(SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Dean says the Democrat position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.

Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.

"The White House wants us to have a permanent commitment to Iraq. This is an Iraqi problem. President Bush got rid of Saddam Hussein and that was a great thing, but that could have been done in a very different way. But now that we're there we need to figure out how to leave. 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and it's their country."

Dean also compared the controversy over pre-war intelligence to the Watergate scandal which brought down Richard Nixon's presidency in 1974.

"What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate," Dean said. "It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people."


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I won't even try to reply to what Dean is saying. There is no point.

Guys, we are fighting two enemies. We are fighting the terrorist who want to kill us all, and we are fighting the people who want us to let them kill us.

Ok, so we are back from Taiwan. It was an awesome week and I am extremely, very happy to be back home in Kinmen. (For those of you wondering, we actually say "Going to Taiwan" whenever we leave Kinmen and go to the large island...the people here consider themselves to be Kinmenese, not Taiwanese.)

This past week was our Thanksgiving "break". I say "break" because it wasn't really anything of the sort...but it was still a very good week. Friday we left Kinmen and went to Taow Ywen county. They hosted us at a Jr high school for troubled kids. Friday and Saturday we did touring and Sunday went back into Taipie for church. Monday we had a press conference and then from Monday to Thursday taught in the schools in the area...some really awesome schools. Then Thursday we went back to Taipie for Thanksgiving with the Chen family (an IBLP family that does ministry over here) and then Friday and Saturday mornings we had meetings and then afternoons free...Saturday afternoon we went come to Kinmen (yea!).


After an hour flight, we go off the plane and where greeted by Ben. He took us to the bus we that we drove around in for the next several days. Once on the bus I sat down near Joh-Eric, who I worked with in Memphis doing CharacterFirst! It was really good to see him again.
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After taking us to the dorm to drop our stuff off, we were taken to this bridge. Walk across it and up the hill a little ways and you come to a really cool old street filled with tourist traps. I think they should send the Taow Ywen goverment people all over Taiwan to teach them how to give tours: they just told us what time to be back and let us roam. That was really nice. And very fun.
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Ben and Joh-Eric quickly found the play ground.
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Then Friday they took us to ??? (literally "Small People World"), which kinda like a theme park. The first half was a bunch of really cool minitures (some of which weren't all that miniture) and then the second half of the park had some rides (but only one really good one).
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great wall of china
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They even had a model of Kinmen...although, if you asked me, it doesn't look much like it. At any rate, this is a picture of Jing Chun, the town we live in.
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While I was looking at the Kinmen model, a college age girl came running up yelling "Kinmen! My home!" in Chinese. So I turned to her and asked if she was from Kinmen. She said yes and I told her I was also. So in very Taiwanese college age girl fashion, they all had to have their picture taken with me....which was kinda funny. I then snapped this picture of them...the girl in the bottom left is the Kinmen girl.
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Megan and Sandy by the Great Wall.
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Wouldn't you love to have one of those in your living room? This was at a tourist trap at the theme park. Pretty cool, huh?
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just being different
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then lucas punched her lights out...
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I didn't want a typical picture either...
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I've actually been to this place...really cool
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Sunday we went back into Taipie for church and then had lunch at the King Car office. This is me with Jack and Vivian, two wonderful Christians. I worked with Vivian during winter camps and Jack was my TA and roommate during summer camps. Both really cool people.
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Ginger...who is very cute-uu (probably only BJ will get thise one...)
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Ok, a little King Car/English teacher history. Last year Ben was the overall leader for our teams. And because of that, whenever we had a press conference, Sandy and Morgan Sun (our boss and the president of King Car, respectively) would make a very big deal of Ben's Chinese. However, the fact of the matter is, Ben's Chinese is very poor. So it always looked kinda silly when he would try to talk in Chinese after they finished saying his Chinese was so great. But this year Lucas is our overall team leader...so he gets up to talk and he's like (in Chinese) "Should I speak Chinese?" Everybody says he should. So he says (again in Chinese) "Ok. First I want to ask my brother to come up here and help me translate." And we're all like "Huh? Why does he need Andrew to translate? But then Andrew comes up and Lucas gives an amazing speech...very natural and relaxed. And after each sentance Andrew translates it into Taiwanese!

