Spirit Week 2014

Another Spirit Week has come and gone, and while it's always a fun week with lots of student energy, it left me exhausted this year! Does that mean I'm getting old? I hope not...

Luckily our 6th graders were pretty into it this year and managed to get themselves fairly organized for the different events. I was (per usual) in charge of the bulletin board along with Lisa and Nikki. The kids picked a fun theme this year (outer space), but at first we were a bit skeptical of the their ability to actually get the board done since most of our lunch "work sessions" consisted of 6th graders gossiping amongst themselves instead of cutting out spaceships. But by the end of the week they managed to get everything up on the board and won 2nd place! A good way to end the week :)

After getting 3rd place two years in a row, we finally managed to get 2nd! Woohoo!

We beat out 8th grade's board....though I actually thought theirs was pretty cute.

Here is the week in review via pics! [Sidenote: the pics aren't the best quality - sorry!]

Day 1: Clash Day. To be honest, not my favorite dress-up day.

Day 2: Pajama Day. Always a favorite!

Teachers enjoy staying in their pajamas, too!

Feeling excited about our pajamas and stuffed animals!!

Ready for the Tuesday games to start...

6th grade got knocked out in the first few rounds of musical chairs. Oh well.

A knight and a pig cape...isn't this what everyone wears for pajamas?

Day 3: Multiples Day...and that meant minions amongst the 6th grade teaching team! We mean business.

We won the award for best costume. Obviously. 

I like that not one of my teaching partners hesitated about dressing up as minions :)

Day 4: Cartoon Day! We were the Powerpuff Girls.

Powerpuff Girls with Professor Utonium (aka Bill Fillbach)

We needed labels so that the kids would know who we were...

Crazy hair day! This is as crazy as I could get by Friday....

And I'm really just glad that we get to wait a whole year until Spirit Week rolls around again!

Vietnam Vacation

As mentioned many times in previous posts, one of the best things about teaching abroad is the easy access to exotic locations. I've managed to visit many places that I never even dreamed about 4 years ago. Unless you have unlimited time and funds, it's extremely difficult to hit the Asian "hot-spots" coming from the US. What is a grueling 24 hour or more journey from America becomes just a hop, skip, and a jump when you're already based over here. The other thing that makes travel easier when you're teaching abroad is the vacation time! In East Asia, most schools get a Chinese New Year holiday break only a few weeks after Christmas vacation...and TAS is no exception!

This year Jordan and I decided to head to central Vietnam, an area that I had never been to and Jordan had not visited in about 10 years. One of our good friends at TAS used to live in Vietnam, and he always said that his favorite area in Vietnam was the middle, so we were pretty excited to see if it lived up to his descriptions. We also found a great deal on plane tickets - not an easy feat during Chinese New Year as LOTS of people travel at this time. The perfect vacation plan was formed!

After a pretty adventurous and busy Christmas vacation (see the previous Myanmar post), both of us really just wanted to sit by a pool, sip on some cocktails, and eat copious amounts of fresh Vietnamese food (nom, nom, nom). We booked a big hotel in Da Nang, right on what used to be called "China Beach," which was the R&R site for American soldiers during the Vietnam War. The beach was nice and quiet, and the hotel also provided a free shuttle into the old port town of Hoi An - a perfect place to do some (ok let's be honest, LOTS of) shopping and eat local cuisine.

Poolside action

Being the captive model for Jordan's photo shoots in Hoi An...it's a hard life :)

View of the river going through Hoi An

Attempting to take a photo without ANY scooters in the frame proved to be pretty difficult!

Finally got one!

One of the many secret alleys among the streets of Hoi An

Trying to haggle for scarfs can be utterly exhausting.

Fresh spring rolls - we had these every day and they ROCKED!

Jordan spied a banh mi stand...and I just crossed my fingers that it didn't make us sick...and it didn't!

Best dollar we spent the whole trip.

This was my favorite meal of the entire trip. Rich paper wraps with fried spring rolls, grilled pork, Vietnamese kimchi, and fresh veggies. Drooling yet?

In the process of wrapping

Ready to eat!

And the final carnage :)

After reflecting on the trip, I think our friend Bill had it right - central Vietnam is the place to be! With the great food, the friendly people, and the big beach, we couldn't have asked for a more relaxing vacation. I would definitely recommend a trip to Hoi An!

Reflections on Myanmar

If three words could explain my Christmas 2013, they would be: buddhas, temples, and gold. Clearly this was an atypical Christmas holiday for me - rather than going home to snowy Colorado like last year, I decided to stay in Asia in order to go explore a country that's always been on my want-to-visit list: Myanmar [formerly known as Burma]. Luckily I had a trusty fellow explorer who was willing to go with me...Jordan! It was definitely weird to not be home with family on my favorite holiday of the year, but we made memories that will last a long time. It's quite an intriguing country on the brink of so much change, yet one that still retains elements of its dynamic past.

We started planning the trip back in September, so I had been anticipating the trip for a few months. We ended up using a tour company because it made it SO much easier to deal with the logistics of traveling domestically. Myanmar still has a weak infrastructure and it's difficult to book some things (like flights) online. [If you're interested in a tour company for Myanmar, we would recommend Sun Bird Tours]. Having the tour company organize everything also took the stress off of me! :)

Our trip lasted a total of 12 days - lots of time to explore various parts of the country. We visited five different main cities/sites, which made for a pretty busy trip! Here's a breakdown of the places through photos and comments.

