Yesterday, Flame and I were in a previously mentioned discount store. I just had to get some of the while lacy covers for my car seats and while I was looking at the boxes, I notice this child about 4 or 5 noticing us. (She could have been 4 or 5 because people are 1 yr. old at birth here.)  This child had that wide eyed look of fear on her face and it was about to turn to tears!  She saw me, this fat little Black woman with curly cute hair and Flame, this tall white woman with long, wavy red hair.  We may as well have been the Loch Ness Monster and the Abominable Snow-woman!  I smiled and I waved and the tears flowed.  She tried to hide behind her mom and mom told her something in soft tones.  I kept smiling, waving hating to see such terror on this child’s face.  And then, miracle of miracles!!  She smile!  She waved!

Yes, this is what I teach.

I don’t think time has ever flown faster than it has this week!  It is already Thursday!  This time next week, Pingtung will be a complete memory!  What I haven’t mentioned here yet is that when I leave Taiwan, I will be spending 8 days in China helping to prepare a group of high school students for life in the US.  I’ll be in Changsha, China in Yunan Province, basically going from the hottest part of Taiwan to the hottest part of China.  I’ll swing back through Taiwan to get my luggage and fly home in time for Nick and Rho’s wedding!!

In the meantime, I’m getting last minute details out of the way and in the midst of all the ‘to do’s’ are mundane things like shopping for food!  I was in Carrefour picking up some fruit.  I counted 7, SEVEN!!, types of mangoes and THREE varieties of kiwi!  A-mazing!  Mangoes don’t grow in Indiana.  I will miss mangoes!!

It rained here almost all last week.

Saturday, I took the high speed to meet with Carolyn and Jaci to go to Sanyi.

Chayi is on the Tropic of Cancer.

Sanyi is known for its woodwork.

I stayed the night in Chayi and on Sunday, Carolyn and I had a wonderful three hour pedicure that involved exfoliating, massage and paraffin.  For Carolyn, there were flowers, too!

We had lunch at McDonalds and this couple proudly displayed a lizard on their table.

Happy 26^th Birthday, Rodney Brice Campbell!

Avoid high luggage fees by using technology and your public library to lighten your load!

• Pack your library card!
• Check your library’s website to see what audio devices support their audiobooks.
• Borrow audiobooks freely from your library while you travel!
• Rather read? Download ebooks to you laptop.

Who needs Kindle??

This map shows Taiwan taking its hit on Thursday. Could this be a Typhoon Day??  (NO SCHOOL!)

Rose and I bought our train tickets in Kaohsiung and headed to the platform.  The tickets were for a local train.  I typically don’t like to get stuck on these trains because the tickets have very little information on them.  Luckily, we had the agent write the time on the back of the ticket, and from the time we were able to determine from the signs that our train would be on platform 3.  However, once we got to the platform, we had no idea whether the train would be on 3A or 3B.  3B or not 3B, that was the question!!  I pointed at the train and asked someone about to board “Pingtung?”  Response “I don’t know”, in English no less!  An usual answer for someone about to board a train, don’t you think?  I asked two more people and got the same answer.  Now about this time you have to be wondering why these people were getting on this train had no idea where the train was headed.  It wasn’t that they didn’t know!  They knew where the train was going as well as they knew where they were going.  What they didn’t know was how to say in English the same thing they would say in Mandarin.  In Taiwanese culture, no one wants to be wrong and you don’t necessarily want to tell someone they are wrong.  They didn’t want us to be wrong about knowing where we going, they wanted to do this back and forth that would allow them to tell us what we wanted to know.  It would not have been unusual for them to say “Yes, it’s going to Pingtung” when in fact it wasn’t.  This seems like incorrect information to me, but they would be telling me what I wanted to hear. The fourth person questioned knew English langauge (and culture) well enough to point to the train on track 3A and tell us that was the correct train, not 3B.

Class 6-4 invited me to their graduation dinner on Monday. The students designed and created a love invitation, and delivered it and arranged my transportation. My hostess for the evening, the talented and outspoken Tina, picked me up promptly at 5:30 and took me to Noble Family Steak House for a truly wonderful evening!

This past Wednesday, the 6th graders graduated from Raey Guang Elementary School. They spent the previous week signing shirts and yearbooks, cleaning classrooms and saying good-byes.

Wednesday, they were greeted with flowers and banners. Some of the younger classes made special posters for them.

Students took a final walk around the campus before entering the filled auditorium.

Each student was handed their diploma by the principal and awards were presented by special guests: principals from other schools, head of the PTO and me!!

One of the traditions is to have a fifth grade student (memorize) and deliver a speech to the graduating class. She did such a wonderful job!

After the ceremony, teachers and students line the path the graduates would walk as they symbolically left the school for the last time.