Friday

Good Morning everyone!

Today Noah and I signed up to spend one hour every day of the week to learn Chineese with a 1st grade class! I don't know how fast I will learn but Noah will probably be learning very fast. It will be from 8:30 to 9:30 every day (so I will still have plenty of time to work).

I have been taking lots of pictures but I can't seem to get them to load at the library. Sorry

Yesterday Noah and I finally mopped the entire house! It is 1,700 sf mostly tile and a little wood. It took lots of work. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was one level but since it is three stories It was lots of work. Noah was a big help! I will try to upload the photos to facebook since they can't be added to the blog.

Tonight we are going out with one of the coaches from the school. He is going to take us to a place where you fish for large shrimp. If you catch any they will cook them for you and you get to eat them. They use a tiny fishing pole from what I've heard.

Talk to you again soon

No Typhoons

We have had another exciting week. First off let me say that we are all doing well. Justin started teaching full time this week and Noah still hasn't started classes at the school because they are working on his schedule. We did buy his uniform but since I am on the public computer at the library I can't upload pictures. He is doing wrighting, practicing his trumpet every day and working on a little chineese lesson when we get time (and someone to teach us)!

We didn't get any rain from the first typhoon that was supposed to hit last week. We had one cool day because of the clouds but no rain. There was supposed to be a second one this week and we did get a light rain off and on yesterday, but I wouldn't call it a typhoon. It was more like an arkansas spring rain. Not to bad but just enough to keep you inside.

So this past weekend we were invited to go spend the morning having chineese tea with one of Justin's coworkers, Lilly. When Lilly and her daughter, Janice, arrived to pick us up she asked if we would like to spend the night. So we packed an overnight bag and away we went! (Remember there is a huge language and customs barrier between us and them.) So when we arrived at the house where we were supposed to have tea we realized that it is a classmate of Lilly's daughter, Janice, and that it was the first time for Lilly to meet this family . Not only was it the first time for Lilly to meet these people she wans't planning on spending the night with us! So here we are at a strange place with strange people that don't speak our language and we are supposed to spend the next 48 hours with them. I was a little scared.

Turns out that Janice, Lilly's daughter, and her classmate, Cindy, both spoke English very well and they were our translators for the weekend. Cindy's family are tea and coffee farmers. They took us around the farm to see the tea and coffee, it was a beautiful place. Then they took us to lunch and dinner on Saturday. They also took us up in the mountains where to a place that makes pineapple pie. It was awesome.

This faimly also are involved in the local 4-H so on both days we went to those activities with them. We each planted a broccoli, cabbage, and pepper plant! So in a month or two we will have fresh veggies that we grew!

We had the best time. This family was so welcoming to us and treated us like we had been long lost friends. This behavior seems to be pretty common among the Taiwan people that we meet.

This week Noah and I spent lots of time at home cleaning the house. It is Wednesday here and we have only got the first floor done. But it was the hardest because it had the kitchen, laundry, bathroom and living room. Now we just have to mop the bedrooms so we should be able to finish that later this week.

Today was our adventure day! We rode our bicycles 25 minutes to the next town just to order Pizza Hut Pizza and then 25 minutes back with the pizza strapped to the back of my bicycle to suprise Justin with lunch!  It was fun but I don't think I will be doing it again soon. My butt hurts from that bicycle seat.

I have no idea how to comment on this blog. It is set to allow everyone to comment but it doesn't seem to be working. If you have a comment please email it to me and I will address it as soon as I get back to the internet. We miss everyone lots and we love all of you.

P.S. Gramby we had cheesecake yesterday! It was yummy.

Howdy,  This week we arrived in our town. It is a nice town but it is kind of small so they don't have all of the benefits of a larger town like a large grocery store, a Pizza Hut or McDonald's. Our comfort food has been peanut butter (they have Jiffy brand) and jelly sandwiches!  We have borrowed bicycles from our landlord so we can get around town pretty easy. But to go to the next town to the big grocery store or to eat Pizza hut we either have to find a ride or learn the bus system. I am hoping to learn the bus system this weekend so I will have more freedom during my days.

Our house is huge! It was very dirty so we had to do lots of cleaning for this first week but it is going to be a great place to live. There are 6 bedrooms! We have one being used for storage (our luggage and winter clothes) and then our bedroom then Noah has two one for his bedroom and one for his MAN CAVE..one for an office and that leaves on big room for guests! Not that we are expecting many guests but everyone is welcome to come for a visit if you are up to it. 

Noah has started his home schooling for band and language but without the internet at home he can't start science or math yet. The public school here starts September 3rd so he won't go to those classes for another week. But even then I think he will only be taking electives at the school. A martial arts class, a cooking class and maybe band.

Justin has started working a little this week. Today (Thursday) is his first full day at the school. Mostly just lesson planning and that kind of stuff. He doesn't have to work if there is a typhoon and one is supposed to be here tonight so he might have tomorrow off but then he will probably have to work on Saturday to make up for it.

It is so humid here! I get out of the shower and by the time I am done drying off I need another shower. We are a little home sick this week and I think most of that is because we don't have any internet to visit with everyone. The people are very nice and try to go out of there way to help us anyway they can.

I still don't know my address so when I do I will email it out so anyone can send cards or whatever and  Bill you can send my computer. I am looking forward to working again. I am pretty board during the day because it is a small town with not a lot to do.  

