Chinese New Year

Wednesday 2nd February
For Chinese New Year we were given 6 days break.
I had wanted to go to Toroko Gorge but I had left it a bit late to book a place to stay and it was still a bit cold for camping.
Angel's family had invited me to a big feast on the day after we broke up. I had been trying to find out what I should bring for everyone for some time, but Angel hadn't been very specific.
I was told not to arrive until 6pm, so that gave me the morning to shop around. Pascal was in the same boat so he offered to take me to some shops with traditional New-Year-type gifts.
I got a pack of pineapple cakes for her Grandmother, some cookies and drink for her mother; a bottle of whisky for the brother who had given up his day off to help sort out my second crash; and some beer for the younger brother. I hoped this would be enough.
That afternoon I went for a hike with Pascal and his friend Hugh up a different part of the mountain. I thought it would be a good idea to work up an appetite. The hike was very steep up and down these 3 peaks. The worst part was a steep staircase at the top of the valley going up a cliff face... I'd never gripped a railing so hard... except maybe the up the wall of death on Mt Elgon in Uganda...
The walk was steep but not as long as we had expected, so we got back to the van before 4pm. Plenty of time to get back and shower!

At Angels, I gave out the gifts straight away. I think everyone was happy with them, except that Jaram wasn't old enough to drink yet, he was still 17. Whoops! I'm sure the beer will keep until his birthday! Jarhu (the older brother) wasted no time in opening his. There was a hot pot in the middle of the table with the usual pieces of tofu, sausage, egg, fish balls, octopus and shrimp. Around the edge of the table were things that are traditionally eaten at new year. Fish is eaten because the word sounds like 'renew' or 'recycle' or something. Yaram Cake is also eaten, which is very tasty, goes really well with soy sauce.
Angel's uncle and aunt live next door with her grandmother. They came over during the evening to bid us happy new year.

Thursday 3rd February.

We had thought about going to a cycle place near Taichung but after a nice lie in, Angel's mother didn't think we had enough time to get the most out of it. So instead, we scootered (well Angel scootered, I clung to the back) to a place with lots of flowers. The traffic was terrible today. It didn't take an hour to get there. I was expecting a big garden with lots of flowers but it was actually a long road with gardens on either side where you could buy flowers, shrubs and trees. In front of the gardens, and possibly just because it was a national holiday, there was a typical Taiwanese-style row of food stalls selling anything from icecreams and hot dogs to octopus wraps. The place was heaving. There were a few places where you could hire bicycles or peddle cars (The Flintstones style). We ran into Gail while we were looking round; A friend from Yuanlin. She was out with her cousin.
We passed on this idea as it made it difficult to see the flowers when you are on a bike. When we had spent a good hour looking round all of the displays we bought some food and found a park to sit down in and enjoy the beautiful weather.
We headed home at about 5. When we got back to Yuanlin, we drove to the bookshop. Angel needed to pick up a card making materials and I wanted to buy some Chinese New Year Cards to send to people back home.
When we got back to the Shen Household, her mother was cooking again, using up the leftovers of the hotpot from last night. I was surprised how much i could eat after yesterday's feast. That night we had an early night so that we could get to this cycle place nice and early tomorrow.

Friday 4th February.

The next morning we drove down to the station to catch a train to beyond Taichung. We grabbed a 7/11 breakfast, a steamed bun and a drink. The train was late and slow and had many people on board, all heading somewhere exciting in the hols.
We found a space and clung to the rail until we reached the large town of Fongyuen. We got off and headed towards the bus station and found a bus heading to the cycle place. The last time Angel came here she was in the a car so she asked the driver if he knew when to get off, but he didn't. We jumped off when Angel saw part of the track, but it turned out the hire shops were quite a walk further on up the hill.
I was expecting a big park in which you could cycle, but this was actually a long cycle track, just like we have in Europe. There were a lot of people on it too. From the very young kids to the very old. There were regular bicycles, tandems, and electric bicycles for the less active. After the Sun Moon Lake Marathon I didn't complain too much when Angel announced she was going to hire an electric bike.

We set out south along the track through beautiful orchards and flower filled fields with the mountains in the distance to the left.
The bike I hired was OK, except the seat was a bit low so I had to keep standing up to get any speed up. The pedal pace kept changing, as the path went from straight, to up, to down, to an almost halt whenever someone joined the path from a side path or road. Before long we reached a the small town of Dongshi. It had a Hakka tourist near the path and a line of stalls selling snacks and drinks. There was a white horse pulling visitors in a posh black cart. I didn't notice it, until I turned round from buying a drink. It most knocked me over.

We had a quick walk round to stretch our legs. Then got back on the bikes. Angel thought the path went further on, but Dongshi was the end of the line. So we turned round and headed back the way we came.
Now far behind where we had started was an old railtrack still in tact with a carriage upon it. We thought this would be a good place to have lunch. There was another line of stalls selling food so we grabbed a giant dunmpling thing and sat aboard the train. This was a photo oportunity not to be missed.

From the train, we cycled further down hill. Up until now there had been no incidents. One boy who was coming up the hill veered across onto my side. I stopped but he kept coming, so either his brakes weren't working or he had forgotten how to use them. Wack! He was fine OK, but I saw he was a little shaken so I stopped shouting at him and gave him a smile and a thumbs up. Soon after that we reached a point where two paths joined. We took a sharp right and headed towards the mountains. The path went over a huge bridge and on the other side it went into the mountain.
The tunnel was dimly lit and it was freezing inside. It was difficult to see what was coming on the other side, so everyone went at the speed of the slowest, which was pretty slow. After what seemed like an age, we came out the other side. It was an easy drop to the horse show place. It was difficult to tell what went on inside, either a zoo with just horses, or circus/showground venue with just horses.

I wasn't that fussed about seeing it, it was getting later and it cost $200 to get in, so we decided to give it a miss. We headed back up the hill to the mountain... We could see people outside the mountain putting on coats before entering to keep warm. We pressed on. Angel had mentioned there being a very good icecream parlour, on the other side of the bridge, so we went to check. Sadly they only sell them in the summer time. Ridiculous! It was a shame because the garden was perfect for relaxing and eating icecream. With a heavy heart I carried on. It was after 4:30 and I remembered the long uphill we yet had to do. But then the voice of an Angel, well Angel noticed an cafe selling icecream. Happy Days! We sat down and ordered a chocolate sundae and a cup of tea. It was the strangest icecream I had ever eaten. It was like eating snowflakes. Delicious icecream snowflakes with chocolate!
When the sundae had settled, we set off on the last leg of the journey. My legs were beginning to ache. I was glad Angel had the electric bike to carry my bag.

At last we arrived back at the bicycle hire place and returned the bikes.
My plan was to take Angel to a nice western restaurant in Taichung that evening. It is the 2nd biggest city. How hard could it be to find a restaurant?
Well after walking down 6 blocks for 20 minutes the only places I could find were Mc Donald's KFC and Subway. So I had to admit that the place I remembered must have been further out of town and we settled on eating at a very long night market.

A trip to the farm!

