Tainan

Tainan used to be a sleepy town in the southern part of Taiwan best known for its many temples. It is now a bustling city, fourth largest in Taiwan.

One of the great things about this program is that there are 47 of us scattered all over the island so there is usually a friendly face to spend a weekend with and to serve as host and tour guide. In thins case, it was a lovely woman from Indiana who, I have decided, has the best deal of any of us.

In addition to just being bigger, Tainan has 3 large universities with all the cultural opportunities that implies. She is out several nights a week at concerts, plays, ballets, etc. (I am home watching the rice ripen).

In addition to all the culture, there is a beach 30 minutes away, there is a train station AND an airport. This is without mentioning all of the interesting English speaking residents and the numerous wonderful restaurants. We went out for Greek food, for heaven's sake!

Just to make the jealousy total, we were comparing our teaching experiences. Here I am still trying to teach the kids their English names and she is reading "Dracula" with her 6th graders! Oh, it was hard.

We had a super weekend, though, mostly just walking around the city seeing the sights and eating whenever possible. I think the weather is even better there, it was great for being outside and they have wonderful wide sidewalks to make it a walkers delight. We even found two Halloween stores and a grocery store that sold Heinz ketchup and strawberry Twizzlers! I sweat the place was like coming home from camp.

I don't know whether or not I want to stay here another year, but if I do, it will only be with the promise of being in Tainan.



The temples are all still there, most impressive is the oldest Confucian temple which is very nice and tranquil. Some of the temples are so small they are barely the size of a doorway but very ornamental.