Doris and some ORTV staff

Here's a recent picture with Doris. Accompanying her in the photo are me, Liz, Lynn Li and Bill Quinn. We took this photo so we could send it to our Vietnamese friend, Hai Huynh. Hai and his wife, Teresa have just started a Christian English school for kids in Danang, Vietnam.

Grace Christian Academy

Here's what sometimes happens to kids in school or church. It's "light's out" for this little fella. Hope he doesn't get a crick in his neck. Liz's talk on "service" appears to have "served" very well as his cure for occasional insomnia. However, Liz did get a good response from most of the kids. She and other ORTV teachers were invited to come speak during Grace Christian Academy's "spiritual emphasis" week. Liz, Hazel, Troy and myself all gave talks on different aspects of "service". On each teacher's given day, we spoke three separate times to elementary, junior-high, and kindergarten groups.

Here I am with some of the kindergarten teachers and kids in the park next to the school. Teacher Jimmy Chiang was nice enough to snap this photo for me.

That's Jimmy Chiang on the right. He used to work at ORTV in the I.T. Deparment. After spending some time in Canada, he's now back in Taiwan and teaching at Grace. Good work, Jimmy! (or should I say "service"?)

Naomi's Birthday Party

Our ORTV colleague, Naomi Biesheuvel just turned 25. She is young, yes, but mature well beyond her years. Naomi's been a big help with Studio Classroom/Advanced and my Shi-Chien University English class among other things. Some of us celebrated her birthday at the local T.G.I. Friday's restaurant. Too bad Liz couldn't make it. She was too busy preparing a speech for Grace Christian Academy the following morning as well as English material for the Kaohsiung city government. However, Naomi and Ray (or you can him Jay) here seem happy that Han Solo (Harrison Ford) could join us. Hopefully, he helped to make up for Liz's absence.

Gareth, Andrea and Naomi show their "true colors". You can even see it in their eyes (thanks to the flash effect). Interestingly enough, each of them is also quite proud of his/her European heritage: Gareth (British), Andrea (German) and Naomi (Dutch). We even tried singing a birthday song for Naomi in Dutch.

Jade's Wedding

Jade is an ORTV colleague who works in our Public Relations Department. The pastor at her wedding was a short and cute old man. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to give him a stool to stand on. There was a nice bunch of flowers at the front of the pulpit. So most of the time those of us in the congregation could only see the top of his head.


I had to move up along the left side of the sanctuary to get this shot. Looks like Doris has a better angle on him than most of the rest of us. He's probably thinking, "Okay now, who put these flowers here? I can't see what the heck is going on out there."


The exchanging of the rings. Leo's capturing it all on video, so the pastor can check it out later and get a good look.


Now he holds up the Chinese character for "good" to show how it's "good" when a young man and woman come together in marriage. Fortunately, we can all see the character. We just can't see the one behind it. :)


Here are the "Vietnamese brides" at Jade's wedding. From left to right: Liz, Julie, Jessie, and Andrea. They're looking pretty in the ao dais they all got from the same shop in Hanoi. Julie has a rather mischievous look on her face. I'm not sure what she's up to.

Friday Night Live Keeps Growing

The chairs have been extended to the back of the meeting room, and the seats are all filled. As Hazel said to me (Phil), if we're gonna' have a problem, it's a good problem to have. From the back of the room here, it's hard to take in the "Beauty" of Jean Lin onstage. At least Bill Quinn and Matt Sawatzky don't seem to be noticing. Perhaps they're discussing the latest NCAA basketball tournament results.

Consulting in Kaoshiung

You gotta' love those FAT airplanes. Although, from this angle, it looks a little long and thin. Anyway, Far Eastern Air Transport provides frequent service from Taipei to Kaoshiung. And it seems that Liz here has been making the trip frequently. Her task is helping Studio Classroom provide consultation to the Kaoshiung city government. And their goal is to make Kaoshiung a "more English and foreigner-friendly" city. I had wanted to get a picture of the FAT acronym in big FAT letters on the airplane's tail. But I wasn't about to walk further out on the tarmac for this. As a foreigner, I've got enough people looking at me already. I didn't want the crew and passengers looking at me like, "What are you doing?" I don't think the airport people would have appreciated it either.


