Halloween

The holiday grows in popularity throughout parts of Taiwan. It's still thought of as strange though.

Not devastation, but not joy either

I saw a black grain-like thing on one of the desks in my classroom. It seemed to appear out of thin air, and I couldn't see where from it intruded. I inspected it and thankfully squished it. A Google image search later confirmed my fear: it was a cockroach egg. I felt like taking a shower.

Bugs just seem to bug me.

Leofoo Village

Welcome to Leofoo Village - an amusement park with four theme parks: African Safari, Arabian Kingdom, South Pacific, and Wild West.

African Safari is more of a zoo. Look! authentic black bears!


As we rode the tour bus, it felt like we had taken a route through the set of Planet of the Apes. I've never seen so many primates in one space before.


Employees wear theme-related uniforms. Sky cycling:



Looks familiar...



A cooperative poser:




Ring of Fire:


My favorite ride was the Sultan's Adventure. You walk through a creepy haunted house to an underground spooky ride. It is unpredictable, diverse, and just the right length of time. You sit in a rickety old Jeep that speeds along, jolts, dips, shakes side-to-side, and goes again. The ride plays upon many fears, including things you can see, feel, and hear. All the displays are very elaborate. Ghosts, mummies, monsters, warfare, wind, screams, snakes, and darkness.

It was like Indiana Jones meets The Pit and the Pendulum.


Onto lighter matters.



I was dampened by this Flute Mountain ride.


Pagoda's Revenge is similar to the Hellevator, only this ride consists only of a single rise and drop. It's over before you know it happened.


Into the Wild West. I don't think most train rides are as crazy as this one.



The Screaming Condor is my second favorite ride. It takes off Bruce Lee quickly.


You're shot up into the sky at one end,


go underground through the loading area, and then shoot out the other end of the tunnel and up this:

A river ride that was fun, but not as much fun as actual river rafting.


Look out!


I got soaked. There's a waterfall and getting wet is inevitable unless you have a raincoat with you.


It's getting dark, you know.

National Palace Museum

The National Palace Museum in Taipei:


It's tucked into the mountains.


I saw a Baroque exhibit which consisted of 67 rare paintings on loan from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, so here's a horrible photo of a postcard rendition of a painting I like. Obviously it doesn't do the painting any justice.


Then there were the regular museum exhibits. Many many artifacts.

October 26 is the new Halloween

Mask-making, trick-or-treating, and a best mask contest. Today was our full-fledged Halloween learning/fun day.




On Wednesday - the actual day of - another department in our school will be celebrating Halloween, so it'll be an extended holiday of sorts.

No need to be catty

Originally I had thoughts of being a gypsy fortune teller pirate, but I think that a cat is more accessible for kids. Especially ESL kids.

An easy and cheap costume. I made the ears, and I had a good excuse to buy this black top.

Strung up

ICRT FM 100

Your English connection in Taiwan.


That, and my recently discovered favorite radio station. News and music that is oh so accessible. I have a radio in my classroom, so I've made a habit of listening to the station at work everyday. The occasional kid-interference has led me to tape the tuning dial in place.

Frightful

Halloween lighting:


That's in my classroom. Only a few of the lights have been transformed though, and the colours are friendlier than this red.

Dozens of paper mache pumpkins hang from the ceiling in various locations throughout the school. This pumpkin had a mid-life crisis and changed the direction that it's life was headed; that's why it looks a little different.


During our meeting today, one of the other teachers presented a demo. As the audience, we were told to behave like children in real-life situations. Perhaps we participated realistically a little too much. It was fun to behave as our trouble-maker students do (and we didn't have to deal with the issues either!).

My co-worker did the funniest thing I've ever seen her do - she crawled under one of the desks, imitating one of her current students. Absolutely hilarious!

Small animal

As I was sitting at my desk eating dinner at work tonight, some kids starting screaming and inspecting the area around my cubicle. They said that they saw a small animal. I couldn't understand what they were saying at first, and I thought that they'd seen a large bug. (Side note: many kids here aren't familiar with the word 'bug', but do know 'insect'.) The animal turned out to be a small, long-ish lizard. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me.

Rockin' out

It's a good thing I didn't bring a map with me - I would have seen less of Taiwan.

Core Pacific City 'Living Mall.' It's built 12 stories high, and there are three underground levels (not including the levels for parking).




Into the core/alien hive thing.




Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall:


There were several exhibits and art galleries to check out.

Across the street from the Taipei Main Station two stages were set up back-to-back and various musicians did their thang. One stage had the dreamy BSB-esque dreamy hip hoppers dancing and singing, and the other stage hosted a variety of bands each performing a single song. It was easy to stay there and watch them as day turned to night, despite the growing chill in the air.

The cold cometh

It's actually starting to get colder here. I didn't believe it till I felt it. Several days ago I even bought a blanket. The one sheet just wasn't cutting it anymore. There is no central heating system here which is great for my utilities bill. No A/C and no heating charges for how many more months. That money will go toward future travels ;)

The man and the sea

Unintended nail art

For Halloween my classes have been making paper mache pumpkins. That involves dipping one's fingers in white glue and adhering strips of paper to a balloon. I probably got a little high from spending those hours with that much glue. Some of my fingers looked like they had a French manicure because there was glue under my nail.

Do you fully understand the music you listen to?

Listening to music in a foreign language

I'm surprised at the number of people I talk to who have trouble understanding that it can be an enjoyable experience. "But, you don't know what the singer is saying" - that seems to be a common response. There are other ways to enjoy music.

Also, I'm sure that many people don't know or understand the lyrics to a lot of the music they listen to, even though it's in a language they are familiar with. Lyrics are also open to interpretation, so that adds another dimension.

Just sayin'.

The fine print is in another language

From Taipei I caught the fast train back to Zhongli and I even had a seat. (The fast trains have reserved seats if you buy your ticket at an opportune time.) It's always busy on Sunday evenings because everyone has to go home after spending a day or two in Taipei. So there I was, sitting in my seat, when midway through my journey I was nudged and shown a ticket with my seat number reserved for someone else. I brought out my ticket which had the seat number that I was occupying printed on it, and that's when the fine print on my ticket was pointed out to me.

Booted out.

Apparently there was a location limit to my reservation. I just had no chance on that one. It's like double fine print.

At least this incident was for something as minor as a seat on the train. Had it been something else, who knows just how irreparably devastated I could be right now.

Still death

It looked as though it were alive when I approached.

No.


I joined my co-workers for lunch today after the school open house (which didn't include my department). We ate at a vegetarian restaurant nearby, and afterward went downtown to look for Halloween costumes.

Yes!

I felt an earthquake this morning! Finally.

I was seated by the desk at my place and I noticed that my computer was shaking beneath my hand. Huh, that's a strange hallucination. I really should have consumed less caffeine and gotten more sleep. No, wait! My chair and self are shaking also! Hooray!

10/10

Taiwan's national holiday and my birthday. I had the day off work and went to Taipei to see some musical performances and fireworks. There were a lot of people there, and the stage area where we were sitting didn't make for an area with the easiest access to a clear viewing area for the fireworks.




As well as the spiral, there were happy face fireworks. The celebration started off with a bridge waterfall-type display of white fireworks that I couldn't get a clear shot of.



P.S. My camera lens is dirty!