Yangon: This city was the former capital of Myanmar [the capital was moved to the brand new city of Naypyidaw in 2005 for dubious reasons] and is still the commercial hub of the country. We spent two nights here total - one on the way in, and one on the way out. It reminded me of a mixture of Phnom Pehn, Dhaka, and Hanoi...a bit of a combo of South Asia and Southeast Asia. The first site we visited was the famous Shwedagon Pagoda, which is the pride of the country and is completely encased in gold leaf! On our last night, we did a walking tour of the downtown area, which is full of buildings from the British colonial era. Quite the contrast!

Posing in front of the golden glory of the Shwedagon Pagoda.

The Supreme Court of Myanmar - in the old British colonial building.

Kyaiktiyo: Our one-night stay up at the famous "Golden Rock" was quite possibly the most adventurous part of the entire trip. When we were organizing the trip, Jordan spied a picture of this golden pagoda online and we decided that we had to go! To get there, we drove four hours south of Yangon into the Mon State, which brought us to the base of the mountain that we then needed to scale! Our tour guide kept telling us that we would need to take a "mountain truck" to the top, and it was a hilarious experience. We were packed into the back of an open-air truck with about 40 local people who were on a pilgrimage up to the pagoda. Every time we went over a bump in the road, they let out a big yelp of excitement! It was a long hour ride. The rock itself is absolutely stunning. We arrived with the perfect amount of time to get sunset photos, and then we headed for our hotel because it got chilly when the sun went down!

Ready to head up in the mountain truck!

Here's our trusty truck!

The Golden Rock in all its shiny glory! Legend has it that the rock is held up by Buddha's hairs...I guess we'll never know!

As the sun set, the temperature dropped. Brrr!

Bagan: Bagan was the capital city of a former Burmese kingdom from around the 13th century. Many people call it the "Angkor Wat of Myanmar" because of its resemblance to the incredible temples of the Cambodian site. In some ways it is more stunning because of the sheer number of temples that are still intact - over 2,000! We spent three days exploring the various temple complexes and markets around the ancient city. The history nerd in me loved this place! It was a pretty cool place to spend Christmas Day.

Caught in the act! I couldn't resist taking a bazillion pics!

Some of the temples have been restored and are still in use - like this super shiny one!

It wouldn't be a great trip without a bike tour - our favorite!

Sunset over Bagan on Christmas Day

Mandalay: The name of this former capital of Burma exudes exoticism, but unfortunately the truth does not match the fantasy. We found the city to be pretty polluted and crowded, which was unfortunate because there were a lot of great sites around the city that we really enjoyed. Luckily we spent most of our time seeing these sites and managed to avoid the city itself for most of the daytime. This is where I found it to be most evident that Myanmar is still a developing country.

Hanging out on the famous U-Bein's Bridge - the longest teak wood bridge in the world.

A former monastery of King Thibaw - the last king of Burma.

The building in the background was supposed to become the tallest stupa in the world, but they gave up after only making it a third of the way!

View over the Irrawaddy River with Mandalay in the background.

Inle Lake: We were so happy that we ended our trip at Inle Lake as this was the most peaceful and serene part of the journey. From the airport to the hotel took about two hours because our hotel was literally on the lake - built on stilts - and the only way to get to the hotel was by boat. The local fisherman of the lake are famous for their unique way of fishing; they stand on one leg while paddling with the other. It was quite a sight to see! We had a great tour guide at the lake who did a wonderful job showing us around without making it too hectic - just what we needed at this point. She even took us to one of the vineyards in the area! Definitely a win in my book. If I could recommend just one place to go in Myanmar, I would tell people to go to Inle.

One of the local fisherman hard at work.

Touring around the lake on our own personal motorboat!

Posing with our super cute tour guide, Daphne. She was so tiny!

Our hotel on stilts! 

Last sunset at the lake. Those look like Broncos colors to me!

Overall, we had a wonderful trip where we learned so much about a country and culture that has been fairly inaccessible until recently. Right now seems to be an intriguing time in Myanmar's history as they try to figure out what direction the country will go - will they continue opening up to the world? Or will they revert to the isolationism of the past 50 years? Only time will tell, but if you have the chance to go in the next few years, you'll be able to catch the country before it hits the hight of tourism.

Restaurant Review: Noodle Flat

Now that winter weather (well...kind of winter-ish) has descended upon Taipei, it's time to tuck into some beef noodle, one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes. Luckily there's a great spot in Tianmu that's delicious, trendy, and absolutely affordable. Called "Noodle Flat," it opened a few months ago and has an easy to figure out English menu.

Easy-to-read English menu

Location: Just north of the intersection of Zhongshan N. Road and Dexing Road, Section 6 on the east side of the road. The outside is easy to spot as there is a plot of grass (strange I know) outside the front door. 

Modern looking exterior plus grass that is looking a little worse for the wear...

The dishes are simple and the menu isn't overwhelming. Jordan and I usually start with the mixed appetizer, which has a variety of traditional "small dishes" like tea eggs, seaweed, and pig ears. They also offer a bunch of different single dishes.

Mixed appetizer dish

I would definitely recommend their beef noodle soup as the meat is very tender and flavorful. It isn't a spicy broth like some places, but they have all of the traditional condiments so you can add additional spice if that's your jam. 

Yum...just looking at the beef makes me want to eat it NOW!

They have two different dumpling offerings: traditional and xiao long bao. The regular dumplings are yummy but nothing super special. The xiao long bao, on the other hand, are really good. They don't beat out Din Tai Fung's (let's be honest, what place could??) but for half the price and no waiting in line, they're a great deal. I don't have a pic, but I promise they're worth it. 

Traditional dumplings (a bit unceremoniously displayed on the plate)

If you're not in the mood for beef noodle soup, but still want to try Noodle Flat, they have different types of noodle dishes as well. Plenty of choice for everyone! Therefore if you're in the 'Mu and feeling the need for something new, this is a perfect spot to fill your craving!