Lights, camera, action!

The school wanted to videotape a few of my classes today so that they can show the ever curious parents the teaching model the school uses. Having the class recorded was good for me in some ways because the kids were better behaved. I didn't say that they were well behaved, but better. Maybe I should ask to have a video camera in class everyday.

A boy in my class had a loose tooth this morning, and it was out of his mouth by early afternoon. He thought it was quite funny to pull on his baby tooth, then twist it all the way around, while it was only connected by a tiny string-like nerve. Showing me his bloody finger was like the cherry on top.

One student slapped a press-on tattoo on my wrist when I wasn't looking. Now I have a sparkly, blue-haired girl on my wrist. She only has one leg though, because the tattoo didn't stick fully.

Not again

Another typhoon just may end up disrupting my lesson plan plans. Sepat is headed toward Taiwan, and is estimated to meet the coast by Friday. Our re-scheduled field trip was supposed to be for this Thursday-Friday, but now it may end up being called off altogether.


I had a bit of a headache by the end of the day today. It didn't help that a few of the boys in my class tried to run up the wall, martial arts-movie style.

Holidays in Taiwan

For holidays where you get time off work, you end up having to make those days up on the weekend. That's not a real holiday! :(

Moon Festival will be during the end of September, so I'm starting to think about where to go during that time.

Zoo poo poo

I forgot to add this image to my entry yesterday. Attached onto the side of one of the buildings at the zoo, there was an array of 3-D droppings painted like a watermelon, rainbow, etc.

Taipei Zoo

I had to attend another conference at the school this morning. Afterward, a group of us took the TRA and MRA to Taipei (the train and city metro). The last time I took a train, it was the fast one, but today we took the cheaper and slower local train. The booths look like the ones of Vancouver's skytrain, except that these are wider, longer, and interconnected.

There's a massive underground strip mall at Taipei Main Station, and we walked through part of it till we found a place to eat a late lunch. After lunch we took the MRT again, having to transfer lines once. I took this picture while we were waiting for our ride.
It takes so long transferring between lines because there are so many people here. We somehow made it to Taipei Zoo Station, the last stop on the Muzha line. I always seem to feel the heat more while riding the Muzha line than with other lines.
Those structures on the hills are graves. The cemeteries here are much nicer looking than the ones I've seen in Canada.
It sprinkled off and on throughout the day. Luckily for us, it wasn't unbearably hot or rainy out. We arrived at the zoo in the afternoon, and we took a short trolley tour around the grounds. We then set our explorations afoot.

There were many orchids grafted onto the sides of trees.
Amphibian and Reptile House resident:
It births ping pong balls:
Hippos!
Elands:
Hibiscus:
Our afternoon arrival meant that some of the exhibits were closed by the time we had made our way there. We didn't get to see the Nocturnal Animal House, Insectarium, Bird World, Penguin House, and a few other places. It's a large zoo, and we did manage to cover a lot of ground, but I guess I'll have to go back there again.

How nice that the zoo was open till 9pm tonight. The coloured lights came out, trees glowed purple and green, and children were performing on a nearby stage.
A long day, so we left and drove to a place to eat dinner. Post feeding, our group split up and I and a few others took the MRT and TRA back to Zhongli.

I saw this sign in Taipei. No one follows this rule.

School BBQ

There were 5-6 grills for that many groups of kids, teachers, and staff to barbecue an assortment of foods. It rained intermittently, but we were under a sheltered area that was just big enough to cover us.

Charcoal on the grill, then torch it!I ate at the vegetarian station. I didn't like some of this kabob because it is mostly imitation meat. One kabob is very filling.
There were a lot of different kinds of meats being barbecued, but here's a sampling:


The man in the yellow is riding his scooter to Niagra Falls.


For Happy Kitchen we made lemonade.
A co-worker later gave me the same drink. The same, except that this one is The Tea of Cool, Craving, Content. With a slogan like that, I know which one tastes better. Forgive the blurry picture & its taker!

Squish me squishing me squished

A lot of surfers have been arriving at Once Upon a Time in Taiwan whilst searching for info on typhoons in Taiwan. One visitor found my blog when they typed "squish me squishing me squished" into Google's search engine. I think one of my posts about bugs was the linking factor.