AS part of the Winter holiday camp programme some of the kids had been invited to a farm for the day. I found out about this on Friday afternoon, when Charles was telling me about the games he had been organising for the trip. Then on Friday evening Rita asked what my plans were for the weekend... I should know by now - read between the lines - Do you want to come to Chaiyi farm? Meet at school. The bus leaves at 8am. Sigh. At least It'll be a nice day in the countryside I thought and Rita promised that I didn't need to do anything: just have fun.
I knew most of the kids on the coach. The driver played ice age 3. It started off in English with Chinese subtitles, then half way through the journey it changed to Chinese... very confusing. We were the last coach to arrive. There was one from each of the other 2 schools.
After a quick look round, it was apparent that this was an activity centre rather than a working farm. We were put into groups and then the fun began. We started with a few wide games and relay games with Charles; took me back to my school days running round the yard. After that the kids had to work together to get a ball along a series of pipes by tipping them at the right time. I was genuinely shocked when one actually got all the way along.
After that we went to an olde style oven: a big pit with a fire going. The kids were given a sweet potato to throw in after being told a bit about the pit by an old woman. I wondered if we would ever see those potatoes again.
After that we went to see how the traditional Chinese fans are made... printing the cloth with either a butterfly or tiger, then dry it. Then put the cloth against a thin frame and paste thin paper to either side of it. Charles and I were given the prize job of hair drying the kids art work.
After that we were all glad to hear it was lunch time. It was only fried rice and chips, but sooo much fried rice. The kids tried to keep up with me and Charles. We could barely finish it all.
After lunch we walked up to the top of a hill and saw what looked like toboggans with rubber tracks on the bottom. How on earth could they slide? we wondered. But the answer came: they don't they roll on Caterpillar tracks. I'd never seen anything so impressive. They were like mini-tanks!
The sheep from the goat were soon sorted. 3 kids sat down on the bench looking pale. The rest were racing to be the first on the sledge.
I was thinking how this wouldn't ever happen in England. No real barrier at the bottom, just a hedge over hanging a small cliff. No helmets or padding in case you fall out. The leader pretended to push someone down backwards. Me and Charles encouraged him, but he said "No; that would be dangerous!" I laughed a lot. Oh, that would be dangerous!
The teachers were all forced to have a go. I wasn't as scary as it looked, but then I do cycle down the mountain every day.
From the hill we went to a butterfly reserve to see how many different ones we could see. There were some amphibians on display but it was hard to tell if they were alive or stuffed or just dead.
From there we went to the hillside to look for worms or other bugs that bury into the ground. I think they were told "Dig a hole, pour some water down, look for a bug coming up, if no bug pour some more water on."
But what they heard was "Dig a hole, pour some water down, pour some more water."
Before long the whole hillside was flooded, and if any bugs survived, no body saw them.
From the hill we walked back inside into a big old-school games room. There was a giant pinball machine. marbles, skittles, things kids played before the gameboy was invented. Great fun!
After that it was time to head back home. We popped back to the dining area and to my surprise, we were handed the sweet potatoes that had been cooking all day. The skin practically fell off: best sweet potato I've tasted.
On the coach on the way home. We watched Shrek 3 in Chinese, although I drifted off for most of the journey.

Shane New Year

Last Sunday, Linda hosted a meal for all of the staff from her 3 schools to Hemei for a meal at a very classy fish restaurant. Cars would be leaving Yuanlin at 4:50 as it was a long drive to Hemei.
This was the same day that I had invited Charles out for a hard core cycle.
So I spent the morning cleaning my suit and ironing my trousers. Then at 1, I set off to meet Charles. We were both a bit late so we set off at half one in the direction of the monkey temple as Charles hadn't seen any Formosan wildlife yet. We got to the bottom of the monkey hill in less than an hour, but we both needed a break so we walked the bikes up the road to the monkeys. The monkeys were near the bottom of the hill... but neither of us had any water so needed to get to the shops in the town at the top.
This almost killed us having to carry the bikes up chunky steps and then push them up a very steep path... until finally we reached the narrow steep green stair case... I had forgotten about that staircase.
Two old ladies past us, and gestured that we carry the bikes on our shoulders...
But we didn't have the energy left so we decided to abandon the bikes and go on foot.
We got to the town and were surrounded by stalls selling sweet smelling food, but we didn't have money or time enough to enjoy it... not to worry, the big buffet was tonight... we found a water seller and tried out our Chinese. I looked at my watch and saw that it was gone 3 o clock...we really needed to get head back if we wanted time to get ready.
We quickly reached the bikes and charged down the hill trying not hit monkeys, dogs children or old people in the way. One car almost knocked me off a 7 foot cliff as we came out the carpark as he swerved to avoid another car. After that it was the fun ride down (Charles was loving it). There was an annoying headwind on the way home, so after our first rest, we couldn't afford another, we ploughed on and on and on and after over an hour and a half, we were finally back in sight of Yuanlin. I left Charles to make his own way, and race back up to Baigoshan I was in and out of the shower in 5 minutes threw up my suit and shoes just in time to be collected and taken down to the school. Paul was travelling somewhere and Sam was sick with tonsillitis but most of the TAs, Andrew and Charles were waiting at the school for me.
It was a long drive to Hemei. I was ravenous.
We got out in Hemei to find the weather its usual gale-force self. We struggled through the carpark into the shelter of the reception area. We headed upstairs to a large room with a wedding decor theme. We sat down on at a large table. We were the first to arrive which is always a bad sign if you really hungry. There was a small stage come dance-floor where a large box of posh handbags and face creams. Vicky handed everyone a raffle ticket. My number was 13 - I thought that was quite fitting.
We and Charles tucked into a plate of garlic peas and what looked like black seeds.
We weren't supposed to eat the shells apparently, but that was where all the flavour was.
It wasn't long before the Hemei and Changhua teachers had all assembled and the meal started in earnest. Rice, a white fish in this amazing sweet sauce, chicken soup (a whole chicken in a bowl) various tofu dishes, raw fish with wusabi, shrimp, octopus, cake, meat fried rice, caramel pudding, blue bean sauce and various vegetable dishes. May (Linda's sister) had brought a huge barrel of fizzy apple cider for everyone to try.
At the end of the meal, the raffle began.

There were about 15 handbags and 15 face cream bottles to draw for so it took about an hour to get through all of them. I won some cream... they hadn't really brought anything for the blokes, so we all exchanged the gifts with the girls for food or drink.
After the raffle there was a ping pong challenge. Each school had to nominate 6 people to pass a ping pong ball along a line of people using spoons in their mouths. The school with the most balls after 3 minutes won. I was amazed I collected and passed on all 3 of my balls, but Andrew and Charles kept dropping them so we scored 0points. Changhua won with 3 points.
Then there was a tongue twister challenge. Teachers had to see who could say well known tongue twisters the fastest, in Chinese and in English.

After that Andrew had written a quiz about literature, film stars and sexual deviance... the quiz was funny to start off with, but not really geared to or translated for the 60% Chinese staff or suitable for families.
So it was quickly wrapped up.

