No green beer here...nobody drinks at all...WHAT??

Hello Everyone

Well, it's been another week here in Taiwan.
A little more excitement than most weeks.
We recieved a care-package from Loretta, Mike and Jen, Patricia and David on Tuesday. Oh..it was great. Some Easter candy, candles, belated gifts for Michelle....the DVD "RENT"...the musical being one of them...we watched it tonight...it was great. The singing is great, as is the rest of the movie. We got some newspapers, peanut butter- Kraft- the real kind, and stickers, some postcards, and a bunch of great little things to use or give as gifts--once we leave.
Thanks so much!!!

On Wednesday, I had a meeting with the town hall regarding the accident I was in. Giant picked me up on scooter---my first scooter ride!! Ever since the accident I'm very paranoid just being on the streets, so it was kinda freaky.
The men that hit me in the accident arranged a meeting for the men on the board of the town hall commitie to have a small hearing about wether or not I should have to pay for his broken mirror from the accident. Can you believe it?
To make it worse they called Giant the day before asking to move the meeting ahead one day, Giant was sick and said no, he couldn't make it, but they moved it ahead anyway to make us look bad.....but then they didn't show up either. Weird? So when we get there to the town hall meeting, we find out about all the confusion. We were not very happy, and they didn't show up Tuesday or Wednesday or call to say anything to us or to the town hall. So Giant called them, and now we have a meeting March 29th at 9:30am, with the driver, his insurance company, Giant, the town hall board, and myself. Can this thing get anymore complicated?

In our town of Homei, the town hall settles traffic disputes, not the police. I found this interesting. No lawyers are involved, just the town hall board who act as mediators.

Michelle went grocery shopping yesterday and picked up some freshly made dumplings from the afternoon market...she'd been eyeing them up for a while now. It was worth it...supper was delicious!!

Then this morning Giant picked me up again and we went to the police station.
Apparently we can apply to see the police report from the accident and recieve any pictures taken from the scene....so we did. However, both meetings today, and yesterday involve me walking along side Giant while we search for our destination having everyone stare at me. Then once we arrive I stand and am told to sign here, sign there, and then stand around for half an hour while everyone talks about me....but not to me. Once we leave Giant always explains...but it's a very weird situation. Giant thought we ought to get the police report just so we look impressive to the town hall, to show them that we showed up for the meeting, that we have all the required documents and more. Why not...free scooter rides, escorted service to buildings I would normally never wander into on my own. The police station was beautiful, trees, plants, marble...Giant said the building was brand new and built from the tax payers money.....sound familar!!

Once I got to school today, I was in for another surprise. My Moms care-package finally arrived...she shipped it over a month ago. But it was great to recieve. WOW--mom the teaching supplies are perfect, we can totally use all that stuff, and the stickers and flags....are wonderful!! Thanks so much....but what about the candy and licorice??? Just kidding. The children love getting stickers so the children in our classes are gonna be well behaved for a while...oh thank you!

Tonight being Thursday, we did the usual of going to the night market for noodles, sweet potatoe fries, and dessert, and our 4 bottles of orange juice of course. Our means of transportation made us feel like we have been here to long already. Yep, tonight we truly fit in. Our roomate had the mens bike, so I drove the smaller bike, while Michelle sat on the rear bike rack holding on for dear life. It was quite an experience, I wish we had photos of this. We were just hoping the tires wouldn't pop!! That's method is quite common for people here, I've even seen 3 people on a bicycle..it's amazing.

Tomorrow we have our evaluations. We had Susan and Giant sit in on our classes last week, and finally tomorrow we will hear back from them in seperate private meetings. Mine is at 1pm and Michelle's is at 3pm. This is good cause I've been meaning to talk to them about some of the difficulties the teachers are having due to certain policies and staff. The amount we have to teach in a lesson is a lot to ask for in an hour and a half class. I'm sure everything will go well.

Our school has shown a lot of interest in our Sunrider business. They have asked us to do a presentation for them soon, so that is very exciting and promising.

Well that's it for now.
Can't wait to go out for supper tomorrow night!!!

Take care all!
If you ever want to e-mail us rather than comment on the blog it's
jeff.michelle@gmail.com but your comments get e-mailed to us as well.

Happy St.Patrick's Day!
Have a green shot of rye & lime for me!!
Jeff