TeamWaWa and their crazy adventures

Taiwan Day 3 - Lovers Lake Park The day started a little less organized. We didn’t get the bus, so we had to take a taxi. It was 290 NT to go to the famous park. The park is free so that’s a bonus. We read online that it’s an easy hike around the mountain. I think our definition of easy isn’t the same as others. The stairs and incline are steep. Plus, it was very humid in this area. There’s no place in the park to buy snacks or drinks. Good thing, we planned for this and brought a cold water with us.  The park wasn’t very busy. There was a few tourist looking people, and some older people who looked like they came for the exercise. There was one annoying family who was playing their non English music through their speaker. Put on headphones! Be respectful to the people who want to hear nature. Side note: Asian culture does seem to be different in this area. Even people at the gym don’t always use headphones. Taiwan has beautiful green gardens and parks. Of course...

Day 2 - Wanli/Yehliu Day 2 of our Taiwan adventure started with a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. Bacon, eggs, ham, chocolate muffin, orange juice and coffee. ahhh! Good breakfast spread.  We caught the 790 bus and went to the Yehliu Geopark. The bus ride was free! It was an interesting ride going up the mountain. Plus, seeing an old man defecate himself.  The Yehliu Geopark was so pretty. 80NTD each. Well worth the money. Such pretty blue skies. Clear water. And of course amazing rock formations. We tried to make it to the beach area, but couldn’t find it. And didn’t feel like asking for help. So we went back to the Keelung hotel. Kristin took a nap. Matt watched English movies on HBO. We had dinner at a place called MOS Burger. Pretty good. And we went through the night market to get a deep fried Oreo and some egg wrapped hotdog with sauce.  We went by the famous bridges and enjoyed the night breeze. It started to rain so we went back to the...

Hello friends and family! Saturday, April 28, 2018 was Shane’s first annual 25k walk. Overall, it was a fun event. However, Kris has a few complaints. She was placed on a team that not physically fit. Also, the Chinese teachers were kept with their schools, and the foreign teachers were split up and placed anywhere. Not very fair in our opinion. Then you had people posting “suckers” about those not on a winning team. You could say it was much more of a marketing opportunity vs. a team building event. Anyways, here’s some photos from the event. At the very least it was good exercise. #shanechangzhou25k #teambuildinginchina #krisandmatt #livinthedream

Hey, Hey, Hey. We had an awesome time last night at the Changzhou Clay Arts Club. Tony, the owner, was super nice and accommodating. This was our first time attending a SUPCZ event. Well worth the 50 RMB! First, the club is in a quaint area. It’s by the New Century Mall or Christian Church. I think it’s still considered Tianning, but I’d personally say Zhonglou. Anyways, the area has old time architecture to look at. Besides the nice area, the clay sculpting was fun. Now, Kris has always been one to love pottery. She won an art show for her vase when she was a teen. And, Matt enjoyed art class in school. So, you could say that we are a creative couple. They taught us to make a fish. Making its scales was so tedious. And then the eyes....oi vei. HARD. We could keep the left over clay and make anything we want with it. It was a fun event. It would not have been as great of a night without getting some Hot Pot. We could try to explain Hot Pot but google would probably say it bette...

March is here has been pretty nice. We’ve had some clear days and sun the beginning of the month. Now there’s rain. March showers bring April flowers? Hey, at least there is no snow. What more can you ask for? We’ve been doing really well with going to them gym. Averaging around 4 gym days a week. Plus, teaching about 20 hours a week. ESL teaching can be good exercise if you have enough energy. Sometimes my Fitbit will register a “sport” from playing monkey in the middle or monster circle. Haha! We are slowly making plans for the summer. We want to go to Shanghai Disney. We’ve talked about visiting our friend Rob in the Harbin area. Cody’s post inspired us to reconsider Taiwan. But, remember, this Year is about SAVING! We need money for our Europe escapades. Stay tuned for more updates from us. We hope you are enjoying this Spring. #teamwawa #gymjunkies #adventuresinchina

Hello friends, family, and random passers! Eleven months in China. WOW! Our one year contract is almost complete. We’ve been talking about what to do next for months. We want to travel, we want to go home to America, we want to continue teaching. Teaching really is fun. Watching the kids grow and become more confident is amazing. As they learn more and more, they want to communicate with you more. Changzhou is an okay city in Jiangsu Province. It’s a hour fast train to Shanghai. It’s 5 hours fast train to Beijing. The metro is scheduled to open sometime in 2018. And it’s our first place to call home in China. We want something more though. We want a bigger city. However, we’d also prefer a prettier city. Cleaner air, bluer skies, maybe along the ocean. With us having college degrees and being native speakers, we have had a lot of recruiters and job offers. The top contenders were an international kindergarten in Dalian, a training school in Ningbo, a an international boarding sc...