Another street

Tuesday 30 September 2008

A hazy afternoon in Kaohsiung.

Teas!

Monday 29 September 2008

Well, the typhoon blew itself out last night, but school was canceled today anyway! I spent some time making bottles of tea to keep in the fridge. It's always nice to have something cold and not too sugary on hand, and the teas are cheap at the dry goods market.

Pictured here: fruit, lemongrass, rose, and chrysanthemum. Yum!

Guang Hua Temple

Sunday 28 September 2008

A temple on Guanghua Road, right as the light starts to thicken.

Night Market

Saturday 27 September 2008

We went to the night market tonight, and it was crazy as usual.

Here she comes!

Friday 26 September 2008

Friday is PE day, which always provides tons of great photo ops. Here comes Jenny! She's normally so shy, but she had fun today!

Oooo eeeee

Thursday 25 September 2008

Ooo, who is that mysterious mustachioed man? Oh wait, that's a dummy! This the newest safety measure used by construction crews here - a dummy with waving arms set up just before the work site. It really gets your attention, and is probably much more effective in getting people to slow down than little orange cones - from a distance they look fairly life-like.

Lantern

Wednesday 24 September 2008

At a temple downtown. I love all the red!

In the thick of things

Tuesday 23 September 2008

This is from a rather sleezy free newspaper here in Kaohsiung. I guess reporting on all the domestic disputes and car accidents and whatnot just isn't exciting enough unless they've got the pictures of the action itself. Well, they don't have pictures but that doesn't stop them - they just make them! I personally love the faces on the people, so dramatic.

Night Trees

Monday 22 September 2008

At the Art Museum, where we practice kong fu.

Lion Dance

Sunday 21 September 2008

Our kong fu class performed in a martial arts demo at a temple dinner tonight. It was a lot of fun, and the foreigners doing kong fu were clearly the big attraction of the evening, even if our kong fu was waaaay more basic than that of the Taiwanese people there.

This photo, by the way, in no way does credit to how difficult and demanding the lion dance is. Two people in a lion suit sounds like hilarity out of a sitcom, but the coordination and strength needed to perform this dance is incredible.

Procession

Saturday 20 September 2008

A religious precession, making its way through the streets of Kaohsiung, winding through traffic and stopping at various temples as it comes upon them. You see these fairly often, and it's usually pretty neat - unless of course you're in a hurry!

Jump, jump, jump

Friday 19 September 2008

What a demanding teacher - I am always making my students jump through hoops!

Here is Purple (yes, we told her mother there was a perfectly nice name like Violet in existence) during P.E.

Rainy Tunnel

Thursday 18 September 2008

A narrow little tunnel on one of the major roads on a rainy night. Funny thing is, after I took this shot I went back around and drove through the tunnel, only to find that there were dozens of people stopped inside in order to put on their raincoats - crazy dangerous!!! I really wanted to stop and get a picture of that, but that would have been just as reckless as them, so I didn't.

New Map of World

Wednesday 17 September 2008

The world as seen from a Taiwanese perspective - with Taiwan in the middle, of course! Sort of strange seeing things flipped around, I have to admit. But at least this map is pretty modern - the map at my old kindergarten had all of China marked as a part of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The Confucius Temple

Tuesday 16 September 2008

Brian, one of my students, on our field trip to the Confucius temple. This was the most ridiculous field trip I have ever been on. We went to the temple, walked around taking pictures of the students in different places, had a snack, and then left. No information on Confucius, the temple, anything. It was not a field trip, it was a photo opp.

Moon Festival

Sunday 14 September 2008

Fireworks being set off in the middle of the street - yep, it's a holiday here in Taiwan!

Meat bins

Saturday 13 September 2008

How do Taiwanese people celebrate Moon Festival? With a great big nation-wide barbeque!!! (Which, we recently found out, is not an old tradition, like everyone thinks, but the result of an incredibly successful ad campaign about 30 years back.) Here are the great big bins of pre-marinated meat and fish in the supermarket, ready-made barbeque fixin's!

Moon cakes!

Friday 12 September 2008

Today was the last school day before Moon Festival (also called Mid-Autumn Festival), so naturally we were showered with gifts of moon cakes. These are (normally) tasty little anvils of sugar, fat, and stuffing, so heavy that I swear one little cake must weigh several pounds. They're good, but you really only need one per year. As you can see, we got a few more than that. We got another box on Monday.

This year we got pineapple, which isn't bad; red bean, which is my favorite; and green been with egg and meat, which is disgusting.

Cherry's stickers

Thursday 11 September 2008

This is Cherry, my biggest troublemaker by far. We were making cars out of old boxes today, and her mom sent in some stickers with which to decorate the cars. I turned by back for a minute (silly Christie) and Cherry quickly covered herself with as many of the stickers as possible. I was angry in an official capacity, but was cracking up inside and couldn't resist getting a picture of her.

Teppenyaki

Wednesday 10 September 2008

This is a teppenyaki restaurant, one of our favorites. You go in and sit down along a long counter, like a diner, except that the counter is really a great long grill. You order, they cook it up right in front of you, and leave it in a little pile on the edge of the grill in front of you, so it stays warm as you eat. Yum!

Intersection

Tuesday 9 September 2008

I met my Spanish teacher at a new cafe today, one at the top of a giant mall, with a great view of the city. Here is the great big Taiwanese intersection it overlooks.

Tongue Cake

Monday 8 September 2008

Mmmmm, want some?

Rainy day

Sunday 7 September 2008

A view of the rainy day from our balcony.

Caterpillar

Saturday 6 September 2008

Spotted this furry little guy outside the art museum today (which is where we practice kong fu.)

First attempt

Monday 15 September 2008

Fooling around with different techniques. Hopefully you'll see much better shots like this in the future!

Korean-style hotpot

Friday 5 September 2008

A friend took us to her favorite hot pot place tonight, which is "Korean style" - meaning there is only a bit of soup around the edge, and a raised area in the middle for cooking your meat. This place was great for three reasons. 1- a yummy, spicy sauce unlike other hot pot places. 2- you get all-you-can-eat veggies for free, and 3- instead of the normal green or black tea, they serve winter melon tea, one of my favorite teas in Taiwan! We will definitely be going back to this place!

Even the biggest birds . . .

Thursday 4 September 2008

Guess what the Chinese word for "bird" is slang for here? Which means Ryan often has an interesting time telling people his name . . .

Hip shot

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Riding to work.

Birthday girl

Tuesday 2 September 2008

Here's a bit of a cheesy picture of my friend/coworker/kongfu teacher Kevin and I cutting the "September birthdays" cake. We happened to do the September party at school on my birthday, so I got to wear a special birthday hat as well! (I'm holding the cards that Kevin's and Ryan's classes made for me.)

Dancing at the museum

Monday 1 September 2008

There's all kinds of parkland around and lots of open public space in front of the Art Museum, so every evening (when it cools down a bit) there are all kinds of classes going on in the open air. From ballroom dancing, to aerobics, to taichi, to our own kongfu class, there's something for everyone. Here is a shot of one of the dance classes.