Bowling!

Friday, September 24th 2010

Bowling in Taiwan!

What could be a better end to a week than bowling?!

We got two lanes for 3 rounds plus shoes for 130NT each! (that's less than $4 US . . . is that good? I liked it)

Left to Right: Katy, Libby, Kristi, Laura, a blurry Meg, Allison

The first round consisted of us trying to figure out what the computer was trippn' on.

(well, how the turn taking went . . . the lanes were linked and let's just say it was confusing)

Left to Righ: Meg, Kristi, Katy, Libby, Lein, Laura, Allison

Check out the burn on my legs! see the massive difference between my righ inner calf and my left outer calf? Ya, my legs were the least burnt from Kenting, although you can't really see it due to the neon-lighting

Kristi and I up!

She would cursed me throughout the game!

I ended up taking 2nd!!!

Check out #4: 98 baby!

That was the 2nd round.

(we don't speak of the 3rd round . . . . Kristi and her braided belt comment! ;(

FUN TIMES!

Kenting!

Wednesday, September 22nd 2010

What we woke up at 4:30am to see!

The 22nd of September is Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Festival) in Asia, and thus is our only day off all semester! So what do we do? Go to Kenting of course!!!! Most teachers don't have Tues. classes after 11:30am. So they went down after Tues. morning classes and I joined them that night (well I didn't get there 'till just before 1am, so I guess I joined them that morning ;)

The other two teachers who work Tues. night got subs so I traveled down by myself. I think I took every form of transportation possible save a plane. I biked to the train station. I took a train to the High Speed Rail. I took the Metro from there. I then took a bus and finally a taxi. The whole next day we drove scooters, so . . . yep I think that covers it!

After the HSR I originally planed on taking a bus the last two hours to Kenting, but it was late and I couldn't find one. Thankfully I was asking this guy how to get there (I was not about to spend 2,000 NT on a taxi), and found he was headed to the same city! So he took it upon himself to help me out! He even got me an great deal on a taxi (400 NT . . . not bad for a 15 min. drive at 12:30am). I never did catch his name, but I felt he was definitely an angel!

So I finally got to the hostel we were staying at (which was run by the Canadian that takes Devin and Allison scuba-diving, and yep, my first time at a hostel!!). At this point I was re-informed that we would be waking up at 4:30am so that we could make it to the east side of Taiwan for the sunrise . . . 3 hours of sleep for the whole day? Hey, why not! ;)

Was it worth-it? . . .

Oh, I wish you could see just how worth-it it really was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is not justice in pictures.

We just couldn't resist ;)

Right to left: Lein, Kristi, Whitney, Katy, Meg, Erin, Allison

Left to right: Meg, Katy, Whitney, Kristi, Laura, Lein

Oh, it was gorgeous!!!!

(so much so that the during the drive there all the drivers became easily distracted by the beauty! . . . well we didn't crash ;)

Again, I couldn't resist ;)

Big centipede . . . which we later found out was poisonous . . . .

Still cool!

On our drive back, and almost by accident, we went to the southern most tip of Taiwan!

Lein was setting up for herself and asked if I wanted a pic!

With all those ledges it just asks to be climbed on!

Hanging off the ledge of the monument is as far south as I will get in Taiwan.

In the background you can see Libby in pink and Allison at the water's edge, so technically they went further south ;)

All of us on the pathway back from the Southern Most Tip

Left to right (by noses): Meg, Allison, Kristi, Lein, Whitney, Libby, Katy, Laura, Devin, Erin

Whitney and I shared a scooter most of the time (although I drove Allison back from the beach. Yep, I've now experienced true Taiwan, I've driven a scooter!)

Speaking of beach . . . after a quick stop a the hostel we headed to the beach!!!!!!

Trail to the beach

Closest to furthest: Allison, Devin, Lein, Laura, Katy

Setting up for a morning at the beach!

Right to left: Laura, Lein, Kristi, Whitney, Erin, Meg, Allison, Katy

(Oh, I was so white . . . I'm not so much anymore . . . :(

Left to right: Allison, Libby, Laura, Whitney, Devin, Meg, Erin, Kristi, Katy, Lein

I was the second in.

