A Day of Explorations!Today, Friday for us, we had a "let's just explore and see what happens" day. We started with a couple of phone calls to the USA, to see how Ted's mom is doing (she is coming along!) and to a dear colleague from Betty's teaching days, to ask for some photos of some of our teaching strategies to use in the panel presentation Ted and I have been asked to give in April to Taiwanese educators interested in inclusive techniques in the mainstream classroom.
Then we hopped aboard the subway and decided to disembark at the High Speed Zuoying Railway Station and explore. But first, while there, we purchased our train tickets for next weekend when we shall go to Taipei. It used to take 5 hours to go by regular train from Kaohsiung to Taipei, but now, with this new high-speed option, the trip takes 90 minutes!
Once we made that purchase (a little tricky, as the clerk's English was only slightly better than our Mandarin), Ted and I left the station and walked in the general direction of a yellow-roofed building, where, when we asked, we were told the Lotus Pond and Playgrounds were. And indeed they were! First, we came to the beautiful lake and some bridges that crossed over to tiny islands , each surrounded by lush, tropical plants.
Then we came to Confucius Temple; as I am sure you are aware, Confucius is greatly revered as a philosopher of the first order, and there are many temples all over Taiwan to memorialize him and his teachings. he is known as the First Teacher, and his temples are usually very colorful, with red as a dominant hue, symbolizing good luck, wealth, happiness, etc.
Next we came upon pl
ayground after playground park 
play areas, with all sorts of slides and fun things for kids to ride on! We ended up walking almost totally around the lake (quite good e
xercise!) , bought a cold drink at one point , saw beautiful lotus plants under a lovely little bridge, even saw a bunch of turtles in another area of the lake (picture of them is for you, Jan!)and a chocolate cake that we shared at another; that served as lunch.(Eat your heart out, Jackie!)
After that, we discovered Costco!! We had been told there was one and we found it after another subway ride in the opposite direction from our ecological journey.
We mainly went there to see if we could get Ted Cheerios, which he sorely misses and is not to be found in any other store we have been to. Lo and behold, we found Cheerios!! Four boxes later and we got home!
Then we capped the day off, after a nap(!), with a piano concert right here on campus; it was restful and terrific. The first piece was Mozart;s Piano and String Quarter in G Minor, K. 478, and the second was Brahms' Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op.34. The performers were outstanding; their individual resumes included studies or performances at places such as: New York Philharmonic,International Music Arts Institute, Mountain Top Music Center of North Conway, NH, International festival at Round Top, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra, etc. And the tickets are free.
When we left the National Sun-Yat-Sen Performing Center Hall, though, we experienced our first rain! Fortunately it was a relatively light rain as we made our way back up the hills to our villa! But my hair-do became a slight hair-don't! Here I am just having run inside!!
It's the little things - glad you found your Cheerios! I love that lotus picture too.
ReplyDeleteHere is a question for you. I just read a magazine article that said Taiwan, because of its export-driven economy, has been particularly hard hit by the current recession. Is this something that you are aware of? What are your impressions?
ReplyDeleteWe are aware of the recession, from Ted's students, who talk about it in class quite a lot. We live in a college community, so gentile poverty is the norm anyway. Meals are dirt cheap in the student cafes,etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd Anne, yes. Ted is SO happy with his Cheerios. i don't think he intends to share them at all!! And the lotus truly were so lovely!