T:TiMe

Bittersweet!

2009-12-30T21:41:00.001-08:00

The hardest part about MOVING to a foreign country is leaving family and friends....and the hardest part about LEAVING a foreign country is leaving family and friends! I have absolutely loved living in Taiwan, and I am so sad to leave, but I am very excited about the adventures that ly ahead. For those of you who know, I'm not much of a 'crier,' but these past couple days, I've been a running faucet. I am so sad to leave my kids. They are so fun, and I love them so much! They've been showering me with little notes and gifts--I am so thankful for them. Everyone I've met here in Taiwan has been great, and has influenced my life for the better.

Well, enough of that sappy stuff! I would post pics, but I'm getting on a shuttle to Taipei in 15 minutes, from which I will fly to Singapore and begin my travels throughout SE Asia....I probably won't be blogging for awhile, but wish me luck....and I'll be back in the U.S. of A. on February 4th. I hope to see you all!

Hugs, Loves, and Kisses. T

WARNING!

2009-12-27T07:18:00.000-08:00

THE LAST FIVE POSTS ARE ALL NEW! GOOD LUCK!

Chapter 27 Pics MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-27T05:02:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, December 22nd

Me, Hanna, Sarah, and Sammy went to my student, Samuel's, Chinese School today to give the kids a Christmas Party. It hasn't felt much like Christmas around these parts without family and such, so bringing these kids a little Christmas cheer really got me into the spirit! We played games, had a magic show, read a Christmas story, sang carols, and had a visit from Santa.

Samuel and Teacher Tanier...I'll miss this little bugger...he's the one who lived in England for quite some time, and likes to say 'trousers' and 'mum'...

Of course none of the kids spoke English, but they sure were cute. This is my new friend....she was giggling and smiling throughout the whole party.

Reading The Polar Express...My favorite Christmas story, and a tradition to the Glauser family on Christmas Eve! Again, these kids had no idea what I was saying, but I kept some of their attention until the end.

A visit from Santa Claus...HO HO HO....MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Samuel's Chinese class.

Wednesday, December 23rd
Picture time with my students!

My 7A class--you can tell they were really happy to take this picture!

My 2A's...I'm gonna miss these little rascals...

SPE group shot!

Annie and Annie (2A)...I remember on the first week of class she wrote in her journal that she was the most beautiful girl in class. Well, she is pretty darn cute...and funny too! We've already exchanged emails!

Friday, December 24th MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

What better way then to spend Christmas Eve at McDonald's!!! We took our Super Students to dinner tonight. Although Christmas Eve means nothing to them, it was fun to be with the kids tonight!

Hank's family. His sister, Sunny, is just adorable!

Me and New Jimmy...I just wanted ONE good picture, but all he wanted to do was play Kung Fu...better luck next time!

Friday, December 25th MERRY CHRISTMAS!

My first Christmas away from home! I can't believe it! Thank goodness for video cams and skype! I was able to talk to my family, and I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them. I forgot how funny they all are. I loved being in the background listening to everyone--it was as if I were watching 'Christmas Vacation' Glauser style. There was so much comotion...everyone was jabbering at the same time about this and that...and then there was me, making faces in the cam to see if anyone was watching...haha! What a good time. I can't wait to see everyone in February!

The BEST family ever! Glauser Christmas 2008 {Last year's Christmas Pictures. Not pictured: Jaime Glauser, Krista Wilson, and Gideon Barlow}
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Santa's Elve's and one little helper {Sara snuck in the picture...what a cutiepatutie}

Tasty Tasty! Christmas Dinner with the teachers and secretaries! Best $15 I've ever spent {this seven course meal is to die for...especially the chocolate bag}

Saturday, December 26th

I spent the day packing up all my junk! I can't believe everything fits. That little green backpack, and only that little green backpack, is going to be my companion for my 35-day backpacking trip. Wahoo....

Dinner at Max and Viv's with Julia. I'm gonna miss this girl!

Sunday, December 27th
I had to say goodbye to the WuChuan 2nd Branch today...this branch has been my second family and I'm thankful for all their love! Here are some of the peeps I had to say goodbye to today:

Our little Relief Society...Ber Han {Maryland's sister school} is done teaching, so those few sisters have already left Taiwan.

Elna and her beautiful girls...

Branch President and his family--The Baclayons. President, Melissa, Emily, and Bradley.

Me and Bush--coolest dude around!