(Devin, the swimmer, is far out there under the waves somewhere)

Left to right: Katy, Meg, Devin, Erin

I don't remember who's fingers are who's . . .

(but, can you guess which nails are mine? ;)

Yep, we drank coconut water at this tropical beach!

color me happy ;)

(by the way, the boogie-boarding and body-surfing was AWESOME!!!!!)

(The landings rocked! ;)

Ode to Kenting, by Lein

8:00am-11:30am: fun in the waves

Picture to commemorate

Left to right: Devin, Erin, Katy, Libby, Meg, Whitney, Laura, Lein, Kristi, Allison

We cleaned up (to some extent) and headed to lunch at Surf Shack Bar and Grill, which run by another Canadian (the guy taking our order).

We were all exhausted and starting to feel the sunburns coming on, but the food was fabulous!!! All I have to say: Honey-Mustard Chicken Sandwich + Dad's Root-beer!

Last stop before we went home: National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium

(The best aquarium in all of Asia)

Squid Sculpture . . . trippy . . .

Yep, I finally got smart and started wearing a hat . . . inside . . .

The sun does funny things to your head!

Do you see that huge wale-shark?

(The biggest type of shark in the world getting up to 12.5 meters long!)

It was awesome!

Random blue fish . . . it's cute. ;)

One of two white-wales we saw play-fighting . . . fight-playing . . . . They were cute! ;)

I know, I know . . . but it's cute!! ;)

I don't think I've ever seen a seahorse (at least not so close) . . . and yep, it's cute!!!

Right to left: Laura, Whitney, Kristi, Libby, Meg, Katy

I know, I know: "Take off the hat Katy!"

Again: 3hours of sleep + too long in the sun = . . . . well let's just say there are still residual side-effects!

Was it worth it?

Chya it was worth it! What do you think! ;D

Shopping!!!

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Ok, I've been meaning to go to Taichung on a day that is not Sunday and just slowly browse and shop. Well, yesterday I finally went! (and I will be going more often from now on ;)

Origanally I was planning to spend the day 'gallivanting' on scooters with everyone, but all I really wanted to do was shop . . . so I did! =)

On the bus ride there I figured I'd try to touch-up my roots . . . well that ended a little differently then I had anticipated, but hey, I did say at one point in the last year that I wanted to go Maryland-blond . . . .

What do you think?

Oh, did I mention that the guy who did it was very attractive . . . maybe I got distracted ;)

He and another hair dresser kept saying, "so good color" and "very beautiful!"

I really should be wearing bright red lipstic ;)

Stanly, the hair dresser who did my hair, later showed me a great little sub-shop called 'SubCar' They have the BEST subs!!!! And their fries are dang good to (they give you ketchup and mustard to dip in!!!

P.S. The 'Robert' pic I'm holding is kind of an inside joke among the roommates. It usually takes it's place on Libby's wall.

Yep, it's your typical bleach-blond!!!

Needless to say everyone was quite shocked, and Libby was especially in need of 'documenting' it ;)

Me crashing after going through all my treasures!

From earrings and shoes to an umbrella and a pillow!

All my treasures!

You can't see it, but, of course, both shoes are stilettoed

And I finally got body lotion!!! (I was surprised how much you actually need in even with the humidity!)

Outside the department store you can't go 20 feet without someone trying to hand you some sort of advertisement!

The fans were convenient though!

That night I watched a great movie with the girls who went on the happy scootering adventure.

It was a great day!!!

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

Officially, I have now been in a typhoon . . . well that's what they tell me.

Saturday night we got the notice that our branch would only have Sacrament Meeting, but that those of us that live outside of the stake boundaries shouldn't come. So we decide that we'll go to a 9am Chinese ward a few blocks away from where we live.

That night it started to rain hard.

Sunday morning I "woke up" at 7am-ish just in time to hear the phone ring. It was Fenny, a "secretary" at the school who goes to that ward, she said that her church was cancelled. Well, it was very windy, but not significantly enough, from my view, to cancel anything.

My three roommates were sound asleep still, so Kristi wrote this sign and I put it on the door.

