Foggy

This morning when we were driving to school, what is happening on the road that I could not see everything. There's a deep foggy today in the sky. This kind of weather is very unusual here in Tainan county, specially in the city where I live.

I have to drive very careful today. When we arrived to Tainan city, the sky is very clear and sunny. What a strange weather today in Tainan county.

Alan is Growing

Every morning, we have to drive 40 minute to Alan's school. It is a long journey to go. We have to leave at home at 6:30, make sure that Alan is on time at his school to do his morning work. Alan's school is located inside of the line. It is very narrow for cars to go inside and go out. I hate to wait for other cars and sometimes it is so hard to let other cars go through without hitting my car.

I decided every morning to park on the big road and walk inside the line to get into Alan's school. From the big street to the Alan's school will take 3 to 5 minutes one way. It is depends on how fast we walk each day.

Sometimes, Alan doesn't like I walk with him. He is always telling me to leave him close to school and he can walk to his school alone.

Here is Alan walking to the school alone with his back pack.

Alan is a growing up child. He knows how to cross the street with his bag pack.

Alan is walking to the school. he knows how to watch for cars. He stops when the car is coming.

Alan is preparing to wave at me.

He always kissed me good bye and waved bye to me. He is very cute big child. He knows what he wants.

Little Pirate

Today, Alan is going to celebrate Halloween at his school Pao-Yen (寶仁). It was so difficult for me to find a costume in Taiwan. Halloween and dressing up thing is not very common in Taiwan. I thought it will be easy for me to go to the store and buy costume, but it turned out so difficult.

I went to so many store and finally, I got this outfit of pirate. Alan wanted to be a vampire, but I could not even find one. The first one I found it, I bought it right away.

The outfit is not very expensive. It is less then $100 NT, this is equal to around $3.00 American dollars.

Alan came back at night yesterday and he saw his outfit, he was disappointed a little because he wanted to be vampire. After I told him the store of how difficult to find a costume, he accepted.

This morning, he did not have to wear his uniform to school, so he went to choose his best clothing. He wanted to be handsome today. I prepare the clothing for him, he did not like it. He was wearing basketball players outfit with pirate hat and eyes. It was so funny.

I am hopping that Alan will have a great Halloween and trick or treat at his school.

Folding Bike

Because there's not a lot of spaces here in Taiwan, folding bikes became very popular in these days. Now, the Taiwanese government is trying to protect the environment, so they motivate us to ride bicycles everywhere we go.

I remembered four years ago, we are the only ones who was riding bicycles on the streets with helmets. Now, we can see a lot of people bought folding bikes and they will ride their bikes everywhere they go.

We bought CRV, the 2 by 4 car. We put our bicycles in the car. We also could ride our bicycles everywhere we go. However, it is not very convenient as if we have folding bikes. If you put our three bicycles, one small and two bigger one, we did not have space to put other stuffs in the car.

yesrterday, my husband David, bought us to see the flding bikes. We are thinking to buy folding bickes, too. He went to see so many bikes, and he really like this one bike, called Oyama.

He told me that Oyama has the best quality and texture, but it is so expensive.

Here are the Oyama's bicycles' description:

Model Name : TFD-2018B

Features :

11.2kg,

9 SPD

20"

ALLOY FOLDING BIKE Description :

20" Alloy Folding Bicycle

9 Speed System

Adjustable SeatPost / HandleBar

Weight:11.2kg

Folding Time: 15seconds

Size After Folding: 32"*14"*25"

Specification : Alloy Frame & Fork

Alloy Handle

Bar & Stem

Alloy Seat

Post & V-Brake

Alloy Hub & Rim

Shimano 9 SPD System

Adjustable Seatpost / Handle Bar

Folding Pedals 11.2kg

32"*14"*25"

Safety/Quality Approvals :

Frame Safty Test: JIS Standard

Height Limited: 150cm ~185cm

Weight Limited: 85KG

Students made a Sandwich for me

I was in my office doing nothing and a group of students came and gave me what they had made in their cooking class.

They made a sandwich. I was so surprised that they made it for me, they remembered me. I am very touched. I was looking inside of the sandwich and it is just egg and cucumber.

