Sunday, September 14, 2008

Vietnam

Hello all,
So I've been a little slow on posting pictures from my travels in the past year. However, for the past two days here in Taiwan there has been a typhoon, leaving my apartment ridden. In this time I've put together my photos of when I visited Vietnam in February. There are a lot of pictures, but the trip was for 16 days and we did many things. Have a look at a few if you want to get an idea of what it's like there and to see what we did and saw.
Click on the link to my web albums below and then click on Vietnam. You can then view the slideshow by clicking on the slideshow tab.
Alright, time to head to bed. Take it easy.
Jon

Saturday, May 17, 2008

China and Hong Kong

Hello everyone,I haven't put up any pictures or blog postings in the past 10 months. I'm still working here in Taiwan at Cornel Langauge School as the director of rainbow time magazine. It keeps me busy, so things are going pretty good. I've signed another contract for a third year. I like to travel around, but this might be the last year... I'll see.
In the past four months, I've had the opportunity to travel to Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong and China. So if you click on the link below, you will be directed to my picasa photo album. Click on the album "Hong Kong and China" and click on slideshow to see the pics. I put them all in one folder instead of breaking it up, so there are quite a few pics. Hope you enjoy them. I'll be posting the ones from the Philippines and Nam in the next few weeks.
I'll be home on June 28 for three weeks, so I may see some of you then. I do hope to spend quite a bit of time salmon fishing on the west coast, so I mightn't be on the east coast very much... maybe only for half the time... we'll see...
Alright, take it easy and I'll talk to you later...
Jon

Sunday, August 12, 2007

My Students

Hello there everyone,
After people asking for a long while, here are some pictures of my students. Well, in actual fact, they aren't my students anymore. I finished with them at the end of June, but they were my students here for a year.
I've been working at a private school here in Taichung, called Cornel. The kids go to Chinese school in the mornings and come to our school in the evenings. I teach the grade 1's (The Ducks Class) from 2:00 to 5:00, four days a week, and teach the grade 3's (The Salmon Class) from 5:00 to 7:00 three days a week. We have an American curriculum that we teach from, which focuses on reading, writing, grammar and phonics. I have about 10 hours a week of prep and sometimes have an extra class (chess or graduates) for a couple of hours a week to make up my hours or as overtime. We have two campuses. I teach at the main campus (Nan Men Road Campus). I think we have an enrollment of about 300 at our campus, and our school goes from kindy (three levels of ages 3, 4, and 5) to grade 6. It's a bit different teaching at a private school, but still a good time. The kids here are beautiful, but still are kids and don't differ much from the ones at home when it comes to behaviour. They are much more innocent though. These kids come from very well off families. Most of their parents are doctors, lawyers, government officials, professors, businessmen and businesswomen, and so on. The kids will end up getting scholarships for universities in the states and Canada and become whatever their parents tell them to be. Most of them will move back here and work, taking care of their parents when they retire. I find that a lot of the times, children here are investments for parents. Someone to take care of them (financially) when they're older. So, their parents will make them work hard and become someone who earns a lot of money so that their own future is secure.....
The first group of students are my grade 1 class. I had 12 (I find that this is much better than 32, like back at home). This class is a mixed abilities class, so the students are either average or weak. There may be some in the class, however, that are eventually moved up to the accelerated class. I had three of mine move up this year, for example.
The second group of students are my grade 3 class. This is an accelerated class. They are very, very smart. Many times, I just have to explain the lesson to them once (if needed at all) and then get them to do it. They all usually have it done in half the time expected with all of the work correct....they are very bright and will probably be performing surgery on me in twenty years.....
The last pictures are of my class I teach on Friday evenings. They are students who have graduated from Cornel and come back to keep their English in check. They have very busy lives and are burnt out by the time they get to the class at the end of the week, but I try to make it exciting and fun for them; I beat them at scrabble every now and then. They don't stop though. All they do is study, eat, drink, study, sleep, study, eat, and study. That's on the weekends. They tell me their schedule for the week and it's crazy. I like being a teacher in Asia, but I would rather be a student in Canada.
After all of that talk, you can now click on the link below to go to my albums. Click on My Students and view slideshow.
Okay, time to get ready for bed. Take it easy and I will hear from some of you soon.
Remember....I'll be home in December......woohoo.....
Peace be with you people,
Jonathan

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Harbour Front Beach and Dragon Boat Festival

Hey all of you people,

A quick note to say hi and let you see some pictures. In June (I'm a little behind on my blogging) I went to the harbour front, hung around, ate shrimp, and went for a walk on the beach. A couple of pics of that. Also, a few days later was a national holiday for the dragon boat festival. Dragon boat races were held all over Taiwan...I went to one of them with some friends...it was a good and very hot time. Some pictures of that as well. Just to let you know, my lens got fogged up and some of the pics are a bit blurry. Have a look anyway......click on the link below or type it in your URL space at the top....then, click on the album for the Dragon Boat Festival....

Everything else is fine....I will be going home on December 14th for Christmas.....Oh Happy Day!!! Gravy, potatoes, turkey, gravy, dressing, gravy, and, may I add, gravy.....it will also be great to see the family, friends, and dog.

Well, time to run....I will send another blog soon of my students.....I've said that too many times, I know, but I got the pics ready to upload.

Later,
Jonathan

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Singapore!

