On Lizards and oysters.

I was chatting with a couple friends from home, and I mentioned I was trying to remember what I had said I wanted to do before I left Taiwan. The only two things I could really remember were to explore Taiwan and learn some Chinese. So far, we've been doing both- especially thanks to our Chinese teacher, Amanda. She's more like a friend now, but we do still meet nearly every week to specifically learn Chinese.

One Saturday we had a small lesson, then drove to her home, just outside Tainan. We hiked a mountain, drove to the top to see the view and had a traditional Taiwanese meal (probably the best Taiwanese food we've eaten yet!!). It was a pretty sweet field trip!!

The next week Dave and I drove to the beach- not to swim, but just to walk along the shore. We LOVE it!!

I have no idea what kind of lizard this little guy is. He or she is pretty small, and reeeeally fast.

My grandmother used to blow glass- she has tons of it decorating her house, and Dave and I have a few pieces here and there (we even brought one with us- it hangs in our window!). It's a pretty cool art form, and one that I know little about (except what she's taught me). This guy wasn't blowing it, but his designs were pretty fantastic!!

The gang, after our 'hike.' (it was pretty leisurely)

A nice little panorama from the top of the mountain.

Dave likes to contemplate life.

Not actually much of an exaggeration to say my hair frequently looks like this. We joke about 'taming the beast' and that my students can tell if it's humid by how big my hair is. And it's growing SOOO fast!

There is this beautiful 'thing' sitting on the sand with a bunch of oyster shells hanging from it. We met an older couple who was also out for a walk, and they told us it was, in fact an oyster trap (we had suspected that's what it was), but that it was sitting up-side-down so people could see it. How cool is that!!