The weekend after was the Shane New Year's show. The big event in the Shane Calendar. Students and staff from each of Linda's schools had prepared and been working on a play or sketch for some time. The venue was a large lecture hall in the Christian Hospital in Changhua. Each of the plays had been given a rehearsal slot on Saturday afternoon and as I was chief cage mover, I had to be down quite early. I got a lift in Pascal's rascal van.
He had been asked to take some pictures of the event. He now had a fair bit of kit with him, so I offered to help carry it.
The schedule for the day had been planned down to the last minute, but not surprisingly, when we got there at 3pm, rehearsals were already running over.
After dumping the flash stands, I found the Yuanlin team.. they were wearing full costumes now and looked awesome. The cage had been brought up to the back of the theatre, but as it didn't pack flat, getting through onto the stage was going to be tricky. It was pretty quite so Emily gave me a hand squeezing it down the narrow corridor to the side door of the auditorium.
Linda wasn't happy with one of Hemei's dance routines, so we were held up for bit back stage. Then finally it was our turn.
Andrew led the way. All the kids remembered everything, they were a bit quiet, but then the microphones were not working yet... but this would be fixed some point that afternoon I was assured. We were given a second run through and chance to nail the new dance routine to finish. I had to tell off two TAs for leaning on the cage "It's made of card, not metal!"
I was pretty after the run, the TAs offered me a McDonald's hamburger, but it didn't quite fill the hole so I went for a walk in search of food.
There were quite a few food shops but they didn't look open. Then on the way back I popped into a bakery. Big Mistake! I can't get out of a bakery without buying at least 3 things and they're not cheap like everything else. I came out with a huge pizza, a cake and rice savory wrap thing. They were pretty goof though.


I had forgotten to bring a tie, but it didn't matter too much as I wasn't down on the meet and greet the parents. It was 6 o'clock and most of the teachers were here now. I had a quick catch up with a couple, before going back to check the cage was OK... Somebody had knocked one of the legs off! Not to worry, I had come prepared with sticky tape and string.

Our kids were on first so we made our way to the back of the stage... and waited for the 2 hosts; Rita and another school manager to finish their introduction. The music to mission impossible was going but we had no idea what was going on. Eventually it was our turn. Andrew read his speech and the kids got into place. The TAs on either side of me in the wings were getting stressed. One of the kids dropped her hat, so the TA ran on stage to give it back to her. Then when the microphones didn't work properly they ran on again... I told them to relax "Everything will be fine! Stop running on stage!" My two cage moves went swimmingly (much to my relief).

The audience loved it, especially the dance at the end. After our show we went back up to the upper auditorium to watch the rest of the show. That was the plan anyway.
As the kids were so high up and the speakers were so very loud (as are all speakers in Taiwan) it was difficult to make out what was going on. The kids started chatting among themselves. I tried telling them off, but then Paul arrived and started chatting with the other teachers. :( So I went downstairs in search of peace.
The other shows were pretty good, not as good as ours of course. The Changhua teachers did a sketch in Chinese mocking an Englishman trying to buy a newspaper.
But the highlight was some TAs dancing to some ridiculous tune in the style of an infomercial advertising Shane around the world.
At the end of the show there was a huge clean up operation by over 70 TAs as they had to be out the theatre by midnight.
I helped Pascal pack his gear. We went for something to eat before heading to Paul and Anna's farewell party in YS Bar in Changhua. Everyone was there and more.
It felt a bit odd. I hadn't seen so many waigoren (foreigners) in one place since I left England. I finally caught up with Andy and Rachel (whose wedding I went to and who still have my old scooter). They're both living in Taichung now. I recognised some people from a few parties I'd been to earlier in the year but I'd say half the people I had never met before.
Only 2 TAs had come to the party. The rest had gone home too tired after the day's slog. It was a very nice night.

New Year 100

On New Years Eve, I was encouraged to finish class on time for a change to give the TAs chance to get to Taipei before midnight. As we didn't finish work til after 9, I planned a lot more relaxing evening. I cooked up a moussaka for Tin Tin and me and we watched a concert on TV that was counting down to 2o11. It was also counting down to the year 100 for Taiwan, the Republic of China. There was an amazing firework display in Taipei, it was light watching a dance only with lights not people.
On Saturday we woke up fairly early and scootered down on Tin Tin's scooter to the train station to catch a train to Taichung. There we changed onto a shuttle bus to Sun Moon Lake, where we had booked a hotel for the weekend. The drive was smooth and before we knew it, we were on the edge of the lake in Shuishe.
It was just before 2 when we arrived and the sun was shining brightly. The hotel room was small but comfy, with a TV and a great view of the mountains behind. We dumped our stuff and prepared ourselves for a bike ride. Tin Tin was keen to cycle round the mountain and had heard of hire shops around the lake. We walked down to the first shop and I was gobsmacked. It was a giant bike shop! only these new bikes weren't for sale they were for hiring for an hour or 3 or 8.
It was 4 pounds an hour... which is pretty expensive for Taiwan... so we walked through the village until we found another, 5 pounds for 4 hours! This was more my kind of shop. Cheap bikes: cheap price. We took a couple that had good brakes and tyres. I couldn't work the kick stand. The lady said you need to hold the spring when you move it. We started our journey round the lake. The lady said it would take 3 hours... I took 90 minutes when I did it last time with Pascal 4 years ago... and Tin Tin hadn't ridden a bike in 10 years.... still on we went. Unfortunately the first chunk of the cycle was uphill to Wenhu Temple.
I thought if I'm tired Tin Tin's going to be exhausted. I walked back down the hill to where she had stopped. She was feeling really ill. I was hoping it would pass but deep down, i knew we would have to turn round and hand back the bikes. As I was waiting with her, another lady passed us and told me her gears were stiff, could I fixed them. I clicked through the right hand one. Fine! Then I clicked through with my left thumb and OUCH! my thumb just popped out and throbbed as if I'd just fallen on it again. Idiot Duncan! Don't use your thumb. Today a huge black bruise had formed across my hand and thumb as a reminder. Tin Tin was feeling a bit better so I suggested walking up to the Temple for some food and a rest.
I went to pull up the kickstand, and the spring snapped shut on my good fingers. *^#+ !! I growled.
We took some photos of Wenhu Temple ate a sausage on a stick and carried on our way.
We vowed that every time we came to a steep hill, we'd get off and walk.
We past a pagoda, the theme park cable car that is so high in the high above the lake it's surreal, the village of Tha something, and another temple; difficult to see from the road. I was very aware of the vanishing sun and the idea of cycling round a lake in the dark did not appeal.
At last we found the short cut cycle path. The sun was on the horizon. This path is madness! It is too steep and narrow to ride up or down safely so we ran most of it. After many ups and downs, we could see the campsite. I knew where we were again! We plodded on back up up up to the road through a tunnel. It was then a scary finish zooming down a dark busy duel carriageway back to Shiushe. It was gone 6 when we got back. And very dark. We dropped off the bikes and then crashed for an hour at the hotel, before hunger struck. It was very cold so we went in search of hot-pot and only one restaurant did it, the same as last time. I chose the wild boar and tofu hotpot. It was lovely. It was really quiet in the restaurant.
There were thousands of people here the night before watching the New Year's fireworks. Where had they gone?
On the way back to the hotel we had a quick look in the gift shops for something for Tin Tin's family. When we got back the "heater" had turned itself off again, so we had to resort to warming the room with a hairdryer.
The hotel price for this weekend had included a boat trip across the lake. So after some danbin at a breakfast place we bought some water and walked down to the harbour. There was a beautiful view of the mountains on the far side. And a church up some steps. We went up to see if we could get in... but the one lady who was inside said we couldn't come in, because it was prayer time.
I found this very amusing. I don't think I'd ever been told not to go into a temple because people are praying. Anyway, we went back down to the boats, got a red stamp on our hands and made out to the opposite side of the lake.
I underestimated how close the other side was or how fast the boats were. Less than 10 minutes later we had pulled up on what looked like a little island, but was actually a peninsula. There were people singing traditional songs at the harbour and on the steps up to the small temple there were people praying and listening to meditation music.

