A trip to Hell

Ok, this picture needs an explanation. Down a shady sort of hill across the street from the Big Buddha - that represented heaven - was a temple that had been converted into a sort of Haunted Hell House. You paid admission and walked through 2 floors of moving floors and scenes like this depicting people being punished for a variety of crimes - murder, deception, abuse, etc - this woman was shakled to a poll and moved back and forth, it was all; very strange, complete with sound and all. To think they converted a temple into Hell to make a profit... hmmmmmmmmm.

Buddhas, Buddhas everywhere!

More Big Buddha.

Little Buddha.

The Biggest Buddha.

Lazy Buddha.

Posing by one of the many statues on the way to the Big Buddha.

Day Trip to Chunghua

I took a day trip to Chunghua this Sunday to meet up with my language exchange partner Alison. The ride was a total of 20 minutes and put me back less than $2, not too shabby! We spent a very sunny day exploring markets, tasting local specialties and visiting the biggest Buddha in Taiwan. This is Alison posing in front of the stand where we bought a traditional type of meatball - Chunghua's most famous food.
We had excellent weather and a fabulous day - Thanks Alison!

Havin meself a little Carlsberg out of the trophy! A well deserved thirst quencher.

Yes...I know. No more soccer pictures. However, this is the team that won the 'Winter Cup' in Kaoshiung. With only 12 players, we became "the best foreigner team in Taiwan". It was a good weekend of "football" (the English I play with have me calling it this now from time to time) and we managed to have ourselves a great time on the Saturday night as well, returning home around 4:30 a.m to rest up for a full day of games on Sunday. Eeeeesh. In the end, we persevered, and won! Hadn't won a tourny in a while so it felt good. We will be defending our title in a few months down in Tainan for 'The Spring Cup'.

Finally, a picture of the kids. These are my (Allison) grade three kids just after performing their long awaited ACP - Annual Class Performance. This was taken outside on our front playground.

Happy New Year

A happy couple on a happy New Year. We rang in the New Year at a friend's house with with some other foreign teachers and left for a pub at the early hour of 2am...

The Manilla Dirt Balls

A dirty group of guys - on and off the field. This is the Tainan Phoenix team (not my regular team) that I went down to Manila, Phillipines with. I was with these dudes celebrating my 26th b-day. I just got this picture from one of the guys on the team and so I'm putting it up now.

Safe from the Tsunami

I figured I would post a little note, to let you know (if you're checking) that we are indeed safe and out of harm's way here in Taiwan. We have both received a number of e-mails from people wondering if we are safe from the disaster that is happening very close by.

I posted a little map of Southeast Asia to show you that we are very close, yet still safely out of the way.

What occurred is obviously a terrible tragedy and when something this bad happens, and happens so close, it really makes you feel fortunate for what you have. Allison and I have talked about how lucky we are to be safe, how lucky we are to have great friends and how lucky we are to have loving families. It is scary to be living in a country that is surrounded on all sides, by the ocean. It makes you realize that terrible things can happen out of nowhere and that you should always live your life to the fullest and appreciate all that you have. We hope this message finds you all safe and happy. We miss you all. Our prayers are with all of those who lives have been forever changed by this disaster and we hope that you'll be praying for them as well.

Map of Southeast Asia

To get a much better view, go to http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/world/asia/easia4c.jpg and
zoom in. Or you can click this picture and then zoom in from there.