Click here for more pictures!

It's interesting to watch the girls over here try and wear revealing clothes. (yea, I know that sounds really bad, but give me a moment, I will explain)

Over here, tan is BAD. As in really, really, very BAD. So while you may want to wear something revealing, that will expose your skin to the sun, which is BAD. So the apparent solution is to go ahead and wear your revealing clothes, but then to wear non-revealing clothes over them. It's not at all uncommon to see a girl walking down the street, sweating all over and wearing a jacket backwards. I find this to be halarious, because you know that underneath that jacket is a revealing shirt of some sort that she probably paid an arm and a leg for and that she is extremely proud of, but of course nobody ever sees it. Is that actually funny or am I just strange?

Another funny thing over here is some of the things that they think work, but don't. Like their brooms. Now the concept behind a broom is very simple, and you would think that a civilization that has been around for thousands and thousands of years would have figured out (what did they sweep that gun powder up with, anyway?) But no! They are totally clueless when it comes to brooms. And they are confused whenever you talk to them about it. "What do you mean? Of course our brooms work! What are the brooms like in the USA?" And I can't describe the difference, or what exactly is wrong, but let me tell you, these brooms over here do NOT work!

Another thing is their spoons. Dude, it's no wonder they use chopsticks! These stupid things they call spoons are totally useless! And once again, they don't even realize it!

But at the same time, they've got stuff over here that I wonder why on earth we don't have in the states. When you go to get a drink, you can turn is upside down and shake it, put it in a bag, drop the bag in your bicyle basket and ride two miles without ever worrying that your drink will spill. Why? Because they seal the top of the cup with a sheet of plastic. Once you want to drink it, you simply poke the straw through the plastic and enjoy your drink. Drop it after you've poked it? No problem if you pick it up fast enough, because it's only one small hole. You only spilled a little bit. I very serioulsy wonder when these things are going to hit the states and everybody will love it and everybody in Asia will be like "What? You didn't have those before?"

I'm in Small Kinmen right now, enjoying my lunch break. I've got two classes after lunch and then I take the four o'clock boat back to Big Kinmen. Classes have gone really good so far. I love my ninth graders over here! They are totally awesome.

Yesterday was my birthday. Over here it is traditional to give away candy on your birthday, so I've been giving each of my students a sucker during class. It's going to total something like 530 suckers by the end of the week...

The team did a supprise birthday party for me last night. I was kinda expecting them to do something (because we've always done something for other people's birthdays) but I didn't have any inkling of when it would be until about three seconds before they said "happy birthday". BJ and I had been planning to go out to eat at a certain place for over a week and for one reason and another it kept on getting put off. So Monday Bonnie asked if I wanted to go eat there and I said yes. Since it had actually been my idea in the first place, I didn't suppect that she was using it to get me out of the way for an hour or so. Shawn and Ginger came with us and we had a blast. Then once we got home everybody was in the living room waiting for me. It was really cool. A few of our high school friends also came over, which was a hoot.

Yesterday I also learned how to write my Chinese name. I'd actually known how to do part of it for a while, but now I can write the entire name. I'm also learning how to write a couple other characters. Tomorrow I have a Chinese test and I actually haven't studied for it very much, because I've been working on the character stuff. But oh well. I've still got a full day to practice and I already know most of it (don't panic Anna...this is the exact same study pattern I followed last week and made a 95%).

Ok, I need to get off now. I'm about to fall asleep setting in this hot, quiet room, so I think I'll go walk around outside. God bless each of you!