TaiwanChu Adventure Updates

Mothers, Dragons and Typhoons

2006-06-02T12:42:00.000+08:00

Greetings all,

Typhoon season is fast approaching. We had our first one this week gusting at 48 m/s (172 kph). That makes negotiating the scooter to work a bit more difficult than normal. Fortunately it swung west of us and hit the commies instead...we mean...uhmmm...That was some typhoon. We didn’t receive the rains typically following a typhoon which was a great relief. Riding to work in torrential rain is no fun at all. However, that doesn’t mean the rains have avoided us completely for that past weeks.

We just attended a wedding a few weekends ago of our friends Paula (American) and Josh (Taiwanese). Mike was asked to do the photography for it which he was very nervous about. It’s a good thing he got some advice from his sister before hand as well as a decent camera from his manager. Nothing like doing projects he never expected he would do...like teaching. Mike had to do some work to get the shots he wanted. Mike was seen laying on the stairs, crouching under pews, and peeking through the legs of the intense and always in your face videographer. He ended up with over 500 shots. Choice pics will be posted on the website soon along with some pics of us and friends.

For something interesting:
Kathy was driving home from the gym while coming to a stop at a red light next to a grandmother and a curious package on the floor of her scooter. This is not that unusual in Taiwan. Typically, this is below average since it was only one cardboard box versus a mountain pile of it. No, it was only one lone box with something Kathy first thought was a small puppy from the shaggy black hair popping out the top. Upon closer inspection, behold it was an infant child riding in the box! Sorry Eva, I don’t think that was a regulation car seat certified by the CAA (Canadian Automotives Association – for the non-Canadians receiving). Whatever gets the job done I suppose.

It’s times like this which make it harder to leave. When will we ever see something as wacky as that except possibly at the Fringe Festival. Sure, drunk people at Seven Eleven in Red Deer were interesting at best but really? We are not sure of our future plans yet. This may possibly be our last year here. Mike has thought of going back to school to complete a Masters but the very thought of study causes him to shudder. However, we are seeking the Lord’s guidance in this. We know where are families want us to be and that is something that has been a strong factor however we have never been used for the Lord’s glory as we have here. The opportunities have been great and the family we have made here is an added bonus. It will be a hard place to leave.

We will keep you posted on the decision. Images have been added for your viewing pleasure since Mike takes his sweet time with the site. Until next time, so long for now.

Images from the Phlippines

2006-03-23T11:37:00.001+08:00

Images have just been updated and FINALLY posted on our website. The blog just doesn't want to cooperate.
So just click on the link here and off ye' be.
CLICK ME FOR IMAGES

Who wants ribs?

2006-03-17T12:47:00.000+08:00

Greetings one and all,

We are now well into March realizing that an update was long past due.

Since our last mail we have gone to and returned from our trip to Boracay, Philippines. The trip was great despite the fact we were poor going into it since returning from Canada just a month prior. It’s a good thing the Taiwan dollar stretches out nicely compared to the Pilipino peso. Our trip included snorkelling, mountain biking, caving and relaxing. Since it’s winter in Taiwan, the temperature there was so nice. So nice, in fact, that Mike’s sickness he had been carrying since coming home from Canada magically disappeared (only to return when landing in Taiwan again). Kathy had a chance to spread her water-wings again. If that girl could grow gills and live in the sea, you bet she would in a heart beat. The flight to the island requires mention since it was the tiniest plane we had ever seen. It was a nine seater prop that was pushed around by the slightest wind. We could see our pilots and directly into the cockpit. Before take-off, the ground crew stood outside while the engines began. They stood there watching with a fire extinguisher in their hands. Very reassuring! We made it to and from the island though, despite Kathy’s doubts.

A quick synopsis of life after holiday.
We have both signed another one year contract at work. Same place, same kids, new year. That’s right! ANOTHER YEAR OF TEACHING! Well it’s all the same to Kathy since she is a teacher. It’s a good thing Mike like’s kids...and English...HA! “We’s likes English talk friend school they know we is talk thing.”
We got to make a slide show for Kathy’s dad’s 50th birthday. We are missing ALL the events this year!
We have both battled and are still battling ear, nose, throat infections, coughed out ribs and the like. We are getting better amazingly enough!
We spent the weekend on a church retreat at Sun Moon Lake in the mountains in the middle of Taiwan.
A new Subway opened just down our street (number 3 in Kaohsiung of a city of 2.2 million). Exciting news in our world of rice and noodles.
And, Carlene (Kathy’s sister) might be visiting in June. Very cool.
Other than that, what can we say? Same, same, just different time zone.

We hope you are all doing well. We are now on SKYPE which is a free service that you can use your computer to converse for free vocally to one another. It’s like your computer’s a phone and Bill Gates is paying the bill. In case you ever want to use it for your own personal use or maybe you want to hear our lovely voices, download it here: www.skype.com. Our contact name is taiwanchu.

Sorry this mail took so long. We hope to hear from you . We have posted pictures on our homepage for all to enjoy...so enjoy!

Until next time, so long for now

Green Island

2005-10-29T17:17:00.000+08:00

Here are some pictures to accompany our previous email about the island. We heard there were some problems with viewing some of the pictures so we have created a site for pictures which makes it easy! Click the link and enjoy!
TaiwanChu Image Bank

Halloween approaches!

2005-10-18T00:50:00.000+08:00

Greetings everyone,

It’s October and to a teacher this is the worst month of the year. Actually, we are not sure the feeling back home but it is here. It’s not only time for ghouls and goblins but for the rowdies and reckless to have their fill. Add sugar on top of their recklessness and multiply your bane.

Apart from the Halloween holiday approaching, we celebrated the 95th birthday of Taiwan by heading to a little island off the south east coast of Taiwan called Green Island [Leeoo-Dao]. The school we work for likes to extend simple three day holidays into nice four day ones since there are typically only two holidays in a year. I guess they feel...we deserve it.

Green Island was beautiful. We had heard horror stories about the boat trip over. A little ferry on the open Pacific—waves ten feet high and enough vomiting to make any iron stomach succumb to nausea. Kathy had no fears—”how bad could it be?” And Mike took enough gravol-like medicine to sedate a cow before departing. The screams of excitement soon became moans of agony as one by one little plastic baggies filled with that morning’s breakfast filled the trash cans. We both managed to hold in breakfast but seriously considered flying back instead.

Green Island was amazing. We are always amazed that this little unknown country called Taiwan has such amazing and undeveloped attractions (as far as Thailand and Bali style tourism goes). A small volcanic island with an amazing landscape, one of only 3 salt-water hot-springs in the world and some of the best snorkelling to be found. You would think McDonalds would have found its way on the island by now but in fact it has only recently welcomed the arrival of 7-11; pretty amazing if you knew how many 7-11’s we have in the country (second to Hong Kong in most per capita). Although 6000 extra people made their way onto the island for one of the only 3 day holiday for Taiwanese, it remains underdeveloped for the most part. Until 20 years ago the only people on the island were the prisoners of Taiwan and a few fishermen. It’s like a more beautiful and larger version of Alcatraz. The prisons have been turned into human rights museums and tourist attractions. The landscape is lush and diverse. Some of the best snorkelling in Southeast Asia; comparable to our time in Malaysia and Thailand. The joy in part was being liberated from a boat to access these scenic spots. We drove around the island and hopped off whenever we wanted. Nothing, however, could liberate us from the dreaded ferry back to the “mainland” but it ended up being fine seas this time. Enjoyable even, Kathy thought (but that’s cause she’s nuts).

Other than that, ”same, same, but different” as they say in Thailand...work, play, sleep. Look forward to hearing from you all and catching up later!
Until next time.

Watch out for live wires

2005-07-18T15:20:00.000+08:00

Howdy y'all,

We are writing through the experience of a nice typhoon called Haitang. We have been given the day off by our schools since the winds are raging at 184kph. Our island is totally engulfed by the storm and it will not pass for a while. There is not as much rain as we thought but the winds are pressing hard against our windows. Nothing like the howling of wind to keep you up all night. The walk in the storm has been eventful. We will have to post a short video on the web for you to see. Here is a satellite of our situation. Can you see us? We are the red dot amongst the sea of clouds. Anyways, we will survive.

Ocean, dragons and wax.

2005-06-27T15:03:00.000+08:00

The ocean off the coast of Kaohsiung.

Breakers placed along the piers.

An old couple enjoying the sunset.

One of the many ships entering or waiting to enter Kaohsiung harbor.

A beautiful sunset.

Dragon Boat festival down at the Love River.

Jia Yo! Jia Yo! (Translates to go, go but litterally "add oil")

A cone set agains your ear and a little fire makes for clear hearing! Sucks that ear wax right out of ya!

Imagine spending hundreds of dollars on an advertisement and not getting some jo shmo off the street foreigner to proof read your English prior to putting to print? IMAGINE!

Chinglish 101

2005-06-11T14:44:00.000+08:00

An advertisement flyer we received in our mail needs help deciphering. Can you crack the code? It’s from a realty company copied EXACTLY from their flyer. Good luck!
---------------------------------------------------------
Rents the house new choice---104 Foreign residents rents service

The landlord asks to pay attention to
Why does the landlord want to our service?
We have the massive foreign tenants, the deal speed are quick, reduce the vacant room time.
The rent is reasonable also saves the landlord advertizing cost
Rents after the period provides the message transmission and so on to rent serves

The tenant asks to pay attention to
Look for the house and look for 104 houses to accurately to go wrong
We have the good faith staff, rigorous corporate culture and fast efficiency and high quality service
We have massive houses for rent to meet each kind of different need
---------------------------------------------------------

Retreat! The smog is killing us!

