Weekend to Tainan

From the window of the high-speed rail I saw the wind flow through the rice paddies, which rolled a bit like waves on water.

A dragonfly that just posed there on top of a tree, twisting its wings this way and that way to test the breeze.

A waterlily in our pond.

Puppy therapy: this one decided Momma’s bone was his too.  Of course, all the other puppies felt they deserved a share too.

There’s much more to post, but I’m a bit overdue for things like sleep and finishing projects and figuring out plans for the summer and beyond…  gah.  At least there isn’t a hairy black dust coat sitting on the fan vent inside my laptop now thanks to my awesome cousin.  Since we opened up Fawkes-Buckbeak, there have been no spontaneous shut downs!!  (fingers crossed that it will stay that way)

My mix tape for Taiwan these past couple of years would include these songs that I ran into in my head from things like karaoke, the internet, retail music, cousins, car-music, wedding receptions, dance class, the persistent past, and accidentally bumping into outdoor pop concerts.  I need a radio.  Notably missing is one song that I have no idea how to find because I hadn’t the slightest clue what it’s called or its English equivalent, but my former suitemate played it lots…  I don’t necessarily love everything on this, but some if it can be persistent and may loop in my head when I’m supposed to be serious about doing something else, like grading or writing that thing I should get back to now, if I am not going to sleep anyway.  You have been warned.

Kenting National Park

Tattered Lotus.

So much depends on a red dragonfly

balanced perfectly

still

on a blade of grass.

A fuzzy electric blue striped butterfly.

A butterfly that floats convincingly like a bird.

A banana flower dripping down.

Anyone know what this flower/berry collection could be?

A lizard that deigned to allow a photo-op.

There were caves too with rippled rock and a clutch of bats flapping back and forth veering smoothly as dragonflies, the cacophony of cicadas echoing past our ears, trees with ribboned roots, and rumor has it that I missed a monkey sighting.

If you ever get the chance, go visit the Kenting National Park.

So this is how it ends…

I thought to myself as we pitched forward into the darkness, two girls hiding their faces in my lap. The doors opened ominously and we were on our first ride for the last day of school. The car jerked us through the “Haunted House” that was frightening for the entirely wrong reasons (dummies clad in army camouflage shooting guns at you as you ride past!? Keeping in mind that they are included among dragons, glow-in-the-dark skeletons, pirates, mummies, etc…?! ).

The final hurrah of the school year was a trip to Leefoo Village, which was predictably exhausting and fun, though I was exposed to my students for the ‘fraidy cat I am by refusing to go on rides that would make me sick. (I can be susceptible to motion sickness and swift drops in height, even in a jerky elevator tend to make me queasy). I did win points for managing to make our swirling barrel spin faster than the rest until we were delightfully dizzy. However, someone needed to stay with the kids who were not going on the big swinging ship

and hold on to the glasses of those that were riding the roller coasters,

and the spin-you-upside-down whirligigs,

so I tried to take nice pictures of the red dragonflies unsuccessfully, while keeping an eye on my fellow ‘fraidy cat charges. I’d only seen red dragonflies in Chinese paintings before, but they are real, kissing ripples on the green man-made concrete pond, and weaving spells of summer through the air.

This is a real, albeit sadly out of focus red dragonfly– but they’re really red all over!  And I think they’re pretty, not just because I’m partial to red, but I think I’m becoming partial to dragonflies…  In fact, they’re getting their own category.

We petted and fed the goats, greeted the flamingos, and said hello to the rather large pig on the premises. I was most enamoured of the tigers lounging in their cage and the butterflies as big as small birds that visited the flowers along the walkways.

We didn’t get to go through the safari train, because just as it was finally pulling up to the station, the skies let loose with a pelt of thunder and lightning that seemed simultaneous, and right on top of us. They decided to cancel the ride, and we made no complaint as we dodged puddles and ran to the cafeteria to munch on snacks before fording rivers of rain in squelching sneakers and boarding the buses early.

I made it through the school year! Yet it doesn’t feel completely over. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have time to do my usual note to each student, or because I am still figuring out books and lessons and will see some of the usual suspects in summer school for a bit.  Or because my summer adventures are still up in the air.  There was definitely the end-of-the-year exhaustion though.