The temple wasn't that impressive, so we followed a sign 'Scenic Route' to a bigger temple... the path was very hilly but it was indeed scenic.
When we got to the temple it was across the road we had cycled on the day before. It looked Buddhist by the 4 tusked elephants outside and the lack of colours in the main building. It was very quiet and peaceful inside until some workers started banging a new path into place.
We bought an egg on the way back to the path from a pan full of cracked eggs and mushrooms. They had never really appealed to me, but I was amazed how good they tasted. This was to be a day of nice eats.
The boats next call was the small town of Yuchin. We got off the boat and found it difficult to walk as the whole harbour was floating on barrels. There were a group of people singing and smiling, standing on the wall at the exit. They waved at us as we walked past. That's what Hull needs at the docks: happy people singing and greeting people as they enter the city.
Yuchin was filled with stalls selling food and shops selling gifts. It was almost lunchtime, so Tin Tin bought a huge vegetable dumpling from a guy with photos of him serving celebrities giant dumplings all over his stall. I would have got one, but I could just see it going everywhere. So I bought a chicken and salad wrap with thousand island sauce (which has the same in Chinese well 10,000 island).
We then bought a double sausage, one rice one meat. We had to pass on the world famous meatballs. After that we went back to the harbour to relax and enjoy the view of the mountains and dogs wearing coats.
Time was pressing on so we went back past the happy singers to the boat bound for Shuishe.
On each boat ride we were given a bit of info about the area by the driver... Like the fact that the last president of Taiwan, had a house on the lake, and that the man selling cracked eggs makes 3 million dollars in a year.
In Shuishe we decided to grab an "Italian" icecream and listen to a man wailing some vaguely familiar tune, only in Chinese whilst playing the keyboard. He was quite talented player, and his voice surprisingly didn't scare people off.
We then went to buy some food and drink for Tin Tin's family. On the way back to the hotel, we saw a huge queue outside a handmade egg roll place. Tin Tin wanted to buy some so we waited in the queue for 10 minutes and only 2 people had been served we decided to come back after a drink. The queue had gone down, so we only had to wait 30 minutes before getting our two boxes of egg rolls. There were 5 people working there. one rolls the egg, one steams the egg roll, one takes the roll of the roller, one put the egg rolls into trays and another put the trays into a box for the customer. It was like watching Bertha!

Soon after it was time to get the coach back to the train station for our ride home.

3 Christmas crashes and a trip to the temple.

On Thursday 16th December, after a pretty nice day at school, I took the scooter to the water filling station two blocks away. I was pretty cold and I remember thinking, I will have to buy some gloves some time soon. I put the filled water container on my scooter and drove slowly back towards school trying not to get a chill. I came to a crossroads and suddenly bang. I went flying to the ground, my hands were hurt. I'm dazed. I assume I must have been shunted from behind because I didn't see anything. I got up see my scooter on the floor and a car pulled up with a family in it. The man was speaking to me, but I just feel dizzy and cold, so I stumbled back to school where the TAs were just looking up. A police car drove past as I did. Tasha saw me and opens the doors. I don't make a lot of sense at this point, but she sees blood on my hands and realised what's going on. I sit down on the school bench wincing. The TAs persuaded me to get into an ambulance and went down to the hospital. They tried to pull the key free but it was jammed in the scooter. I arrived at the hospital pretty quickly and I had my medical card with me. The doctor speaks good English. They rolled up my trousers and sleeves and found more injuries than I had realised. There were 4 cuts from my right knee to my shin and cuts on my left elbow, hand and middle finger. Then there was a small cut on my right knee.
The nurse covered all the injuries with a white cream, a red cream and a gel. Then wrapped a bandage over them all. I couldn't but be reminded of the French Trip moldy arm after a similar treatment. I was very cold by this point. I was physically shivering. It was a cold night and they had rolled up my clothes. Rita brought me a hot drink, which helped. I was given an xray and told "don't move" easy for you to say! I had no broken bones thankfully.
Tin Tin offered to come back home with to help me round the house. I declined as Paul and Pascal should be home.
A police man came into the hospital to breathalyse me and take my statement. He said that it looked like I hit the back of the other car as he was driving across the junction... He must have been going pretty fast for me not to have seen the whole car pass in front of me until I was on the floor. The TAs persuaded the police to leave the statement for another day. It would give us time to negotiate out of court. I was feeling weak and stiff mainly from the amount of bandages.
I got home to find Pascal and Paul were out. I went in the kitchen to pout a glass of water... ah! problem! I can't pour the container. I tried to take my jacket off, but that proved too hard too. I rang Tin Tin ... a friend in need and all that!
For the next week Rita was on the phone to the other driver on my behalf to find out what his insurance covered. I found that it would cost nearly NT$8000 to repair my scooter. So I was really hoping that he would be covered for his car. Meanwhile I was supposed to go to hospital everyday to have my bandages changed. i went once, but I thought that my leg might recover better without 3 layers of gunk applied to it daily. I was right!
The final upshot was that his insurance company are going to repay the 8000 for the scooter. So I will live to ride another day
Or will I?
The Wednesday after Christmas, I was cycling down the hill because my scooter is still being repaired - when the car I'm alongside decides he is going to go right... without any indication.
I slam on my breaks go flying over the handlebars taking off his wing mirror. I pull the bike off me and start screaming into the front window of his car about what an idiot he is and do his indicators not work! I'm going to be late for work so I try to leave. He says I need to pay him for the mirror! I don't think so! So he calls the police... at that moment Paul and Tin Tin's brother appear. The police arrived too. They were looking for my scooter, they laughed when I told them I was on a bike. They wanted us to go to the station and fill in a statement. I agree under the impression it would take 30 minutes. Well it took slightly longer as we had to wait for a translator. The police were a bit pushy at first... all the questions about me ramming the car! But by the end they had come round to my way of thinking.
A couple of questions were about injuries and my thumb hurt a bit as I'd landed on it, but I hadn't really noticed any injuries; I'd been too angry.
But back outside when I tried to hold on to someone's scooter I thought, that thumb really aches.
As my lesson had now been given to someone else to teach, I had time to pop in and see the doctor again. He gave it an xray: nothing broken, but you've sprained it. They gave me an icepack thing and wrapped it in a bandage. The nurse started to put one on my elbow, which barely had a graze, but despite my protests I had to wait til was back at school before I could dispose of it. The kids were all very confused by the new bandage... Teacher you are OK now!
2 accidents? Crazy! The TA told me I needed to go to the temple to pray for protection... I half agreed.

