Chinese Language

This week I had two Chinese classes alone with my teacher as Teresa is in the US. This was after four weeks away for me, when frankly I did not open my book or listen to the CD. So I knew I was behind and tried to cram this week before our classes.

I am so frustrated. I cannot hear the difference between lao and gao, between "l" and "g" as my teacher hears it. So when I try to use lao-shi (teacher) or lao-ban (boss) - pretty important words and things that the dialogues use all the time - she corrects me but I cannot understand what is different. There is a subtle position of the tongue behind the front teeth for "l" that I do sometimes but not consistently. What a pain! I have to work on this all week.

Luckily, I hit a home run with the pilot class I taught to some of my work colleagues this week. So that added some balance to my week. I traveled to Tainan on Wednesday and taught from 1:30 to 4:30. My education friends (Peggy, Teresa, and Catherine) had all helped me outline and think through stuff. The content was almost exactly correct for the available time. It was interactive enough and engaging with the group. And the future plan should now be easier to develop as I know more about what can be done and how to do it. Thanks to you guys for the help!

Another Saturday Drive

Actually, this drive happened quite a while ago, on Saturday July 20. We drove out to the port of Taichung where people had told us there was a very interesting fish market (with restaurants) and a boat ride. Teresa was interested in taking the ride, so off we went.

The drive was unusual in that many roads pointed in the direction we wanted to go, we had a map with directions, and we had our GPS on, but we drove for two hours and still could not find the port and market. We were close several times and then headed parallel to the coast (in the wrong direction). Finally, after circling twice, we did find the port. If had a wonderful fish market with everything coming directly from the boats which were docked immediately outside. Here are some pictures from the market.

And here are some pictures from the boat ride. I should say the ride was pretty uninteresting - for anyone thinking to do this, it is short and not very scenic. You see the Taichung harbor which is some commercial fishing and then the port which is very industrial. And you have a good view of the wind power farm slightly south of the port.

Typhoon Sinlaku

I arrived back in Taichung on Saturday, Sept. 13 after two weeks in the US and two weeks in Korea. Just in time for Typhoon Sinlaku. No real problems in traveling except a little bumpy landing in Taipei. Lots of rain, lots of wind for several days since the storm crossed the island slowly and headed north toward Japan. The only difficulty for us was disruption to flights on Sunday that forced Teresa to leave for the US from Kaohsiung instead of Taipei. 

The storm caused a lot of damage across the island and 11 death. People were killed in mudslides and by one bridge collapse. Crops were damaged mostly by wind. 

My friends in Korea note that there have been many fewer typhoons approaching Korea recently, something they attribute to global warming. Most storms now trend to the east, across Taiwan and into China, as opposed to menacing Japan and Korea.