Taiwan Schools

Okay, I am just dumping a big batch of photos here, sorry! I really am trying to just pick a few, but we did so much it's hard to sort. Again, feel free to skim, skip or study as you want!

So visiting schools was one of the main purposes of our trip. We visited about 14 different schools. The students would perform for us and then attempt to teach us some of their skills. The kids were one of the best parts of the trip for me, they had so much energy and smiles, it was always fun! Sometimes Dan would go to the classrooms and spend time there as part of the class and I would just catch up on email or FaceTime Eric or rest or chat with the other moms. 

 The student body assembled outside and the American kids introduced themselves.

 Getting to know each other

 Learning a game

 Learning a dance

 Arm wrestling challenge

Chinese yo yo performance

 These two boys spent a lot of time with Dan teaching him some tricks.

 Selfie with kids I read some books to and taught some songs to

 This school was very different from others, very fancy.

 Dan was always nervous about being taken off to class with a new friend, but always came back having had a good time!

 We ate school lunch in the principal's office and these kids kept walking by to stare at us.

 Kindergarteners perform "Little Apple" the most popular song in Asia last year. So cute!

 Water rockets!

 Tiny drummers

 Alice in Wonderland play

 Getting ready for calligraphy lessons

 Dan was not shy about volunteering to try a traditional instrument

 More calligraphy

 The stairs at this school all had helpful english sayings.

 Learning to dance and play instruments

 Aboriginal school, Taiwan has 16 aboriginal tribes that have lived there since before the Chinese immigrations.

 Presenting the school kids with english books we brought.

 Learning drum box

 Student original artwork

 Beautiful school yard

 Harvesting greens from school greenhouse

 Cooking the greens...wow were they good!

These racing pigeons carry these giant whistles on their back, traditional farmer entertainment.

 We had to put together a performance for graduation at one of the schools, you can see how thrilled Dan was about this. Chalk it up to one of the many times he learned the lesson, "I can do hard things even when I really really don't want to!"

 This poor guy was always just coming to sit at the school and watch the kids. I don't know if he was homeless or just really poor, but he was very nice.

 Pyramid!

 This is our group, they were the best!!

 This little fellow kept insisting that Dan wear his hat. Dan would give it back and the boy would put it back on Dan's head. So cute!

 This is the school on the island of Kinmen that we visited.

 This school was awesome at unicycling!

 Then it was our turn to try.

 I was not as awesome, but I tried really really hard!

 They planted a tree together that they can visit if they ever go back.

 Second graders that we entertained for an hour. They had just begun learning english.

 Traditional costume

 Solo dance

 Our host brother, Strong, played the violin for us. Also with are Jiashyun and Chennie, host mom and sister.

 Courtyard of our main host school.

This man was amazing. In the last few days Dan was getting pretty moody and I was getting less and less patient about it. This dear man would step in and not give up until he had Dan smiling again. Sometimes it took quite an effort! He didn't speak much english, but that didn't keep him from finding ways to make Dan smile. I really can't express what a life saver he was and how much I appreciated his intervention! He didn't want a lot of thanks though, he just noticed a way he could help and did.