delete me

delete me

North American English has a new logo!

We've been running our school now for over a year, and business is stable, so we figured it was time to change the school's signage. We officially changed the name from H.P. Jacobsen's English Classrooom (Jiang Haozhe Yinggyu) to North American English (Beimei Yingyu) when we first bought the school, but we kept that information quiet - we didn't want to spook the parents into leaving. A year later, everything is running smoothly. Our word-of-mouth is excellent, and the parents are very relaxed and confident with us, and vice versa.

We went to Randy Bennett, a professional graphic designer living in Taichung, and a friend of Andy Ings, the boss of Lado Management Consultants and one of my good friends in Taiwan. After a couple of weeks of back and forth consultation, we have the following basic designs and a bunch more variations on the theme. Randy can be reached at randybennett(at)hotmail - I highly recommend him.

Sunday Drivers

Well, yesterday, the day after we picked up our new used car, the 95 Chrysler Neon, the fuel pump died. Crumb. More money.

So this afternoon we decided to go for a drive to the coast. We got on the highway and drove down the north-east coast for a bit. It was getting dusk, so we decided to stop along the road and sit on some big rocks overlooking the ocean. We were standing on a monster rock, about the size of a house, when all of a sudden a huge wave hits the rock and completely drenches us with spray. I mean, in one instant we were soaked to the skin. We were never in any danger - the wave was well beneath us, but this one wave had so much force that the spray just went straight up - and then straight down. We looked at each other and started laughing. Our plans for an intimate seafood dinner on the coast were gone - instead we drove straight home in our dripping clothes, showered, changed, and had dinner in Taipei instead. It was a fun day.

Below is a pic of our new car. Well actually it's a pic I found on the internet, but it looks pretty much exactly like ours - same colour of red, same general condition - ie not a scratch on it. It's an American car, so I have some issues with the design of it, and the shocks are so soft it feels like I'm driving a cruise ship, but the air-con is strong, the engine purrs, and it gets better mileage than our VW Jetta did (But not as good as the Honda Civic!) Anyhow, we got it for a song, so I'm pretty pleased.

Islam vs. Christianity

This song is not a rebel song. This song is Sunday Bloody Sunday

Another blast from the past. The 80s had some awesome music...

Goodbye Xiao Bai!

Well, we've been doing the "buy-a-new-used-car two-step". Our Honda's air con gave up the ghost finally, after months of operating whimsically. We wasted no time in buying a VW Jetta, which is a pretty nice car, except for the fact that it doesn't have power steering, which drives Vanessa nuts. So, we made an offer on a 1995 Chrysler Neon that was for sale in Taoyuan. Hopefully this will do the trick. In the meantime, somebody else has put down a down payment on the Honda Civic, so we'll be unloading that in a few days. I have to say, I'll miss that car. Sure, it wasn't much to look at, but it was reliable, and Vanessa and I had a lot of fun with that car. It even had a name - Xiao Bai, or "Little White". I hope our Chrysler is as much fun, but I doubt it will be. We'll see. Anyway, goodbye, Xiao Bai! And thank you!