The Friday after New Year when my scooter was finally ready to ride again... I set off home - very slowly - with my washing from school... when 3 dogs bolted across the road right in front of me and sent me flying... again!. I was so angry I was happy to throttle the dogs, but they had ran off... I had a slight pain in my elbow and ankle, it was cold, and the starter button was missing. I stood there for ten minutes thinking about what to do... I was happy to leave the scooter there and walk home, but it was a red line... so I wheeled it back to a supermarket near school... and then hobbled back to school, where luckily the TAs were still working. "I hate that scooter" I said "No more riding scooters for me." I sat down and looked at the TAs noticed the state of my coat "Again!?"I explained everything. I looked at my elbow, there was a nasty hole, but it wasn't bleeding much. Angel got out some iodine and Tasha slapped it on... there was a slight cut to my foot too. "Do you need to go to the hospital?" they asked. "No! This is fine. I thought of how many bandages they would try to put on me... but a plaster would be good.

Vicky grabbed my hand and asked if I was free tomorrow evening. I was. She was going to take me to her father's temple which is just down the road from my house.

So yet again, I was given a lift home ... didn't sleep much that night, its difficult not to lean on your elbows.
The next morning I made myself some banana pancakes, went for walk and had a read through my Chinese books. At 2pm I went to the big primary school (6000 students) I walked the bike down the hill as I didn't fancy another accident. I had offered to help out with our school's drama for the New Year Show next week. I had been given the job of cage mover (a vital role).

The primary school had a bit more space to rehearse.
The kids were amazing. The show was called the Witch, the Wolf and the ShAne Team - get it?

Andrew had made incredible masks based on the characters in our text books.

Emma was there from Changhua, Rita brought milk tea for evreyone, even Linda (big chief) came over to see how it was coming along. Both were very impressed. Andrew had been told at the last minute that they needed a dance or song in it somewhere... so they spent a bit of time sorting that out.

After the rehearsal we jumped over the back gate which faces Shane and walked the props back to school. While I was there Rita sorted out a mechanic to come and fix the scooter.

Vicky wanted to meet at the temple at 5pm.
So I went to find the mechanic, he was waiting with his tiny van, which he rolled the scooter into. I told him to ring me when he had finished... but afterwards realised he doesnt have my number. Ah well!
I ran in to Charles on the way back to the bicycle. So I suggested we went for a bike ride on sunday afternoon. I was pretty hungry so me and Angel popped into MacDonald's for lunch (first time since I'd been here). Angel couldnt understand why I didn't love eating there. I set off to the temple on my bike, I remembered they had said something about leaving a sacrifice. So I bought 2 big boxes of quality cookies to sacrifice. When I got to the temple, quite hot from the cycle up the hill. I took out the food, and Angel and Vicky had also brought food for me to sacrifice because they thought I would forget to bring anything.
Vicky's dad greated us at the temple door. We went into the temple and left the huge pile of treats on the table, we then took 20 incense sticks and lit them. There were 17 statues around the temple. At each one we bowed, prayed for protection, placed an incence stick in a tray of sand and prayed again, bowed and moved on. There was an awesome calm in the temple, and the sun was setting over Yuanlin in front of us. When we had finished praying within the temple, we went to the faces looking out from the doors and placed a stick under each of these. We then took some paper money and burned it in the big furness. We prayed one last time, and I received from Vicky's dad a piece of yellow paper which i folded up and placed into a litle cloth holder w ith a picture of a god upon it.

I thanked Vicky's dad and was on my way out when Angel gave me all the treats that were sacrificed. "What are you doing?" I asked. "You can't take back a sacrifice!"

She explained that the gods had taken the soul of the food and they didn't need it anymore. I was gobsmacked. She said that was the way it was here, and everybody takes back the offering once the Gods have taken its soul. I still wasn't convinced so I decided to give all the sweets to the my students on Monday.

A Shaney Christmas!

A few weeks before Christmas the TAs spent a couple of weekends decorating the entrance of the building. This involved 8 people spending 12 hours making by hand: a Christmas tree in one window with a Santa Claus popping out a chimney. Three snowmen on the other window, a few thousand snowflakes bordering the windows, and two dozen stars hanging from the ceiling and a Christmas greeting. On top of that there was a real fake tree at the bottom of the stairs decorated in everything a Christmas tree needs to call itself festive.
So the school certainly felt festive even if the rest of the street didn't. Most staff working in chain stores were wearing Santa hats and some even had some tinsel in the windows. I even managed to find a "Christmas shop" in the middle of Yuanlin selling stocking shaped candy bags. It wasn't quite big enough to fill with little gifts, but it was close enough!
On Christmas week itself, the staff held auctions throughout the day, for students to bid for toys, with money they had been given for being good in class. Favourites included squishy hammers, crocodile snap game and magic tricks.
On the Thursday of Christmas week we took about 50 kids down to a restaurant to have a 'Christmas meal' We had spent the week before pre-teaching all the language they would need to order food. The meal comprised corn soup (nice), a fruit salad (looked nice, but seemed to have a scoop of ice cream in the middle with hundreds of thousands on top... don't worry though, it was mash potato and carrot with hundreds of thousands on top) then pork fillet with veg (very nice) and a jelly for dessert. The kids enjoyed themselves. my only complaint was that we had to serve them and not eat anything but cookies and tea. Still I guess I was getting paid.
I got the cutest little Christmas card from one of my kids, so I thought I'd better get them one too. I found a place selling little cards at 40% off. That covered everyone.
On Christmas Eve I was thinking about joining everyone down at the bar, but I was just exhausted so I headed home for a chilled night in front of the box.
On Saturday I opened all my present with Tin Tin. She seemed to appreciate the stocking thing. She bought me a Chinese dictionary which is so amazing... its got bpmf and English... its the missing link to my learning. I tried on my new Hull T-shirt and we enjoyed the real chocolate of home.
It was a nice crisp day, so we went for a walk up the mountain and then drove into town for a curry. As it was nearly 3, the only place open was an Italian. They were doing a Christmas special - steak steak steak I was hoping - buy a main course and for 2 pounds they would throw in a fruit salad in red wine, peach wine, and 2 truffles. Not quite steak, but the wine fruit salad took me right back to mulled wine in the German market in Manchester last year. Tin Tin didn't have the same love for it.
She had made plans to see her friend in a different town. So I thought I would pop down to Sam's house. He had invited me to a cheesy evening. Cheese is a rarity in Taiwan therefore when you are offered some, you take it! "Cheesy eats" the name of a food place that covers everything in a white sauce that distinctly lacks cheese. They have plenty of plastic slices for burgers and sandwiches, but it just isn't the same.
At Sam's house there was Stilton, Edam, Brie and blue cheese. There was a bowl of eggnog, which tasted a bit like baileys and lots of alchojellies. I recognised Mere, Andrew, Rix, Alex and Gail, but most people I didn't have a clue who they were. I got accused half way through the night of being a hermit as I didn't spend my weekends in Yuanlin bars with them. But after spending 6 hours with them, the idea of spending more time with them doesn't appeal.
On Sunday I slept in until nearly 12. Pascal had promised to cook up a Boxing Day roast dinner.
I offered to assist. When I said I was in all day, he asked me to keep an eye on the Turkey to make sure the cooker didn't turn itself off. It had been 2 hours since Pascal had left and the Turkey wasn't in the oven yet: Was that my job too? I couldn't remember. I rang Pascal and of course he turned up just as it was ringing. He brought some veg with him so it was game on: Peel and Chop time. The main problem when cooking a roast dinner for 12 at our place is that there is only 2 hobs and 2 very small ovens. You could tell Pascal had been dealing with this issue for a few years now. The turkey was cooking away in oven one. We parboiled the spuds and put them in oven 2. Then we cooked the greens very slowly on top of the spud oven, giving us hob to do the gravy (with a splash of red wine - gorgeous). The stuffing was heating up on top of the turkey oven... and then like magic it was ready to eat. Daniel (the guy who used to live here, had joined us, with Christian, Walter (landlords son) and his wife and kids, Sam and Gail. It was the perfect number of people: plenty of seconds for everyone! And Sam brought two cakes for pudding. Perfect end to a Christmas weekend.
The only downside was that we were all back at work on Monday!

