| Shi Da is about a 20-minute bike or bus ride from home. This shows the
view from the language center. The two buildings on the right are the Far Eastern Hotel, and our apartment is just behind that. The monster building at the left is known as Taipei 101- the local "shrine" to western values. It is currenly the tallest building in the world, and its design is supposed to evoke bamboo. |
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| Lest you believe that I'm really learning Chinese, here's a demo of my practice book and an exam :-) |  (click for larger image) |
| First Class- March-May '05 The class was a good mix of nationalities and personalities- we had 3 Americans, 2 Indonesians, 1 Thai, 1 German, 1 Hong Kongnese, 1 Japanese, and 1 Brit. Everyone spoke English very well, which helped a lot. We started from nothing, and by the end, we could actually say a few things! We learned about 250 characters in that time. |
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| Our teacher- a really sweet, caring, and animated woman. She kept us laughing a lot. |  |
| Our Japanese classmate, Yoshie, got married in May, and many of us attended the wedding reception in Taipei |  |
| Some of our classmates, on the last day of class. |  |