I did not try the sandwich right away. I ate it at 5:30 P.M. when I finished all my classes. It is was good, even it is simple sandwich, it made from my students' heart for me.

大鵬灣 (The Pen Bay)

Yesterday, David had to work for a short time and we decided to go out as family. We decided for a long time, where do we want to go, it was a hard decision. Alan was saying that he wanted to go for cycling. David decide to bring us to 大鵬灣 (The Pen Bay).

We left at noon, we arrived to a Kaoshion county a little town called 大園 , we went to have our meal over there. It is my second time trying to eat traditional food of the south. It is rice cake with meat in it. It is so delicious. We all enjoyed eating.

After eating, we arrived to The Pen Bay. It was so hard to find a parking space. finally, one car came out, so we could park. David took bicycles out. We were ready for cycling. We went half way and Alan felt tiring. his bicycle is smaller for him, he wanted to ride my bicycle.

After we changed bicycles, he was happy and ready for cycling more. He got more power into my bicycle. I was riding his bicycle, it like will take me ages to get to the start point.

Alan was riding too fast, I could not even catch him. he got to the start point first and he was waiting for me over there.

we had a great time, next time we will come here again and we will go inside of The Pen Bay.

The Pen Bay is a great place to spent time with family members in one afternoon or evening. You can go there for cycling or hiking.

Evergreen Hotel

I never been to a five star hotel. When I bought Alan to a boat exhibition, I saw this hotel Evergreen. This is a five stars hotel which I was so impressed. I am a high school teacher, I do not have an opportunity for me or for my family to go a five stars hotel. My salary is not allow me to go there. If I want to stay one night at the five stars hotel, I must save a lot of money.

I want to be one day queen, I want to feel in living in this kind of hotel for one day.

First Time...

Since we went to Texas, we played wii. Alan really like it, so David, my husband decided to buy him wii. The machine in Taiwan is cheaper compared to USA. The machine here are two kinds, one is the original from Japan and one is from USA.
I satrted to play wii with my son, Alan and I like the game bowling. The fist time, I played the game was so difficult for me. Alan taught me how to play it, I knew it right away. The first time, I got 220 points. It is higher than Alan's score. Alan was so happy.

I di dnot give up, I wanted to get higher score than Alan. So the second time I played I got 551 points. I got higher score than Alan. Aland did not get sad. he was very happy for me. Wii is fun if I know how to play or play with family.

Machine in My Classroom

This is a big machine in my classroom, with a lot of buttoms and other things. But even it is a lot, I do not know how to work. Some of the buttons will work wonderfully, but some of them are not even work for ages. For example, the cassette tape cannot play. This is the part where I can control my DVD, unfortunately, it doesn't work.

Also, I can plug my microphone here. Also, it doesn't work. Anyways, technology now in these days is very handily but if the machine doesn't work is a real pain.

Tainan Buffet!

My in-law parents are coming on October 24th, 2008. I am reserving the bet buffet here in Tainan city. I will bring them to have an afternoon tea at Tainan Hotel (台南大飯店). It is a great buffet over there.

Tainan Hotel is a five star hotel in Tainan city. It is well known for its excellence. the food is also well known for many people. It has Cantonese food, Chinese food and European food. the European buffet is very famous. I will bring my -in-laws over there on November 1st, 2008. it is also closer to my birthday.

Duty is Over!

After six entire days of standing on the streets and taking care of the students on the way of going home. My duty is already over. One of the students who is putting or telling teacher who is going to be on the duty, she left a note on my desk by saying, "Teacher, we are picking up your sign of patrol control, thanks!." When I saw this note, I was touched my heart. this student is very well educated person. I have been teaching 4 years at this school already and nobody wrote me a note by saying they already picked it up. This student is really thoughtful. I was really happy. My hard work is paid off.

Going to Taipei

Today is the day that Alan is ready to go to see mammoth Exhibition in Taipei. We are going to departure at 8:00 A.M. at Yang Mei's train station.

Firstable, my father-in-law has the car ready for us. We went to the car and we are ready to go to the train station. Alan wants to eat breakfast first. While we are having breakfast at the breakfast stand, my father-in-law, Kevin went to park the car at the house.

