Ants

Last year, during a typhoon, the ants decided to join us in the house that we were living in. This meant that the entire colony lived in our living room and dining room to avoid the rain. (In other words, they covered the entire floor) We spent a lot of time sweeping and putting them outside. We couldn't spray anything because part of the time, they were actually covering the floor in the kitchen. (We kept the counters, etc really clean, so they weren't there for the food) Besides this, our experience with the ants has been limited. (We think they liked the outdoors and then it just got too cold.)

It begin with seeing a few ants on the floors in our house. One time they were carrying a corn flake that had fallen on the floor. I didn't care that they were there because, well, it looked like they were cleaning our floors. (Free cleaning service?) We also have a trash bin solely for food products. It was weird because even though we had this bucket ALL year, the ants didn't attack it until 2 months ago. They have been doing this by climbing on the walls to the garbage bucket. Again, I didn't care because they were helping with the garbage. (Don't have to take it out)

Recently, though, they have been going through our shower to get into the wall. Phil was able to stop them once with glue. They probably ate through the glue (and took it back to their nests) and have been entering our house ever since. They also have been crawling over everything. They are on our curtains, our dressers, our counters, our shoes, our bibles etc. (Don't get worried, this isn't like that scene from the recent Indiana Jones movie. There may only be one on these objects, but it is still there.)

Phil and I have commonly referred to them as our pets. Reasons: (1) They eat our food (2) They have made our home theirs (3) They don't ask for a lot of attention and are focused

It is only 22 more days! (including weekends) 14 more school days! (Not that I am counting)

Mowing the lawn in Taiwan

A few weeks ago, I watched outside my classroom as the landscapers were mowing the lawn. (I know, we must be pretty bored because we are watching people mow the lawn.) There was another reason why I was watching the lawn being mowed the other day. I sort of got a video.

Pictures

I think that this may be the last of the blogs we do about our trip to Malaysia and the Philippines. Currently, Phil and I are really busy trying to get things together for an accreditation meeting happening on Monday for our school. Nothing to be scared about because it is our first meeting and our first year operating. We are just really busy. Phil and I got to go to Hong Kong last weekend because, well, Phil couldn't really stay in Taiwan any longer. He had to go early to get another visa and I joined him Friday afternoon. I would post pictures of our trip, but Phil took all the pictures and they are with him currently. We did go here, but these are not our pictures. Instead, enjoy more pictures of our Chinese New Year Trip. :)

World's Largest Flower. That is a large fly on the petal. This is about 3/4 of a meter across.

I am pretty confidant that the baby is the newest addition to the reserve.

Just so you can see who else was around.

We had the opportunity to go to Mount Kinabalu National Park, where you can hike to the tallest peak in the area. It was pretty neat to go to and the above picture was taken leaving our hotel. Those are clouds. The following pictures are the view of Mount Kinabalu from our hotel room. We would have climbed the mountain, but it takes 2 days and, well, you really need to be in shape, so we decided to just hike below the summit. (Walking for half a mile a day the week before does not define "being in shape",



This is the visitor center and the next few pictures are from our walk through the park. Also, you can see how messy it really was. It was really amazing!

Amazing!

More wildlife!

Here is some more wildlife from our trip. At some point we will actually begin posting about some things that we have been doing more recently...

While the orangutan was very exciting to see, we could also see it if we wanted to go to Indonesia. There is another primate that we can only see in Borneo. Because of this, we decided to splurge and headed to the proboscis monkey reserve located in the palm tree plantations surrounding Sandakan in Borneo. It was incredible and I am extremely glad we got to see these rare primates. While there, I got this video of an oriental pied hornbill.



And why we actually went:




There is one dominate male (The largest in the family) and he has a harem of women. This is one of the families.

Here are some pictures so you can see the proboscis monkey more clearly.

Orang utans

We had an awesome opportunity in near Sandakan, Malaysia in Borneo. We got to go to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation center! It was amazing and I am really glad we decided to drive 5 hours to see it! We got to see many different wildlife while we were there and in fact, I am confident we got to see this new orangutan. Here are some videos:

After staying a few days in Malapascua, we headed to Bohol, Philippines. While in Bohol, we had the opportunity to see a Tarsier. We were really excited and thought that they are a really cute animal. We wanted to share in the experience of seeing these cute animals, so here are some pictures along with 2 videos. The last video is kind of long, but really cute. Enjoy!

We are going to the Philippines tomorrow. Over the next 2 weeks, we are going to Manila, the islands of Cebu and Bohol and the Malaysian side of Borneo. We are extremely excited. My goal is to see the following animals: tarsier, this famous species, this monkey, and many other interesting animals. Phil's goal is to do this. We want to see this beach. We also want to hike through the rainforest, but there happens to be these, (warning: gross pictures) so we need to purchase these before we leave. Thanks for keeping us in your prayers. Oh and enjoy this webquest!

Things that are commonly found in Taiwan

Road construction that sort of makes sense.


(They are setting up for a funeral. This is on a MAIN road, such as Route 9 in Shrewsbury or 290 in Austin, Tx. This was set up for the funeral and it is blocking half the road. This is REALLY common here)

Taiwan is basically mountains.


It wouldn't be a home without a ridiculously big spider in it.

A dog for Christmas?

The Monday before Christmas, Daniel, an elementary school student knocked on our door, mumbled something that we sort of understood and then handed us a white dog. We think he mentioned its name, which is Japanese for white. So, for one evening, we "owned" a dog. (It actually belongs to one of our students who houses it on the other side of campus. We were heading that way later in the evening, so we decided to let it stay with us for a little bit.) She peed 3 times, got lost multiple times in our monstrosity of a house and also fell asleep on us. We enjoyed having the dog for the evening, but were glad to see it leave. Here are some pictures of that evening. Enjoy

More unique creatures

I thought this bug was kind of cool.


The snails here are the largest I've ever seen.

Uninvited Guests

There are lots of interesting creatures around here. From time to time some of them make there way inside our apartment.

A snail (or slug?) getting ready for the day with Heather's shower gel.

An assorted bug enjoying Heather's flip-flop.

Not Your Ordinary Flora and Fauna

We went exploring down near Sun Moon Lake on Sabbath afternoon and found some rather unique stuff...


This is no optical illusion or Photoshop manipulation, this grasshopper really is as big as a cell phone. Crazy!

I think this is called a sensitive plant, but I'm not sure. Very cool.

Please let me know if this video loads quickly on your computer or if you have to wait for it. Thanks!