Giant Buddha!

The other day Mr. Hosie and I went to another town to see a giant Buddha! Since Jeff was working we had to make our way there ourselves. We use a guidebook that has the places we want to go written in Chinese. Then we just show the cab drivers or people at the train stations where we want to go. We also have Jeff's address written down in Chinese on a piece of paper in my purse to show the cab drivers! Cabs here are very cheap and we have used them everyday.

A lady at the info booth in the train station spoke English and helped us buy our tickets and showed us which platform to wait for the train on. Once we got to the platform we showed another person our ticket and she motioned where we should stand and which train we should get on. It is very weird not knowing any of the language. A few places have the "English" spelling of things which makes it much easier. Most street signs are written in Chinese. They are just starting to have the more major streets written in English.

When we got there we were amazed at the giant Buddha and the beautiful temple. We are getting used to seeing these beautiful temples everywhere.

Last night I ate Taiwanese ice cream. Yum, yum! It had a bit of ice cream on the bottom, then a bunch of stuff kind of like frozen ice milk then cut up fruit (I choose mango) then some sort of syrup. It was all in a huge bowl.

I haven't bought any souvenirs as I haven't real seen anything of interest. All I bought was one pair of shoes! They have beautiful shoes here for cheap but nothing in my size! People here are small and have small feet!

We leave tomorrow night. I am ready to go home but I don't want to leave Jeff!

See you soon!

More Taiwan Updates

We just got back from a 5 day little trip to Southern Taiwan. We took a taxi, train and high speed train to get there. We had to pack all of the things we wanted to take into our backpacks. Mine was very heavy and really stuffed. Once we got there it was so beautiful. Jeff and Mr. Hosie did lots of snorkelling there.

The picture of the mom and two little girls shows how many kids get to school. I have even seen a little baby in a high chair like thing balanced on the foot part of the scooter. Oh-and also dogs riding on the scooters!

The picture of me walking on the path shows what they have in many of their parks and walkways. These paths have bumpy stones or other things to walk on and massage your feet. I could hardly walk on them but I did see many old people just walking on them. The different colours and shapes are supposed to massage different parts of your feet. I find if I walk on them wearing my flip flops that is a good enough foot massage for me!

The picture of Mr. Hosie and I was taken at the harbour of a city called Kaohsiung (pronounced Gowshung). Mr. Duke taught English here!

I hope everyone had a happy Easter.

More Pictures of Taiwan

Here are some more pictures. The trees were in the mountains. We were on our way to see the monkeys. The baby monkeys were so cute. The huge gold statues were inside a temple. These temples are everywhere-people come and worship, pray and leave offerings. The temples are beautiful.

Taiwan Pictures

Here are a few pictures from Taiwan. I tried to put them on our blog but couldn't. Go to the blog to read all about the trip so far. The first picture is of the frogs we ate! The second shows a busy street corner. The last picture shows an afternoon market.

Science Test

There will be a science test next Tuesday, April 19. The unit we just finished is on light. In your science duotang there should be a bunch of write-ups about different experiments we did. Read these over to remind yourself of what we did and what we may have learned from it. Every student was also given a study sheet as well.

Eagle Cam!

Check out this live camera on an eagle's nest. You can see the babies and the parents. I am now addicted to watching them.

http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/

More Gym Routines....