for the many blog fans I have to enjoy. 'Nuff said!