More Rally Trip Pictures

Doris is sick of me being around...


so I decided to hit the road.


A scene just outside our breakfast window at the hotel in Taichung. How many people are they gonna put on that truck before the thing tips over?

While setting up at a rally, a midget-sized Phil gives a massage to Jason.

This is the morning welcoming committee at Nantou High School's front gate. These girls would salute teachers and others as they drove in.

There's a bust of Chiang Kai-Shek near the upper left corner of the building in the background. Perhaps the school keeps it hidden up there so that the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) won't come in and tear it down.

This is how Jason and I feel when we're finished with rallies for the week.

April 10th-14th Mid-Taiwan English School Rallies

Our rally theme for the week was "Life Is A Gift". Steve Marth delivered the wrap-up speech at this high school. He encouraged students to use and develop their gifts. I can hear him now telling them, "Use it or lose it". I really liked the nice multi-color (uniformed) crowd here. Rex Wee translated Steve's talk into Chinese. Steve and I alternated doing the wrap-up talks on the first part of this trip. I also enjoyed being Steve's roommate during this time. We shared some good laughs and moments together. Liz came and took Steve's place later in the week (as my new rally co-host and roommate, of course). I want to say that each of them has his/her own unique strengths as a roommate. I'm very thankful for both of them. :)

Steve, next time I'll bring the joke book (along with the trivia one). We did still manage to get in some good ones. Listening to Weird Al Yankovic on your iPod while you checked out the 80's tunes on my MP3 player was pretty fun too.


Phil with students at a school in Yuanlin.

Liz with students at a school in Nantou.

Getting ready for a school rally in Nantou. There's Liz way in the distance on stage raising her arms. The banner on top reads "Friend For Life".

Rex and the Sunshine Singers get warmed up for a rally in Puli. That's Dick Wang over on the right taking it easy. Dick is a sort of tour manager for us in that he helps with booking the hotels, deciding where we're going to eat, etc. Seems like he knows where all the good local eateries are. In this picture, it looks as if Dick's warming up too. We did spy him falling asleep on us a few times during the program. One time he was slumped over in a chair by the side wall near the front of the audience. Some of the students couldn't help but notice. However, having Dick fall asleep on us is better than having students fall asleep (check out the student who fell asleep on Hazel a few weeks ago). After all, Dick's seen our rally programs more than a few times.

Our school rallies couldn't happen without the leadership of Linda Yeh (pictured here with students before a rally in Puli). Linda is our rally program producer who makes sure that everything comes together smoothly. She also operates the PowerPoint projector for our songs, games, talks, etc.

All I can say Linda is, "You are very good! You are very good! You are, You are, You are, You are, You are very good!"

Dazhi Presbyterian Church

On this particular Sunday, Liz and I went with Jane Hsu to Dazhi Presbyterian Church. Jane is a good ORTV colleague and friend who works in our Educational Services Department. That Sunday, the church had a special guest and singer, a Ms. Mori from Japan. It was a very nice service and message. Quite convenient too, considering that the church is just right next to where we live on Bei-An Road. Jane, sorry the date got stamped on your clothing. Liz says she likes having the dates on photos for reference.

The congregation listens to Ms. Mori from Japan sing and share her testimony. One particularly moving part was when she shared about her family. One of her brothers died in Taiwan's big 9/21 earthquake in 1999. This really affected another brother who previously had been resistant to God. He subsequently accepted Jesus in his life. He realized that he needed a savior. Now he is serving him too.

Ms. Mori sings beautiful inspiring songs in Chinese, Japanese and English. In the past, she has been a singer on Japan's NHK TV network. Her singing experience and polish really showed. She was also very pleasant toward the crowd. On one song where she sung, "I will pray for you" she walked out in the midst of the congregation. She smiled sincerely and made eye contact with individuals seated in the pews.

Crashin' at Cafe India

Yay, another sleeping kid! This time it's little Mikayla Fry being held by Andrea.

Now it's Linda holding Mikayla. Between her and Andrea, I'm not sure who put Mikayla to sleep faster.

Melissa and her cousin, Vern visiting her from England. Yes, I believe there's some resemblance there. For one thing, she's another nice Chinese face with a wonderful accent much like the Queen's. I hear they have some pretty good Indian food there in England too. :)

Another Sleeping Kid

Check out the student in the upper deck here at Zhongzheng High School during a recent Studio Classroom English rally. What's funny (I think) is how no one's sitting around him, so it's so obvious. I guess Liz and myself aren't the only ones who can put some kids to sleep. Even a teacher as animated and interesting as Hazel can have this effect. We now realize that some kids will fall asleep on anyone. In the picture, it looks as if maybe Hazel doesn't notice, but Mei's looking right at him (ha, ha... I'd like to see the look on her face). We've been noticing sleeping kids lately, so Liz just couldn't resist snapping this photo from on stage.

Taipei Rotary Club Inter-Collegiate English Speech Contest

On Saturday, Liz and I along with Doris and Troy went to the Taipei Rotary Club's Inter-Collegiate English Speech Contest. Studio Classroom was a co-sponsor of this event. You can see our owl logo on the banner in the background. There were around 70 contestants from different colleges around Taiwan. We served as judges for the contestants' speeches. There were alot of good speeches and it was hard to narrow down the field. In the final round, 6 students gave impromptu speeches. The top two students standing behind Doris (holding their award certificates) won all-expense paid trips for one-month home stays in England and Australia. We tried to give tips and encouragement to those who didn't win. Troy even presented a workshop on making impromptu speeches. Hopefully, many of them will be back next year. Also, I'm hoping that some of them in the Taipei area will come to our Friday Night Live program. (P.S. The second-place winner, Ellen Yeh, did come on the following Friday)

It was good to run into one of our former Bible study students, David, at the contest. He made it past the first round into the final 18, and narrowly missed the final round of 6. David's English is very good. Hope he'll try again next year and certainly hope to see him back at Friday Night Live & Bible Study very soon.

Bible Study Students

Here's a few of our students from a recent Friday Night Live (FNL) Bible Study group. They're all great students. I won't name everyone in the group. However, this time I'll point out one next to me who looks like she's scratching her chin. That's Kalucia. Rather interesting name, isn't it? Kalucia's a high school student with very good English. I first made contact with her during one of our "Call Your Teacher" nights that we have the second Monday of every month. Next to her is her good friend, Evelyn. Kalucia invited her to FNL and since then they've both become FNL regulars when they're not too busy with school or exams. Speaking of exams, directly in front of me is Harry. He's got a big exam coming up soon and is a little worried about it. In fact, he e-mailed me and asked for advice on how to relax and do his best. Let's pray for him that it all goes well. Encouraging our students and showing God's concern for them is what it's all about!


Sorry I cut your head off, Bill. That's Justine smiling on the right. Either she's smiling because she's next to Bill or because she's found Jesus in her life (quite possibly both). Anyway, Justine recently accepted Jesus and got baptized. Next to her is one of her "cram school" (bushiban) students. She's brought several of them to our class. God changed her, and now she's a witness to her students!

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.