Lukang!

Paper lanterns, hand painted fans, and hand crafted wooden shoes, are all normal goods one would find in the little town of Lukang (pronounced Lugang). I've been trying to get there for the past 4 months I've been in Taiwan. Word on the street, or rather, rumor in the school halls has it as the best place for pictures and for suvinears.

Lukang was historically the 3rd largest city in Taiwan. That is until the early 20th century. It used to be a famous harbor, but the city refused to have the railroad gain access to its boundaries. As a result, Lugang escaped much of the modernization that destroyed most of Taipei's historical buildings, and in essence is much the same as it was 100 and something years ago.

Lukang is also home to the only person that is known as a National Treasure. Unfortunately, I have forgotten the dear man's name, but he is a National Treasure, because his craft of making and handpainting paper lanterns has become a lost art. Through him and his family, the craft has survived.

When we first got to his shop, the gentleman wasn't there, but his son was handpainting some clothes.

This design that he is painting became part of a beautiful flower. He also painted matching pair of pants with a really cool bamboo design on it. I ended up going paper lantern happy and bought four.
This one I had personalized for me, and Mom, this is a Christmas spoiler. The next lantern shown is for you.
It was only one of the amazingly awesome stops that day. We went to some really cool temples, got rained on, saw where they made insence for the temples, and also saw wooden shoes being made.
Above are these enormous steamers where they cook these roll like things with meat inside. Fenny, my Taiwanese friend, was so excited to try them. It was funny, I was excited for the shopping, and Miss Fenny was excited for all the different food she could get. Below is a video from the wooden shoe store where they fit the shoe to your foot. It's pretty much amazing!(Linds, this would be a X-mas spoiler for you, but considering I won't see you at X-mas or shortly thereafter, it may not be such a bad thing :) )


Below are some other pics of the place. Enjoy!

Halloween!!!

So I do realize that this is a few weeks late, but I still wanted to write about the fabulousness of Halloween. I have to say that the week of Halloween was treacherous, and incredibly stressful. My 3rd graders decided that they wanted to make pinatas for our Halloween activity that was to be held on Friday. They actually completed their pinatas. My 4th graders on the other hand were not so quick to complete their assignment--I ended up making 4 pinatas at the last minute. And with the humidity, let me tell you that it took forever for those suckers to dry out.

Halloween ended up being really fun. My Basic Reading class dressed up. Larson was Spiderman, and Belinda was Dracula complete with a cape made from a black trash bag--yeah, they get pretty creative over here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go around with my kids through all the activities. Instead I helped out with the afternoon kindergarten class as they went trick or treating to the different classrooms of the school. They were very cute, but also very active. I was grateful to have my class back at the end of the day.

The Kindergartners trick or treating.

Me and Zoe.

My BR class. William, Jason, Aragon, Larson, Emily, Penny, Belinda and Becca

My third graders also go into the Halloween spirit and almost all of them dressed up. I was really glad that they were so excited about the whole ordeal. My other 2 classes were too cool for school. And they really weren't that fun.

My 3rd Graders showing off their pinatas.

Front row: Penny, Jenny, and Jacky.

Back Row: Michelle, Eve, Cheryl, Sabrina, and Brian.

Halloween night we had a girls night and went KTVing (karaoke). It was fabulous! We all wore our costumes, and got some strange looks from the locals. I also had several people come up to me and ask if they could have their picture taken with me. It was crazy! I ended up losing my voice, and had a rough time the following morning teaching. But all in all, it was definitely work it!

Why my students are so cool...

As many of you know, I teach four different classes. My Enrichment class meets from 6:40-8:40 pm Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It's pretty laid back. Lately my students have taken to playing chicken foot, in addition to Uno, and Phase 10. Here's what my students came up with at the end of class....

Yeah. They're cool.

What is that thing?

This is what you would call a pomelo. Aragon, one of my Basic Reading students, always brings me fruit. First, it was three amazing mangos. Then last week he brought me this amazingly huge citrus.

It was incredibly good, and I'm incredibly grateful to Aragon and his awesome parents!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

The birthday girl, Lindsey, and Rachelle.

Our little girl is all grown up! Lindsey, the youngest of our Berhan crew turned 21 in the recent past and to celebrate we took a trip to Costco (yes, we have a Costco, and it is glorious!). Lindsey was craving some Costco cake, so we took the 30 minute scooter ride to Taichung. Unfortunately, we forgot how large Costco cakes are, so we had to improvise a bit. Jake, one of the other teachers, recently found access to a scooter, and prides himself on looking Taiwanese. That's why he's all covered up in his pictures. The Taiwanese, don't like to get any sun--the whiter you are, the better. Anyways, I hope Lindsey had a fabulous birthday!

Megan and Jake.

Lindsey and Megan getting the cake home.