The Final Countdown

So it's offical (well the date I'm coming home at least): July 31st at 6:35 pm I will be back in Columbia, South Carolina - the greatest state in the Union (yeah, that's right bitches from other states).

Actually, I have a strange feeling that I will have a good story about missing a flight that day. You see, my flight pattern is this: Taipei to Tokyo to Washington, DC to Columbia, SC. I have plenty of time between all flights except the DC -> Columbia flight: which is also where I have to change from an international flight to domestic flight (hence go through customs), get the ticket for my flight, get to the right terminal and get onto the aircraft. All this in less than 1 hour time. So I think that I will be missing my flight back home. Should be fun after flying for 22 hours.

Well I have decided not to take anymore trips outside of Taiwan between now and when I return home. I really haven't even explored much of Taiwan yet so I figure that it will be best to allocate my final few weeks to seeing Taiwan.

I will be heading up to the north coast of Taiwan for the afternoon today and then this evening will be jumping on the high-speed rail down to southern Taiwan. Then I will be heading to Kenting on Friday through Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to post on here.

Anyhow, only 30 more days until I'm en route to the USofA.

Frisbees, Snakes, and Storms

It's hard to imagine this if you haven't actually seen it before. Think of rapids flowing in a river. Take that mental image and place that on a staircase and you have my school during a heavy rainstorm.

Yesterday and today there have been very strong thunderstorms in the afternoon. Apparently after the Dragon Boat Festival thunderstorms are the norm for here. Yesterday, it rained so hard, so quickly, that the staircase by where we eat and the main staircase by the schools gates were literally whitewater rapids. I have never seen anything quite like that before.

Today I was doing my thing (teaching frisbee) and while I'm watching the kids throw the disc I see something moving really fast in the grass. It took me all of a second to realize that it was a pretty big snake (at least 2 and a half feet long). The snake was greyish with yellow pinstripes on its side and right as I see the snake, I see a kid running right towards it. About the time I get the word "stop" out of my mouth, the kid steps right on top of the snake. The snake - probably about as scared as the kid was - coils up in the air. Luckily, the snake hi-tailed it out of there into the brush on the hill area above the field.

About 5 minutes later, a kid throws the frisbee into the brush on the hill and as I am just about to reach in to pick out the frisbee, I think to myself "this is probably pretty close to where that snake is." Just then, I see the snake again pefectly placed in an inperfect environment - right under the frisbee.

Now this snake must be really having a bad day. It starts moving again and I back off - to return a little later with a big stick for protection. Luckily for it (and for me) it was gone by the time I returned.

Anyway, Tuesday is all but over. The weather is hot, humid and muggy, but I still think it's not quite as hot as it is back home.

Also, looking like the northeast US/Canada trip is beginning to take shape. Looking like I'll be traveling that area from August 8 - 23. Should be fun and all, but I think by the time I get back home, I'll be travelled out for quite some time.

Until next time...

Updates and Dragon Boats

Well since I got back to Taiwan I've kept busy. Wednesday was Dragon Boat Festival - which is a very big deal in Chinese culture. It is one of the 3 most important festivals celebrated in Taiwan (the others being the Moon Festival and the Lunar New Year).

Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the death of the poet Chu Yuan who was a counselor for the Chu government a long long time ago. Although banished by the King of Chu for giving advice that wasn't much appreciated, he was very patriotic to the Chu state. While in exile, the Chu state was defeated by the Chin state. When Chu Yuan heard this, he jumped into a river and drowned himself.

The local fishermen who liked Chu Yuan heard what happened, hopped into their boats and raced to try to save him before he drowned. They were obviously too late and there were fish trying to eat him - so they beat their drums to scare the fish away and threw things called 'jongzi' (which is sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves) so the fish wouldn't eat Chu Yuan's body.

So to commemorate this, every year the ritual of the Dragon Boat racing is held to symbolize the effort to rescue him and jongzi is eaten in memory of the fishermen's effort to save his body.

There is also another custom which is done on this day (which turns out wasn't Michael trying to pull a trick on us). At exactly noon on Dragon Boat Festival, if you can stand an egg on its end, the coming year will be very lucky. Of course, Micheal told us that we should have THROWN the eggs at the boats as they rode by, which he said was us wishing the boat rowers good luck. I think he wanted to see us killed. So you can see why we didn't exactly believe him about standing the egg up on its end...

The World Cup has been going on (as pretty much everyone knows) and I've been able to watch a good number of the games here in Taiwan. Although I have yet to stay up to watch the 2:45 AM game yet, I think this weekend I'm going to go for it - maybe even tonight as it is the England game (which is right after the US game). And to all of you US haters out there -> USA! USA! USA!

Of course we all know that North Korea will win it all...