Birthday Weekend

On the Friday, I told all of my classes that on Monday it would be my birthday and they should all bring me a big cake to eat.
I got home and cooked myself a birthday lasagna... I know it wasn't my birthday yet, but I had a fairly busy weekend planned and this was the only slot... the ingredients in Taiwan cost about twice what they do in England, but I didn't care. It was good cheesy treat. I tested it on a TA to check it was edible. And to my surprise she loved it!


On Saturday morning, I got to school for 10:45 to get a lift in the school cars to the Theme Park near Sun Moon Lake, with the TAs. We took the big school car. Far more comfortable than a scooter ride. We had to wait for Charles, a new teacher from South Carolina, who got here the day before. He was going to get a lift with David whose house he was staying in, but David was too tired to come... so Charles had to make his way on foot to school a place he'd only been to once. So yes, he got a little lost. But, before long we were in the village before Sun Moon Lake, we stopped and grabbed some food here as the theme park was too expensive. I didn't realise how many people were coming on the trip until this point, there were 6 teachers from Changhua and about a dozen TAs including 2 male TAs. Yes male, I was a bit shocked at first, about as shocked as I was 4 years ago when I realised there were NO male TAs in Changhua Co.
Once stocked with grub, we jumped back into the cars and headed once more to the park.
It was just as I remembered it. Beautiful gardens on the approach, then a little aboriginal market on either side of the entrance way.
We had a look at the map of the park and agreed to go on the cable-car first to let our dinner digest. Apparently it had been extended to go down to Sun Moon Lake... but as the end of line drew closer, I thought maybe I had misheard. We stepped out of the car and followed the line of people up some stairs... A man stamped an invisible mark on our arms... the meaning of this soon became clear. A lady sat behind a box with a UV screen, asked me to lay my arm on the screen... there was the mark!
The cable car was just round the corner... this one was a lot steeper than the other 75 degrees up. But the view was fantastic... (see photos). We spent some time by the lake looking at the different fish. Then a tourist boat moved away and we realised that the whole waterfront was floating as the waves were making it difficult to walk.
We took the cable-car back to the theme park and got off at the top station, near the Aboriginal Culture part of the park. There was a witch doctor giving out green beads (which of course I thought were to eat, but apparently not). We were to grip them and make a wish, then she splashed us with water and our wishes were granted. Further on there was an Aboriginal hut with lots of carvings on the inside. As we came out a lot of youngsters ran past wearing traditional dress down to the arena. I was tempted to stay and watch, but we hadn't been on any rides yet and it closed at 5:30.
We headed for the water slide. It looked pretty high, fantastic. As we got closer we noticed that everyone in the queue was wearing a plastic poncho... surely this defeats the object of a water slide... getting wet! So me Andrew, and Charles were the only people on the boat Poncholess. We were also required to remove our shoes. The ride started backwards just to freak us out a bit, but then it turned and plummeted down towards the water. I got pretty wet on one half, but I was dry enough, then right at the end of the ride, 2 water cannons went off and we all got drenched. We dripped back to our shoes.
I figured that the best way to get dry again was to go on a rollercoaster. G force 4.5 Mayan Adventure. I timed it, the ride lasted just 30 seconds, but it felt like a lifetime. One young lady came off crying... I was buzzing! Cathy (TA) was just dazed. Andrew was speechless and Charles didn't seem that bothered. Vicky hadn't been on any rides yet, so we let her choose the next one.
She chose the swing boat... sadly me and Andrew didn't make it in time and we had to pass on feeling see sick. Vicky's face went more green than anyone else. Very amusing.
We then went down Jurassic River... a cruise down past vicious dinosaurs, happy cave men and Woolly mammoths. Very informative!
It was getting late and stomachs were starting to rumble so we stopped for some grub at the fast food place. Then we had one ride that was left to do: the vertical drop. I had wanted to go last time but it was being serviced. It was 17:15 so we were not sure if it was still open. As we got closer we could see a small queue. Game on! Rita, Charles and Andrew came on with me. As it went up, it spun slowly so you could take in the fabulous view... and then it stopped for an age we just hung there waiting. When it finally fell, I have never screamed so loud on a ride in genuine terror. Thankfully Cathy captured the moment on video (see facebook).
I could barely walk to the car my legs were so numb.
Vicky offered to drive back which was nice, because 5 minutes in, the rest of us had fallen asleep.
I got back, finished the lasagna and quickly fell asleep

On Sunday, I had a lie in, then went for a nice lunch, then I got the train to Changhua to watch the new Harry Potter Movie and got back just in time for a birthday meal with Charles and the TAs. I had a delicious cheesy pork on top of beansprouts with an egg mayo reformed into its egg shape, with a hot pot filled with veg, fish, ham, you name it! it was there.
At 8:30 I felt the a swaying, so i said Earthquake, but nobody else had noticed and they were still talking, so i said it a little louder. And then there was a lot a rattling and shaking and general commotion in the restaurant, then after a few minutes and as if to reassure us, a waiter ran in smiling apologetically "Earthquake" he said. No kidding! I thought.
After dinner, the waiter brought out a stunning birthday cake... I gave one of the plastic love hearts to the TA to see if it was edible and lo behold, it was! white chocolate, brilliant!
As the cake wasn't good enough, there was more, the TAs had chipped in to buy me a motorbike helmet in the shape of a watermelon. They had all signed it too. Genius idea! From now on I shall be known as Watermelonman! I just need a side-kick: strawberryboy or something... I'll think on it.

Monday: my birthday! Everyone said happy birthday at work. I decided to buy the kids some chocolates in my classes, just in case anyone had remembered to bring me a giant chocolate cake. No-one had but they enjoyed the chocs... Then in one class a girl had made my a decorated box filled with biscuits with a card to go with it. She is going to top Oscar on my the star students list. She had always been so difficult to manage in class and yet here was the nicest thing I'd received all weekend. Kids!

Halloween

To celebrate all things hallowed, the school was decorated with bats, pumpkins and a huge vampire across the window. In the weeks leading up to Halloween, all of the students were taught the catchy phrase "Trick or treat, I'm so sweat. Give me something good to eat!"

On the the 3 days before Halloween, if they could say this twice to a teacher, they would get a sweet. For the intensive classes, on Friday afternoon, they all came in fancy dress to go trick or treating around the neighbourhood. I was encouraged to wear something scary... so I went for my play-it-safe vampire costume, but when I got to work, all the TA must have spent hours on their make-up... they were terrifying. I put my false teeth in for good measure.

