Last Week of Orientation gone by... :)

Hello again! This post is going to be really long because I haven't posted in a week! Thinking back to a week ago... Thursday and Friday of last week, we held a summer camp for 5th and 6th graders. They were basically our guinea pigs to practice teaching methods on. It was also a week of political maneuvering (although I did not really participate. This is because after visiting all 24 possible elementary schools and talking with the teachers and practicing teaching with them--we filled out ballots ranking them as potential partners. The Chinese way! So much politics... and drama haha. I kind of just sat back and watched. Today (8/26) at 2:00 we find out who we are paired with! In any case, I took pictures of some of the festivities!

Lunchtime, a special time for talking with teachers and students :) 

The classroom, sin air conditioning (like almost all of the classrooms in Taiwan), in which we held our summer camp. The kids are so cute :) 

On Thursday after our day of teaching and hanging out with the kids, we all went out to dinner with Alex. I still wasn't feeling so well, so I didn't eat too much, but it was a fun authentic Taiwanese restaurant, very local feeling, called A Mei. Fun, but hot and sweaty!!

Everyone talking at dinner! 

More of a view of the restaurant :) 

After dinner, we all went up onto the roof of our apartment building and looked at the view. It was so beautiful! I think I might just go up there and lay down every night :) 

Looking toward downtown Gaoxiong. You can just see the tallest building in the distance. 

The cultural center, which is right in front of our apartment. 

Friday contained more classes and fun. But we got out a bit early and so went out and had some fun :) Me and my roommate Ashley went to the movie theatre to see Wang Leehom's new movie, Love in Disguise, which was surprisingly hilarious. 

...which was way fun. 

Saturday, we took an adventurous route to the beach! It included biking across the city to the mountain by the sea, then through a tunnel under the mountain, and out to the beach. The water was amazingly warm and we just floated around taking in the scenery for hours and hours. The cafe by the waterside was also ridiculously cute, and I had a coke float and chicken nuggets there. Probably one of the funnest things I've ever done. I hope to go back there most weekends! 

The beach and the campus of the National Sun Yat Sen University in the background. Seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. 

My friends Paul, Mark, and Liz. Surprising not the only other white people on the beach. There were lots. 

Me wishing I had a less revealing swimsuit... Also that my sunscreen hadn't expired two years ago (oops)

Looking back toward the cafe and the beach volleyball courts... and the palm trees of course!!

On the way back, we ate the best fruit shaved ice EVER. 

Later that night we went to a ridiculously expensive (25 US dollars haha) and yet pretty awesome Taiwanese/Japanese concert at the Wall in the art district. It was pretty sweet but really long. The first band was Taiwanese. They were pretty good! 

The Japanese band was also really awesome. And spoke some Japanese so then I remembered a lot from class this year (yay!)

After this we went to visit the rest of our friends who were sitting outside in a construction shed just listening to the music rather than paying the 25 bucks. Haha they looked funny so I took a picture. I don't think they enjoyed being laughed at haha...

Sunday I decided to go look at Taiwan on my own. I biked 20 miles around the city, but the prettiest part I discovered was the Lotus Pond way far north. Since its Hungry Ghost month, there were lots of festivities, making offerings to appease the ghosts who had come up from hell, to keep away and let the people live safely. It's kind of like Chinese Halloween. People offer food and burn paper money. Here are some of the pretty sights around the Lotus Pond:

A smaller lotus pond to the north side of the huge pond/lake. 

It kind of reminded me of a Disneyland of temples haha...

Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday were full of visiting elementary schools all day, so we were really too tired afterward to go out and do anything. Wednesday night, however, we went to karaoke with Alex and Fonda, which was fun, because they sang some Chinese songs with me!! 

On the way back, we walked through the Central Park, which was lit up so pretty that you have to see it...

This is a little restaurant (pizza place) right on the corner of the park where there is live music every night.

Lastly, today, Thursday, we had a free morning (whoa) and so I took I bike ride up the mountain to the Sun Yat Sen University. Apart from beautiful scenery, I also saw my first MONKEY in Taiwan. It was just sitting by the side of the road eating. It was very fat haha.

Can you spot the monkey? Haha I was kind of far away... but I shouldn't have worried about scaring it off because it was completely unconcerned...

Here's the view.

So beautiful. Kind of makes me want to go to this university... But the bike up the mountain to the liberal arts building made it less attractive haha... OUCH

Lastly, I went to the Central Park again to learn my flash cards for the Huayu test. It was so beautiful that I had to share a few pictures.

AND very lastly, I went to McDonalds for breakfast (since it was still only 9 by this point) and had pancakes, sausage, a hashbrown. But, awesomely, instead of coffee, it came with MILK TEA. So I had to take a picture :D

And you can also marvel at the size of the stack of my notecards. Ick. And I'm only up to F!!

Haha, anyway, signing off for this week, miss and love everyone!!!!