I've been also weighing my options about where I will be traveling to. After thinking of all the countries I could go to, I stopped and realized that I have not really even explored Taiwan at all. So although Thailand sounds nice and Japan seems cool, I think I may just end up staying here for the remainder of my time. But that could always change...

Anyhow, the pool is open at my apartment now. It's actually kind of a nice pool, but its been cloudy practically every day since it opened. And the water is very cold. VERY cold. Shrinkage cold...

Too much information?

Oh well. Until next time...

Singapore, Day 8

On Saturday I got up early and went to the zoo. The zoo is not in a very convient location - about a 30 minute bus ride after you get off the MRT (which took about half an hour as well).

The day started off nice and sunny. It looked like it would be a nice day to harass the monkeys (monkies?). One of the first animals that were encountered were the Proboscis Monkeys. I aptly renamed it the Promiscious Monkey. This thing had a friggin' big nose. And you know what they say about monkies with big noses'...

After that, I came across some white tigers. They could have definitly taken on the black panthers. No doubt. I wouldn't be surprised if one of these were Michael Jackson's tigers.



Then moving on to the kangaroos. They definitly didn't like me all that much and it was obvious. They just gave me this evil stare. I tried to give them a leaf but the kangaroo just ran off...or hopped off.

And then it started to rain. And this wasn't a nice spring shower type of rain. This was rain that would've made Noah uncomfortable. But look at what this monkey did to prevent himself from getting phenomnia:



It stopped raining for a bit soon after so I decided to visit some more of these smart monkies. This guy was not having a good day though:



After that, there was a polar bear show going on so off I went to see it. Now I have seen a polar bear before, but I guess I've never really seen one up close before. They are friggin' huge. I'm saying that if Chuck Norris and a polar bear got in a fight, well Chuck Norris would still win but he may have a black eye or something.



Then I went on to see some hippos. These hippos were fairly friendly. It was their feeding time and they knew it. Who says you can't train an animal? When food is on the line, they'll do anything...



After that, I saw a Jaguar with a definite mental problem. This thing jumped up on a log and just kept pacing back and forth on it for at least 5 minutes. No real reason to why, he just kept pacing.

Then I went on to another show. This one had a trained seal that seemed to enjoy making everyone wet. Fortunatley, he didn't get all the glory as it started pouring down rain halfway through the show. Again, I am soaked.

Following that, I went to the feeding of the leopards. Now I don't know many cats that like the water as much as this one does. These things were going crazy (as it was their feeding time and the guy throwing them the food was doing a good job of hitting them in the face with the meat).




After that, they fed all the monkies which was a fun show to watch. The monkies just sat there and get pegged with sugar cane stalks. They also have these chimps that they brought out of their cage to give water and food to.



Finally, I went on the Night Safari. This is a cool tram ride at night through a different part of the zoo. A lot of these animals are not fenced in or in cages and came really close to the tram as it rode by. I did see a laughing hyenia and realized that these are some really big animals. I always thought they were the size of a fox or big dog, but they are actually a bit bigger than that.

They had a tribal drums performance and an entertaining opening show at the Night Safari as well.



After all of this, there was a big night show where the animals were (suppose) to do specific tasks and tricks. The poor lady that was the MC had a bad night. It was capped when the hyenia that was suppose to come out and go to a log took a detour, found a frog and started attacking the frog. I think I like this version better than I would've liked the planned version.

Anyhow, that was my last day in Singapore. I got back to Taiwan yesterday and am at the school today. It's raining and it is an in-service week which makes for a great time!

I have begun to weigh my options for the next trip that I will take before coming home. Originally I thought that I would go to Japan but that place is ridic expensive. I'm not looking at a few other places: the Phillipines, Thailand, Laos or somewhere along that area.

Anyhow, that's news for today. Until next time...

Singapore Day 6 (part 2) and Day 7

Well I think that yesterday's post was good and all, but it is lacking a very important story that happened RIGHT after I finished and posted it.

So I had walked to the internet cafe about 2 blocks from where I am staying - nothing special. I got here sat down yada, yada, yada. About 2 minutes after sitting down, this lady sits down at the computer next to me. It's nothing outside of the ordinary.

Not long after sitting down she asks for help on doing something with her computer. About 3 minutes after that, she again asks for help on doing something with the computer. It's clear she doesn't use a computer very often.

I notice she starts to write something about the time I start writing yesterday's blog post and then stop focusing on things around me and focus on writing. After I finish typing and start looking at some other stuff, she turns to me with a note that is about a half page long. It's in (a form) of English shorthand. In short, she decides to inform me that she had seen me walk into here, followed me in here and wanted to offer me a good price. Let me rephrase that: She was a hooker who wrote me a love letter.

I could not help but start laughing. I thought it was really funny. I kindly slid the letter back to her and informed her that I would not be interested in her services.