Angela, me, Jenae, and Kevin.

Elder and Sister Greene

Manti and the girls!

Chapter 27 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-27T04:30:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 21st

Life as a PE teacher—someone is always crying, complaining, or hurt. Nothing is ever fair, and someone will always lose. The truth is, life isn’t fair, but try telling that to a bunch of seven-year-olds. Well, back to the crying…there we were, playing Freeze Tag…all the kids were running around having fun, then Candy slipped and fell. Her fall wasn’t all that bad, because Kerry broke it, ha. She fell right on top of Kerry, who then hit the ground upon impact. He went face first to the hard, wood floor. I quickly ran over to him, he began to sob…I went through my usual prompts, You’re okay, you’re a big boy…show me your muscles…oh, look how strong you are… Haha, then Tim came over to console him—of all people, Tim is the worst at being tough…he’s always crying. Ironic? Nonetheless, Tim was so cute. He said, “It’s okay Kerry, I’ve hit my head 100 times in this gym.” Chuckling to myself, I responded to Tim’s remark, “…and you’re okay, aren’t you Tim?” “Yup!” he replied. Kerry let out a few whimpers and the game went on. Less than a minute later Tim fell down and hit his head…he started to get teary eyed, “Oh Teacher!” He exclaimed….I just looked at him, “Well Tim, now you’re at 101!” Haha, he began to laugh and shook off his owie like a champ!

Tuesday, December 22nd

Because most of us teachers don’t have to teach a class until about 5:00 pm on Tuesdays, we went to my student, Samuel’s, Chinese School to help throw a Christmas Party. We had so much fun…we played games, Sammy gave a good magic show, and Santa even came by to hand out some Christmas presents. Let’s see…we taught the kids the Hokey Pokey, ‘Santa’ Says, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Musical Teacher (our own rendition of Musical Chairs). After the games, I read one of my favorite Christmas books to the children, The Polar Express; after which, we sang Christmas songs to see if we could get Santa to make an appearance. It was so fun to see the kids get so excited. They hardly spoke any English, but their body language said it all.

Wednesday, December 23rd

I went to the Dentist this morning….US$3.00 Can you believe it, just $3 bucks!!!! This is a first, so I just have to make this announcement: I HAVE NO CAVITITES! …amazing what a little dental floss can do, ha!

The Ko’s brought me a Christmas gift today. They are too sweet. They gave me a card, some guavas (which taste great when actually ripe), and….you guessed it, more Chicken feet!!! I can’t bring myself to eat them again. I can actually see the claws on these feet they brought, YUCK! Frank thinks he’s so funny bringing me some toes to nibble on. Once I get a good picture, the feet have got to go!

Thursday, December 24th MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

My 2A’s have been reviewing for their final all week….today we were going over lots of grammar. When we came to our chapter on making singular nouns plural, I asked the kids how to make a noun plural that ENDS with the letters, ‘sh’. Well, Hank obviously misunderstood me, thinking I asked what words START with the letters ‘sh’…all of the sudden, he shouts, “SHIT!” Oh my goodness, “Hank, shut your mouth, you cannot say that…” He just began laughing, then all the other kids chimed in, “What did he say, what did he say!” I tried to divert them from the subject, too late:
Samuel: “What did Hank say? Did he say S-H-I-F-T?”
Annie: “No,” he said, “S-H-I-T!”
Samuel: “What?”
Kyle: “Hank said SHIT!”
Whole Class: Gasp.
Keep in mind, this whole conversation happened in about a 15 second span, it was so funny. The things these kids learn—I just don’t know where they get it.

Wow, Christmas Eve already, I can’t believe it! For the night, we took the super students to McDonald’s one last time. I didn’t think I’d get another chance, but I’m glad I did because Hank and Kyle were able to come, which means Hank’s sister, Sunny, was able to come; she is a doll. So, while we were eating our chicken nuggets and fries, I made the comment that I didn’t have enough ketchup. Viggy, my old student, leaned into me and gave me her ketchup…a few seconds later, Kyle showed up with some of his ketchup, then Jimmy, then Alex….the ketchup just kept coming. I’m still not sure how everyone found out that Teacher Tanier needed some Ketchup, but by the end of the night, I was up to 12 packets.

