Babel School in Taiwan

W te wakacje Ania kontynuowała naukę kaligrafii w tej samej szkółce kaligraficznej co rok i dwa lata temu. W tym roku do kaligrafii doszły również zajęcia z wycinanek chińskich. O lekcjach sprzed dwóch lat można poczytać TUTAJ .

Do you know that there is a place in Taipei where kids, big and small, can come up on stage to perform?

Last time we went for a nature walk to the campus of National Taiwan University was in May and you can read about it HERE . This time it was a bit different - less leaves on the trees, more on the ground 😉 and also more birds around. Hong Kong Orchid Tree - Bauhinia × blakeana - 艷紫荊 Red-jasmine - Plumeria rubra - 紅花緬梔 (紅雞蛋花) Taiwanese rain tree - Koelreuteria elegans - 台灣欒樹 Camphor tree - Cinnamomum camphora - 樟樹 - Cynamonowiec kamforowy Ginkgo - Ginkgo Biloba - 銀杏 - Miłorząb dwuklapowy Australian pine tree - Casuarina equisetifolia - 木麻黃 - Kazuaryna a.k.a. Rzewnia skrzypolistna Paperbark tree - Melaleuca - 白千層 Tiger's claw (Sunshine tree) - Erythrina variegata - 刺桐 - Erytryna zmienna  Mountain gum - Eucalyptus tereticornis - 細葉桉 There is a small pond on the campus. It's a nice spot to observe water birds. There are also some turtles and fishes.  White-breasted waterhen -...

One of December nature class walks took us to Xianjiyan in Jingmei 景美仙跡岩. It was our second time there. I wrote about our first hike in March 2016 HERE  and HERE . This time we started our walk from the other direction, as the previous entrance to the trail was destroyed by landslide. We had to climb many, many stairs which led us through the old housing neighbourhood. It's hard to believe, but there are still people living in these houses. You can see a few old graves hidden among the bushes. Climbing up we enjoyed the wonderful views of whole Taipei. Despite the weather, which was wet and cloudy, Taipei still looked impressive. On almost all the hills and mountains in Taipei you can find bigger or smaller temples. This one had an impressive library. On the way down we saw a very unique tree - a rock hugging ficus. Other interesting features we found included a face on a rock, carved in a rock character ...