In Taiwan, there's so hard to find a parking space. Unlike in the USA, everywhere is parking because the main transportation is car. Without the car in the USA is so hard to go from one place to another. Here in Taiwan is so different, there's no parking anywhere on the street, specially in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. It is more convenient to take the fatest train to go to the capital.

We knew the place where the mammoth is exhibited. After eating breakfast, my father -in-law was ready waiting for us at the station. He told us to be in a hurry. We bought the tickets and we are ready to go inside.

Alan was so happy because he could take the fatest train to the capital. After one hour on the train, we arrived at the Capital.

The mammoth exhibition is in the Chiang kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂). It is very close to our Taipei's House.

Arriving at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂)

After an hour on the train finally we arrived to Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂). We saw a lot of people over there, we thought a lot of people came to see mammoth. A lot of people are using this place because it is like an open park for everyone to use. Some students came to practice their dance, speeches, and some people bring their children to ride bicycles. Also, there's another activity going on there. There's a concert of Special Needs. There's music, food and hand made things.

It was so hard for us to find where is the mammoth exhibition. We asked a coueple of poeple but no one knows where was it.

After I saw people who came out with mammoth's picture on their hands, I went to ask them, they were telling me where it was. We went to that place and we saw a long line for buying tickets.

It is the first time for Alan to be at the memorial park. It is a great opportunity for me to take pictures.

Mammoth Exhibit

After finishing the place for a while, Alan was so excited, he wanted to go inside of the room and see mammoth.

The tickets line was so long. I had to wait for 5 minutes. I got the tickets, adults tickets is $200 NT dollars, children and elders are $180 NT dollars. There's no a big difference between younger people or elders. There's only $20 NT dollars of difference.

When we started to go inside, there's a stature of elders with younger people. I took picture of Alan with the stature. It was so cute. I like the way younger and elders can be together. In our busy lives, it is so hard for us to be together with entire family. Each of us have different schedules. For example, David is always working so late, he did not spent a lot of time with me or Alan.

My poor lovely husband is working for us, giving us a good living condition and food.

In front of the main entrance where mammoth is exhibited, there's a mommy mammoth for people to take pictures. And next to it, there's a baby mammoth, it is also for people to take picture of it.


When we went inside, staff members were telling us that we could not even take pictures. However, Chinese people always break their rules. There were a lot of people taking pictures until staff members came to tell people of not taking pictures. A lot of people a that time, stop taking pictures.

After looking at the exhibit, both of us (Alan and me) have a great experience. Alan learned not only elephant families but also, where mammoth came from and why they died.

There's a mammoth shop next to the exhibition. Aland and I were looking around and we decide to buy something to remember. Alan bough little mammoth key chain and I bought big mammoth stature to put on my table.

Chance like this, we cannot get everyday. We are so lucky to be able to go to see mammoth. Also, Alan studied very hard on his tests. This is a great present for him.

Going to a Boat Exhibition

After we finished at the mammoth exhibition, we went to look around the place of Chai- kai Shek. He was a very famous person who did a lot for Taiwan. Alan also learned a little bit of history about him. Alan did not know him, but after this learning experience, he gained a lot of knowledge.

On the way to the boat exhibition, Alan wanted to feed the fish. he wanted to throw food on the pound, so the fishes could eat. The more he was throuwing, the more he enjoyed feeding the fish. I told him, our house we have a lot of fishes also, why you are enjoying here? he said he is fun and he can throw anywhere he wanted.

Boat Exhibition

After we saw mammoth exhibition, we will go to see another exhibition. It is a boat exhibition by Evergreen Group (長榮桂冠). They have all kinds of boats like Taitanic, Indian traditional group, fishing boats, and military boats from the first century. It is so good to see and learn all these things about history.

The Evergreen Group is not too far from the Presidencial Palace in Taiwan. I could see The presidencial Palace from Evergreen Hotel. It is huge and big. I really want to go there and see what is inside.

Presidents can be very lucky. they have everything what they wanted, money, House and Guards. It must be so good to be a president of one country.

After observing at different kinds of boats, Alan also wants to buy things in the exhibition shop. he boat a boat, so we put on the livingroom. Alan really enjoyed today. He did not learn only animals but also boats.