Ghost Festival~end of August

Ghost festival involves a lot of food on a table, insence, and burning of paper money...wear a mask this week becuase there is a lot of ash in the air.  This was very cool to watch, though because there were fires everywhere on the street. This video was taken ater many people had already gone, but there is still a fire burning.  We had a ghost festival right outside the school I work at as well as right outside my apartment buildings.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_festival

Ya Ming Shan National Park

This place is a 20 minute bus ride from Taipei City and there are trails that lead to hot springs!

These videos are of my bike rides

I rode from Xinzhuang to Fuda and back.  Xinzhuang is where i live and Fuda is where i work on fridays and where the fu ren university is where i hope to enroll in chinese classes in december.  The bike rides are only a little dangerous.   The thing about the traffic here is you cannot make any hesitations or any sudden movements as it all flows pretty well and everyone is anticipating everyone else's movements.  I love love love cruising around on my bike.  Notice how the scooters all line up at the 'starting line' to go when the light turns green and some of them don't even wait for the green light because the red lights do a countdown to green.  At the intersections, all the scooters try to beat the people in the crosswalk for a left hand turn.  if you are a pedestrian  watch out!!!!  There are three videos: one of me on my way out of the house, one of my way to fuda, and one of me on my way back home.  I filmed all of this with a baloon(which i widened the mouth of to fit around my video camera and then tie the rest of the baloon onto my helmet) and two rubber bands.  Also, i have a mask on which you'll see in the mirror in the elevator which is crucial if you don't want to have a sore throat all the time.  Riding my bike is so so fun!  I listen to RJD2 whenever i ride and my favorite songs to ride in this traffic to are: ghostwriter and smoke and mirrors; you can listen to them too while you watch if you want...i feel like it pretty much gives the mood of the flow of traffic.  anyway, they are kind of long videos, but i hope you enjoy them because i enjoyed making them.

Going out the house

Xinzhuang to Fuda night bike ride

Going back home

Snake Alley a.k.a. Hua Xi St. Night Market

The next few videos are of the Hua Xi St. night market.   It looks like most of the night markets here and the first video is of me and my friends Sam and Derrick taking shots of snake blood.  They are not that bad...a little like tabasco.  I took two.

The giant Albino Snake

Dan Shui Turkish Ice Cream Stand

Dan Shui ("dan shway") is about a 20 minute subway ride away from Taipei.  It is right on the ocean and it is like a boardwalk carnival.  There is an historic Dutch fort there as well.  This guy was fun; he made fun of me laughing at him, flipped off people taking pictures, and the ice cream was actually really good.  The stick he is sticking the ice cream to is metal and he has a trick for every trick you try at getting the ice cream.  Most I have laughed while in Taiwan :)  Below are a few more videos from the Dan Shui excursion.  My friends and fellow teachers are the people you see walking ahead of me; Lauren and Justin, Alex, and Stefani.