The week before, they had all made scary masks in class but these were nothing compared to the costumes the kids came in. Cowgirls, fairies, witches, werewolves... they were all there!

and then Oscar (cei01 student) comes in wearing exactly the same costume as me, with false teeth as well. Now, I've always thought Oscar has a great sense of humour... but when he started his evil laugh.. I thought, this kid is a legend!
Once everyone was assembled we headed out down the street, our capes blowing fiercely in the wind. Rita (manager) said that morning 'just try and have fun with them.'

I'm dressed up, we're collecting sweeties, I don't need telling twice. When we reached each store the kids all chanted the rhyme and sweets magically appeared. When we got back to the school we made a pumkin box to keep the sweets in... very cute... and then I was asked to judge whose costume was the best. I gave it to Lili, a witch. Her costume was great and I figured she'd turn me into something horrible if I didnt choose her.

The rest of the day we taught in our costumes. Sam came as a nun, Paul a pirate. I had a speaking test last lesson, I was tempted to keep the false teeth in for a laugh... but my mooth was starting to get sore.

Sun Moon Lake: temple quest

Saturday 16th

I was invited two weeks ago to go to a theme park or waterworld sometime today... However, the girls organising it decided that it would be better to go to Sun Moon Lake instead.

I was told to be at the train station at 1pm. This gave me time to go for a quick cycle before hand... I got half way up the mountain, and I thought: I'm not gonna make it to the top!', so headed back down.
As I was scootering into town, I realised I hadn't taken any money from the wad of cash on my desk. I pulled into 7/11 quickly got some out from my UK account.... I really should check how much is left in there! ... and jumped back into the scooter and zoomed to the station... I say zoomed: traffic lights are red from between 50 and 100 seconds in Yuanlin, so walking through town is quicker than 4 red lights.

I got there at 1:10. The other TAs were already there waiting. No David though. 'Oh, he's sick' I was told later. So just me and 7 girls... I'm sure I'll cope.
The journey involved catching a train from Yuanlin to a High Speed Rail outside Taichung... and then getting a shuttle bus from there to the lake.
On the way I talked with Cathy and Michelle about the difference between England and Taiwan in terms of transport, food, schools, pretty much anything that came to mind.
It was a 2 hour journey.
The High Speed rail terminal was like an airport... posh coffee bars and cafes and of course; MacDonalds. We grabbed some lunch there, the girls MacD's I got a riceseaweep wrap from 7/11.
Culture exchange going on there!

The bus arrived and we headed out towards the hills around Sun Moon Lake. We arrived just before pm. It was still a glorious day. Michelle went into the visitor centre and came out with some blue info booklets about the area. On the back page was a section with six spaces. A space for a stamp from each temple around the lake. Once completed, we would get... a groovy little magnet to go on the fridge with a picture of sun moon lake animals on.
We wasted no time at all. We walked down the high street in the direction of the nearest temple (I should point out that this is a big deal, as Taiwanese never go more than 20 meters down a road without their scooter). We were soon there.
I asked the TAs what people came to this temple for. They said it is where people seeking love pray. "You should try!" They insisted. There were a couple of wise men next to the statue of the god. They were there to translate. 5 girls left and went into the main temple and only 2 remained. I watched waiting to see what advise the wise man would share. However it was not these two that were looking for love. The other 5 returned with incense sticks and a wad of paper money to sacrifice. They were all looking for love! They placed the sticks in front of the god and prayed; then took the prayer beans and through them to the ground 3x one up and down means that god has granted their wish. All but one managed this. So they took a fortune message from the box and handed it to the wise man. Everyone looked on intently.
It was in Chinese, obviously, but Angel told me that he had told her that she would get a boyfriend very soon. It was all fascinating.
After this temple we headed back to the visitor centre to get a day ticket for the bus going round the lake. We found out that we didn't need a ticket, it was free.
We boarded one before long and were on our way to my favourite of Taiwan's temples. The gate alone is mind blowing. Here we could get two stamps from the two gods of study. Half way there on the stamp trail. It was a big old temple and there were photos inside of the damage to it back in 2000 from an earthquake... people had donated enough money to have everything fixed.
There was a shop inside selling traditional Taiwanese Outfits. I've left mine in England.

The girls were getting a bit peckish so we walked back to the road lined with food vendors selling every kind of snack including spicy sausage on a stick.


We waited for a bus to carry us on round the lake but nothing came. After half an hour it was getting dark so we decided to call off the temple quest and head back to the main village to grab some dinner. The whole area was pretty crowded with it being a holiday and a festival. After a little wait we managed to get a seat in a nice restaurant: proper traditional food. $300NT but a lot of food. We couldn't fit the plate on the table. Stewed wild chicken with peas and chili. Rice, cabbage, soup with a chunk of pork at the bottom, ginger and bamboo, shrimps with beansprouts and chili, and mushrooms. After dinner we had a wonder down past the shops. Angel bought a make it yourself dragon. I bought an imitation ice cream. We walked round to the lakeside and there was an orchestra playing Somewhere over the rainbow. Quite a big crowd down there. Then they played a well known Korean song and everyone cheered and started singing along... Why haven't I heard this song? Then some local celebrity took the microphone and started counting down to the fireworks. They were amazing. only like new year 2007; they didn't last that long.
As soon as they stopped, everyone behind us started running towards the bus ques, eager not to get stuck here the night.
We were OK for a few minutes.
Whilst waiting for the bus, we did what any sane Taiwanese person would do: took loads of pictures of each other in different places.
The bus came on time. We boarded and had a comfortable ride back to the station. As we entered the station we could hear an announcement for the Yuanlin train. I've never seen Taiwanese girls run before, they were making a variety of progress. It was a long was down to the platform.
But the guard heard the screams coming down the stairs and waited. Very amusing.
Before we knew it, we were in Yuanlin again. Scooter bound home.

Shane Trip to Kenting

Friday 1st Ocober
Last week, I had hoped to meet up with the rest of the Changhua teachers prior to our trip to Kenting. Today that wish was granted but in the worst kind of circumstances. At 11pm on Wedneday night, Rita had rang me to ask if I could cover in Changhua on Thursday and Friday as one of the teacher's relative had died. And so on a day when the staff should have been excited about the coming trip, there was a sad, dumbstruck, silence in the staffroom.

Saturday 2nd October
Kenting is a 4 hour coach drive so after picking up the Changhua teachers and TAs the bus was to pick us up at 7:30. That was the plan! However Ollie (Bolton lad) hadn't turned up and they spent half an hour trying to find him. After no joy, they set off anyway.
No one had had much sleep the night before and we all planned to use the journey to catch up.
Nobody except the TAs that is... About 20 minutes into the ride, the 10 little TVs around the bus flickered on and to my horror; somebody was selecting the KTV on the menu.

