First off, no the earthquake was not a big deal. I felt it and it was freaky, but everyone I was working with just continued on teaching. I was doing an oral test at the time with my higher level class and the student I was working with kind of looked a little freaked out so we went to the door frame and stood under it, but everyone else just stayed seated. With the aftershock my other student didn't even bat an eye, so as the building was shaking I just continued asking him questions "When did the family start eating dinner?".....yeah they're used to them here.
Well I had a fabtabulous christmas this year. To start off one of my kindie kids dressed up as Nemo for our friday x-mas party. (like how random, they were supposed to dress up as x-mas things). We had sled races, and as you can see my sled
looked a bit like a turle with garland slapped on it. My friends is Taiching really went the extra mile to make it really feel like home (minus the drama.....). I went over to David and Kevin's place on Saturday and later that night my friend Krista from Taipei joined us. On Sunday we did a little shopping, went to movie (The museum one with Ben Stiller, yeah not an oscar winner but somewhat entertaining...somewhat). I had popcorn, oh how I've missed popcorn. Of course because this is Taiwan when I ordered it there were two choices: salty and sweet. Sweet? Like who wants to eat caramel popcorn? Anyhoo, I had the salty, and it wasn't exactly like home, but very close. That night we went to an organic farm for dinner, which was a fusion of western and chinese. So there were cold salads with seaweed (chinese) with mashed potatos (western) with raisons and nuts (chinese). It was pretty tasty. That night we stayed up and played card games, sang some x-mas song (yeah 
we're such kindergarten teachers), and had a gift exchange. Kevin found a red hoodie here with the lyrics to Avril Lavingnes song "Skater Boy", so random, but so Taiwanese. The next morning the boys had made stockings for us, which was so nice, and then we headed over to a friends for breakfast. We had pancakes, waffles, and french toast (other food I had missed quite a bit). Oh so yummy.
Then after breaky we decided to spend christmas day with budda (dad you should be proud). You can see from the pic
s that the budda is huge, the whole area was really beautiful and serene, very different from everyday life here. But all in all I had a really fabulous x-mas. I don't have definite plans for new years yet, but I think I'm going to Taipei to see Krista and go to Taipei 101 for fireworks. It is supposed to be something no foreigner should miss according to Van. Anyhoo, I hope everyone is enjoying their time off, and I miss you all.
-Lindsay
looked a bit like a turle with garland slapped on it. My friends is Taiching really went the extra mile to make it really feel like home (minus the drama.....). I went over to David and Kevin's place on Saturday and later that night my friend Krista from Taipei joined us. On Sunday we did a little shopping, went to movie (The museum one with Ben Stiller, yeah not an oscar winner but somewhat entertaining...somewhat). I had popcorn, oh how I've missed popcorn. Of course because this is Taiwan when I ordered it there were two choices: salty and sweet. Sweet? Like who wants to eat caramel popcorn? Anyhoo, I had the salty, and it wasn't exactly like home, but very close. That night we went to an organic farm for dinner, which was a fusion of western and chinese. So there were cold salads with seaweed (chinese) with mashed potatos (western) with raisons and nuts (chinese). It was pretty tasty. That night we stayed up and played card games, sang some x-mas song (yeah 
we're such kindergarten teachers), and had a gift exchange. Kevin found a red hoodie here with the lyrics to Avril Lavingnes song "Skater Boy", so random, but so Taiwanese. The next morning the boys had made stockings for us, which was so nice, and then we headed over to a friends for breakfast. We had pancakes, waffles, and french toast (other food I had missed quite a bit). Oh so yummy.Then after breaky we decided to spend christmas day with budda (dad you should be proud). You can see from the pic
s that the budda is huge, the whole area was really beautiful and serene, very different from everyday life here. But all in all I had a really fabulous x-mas. I don't have definite plans for new years yet, but I think I'm going to Taipei to see Krista and go to Taipei 101 for fireworks. It is supposed to be something no foreigner should miss according to Van. Anyhoo, I hope everyone is enjoying their time off, and I miss you all.-Lindsay
2 comments:
The kid dressed as Nemo is hilarious. Did I ever tell you about how Greg didn't smile in pictures for the first year or so we were together because he thought asian business men looked good in pictures because their faces weren't all messed up smiling? Yeah, he looked about as enthused in all our pictures as the Nemo kid looks.
You're so lucky you're away from the annoying world of FOIP. I can't even take pictures of my kids for my own use. My school is particularly psycho... Anything with the kids' names on them have to be shredded and can't leave the school. Meanwhile these girls probably all have MySpace accounts and give their name and address out to strangers who compliment them on their pictures.
I found out from Tanny that Ken died on Christmas day... it's sad, but at the same time probably good. Weird, though.
Other than that, I have no news... I'm glad you didn't die in an earthquake.
Hey Lindsay,
Uncle Don here again. After I sent the last message, I thought I would look up your location and the location of the earthquake. Grandma and Grandpa were still here and of course we were all concerned. It's amazing what we can learn from maps and the internet. We saw that it was on the other end of the Island, but it was still a prety big series of quakes. It would have really shaken up this part of the world.
We had a great time over Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa, Nicole, Travis and Dylan stayed here Xmas eve. Your Mom, Steph, Kendall, Chris, Lisa, and Robert were all here for supper too. We were up early with Dylan opening presents by about 7:oo AM. Then after breakfast and a little afternoon nap we went to Chris's for dinner. In case you never heard he cooked a large beef roast. He says he eats enough turkey up north. Anyway it was a really nice supper and gathering. We had to play cards too. We had two tables of Hearts going. The first game went fast, but the second game drug on and on. We finally called it quits about 11:00 and got Grandma and Grandpa back here to bed. They stayed until about 2:00 Boxing Day and then headed home.
We have our friends Ray and Joyce stopping over on New Years' Eve for a late supper and a few drinks. It will be pretty tame.
I saw Chris for a few minutes tonight at the Rod 'N' Gun. They were selling meat draw tickets and I stopped for a qucik beer on the way home. He said they had a great boxing day too. They ahd a few friends over and drank about 70 jello shooters. I guess he was a little hung over after that.
Anyway, Have a Happy, Fun New Year.
Love,
Uncle Don and Auntie Gail
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