2005-06-10T13:04:00.000+08:00

Mmmm... look at that spread!
Left to Right:
Beth (US), Chuck (US), Us, Rachel (US), Kyle (Taiwan)

Us

Us with our Taiwanese friend Andy

Mike and Andy

Us...again but wet from hiking in all day rain

A ropes course bridge

A skywalk in the tree canopies

Overlooking a valley...us...again...

Us at the "Big Tree"

University Pond bamboo suspension bridge

University Pond bamboo suspension bridge with our South African friends.
LtoR: Haanas (SA), Lisa (SA), Andy (Taiwan), Albie (SA), Kathy

Ice Cream from a toilet.

2005-05-16T01:02:00.000+08:00

Greetings all,

A friend of ours sent us some photos of a restaurant in Taiwan that was quite unique. Fortunately, the restaurant is in OUR city. We have known of it for a while now but Christine (if any remember from our wedding – Mike’s best woman) spurred us on with her inquisitive desire to seek out this restaurant in full detail due to an email she sent with photos of the place. We have included the pictures on our blog site in respect to the dial-up group in our list.

The restaurant is called Marton. The Chinese is Marton with some tones thrown in...like McDonalds (Mac-daw-no) but if you say McDonalds, you just get a stare. You say it with a Chinese accent and whalla! They know what you are saying. So this restaurant serves hot dishes but mostly cold such as “bing” (shaved ice - explained in past emails which can be accessed on the blog) and ice cream.
Hot dishes such as noodles come in custom made toilets where the noodles are in the bowl of the toilet. Most other dishes like desserts are are served in Asian style squat toilets and urinals. It’s fun to eat from if you can get over that initial fear of finding something expected in such a fixture. The décor of the restaurant is based on, what else? TOILETS. Seats are transformed toilet bowls with customized covers. You can lift the lid for the seat but don’t use them here! No plumbing is set to them thus they can move about. The tables are sinks with glass top covers. It’s more of a university age crowd hangout so we felt SO old! HA.
We hope you enjoy the pictures (especially you Mr and Mrs Funk).

Until next time, so long for now.

taiwanchus

Relieve yourself...

2005-05-15T15:18:00.000+08:00

Here are pictures from our visit to the "toilet restaurant."

The front entrance.

The waiting area.

Table for two! How romantic!

Kathy eating a nice squat style toilet of ice and ice cream.

A noodle dish.

Top of the world... well Taiwan anyways

2005-04-25T02:02:00.000+08:00

On April first we took our first trip around the island. With our new school, we actually get long weekends now (for Taiwan standards anyways-from a Canadian perspective, it is a joke). If we have a holiday on the Tuesday, like this weekend, we get the Monday off aswell. HOORAY! As we were saying, we rented a car for a few days and began our tour. We have provided a map here so you can follow along.

First-Get to the other side of the island through the mountain range.
Find Kaohsiung (South West corner of the island) and follow us down to a town called Fengkang and then along the east coast to a city called Taitung [Tai-dong]. Taitung was our first night stop from a night drive through the Taiwan mountains; not the most relaxing thing to do.

We were not sure what was harder to contend with: the small semi-trucks barreling across this highway or the mini Hondas going into the mountainous hairpins at full speed. Surviving this, we made our way up the east coast to Taitung and stayed the night at a hostel which was a bit dodgy. But at three in the morning, what can you complain about?

After exploring Taitung for few hours, we continued our trip up the east coast of Taiwan. The beauty of the Pacific Ocean to our right and huge mountains to our left took our breath away. After living in Kaohsiung for so long, you forget nature exists in true form.

We made a few scenic stops as we headed north. Mike has his heart set on going to the "Vagina" Caves (yes we said THAT word). There are spots along the ocean where caves and rock formations have been formed from volcanic rock. The Taiwanese seem to think they resemble female hmm hmmm and apparently men like to go and get their pictures beside the cave. A few km down the road, Taiwanese women flock to another 'scenic' spot where the rock formations apparently look like men's ....anyways, we didn't need to stop there.

We headed into Hualien [Hwa-lee-en] but just prior to that we stopped at the Hualien Ocean Park. From a resort above the park on the mountaintop, the park looked spectacular with ample rides and ocean life to gaze at. Unfortunately, it was late arriving and the cost to enter the park was exorbitant! So we continued onto Hualien to pick up some groceries since there is nothing in Toroko Gorge to eat if you miss the meal times (7:30-8:00am, 12:00-12:30pm, and 6:30-7:00pm). Of course we could eat at the Grand Formosa Hotel but a meal costs $20.00CDN each (rooms starting at $300CDN/night).

The first night we stayed just outside the Toroko National Park in the Toroko townsite after venturing to Tianshiang [Tee-an/she-ang]. We learned that first night’s drive that many of the roads turn into single lanes with no shoulders. More interesting than that is it happens in the middle of tunnels. We also learned that the Taiwanese like to drive as fast as they can, even the large buses, into hairpin turns, pass in these areas and challenge whether these single lane roads really are single lane or not. Fortuantely, we made it in and out without a scratch, only shaken nerves. Kathy held her heart the whole drive.

The next morning we headed out for the park headquarters to get more information on the trails. Soon enough, we were exploring the nooks and crannies of the gorge itself.

Our first stop was the Eternal Spring Shrine (shown above), built in commemoration and memory of the thousands of lives claimed from the building of the Central Cross Island Highway (which we will discuss later- yellow section of the map above). There was a short hike here where we went through a series of caves and stairs. Taiwan loves to make stairs into their mountains and hiking trails.

We ascended to the shrine shown here (picture from the Eternal Spring Shrine below) and continued further on to the monastery shown below.

This is a suspension bridge we needed to cross to get to the monastery from the other mountain we were on.

A bridge we crossed from the townsite (picture taken from the second shrine on this hike).
We then explored some abandoned tunnels and noticed a re-occurring theme; Taoist and buddist shrines are setup everywhere possible: a cave, a precipice, a special tree, etc.

After that, we headed to a walk that included passing through 9 tunnels in order to make it to the end where there was the Water Curtain Cave. When they were making this tunnel, they hit a natural spring that flowed through the rock. When you pass through this tunnel (pitch black so we needed a flashlight), there is a constant shower from above hence the name “Water Curtain Cave.” There is a sign at the front of the cave warning you about possibly losing your life if you fall in this cave. There really was no threat in the cave. You had to walk a narrow ledge along the side of the cave and the water running through the center is slow flowing and not very deep. Here are the pictures.

What do you see: a man’s face or a man falling off a cliff?

People left their raincoats for others to use to enter the cave.

We stayed the night in Tianshiang at the Catholic Youth Hostel and woke up the next morning to hike up to a little shrine before leaving the gorge.

Top: Tianshiang townsite from above. Bottom: Tianshiang pagoda.
After this hike we decided to head west to a small mountain lake called Sun Moon Lake. Where the yellow line on the map above ends is the end of our drive on the Central Cross Island highway. This road was much more dangerous to drive and continued higher and higher up the mountain range. Instead of driving near the base of the mountains, these roads were built near the peaks of the mountain range.

We would pass through single lane tunnels only to find someone waiting halfway around the corner. We were glad we were on the inside track of the road and not on the cliff side of it. It took us 5 hours to drive from Tianshiang to the exit of the highway at a small town called Puli [Poo-lee] since we could and would only drive at 30kph.

Look! Conifers… and Kathy, too.

Our faithful little Toyota.

Ok, Mike feels like this blog is dragging on so let’s say this. Renting a car was great. You could put a bunch of stuff in it and lock the door, it was warm!, you could eat and drive, talk and drive, listen to music and drive…let’s just say it was more multifunctional than a scooter. When we filled up a tank of gas, we got bags of chips, laundry detergent, water, cleaning products and a washcloth for free (well with purchase of gas). Best of all, we got out of the crazy, polluted city (which we have come to love) and saw a part of Taiwan that blew us away! Who knew all this time that we’ve been here that we have missed mountains, oceans, farms(!), amusement parks and towns that look like a greener Banff!

What's shakin' now

2005-04-19T11:50:00.000+08:00

Greetings one and all.
Well, we have not gone to the trouble of making a web page cause of the time Mike would waste on it. Rather we have taken a spot on this site that had a template we thought acceptable and took advantage of its simple automation.

Since our last email, much has happened over the course of three weeks. Kathy had mentioned her starting at a new school with ALL new ABC classes. After the third week and covering a letter a day, you can imagine how bored Kathy is especially running the routine for three classes. " 'A' Apple. The apple is red." for three classes can be tiresome.

Mike also started at his new job recently with the same school but at a different branch. Kathy's drive = 2 minutes. Mike's drive = 20 minutes. The risk just increases.
Here is the website for our school: www.schoolhouse.com.tw

This is just a small update but there is a doozie of a blog coming after this so prepare yourself for some reading and pictures to boot (not about- a boot).

Kaohsiung, Taiwan Part II

2005-03-21T00:59:00.000+08:00

Greetings everyone!

It has been about two and a half months since we last corresponded and a lot has happened since then.

We have completed our one year contract with our school ,KNS’ Language Institute.
We moved to a new apartment in Kaohsiung two days before we were to leave for Canada.
We went to Hong Kong for a three night holiday.
We went to Vancouver for a three night holiday.
We went back home for a 25 night holiday!
We came back to Taiwan and are still on holidays...kind-of.
We both have jobs at a new school—same branch different locations.

As you can see a lot of things have transpired since our last message (Tsunami event). We will attempt to provide you with a synopsis that is not too drawn out yet with enough detail for clarity.