I was planning to follow said instructions when they woke up and I told them in person anyway ;)

This is a great pic from the roof at about 4 or 5 o'clock

Ya . . . nothing . . . we had a very calm, un-weather-interrupted day. In fact it was the perfect temperature outside, just a little chilly.

My first typhoon was the definition of anti-climatic.

In other news about a week ago we had a bat take a nap on our hall ceiling:

How totally CUTE is it?

I call it Fred ;)

We even got to see it fly when it tried to flee from some's attempts to catch it.

I hear that it was eventually "lead" outside.

What I've been up to . . .

Well a lot has happened sense we all got here, including a couple of birthdays, Meg's and Libby's to be exact. We apparently have adopted "Style" as the restaurant of choice for said functions!

Below is Libby's birthday happiness!

From Left to Right: Kevin, Meg, Katy, Laura, Kristi, Lein, Devin, Libby, Erin, Whitney.

(Allison was at the chiropractor . . . I think)

(Kevin is a friend of Berhan [our school] and on the Stake Single Adults Activities Chair . . . or something like that ;)

Another great event was being locked out of my apartment (which is just the 4th floor of the school) for 2 1/2 hours!!!!! I had forgotten my keys and Lein, the only one home, was asleep. :(

Well, I had already has a long day with a solo COSTCO run and failing to hail a taxi for over a half an hour! I had decided to just walk to the train station, but everyone (the 2 random people I stopped to ask for directions and the couple of people the second person stopped to ask) said it was too far to walk, although Whitney has done it and said it was fine, anyway needless to say the last guy I stopped succeeded to hail a taxi within 30 seconds (I don't know what's wrong with me. :(

Thank heavens for that guy, because it started pouring right before we got to the train station. Once back in Feng Yuan I decided to stop by a 7-11 and buy dinner, I thank heaven for this too cause I would have been very hungry for 2 1/2 hours (I might have broken into the chocolate chips I had gone to COSTCO for).

Well I probably spent 40 min. in front of the gate at the side of the school pressing the button for someone to let me in, getting bitten by bugs, eating my 7-11 meal, and asking the very confused hair dressers next door to use their phone. Finally I decided to attempt jumping the 5 foot wall. I found a bin outside the school so I stood on that and tried to jump . . . painful . . . but guess what!!! I finally made it to the position of draping myself over the wall! At that point I was able to use what very little arm muscles I have to lift my torso up and, in the most awkward way possible I'm sure, I straddled the wall. As I attempted to lower my self down I found an extremely convenient stack of bricks waiting for my foot! :)

For the next 2ish hours I pressed the call button at the back door every 20 seconds (yes that is how long it plays for . . . yes it attempts to play some classical song and it stops before it resolves the note! I thought I would have that song stuck in my head forever, but I can't remember it now ;) Well at least I found bug spray! I also played some basket ball, making more than 10 shots one of which was backwards! ;) Below is a picture of what the back of the school looks like during the day (except now there is a 'playground' that I explored for like a min. No that's not grass, it's that squishy green playground matting!

The back of Berhan!

So for some reason I was sitting in my room when one of the secretaries knocks on my door and sticks her head (she usually just comes all the way in) but this time she had a kid with her, one of my students poked his head in and says, "My mom told me to give this to you." She had made 'chocolate' cookies/crackers with peanuts, and extremely dark chocolates. It was so random, but really fabulous!

This week another student came up to me at the beginning of class and said, "My grandma told me to give this to you." and he gave me two peices of apple and a drinkable yogurt. Randomness!

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

My second trip to Taipei:

We took the 5:30am bus to Taipei and made the 8:00am session. At 11am is we met up with the girls who did baptisms and we stopped by the Cheng Kai Shek memorial before we did other things (when I get those pics I post again).

Me in front of the memorial, with Kristi, Meg, Whitney, Laura, Erin, and Liz (another ILP teacher teaching in Chungwa) in the background

Also at the memorial is a path of stones that you walk on and hits all the pressure points in you feet thus making you feel better. The path is probably 50 feet long and only two of us walked the entire way (it's not comfortable, but I didn't think it hurt that bad). The thing is my headache was gone after that, now I had just drank a lot of needed water and we were now in the shade, but who's to say that didn't contribute?

The stones are cemented in to point up, if you can't tell. I would do it again. . .