Summer Stuff

Some other fun things I've been up to recently:



















Pictures from a photo scavenger hunt we did at a summer camp in Yilan. Can you guess our team's name?The first word is "The."













I was in Taipei after that for 1.5 weeks, which I already blogged about. Great fun.

Then I spent a week teaching at the girls' school. They have two classes that specialize in dance, and don't normally take my English conversation class. They were a fun group, but definitely had a lower English level. To whoever decided dancers don't need to learn English: it doesn't make sense. I told them that if they're
serious about being professional performers in the future, language skills will be essential. If they ever make it to the international level, or get to do performances overseas, they'll certainly need and use English.
In keeping with what I already knew they were interested in, I had the students make up dances to English songs, which they performed here on the last day. I might post a couple of videos later. One of the groups danced with umbrellas, and it was hilarious! Mostly because they hadn't thought ahead to using automatic umbrellas, so they had some difficulty opening and closing them in sync. They still had fun though!

Last weekend I had a couple of inauspicious days.... first of all, I went to Taipei overnight and left my scooter keys in my scooter, which then caused me to freak out as I was getting ready to come back because I couldn't find my keys anywhere. It's a miracle my scooter wasn't stolen, though I guess it was parked at the church! It was really funny though, because in one of the English language newspapers here, they publish the "lunar prophecy" of the day telling you which endeavors you should or shouldn't undertake and the one for Sunday said
It's a good day for:
Nothing
It's a bad day for:
Everything

It cracked me up! But I should have taken heed, because later I proceeded to fall down and scratch up my legs, get a sunburn, and spend almost a hundred dollars on unexpected scooter repairs! I'm fine now, but I guess my planets weren't aligned right, or SOMETHING!

Finally, I had a housewarming party last night! It was great to show off my new apartment, which I've found can hold a lot of people! At one point there were 23 people over! I did get in trouble with management for being too noisy though :S I assured them I wouldn't be having parties like that on a regular basis.
It was really cool to see all the connections between the people I know here. I even had some students from 4 years ago show up!
I also got a chance to do a little cooking. Here is a marble cake I baked, and an extremely popular crab artichoke dip, which I wasn't sure would turn out well or go over well. The hummus, on the other hand, was barely touched. I think I should have labeled it! Anyways, if you're ever in Yilan, I welcome you to come stay at my place!





Comments

  1. Hey! So, you offer your place if anyone is ever in Yilan. I'm Elizabeth, a student at Emmaus Bible College in Iowa. I'm studying Bible and TESOL and am praying for open doors for the future. I worked with a girl from Taiwan this spring on her English and am praying about visiting her over spring break next year. She's in Taipei. I was just wondering if there was any chance I could maybe come meet you if I do come over. I love reading your blog and would love to meet you and hear more about your work and life in Taiwan. My email is lizabeth.hannah@gmail.com if you want to write.
    Hope you have a great time at home! :) In Christ, Elizabeth

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  2. Love your red couches . . . I had to open the photo larger to see if they were identical to ours. They aren't identical, but they are VERY close!! :)

    Also, one of your GuGong Posters on the wall is the exact same one I have in our guest bath! :)

    Sounds like you've been busy . . . but in a good way. As always after reading your blog I wish we lived closer!! Hope the rest of your summer is WONDERFUL!

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  3. oh wait!

    I just noticed . . . everyone has their shoes on. Hmmm . . . Are you allowing shoes on the first floor only?? Or do you not ever do the shoes off thing??

    Did they feel weird doing that or were they ok with that??

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  4. one more thing . . . .

    My greatest fear ever since I started driving mopeds was locking my keys in the moped. After several years, I finally did.

    And, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined. The lock smith guy had my seat popped open in literally less than 1 minute. I was like, "ok, now I really don't feel safe leaving stuff in the seat."

    BUT, it did remove my perpetual fear of leaving keys in the seat.

    So . . .anywho point is: sorry it was a bad day for you, but it happens to us all! :)

    {Sorry to fill up you comment box.}

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  5. That is an interesting question about the shoes Amanda. Actually I am planning to get slippers for people to wear downstairs, but I ran out of time before the party to pick some up, so I decided to let people just wear their shoes downstairs, but take them off if they wanted to go up. Most people figured it out, and seemed relieved to know that shoes would be taken off SOMEWHERE in the house! I don't know what it is with Taiwan and red sofas, 3 out of 4 places I've lived have had them! Are you guys going to the World Games at all?

    ReplyDelete

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