NPUST Lake - beautiful park setting

The university on the other side of Neipu has a beautiful lake and path near a forest. It's so peaceful. I wish I could go there more often.

Tulips

A fun coincidence: I bought myself purple tulips, and two days later a Neipu friend left another pot of purple tulips on my door step. My dog didn't know what to think.
my favorite flower

Tainan Tree house

When someone says you're going to a treehouse, you would probably not think of a tree with its roots taking over a house. That's what the Tainan Treehouse is. It's a banyan (fig) tree with its roots and branches all over the place. It's really cool. There is a new addition since I've last visited there - behind the treehouse, there is fun place to peddle two paddlewheels and to walk on a big walkway to see an ocean inlet.

Fort Zeelandia - Anping- Tainan

Some Neipu friends and I took a train one hour north to Tainan to spend a beautiful day on Friday. We took the Number 2 bus from the train station to the Anping area and just spent the day there at Fort Zeelandia, Old Street and the tree house all within walking distrance. The fort is 50 NT and the Treehouse is 50 NT. What a fun and relaxing day. The local specialties could be found at a stand right outside the fort.
Top of fort
"Treehouse" as seen from the fort


Friends at fortCoffin bread, shrimp rolls, and shrimp wontons - Tainan specialties

Funny English seen in Tainan

Meinong Flowers, Tomatoes, Fish and Water Lily plants

Jung Jeng Lake new pagoda
red flowers
tomato vines on bamboo
senior citizens feeding fish
water lily farmers

Strange red fruit on a tree in ZhuTien

Anyone know what this is? I haven't a clue.

SEEK

My friend Char up in northern Taiwan has a word for 2012 -ASK, and she wants to learn more from others. I think my word for 2012 can be SEEK, as I seek direction and seek God's will. "Keep asking and it will be given to you. Keep searching (seeking) and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened to you. " Matthew 7:7 (HCS) And Matt 6:33-34: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

May the year 2012 be awesome for you.

Kenting Beach the day after Christmas

It's wonderful living within two hours of the beautiful shores of southern Taiwan. On 12/26, I went on an excursion with three local women where we enjoyed a relaxing day of sightseeing.
Beautiful pre-sunset shot

Video at Taipei Main Station that has gone viral

Why didn't I see this until now? This video is really impressive! Dancers and singers outside the Taipei Main Station all choreographed for all 6 and a half minutes to be shot in one take. They must have blocked off part of this area and shot it at sunrise to have so few bystanders around. I heard that it's in Taiwanese and not in Mandarin. I only understood "Taiwan is my home".

My students at school anniversary

Applied Foreign Language's Freshmen performed Saturday at the school's anniversary celebration. I took this video from the stage right behind the judges. They did a wonderful job.

Taiwan Blog Awards 2011 = Voting is now open ;)

Be sure to check out these links to Taiwan English blogs and VOTE HERE before 12/30 for your favorites. My blog is listed under Southern Taiwan - Personal. :)

Stuart's bath day!

Getting all soaped up in the tub on the balcony
Getting rinsed, but not happy about it
Dry, but still a little upset about the whole thing (but he sure smells better and his hair looks better!)

Special birthday at TGIFriday's Dream Mall - Kaohsiung

The servers sang in English and Chinese, and put funny hats on us. The sparkler was a fun idea, and something you won't see in the States.

Halloween parties at school

The English Club and the Vietnamese English class had fun parties for Halloween. We made paper masks, did face painting, played games, carved pumpkins, and have fun.
fun group
jack-o-lanterns. Round orange pumpkins are hard to find here. @@.

A special outdoor wedding in southern Taiwan

My husband had the honor of performing the wedding of a very special couple we know. They chose a very romantic and special setting. The wedding was in Bada Forest in between Neipu and ChaoJho. What a clever idea to have a silhouette of the couple.
What a beautiful setting. The tall trees were like a beautiful umbrella above us. The couple had a special thing at the reception by asking guests to write wishes on balloons and then they set the balloons into the sky. How romantic.

New friends

We met the new teachers at Nan Jung Junior High School's English Village recently. Check out their blog and information here. They are young and full of energy. They love to laugh and dance.

Classes started last week at my school. We are slowly getting back into the routine of things. There are a lot of changes now. I was sad to have to say goodbye to three good friends this month: One moved to Taichung, one to Singapore and one to the USA. (All three are Taiwanese.) But, on the other hand, I have met several new people in the last two weeks including a new class of 25 Vietnamese students, several Central American students from a nearby university, an American guy who moved to Neipu, a few Taiwanese who just returned from living overseas and other new people to the area. I look forward to an interesting, exciting semester.