Hello all,

I hope you are doing well and that you have made it through the cold winter. I have been doing well....I am in a state of denial that the salmon are starting their way up the river and I am not there to tempt them with one of my self-made salmon flies. I'm sure if they knew I wasn't there and over here, they would have made their way up the river earlier, with less worries on their mind.....

So, I won't be home for the season of fly fishing, however, there is a season for everything....I'm over here now and may never get the chance again, so I will enjoy myself while I'm here. On that note, I was to Singapore about a month ago and had a fabulous time. I got there on a Thursday afternoon and hung around the downtown area. In the night I went to see Phantom of the Opera in the Esplande Theater on the waterfront. The next day, I went to the zoo in the afternoon and had an awesome time.....I love animals. In the night I went on a night safari.....very cool! On Saturday I spent the day going around the city, taking pictures of the sites and going to the markets.....I'm not one for shopping for silk, bags, shoes, and necklaces....but it was cool to go around the area. I spent the rest of the day at the waterfront. In the night I got to go see A Midsummer Night's Dream on the edge of the forest in one of the parks in the city......another great experience. I ended off my trip by going to Long Bar in Raffles Hotel. It is where the Singapore Sling was invented and a good place to listen to a live band and hang out.....

I got home on Sunday with no food poisoning and got put up to first class on the flight back, so everything went smoothly......

Below is the link to my photo albums. Just click on the Singapore album and watch the slideshow......

Have a good day......

"The Gecko" should be posted tomorrow.....

Jonathan....

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Honourable Mention

Hello all,
Here are the last few pictures of Cambodia. They are just pictures of things that we thought were interesting and/or funny. Although only a couple are mine (Adam, Katie and Faye's pictures), most are worth posting to view. Some of them I wasn't even present for. So, click on the link and view. I leave for Singapore in a couple of hours, so I will have a few pictures from there put up in a week or so.
Have a great day!
Jonathan

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Tuolsleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields

Hello all of you,
I decided to put up the pictures from the Tuolsleng Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields from when I was in Phnom Phen. There were about 1.5 million killed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979.
As stated in wikipedia.com
The Khmer Rouge
"The Khmer Rouge regime is remembered mainly for the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million people (estimates range from 850,000 to 3 million) under its regime, through execution, starvation and forced labor. Although directly responsible for the death of a large amount of that number, the policies of the Khmer Rouge led many others to die from starvation and displacement. In terms of the number of people killed as a proportion of the population of the country it ruled (est. 7.5 million people, as of 1975), it was one of the most lethal regimes of the 20th century. One of their mottos, in reference to the New People, was: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss." Because of its undeniable brutality, most people in the communist movement today deny that the Khmer Rouge in any way represented real communism."
The Killing Fields
"The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge communist regime which ruled the country, as Democratic Kampuchea, from 1975 to 1979. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million. The Khmer Rouge judicial process, for minor or political crimes, began with a warning from the Angkar, the government of Cambodia under the regime. People receiving more than two warnings were sent for "re-education", which meant near-certain death. People were often encouraged to confess to Angkar their "pre-revolutionary lifestyles and crimes" (which usually included some kind of free-market activity, or having had contact with a foreign source, such as a US missionary, or international relief or government agency, or contact with any foreigner or with the outside world at all), being told that Angkar would forgive them and "wipe the slate clean". This meant being taken away to a place such as Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek for torture and/or execution.

The executed were buried in
mass graves. In order to save ammunition, executions were often carried out using hammers, axe handles, spades or sharpened bamboo sticks. Some victims were required to dig their own graves; their weakness often meant that they were unable to dig very deep. The soldiers who carried out the executions were mostly young men or women from peasant families.

The Khmer Rouge regime arrested and eventually executed almost everyone suspected of connections with the former government or with foreign governments, as well as professionals and intellectuals. Ethnic Vietnamese, ethnic Chams (who were and are Muslims), Cambodian Christians, and the Buddhist monkhood were the demographic targets of persecution.

The best known of the Killing Fields is Choeung Ek. Today, it is the site of a Buddhist memorial to the terror, and Tuol Sleng has a museum commemorating the genocide. A 1984 motion picture, The Killing Fields, tells the story of Cambodian journalist Dith Pran, played by Cambodian actor Haing S. Ngor, and his journey to escape the death camps."
Tuol Sleng

"Formerly the Tuol Svay Prey High School, named after a Royal ancestor of King Norodom Sihanouk, the five buildings of the complex were converted in 1975 into a prison and interrogation centre. The Khmer Rouge renamed the complex "Security Prison 21" (S-21) and construction began to adapt the prison to the inmates: the buildings were enclosed in electrified barbed wire, the classrooms converted into tiny prison and torture chambers and all the windows were covered with iron bars and barbed wire to prevent prisoner escapes.
From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (some estimates suggest a number as high as 20,000, though the real number is unknown). The prisoners were selected from all around the country, and usually were former Khmer Rouge members and soldiers, accused of treason. Those arrested included some of the highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage," these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were often brought en masse to be interrogated and later murdered at the Choeung Ek extermination centre.

Even though the vast majority of the victims were Cambodian, foreigners were also imprisoned, including
Vietnamese, Laotians, Indians, Pakistanis, British, Americans, New Zealanders and Australians."
It was sad to see the place where most of the genocide and torture occured; it was quite a depressing day. I hope that by viewing the pictures you will get a little bit of the sense of what happened during the time of the Khmer Rouge.
Click on the link and then click on the album.
Have a good day. You are free.
Jonathan