As mentioned, we completed a contract with our old school and decided not to re-sign a contract for another year. Thus we had no job to come back too. Fortunately enough we were able to do a demo for a school (Schoolhouse Language Center) prior to leaving and ended up with jobs there a day after we got home. On top of searching for a job, we also had the task of moving into a new apartment as well.
Our new address is:
No. 249 12 Floor Wunshin Road, Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C. 804
台灣高雄巿鼓山區文信路 no.249 12樓
Telephone: 7-554-8360

We didn’t use our scooter to move our house though. We borrowed a friend’s car (VW Jetta) and did 4 trips. Who knew you could accumulate so much junk in a year! Driving a car is not as bad or as frightening as a scooter although finding parking is much easier with the latter.

Mike has just returned home from a 10 day conference with our church in Singapore. He already misses the ample garbage cans compared to Taiwan’s ample garbage streets. That meant Kathy has been “learning” how to Really drive her scooter. A green light is like the starting gates of a formula car race. She is mastering the art of U-turns in the middle of nowhere, honking through red lights, squeezing between two vehicles and dodging rampaging taxis and blue trucks.

We will include more details and pictures about our time home and away. We thought being back for a few weeks warrants an update! Hope all is well back home. We heard of some Easter snow. Nothing crazy here like that other than the mass pollution cloud that is slowly destroying our lungs!

Until next time, so long for now.

taiwanchus

Everything Okay

2004-12-29T00:58:00.000+08:00

Greetings all,

We have had some recent mails and phone calls concerning the tsunami that has hit Southeast Asia. To let everyone know, we are okay here in Taiwan. Other than a cold front that has dropped mercury to 15 degrees making it unbearable to scooter around, we are safe. Since Taiwan is a small island and seemingly non-existent (Kathy didn’t know where Taiwan was until a few months before we came) as well as the name sounds similar to Thailand, some people get it mixed up. Thank you for your concerns. Courtesy of CBC news, we have included a map below to show the areas affected by the wave. We were protected by Malaysia and Thailand from the Indian Ocean tsunami. If it were on the other side, we would have been hit for sure since we are a harbour city also.

We currently have friends that are vacationing in Phuket (small island resort in Thailand) which was devastated by the tsunami. Praise the Lord they were spared and we received news from their school that they are alright and trying to find a way home. They were vacationing with their new born and their family visiting from Canada.

Will let you know the details of our Christmas in Taipei at a later date. Until then, so long for now.

3 day weekend? What are we in Canada?

2004-12-23T00:57:00.000+08:00

Greetings all!

Nothing rings in the winter season like a winter storm. A few days prior, the day was clear and blue which is a rarity here in Kaohsiung. You can tell a typhoon when you can see the sky rather than haze and pollution. The crazy thing is that kids were still coming to school despite the typhoon. Apparently, it was the only typhoon on record that has ever hit Taiwan in December (this was the same typhoon that destroyed the Philippines if any was following the news for this side of the globe) Also, it was the biggest one we have experienced and we had to scooter home in the middle of a small river in night darkness -- which was fun to say the least. Nothing like getting splashed with mystery water from the street! It’s not black because it is night out!

Well that was three weeks ago and we are now upon the brink of Christmas. First, we would like to wish everyone back home a Merry Christmas. We have to admit, it is not the same here. Aside from the weather feeling of it all, the Taiwanese people do not celebrate Christmas here since it is more of a western holiday. It is similar to how they celebrate Valentines day; just another holiday on the calendar that they typically work on. They actually celebrate Halloween in more gusto here! Since Christmas this year falls on a Saturday though and it is the fourth week of the month, the Taiwanese people actually have the day off (they receive every second and fourth Saturday a month off). It’s “amazing” we get the Friday off so that makes our first long weekend since...since....since Canada! So Tara, please do not email about not having a 4 day weekend since July and feeling burnt out. It makes us very sad. We are taking advantage of this and heading up to Taipei for the Christmas weekend. We will miss being woken up at 5:00AM by Kathy’s sister jumping on our bed telling us we are sleeping in too late. Or, by sleeping in to 11 at Mike’s house and eating joak (rice porridge) and greasy Chinese long johns. We will cope. Kathy claims she will cry all day but if Mike takes her shopping in Taipei, she should be all right. Mike does not know HOW we will manage to take all our presents to Taipei or WHY we should, but Kathy insists we MUST open them on Christmas morning!! When their is a will their is a way, right? Thanks to family that have helped make Christmas special already with cards, emails and big packages from Canada (mom and grandpa and Ruth).

Well that is all we have for now. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! Miss you all!

Blessings,

Taiwanchus

Let it snow...

2004-10-23T00:56:00.000+08:00

Greetings Y’all,

We have heard of the great snow fall blanketing the prairies. Seems right on schedule. Although we do not have snow here in Taiwan, a change in the weather has been noticed. Although Mike is still wearing shorts and t-shirts, Kathy has now succumb to the long sleeve tees, jeans, and even fleeces. It’s still 24 at night but the scooter ride is a bit chilly now. If you think we are weak, the Taiwanese already have their scarves and down jackets out. Mangoes are now a rare item to be found and are officially out of season, having been in season for the past 5 months. Now we too have to resort to winter fruits like apples and citrus fruits. What will we do?

Happy thanksgiving past for our Canadian friends. We had two thanksgiving dinners here. One was with co-workers on thanksgiving and another was this past Sunday with our church. The first dinner did not have turkey since a typical home cannot fit a turkey into their little toaster ovens thus we had rotisserie chicken instead with other potluck goodies.
Our dinner with the church was at a Finish restaurant. The food was AMAZING. Homemade breads, juicy turkey, delicious stuffing, green salads, PICKLES (a rare and endangered species here in Taiwan) were but a few of the delectable treats.

Now for the good news. We are now trying to include as many pictures into our mails as possible since we realized we have not since arriving here. Although we did not take pictures of our initial few months here due to the lack of a handy dandy point and shoot camera, we are now with it and shall begin to share the visuals of our lives here. This picture is of our apartment tower. The red circle is where we live. The boy in the picture is a Taiwanese kid we paid to take the picture. Unfortunately he thought we wanted a picture of him as well rather than us...??? Who knows.
This is the park just down the road from our home. It’s nice in the picture but if we could send smell with it, you would not be so pleased. This is the infamous Love River. It’s full of Lovely smells.
Maybe because they like to do exhibits like these. Why anyone would want to hang around a sewage exhibition is beyond us. The sign to the right is not at the river (unfortunately). This was from a Malaysian beach. Too bad they spent all their money on the resort and could not afford a native English speaker to proof the sign before they planted it. Great Chinglish!
Remember us talking about karaoke? Well, this picture shows the Taiwanese enjoying some good ol’ singing just outside their apartment building at the side of the park. It is a truck that transforms itself into a karaoke truck. Crazy. It’s a party anywhere you want.
This was later on that same night of the moon festival. This is a puppet show on the side of the road. Funny thing is, Mike is the only crowd they were gathering.
Here is the last of the pictures for now. The file is getting piggy so we thought of ending it with a boat ride from our trip to Redang Island in Malaysia. Look at the happy couple!

Until next time...so long for now

Taiwanchus

Happy Moon Festival and Teacher's Day

2004-10-01T00:55:00.001+08:00

A few days late but we wish everyone a Happy Moon Festival and Teacher's Day. This is our second holiday in Taiwan. September 28th of the solar calendar is Confucius’ Birthday, also known as Teacher’s Day. Also on this day is Moon Festival, the equivalent to Canada’s Thanksgiving. Moon Festival is a lunar holiday. Lucky us! For the first time EVER, Moon Festival and Teacher’s Day fall on the same day. So we had two holidays for the price of one! In English, we call that being jipped!

The holiday was great. We were offered hot dogs, prawns, bamboo shoots, all BBQed in the park. Taiwanese gather in droves and there is always karaoke. For numbers this large, there is a flat bed truck that transforms into a full on stage for performing. And that is right off the side of the street. While we were taking pictures of this event, a family invited us to eat with them which was so nice. What a party. Unfortunately, no English for us to sing.

We hear rumours of us not returning to Canada? Remember they are just rumours and there is no definite plans yet. Well, take care all. We miss you lots.

Taiwanchus

Happy Moon Festival and Teacher's Day

2004-10-01T00:55:00.000+08:00

And He gathered two of each animal...

2004-09-17T00:54:00.000+08:00

We have decided to abandon our scooter and begin building an ark. It has rained everyday since we have been home from our holiday. And it’s not like an Alberta thunderstorm either; it’s a full on torrential downpour which makes driving the scooter “fun.” When we look out the window, we cannot even see the neighbouring building because the rain is so heavy. We are thankful we are not living in Taipei though since they are receiving even heavier rains than we are. At least we are not receiving snow like Edmonton. We have been keeping up with Canadian news over the internet and Kathy is glad she is not home right now for that reason.

What makes us stay is not the weather but the air raid sirens we are now hearing. Our students told us today of the lock down Taiwan was having. Today between 2 and 3 PM, residence of Taiwan were not allowed to be on streets or driving their cars due to routine drills they have in case of air raids or other military threats Mainland China imposes. It was pretty interesting to hear about. We had no clue what the sirens outside were all about until they explained it. Our roommate heard the sirens when she was teaching but we didn’t until we went outside for break.