This chick must have gone to business school. She makes a hand gesture like "hold on a second", starts writing more. It's along the same lines. After that, I stand up and leave. Oh, why didn't I keep that letter!!! Oh well.

Needless to say, I decided to go elsewhere.

Today I headed back to Santosa and laid out on the beach for about 2 hours. It's nice to be able to swim in the ocean again (even if it's more like a lake - they have created artifical barrier islands that keep the waves to a minimum).

The FIFA World Cup starts today and everyone seems to be in the spirit in Singapore. I've seen jerseys for Spain, USA, Germany, England and Brazil to name a few. Oddly enough, I didn't see any Singapore jerseys - but then again, they might not even be in the World Cup.

Tomorrow is my last full day here in Singapore. Hopefully it won't rain. Ha.

I think I am hooker free in the internet cafe tonight.

Until next time...

Singapore Days 5 and 6

Yesterday I decided it was time to hit the beaches. Sentosa is the beach area here in Singapore complete with a Universal Studios, casino, and construction of many other things.

Now, I originally wanted to take the gondola to Sentosa, but found out that it is closed until next month. Fail. But that was ok. When I got to Sentosa, it was a quick 2 minute walk until I was on the beach. The water was warm, the sand was sandy, and the clouds were threatening. I walked the span of the beach (which turns into private property or something after only about 10 minutes of walking) and decided to take a swim in the sea (or ocean, or bay, or...well, I really don't know but I'm going to stick with sea).

The SECOND (and I'm being literal) I jump into the water, it starts pouring down rain, red flags get issued from the lifeguards - signaling a lightning warning - and my ambitions to swim home were quickly quashed.

I headed back into town and went into Chinatown to look for some things to buy. I found a lot of interesting looking stuff and ended up buying a 4-faced Buddah, which I am suppose to put on my desk to tell everyone when they walk in my mood. The Buddah's face (which can be mad, sad, happy or serene) will face outward. So you have been forewarned.

After a little more walking around aimlessly I headed back into Geylang, where I'm staying. For dinner, I decided to hit up this restraunt that is really close to where I am staying. As I sat down at the table, I realized that there was a cat sitting under my table. I'm a friendly person so I didn't tell the cat to move. Glad I did, because I got a lot of entertainment from the cat - and it's dead bird friend, which I will call Bernie.

The cat starts throwing Bernie all around on the ground. Then throws the dead bird out from the table. Bernie is getting tossed in the air and almost lands on top of some other peoples table. The people who are working at the restraunt are trying to shoo the cat away, but it keeps coming back with Bernie. It was a fairly entertaining dinner.

Today started off raining again. I headed first to some kind of stamp museum, but found it a very good source for more recent Singaporian history and culture. Definitly learned a little bit more about Singapore from a stamp museum. After that, I headed out for a boat ride. It was fairly nice, but I would rank it as not as good as either the boat rides I've taken in Ottawa or Hong Kong. In fact, I wouldn't really even recommend it as something to do here.

On the boat ride, I did have a casualty. One of the watches I bought in Hong Kong's pins broke (that held the watch to the strap. Funny enough, replacing the pin (which I plan to do) will probably cost more than the watch did originally.

Also, I have the SUPER Big Mac today for lunch. Mistake. Definitly a mistake. As a side note, I have realized something about Singapore's McDonalds: They are VERY similar to America's McDonalds when it comes to taste - and that is not a compliment. I would urge you to write your Congressman and Senator and have them outlaw McDonald's SUPER Big Mac from entering your state. It's not eco-friendly...

Besides that, it has been a fairly relaxing past couple of days. I am planning on getting some Mexican food tonight (but not Taco Bell - as I have been forbidden to go there).

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get back to Sentosa and hang out at the beach WITHOUT it raining on me. Wish me luck.

Until next time...

Singapore, Days 3 and 4

Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain. Yes, it's been raining for the past 2 days here unfortunatly, but that hasn't stopped me in doing things around here.

Yesterday I spent the day exploring more of the Raffle's Place area. This area is in the heart of the financial district and close to the Singapore river. I started off yesterday by looking for Lau Pa Sat, which is a place where you can get any kind of ethnic food you want.

So I started searching for it (mind you, I ate there on Sunday night). I kept walking and walking, but came up short in finding out where it was. I walked all around, by Clarkes Quay and other areas nearby, but couldn't find it. Sooooo...I ate at McDonalds.

Now get this. The McDonalds here have a SUPER Big Mac - it has 4 patties on it. Talk about something that will kill you. Well, I didn't end up getting the SUPER Big Mac, just the regular Big Mac. But I will try it before I leave.

After that, I went to the Asia Civilization Museum. They have an exhibit from Kuwait of a bunch of jewelry, artifacts and religious stuff from India. It was really interesting to see it all.

