so many things to blog about now...hm...

#1 the weekend! on saturday, i went to yangmingshan with my work! its just outside of taipei, and i think its a volcano...though really i have no idea what it is :) all i know is that it was GORGEOUS! the moutains in taiwan are the most beautiful i have ever seen outside of my beloved blue ridge. i even think the taiwan mountains put the alps to shame. we were in the national park, which i think is the most beautiful place i've seen since i've been in taiwan, and ally said 'when i'm here i often think that this is what heaven might look like.' i hope shes right :)

sunday, my friend orange from hong kong arrived for a visit! we went to hsinchu city for the day. actually when we got there, there were so many protests going on about china (1 oct is the anniversiary of the estab. of the proc). actually i thought it was parades because there were marching bands and stuff, but i quickly learned that i was wrong haha. while we were in the city, we stopped in a hotel for directions to the place we were heading. after he gave us the directions, he looked at me and said in heavily accented english: "welcome to taiwan!" i laughed a little and said to him in heavily accented chinese: "thanks, but i live here." he just stared at me...and i wasn't sure what to think! i'm not a tourist! then, we headed to the jhubei city night market...I LOVE IT! i ate tooooooooo much food, but i love that night market so much. might be my favourite in all of taiwan! even when i ordered something, the lady behind the stand told me that i spoke very good mandarin for a mei guo ren. hahaha. ;)

today when i walked into class, many of my students handed me cards and little cakes...its teacher's day in taiwan! they were so cuuuuuuute. bless their precious little taiwanese hearts. one of them even gave us all mooncakes from gaoxiong! 28sept is confucious' birthday, so that's why today is teacher's day. it was a quite nice day!



**i really wish it would feel like fall here! its still as blazing hot as it was when i arrived in july! ahhhh! i also really miss the beacon. i randomly started to wish i could go there and eat until i puked...what i wouldn't give for some good old fashioned terribly unhealthy fried in grease and full of cholesterol southern food with NO EYEBALLS