Well, that is all the news we have for now other than we were in our first scooter incident. It was not a full accident since se were not actually tossed from our scooter thus making it an incident. If you recall, we mentioned avoiding three things when driving a scooter: Mercedes, Taxis and blue trucks. Well the blue truck got us. Side swiped us and drug us for a few feet until we managed to dislodge our scooter from its grips and pull over. The driver seemed very apologetic which is odd by Taiwan standards. We don’t think it would have been the same response had Kathy’s blonde hair not been exposed or present at the scene. Taiwanese do not apologize for any possible mistakes on their part. This results in the loss of face. We have only seen Taiwanese yell at a scene of an accident. Maybe because this was only an incident that we received the apology, and the fact a scooter causes zero damage to a truck! We had only a crack in the scooter’s body and a small skinner on Mike’s arm. Other than that, all is well. No worries back home, okay! We are lucky we lasted this long. Two new girls in our school were in a scooter accident the first day on their scooters. One girl broke her shoulder and the other received major road rash. Crazy, or “Sa Sa” in Chinese-”Ano Ano” in Taiwanese.

Hope all is well back home.

Until next time, so long for now.
(one day later...before we go, the sun was shining and we saw blue sky today! We celebrated by heading to our favourite night market (that closes down during the rain) for a Mongolian grill and shaved ice cream and strawberries. We miss you all very much. Really. And think of you often. Loves!)

Taiwanchus

PS: way to go Canada on your World Cup metal in Hockey!
PPS: Congratulations Canada on moving to the 24 hour clock!!

Back in action

2004-08-18T00:54:00.000+08:00

Greetings all,

We are back from our 18 day getaway to Malaysia and are into full swing of work again! We are putting together a website complete with photos and a complete story for free perusal. The email may be rather large if we tried to include the detail we wanted to fill you in on from our trip. Could you imagine the emails being any longer??? Yikes. This way you can get pictures, too.

A quick summary of what is to come: we had a blast on our trip; got lost in the jungle...twice!; snorkelled and caught some Nemo’s, saw sharks, huge green sea turtles, octopi, a moray eel and many others (although Mike got sea sick and missed the latter); played beach volleyball with some Singaporeans; got sick on the bus trip up to the Cameron Highlands – 162 switchback bends on a rickety old bus up the mountain road; had to pay money to use the Tandas (washroom); and more....!!!!

So stay tuned for the epic!

Watch out Malaysia

2004-07-28T00:53:00.000+08:00

Howdy y’all,

We are off to Malaysia on Monday (July 26th)! We are getting more and more excited as the day arrives! We spent out last day with our kids at the park since most children here are confined to concrete play spaces in their homes or the courtyards of their apartments. It was good to see the kids be kids! They have some fun Taiwanese kid games here that we recorded on video. Hopefully Mike will get a website up for people to see photos that we are finally taking!

We will be sending periodic emails to update everyone of the adventure but hopefully we will be sending more traditional and personal forms of correspondence on this trip (hint: possible postcards may be showering your mailboxes). We will try our best!

Take care y’all.

Holiday at last!

2004-07-07T00:52:00.000+08:00

Greetings all,

Well it has been over a month since our last email. We have slowed down the mails partly because the outrageous is no longer outrageous to us (very sad). It’s now normal to see grandmothers driving scooters faster than you with four or five grandchildren piled onto it like an acrobatic show, old ladies laying asphalt on major roadways, children peeing into a gutter drain or countless scooter accidents waiting to happen.

We have recently observed our first holiday since we have arrived (June 22). Most schools received the Monday and Tuesday making a nice four day weekend to get away. We had the joy of working the Monday though and only had the Tuesday off. However, it was a nice break. We sure do miss those Canadian holidays coming once a month. Here it is more like twice a year. June 22nd is the Asian holiday known as the Dragon Boat Festival where groups race traditional boats outfitted to resemble dragons up and down the river. We had a couple friends put together a foreigner team to compete in the races (placed second in the finals losing by only 0.12 seconds). We headed down to the race area which was downtown. Why anyone drives a car in this country is beyond us. We had difficulties finding parking for our scooter. And if you remember, you can park your scooter anywhere (even in a tree if you can get it up there). We have a river that runs through our city called the Love River (Ai Hu in Chinese) which is not so much a river as it is an effluent run off channel for the entire city. It reeks of Taiwanese goodness!!! Supposedly the mayor of our city FELL into this sludge! So boats raced up and down the river while crowds cheered “Jai Yo!” (Go! Go! literally: Add oil)

Speaking of holidays, Kathy and I have booked our trip to Malaysia for three weeks in July and August. I guess this will make up for the lack of long weekends here. We were nervous about carrying around the cash to pay for the tickets though. Everything here is done either by cash or credit card. We thought why not write a check but our travel agent let us in on some Taiwan secrets. Supposedly it is legal (a law was passed three years ago) to write checks knowing there is not enough in your account for the check to clear; AKA fraud. So you can write a check for a house and get away with only having a buck in your account, scott free! Also, Taiwan supposedly has the highest debt per capita in the world. Who knows if that is true or not but I wouldn’t put it past anyone here. We have not seen a car older than two years and without a BMW, Mercedes, Lexus or even a Jaguar decal on it since we have been here. And like back home, Mercedes drivers like to try to hit Mike when he is driving. I think there is something in the manual that says you own the road or something.

We have received some news that you have heard of our crazy weather here. Last Friday (July 2) we received the tail end of a typhoon. We were hoping all week we would get a typhoon day and the only place the typhoon didn’t hit was Kaohsiung! I suppose it was for the best since the death toll now is around 50 people on the east coast which got hit pretty bad. The storm rolled in during school time which means we were to work through it. It was amazing to see all our kids at school. It would be the equivalent to parents driving through a terrible blizzard so their kids could go to a piano lesson. Also, most of our students came by scooter thus enduring the torrential rainfall and winds. The rain and wind were so hard that the children could hear them over Kathy’s teaching! Scootering home in this weather was no fun at all. Anyone who has driven a little car in a snow storm can relate to how we were tossed around the road like a scrap of paper. It rained for the entire weekend here. We were planning to get away to Tainan (a city 45 minutes north of our city which was the first capital of Taiwan back in the day - yes, where the whale exploded in January) for our one year anniversary but decided not to. We also wanted to go to celebrate Canada day there also. The city puts on a Canada day special which was quite interesting to read about. Who knew they would care so much? Instead we celebrated Canada day here at a pub/restaurant called “The Lighthouse” (a Canadian foreigner owned place). We have dubbed it the Whitehouse since we have not seen so many foreigners in one spot as we do there.

Well, that is the news for now. Hope all is well back home in Canada. Sorry about the Flames. Mike watched each game with high hopes but was just as disappointed. He would avoid the internet and all media sources since we got the games the day after and usually at 11:00PM. Oh, Kathy has just walked through the door with a bowl of “Bing” that we talked about in our previous email. This time it is filled with freshly cut fruit and and topped with shaved ice cream. Unfortunately, most of it has melted since she walked a mere two blocks with it. That’s 32 degrees at midnight for you!

Natural Disasters

2004-05-20T14:37:00.000+08:00

We have officially been through our first earthquake!!! At 3:00PM during a Wednesday class, Kathy began to feel dizzy and sick. What she thought was sickness due to bad Chinglish from her students turned out to be a result of a gentle rock of our school. Mike hadn’t noticed until one student dove under his desk and another student stood up and said “Teacher! School crazy! We will, we will, rock you!” striking a surfer pose and wiggling his bottom at Mike. What could Mike do but to join. All of Kathy’s students crawled under their desks laughing and screaming at the same time. It turned out to be a 3.0 on the Richter; not bad for the first.

We included a small satellite photo of our neck of the woods. We just recently avoided a nasty typhoon but are now experiencing the following thunderstorms (although we would have really liked a typhoon day). So that is all for now. Just thought we would update everyone on our weather. It’s a sad state when the conversation turns to discussions of weather. So long for now.

Taiwanchus

Feelin' HOT HOT HOT

2004-05-15T14:29:00.000+08:00

The three month marker has passed and we celebrated it with a visit from a not too distant friend from Taipei. This past weekend (April 24, 25) we welcomed a visit from our friend Ali who left Canada (actually Red Deer as well) on the same day. It was great to catch up and find out what she has been up to. She too was headed for Kaohsiung but had a bit of a hick-up when she landed in Taipei. To make a long story short (which seems to be difficult for us lately-we apologise Ali if we have missed or mixed up anything), Ali’s contact for the school she was to work for didn’t show up at the airport to pick her up. She phoned an emergency number that was given to her by some friends before she left. They housed her and arranged an interview for her with the company they work for (ORTV-a Christian broadcast and publication organization) since it appeared her job had fallen through. She was offered a job at ORTV and has been working there ever since doing random work here and there. The good thing about her job was that she had the opportunity to see more than the city she lived in unlike us.

However, the area of Taiwan she has not seen yet is Kenting (the area we went to last mail) and the dirty ol’ city of Kaohsiung. So we offered her a room at our inn to see the beauty of the city. We picked her up at the train station at 3:00PM and went shopping at all the markets we could find in the area giving Ali a taste of the variety in our city. (Shoppin here is another email altogether...its amazing!) This was done entirely on foot – about 20 city blocks (90% of it was market)! Mike was exhausted but when girls shop... Ali was surprised we walked on the side of the streets. Supposedly in Taipei you are never to walk on the streets or you will be run over. We also have to mention Taipei has wider sidewalks that have room for both scooters and people. In Kaohsiung, however, scooters occupy the majority of the pedestrian paths. It’s easier to walk in the street amongst the rushing scooters and cars.

We made it back to the scooter at midnight and managed to fit the three of us onto it to drive home. Ali had never been on a scooter before and what a better time to experience it when you cram three adults on a scooter than can only house two...well two adults and about three kids (four if you count the baby in the front basket of the scooter – I know Eva, not the safest baby seat but that’s Taiwan). It was a rocky start at first for Mike to get used to the extra weight and the girls’ shiftiness but away we went back to our home. Ali has this on video if anyone wants to see this spectacle (but remember Ali not to show it to Kathy’s dad-I do not think he will approve of such reckless behaviour- but I’m sure Roger and Tony will have a good laugh).