Here's Liz by the front steps of Kaoshiung City Hall. She, Doris and Yvonne have been here many times during this process of consultations. Today, I (Phil) had to "Phil in" (ha, ha) for Doris and Yvonne. This, of course, was no easy task. What I mean is that their shoes would not be "filled" easily. For starters, I had to dress very professional, like Liz here. Many thanks to Steve for loaning me a handsome suit jacket. I did, however, bring my own shirt, tie, and pants. :)


Across the street from the Kaoshiung City Hall building.


Hey Casey, what are you doing here? It's a long way from Taipei to Kaoshiung! No way, it's not Casey - too skinny. But it could be one of her distant cousins.

New Apartment in Taichung

Here's a view from Liz's dad's new apartment in Taichung. It's on the sixth floor overlooking the park near Taichung's Sogo department store. Nice view, Dr. Liu!

More Do Do Pictures

Nice shot of Linda Way and Jessie Vogel outside the Do Do Cafe. And one of our furry friends is perched on the spiral staircase right behind them.

Here's a good shot of Do Do and some of his buddies. Oh, and the humans aren't bad either. Except that Liz and Phil have the top of their heads cut off. And Linda's lookin' a little sleepy-eyed. But cover girl (of Let's Talk in English) Jessie is lookin' great. Since we've been into predicting the future at ORTV lately, I'm going to play along. Something tells me that there may be plenty of eligible bachelors when Jessie heads back to graduate school in the U.S. soon. As for Linda, well, what can I say, Campbell's a great guy.

Okay, now we've got a good shot of all the humans. We've got all of Liz and Phil's heads. Plus Linda is lookin' great alongside Jessie. Looks just like one of Linda's "Lets Talk" cover smiles. Our front row of canines (what I meant was the dogs, but I guess you could include our teeth as well) are also lookin' good, but where's Do Do?

Liz and Phil outside the cute restaurant next to Do Do Cafe. It's owned and managed by the same people who run Do Do, but is a little bit pricier.

Taichung International Golf Course

In the clubhouse where we had lunch with Liz's dad and sister, Mary. From there, we had a nice view of the golf course and surrounding hills.

Posing next to the course where Liz's dad spends a lot of time each week. After seeing the view and open space here compared to the cramped confines of the city, I think I can understand why he likes to come here so much. It is called Taichung International Golf Course. But I'm not sure how "International" it is. I didn't see any non-Taiwanese (waiguoren) other than myself. Maybe they have a handful of Hong Kongers and Japanese mixed in, so then, for them that qualifies as "International".

No, we're not trying to be cool. It's just the rays are so bright, we gotta' wear shades (this statement of mine is a hidden reference to a good 80's song, if you know which one, then you're knowledge of 80's music trivia is quite good). Watch out, here comes a golf cart. Hope he didn't have too much to drink in the clubhouse!

Mary is looking better and getting stronger every day. Just look at those clenched fists.

Streetside in Taichung

With so many motor scooters parking on Taiwan sidewalks, sometimes one feels like Moses trying to "part the waters". Fortunately, here they've left a little "aisle" in the middle.
Here's a gateway over the road put there by a local Buddhist organization. Just want you to know we care about your safety, blessings, and all that good stuff.
"Step right up" (excuse me, I mean "Drive right up") and select your favorite hunk of meat.
Foot traffic is a little lighter than usual on this particular Saturday morning at the street market (believe it or not - the very fact that you can see the pavement is proof of this) . So it's a perfect time to go cruising on your motor scooter through the crowd of people while you browse. And lots of people do just that. Check out the one guy shopping for clothes on the left while he sits on his scooter.

Friday Night Bible Study Students

With students (left to right) Harry, Cindy and Rebekah. The handsome guy in the back with me is my trustworthy assistant, Teacher Bill Quinn.