Friday, December 25th

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Today was my first Christmas away from home. Christmas in Taiwan didn’t feel much like Christmas without the Christmas music, Christmas dinner, family, snow (sometimes), toys, and fun…but it was still a good time. I was able to talk to my family via skype—that was great! Jaime and Buck were there with ma and pa opening up presents on the bed. Haha, everyone was so funny…I couldn’t stop laughing. I felt as though I was right there with them. I can’t wait to see them in a month! Wahoo!

I went into work early to wrap some gifts for my students, the secretaries, and teachers. I was up in my classroom when Penny (our cute, little secretary) so gingerly walked in. She was cleaning and doing her thing when she saw all my gifts scattered about my desk. She asked with her little English, ”What for?” I told her they were Christmas gifts…she then went on and asked, “You, why go home?” I told her I wanted to stay, but my contract was up…her last words, “I LOVE YOU.” I almost got teary eyed for a moment. It’s amazing how close you can feel to someone when you can’t even speak to them. Penny is one of the cutest little Asian’s I know. She is always smiling and just so happy. I have loved working with Penny and Emily and I will miss them greatly. I hope they know how great they are; seriously, whenever us teachers need anything, with the drop of a hat, Em and Pen Pen are at our beck and call. You don’t get that kind of service in America. I love them!

Christmas in Taiwan! To make Christmas feel a little more like Christmas, all of us teachers and secretaries went out to dinner. We didn’t go to any old place—we went to ‘THE TASTY’, and boy is that seven course meal tasty, especially when it’s just US$15 for such an extravagant meal. It was so fun to go out to dinner for one last time with Em and Pen Pen….they are the BEST!

Saturday, December 26th

My last Saturday in Taiwan…IT’S HERE! I spent the day packing and journaling/blogging. I told myself I would journal once a week while I was here in Taiwan. I’m not that good at keeping any of my goals, but this one, I really tried to do…although it’s been hard to do, I’ve been successful so far. Because this next week is going to be crazy, I may have to do to a little pre-show of what’s goin’ down.

I can’t believe I got myself all packed! For the most part, I am all ready for my 35 day backpacking trip! WAHOO…I’m getting so excited. Tyson left for Hong Kong on the 24th and arrived there today. I will meet him in Singapore next week. Buck will leave on the 31st of December and I’ll meet him in Singapore as well. I have all my stuff crammed into a little backpack that my roomie Sammy is so kindly letting me borrow. I actually have a little extra room. I can’t believe how light I’m packing—I didn’t know it was possible. I guess living in Taiwan made me realize that I don’t really need all those materialistic things such as a brush, blow-dryer, flat iron, jewelry, make-up, etc, etc. Ok, Ok, maybe a brush is needed, but a pick will have to do for my trip.

After packing, us girls went to Max and Vivian’s with our friend, Julia. I’m so glad I was able to see Julia before leaving; it was also fun to go say goodbye to the boys at Viv’s. Julia is so nice. She made all of us girls shadow boxes. She copied our pictures from Facebook and pasted them on a mat that was cut out like a box. She then wrote letters to each of us. She is so thoughtful!

Sunday, December 27th

Goodbye to the WuChuan 2nd Branch. Today was my last day at church in the English Branch. Ber Han (Maryland’s sister school) got done teaching last week, so none of those teachers were at church to say goodbye to (they’re all traveling, or home now), but I did get goodbyes with some of my good friends: Bush, Jenae, Elna, Yvonne, Elder and Sister Greene, President Baclayon and his family, Angela…the list goes on. I am so thankful for my ward family here in Taiwan. I don’t know what I’d do without them!

Chapter 26 Pictures

2009-12-27T02:30:00.000-08:00

The spirit of Christmas!
Our little SPE's love to play 'Down by the Banks'...us teachers were feeling a little generous, so we let the kids have some fun!

Me and my lover boy, new Jimmy...this whole week, Jimmy has brought all the teachers random little nic-nacs--we've gotten safety pins, dinosaur cards, candy, shirt pins, pogs, etc. It's almost as if we're playing the 12 Days of Christmas. I absolutely adore this boy.

Alright, so I love him, and he loves Flora...what's new? The new, happy couple. According to our source (Emily), Jimmy and Mimi were never dating...Mimi just thought of Jimmy as a friend, so he's moved onto the next best thing, Flora. Ha. Jimmy's playing the 12 Days of Christmas with her too. Everyday he brings something new!

Friday, December 20th

You see this girl...she is my best friend, sister, and cousin. I love her so much! She's been serving the Lord for the past 18 months in the DC South mission. I was living in Alabama when she left and now I'm living in Taiwan, where I'll be when she gets home. Yes, Keesh is coming home today!