Sunday was quiet and we took Ali to a food market we frequent and then to the church we attend. Soon it was Monday and Mike drove Ali downtown to the bus stations (dozens to choose from that have leather seated busses with personal TVs and AC stations) in the morning. We hope you made it safely to Kenting and your trip home to Canada was thirteen hours of FUN!

The weather here is heating up. It has been a steady 32 degrees with humidity around the 60%; just enough for your sweat to sit on you with no where to go. The pollution combined with the hot and humid weather is playing havoc on Kathy’s skin that is used to the dry Alberta air. If anyone feels inclined to send her some OXY pads she would be most grateful. Although it is incredibly hot, the Taiwanese have devised this ingenious desert that consists mainly of shaved ice. No, it’s not a snow cone. The Chinese for it is pronounced “Bing.” You head to a buffet table that is filled with tapioca balls of different sizes and flavours (“jen jew”), Jellos of all sorts, pudding, red beans, fruit and on and on. All topped with your choice of fruit syrups. They then top it off with shaved ice cream and away you eat. It may not sound good when you hear it but it is absolutely refreshing and surprisingly filling with all the crud scooped into it.

As we mentioned, it is 32 degrees and hot, hot, hot! Yet it is not even close to how hot it will be. We are only at the beginning of summer. It’s funny because we see the Taiwanese walking and driving around with long sleeves and coats on. But that could be because they see a tan body has undesirable and actually ugly. There is tonnes of skin whitening products here and women walk around with umbrellas in fear of browning up. You can spot a whitey from a mile since he/she is the only one in a group wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

To escape the heat, we went swimming at a local pool. Everything here is a therapeutic experience. From a haircut to a quick dip, the purpose of the experience is to enjoy and relax, something western cultures could really improve on. The facility had a large lap pool, a huge massage pool with jet tubs and massage showers, a waterfall to massage your head, whirlpools, hot tubs, cold tubs, an aromatherapy room and a super heated sauna. Before we were allowed to swim, we had to put on swim caps which were mandatory if you wanted to enter the water. We did a lap (pathetically) and then jumped in the huge massage pool. We got sprayed by some super shower heads for a while, swam into the waterfall and then relaxed in the jet tubs. We then decided to head over to the super sauna. The saunas had salt in tubs that you could rub over your body which made for some silky smooth skin. We then proceeded to the hot tubs. Mike did not have his glasses so he could not see the Chinese symbol for men and women on the wall. He could not understand why the men and women were so anti-social with one another not mixing in the same area. A Taiwanese lady managed to politely point Mike to the neighbouring men’s hot tub. After the men had a good laugh at Mike, he decided to head to the aromatherapy room for some inner healing. The sauna had the smell of Mike’s grandma’s secret concoctions that she would cook up in the kitchen back home. The room was an eerie green complete with more salt for a rub down. One man that was in the hot tub before came into the sauna. He started to talk to Mike in Chinese. After the typical “I cannot understand you (ting bu dong), I am Canadian (woa shr jee-an-na-da ruhn), I speak English (wo shuo yin-wen)” [something Mike has got down to an art] the man politely laughed and sat down.

So that is all that has happened thus far. Nothing new and exciting. We are trying to plan our summer vacation that is coming up very soon (July 24). We have three weeks to explore. If anyone has any suggestions, we would be happy to hear them. The countries in mind right now are Indonesia or Malaysia combined with an around the island tour by car. Who knows what will happen.

Until next time, so long for now.

Taiwanchus

Deep Ocean Air

2004-04-21T14:27:00.000+08:00

This is an initial apology and disclaimer for the extensive length of this mail.
Kathy and Mike shall not be held responsible for any straining of the eyes, loss of hours at work (if you choose to read the following in a work environment), neck cramps, finger strain (if you use your finger to follow when you read), and any other disabling factors caused by reading this email.
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The weekend has come and not a moment too soon. After two days of being in the office without Kathy’s companionship due to her inability to talk, Mike was more than happy to throw off the shackles and set himself free. “Yaba-dabba-doo” Mike yelled as he slid down his brontosaurus’ tail and onto his scooter (Note: Yaba-dabba-doo is not Chinese for any of you who are wondering-although we did see Flintstones in Chinese – Barney is “Bar-no”).

For the last two days of the week, Kathy has been unable to muster enough strength in her voice to even talk to Mike, let alone a classroom of screaming kids. And if you know Kathy, that is a big surprise. She visited a doctor downtown that is one of the few really good English speaking doctors in the city on Thursday. Instead of being handed a packet of pills like her previous doctor, this doctor managed to explain each pill and instructions for taking them. By doctor’s orders she was to not strain her voice and thus teaching is a no-no. That meant no talking too much either...can you imagine Kathy not being aloud to talk for days let alone an minute? This is her ultimate trial!

We have been planning for weeks to get out of the city. Pretty sad since we have been here for over two months. We decided to head down to Kenting about 2 hour scooter ride south of our city. We have provided a link to a map for those of you who would like a visual (and it’s small for the dial-up crowd out there). We were west of the town of Oluanpi that is shown on the map (which we also visited but will talk about later).
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/north_east_asia/taiwan/taiwan.htm
Friday night was a flurry of activity. Mike arrived home to pick up Kathy. We quickly packed the final odds and ends and away we headed to the bus station. After cramming our scooter for weekend parking on the packed sidewalk (which are parking lots for scooters-people walk in the street, where cars park-walking is difficult in Kaohsiung) we purchased our tickets for our bus trip.

The bus ride was similar to the Greyhound except when we arrived at a stop, the bus driver would announce the name of the stop in Chinese. Then it occurred to us, how do we know when we have arrived at our stop? We couldn’t read the signs for the towns either. When we became the last passengers on the bus, we nervously ran to the front of the bus to ask our bus driver (not a lick of English) if we missed our stop or when our stop was. He waved us back upstairs and Mike frantically scanned his Lonely Planet for the Chinese characters for Kenting.

About 20 minutes later at 2:00AM (a three hour bus ride), we pulled up to a small ticket outlet in the centre of Kenting. When we stepped off the bus, immediately we were approached by a lady soliciting her hotel. There was some confusion when we were stepping off the bus on where the bus would pick us up. The lady helped us out since she spoke a little bit of English and showed us where we would need to board on Sunday. She then began to lead us across the street to her hotel. Kathy went to check out a hotel next door for prices. Mike followed the lady to preview a room. Air conditioning, cable TV and hardwood floors. The price was right so we decided to take it. Kathy at first was leery about taking the room since we did not walk the strip for price comparisons but she reminded us of Mike’s mom. All the other hotels we later discovered were just as cheap and as nice. Besides, this was a ma and pa operation that we were happy to support.

Kenting is a small beach resort town that hosts most of the southern tip’s tourist needs. It can be described as another Sylvan Lake (for the Albertan’s on the list) but on the ocean rather than a diaper filled lake. Don’t get us wrong; love Sylvan’s algae in our toes but the ocean beating waves was so much more enjoyable. Kenting doesn’t have it’s own beach, other than the one owned and controlled by the Ceasar’s Hotel across the street. We found out from an old lady who worked for the hotel (similar to the caddies at the golf course) that we had to pay $300NT ($12cdn) if we wanted to put our bag on a table. Nuts to that!

We decided to rent a scooter for the day and travel the area around the town. We headed to Oluanpi first. Along the way, we stopped at “Sail Rock” which supposedly looks like a sail of a ship. We are not sure what kind of sail though when we saw it. We walked out on a volcanic rock beach that was riddled with small pools of water. Crabs and small tropical fish inhabit the pools when the tide resides which was very interesting to inspect. We saw some Taiwanese tourists snorkelling by Sail Rock, which is about 8 meters from the closest beach point.

We then proceeded to Oluanpi which is a small town on the southern most tip of Taiwan. It is home to an old lighthouse that was built by the first British colonists. It is one of the few fortified lighthouses due to the constant attacks by the Taiwanese aborigines. The lighthouse is situated in a nice park with tonnes of trails so we explored the area extensively. There were paths laid out between huge volcanic rock formations and dense vegetation that was so interesting to inspect (for Mike anyways). As our students would say, “qui-kuh-leeee teacher. (quickly in Chinglish)” We could have picked pineapples right from its source if only it wasn’t surrounded by its thorny undergrowth.

We left Oluanpi and decided to head to the other southern peninsula where Paisha (an amazing white sand, secluded beach is located) and Taiwan Power Corporation’s third nuclear power plant resides. We never made it out to Paisha but managed to find the water disposal for the nuclear power plant’s cooling towers. Nothing like watching the ocean sun set on a pier with rushing toxic water dancing below.

Heading back into Kenting was pleasant yet busy since the night life picked up. The entire strip turned itself into the night markets we frequent in Kaohsiung. Vendors everywhere. Where there is a night market, there always seems to be a Turkish “Dikkie dee” selling ice cream. We don’t understand it. We ventured out for some Thai food (that’s Thailand, not Taiwan just to clear up any confusion) that evening after the recommendation of some South African friends from church we ran into at the Turkish Dikie dee.

The next morning we meant to explore the Kenting National Park Recreation Area which is home to some great rock climbing spots and beautiful hiking trails. Instead we slept in past our checkout time which was okay since we were foreigners. We explored Kenting town site a little more and jumped back onto a bus home. If only we could have bottled the air to take with us. The fresh ocean air did wonders for Kathy’s throat and our overall well being. We truly needed the break from the city since it was two months before we got out of it!