Emma was the first to volunteer (Changhua manager) and she wasn't that bad. Nice tunes, sung in key. Sadly they didn't have anything in English. The other performances varied from off key to off radar. And the worst was when 2 started sining: one in key and one just slightly not.
We stopped as predicted every hour or so for toilet snack break.
I was expecting to go straight to the hotel, dump our things and then do activities, so I was a little surprised when the bus pulled up in what loooked like a diving centre.
We walked over to the person in charge and Emma translated that to do jet ski, snorkelling and banana boat was $350: bargain! The entire staff were desperate for the toilet for some reason... there were ques outside the 3 ladies cabins, so Dave went over to the mens. Anna warned him that the sign said out of order. It looked fine though, he stepped in ... and his foot went right through the floor. Very amusing!
Once changed into our swimming things, one of the instructors, pointed to a pool full of wet suits, we put these on and then he pointed to some wet-shoes for us to wear (not fins but shoes). Then we had to put on a life vest and finally, the snorkel. We looked ridiculous.
We then crammed into a tiny van with some seats in the back. We drove down to the pebble shore, where we had a detailed intrduction on how to use a snorkel. After 15 minutes, some of the teachers got bored and swam off into the sea on their own. The instructor didn't realise this until we were finally ready to enter the water ourselves. He wanted me to shout to them to bring them back. So I took off my snorkel and shouted; they couldn't hear me. Just then, a huge wave broke and I got salt water in my eyes: possibly the saltiest water I had ever tasted.
I couldnt rub my eyes for obvious reasons, so I thought 'grin and bare it' put my snorkel on, and it was like having pepper spray. This was silly, I took it off and made my way back to dry land.
I watched the rest of them in two lines holding the person in front being pulled across the patch of coral. I felt better after a few minutes, so I donned the mask again, and swam out after them.
This was surprisingly easy! We swam until we reached a mooring post; we heaved ourselves onto it and boarded a speedboat. i assumed we were going further out to do some more snorkelling when the driver switched my snorkel for a hard hat. Well a soft hard hat. Alongside the speed boat was a banana boat. 6 of us srambled over the side onto a seat on the banana boat.
For those of you who didn't know: the purpose of a banana boat is to crash over turn and throw its riders into the water. The first time wasn't so bad. We went fast but we fell out rather than being thrown out. The second time, we were in deeper water or something, it was an effort not to fall off before the boat capsized. Then when it did happen, I landed on top of one of the TA's I could feel their life jacket underneath me... but couldn't free it. She was fine however. By the time we had snorkelled back to the shore. It was 4 o'clock and everyone was feeling pretty knackered. We got changed out of our heavy, wet, salted swimming gear and made our way to the hotel.
I was very impressed with the hotel. The room was huge (admittedly there were supposed to be 4 men in here, but still it was huge). It looked like 2 huge double beds, but thankfully, they pulled apart. There was a huge TV, a fridge, a proper Chinese teapot, a bathroom with a round bath, shower cubicle and a small TV. The toilet didn't flush, but hey! TV in the toilet!
There was only 3 teachers in my room: me Todd and Richard as Ollie had not showed up.
Thinking we had ages before dinner, we grabbed a towel and went to check out the hotel pool that stretched away from the driveway. However we ran into Emma who said we only had 30 minutes before we were leaving for dinner. A quick shower then would suffice.
The hotel was on the outskirts of Kenting, so we boarded the bus to the restaurant. It was a hot evening and the restaurant was outdoors. There was no fan but this was OK, I could cope, until the food arrived, half of which had chilli as the main ingredient.
May was walking round with her jug of beer Gam bei to anyone brave enough to drink with her.
Linda (big chief) and her family turned up and made sure we were all having a good time.
After dinner and a number of photos posing in front of various buildings and plants. We went shopping down the Kenting High Street. Clothes, jewellery and food shops blockaded by a endless row of clothes, jewellery and food stalls. Everything a tourist could want. Frogspawn tea. Tiny chunks of jelly floating in sweet milk tea. gorgeous. Green tea icecream. Teapot shops. The Taiwanese really do love their tea.
The highlight for me was watching some of the TAs having a massage by three men with chairs. Not like any massage I'd ever seen. They were pulling their arms round their backs then popping them out... despite the screams of pain, they all urged me to have one. I declined.
The Changhua crowd were pretty tired from a really busy week, so I joined them on the coach home at 10. The Yuanlin boys stayed out dancing til 2.
Once back at the hotel, I went for a dip in the pool. Right next to it was a hot bath... a perfect way to end a hot and hectic day. Breakfast in the morning was at 7am. but I was told nicely that if I woke any other teachers up for breakfast they would kill me.

Sunday 3rd October
The alarm went off at 7am. I silently rose, dressed and made my way to the dining room for breakfast. A lady on the door said it wasn't open until 7:30! What! Someone had lied to me...
I walked around trying to kill time when I met a TA, she had hired a bike. I should do the same she advised. "To go out" I asked. "No, just around the hotel grounds."
The hotel couldn't be that big. 'You can get a key from reception' the TA persisted. So I went to the hotel desk, just to get some peace, I was given a key to the last bike. I walked back to the bike shed. The key didn't look like any key I'd ever seen. I wiggled it in the hole. No joy. I tried twisted it; nothing. I looked at my watch: 7:25. I'll go and have breakfast. I get back to the lady and am happy to see people eating beyond. "Ticket?" the lady asks.. Ticket? Odd I thought breakfast was included! I go back to reception. Do you need to buy a ticket for breakfast? It's in your room pack! Oh. Back the bedroom, sneaky sneaky, find the pass and at last, treated myself to breakfast. Vegetables, rice, egg, fruit and some toast. Only 6 TAs had woken up for breakfast and no teachers except me.
As I was awake now, I took the coach trip with May, Gina, Linda's nephew and sister, Mignon to a wildlife reserve to check out the birds and look out for Japanese buzzards. Then we moved on to a viewpoint where you can see the Taiwan Straight meet the Pacific Ocean. Quite stunning.
We got back just in time to pick up the others from the hotel to start the journey home.
Not 15 minutes in, and the coach pulled over next to a hill a huge fence at the bottom. As we looked up we could see a giant ball rolling down towards us. I rolled up the fence above the coach and then back down, stopped, and 2 lads crawled out. Cool!

At the top of the hill we all qued up for a go. On closer inspection. The plastic ball was about 7 foot high. There was a layer of insulation about a foot deep and then there were 2 sets of straps.
Great fun! I dived inside and tried to put my hands and feet in the straps there. And was told 'dress the straps more' by a TA translating the lady in charge. She meant, move the strap so that it is round your leg not your foot. Richard was sitting opposite me.

Once we set off it was completely not what I expected. You couldn't see anything outside like the road or hill itself. That was a blur. All you knew was that you were moving fast and this dizzy feeling was not normal. There was a microphone inside the ball so that people at the top could hear you screaming. We were told that we were very quiet, so on the second time down. We stayed absolutely silent; which isn't an easy thing to do.
We got back on the bus and were dripping from the heat of the plastic ball, i stripped off my T-shirt and pulled out a fresh one.
The coach stopped again soon after. Outside I could see a go-cart track. Not more! I thought. Luckily it we were having dinner next door to the track. It was another chilli topped Taiwanese speacial. Most of the lads had a light lunch and spent the time in front of the air conditioning unit.
On the way back they put an English DVD : Taken; such a happy change after KTV.
We got half way through Surrogates (another good movie) before the Chinese speakers had a vote (talk about a conspiracy) and put KTV back on.