Dude, our teams Chinese skills so totally rock. My Chinese is the worst on our team, and yet my Chinese is better than anybody on any of the other teams! Our team just totaly rocks!
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Nantou team...some really cool people. Top left is Daniel, who I hung out a lot with this past week...he's a really cool guy with a great heart for the kids he works with. Middle is Naomi, who is totally crazy and really cool. This last week was my first time to meet her. Then there's Joel, their very silent team leader. He is cool. Bottom left is Kristen, who I worked with for a few days before going home this summer. I hung out with her some this week and really enjoyed getting to see her again. Then there's Mia (said "My"), who is also really cool. Nantou also has one other team member, but her granpa died and so she flew home to go to the funeral.
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a strange team...
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one of the big reasons they are strange...
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Daniel...another reason they are so strange.
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So the Taow Ywen goverment gave each of us a gift at the press conference...ties for the guys and skarves for the girls. For the picture they decided to each wear it in a different way...and this is how Meagan chose to wear her's. Girl you so rock.
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I also love the way Ginger wore her's (second from right).
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Then Monday afternoon we went to our first school...they did a big performance for us before our large group...it was awesome. They did a really, really cool drum performance. It was loud, but it was awesome. They were really good.
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Then they did a dragon dance. I've seen better dragon dances (it's really, really cool when done well) but this one wasn't bad either.
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And then some of the 5th grader girls did a little dance they had come up with by themselves for our arrival.
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That night did a "party" for the kids at the Jr. high we were staying at. For the skit Daniel and I were twins, so we dressed the same and did some very crazy stuff together..it was a hoot.
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twins
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Then the kids did a smal performance as well...here's some of them doing their aboriginal dancing
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Then the rock band played. To be totally honest, they sounded horrible. They couldn't sing and their drummer had no sense of rythem. But it was a hoot anyway. It's really hard to describe if you don't know the culture, but just the fact that they would try something like that even if they weren't that great at it is reall cool. Problem students are so cool over here...the good kids tend to be boring. (BJ, you know what I'm talking about, right?)
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I left my heart back in Taow Ywen with these Jr. high kids.
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Really cute 7th grader
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Wednesday morning the Kinmen team got to actually teach at the Jr. High we were staying at (the one for troubled kids). I taught the 9th grade. It was so totally awesome and it really made me miss teaching Jr. high. The principle later told us that he esp. wanted to thank me, because he'd never seen the 9th graders so serious in class before.

Since leaving Taow Ywen these kids have been calling us really often, asking when we will come back. Sunday one of them actually called me at 1 in the morning. We are making plans right now to go back over there for a weekend right after Christmas.
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You can see so many things in these kids eyes. Both pain and an amazing openess to love and be loved. None of them have both a mother and father at home. Most have been abused, either physically or sexually. Many cut themselves. But show them just a little love and they flock to you like moths to a light. Half the school was crying when we left the school. I am amazed to see all these kids have come through and still have the ablility to love and to trust. They are truly amazing kids.
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with 9th graders (and one 7th grader in front)
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IYan...really cool Christian dude with amazing English
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Wednesday afternoon we taught a teachers conference. That was really fun. The teacher on the bottom left in the blue shirt was awesome. I really wish I could visit her class and just watch her teach and learn.
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Thanksgiving with the Chens! Awesome food!
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Charades.
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Jon-Eric dancing
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Ginger blowing a wistle
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Mia blowing a wistle
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Super with Janice and Julie, two TA's from winter camp. Oh, and Mia.
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English over here can be really funny sometimes...
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So, that was last week. Very fun, but dude, I am so glad to be home in slower moving, less crowded and less stinky Kinmen.

Here you go BJ...a picture of Susan! I don't know what I would have done without her help making supper on Sunday...dude, that girl rocks! Went to the store together, she told me what to buy and then helped me get it all put together. And it tasted really good too.
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Very cool thing...VeggieTales songs in Chinese! With bu pu mu phu! Yea!
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Michelle and Sophie from Monday night class.
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More cooking. Rebekah made grilled cheese sandwiches for us as well...thank you Bekah!
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And that's all for right now. Sorry, no time for a real update...I've got to plan for tomorrow's classes and get to bed at a respectable hour (ha! like that's going to happen...)

You are Romans.


Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

So...I am Romans. Interesting.

Ok, I totally don't get Kiwi. Would somebody please tell me what a Japanese horror movie with Chinese subtittles has to do with English class? Yes, I know it's the week after mid-terms and it's ok to maybe do something a little funner (is that a word?) and less serious...but a Japanese horror movie for English class? Please! I try to bring some control to the class room at times (in spite of his total lack of effort in that direction) but sometimes when the kids are going wild I have a hard time telling them they should pay attention to the teacher...why should they? He's not teaching them anything anyway!

