Links added - Radio Interview and Leo's web page

A link has been added to the radio interview from the weekend of January 19/20. Jimmitti and Mrs. Banas were interviewed by Judge Penny Wolfgang on her radio show, On Target.

Note that I also added a link to Leo's web page from the conference. He has some great pictures up of the conference and of himself and the other Taiwanese students. You will find a few of them below.

On the radio....

On Monday, January 14, 2008 Jimmitti Teysir and I were interviewed by Judge Penny Wolfgang for her weekly radio show, "On Target." The students drew straws, and Jimmitti "won" the right to be on the show.

The half hour show will air this weekend five separate times.

1520 AM: Saturday 6-6:30 a.m. EST (http://www.kb1520.com/)
1400 AM: Saturday 6:30-7:00 a.m. EST
107.7 FM: Sunday 6:30 a.m.-7:00 a.m. EST (http://www.1077thelake.com/)
98.5 FM: Sunday 7:30 a.m.-8:00 a.m. EST (http://www.kiss985.com/)
102.5 FM: Sunday 10:30 p.m.-11:00 p.m. EST (http://www.mystar1025.com/)

Four of the five stations stream live online, so people outside of Buffalo can hear the show if they really want to do so.

Presentation to Buffalo Public Schools Board of Education - 1/9/08

On Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Team Taiwan gave a presentation to the School Board on our trip to Taiwan. We were also recognized by the Board for representing the United States at the conference.

Happy New Year, Changhua Senior High School Students!

Just wanted to take a moment to thank all of the Changhua students for their comments on the blog and their emails to me. I thought I would post some pictures of the students from Changhua to start the New Year off.

Thanks to Douglas for the picture of me and him (if I look tired, it's because I am - it was 2 a.m. the day of our departure and I hadn't slept).

Thanks also to Rogan for the additional pictures of the Changhua students (and of him and I at the conference).

Kayla, Cliff, Jimmitti, and I thank you again for your hospitality and friendship.

Keep in touch!

Honored by the Buffalo Common Council

Above, from left to right: Council member Bonafacio, Dr. Kresse, Council member Smith, Council member LoCurto (a City Honors graduate), Mrs. Banas, Jimmitti, Kayla, Cliff, and Council member Kearns.



Notice the beautiful art deco glass ceiling (in the shape of the sun) and other, notable architectural details.



On Tuesday, December 11, 2007 the Buffalo Common Council (the legislative body of the City of Buffalo) honored our team. Council Member Michael Kearns was the main sponsor of the proclamation. The proclamation named each of the team members, described what the team did, and then proclaimed Tuesday, December 11, 2007 International Baccalaureate Diploma Program Day in the City of Buffalo. Thanks to Stefan Mychajliw, Buffalo Schools Public Relations Office, for the great pictures.

We're back home!!!

We had to leave the hotel at 5:00 a.m. Taipei time on Saturday morning (4 p.m. Thursday in Buffalo) for the airport. It was about a two hour flight from Taipei to Osaka, then 11.5 hours from Osaka to Detroit, and, finally, about 45 minutes from Detroit to Buffalo. The flights were fine. We were really fortunate flying over Japan because Cliff spotted Mount Fuji and I got some great pictures.

We arrived in Buffalo around 2:45 p.m. today. Our families were waiting and the were VERY HAPPY to see all of us.

Saturday, December 8, 2007 will have lasted 37 hours for Team Taiwan.

It's been a great trip and it was extremely worthwhile for me and the students.

Our last day: Part II

After lunch we went to the National Palace Museum which recently reopened. The KMT took most of the treasures of China's Forbidden City with them when they left. It was absolutely amazing. Many, many vases from the Ming Dynasty and tons of intricate carvings in jade. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Everyone loved the gift shop as well.

We came back to the hotel and had dinner here. After, most of us went to a very large night market. We said our goodbyes as we are all leaving at different times tomorrow.

The kids all wish we had another week. It's been an absolutely fantastic experience and the students and I have learned so much - much more than any book could teach.

Our last day: Part I

We woke up early and went to the Presidential Palace for a tour of the building and grounds. We could not bring anything in with us and the guard with the gun didn't seem happy that I took his picture before putting my camera away. (One of the Taiwanese teachers had a connection and was able to get his camera inside - hence the few pictures you see here.)

Afterwards, we went to the Martyrs Shrine. It is dedicated to approximately 330,000 men who sacrificed their lives to the overthrowing of the Ching Dynasty before the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911, and who fell during the Sino-Japanese war (1938-1945) and the Chinese Civil war (1945-1949). We viewed the changing of the guard at the memorial.

We went by this huge square with many large buildings dedicated to Chiang Kai-shek. There were demonstrations and lots of news crews. There is a national debate going on over changing the name of many areas dedicated to Chiang to names involving "democracy."
We went for lunch from there.

Taipei and Taipei 101

After going to the coast, we drove to Taipei. I forgot to mention that, on the way to the coast, we drove through a newly opened tunnel - the longest in Taiwan. It is called Hsuehshan and it's an eight-mile road tunnel that took 15 years to build and opened to traffic just over a year ago. It slices through the jagged peaks that separate Ilan from the capital, Taipei, and links to a new southbound highway that rises above the rice paddies. The tunnel is the longest in Asia.

We arrived at Taipei around 7 p.m. Many of us chose to immediately go up the tallest building in the world: Taipei 101 (it opened last New Year's Eve). We went up to 89th floor. This floor is inside and there is no access to the outside. In order to go outside, you have to pay extra to walk up to the 91st floor. The other teachers and I went for it and paid extra to go up. It was worth it. The view was much better (a lot of the glass was foggy down below).

Taipei 101 is not just a tall building, it is full of offices and the first five floors are a mall. We felt like we were back in the USA - all of the signs were in English and they were mostly stores found in the States. We ate in the food court in the basement. After, we went to a local night market (basically a street fair at night).

Taiwan Top

We left Bagwa Mountain and drove several hours to a city known for the Taiwan Top. It's a native spinning top and the two men we watched spun small to very, very large ones. There was a Buddhist temple across the street and we walked over there afterwards. I drew a stick for my fortune and received a Number One fortune (those of you who read my Japan blog know that I received the same type of fortune there). The students received decent fortunes (nothing bad or ominous - so that's good).

From there, we went to the northeast coast of Taiwan and looked across the ocean back to the United States (about 6000 miles away). There is an island out off the coast called Turtle Island. The rock formations along the coast are really cool because they were formed by lava flows. Some of Taiwan's mountains were formed by volcanos AND others by uplift - very unusual.