Made in Taiwan: Halloween and Other Happenings

Fiona, Selina, Miranda, Jason, Andy, Nikki, Cindy, Mandy,
Summer, Ray, Angel, Vic

So Halloween at Gloria is a BIG deal. All the teachers dress up and bring lots of candy. The kids (most of them) go all out and create really elaborate costumes and look amazing. Not to mention adorable. In the younger classes you do trick or treating and lots of games. I taught them the "trick or treat, smell my feet" song. They were so stinking cute. In one of my schools, we got to go to 7/11 to trick or treat too. Seeing the kids walking down the street, so excited to be outside and all the people looking at them in their costumes is something I think I will keep in my memory filer for the rest of my life. It was a really fun moment. I also played games like the mummy wrap game - wrapping kids in toilet paper. Haha. They loved it!

With the older kids I carved pumpkins. For a lot of them, it was their first time. And they couldn't believe that I was good at it. I told them I had lots of practice - about 20 years. Haha. It was fun to watch them laugh and have fun doing something that seems so normal. They were all taking hundreds of pictures of everything. It was fun. I was also dressed as a pumpkin so in my last class, Vic told me that he was going to carve his pumpkin to look like me! Haha. It was awesome! And he gave it to me to take home.

Jason!

I'm glad Halloween was over because I spent so much money on candy and everything. But it was totally worth it to see the kids having so much fun!

Brian, Lion, Carol, Coco, Debbie, Winnie, Susan,
Sylvia (Teacher), Daniel, Me, Vic

Saturday is my half marathon - ahhhhh! Cristelle and I went and picked up our race packets in Taipei yesterday. Now we are both really excited but not super prepared. Haha. We are both entering the experience the same way - as an experience rather than a race. I plan on taking my camera on the run and taking so many pictures. For those of you who don't remember, it is through Taroko Gorge which is a national park here. And supposedly amazing! Hopefully our weather will be nice and we will both make it home!

Today, Rooney and I went to lunch at a place called the Three Baboons. It is a pub with American food. They also have Guiness on draft. It's delicious. Rooney has befriended the owner also. After lunch we got Coldstone. Haha. We were on an American binge. Definitely needed every once in a while.

After our food I spotted a sign for a temple that sounded pretty cool. We decided to go check it out and I'm glad we did. It was a pretty spectacular temple. There was also a snake pit/den. It was freaky. I thought Rooney was going to run out crying when one of the snakes started to VERY SLOWLY make its way over to us. Haha - a vision of terrified.

Christine, Jack, James, Kelsey, Yancy, Jenny, Jade, Lisa, Cathy

We decided that we wanted to purchase some incense and try and figure out how to do the whole praying thing. We had no idea but there were two women sitting at the front and when we expressed interest, one of them popped up and showed us how to do the whole thing. You are supposed to take six sticks of incense, one for each altar. You bow three times before addressing the deity and asking for your wish. Then you put one of the sticks in the sand and then bow three times again. She took us around and told us what each one was for and what wishes they were in charge of: peace, relationships, health, money, etc.

As we were leaving, the other woman pulled us aside and gave us some traveling charms to keep us safe. It was really nice. Another day for the memory filer.