Saturday, October 31, 2009

I'm practicing being a bride!



Saturday 31 October 2009

Ryan and I were Frankenstein's Monster and his bride for Halloween (obviously). It was soooo cool - my hair was at least a foot tall!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Old poster



Friday 30 October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

For rent



Thursday 29 October 2009

It's for rent, if you're interested!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Doggie Head!



Wednesday 28 October 2009

Hee hee, fluffy dog.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Round building


Tuesday 27 October 2009

A building in our neighborhood.

Monday, October 26, 2009

My pomelo hat



Monday 26 October 2009

This is more traditionally done at Chinese New Year, but Ryan and I ate a pomelo, and I decided to cut the skin into a hat. So, here I am doing my pomelo dance in my pomelo hat.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Morning temple


Sunday 25 October 2009

Friday, October 23, 2009

Godspeed


Saturday 24 October 2009

At the stationary store.

Thank you, good sir. Now that I have purchased a sufficient supply of stickers for the journey, I shall return safely to my home.

I once had a student named Godspeed. Well, for one day, before I convinced his dad to change his name to Oliver.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Sabrina's clothes



Friday 23 October 2009

These clothes belong to Sabrina, my co-teacher's one-year-old daughter. Sabrina's grandmother sews these Buddhist symbols onto her clothes to protect her.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Oooh, Captain Hunk!


Thursday 22 October 2009

This is a page from a book in a series which our school owns and has in the library. Our school which collects money for teaching children English. Yes, this is a real book that really claims to teach English. There are many more, some even worse than this, but this was my favorite page so far. That Captain Hunk, he's so dreamy.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Ava



Wednesday 21 October 2009

Ava on the jungle gym.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Marryme



Tuesday 20 October 2009

An ad that went up a little while ago, attracting a lot of attention. I still don't know if she said yes or not.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Rust



Monday 19 October 2009

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Drippy cow



Sunday 18 October 2009

I love the leaky cow inside the thumbs-up over there.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Proscenium



Saturday 17 October 2009

The proscenium of a religious puppet show, near my friend Bekah's house.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Dog-walking



Friday 16 October 2009

Okay, this isn't the best shot, but it's the best I can do so far. This is a person who has tied their dog to their scooter, and is driving around to give the dog exercise. I have seen this lots of times here in Taiwan. Why people here buy bigger breeds to begin with, I don't know, seeing as they all live in small apartments. And you'll also notice that this is a husky, running in the tropical heat, unshaved.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Orange Paint



Thursday 15 October 2009

Engagement rings



Wednesday 14 October 2009

On the right is the engagement ring Ryan bought for me in Paraguay. I love it, but because the filligree is basically just silver wire it has proved to be a very delicate ring. I have bent it twice now. So, he talked to some friends of ours here who make jewelry, and got me a new engagement ring, pictured on the left. It has a piece of jade in it, and a space in which to fit my wedding ring later. I also love this ring.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Four tea shops!


Tuesday 13 October 2009

You probably won't recognize the humor in this picture unless you live in Taiwan, but let me just point out that this is a stretch of street with four, yes, four tea shops almost in a row. On the far left, red/black/white is the "Shiny Tea" (yummmmm, so shiny in my tummy); then the dark green QingXin (green heart) Tea with the red heart (mmmmm, so expensive); then right next door the bright yellow 50 Tea (Ryan's favorite, for some reason); and then another dark green one which is a direct rip-off of the QingXin.

The Taiwanese love their tea.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Sugar Factory



Monday 12 October 2009

Ryan and I had an unexpected day off today (some kids in our school, though not in our classes, have H1N1), so we decided to do some Kaohsiung sight-seeing. We went to the old sugar factory outside of town, where we saw a bunch of rusty old machinery that has been left to rot. It made for an odd attraction - you could just wander through the old factory, with a few railings up but not too many, free to contract tetanus however you wished.

But there is also a big ice cream shop there, full of all kinds of wonderful Asian flavors (in pre-packaged little bowls, of course), so afterward Ryan had some sour green mango ice cream and I had dried longyan flavor. Yum!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Japan Explodes!



Sunday 11 October 2009

With a title like that, a movie's GOT to be great, huh?

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Hazy evening



Saturday 10 October 2009

At least the pollution gives us nice sunsets, right . . . .?

Friday, October 09, 2009

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Morning prices



Wednesday 7 October 2009

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Beer-flavored Green Tea



Tuesday 6 October 2009

This is one Taiwanese specialty I won't be recommending . . .

Monday, October 05, 2009

Bakery cakes



Monday 5 October 2009

Taiwanese cakes always look gorgeous, but be warned, they also always taste like sawdust and sugar.

Here are some of the cakes on offer at this local bakery, in case you cannot see them clearly:

Cakes shaped like: a beer can, two stacks of money, a Louis Vitton bag, cartoon characters, a woman's chest, and a box of cigarettes. Yep, you can get a cake the looks just like a box of cigarettes - it's the blue rectangle on the bottom line.

On a lower poster, they also had a poo-poo cake for sale. (My co-teacher's son picked this one out for his birthday.)

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Miracle Fruit


Sunday 4 October 2009

I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but there is a berry from western Africa that affects your taste buds. If you eat it, for about half an hour afterward nearly everything tastes different. In particular, sour things taste sweet. Sweet enough to eat lemons like candy.

At the food show last year we bought some tablets made from this fruit, and so finally decided to throw a "miracle fruit" party. We invited a bunch of people over, cut up a ton of different fruits and veggies, and just sat around tasting them.

Here's Bekah, pleasantly surprised, eating a lemon. The biggest surprise of the day, though, was ku gua, a gourd that is normally so bitter you'd think it was poisonous. With the berry, it tasted almost like cucumer.


P.S. Why they couldn't just use the local name for it, I don't know. Miracle fruit just sounds so cheesy!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Midautumn barbeque



Saturday 3 October 2009

We gathered for our Midautum Festival barbeque on the shore of ChengQing Lake this year. It was lovely.

Friday, October 02, 2009

Anthony's jacket


Friday 2 October 2009

We've been learning clothing vocabulary, so for a fun Friday activity I found at least one of each item of clothing we've learned, and brought them in for some dress-up games. Here is sweet Anthony, in a jacket that we found in the closet when we moved in.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

He's lookin' at me


Thursday 1 October 2009

I wanted to capture the neat lines in Ryan's glasses, but it didn't quite come out right in the short time we had during the red light. But you know me, I can't seem to resist a self-portrait . . .