Taiwan Food!!!

Taiwan had great food!

The streets have carts filled with fresh fruits to make all kinds of delicious juices!

They also have great dumplings!!!

We went to several night markets!  We had great food, and played street games!! 

 Lots of chicken wings, legs, and feet!!!

 Shish Kebab with squid, mushrooms, fried tofu, and various meats!!!

 These pots had various rice and soups!!!

 At the night fairs in Taiwan one delicacy is a rice sausage stuffed with a real sausage!  It was amazing!!!

They also have this tofu that spells so bad it is called stinky tofu.  It does not taste amazing. 

Part II Taiwan!
The second day we went hiking with Erin's dad and brothers!

Next day we went sight seeing!! 

 National Palace Museum entrance!!!

 Feeding the fish at the Palace!!!

 People practicing meditation at the palace!

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Taiwan love statue!!!!    

Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!  On February 10th this year is officially Chinese New Year and the beginning of the year of the snake!  This is time to be with family and friends!  Usually it is called spring festival and can last up to two weeks.  During the holiday people wear red, decorate with poems on red paper, and the adults give children "lucky money" in red envelops.  It is believed that each new year a kind of monster comes and the red symbolizes fire, which according to the legend  can drive all the bad luck and monsters away!  I had a two week break because of Chinese New Year so I was supper excited! But before break at school the Chinese assistants helped us celebrate the New Year!  We made sweet balls and dumplings!!

Candy the kids make dumplings filled with pork and green onions!

Lynn making sweet balls!  

Sweet balls are dough with chocolate in them and then bowled and ate as a sweet soup!

 The first week of my break I just relaxed!  It snowed!!!  I was so excited, and I felt like a kid!!

View from my apartment!

I also went to Teppanyaki Hibachi Grill with my co-worker  Nicole!

Then I was off to Taiwan with my friend Erin to celebrate Chinese New Year with her family!!! Taiwan was amazing and much warmer than Shanghai!!  I flew in to Taipei the capital of Taiwan.

When you to someones for new year it is tradition to bring fruit!  So Erin and I took a walk and found a fruit stand that was open!  Taiwan has a lot of great fresh fruit!  The best fruit I ate was a wax apple! It was my first time having one and they look funny but they are delicious! 

These are mini pineapples!!!  They are so cute!

These are wax apples or that is what they are called in english!  They look like tomatoes but a spongy and sweet!  

More to come!!!

Glass Museum

Last Friday we took the kids to the Shanghai Glass Museum!  The museum was newly opened in a campaign to create 100 new museums in a decade.  The museum is an old former glass making plant and incorporates the original architecture.  The outside of the building is covered in glass and inscribed in ten different languages all over the building are several terms from the glass industry.  The students first wondered around the museum. The students first watched a man make glass beads and repair a glass pig.

  The kids had a great time exploring the different ways to use glass and how it is effected by light!

   After the small glass demonstration we took a great group picture down below.

 Next we went to the large studio!  First the man made a glass snake for Chinese New Year since it is the year of the snake.  Then the man made a big pumpkin with a stem. It was really amazing!!

Lastly the students each got to paint a glass to take home to their family.  The kids had such blast!!!