New Direction For Our Blog For 2010

Countdown To Year Two

After almost five weeks in the United States, Annie and I find ourselves drawing ever nearer to our return date of August 6th. We have made some slight changes to this blog and hope that our readers will find it useful.

-Floyd

Year of the Mickey (er, Rat)

Greetings from Taiwan. Chinese New Year has just about come to an end, with a Disney twist. This year on the Chinese calendar is the year of the rat. However, the folks in Taiwan received a license from the Walt Disney company to use Mickey and Minnie MOUSE as their mascots for the year. The picture on the right was taken at the lantern festival celebration at the Forest Park in Taichung. To read Annie's account, click HERE.

A Day at Sun Link Sea

After spending Christmas in Taichung, both Annie and I felt like we needed a bit of a break from the city. Some friends of ours, the Smith Family and Elaine Stafford, decided to go up to the local mountains to a resort area called Sun Link Sea. Rather curiously, there was neither any sea, or for the most part any sun, to be seen. However, it was a wonderful time had by all. To read Annie's account, Here.

Thanksgiving Plans & the Legend Of The Turducken

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turducken), a Turducken is a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau of those ingredients: turkey, duck, and chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird. Some recipes call for the turkey to be stuffed with a chicken which is then stuffed with a duckling. It is also called a chuckey.

Here in Taiwan, we are doing well just to get a turkey for our dinner. Suprisingly enough, the pototoes almost rival the turkey as price per pound (here measured as a JIN - about 1.5 pounds).

Annie and I concluded that we will just be going out to eat. It seams that all the restaurants in Taichung have their own full spread. All that food without the mess. And it beats working at Walgreens on the Holiday.

More to come ...

Floyd

Conference In South Korea

Annie had the opportunity to take an all-expenses-paid trip to South Korea. It just so happened that she had to work through most of it. Annie attended an EARCOS (East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools) conference on the Six Traits of Writing. Even though she was there for less than 72 hours and in conferences for most of that time, she was still able to see quite a bit of Seoul and take some great pictures. Click Here to see those pictures.

10 - 10 Taipei Trip

Taichung is a wonderful city, but a little change is good once in a while. We took a trip to Taipei (pronounced TAI-bei) over our school break. During our trip we got lost several times, had a close encounter with a lemur, were attacked by butterflies (actually only one), visited the tallest (open) building in the world, and took some great pictures. Click Here if you would like to see them.