So it was Halloween for them - true, it was a day early and during the day rather than the evening... but that was okay. They certainly did get into the spirit of the thing and none more so than the Taiwanese teachers, so that mellowed my grumpy mood about having to wear a hot, rubber mask that I could barely see through. After the outdoor judging of the costumes, they all came in and we had games set up for them in the classrooms.

It was a hot day. The temperature was at least 30 in the shade and we were in the sun, like Hamlet... too much in the sun.




I got an email from one of the university debaters at Wenzao College in Kaohsiung telling me that she and two other students are going to Beijing for the North East Asia Open Debating Tournament in late November. They'll be the sole Taiwanese team - English-language debating is still in its infancy here - and most of the other teams will be from Mainland China, Japan and Korea. I met the Taiwanese debaters in Seoul this year at the All-Asians tournament and was quite impressed with them. I can't go to this tournament but I'll be watching the results carefully and wishing them well.

Autumn comes to Taiwan

The overnight temperatures in Ching Shui are now as low as 21C while the daytime highs are a comfortable 30C - that used to sound hot to me but now it's just comfortable! Needless to say, there are no leaves changing color and this will be the first year in my life that I've not seen that. And I'm happy about that. I'm like many Canadians whose main goal in life is to be free of winter.

I went into Taichung this evening for supper at an Indian (really Pakistani) restaurant with one of the other teachers and it was great to sit at an outside table and watch the world go by as I ate my supper. Such civilized behavior...

This Friday, the English department has decided to bring Halloween to the students. Somehow, the Chinese have lived without Halloween for thousands of years but it has been decided that we shall enlighten them - and that means I have to purchase some sort of costume. I suggested that I masquerade as a teacher, but that just elicited pained looks... they didn't like my suggestion. When I suggested that I costume myself as a nudist, the looks were even more pained. It's now Tuesday and I have until Friday to come up with some sort of thing that looks like a costume and I have no ideas at all.

Ching Shui By Night

Ching Shui, Taiwan, By Night



Just try to sleep while these guys are doing their thing! This has happened several times a week during the two months that I've been here. There are half a dozen Buddhist temples within a ten-minute walk of where I live and these guys parade from one to the next, beating the drums and setting off the fireworks.