I am now at over 170 character that I can both read and write. Also, today I found a person who might possible be able to help me with the writing side of things...she went though some of my writing and corrected some mistakes I'd made. Hopefully she'll be willing to do that every once in a while and make sure I'm doing it right. I used to ask James to help me, but he's gone now and Terry has horrible handwriting. And Joy doesn't really correct our home work...she just glances over it and makes sure it's generally acceptible. But I'm needing somebody to really make sure I'm doing it right.

Dude, pray for Claudia, a teacher I work with. She's been asking me questions about Christianity for a while now and last Sunday she came to Bible study. Now she's reading the Bible on her own and has been asking me some questions about that...and of course really cool things can happen when people start reading the Bible. So pray for her!

Tomorrow is Ning Jung Shiow...oh boy. I'm always on pins and needles when teaching the sixth grade there. I think I've got the boys on my side and for right now the girls as well...but I get the feeling that the girls still haven't made up their minds about me yet. And I'd actually rather have the boys in a class (esp a 6th grade!) turn against me than the girls. If the boys are against you then you can still do alright. But if the girls turn on you...you might as well pack up your stuff and head a back to the teachers office...don't even try teaching them. Hopefully in the next few weeks they will decide they like me for sure...tomorrow I'm playing a game involving candy, so hopefully that will help.

The good thing is that I've got the 5th grade totally on my side. There's a couple pretty perverted kids in that class, but also some really cool kids.

But I feel real sorry for the kids...their English teacher isn't all that good. Her English is rather low level and she doesn't teach that well either. One time I was watching a girl write out her home work...she was writing a sentance over and over...then she turns to me and says "Low si...gu si shu ma ee si?" ("Teacher, what does this mean?") The teacher had given them sentances to write without even telling them what the words meant...how annoying.

Hey, Thursday I've only got to teach two classes! All my 4th graders are going on a field trip...so I finish class at about 10 o'clock! Wee!

I have devoloped an interesting hobby in the past months. That of buying pens. I don't know why it is, but I've become addicted and actually end up buying one or two every week. The above picture is the pens that I carry around with me on a regular basis. I have three times that many in my room. Ginger tends to buy pens when she's angry: but I just buy pens and I'm walking past a stationary store and don't know what to with the change in my pocket.

Yesterday all my kids had mid-terms. For the first class I actually did teah a little bit: I read off the list of spelling words as part of the test and then even worked with them on translating a short reading portion. It's really cool that my Chinese has gotten to the point that I can read something in English, have the kids translate it, and catch mistakes they made.

But then the other five classes of the day I did nothing at all. Kiwi had tried to ask if I could just go home since I wouldn't be teaching any, but the school insisted that since I was getting paid I had to be in the class room the whole time! So in the back of the class room I sat, writing Chinese character for most of the morning and afternoon. I learned how to write ?, ?, ?, ?, and ?. I now know enough characters to write a few basic coversations completely in Chinese! Cool! But I have actually decided not to focus quite so much on characters as I have been: I think I really need to work on improving my spoken vocab. I know a lot of sentance patterns, but I often find myself in the middle of using them and I come to a dead end, because I don't know the needed vocab. to use that sentance pattern.

But dude, let me tell you, if you ever feel bad about your Chinese, you should just go to Sanwhy! You see, of the foriegners here in GingChun, most of us speak some Chinese. Everybody on the team can speak some and is working very hard on learning. Andrew and Ginger can both read menu's completely in Chinese and Meagan and Lucas are close behind them. Rebekah has awesome conversation skills. And, if I may say so myself, I can do fairly decent in getting my point across as well. Gabe (a cram school teacher) has really awesome Chinese as well and speaks some Taiwanese as well. So the only forgieners in GingChun who don't speak Chinese are the two college teachers. So the GingChun Chinese level is pretty good.

Sanwhy, on the other hand, is an entirely different mattter altogether! The Chinese level in Sanwhy is somewhere between pathetic and non-existant. The Canadian lady who teaches at the Jr. high there and her family don't speak Chinese. The South African mine-sweeping dude doesn't speak Chinese.

So yesterday on my lunch break I decide to go shopping. I walk into a tourist type shop and I'm just looking around. The owner is hovering behind me, acting kinda nervous, obviously trying to figure out how to communicate with me. Then I turn to her and ask "what type of thing is this?" A very simple, basic sentance. She about goes nuts. "WOW! Your Chinese is so good! Your accent is so good! You don't speak in a flat tone of voice! Wow! Amazing! Super!" I actually carried on a pretty long coversation with her: probably because it was just so good for my ego!