Last night, I went on the Singapore Flyer - which is a really REALLY tall ferris wheel. It's 165 meters tall and takes half an hour to do 1 full rotation. It was nice to see the city from above. There is also a Formula 1 track that you can see parts of (in fact, the starting line is directly below the Singapore Flyer).

Today, I went to the Jurong Bird Park. It takes about an hour to get there from where I am staying, but apparently it houses one of the largest bird varities in the world - over 8000 birds and 600 species. Needless to say, there was a lot of sqawking going on around there. And it was raining, which really didn't help the smell out much.

After that, I decided to find Lau Pa Sat and had it for lunch. I had a nice set of Indian food. But I almost forgot to mention that I had a Carl's Jr. (Hardee's) THICKBURGER today. Ohhh yeahhh. I still haven't found the Taco Bell though. That's next on my to-do list.

Anyhow, I think I'll be hitting up the Zoo/Night Safari on Saturday. Tomorrow, I'm thinking of doing some more touristy stuff - maybe do a Duck Tour (which is a vehicle that rides around the city then literally drives into the water and is a boat - a hovercraft if you will). Also figure I'll hit up some other things throughout the day.

I did find out that there is a zip-line place here, a gondola, and a casino. I will be checking out ALL of those from tomorrow through Friday. And who said that there aren't enough things to do in Singapore for 8 days?

Until next time...

Singapore, Days 1 and 2

Wow. That's about all I can say right now. To be honest, I wasn't expecting Singapore to be much. Heck, I don't even think I knew Singapore was a country before coming to Asia (thank you South Carolina public education!). But wow.

If there was a tangible and visible way for me to define 'Paradise', this would be close. The buildings, the arcitecture, the ease of navigating the city, the cultural attractions, the nightlife that is offered: Singapore has blown away all my expectations.

I got in late last night - around 9 PM. I was able to do a little exploring of the area that I am currently staying in (which is called Geylang, which I have renamed Gayland - I'll explain more later). Now this area is nice, it kind of reminds me of a little more ghetto version of Gatlinburg. My hotel doesn't have internet and there are whorehouses peppering the alleyways. This part of Singapore isn't the greatest, but to be honest, I think it's better than where I was staying in Hong Kong.

Now in Geylang, there is a hotel called Gay World Hotel. Now, I'm not sure if it's a Singlish (Sinapore's version of English) or what, but I definitly had a good laugh when I walked by it.

But once I get on the MRT and go down about 3 stops, I get into the heart of Singapore. I found myself on multiple occasions forgetting where I was and thinking I was in Charleston. The arcitecture in some areas rivals that of Rainbow Row in Charleston and similar (or even nicer) than some of the historic buildings there.

The Chinatown part of Singapore is amazing. There are many shops filled with what I've been wanting to find in Taiwan. Silk robes, fans, random trinkets. I have finally found where I can buy my touristy crap. There is even a really nice Buddahist museum/temple that I visited today.

But when you start walking towards to financial part of Singapore, it has the feel of what you see in Atlanta or Philadelphia. Singapore is more of a "Southern City" with a spread out lay to the way the city has been developed. There are many skyscrapers, including 3 buildings that are linked together by a huge pool that spans all 3 of them. There is a very VERY tall ferris wheel, a building designed after a very smelly fruit (that looks like a yellow turd when you get the meat off of the rind), and a lot of modern designed buildings.

There is also still the colonial feel from when the United Kingdom ran Singapore as a colony. A lot of "British" architectural buildings, defining the goverment as "Parliment" and spelling "Story" as "Storey". I'm waiting to see some "Shoppe's" soon.

Anyhow, I ramble. I'm actually in an internet cafe right now - must say that it's the first time I've been in one of these places. I'll be in Geylang through Tuesday morning but am hoping to find a hostel somewhere in Chinatown for the rest of the week.

But yeah, that's about all for now. Tomorrow I plan on visiting the "Asia History" museum and maybe an art museum or something.

So until next time...

Singapore Bound

Well, here I am waiting at the airport ready to get on my way to Singapore. It's been a dreary day today - all the more so because it's been raining and I lost (yet another) umbrella. I think I've gone through at least 5 since getting here. Oh well. I was told the average Taiwanese person loses 8 per year. Prorating at my current rate, I'm on pace for 20 umbrellas. Luckily I'm only here until August!

This past week went by fairly quickly. We had our largest amount of students to date - somewhere around 73. And of those 73, 40 of them were boys. But after a few taser blasts and beatings with sticks later...

The names were quite epic this week. Some of my favorites were: Monkey and Hank You. All else doesn't compare standing against those!

Anyhow, I'll be in Singapore until June 13 so hopefully I'll have internet at where I'm staying and hopefully I can find a picture transfer cable (yes, I forgot it again!)

Until next time...