taiWHAT

the countdown is on

Top five home comforts I am missing: 

1. ottawa river parkway bike rides 

2. summer spinach salad on the back deck

3. boosterjuice

4. tim hortons ANYTHING (but especially a jelly timbit and that ball of cream cheese in the middle of their bagels) 

5. joe fresh

Days til touchdown: 36

Such a bittersweet feeling knowing summer at home is so near. Seeing my family and friends and standing on Canadian soil will be amazing BUT I am leaving behind something so special in Taiwan. Some teachers are returning with me next year but some will be gone. The wonderful Taiwan Teacher Family I have been part of here will never be quite the same again and that will make leaving pretty tough. I just keep repeating this mantra to myself “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” I know the friends I have made here will be in my life forever, but it will be sad to say goodbye to this life we have together. 

weekend clay time

Weekend highlights: 

1. Cooking using clay ovens in the company of one of my students and his lovely family. 

2. Getting knee deep in mud collecting clay for the ovens. 

3. Eating delicious sweet potatoes cooked in the clay oven (can you tell I enjoyed the ovens?!). 

4. Walking along the beach catching the teensy tiniest crabs! 

5. Made a special, traditional Taiwanese dessert and sent it off to be steamed. 

6. Making key chains using dried flower petals. 

7. Ate the delicious Taiwanese treat fresh out of the steamer, yum!

8. Sunflower picking. 

9. Reading my book for 3 uninterrupted hours munching on delicious lychees. 

Weekends in Taiwan are always great but this one stands out! 

Love and hugs XOXO 

penghu-tiful

Hello friends and family! 

I spent the weekend of May 19 on beautiful Penghu Island off the west coast of Taiwan. I traveled there with 9 friends and had the most wonderful time. We were weary of a couple things going into the trip… 

1. The ferry ride there is widely known for causing sea-sickness

2. There was a 100% forecast for thunderstorms saturday and sunday 

So, we put the power of positive thinking to the test and both of these things turned out to be non-issues in the end! Woohoo! We arrived in Penghu sans sea-sickness thanks to some ginger gravol and enjoyed a weekend of nice weather (albeit cloudy) interrupted only a few times with quick showers. 

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Penghu aquarium which was wonderful and took in some awesome fireworks in the evening. Penghu has a fireworks festival each May so we were lucky enough to be there at the right time to catch a fantastic display lasting about 30 mins. 

On Sunday we rented two cars and explored the horseshoe shaped road running through Makong Island within the Penghu archipelago (Penghu is made up of over 60 different small islands!). We saw some pretty beautiful sites while exploring including a cave shaped like a whale, a lighthouse and some breathtaking cliffs. 

It was a great weekend getaway spent in even better company. Who needs the sun when you’ve got the sunniest friends around? 

Love and miss you all! XOXO  

a great day in taiwan

- picnic in the university park

- picnic table euchre game 

- the first MANGO SHAVED ICE of the season

- amazing head massage and hair cut

Life is good! :) XOXO 

love makes me tear up in any country

I went to a Taiwanese wedding today. Taiwanese weddings are SUPER different from Western weddings but all the love in the room still got me misty.

To explain some of the differences… It actually wasn’t even really the wedding part that I went to. The wedding ceremony happens quite privately in Taiwan and only immediate family are there. What I attended today was more of an engagement party or reception type thing. There was a TON of food, good music, a slideshow of the bride and groom throughout their relationship and lots of picture taking! It was a lot of fun and such an interesting cultural experience, as well. 

Highlights: 

Watching Fion’s grandpa give her away to her fiance, Bingo. 

Dancing up on stage to Papa Americano and Cupid Shuffle. 

Eating for 4 hours straight. 

Seeing the bride getting ready in 3 different dresses with 3 different hairstyles, she looked beautiful!  

Getting gifts! Pineapple cake, candy and a bookmark! 

Sitting at my table surrounded by other teachers and staff from Cornel. 

Anyway, that’s all for now… off to rest my feet. 
Love around the world XOXO  

a [dino]roaring success!

Taught a great math lesson yesterday! I have mentioned before that my class has trouble working well in partners.. to combat this problem I planned a partner lesson for math yesterday hoping to improve their teamwork skills. We did dinosaur word problems for math and the students had to work with a partner to find the answer by drawing on chart paper. 

Example problem: 3 stegosauruses go walking. They meet 11 t-rexes. All the dinosaurs go to lunch together. How many dinosaurs will be eating in all? 

I spent a good 20 mins going over good strategies for partner work with my class and told them that I would be walking around watching them work and if I spotted good teamwork I would put a sticker on their paper. They were super pumped when I told them that “rock paper scissors” was a good way to decide who would do something if both partners wanted to be the one to do it - they absolutely LOVE that game! 

It all paid off in the end, my class worked so cooperatively and found answers and were even able to present their answers and math strategies to the class with some prompting! 

Woohoo! 

XOXO Love and miss you all! 

life’s little pleasures

Hello friends and family! 

I have been experiencing several of life’s little pleasures in Taiwan lately and thought I would share some of them with you. 

1. Life’s little pleasure: when everything goes back to normal.

Change is good, but nothing beats returning to routine after a time away from it. As you may remember from an older post, my class was busy busy busy up until April 3 working on our Annual Class Performance (ACP). Since it is now past April 3 it means I am now past that busy busy busy stressful time and THAT is definitely one of the pleasures I have been enjoying! Our performance went swimmingly! And… believe me, I didn’t always think that it would. The week leading up to our performance was a  blur of practicing and there were times when I really thought my class hated me for making them do the same thing again, again and AGAIN. But, in the end, they came through like rockstars and did an awesome job. Just goes to show, practice makes perfect even if practice can be painful at times. 

2. Life’s little pleasure: Looking in my scooter’s rearview mirror and seeing good friends right behind me.

My teacher fam has taken a couple of road trips lately and I have loved every minute of them. Our first one was short, but sweet. We scooted about 40 mins to the small town of Changhua just southwest of Taichung. There we ate delicious shaved ice (I had red bean because there was no mango available… counting down til mango season starts in June) and shopped in a nice day market. I had a few lucky finds and left with a few skirts and a dress for an upcoming wedding I will be going to. Our second trip was again day-long one. We ventured to the town of Nanliao for a hike and picnic and is was dreamy! Perfect weather, nice hike, delicious lunch including homemade hummus - GREAT! Our final roadie to date was a long one! Almost 2 hours to the town of Puli! It was a beautiful drive there with rolling hills, mountains and cool tunnels. Once we arrived we checked into our hostel and explored the city finding a restaurant for dinner and browsing the night market. We spent the next day at Sun Moon Lake - the biggest lake in Taiwan. We rode the cable car that goes up and over a mountain next to the lake and enjoyed gorgeous views.

3. Life’s little pleasure: peanut butter.

‘Nuff said. I gave up PB for lent and have recently been reunited with my favourite snack. Life is good again! 

4. Life’s little pleasure: progress!

I have been taking piano lessons here in Taichung and am loving it more and more with every lesson! I actually feel as though I am improving, woohoo! 

5. Life’s little pleasure: something MORE to look forward to.

While life in Taiwan generally comes with many things to look forward to (i.e.: teacher family potlucks, dinosaur museum field trips, weekends away, bubble tea…the list goes on) I have something extra special coming up that makes life each day a bit more pleasurable. My ticket home for the summer has been BOOKED! As of July 2 I will be back on Canadian soil hugging my family! Yipee! 

More life’s little pleasures to come, I’m sure of it. 

Love and miss you all… see you JULY 2!!