India shaking

Sunday 31 May 2009

We went out to the beach today with some friends and four of their five dogs. (Well, really they have three dogs, and are long-term dog-sitting two others.) We had a ton of fun swimming and chatting and eating lychees. And India had a lot of fun shaking water onto people.

Ryan and Jack

Saturday 30 May 2009

We drove up north of the city today to visit a friend. One of his neighbors has this jackfruit tree in their yard, and I couldn't resist snapping a shot of this incredible fruit. These are very small, unripe jackfruits - they can grow up to three feet long! That's some fruit, huh?

Green door

Friday 29 May 2009

I like not understanding everything in Chinese, and being able to just enjoy the beauty of the characters. The middle line here says "No parking," but I don't know about the other two. I actually prefer not to understand anything, so I can see it just as art.

Flag Capture

Thursday 28 May 2009

Ryan and I went back down to the river today to watch the dragonboat finals. We staked out a good spot at the finish line, and both got some great shots.

Do you know, I heard that Taiwan is the only place left that uses these big old traditional boats. Everywhere else uses faster fiberglass ones, but we still have the beautiful and slow wooden ones.

Dragonboat

Wednesday 27 May 2009

I ROWED ON A DRAGONBOAT TEAM TODAY!!!

Not this one here, this is another, much better team. I rowed for the Kaoshiung Hash House Harriers team, which was short of people. (We only got second and didn't move on to the finals, but no one really cared - it is not a serious team, but one just in it for fun.)

This is something I've wanted to do since I first came to Taiwan, actually - I joined a team my first year here, but then had to quit when practices conflicted with theater. So, I have finally realized yet another Taiwan dream!

Lifejackets

Tuesday 26 May 2009

We took our kindergarten class out to see the dragonboat races this morning. There weren't any, we were too early or something, but all the lifejackets were laid out in anticipation.

Zhongzhi

Monday 25 May 2009

Dragonboat festival is coming up, and this is the one very traditional food associated with it. They are banana leaves stuffed with sticky rice and either boiled peanuts or meat. I personally don't really like them, but Ryan loves them with ketchup.

Corn Husks

Sunday 24 May 2009

At a boiled corn stand.

Offering street

Saturday 23 May 2009

We passed by this street today, absolutely full from one end to the other with identical offering tables. Man, the ancestors are having a party tonight!

Elementary school

Friday 22 May 2009

This is a view of the elementary school across the street from out kindergarten. I am hoping to get a better photo of a Taiwanese school, but for now this will due to show you how INCREDIBLY BIG schools are here. This isn't even the entire school, but you can see that it is five stories tall with multiple wings and sections. Schools here are not buildings, they are complexes. There are probably schools with more students than there are people in my hometown. It's crazy. I can remember my elementary school - two hallways, with maybe 12 classrooms, a cafeteria/gym, and an art/music room.

Painted sky

Thursday 21 May 2009

The sky was amazing tonight - it looked like a changing painted sunset for about 45 minutes.

Dog shoes

Wednesday 20 May 2009

Hee hee, this dog is wearing shoes! Taiwanese people are so weird about their dogs . . .

Scooter window

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Chiang Kai-Shek

Monday 18 May 2009

Okay, so I'm back in Kaohsiung today, but I couldn't resist posting one more Taipei photo. We happened upon a really cool changing of the guards at the Chaing Kai-shek memorial.

We just had to visit here, for romantic reasons. You see, Ryan and I decided to start dating under a giant statue of Chiang Kai-shek just like this one. Unfortunately, the Kaohsiung city government decided to take ours down. Ah well.

Shoe-throwing

Sunday 17 May 2009

We are up in Taipei for the weekend, so we decided to walk around a bit today, see a bit more of the city. And today happens to be the start of a whole bunch of protests against the current government and in support of the previous president. (We were hoping to see a big student protest, but couldn't find the starting place.) We saw this little stand here - throw shoes at politicians' faces! Definitely a very Taiwanese diversion!

Ryan's show

Saturday 16 May 2009

Ryan's first official gallery photo exhibition opened tonight in Taipei!!!!! Here he is chatting with a fan of his work.

Bulletin board

Friday 15 May 2009

Improv league

Thursday 14 May 2009

Ryan has joined the Kaohsiung Improv League! (I was thinking about it, but decided that I really don't need any more late nights right now, thank you very much.) I went to his first show, and had a bunch of good laughs.

Caged windows

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Kindergarten photos

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Today was photo day at our kindergarten! Which for the two lower classes (yes, there are three years of kindergarten here - that's what happens when you start them at 3 years old) just meant a group photo out front. But for the "graduating" class, it meant a very long day in the studio, changing costumes five or six times to take these themed individual shots you see here. Those photos are then turned into these giant, expensive, high-quality photo albums. They are, honestly, nicer (in physical quality, anyway, I don't know about tastefulness), more elaborate, and fancier than most people's wedding albums back home. I can't believe how much parents must spend on these things.