Well, we hope this mail finds you well. Hope everyone back home is doing great. We love hearing from y’all no matter how small the events from weather to when Mike’s nephew fell down a full flight of stairs. We enjoy all the details. Sorry this letter is late in coming. We try to type as fast as we can and make these letters as interesting as possible. Until next time, so long for now.

Taiwan Chus

Fluids of the East

2004-04-07T14:26:00.000+08:00

Greetings one and all.

It has now been over two months and we have developed the Kaohsiung Lung. A pollution filled lung that has deepened our voices and produced a hack similar to a chain smoker’s. We heard it evolves into an immunity in time, similar to an evolved biological filter for our lungs. So if we come home with gill slits in our necks or behind our ears, know it’s the environmental factors here that seem to accelerate adaptation. Be thankful for the air you have back home. And the water.

We have had to buy water ever since we have arrived since the water from the tap is full of heavy metals. We have just recently discovered “water stations” where you can fill huge jugs of water for a few dollars. Before we were paying $50NT ($2.00 cdn) for 5L jugs weekly. We now can fill those same jugs for $3NT. Just like gas, there are grades of water as well! Reading the Chinese proved difficult but we found out that “RO” labelled water is drinkable (RO=reverse osmosis). So cherish that water that you can drink from the tap!

If you care for more beverages, you can head to the local supermarket where you can sample all sorts of items. Teas, juices and milk are on the sample menu. Mike also found out that vodka was on sample too. He couldn’t believe his eyes when a junior high aged kid went up and was given a sample. He didn’t think water had a % alcohol rating on it or was sold in the alcoholic beverages aisle.

On the topic of fluids, Mike recently had an oil change performed on our scooter. We lost our gas cap to our scooter so Mike drove down to the “scooter guy” where we purchased the scooter and asked for a new cap. The event went like so:
Mike: Nee how. No gas cap. Lost. Ma yo! How much? Duo shao chien?
Scooter guy: You lose? OK.
And off he drove. Away on his scooter. Where? Who knows. He spoke a little bit of English so no problem there. He came back in 2 minutes with a box in his hand.
Scooter guy: $250NT
Mike: I will take. How much is oil change? How long to change?
Scooter guy: Only $150NT - 5 minutes. (about $6 CDN and right then and there)

Sunday is our market day so as usual we head up the road to the market to stock up for the week. This weeks menu included BBQ duck that Mike went crazy for since it was all served Peking style with rice wraps and all the fixin’s for only $150 NT.
Kathy stocked up on these amazing wraps. She typically goes to this one lady that used to dislike her since it was an issue that Kathy wanted to direct her wrap making. Now that Kathy has been back to her a couple of times, she seems to be warming up to her. She even cracked a smile. The wrap ladies’ friends that sell to the side of her enjoy our visits more. Kathy is quite the novelty.
As we were leaving we picked up some tea to sip on our way home. Kathy went to pay for the tea when she noticed her wallet missing. So the quest for the one wallet began. One wallet amongst a sea of vendors and Taiwanese shoppers. Isles so narrow, one can touch each vendor with stretched arms. Slowly we combed the market floor. After two slow passes, we couldn’t find Kathy’s wallet anywhere. Mike was discouraged and thought we would not find it. Needle in a haystack. When we regrouped we decided to pray together to find this wallet. One more pass proved useful since Mike was led to it lying at the side of an isle bridging the concrete gutters where filth and grime flows from one vendor to another. Good thing God is keeping an eye on Kathy’s valuables otherwise she would be stuck in so many places: parking lots, malls, France and Taiwan. This time she didn’t lose her passport in a foreign country though. Her ARC (Alien Residence Certificate – which makes her legal in the Republic of China), our international drivers licenses and her new collection of Taiwan discount cards were the only things in the wallet.

News came that Kathy is moving to a different part of the school we work at. Currently we work, eat, sleep and breath the same rhythm and it REALLY will be sad to be separated. Our school bridges two buildings where kids have to be escorted outside our school (KNS3) to a different adjacent building to the third floor (which everyone has dubbed KNS 3.5). Her and two other teachers are swapping spots with 3 others since there is a new Chinese coordinator coming to the school that needs to be trained in KNS3. We think it is a permanent move but hopefully it is not. No one really likes the change but what can you do?

We recently went to see The Passion of Christ. Excellent movie for any who have not seen it yet. Kathy’s eyes were sore, however, from constantly closing her eyes at the flogging and crucifixion. Mike, on the other hand, was too emotionally effected by the sheer brutality and reality of the message.

Well, our lives are getting boring since we are too lazy to get up on the weekends and go somewhere for the weekends. Hopefully we have not bored you too much relaying this update. Hope all is well back in the mother country.

So long for now.

Taiwan Chus

Taiwan Eleection Craze

2004-03-21T14:25:00.000+08:00

We have heard some disturbing news from home that these mails are an entertaining and coveted piece of information in recipients’ inboxes. We apologize for the tardiness of this update since we have been quite busy becoming legally accepted in this country and dodging election campaign madness.

The Campaign Wall>
It all started the morning of March 15th. The air was as crisp as a smoker’s lounge and the sun was shining a luminous grey. The phone rings awakening us at noon. Yes, AWAKING US can you believe it! We did go to bed at three in the morning so that is not bad. Two Kiwi girls (New Zealanders) that are part of our small group wanted to head down to Costco and asked if we wanted to join. It’s was like Batman receiving the call from the commissioner; in an instant, Mike was changed and on his scooter ready to offer his Costco card’s unused worth. Mike knew the approximate location of Costco and the road leading them could be easily accessed from our house so they headed down Junghua Rd.

Mistake number one:
NEVER go to Costco on a Saturday (so we were told by co-workers after the fact). Traffic to Costco is terrible on Saturdays and Costco is a zoo.

Mistake number two:
NEVER drive down a road filled with ~300,000 people (actual news estimate) for a presidential rally. About 10 city blocks were packed with people walking and waving their flags for the election March 20th. Guess which road was blocked off with people? We have never seen so many people that passionate about the election process. People are so involved with the campaigns. Even the kids we teach are talking about the elections and which candidate they would vote for.

What would normally take 20 minutes to travel ended up taking 2 hours (one way). It took the same amount of time to drive back as well (even driving a totally different route). People were walking faster than we could scooter around them. By the time Mike arrived at home, Mike’s clothes smelled heavy of exhaust. This was only ONE of the campaigns we were trapped by. Later that evening returning from a new market our secretary told us about (see Market Goodies below), we were trapped again by another campaign rally by our home. We thought there was a rock concert going on. People around us were screaming and toting around some propaganda items. Wall to wall people and wall to wall cars and scooters. It was difficult to walk through this mess. There were spotlights shining into the sky and onto adjacent high rises, huge balloons with images of the candidate, musical performances, etc. etc.

Later that evening we headed down to a movie theatre and caught a movie starting at 11:00PM. Kathy’s love of foreign movies knows no bounds. We ended up watching a Chinese movie made in Taipei called “20 30 40.” Mike managed to point out that a Chinese movie isn’t foreign when it is in China and that her focus needs to shift to American movies now that they are “foreign.” That discussion ended then and there.

Market Goodies>
We were given the location of a new market by our home that operates from 3-8PM (conveniently while we are working). Saturday, we decided to take in this market and buy some groceries. This was an amazing experience. Fresh is the word. There are live chickens that are slaughtered right there if you so desire, fish still jumping around until you wish them put out of their misery and into your grocery bag and fresh garden vegetables picked that day. Eggs were sold by the pound but you have to make sure you are buying the chicken eggs and not the duck eggs. We picked up some fresh strawberries also for our Monday small group supper (Eggo waffles with fruit and whipped cream!).

Island Golfing>
Friday morning (just past), Mike went golfing with a group of 7 others from work for a co-worker’s last day at KNS. The tee off time was set for 7:30 in the morning. Mike hasn’t been awake before eleven most days and this was a trial. Waking up at 6:00, Mike met a co-worker that lives close to our home so he could follow him out. After 10-15 minute scooter ride, Mike was at the golf course. The course was beautiful with pagodas in the background, cockatoos in the trees interrupting your putt, and monkeys and squirrels playing in the trees.

We also had caddies with us which were mandatory. Not typical caddies you would see on TV (young men carrying your clubs with golf shirts and white pants). We had two little old ladies (70-80 years old) power carting our clubs around, handing us the right clubs (they chose for you) and throwing your ball onto the fairway so you would have a better shot. It was like having Mike’s grandma playing along side. They could find balls unbelievably well under brush, trees, etc. We never lost a ball unless it was totally out of bounds. They would put their hands over their heads and say “O-B.” They knew a little bit of English like very good, good shot, and no good. They would pick up our balls on the green and wipe them off, pull the pin and tell us where on the green to aim when we were putting. We would give a high five to our “xiaojie” (pronounced “she-ow jay” - meaning Miss) for good shots which they loved.

Well, today is Sunday and we have heard there were riots in our city over the elections. We never ran into any riots so not to worry family, we are safe and sound. Supposedly the final numbers were close (only 0.2% margin). The current president won by only 30 000 votes for 13 million cast! Now there will be a recount and continued madness. Voter turn out was 90%. Quite good for a democracy considering Canada’s is around 60%. There was also a referendum held along side the election to either increase anti missile defences of the island against threats from mainland China or begin peace talks with China.

Anyway, this mail has taken up enough of your time and we know it was because we haven’t kept everyone updated. We hope everyone back home is having a good spring and will talk to you later.

Congratulations to Eva and Brent for the arrival of our new niece Maya Christina Weidner (6ibs 5oz). We will phone soon but we need to know the country code for the US. We tried phoning but we could not reach your number. Maybe send it to us again.

