Counting down from Taroko

Sun. Mar. 23
Taroko was spectacular. The whole day was just great, even if it started super early. At 4 a.m. I woke up itching all over. A mosquito had gotten into my room and had a feast. I counted 12 bites on my arms and face (everything else was under the covers). I finally had to apply bug spray and pull the covers up over my head to get back to sleep. But after that everything was gravy.
We met at the MRT at 7 and then caught a train from Taipei Main. The trip was about 3 hours, but it passed fairly quickly. The scenery on the way to Hualien was beautiful, as long as we weren’t in the cities. I forgot my gravol, so I had to just close my eyes whenever there were too many things passing too close to the train.
In Hualien we caught the tour bus right outside the train station. The first stop we made was at the beach. The waves were spectacular, but because the drop off into deep water is so close to the shore there’s never any swimming. It did make the water look different colours though, which was really cool. There was also no sand. The entire beach was made up of different sized rocks, worn smooth by the water. I picked up a couple that I think will look fabulous on a chain.
From the beach we went to a fishery museum. It smelled horrible. They actually had a little factory where they dried the fish, right there. There was a store where they sold fish products too. My favourite things were the aquariums where they actually had live tropical fish. I saw a seahorse. There were a bunch of different kinds of clown fish and some really cool phosphorescent fish that looked like they were under a black light, even when they weren’t. And there was one big aquarium that had live coral and sea anemones with all of the fish. It was super cool.
We had lunch at the museum. Or, more accurately, everyone else had fish lunch at the museum and I had a peanut butter sandwich when we got back to the bus. From the museum it was about a 20 minute drive to get to Taroko National Park, which is the home of the gorge. The bus drove us into the park and stopped often so that we could get out and take pictures. There were entire sections where we got dropped off and got to walk along the gorge to meet the bus farther along. Of course, being so in awe of the scenery, we were usually the last ones back to the bus. A couple of times we even had to run, because we didn’t want to annoy the driver, by being too late.
We spent about 2 and a half hours making our way through the gorge and there’s not much I can write about it. I could try to describe the magnificence of the scenery and the way you get completely dwarfed by the mountains, but I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. It’s one of those places where a picture is really worth 1000 words. And I took about 200 pics. Luckily Adrienne and Emily both had their cameras, too, because my batteries died right at the end. And we each have a ton of pics of each other. Adrienne even took some video. We’re going to put the pics from all 3 cameras onto discs for each of us.
It was just a super fun day. We were so exhausted by the end, that we fell asleep on the train home, even though it was only 6pm. I was supposed to go out last night, but I didn’t make it. I read a little and then watched Leeches again, probably for the last time.
Because I was in bed so early, I woke up really early this morning. It was ok, cuz I was supposed to have a lunch date with Emily, but it was cancelled because of rain. I’m kind of hoping that our tennis lesson tonight will be called due to rain as well. I just feel like being lazy today. I just finished reading The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet. I quite enjoyed it, although I had to put my inner 1930's slang translator to good use.

Mon Mar 24th
Today was such an awesome Monday. It started with a phone call home to wish the baby bro happy birthday. We chatted about random things, but mostly it was just good to talk to him. I was also up and awake quite early, so I got to take my time getting ready. I love that.
School was actually pretty good. The chick from head office wasn’t there and the incompetent one doesn’t speak to us, so we pretty much had free rein. We started a new unit which has millions of nouns for vocab, so it’s really easy to teach. I’ve already finished my lesson plans for the rest of this week. And my replacement is currently in training - at another school - but will apparently be at our school sometime next week. I suppose that’s good, since next Thurs is my last day. First thing in the morning one of my students told me that he loves me. In English. That’s huge, because I haven’t taught them that. It was also really cute.
At lunch Sam and I watched the first hour of Order of the Phoenix, which he seemed to enjoy, in spite of never seeing any of the other movies. We’re going to finish it at lunch tomorrow. And after work, I played tennis with Emily. Not a lesson, just practice, but I needed it.
Tomorrow should be good as well. I’m determined to be optimistic, cuz I officially have 8 days of work left (not counting the weekend, cuz I don’t work then).

Wed. Mar 26th
So yesterday, my student who knows "I love you" in English upped the cute factor. He told me he loves me and when I said "I love you, too" he said, "I love you three." It was just too precious. How am I supposed to leave that behind?
I found out more about my replacement. He will definitely be at the school next Monday to observe me. On Wed he starts teaching for himself, with me there to help, if he needs it. I’m a little concerned, cuz he doesn’t want to teach kids. He was originally hire in the adult department and he's just here for the money. I’m afraid that he won’t play with my kids, or know how to handle them. And they need to be handled, otherwise they’ll chew him up and spit him out.
As of today I officially have 5 days of teaching and 7 days of work left. And then the party starts.
My day at work went really well. We went to the park in the afternoon. It is such a workout for me. When I wasn’t lifting children onto the jungle gym, I was chasing them (or being chased) around. And, yes, I did actually run. It was super fun, though.
After work, I read a new e-book. Since it was T’s birthday, we all went to Friday’s when they got off work, for dinner. It was a good time, but kinda late for me.
That’s nothing compared to tonight, though. We’re supposed to be going to Luxy, which is this really posh club. We’re going mid-week, because it’s ladies night, and I will get in for free. Free rocks.

Also, I've added a new album. These are the pics from my Taroko trip. Some are from Adrienne's camera, some from Emily's and some from mine. Mostly it's just shot after shot of spectacular scenery (and the three of us, of course). Enjoy.