The Painter And The Frog

A few weeks ago on a Wednesday, one of the Chinese teachers at my school asked me, "You help can me draw frog, yes?"...with the body language of drawing it on a piece of paper with a pencil.

So I thought she just wanted me to draw a frog for her on a piece of paper.

Oooooh, no, no, no.

I have learned that when someone at my school asks you something in broken english, to relate it to an iceberg:  All you see is the top layer, when really, there are deep unseen and unheard things.

Apparently the school asked her to draw and paint a mural on the side of one of the stair cases in preparation for Parent's Day, and she asked me to help her (i.e. do it for her).  So when she took me to the wall I laughed in her face...oops.  I did not feel like drawing and painting a mural.  I just didn't.  Plus, it wasn't just a mural of a frog, it was a mural of the life cycle of a frog.  And they wanted it done by Friday!?!

But, alas, I gave in and decided to help (aka, do it all).

Luckily, after a minute, I enjoyed doing it.

So I started with this blank wall...

...and did some sketching with a pencil...

 (you may have to look closely at the one above)

After I was done with the sketching, the next day they wanted me to paint it all!

So I told them I would help with the painting, but did not want to do all of it.  It would have taken forever!  So I did half of the painting, which wasn't bad.

But eventually, this was the final product!...

Not too shabby huh!?

 (eggs go to baby tadpoles)

 (baby tadpoles go to teenager tadpoles)

 (teenager tadpoles become adult tadpoles and then grow legs)

 (and eventually they are full-blown frogs)

 I bet you didn't know all of that huh?

But now, because of my mural, you do, right!?

 Two of my students: Josh and Ray Ray playing near the mural.

 Me with the mural.

So ultimately, I became the school hero for a day because it was above anything they were expecting, and I even surprised myself along the way too and that it actually turned out great.

And so in the end, I'm glad I helped...

and didn't croak!

Big City

This weekend new friends, Melanie and Jared, invited people from church to go bowling for Jared's birthday.  Kristi and I were the only ones able to make it this certain weekend, which was just fine because we had a lot of fun anyways.

In Hsinchu there is a gigantic shopping center called Big City which I had heard about but didn't go visit until a month ago.  This was my second time going.

It's nine stories up, and all the games/bowling and arcade stuff is on the ninth floor.  (The eighth floor is bizarrely dedicated to San Francisco...more on that later).  So we all met up there and started bowling.

I haven't bowled in years but it was a lot of fun.  We were obviously a group to watch as we are Americans in an asian land, so we definitely gathered clumps of audiences at various times.  It was actually slightly intimidating!...aren't Asians, like, good at everything?

Anyway...I have a point, promise...

So, halfway through bowling the lights went dimmer and an employee with a microphone came on the speakers and talked for a few minutes in Chinese.  It was obvious they were doing some sort of competition/game with all the bowlers.  So she came over to us afterwards, as it was obvious we don't speak Chinese, and told us that each lane gets to choose one person to bowl one ball.  If that person gets a strike, then they win drinks for their entire lane.  If more than one lane gets a strike, then they have to battle it out until there is only one winner. 

 I was immediately volunteered by my friends to do it but I was hesitant; there were a serious amount of people watching and it really was intimidating, AND our lane was first, so I hardly had a chance to grasp the concept.

But I did it...

(getting ready)

 ...and wouldn't you believe it...

I GOT A STRIKE!!

This is my "WHAT JUST HAPPENED IS THIS REAL LIFE?!?" reaction.

Not that it was that big of a deal, but it was a fun moment of craziness.  And no one else got a strike so I didn't even have to battle it out.

(me, hostess girl, melanie, jared & kristi)

X = STRIKE!

We got free energy drinks.

(also, I bowled a 128, winning game #3!)

(typos everywhere)

We also quickly did a few rounds in the batting cages.  It was fun.

Ok, so as I mentioned before, the entire eighth floor is dedicated to San Francisco...

...complete with a mini-GG-bridge...

...and an ice skating rink with a roller-skating track circling it...

...and a giant SF mural...

...and a Fisherman's Warf area.

But the food is all Thai food.  You would think if it was dedicated to San Francisco they would have at least one restaurant with San Francisco food...(unless there's a ton of Thai food in SF and I don't know that!?).  Anyway, the entire floor is fun but completely random.  It's how they do things here.

Also...

...this arcade game looks way too difficult, and all for...a bag of doritos!?

Moon Festival

Today was Moon Festival in Taiwan.  It's the equivalent to Thanksgiving but with different traditions.  Apparently on Moon Festival day you're supposed to have a barbecue, eat pomelos (a fruit I didn't know existed until today), and have moon cakes for desert (more on that later).  Here's some more info on the Moon Festival from google: 

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people.  A description of the festival first appeared in Rites of Zhou, a written collection of rituals of the Western Zhou Dynasty from 3,000 years ago. The celebration became popular during the early Tang Dynasty.  The festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, close to the autumnal equinox.  The Government of the People's Republic of China listed the festival as an "intangible cultural heritage" in 2006, and it was made a Chinese public holiday in 2008.  It is also a public holiday in Taiwan.

A very friendly woman, Abish (like the woman in the book of mormon), invited us over after dinner for Moon Festival dinner.  She didn't have a barbecue but we had spaghetti with pomelos and moon cakes.  It was very nice of her.  She is the ward translator so she knows fluent chinese and english, all from teaching herself.  She has a 2-year-old named Jonathan.

These are pomelos.  They're a fruit similar to a grapefruit but not as bitter.  It took a lot of work though to get to the fruit.  It had so many layers that by the time I got to the fruit I didn't care anymore!  But they were actually very delicious.

But the moon cakes on the other hand...were not.  They were some store bought ones and I thought it would just be like a...cake, some dough, flour?  No...

Half a chew into this "cake" and I knew...KNEW...that I could not have another bite.  It would not be physically possible.

Here's why:

I'm already not a pastry person, but mixed with the things above and I'm definitely out.  So I knew I had to find a way to not bring attention to the fact that I wasn't going to finish it.  So I casually put it down behind a bowl for a few minutes as to not bring attention to it or me and that I wasn't eating it.  I was semi-freaking out though because the cake was too large to wrap in a napkin and leave on the table.   Fifteen minutes later at last she took her son to the bathroom so I wrapped it in a napkin and quickly threw it in my backpack on the other side of the room.  Phew!  I felt bad but it just wasn't going to be possible to finish it. (Again, it was store bought so I don't feel as bad).  Plus, no one noticed!

But everything was great and I'm very thankful for her invitation.  People here are so nice and it's been great to see people homes and see how people live here and get to know them.

 Happy Moon Festival!

Ocean/Beach Pictures

...with no story.

Just pictures.

(except this one.  i'm jumping; my legs are not invisible or in the water)