Pingjhen High School in Taoyuan

The front of Pingjhen High School in Taoyuan. This is one of the area schools that subscribes to Studio Classroom magazine. With subscriptions, we offer other services like English rallies, teacher trainings and speech contest judges. On this day, I (Phil) was sent to judge an impromptu speech contest here.

Here I am with some of the speech contest winners. Each of them was quite expressive in English. If you didn't know any better, you'd think we were in Thailand. For you folks who don't know any better, it's TAIWAN, not Thailand!

Ming-Luen High School Class

Here are some of the students in my (Phil's) English class at Ming-Luen High School (Taipei, Shi-Lin). Here we see the everpresent "V" sign that seems to be so popular with Taiwanese youth. Some students are real characters, if you know what I mean. Xavier is the "masked man" barely visible behind Hope in the right row, middle. Either Chanel (across from Xavier in the middle row) really likes her "Talking In Class" textbook or is a little camera shy. The textbook is good, but my guess is that it's probably more of the latter.

Hospital Visit With Liz's Sister Mary

Liz and her dad next to Mary's bedside. This picture was taken just a few days after her heart surgery at Zhongshan Hospital in Taichung. The surgery filled a hole in her heart that had apparently been there since she was young. We're all glad that the surgery went well. And Mary looks forward to having more energy in the future.


Mary can't say "I did not inhale".


Hmmm, I wonder what kind of drugs they put in there.


Perhaps Mary's not the only one inhaling.

Shi-Chien University

Students and banner at the front entrance of Shi-Chien University. The university is located just across the street from our ORTV/Studio Classroom office building. These pictures were taken by Liz from her office balcony. Currently Phil and other Studio Classroom teachers are teaching four English classes at the university.

Close up of some students and the banner which welcomes a visiting delegation from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.

Pastoral Visit

With pastor Alexander Kowles at his apartment in Tien-Mu, Taipei. Pastor Kowles is 95 years old (born in 1910). He went to China in 1932 and has been a missionary to Asia ever since. He also spent time in Vietnam and Cambodia before coming to Taiwan. On the left is ORTV's Jack Lin. In the middle is Susie Wen. We helped Pastor Kowles to complete and process his new U.S. passport application. He is originally from Buffalo, N.Y.

The Doggie (Do Do) Cafe

The place is called Do Do Cafe. The name looks funny, right? Well, it's not what you think. It's their best attempt at spelling the Chinese name which they gave to their white lab. It sounds more like "Dwoah Dwoah". Hard for them to translate into ABCs. Anyway, in this cafe are four very nice dogs (the white lab and three golden retrievers). The whole cafe has a "doggie" theme (lots of dog pictures, etc.). In the picture above, Liz plays with one of the retrievers.

Here's the white lab trying to take a snooze.

Some of the retrievers on the spiral staircase which leads to the upper levels. There's even seating outside on the rooftop. We'll have to try that when the weather gets a little warmer.

Now someone's up and ready along with the others. Perhaps a morsel will come flying out the window.

Hey, what's for dinner?

Hmmm, I wonder. Did he leave any for me?

Mikayla Fry at our table with Vance and Marci. Watch out Mikayla, don't kick over any glasses.

Mikayla with a new friend.

Hsiu-Feng High School English Rally

View from behind the curtain during the English rally at Hsiu-Feng High School. In the picture, Jessie Vogel is giving a motivational "Word of Encouragement" while Joshua Hong translates in Chinese. Seated are Jason Lin and Libeck Kadu from our "Sunshine Singers" group. All total, we had about 2,000 students from the Junior and Senior High classes at this rally.

Girls from the softball team at Hsiu-Feng High School. I (Phil) watched the team practice, and these girls didn't "throw like a girl." They were throwing hard. I wouldn't dare try to play with them, especially after having been away from softball for so long. They would have showed me up. Maybe some of them could end up on Taiwan's Olympic team some day. They even have the Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) team's colors (blue and orange).

Students during recess at Hsiu-Feng High School. In their baby blue uniforms they look like a bunch of UNC Tar Heel fans on the court.