Life this week has been hard without the internet to keep in touch. They are working on getting us set up but there are so many legal issues to deal with. We have to have an immigration card to get internet contract and  we are waiting on those.

I will post pictures of our adventures as soon as possible!

Talk to you soon,

Erin

Friday our last day in Taipei

Today is our last day in Taipei. We are packed and out of our rooms. Justin is in class until 11am (it is 9am now) so while we wait for him to get done Noah and I are in the computer room playing games and giving you an update :)



Old Town



Sorry I was unable to post any updates yesterday because Noah and I were having an off day. We ended up spending out morning (computer time) resting and reading. He was very homesick yesterday so we just hung out in our rooms for the morning. After a little nap and some lunch he was feeling much better so we decided to go out on an adventure with the class. First we went to Old Town to do a little shopping and exploring. There was a beautiful temple and of course some ice cream which helped lift our mood.



Inside the temple



Inside the temple





Eating Ice cream

 After Old Town we went to a restaurant with the class to eat. It was our first time eating in a restaurant, it was very nice and the food was yummy. It was a lot spicier which I was thankful for because even though the food at the school is good it is all very bland. They had an english menu to look at at the restaurant. I had to take some photos of  the menu because there were some things I didn't think anyone would believe without seeing it.  





Pig intestines





Craps with Crap sauce







Duck blood jelly with pork intestine





Here are a few more pictures of the temple.



golden dragon



female lion



male lion



bird stone column



ceiling















P.S. We may not have Internet for a while after today. I will post more as soon as possible. Also Noah wanted me to let everyone know that even though he has moments where he is homesick and really missing Woody and everyone he is having lots of fun and enjoying himself. He is looking forward to starting school in a Taiwan school and he has been learning Chinese. He has learned to count 1-10 and the words for cat, dog, help, hello, thank you and your welcome. He is learning way faster than Justin or myself.

Big field trip day

Yesterday we the group of english teachers went out for a field trip. We went to a ceramics museum first and then we went to a place to do indigo dying this is a traditional way of dying clothing.
The museum was very interesting with lots of things to see. I can't post all of the pictures but I will post some of the best ones. So one of the first things we encountered when we arrived at the museum was bus load of children arriving at the same time. They were so cute. The older children wanted to take their pictures with us and the younger children just wanted to say hi and pose for a picture.

There were lots of amazing things to see in the museum (art work and practical uses of ceramics).

After the museum we went to do the indigo dying. It was lots of fun also and everyone made a bandana.  In this picture Noah is pointing to the one he made and I am pointing to the wrong one! Such a dork as usual mine is actually to the left of the one I am pointing at :)    Below Justin is pointing to his! The others were made by his fellow english teachers.

After all of the fun that day we decided to go out for the evening and enjoy a Mango Ice...It is similar to our snow cones except is has fresh fruit on it. Each bowl cost just a little over $1 U.S. dollar. 

Around Campus

Good Morning,

As I promised yesterday morning I took pictures of the campus that we are staying at this week. It is called the National Academy for Educational Research. Such a beautiful place to be.This is the view from our door.

There are 5 stories in this building. There are several buildings including a library that I have not visited yet.

 This is the courtyard. Very pretty.

 There are lots of trees and paths to walk on. I love this place.

 Justin and Noah heading to the dining hall.

At the dining hall looking back to the dorms.

I love the mountain view.

Direction sign...so cool!

They have a computer lab.

And a rec room that has pool, ping pong, bad mitten, and some exercise equipment as well as a dance area.

Noah having a little morning fun yesterday.

Day two

Good Morning everyone, Today is our second day in Taiwan and after a good nights sleep and a shower we are starting to feel a little more normal. Yesterday was very exhausting but it was still fun. We got here in time for breakfast and then they (the counselors) took us out to walk around downtown New Taipei to explore a little. We went to a bank, Watsons (kind of like a Walgreens) and to the 7-Eleven. I think the 7-Elevens are going to be our savior! We can get some cold coffee there and it is close to the school we are staying at. Coffee is not something the Taiwan people drink every day :( I have an awful caffeine  headache but now that I know where a 7-Eleven is I don't think it will be a problem anymore.

We are having a great time!

Today I plan to take some photos around the campus where we are staying. It is so pretty I want to share it with everyone. Those will come later.

p.s. for dinner last night we had Pizza Hut, KFC, and Coke! The only normal Pizza was the ham and pineapple. I don't really know what was on the other pizzas but one of them had octopus!

Busy Day

We had such a busy day today.  We finished packing up the Bella Vista house, went by my work to say good by to some friends, we went shopping to buy a new camera and we are now at Justin's grandmothers house to spend the last night in Arkansas.

Noah had a rough day today. He is really going to miss Woody (the dog) I don't know for sure how hard tomorrow is going to be on him but I expect he is going to be pretty sad. And to top it off he just wiped out on the sidewalk and scratched his shoulder, hip, both knees and both hands!

We have a very long flight tomorrow so I will post as soon as I can to let everyone know when we arrive!

Last day in Bella Vista

Good morning friends,

Today is our last full day in the Bella Vista house. Today we have to finalize our packing and get everything moved to our storage in Fayetteville. So much to do and not much time to get it done.  We are getting pretty nervous about the big move but it is going to be so exciting.