Then I go into another shop and (you guessed it!) buy a pen. I pick up a pen and say another very simple, easy sentance: "How much is this?" The lady in this store about flips out too. It was really a big ego boost: I walked back to the school totally ready to sit through to more clsses doing nothing but study my Chinese! Wee!

Guys, I feel like I'm living a dream. It's not perfect (dude, I wish I was back in Jr. high!) but it's amazingly awesome. I'm always busy, I'm learning, I'm teaching (something I've enjoyed) I have lots of time to hang out with my friends, I'm seeing lots of them starting to ask questions about Christ...guys, this is so the life.

Ok, I've got to go now. The family is going to be calling soon. Oh, btw, I'm judging an English singing compitition up at the high school later today: let's hope that goes well. Bye, love you guys!


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Quote for the day:
"Wow, today we learn so many things!"--Joy in Chinese class.

Summer, Gloomy and Elly in Small Kinmen
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Super with AFL students at Three Dogs
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Lucy tries her hand at leather tooling
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4th graders
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more 4th graders
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this is one of those "capture a moment" pictures...
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This is why you should always look behind you before making a left turn....there might be a moped coming up behind you...
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getting ready for a party? That's a lot of 58! (local very, very strong liquor)

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6th graders
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me and Lucy's girl
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Me and Lucy's boy
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Lucy, Meagan and Lucy's girl
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Jack, Me, Barbarian (yes, that's her name) and Sophie. Really cool 9th graders who I taught last semester and are now coming to English Bible study
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If I may say so...this is a really good picture. 5th grade
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Ken
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9th graders, Small Kinmen
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Cooking class
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very smoky
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???!
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902
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very much Meagan
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Pictures from here are on are from Sept...


We got home and Lucas decided to totally tear apart the living room. We threw so much stuff away it isn't even funny.
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Moody...THE dude
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Sea food party at Cal. pizza
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Octopus...
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Riddick, one of the new dorm kids.
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Peggy...this girl is something else
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Anne, George and Monkey
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Dorm people
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The coolest team!
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Don't ask...
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crafts
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Jen
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Peggy
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Riddeck and John
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Lisa and Anne
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Dorm people
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Peggy, the dorm mother and George.
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Ok, I've only got about 20 minutes before I need to head out to Small Kinmen, but I will try to recap my bike crash really quickly...

Basically what happened was we were going to the beach at ?? to swim. I was on the far right side of the road, going down a steep hill. I needed to make make a left turn to go down another road...but I didn't look behind me before turning. At the last moment I saw a moped coming up behind me...I jammed on the brakes, which was actually the wrong thing to do...if I hadn't slowed down everything would have been fine. As it was she hit my back tire, bending it up really good and knocking me over. I actually jumped off the bike before it hit the ground rolled, so I wasn't hurt. The moped driver went flying and slid, hurting her knee. She quickly got up, hobbled over to her moped and drove off though...I'm not even sure who she was: she was wearing a face mask (lots of people over here do when they are driving their mopeds). At any rate, I was fine, but I had to walk my bike about 2 miles back home. And of course everybody stared and laughed...it was interesting.

Today I went up to the high school to watch their sports meet. That was really fun. They also had events yesterday, but I was teaching and wasn't able to go. I hung out mostly with my Small Kinmen kids, but got to visit a bunch of my other students as well. Lin (our friend from church) and his class did a dance routine to Audio Adrenaline's "Mighty Good Leader", which was cool. I asked Lin afterwards if understood the song...he said no. But he was really thrilled to find out it is a Christian song!

Oh my! There's a new Amarican here on the island! And get this: she's living at the dorm and will be teaching at the Jr. high here and in Small Kinmen...MY STUDENTS!!!!!! Dude am I jealous! She seems to be a nice person. But after meeting her, Lucy said she probably won't stay in Kinmen very long...and Lucy is very good at reading people, so I wonder how long she'll be here.

I think it's a good thing that I won't be seeing Sandy (our King Car boss) for a few weeks...if I saw her right now I think I'd slap her in the face. Maybe I'll have time to explain why later.

Oh good heavens! I had something really embarrasing happen to me the other day. I asked one of the dorm kids how to write a phrase in Chinese (??) so I could learn how to write it. So I was at school and since I wasn't teaching, I was writing Chinese. I wrote several lines and then decided that I had the last character down pretty good, but the first character still was hard...so I wrote several lines of just the first character by itself.

Then the bell rings and all my students came to see what I was doing...they started talking very excitedly and pointing to what I had written...I was totally lost until the teacher told me that the first character by itself is the Chinese version of the F word...isn't learning a new laungage fun?