I LOVE YOU KEESH!

Dinner with the Ko's--one of my favorite families. The Ko's promised me a dumpling party before I left, so tonight was the night. We had a fun time cooking, eating, and chatting. I will miss this family. They are amazing, and they have done so much for me!
Ladies Hour--Helen and I preparing dinner....Frank taking pictures!

Helen teaching me her ways...she's a great cook!

We had a wonderful meal...dumplings (my favorite), rolls, fruit, peanuts, cashews, and then....half-way through our meal, Frank pulled out these....
CHICKEN FEET!

I couldn't back down from the challenge. Yup, I'm really eating it...not too bad, just a bit chewey, and yes, very boney. I think I had a couple tendons too!

Martin and JoAnna...They are always trying to talk to me about boys and kissing...haha. I will miss them so much.

Helen and Frank...always wining and dinning me....what a great family!

Saturday, December 19th

It's my mom's birthday today! ...one year older and as babelicious as ever. Alright, this pic is a few years old, but she still looks GREAT! Happy Birthday MOM....I LOVE YOU! Thanks for being my BEST FRIEND--you always listen to me when I need to vent, and you always give me the advice and the support I need. Whenever I need a laugh, I can always call you! Thanks mamasita! As the Asian's would say, HAPPY TOGETHER.

Over the course of my time in Taiwan, I've traveled just about everywhere, but because of costs and time, I wasn't going to be able to make it to Hualien and Taroko Gorge (the Grand Canyon of Taiwan)...after two minutes of contemplation, us girls thought, 'what the heck, when will we be in Taiwan again...,' so spur of the moment, we packed up and took a train to Hualien. Emily came with us; she is so fun to travel with. She is always so organized and planned out, so we don't have to worry about a thing...I would trust her with my life! The trip was short, but loads of fun! Only damper....Tabbi wasn't able to come--she ran the marathon in Taipei...Good Job Tip!

Hualien
We got on the train at 6:12 am and arrived in Hualien at 11:30. We checked into our homestay, rented some scooters, and were off to tour the town.
Trying to sleep on the train...it was freezing cold and uncomfortable.

Good thing Hanna and I brought our neck pillows...these were the only things that saved us on our four-hour trek.

Scootin' around!

We found ourselves at an old Japanese government building that has now been turned into an Art Museum...
Outside the Art Museum!

A coastal view of Hualien from the museum--beautiful!

These cut-outs were everywhere at the art museum...we had fun playin' around with them...if only you were there...
Em

Me

Hanna

Sarah

Next stop, the beach! It was freezing!

Night market for a little dinner. After visiting three night markets, we finally found one that had the famous French toast...stuffed with your choice of sweet and sour chicken, peppered beef, or seafood salad. As yummy as it sounded, I went with the tuna crepe (a safe bet)

Our homestay. We had the whole house to ourselves...absolutley wonderful. This is Hanna and Sarah enjoying our nice, SOFT beds! A feeling of home...two seconds later the floor started rumbling, the lights started shaking, and the door started swinging...EARTHQUAKE....Hualien was the epicenter, a 6.8 on the Richter scale. Luckily we weren't out and about riding our scooters. Longest 30 seconds of my life...kinda crazy, but oh so fun!

Sunday, December 20th

Taroko Gorge!

It was so cold that we decided to layer up with everything that we brought for the weekend. Hanna and Sarah putting on their layers.

Oh man, Just the other week I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt...now I'm wearing double layers....Taroko Gorge was freezing. I always thought it was funny when my students would wear their pajamas underneath their clothes, haha....look at me now. Gotta love those p.j.'s ridin' up!

Hanna and I, AKA...Mary and the bank robber....kidnapper and the thief...we had to bundle up if we were going to ride scooters through the gorge.

Emily, Sarah, and me.

Sweet shot...we couldn't get too close because everything was shut down because of the earthquake the night before...rocks and debris scattered the ground.

Em and I walking toward the giant pagoda

Sarah and I climbed to the very top!

Suspension bridge...Hanna, me, and Sarah...Em took the picture (she couldn't muster up the courage to walk out too far on the bridge)...it was a long way down!

Whoops!

My 'must-take' photo...I've gotten everyone else into the jumping style pics too!

What a great weekend! I love the EAST SIDE!

