Cultural Experience at the PTA Meeting

Evan "Guest Posing" with Chinese Girls
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School is out and we celebrated by going to the Malo Bay Water Park for the day.   This huge new water park was developed by a Russian developer and has a kind of mixed up Asian, Russian and Tropical theme.  Everyone went on the water rides (even Jessie and I!) and it was a welcome break from the hot weather.

After the water park, we went in the evening to Joey's 2nd grade open house sponsored by the PTA.  We're proud of Jessie, who is PTA president for the class, and her announcement to encourage parents to join the PTA board was very effective and brought in 9 more members (this is a big deal since families pay $500 each to join the PTA board and the class that raises the most money gets first pick of their teachers next year).  Joey's class sang a very cute song about recycling.  Afterwards, there was a potluck (just like our PTA potlucks...except they bring rice balls and tea eggs instead of potato salad and casseroles; Jessie asked me to explain to her what a casserole is and I was at a loss).  This was my most interesting "cultural" experience.  I couldn't understand a word that was said, but it didn't really matter--it seemed that PTA open houses are pretty much the same in Taiwan as they are here.

Families pay $500 each to join the PTA board