Until the next time! Same bat time, same bat channel.

Taiwan Chus

Adventures in Babysitting

2004-03-08T14:24:00.000+08:00

Nee Hao Y’all,

“Why would anyone in their right mind want to teach for a living...seriously?” -MC-

Work>
Mike had a kid quit his “Movers” class due to the fact that he expected him to do some work. Actually, he thought Mike was singling him out but that was not true. His friend was just as lazy. When you don’t do your work, you’re going to make it up some way or another. Taking the suggestion of his Chinese coordinator, “John and Jacky are lazy. Since they didn’t do their homework, make them write it over 3 times.” 30 sentences times 3 is quite the number of words but who was he to argue. So that is what he did. Next thing he knows, this kid is talking back to him all the time, not listening, telling him he is not going to do his homework, hurling his pen at him, blah blah blah. JUST LIKE CANADIAN KIDS!!! So he gave him detention. Next thing he knows is that he is being pulled aside by the director of the school and is being questioned. He told him his side of the story since that is all he could do. Supposedly this kid has always been a problem and he picked a fight with a high school kid (he is 11). Supposedly the kid is to write a letter of apology to Mike but Mike knows how poor his writing skills are and is not expecting a letter at all nor does he want one.

Kathy has a different problem. Her “Flyer” kids talk in Chinese during English class and do not speak otherwise. It’s like pulling teeth getting them to express English. What is the point of learning English if you are not speaking it? We have these kids (Movers and Flyers – aka – junior high day destroyers) from 7:10PM to 9:10PM on Mondays and Thursdays. You can be we get a well deserved rest on those nights! Some good news. Mike has supposedly inherited the cutest girl in the entire school into his class (Winnie if that couldn’t make it cuter). Everyone seems to know about it. It’s all the buzz. It’s funny is what it is! Mike heard from three others before his coordinator told him. “I heard you got Winnie in your new class!” Not the smartest student, not the most expressive...just cute!

Play>
Finally the weekend has arrived and not a moment too soon. We went down to MegA department store which was fun. 17 floors of pure super mall madness (except for 3, which are movie theatre). Floor 17 was a two storey book store that had the most amazing books. An architecture and design section the length of a Montgomery Auctions warehouse. In English too so it was even better. Kathy had the opportunity to view the rest of the store only to find Mike only advancing one bookshelf section. TIME TO GO...so down we went to the rest of the floors. Ladies, men’s, children’s, Young Ladies, etc, etc>shopping heaven in a nut shell! And that was only one of these department stores. There were four more of the same size on the same traffic circle!

One was enough for us for the night and we had plans with two New Zealand girls we met in small group for some bowling. So off to bowling we went. We didn’t even tell the owner our shoe size. He told us to “stand here,” looked at our feet and gave us the right size of shoes. Than he began to tell us the rules of bowling and courtesy! He had good English but was still unable to fully articulate what he wanted to say. Mike understood though and he was asked to translate it onto paper for him so he could pass this information onto other foreigners who wish to bowl at his establishment. He wanted to treat us to some free games of bowling but we had to decline due to the late evening hour.

Sunday morning Mike decided to break down and get his hair cut after 7 weeks of growth so he went to a place close by the house. He explained that he didn’t speak Mandarin and pantomimed (acted out- for those who haven’t played charades) hair cut to the hair dresser. He was directed to a seat and shortly after was attended by another girl. Again, he explained the situation and luckily he had a picture from the wedding so he showed the picture of how he wanted his hair cut. So away she went but Mike ended up with an Asian rock star hair cut. He politely said, too long and cut the stringy ends off so they continued. She left and began styling another ladies hair leaving Mike waiting in his chair. After five minutes, another girl came to attend Mike and began massaging his neck and upper back...? Then she took Mike to wash his hair and was given a scalp massage for 10 minutes. After that, Mike was given a final cut and that was it. Not bad for only $15.00cdn.

So now we are about to begin another week of work. Hope all is well at home and that it will be warming up soon.

Until next time, so long for now.

Taiwan Chus

A Month Already

2004-02-27T14:23:00.000+08:00

Ni hao everyone,

Hard to believe that it has been one month since we arrived here in Kaohsiung (pronounced Gao-shung-oops). We hope all is well with everyone. Since our last email, we have been busy at work and meagrely attempting to relax and take in the surroundings.

This past weekend we journeyed to Tsoying, a small city that we thought was still a part of Kaohsiung city. We walked around Lotus Lake where there are temples upon temples at least every two blocks from one another. There were pavilions and pagodas on the lake that were interesting yet were touristy tacky. A 25 foot tall statue of a Taoist deity on top of one pavilion is an example of this. The Dragon and Tiger pavilion was interesting but we were expecting to hop on a small trolley and have these statues sing “It’s a small world after all” to us like at Disneyland. Instead there were paintings we could not interpret due to the Chinese and incense filling the innards of the dragon and tiger you walk through. Overall, the area was quite interesting. There is nothing like that beautiful moment when the smog decides to lift so the sun can blast you with its warmth.

After returning, we stumbled upon a political rally of some sort. We got free Taiwan flags and a flag that had a 2004 that looked like a bike with two people doubling. We tried to ask what was going on but no one around us could explain it. We were pointing to the “bike” flag a local Taiwanese man was holding and he gave it to us. We should have pointed to his car if we knew he was giving stuff away. Supposedly, the month of March will be crazy with energy since a federal election is happening soon. There is a “Yes!” campaign this weekend where everyone supporting this party is to hold hands around Taiwan. That’s a lot of people. The mombo line will be just a few blocks from our house so we are thinking of seeing some Taiwanese hold hands.

We then received a phone call on our cell phone for a Mah-jong game. Mike was all over that after watching a movie on the flight about Mah-jong (3 times!). Mah-jong is an ancient Chinese tile game similar to rummy or gin for those card players out there. What is different about this is it is played with rectangular tiles and the hardcore Mah-jong players play for big bucks. Each winning hand has different point values that multiply by a pre-set dollar value. One friend’s girlfriend lost $30,000NT ($1200Cdn) to her mom the past weekend and they play until 5AM at earliest. Most average Mahjong players play a round in under a minute. We played each round in 25 minutes at best! We also called it a night at 1AM. Mike is anxious for the next Mahjong party though. He won two rounds in a row for the first actual time of playing but that is because he is Chinese (that is what everyone at the table was saying).

We joined a small group on Monday night at 10PM after work. 10PM! It makes our 10PM finish time in Red Deer seem early now. The Taiwanese that were at the small group brought the food. Let’s just say next time, the whities are bringing the food. We could not handle the pizza. How could you ruin pizza? Well, put prawns, squid and crab mixed with cheese on one and octopus, bbq sauce and corn on the other and you have two disgusting pizzas. We thought we were eating pizza dough soaked in an aquarium for a night. Small group was nice. Some weird guys though. One Taiwanese guy came just to get hooked up with a tutor. He ate his pizza like it was his last meal ever (all over his face). One whitie from Canada we thought was a white Michael Jackson since his voice was quite high (growing up in the eighties, Michael Jackson was once black if you recall). He works at a kindergarten so maybe talking to kids at that age for so long makes your voice high.

Speaking of kindergartens, we live right next to one and every morning, we wake up to an aussie yelling on a megaphone, GOOD MORNING, WHAT DAY IS IT?
kids: TODAY IS MONDAY!
aussie: WHAT IS THE WHEATHER LIKE?
kids: HOT AND SUNNY
aussie: ALRIGHT, LETS SING! IF YOU’RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT CLAP YOUR HANDS...(ad infinitum).

Verse of the mail:
Bo (long o) Tie Yo Lee-oo Cha – Grapefruit green tea. The translation is weak but it will be fun for you to try

Hope we have not bored you. Until next time!

Taiwan Chus

The Van Has Left the Building

2004-02-16T14:22:00.000+08:00

Greetings again everybody,

Happy Valentines Day to all. We are celebrating Valentine’s Day here as well. Taiwanese love their theme holidays. Halloween is big here and on the note of Valentine’s Day, we also have what is called “Lover’s Day” in August. We’re not sure what to expect for that. Valentine’s day is all fine for children to decorate your room, but Lover’s Day?

We went downtown and it was swarming with people. Couple things are big here like stores called “Mr. Condom” (of course viewed as a pass by at the night market). Flowers come in an ornate and puffy tissue paper wrap with big pink bows and ribbons. Quite tacky but that is the Taiwanese way we’re guessing (you can tell by our furniture that we have in our house right now). We only know this cause Mike ordered flowers here and when they arrived, the wrapping junk was wider than the door. The flowers (as nice as they were) were totally dwarfed by the wrap! AND the flowers never came with a vase! The flowers came late so Mike had to phone the flower shop and try to figure out what happened to the flowers he ordered. No one spoke a lick of English there (and why would they really?) so it was quite difficult to explain in broken Chinese that the flowers he ordered never arrived. Eventually they found someone who spoke broken English. So between Mike’s broken Chinese and the florist’s broken English, we finally figured out what had happened to the flowers.

While we were downtown, we saw a bunch of buskers making balloon animals in the centre of a park. They were obviously white since no Chinese person in their right mind would dress up like a clown and busk so we went up and talked to the “head clown.” We found out that he has been in the country for 16 years with his family who were also creating balloon animals with him and is a Christian missionary from Australia. This is how he and his family reach out to the people in Taiwan. They visit hospitals and do most of their work in the same park weekly as well as hold magic shows and all sorts of things to share The Word. He laughed when he heard we had only been in the country for 3 weeks though.

