12/11/2011

Jilong (Keelung) Story House

Jilong Story House is situated at the back of the Jilong Cultural Center.  From Jilong Train Station, follow the road around the harbor.  You will see the giant, square Cultural Center in front of you on the the right.  Jilong Story House is at the rear of the building.  Open from 9am to 5pm, the Story House is small, but the space is well-utilised.

Entrance

Cannon


There are a few interactive items in the display area, including music from famous Taiwanese artists and a computerised map.


2011 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, Yamingshan 6PM

Many thanks to Anthony at Taiwanease for posting about this service. 

The Taipei International Church will hold their annual service at 6pm.  They will sing carols, light candles, and have a potluck dinner.  The caroling lasts just over an hour.

Address: No. 20, Lane 2, Section 2 Yǎngdé Dà Dào (仰德大道二段二巷20號)

2011 Dec 18: A Golden Christmas

There will be a Christmas performance by the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Choir  on December 18th. 

Spiritual songs include:
Lux Aurumque
Surrexit Christus
Christus est natus

Christmas songs include:
Go Tell It on the Mountain
White Christmas
Mary Had a Baby
The Sleigh

Venue: Chungshan Hall, Chung Jeng Theater
Time: Sunday, December 18, 2011, 7:30PM
Ticket Prices: 300/500/800*
Tickets: www.artsticket.com.tw
Contact: 02-277303691 www.tpf.org.tw

*From the Chungshan Hall English site:
Special Offers:
.10% off to Starbucks and Eslite card holders on all tickets, except for the minimum-priced.
.5% off to Philharmonic People (plz enter membership #)
.10% off on all tickets but the minimum-priced, to credit card holders of Taishin Bank, Mega Bank, and Cathay United Bank.
.10% off to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi credit card holders on all tickets, except for the minimum-priced.

12/04/2011

Parentpages Now Part of Taiwanease, With Private Women's Forum

Parentpages has for quite a few years been the only Taiwan-based, English-language parenting forum available.  A couple of months ago, it merged with a new English-language information site and forum, Taiwanease.  The goal of this new site is to reach a broader audience and provide a comprehensive information site for expats in Taiwan.  There has been a lot of work going on in the background, developing directories and an online magazine.  To see the total package, you can click here.

Now, some parents were a bit surprised to see Parentpages become part of a larger community.  Change can be hard to take when you are in a foreign country and need some consistency in your life!  I'm really happy to share a few things about Parentpages that might make regular users of the old forum a bit more comfortable.  (Although, for me, the integration has opened up the parenting section to a more diverse set of parents, and made expats' parenting issues in Taiwan become more visible, which has to be a good thing!  It also acknowledges that parents are also people with lives outside parenting.)

Direct link to the Parenting Forum here.  There is a button "View New Posts in Parentpages", so you can opt to see only parenting-related posts.

Women's Only Forum:  Women can register and then post in the Women's Only forum.  Here, you can discuss women-specific issue you would rather not post on the main board.

So, please go and post anything you would like to share/ask/acknowledge on this new forum.  This combined community is fairly new, and you are welcome to become part of it.

12/01/2011

Enjoy the Winter With Free Audio Books through Taipei City Library

If you have a Taipei City Library card (which you should, and can, no matter where on the island you are), you can take advantage of a pretty good selection of English and Chinese language books in their Audiobook library.

How to do so:
Go to this link.  From here you can access encylopedias, dictionaries, journals and other material, but I want to introduce audio books, so...
Scroll down to the Audiobook section. 
Choose "Tumble Talking Books".
Your username is the letter and number mix on the back of your library card, under the barcode.  Your password is your month and date of birth (Dec 12th is 1212).
You will enter the Tumble Talking Books site, where you can browse and then listen to any books you like for free.  I'm listening to one right now, as I type this.  The quality is excellent.