Hello for Year 3 of the adventure

Well here we are back in Taiwan. Sorry it has taken so long to update the blog but life moves very fast here. We have already put in a month of school time and are charging towards the middle of the first quarter. Wow.

We are currently on a “Typhoon day” due to typhoon Sinlaku which stretches from Hong Kong all the way into Japan and from East of the Philippines to Mainland China. It is moving very slowly so we will have this with us for at least another 1 ½ days. We are expecting 50 inches of rain here. Right now the wind is just a pest but it is going to be around Cat 2-4 range tonight.

Addendum: The rains have come all night and all day and there is talk of school closing Monday . A 100’ tree with a 9’ girth came down across our walkway taking out many scooters and completely blocking our exit from the building. Very dramatic and impressive!!. Huge chunks of roadway have washed away and there is major flooding around town. We had 31 inches of rain yesterday and night and it is still coming down hard. CNN finally acknowledged that there might be something other than IKE to note on the weather news.

US media really makes isolationism and cultural insensitivity possible: US citizens just do not get access to information beyond USA, Iran, Iraq etc. I was appalled at the Green Bay Press Gazette this summer when all the world news fit on the upper left hand quarter of page of page 5 and the rest of the life important info on Brett Farve was on every page.

Notes in short order on the typhoon:
1. the major department stores are closed
2. most store windows have X tape to protect from flying glass
3. Pizza Hut, Dominos and McDonalds are all still delivering food on scooters
4. Wellcome (our local grocery store) is open a people are stocking up like crazy
5. We are organizing a roast chicken dinner with our building mates
6. Carol is baking snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies so Gary and Rick our neighbors and fellow teachers, will be very happy.
7. It is Moon festival when all Chinese want to be together under the full moon to BBQ….Not going to happen!!!!
8. Camp Taiwan, the Middle school camp, is still on for Monday except for the poor 8th grade kids that tent camp in the north of Taiwan….they leave Tuesday so as not to start the week in a typhoon UPDATE: Camps are cancelled!
9. Scooters are lying on their sides littering the streets and sidewalks
10. Our porch trees are blowing over
11. The cable line to our appt has been flying around so TV is questionable.
12. We all gather at an apartment in our building for impromptu tacos or movie sharing.
13. THE IS FUN!!!!

……………….
I love my kids here! My IB (international baccalaureate) classes are so very smart and musically astute that I am challenged. I have so many resources to choose from that I have finally decided I must get organized (Please do not Faint) and am filling up a 500 gigabyte external drive station with all the movies, music and lecture notes so I can be lazier next year. The students have gone crazy with creativity when I asked them to make power points of their class and reading notes. I will try to embed one so you might see it.

And the performance level of most of the kids is out of sight with a repertoire that is broad and deep. In class I wanted a demonstration of a Chopin Polonaise so I just asked, “James go play that so we can hear Chopin.” And James goes to the piano and starts. I tell him to jump to the second theme. He does. I tell him to jump to the coda. He does. And then there is Annie who plays Liszt like she breaths the music daily. And the same goes for all of them. Wow!

I have had a cold for about 2 weeks and finally went to the Dr. and …….(all you who might have an opinion about national health, take note) I walked in on a Friday afternoon, waited 15 minutes, saw the Dr I wanted, received 3 medications including an antibiotic and paid NT$ 220 or about $6 USD. We waited to have our physicals here because they are so inexpensive (max about 600 USD) for a full day of exams, tests, and procedures, breakfast and lunch, and a complimentary track suit to take home along with a CD with all the records for you as well as hard copy print outs of X-rays, sonograms, etc. There are those who are starting businesses to bring folks from overseas to Taiwan for medical care and diagnosis.

We are so happy to be back. We loved our Door County friends and the time we spent there (and NO we are not giving it up) but this is also our home. Carol will tell you of her incredible adventures with Taiwan World Tai-Chi Competition and her All Asia champion private coach, her Shaolin Master teacher and her class of Chinese ladies who think our apt. has great feng shui so they like to have “Family Lunch” in our apt.

Our travel plans for this year include:
1. Green Island Taiwan south coast for 10/10 celebrations (diving)
2. Luang Prabang, Laos for Thanksgiving
3. Bangkok, the river Kwai, and the island of Koh Chang, Thailand for Christmas
4. Ubud Bali (again) for Chinese New Year
5. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for choir fesival
6. Langkayan, Borneo Malaysia for Spring Break
7. For our return to US we may go the other way round the world and see Greece,
Turkey, Spain before we get to the East coast and Door County. More on this
later. Just good to have a goal.

For now I will close and attach some pictures of various sights. I will do better at keeping up with the blog. Sorry for those who might have waited

Love to all,
Bill