http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Rachteach22/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Rachteach22 en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:43:18 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:43:18 +0000 Since I have a lot of free time lately and the 7 days of rain have some how spurred all these ideas and thoughts. Therefore I will say the rain makes me more thoughtful. Well today while I was yet again driving my scooter in the rain and wondering why I just dont wear a bathing suit since I am soaking all the time even with a raincoat on. I had this thought about what people do on first dates in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/blog-166967.html Last weekend I was in Hualien. Hualien is on the East coast of Taiwan. Words alone cannot describe how beautiful and amazing it was. I am now kicking myself for now going there. The west is good to travel and see alot of places and history of Taiwan but the East cannot compare with the scenery. I now understand why they dont have cable dont spend hours on the computer and they ride thier bikes. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Hualien/blog-167057.html I have had a request for a blog so here is my attempt. The past 2 weeks have gone by very fast and I am hoping the next 3 weeks go just as fast. Last weekend I went with my group of friends to Green Island for our long vacation weekend. It was the last time we were together as a group as Mary left on Friday to go back to the states. And let me mention that it is not the same her with out her. W http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Green-Island/blog-173304.html Finally the end of my time in Taiwan has come. Thinking back to some of the rough parts of the year I never thought I could make it to this day. I am so happy and excited to be going home but I am sad to leave this place I called home for the past year. There have been ups and downs and good and bad. I hope to block out the bad and only remember the good of the island known as Formosa. This plac http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-179415.html Continuing about some of my experiences here it has been a humbling year. I have read alot of articles about young college graduates going out into the world as cocky know it alls. They think they have learned everything and this is something I read again and again. Websites telling you graduates in interviews to try and admit they have alot still to learn. Well lets be serious there is no way http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-166570.html What to say and where to start my time is almost at its end here in taiwan. I have so many emotions running through my heart and mind. There are good and bad feelings and Im not sure how to describe them. Let me start by saying I am truly sad to be leaving this country and all the people I have met and become friends with. Each person has touched my life and made an incredible impact whether t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-166349.html This weekend I was up in the mountains. Friday night Muoy and I headed to Puli which is the geographical center of Taiwan to spend the weekend hiking paragliding and whatever else came our way. There is a hostel run by foreigners and they also take the guests river hiking paragliding kayaking and whatever else they choose to do. Yuri picked us up at the bus stop and we went to the hostel. I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Puli/blog-162685.html Ok so not too much has been going on since I last blogged. Basically I'm tired all the time. I maximize my daily lunch nap and I am just feeling run down. A few weeks ago I got the flu or something like it so I got stocked up on drugs from the doctor again. I missed a few days of school and I am still trying to kick the infection. This week I had the chance to go to the hospital all alone. Thankf http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-161710.html Let me start off by saying WOW what a weekend. I crammed about as much as possible into a weekend. I will start with our trip to Tainan. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan it was where the Dutch settled years ago. So as you would expect there are many Western influenced buildings around the town. So Mare and I headed there on Saturday morning. I had a 3 hour train ride and she only had a 30m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Tainan/blog-153743.html A baseball game Taiwanese style. What can I say I love baseball. Or a more appropriate sentence should be I love baseball players. Thatrsquos more like it. Everyone knows this and Irsquom not ashamed to admit I go to baseball game solely for the enjoyment of cute boys in tight pants. So needless to say I was pumped for the Taiwanese baseball game. We were not sure what to expect when we a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Tainan/blog-153812.html So I forgot to mention that 2 weeks ago I was in an accident. I was riding the bus to the city and our crazy bus driver hit a BMW. I'm not really surpised since people here drive like maniacs. Anyways we were on the short bus so it was a pretty rough impact. Unfortunatly for me I have long legs and the seats are Asian sized meaning my legs already dig into the seat in front of me. So with t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-152332.html I have had lots of time today...obviously this is my third blog of the day. But I was reading thru my old blogs and it so funny to see how much I have changed and what my first impressions were of this place. Some of the impressions have changed while many have stayed the same. I find it humerous to see how enthusiastic I was a first but I guess the novelty has to wear off at some point. I notic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-152490.html Over the weekend my town held a huge festival. It was in honor of Matzu the goddess of the sea. Well my teachers filled me in on who Matzu was and what she did. She was born in China a long time ago and she did many great things while she was alive. They compare her to Mother Teresea. When she died she was turned into a goddess. There is a reason for the sea part but I dont remember. Anyways s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-152346.html Easter comes to WenChangnbspAsia raquonbspTaiwan raquonbspTaichung raquonbspDajia By Rachteach22April 12th 2007Rachel MathewsTaiwanese Puppet Show Puppet show video Heres some pics of my students coloring Easter eggs last week and going on the Easter egg hunt. It was so much fun and they were really into the coloring and hunting of eggs. Easter is one holiday that is not http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-147860.html I wrote this about 2 weeks ago and forgot to publish sorry for the delay So I have now been here for 8 months and I have exactly 3 months to go or 91 days to be exact. I have read back over some of my earlier blogs and its so funny to read what I wrote back then. Some things have changed and some things have remained the same. I have definatly changed during this time. I have been somewhat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-147879.html Over this past long weekend I headed to Seoul Korea with 7 of my fellow English teachers. Mary and I had randomly picked this place to go visit thinking it would be fun since there are actually Americans there and a major plus being many of them are American military boys. Well as time went on many more people decided to join in on our fun and the turnout....was awesome. We had a great time eat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/South-Korea/Seoul/blog-147527.html Well last weekend the foreign teacher invaded Kenting. About 8 of us headed down there to hang out have fun and celebrate Mike's birthday and 2 days before we went we realized it was going to be St. Pattys day too. Its funny how people at home are excited for weeks and weeks and make all these plans for this day but we dont even realize it until 2 days before and only cause people from home remi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Kenting/blog-141627.html Yesterday we decided to take a little day trip. And by little I mean heading up the second highest mountain in Taiwan. The highest is Jade mountain which is very close Jade mt is actually the tallest mountain in Asia even taller than Mt Fuji in Japan. So Mare Mike and I planned to go see the mountain. Well we did very little planning and figured it would work out when we got there. I had the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Chiayi/Alishan/blog-141739.html Its a MIRACLE My scooter has been recovered and thankfully unharmed. But only in my life could such a crazy story accompany it. So the police called me this morning to let me know that they had found my scooter. Well it wasnt that simple since he didnt speak much English and I dont speack much Chinese. Eventually we understand each other and I figure out I need to walk to the police stati http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-138171.html SO as my fabulous never exciting life continues I have yet another quip to add to the saga of my rediculous life. Today was not a great day Im kinda annoyed with things at my school and what not and this is just me whining. But as I was looking to go to the freedom of my own home I realized that something was amiss. Thats right I went out side where I park my scooter and lo and behold it wa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/Dajia/blog-137787.html