We have also found an English Church here as well. We were wondering if we would find one and it is actually only two blocks from our home. It is a small group of 50 or so foreigners mixed with some Taiwanese people. We actually ran into someone from Lethbridge that Kathy knew. He seemed pretty spaced out when we approached him but that is normal behaviour for him according to his EX back in Canada. She mentioned that he was really odd and that is why he is an ex...ha!

Latest Traffic Report:
Imagine taking a mason jar stuffed full of bees, shaking them up to get them all excited and releasing them...but wait, you cap the end of the mason jar with a funnel so they have to fit through the smallest opening possible! Now imagine those bees are actually throttle happy Taiwanese! Needing to get downtown during rush hour and, to a lesser extent, Valentine’s Day was exactly this experience. Soon enough you all will have a picture of this. One access to the downtown from our area is through a tunnel that fits 3 scooters wide of traffic. Imagine the madness when about 150 scooters surrounding you begin to rev (not at a green light) at a red light itching for the other light to turn yellow. Yellow means go here and when you are in the middle of a swarm of scooters, you are better off going than staying behind to be side swiped by an awaiting cabbie.

Quick Course Correction:
Our phone number is actually (07) 556-1130 NOT 566... Sorry Mom(s) and Dad(s) if you have been getting some crazy Chinese hotel!

Well, we hope this letter was not too long again but there is so much to blab about. We hope this letter finds you all well.

Until next time, so long for now.

Mike and Kathy

Just a Quickie

2004-02-10T14:21:00.000+08:00

Hello all,

Nothing is ever dull here in Taiwan. We thought of updating you about the one day we had today.

We went shopping at Dollars, a gigantic hyper mart like Wal-Mart but way cooler. Furniture better than Ikea, clothes better than the gap, camera’s better than ?? And the most beautiful dishes ever—like the ones you pay big bucks for in cnd— and a grocery store on the main floor and cooler food court than any mall—mike has just accused me of making a run-on sentence. Me, bad English teacher. We came out into the parking lot to cars squealing their tires in the middle of the parking lot without any barriers separating them from the spectators. Supposedly it was some car show with bikini girls and tweaked out cars. We always think of Canada when something strange happens cause if it were in Canada, there would be too many restrictions to allow something like this to happen at the Wal-Mart parking lot. Could you imagine if a car lost a tire causing someone to be injured? Or surely there would be someone to complain about noise. Here, it was as though it was supposed to happen like any other day. If you got hurt, it would probably be your fault you didn’t wear your running shoes to escape the carnage.

Well, that was one thing. Now we returned home to find a white van parked in the middle of our lobby. When approaching the access to our elevator, a nurse stops Kathy and asks if she would like a PAP test in the van done (sorry if this is offending anyone, remember we are in Taiwan). Supposedly the local health authority was doing random health tests and offering services to all the apartments in the area in case you could not make it to the hospital or doctor’s office. Well, as tempting as it was to get a test of that nature in the back of a van, Kathy politely turned the offer down.

Anyways, that is all we had to say. Hope it didn’t gross anyone out or offend but you never know what is going to happen here in this crazy town.

Until next time,

Taiwan Chu’s

Two Weeks In

2004-02-07T14:19:00.000+08:00

Hello again everyone,

Well, it has been two weeks now since our landing and it's pretty amazing that we have so much to fill everyone in on since the last email. Finally, we have found a place to call home. It is a three bedroom apartment that we are sharing with Andrea (a girl who arrived the same day as us to work for our school KNS Institute). It is only a two block stroll for Andrea to her school, KNS IV but our school, KNS III, is a ten minute scooter dash when traffic is best. Have we mentioned that road lanes and lights seem to be suggestions rather than rules to abide by? Some teachers here joke about how in Canada you could be at a red light at 4:00 am with absolutely no one around and you wouldn’t even dare crossing that intersection. Here it seems, if it is a red light, you give a couple honks of the horn to let people know you are coming through and that is it. Crazy. No worries mom(s) and dad(s), we will keep to the international driving rules of red meaning stop and stay stopped until green. We saw a pretty bad accident with the back half of the scooter on one side of the intersection and the other half was on the opposite.

Anyways, our apartment is very large and we pay about $14,000NT ($500CDN) for rent and $2000NT ($80CDN) for security per month. Our share of that is $10,600NT ($424CND) which is great compared to the small two bedroom we had in Red Deer for $625. We could fit our little two bedroom in Red Deer in just the living room and dining room of the place we have now. We also have two bathrooms, a galley style kitchen (which is something Mike doesn’t like that much), our own washing machine, a/c in our bedroom and living room, and secure underground parking. The only bad thing about the place is that it is SO big. Taiwanese accommodations typically have tile flooring and are barren white and concrete. We also learned that fully furnished means a couch, tv and a bed. We mentioned to our landlord and wrote it in our rental contract that we needed a double bed and TWO single mattresses for the other two rooms but apparently that was missed. However, our landlord came through and has been slowly processing our requests so that has been a blessing. Also, when we asked for the place to be cleaned, we guess we must have been speaking French because clean meant we will evenly dispurse the dirt and don’t bother cleaning the area that the furniture will be covering. The dust here is actually soot and is very noticeable. Oh well, nothing like a good ol’ Canadian cleaning fest to eliminate that. We are also thinking of painting if the landlord will let us. White is a demanding colour, especially when crackling white florescent lights highlight it. It feels like a parkade right now but we are slowly making it a home.

We spent FIVE hours searching for home items today in a “Hypermart” called Carrefore which is equivalent to a three storey Superstore but with Chinese stuff. Example: bbq duck heads and quartered cow stomachs. No worries though, they do have really good food too like freshly baked goods, fresh fruit and samples galore. Kathy was in food heaven with all the sampling. It was like Costco except 1000 times more samples and way better food. Unfortunately, we could not buy too many items for the house due to our one scooter situation...rather scooter and no car situation. We have seen a family of five fit on a 100cc scooter so we ventured in trying to fit our new shelf (between Mike’s legs and the steering) and laundry basket full of goods on our 125cc. It was a good thing Mike brought a rope from home because we had to tie the laundry basket down to the back of the scooter in order for it to stay in place. Some Taiwanese man thought it was funny to watch these crazy Canadians try to drive their scooter with all this stuff strapped to it. Then he corrected Mike by placing the shelf in a better position and called it the “Taiwanese way” to cart stuff around I guess. We made it all the way home with no losses.

Tonight we went to a night market by our home. Hundreds of vendors were out and Mike bought an Astroboy towel and some cute socks for Milo. Thanh, we will pick you up some Astroboy paraphernalia soon enough...or socks. It was cold here and Kathy broke down and bought some mittens and another sweater since she only brought two (worn everyday since she has arrived). Down jackets were going like hotcakes at the market too. Bizarre but it’s all relative.

So I suppose you are all interested in what Mike named his kids here. Nothing special really. One kid said no to the name given and said his name is to be Nick. Mike named one girl Amy and a boy Phil. Boring he knows, but Corbusier was not easy for the kids to pronounce (kidding). He will be receiving two new kids this week, so he will try something new there.

If anyone is interested, we have included our address and phone number below (mostly for mom(s), dad(s) and sisters).

So long for now everyone. We apologize if this letter was too long this time around.

Mike and Kathy

2F No. 32 Shinhai Rd.
Tzouying Chiu
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
813 R.O.C.

(07) 566-1130

Arrived at Last

2004-01-23T14:34:00.000+08:00

So here we are in Taiwan. After 30 hours of travel and a loss in a whole day due to the mysteries of the International Date Line, we managed to fake our way downtown somehow and find this internet cafe. Although there was confusion trying to order an hour for internet (which they thought we wanted something to drink) we are glad to finally be able to update you on our progress.

We miss the familiarities of home. MacDonalds and Seven Eleven just don't cut it here...no coffee (canadian brewed style anyways) or slurpees and MacDonalds sells corn soup??? they call McCornSoup? Rick (Assinger), I (Mike) may have to take you up on that offer for the Tim Horton's maker like the commercial...miss those Fridays.

I heard we left just in time to miss the big blizzard. We phoned home today and it was great to hear the families' voices. Other than that, we are still fresh here.

Thank you mom and dad (Montgomery) for your updates and prayers. Keep them coming. Mom and dad (Chu) you will be happy to know that I (Mike) watched a full movie on the plane in Chinese without reading the english subtitles. You would be proud.

Carlene, your email makes us laugh. We miss your fun spirit already. No stinky people next to us on the plane... except Mike of course.

Thank you Grandpa and Ruth for your email also. Your love and prayers are greatly appreciated. Keep them coming also.

Well, I think our hour is up so we will keep exploring and keep you updated.

So long for now.

Kathy and Mike

Here we go...

2004-01-21T00:00:00.000+08:00

Deep breath...
It's Wednesday, January 21 and Kathy and I are off to Taiwan tomorrow for a full year of English teaching wonders.

Our flight leaves from Calgary at 6:30PM to Vancouver where we have a lay-over until 2:15AM. Then we pop a pill and magically sleep for 8 hours (unfortunately our flight is 13 hours). We arrive in Hong Kong at 7:55AM (local time) and then fly to Kaohsiung, Taiwan where we will be calling home for the year.

We will miss everyone deeply and will keep you updated through the wonders of modern technology. This will be our new email address (taiwanchu@hotmail.com) during our time there but both Kathy and I will also periodically check our regular email addresses:

Kathy:
kathy.montgomery@uleth.ca
Mike:
trisomy8@hotmail.com

Hope everyone is doing well. If you would like Kathy and I to contact you at a different email address or would prefer not to be on the mailing list, please let us know.

Until next year... And the in between updates...so long for now.

Michael and Kathy Chu