Chapter 26

2009-12-27T01:59:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 14th

It was old Jimmy’s birthday today…he just turned six year’s old. I can’t believe it. I always think he is so much older because of how well he speaks. He’s been in SPE’s for a bit longer than the other students, so he knows a lot more than everyone else. Well, because he was the birthday boy, I decided to take his class on a little fieldtrip—we went to 7-11. The kids were so excited! They all decided to get bubble gum; I guess that’s a real treat because they don’t get it very often. Oh Jimmy, he is just so cute (his new nick name: JIMBO…he can wiggle his little Dumbo ears, adorable; thus the name, Jimbo)—I just love both Jimmy’s….I want to stuff them in my suitcases and bring them home to America.

Tuesday, December 15th

I started doing something new with my SPE students. As they line up at the door before class, I have the first person in line make sure everyone is folding their arms, and being a ‘super student’ before they can go in and sit down. It’s been working quite well—the kids are behaving great. They always want to line up first, so they can act like ‘teacher.’ Well, Mimi was first in line the other day. I bent down toward her and said, “Mimi, is everyone folding their arms and ready for class?” She turned around, looked at everyone, and made sure they were behaving themselves….everyone seemed ready. Her response, “No, everyone is NOT ready.” “Who’s not ready?” I asked, a little confused, thinking she may have misunderstood me….everyone looked ready to me. Then she said, “Teacher, you are not folding your arms!” Haha, I guess I should practice what I preach. Oh the children…also, now that I’ve started giving out warnings to the children (3 strikes and you’re out…to time-out), the kids now give me warnings if I do something wrong. They keep me in check.

Wednesday, December 16th

Tim has been a bit difficult to teach lately. I mean, the boy is brilliant….seriously, Tabbi and I have a hard time stumping him with anything. He knows his stuff, and he can read too! We just don’t know where he’s learned it all. Well, although he’s Mr. Smarty Pants, he sucks it up during gym time. He’s not very athletic compared to the other children. Every time we have relay races he complains, because Candy is too fast—gym is the one thing he can’t ‘WIN’ per say. Because he gets so frustrated, he doesn’t always get as many points as the other students, but like I said, he’s smart….so today he tried to make a deal with me, “Teacher, if you give me more points, I’ll give you some of my crackers.” Haha, instead of giving him more points, I countered his offer and let him be the teacher in kitchen instead. It was great. He sat in the ‘teacher’s’ seat, gave out instructions and asked all the kids questions. Because he was the teacher, I acted as the student….he called me ‘Student TEACHER Tanier’….so cute.

Thursday, December 17th

The 12 days of Christmas….this whole week, New Jimmy (keep in mind, he’s seven-year’s-old) has been handing out little gifts to the teachers, just random nic-nac’s that he’s managed to find—you know, the kinds of things you find in between your couch cushions….shirt pins, safety pins, pogs, patches, keychains, candy, etc. etc. He even brought a special gift for his NEW girlfriend, Flora. Yup, they’re dating. Jimmy and Mimi are no longer an item…well, according to our source (Secretary Emily), Mimi never really liked Jimmy, so Jimmy decided to move on to the next best thing…haha. Flora is in a different class, so I’m not sure how their relationship is blossoming, but he brought her a flower today. My little lover boy has a new girlfriend—I can’t believe it!

Friday, December 18th

MY BEST FRIEND and COUSIN is home from her mission! I was in Alabama when she left, and now I’m in Taiwan when she’s getting home. By the time I see her again, we’ll be just a few months shy of a two year reunion. I LOVE YOU KEESH!

Frank (Martin and JoAnna’s Dad) picked me up after work tonight. The Ko’s promised me one last dinner with them before I left, so tonight was the night. I told them I wanted Helen (mama Ko) to teach me how to make dumplings, so that’s what we did. When I arrived at their home, the kids were still at cram school. Helen had all the materials prepared for our dumpling night; we just had to put them together. She’s a great teacher. Frank told me it was Ladies hour, so I washed my hands and got to work, while he took pictures for us. I had a great time preparing dinner. We had dumplings, rolls, pork, fruit, cashews, peanuts, soup, and…..are you ready for it….CHICKEN FEET! Yes, chicken feet…Frank brought the feet to the table, started gnawing on a toe, and asked me whether I’d like to try one or not. As much as I was grossed out, I can’t ever back down from a challenge. I know Frank was just being funny and testing me to see whether I’d really eat the chewy, boney little feet…I couldn’t give him justice by shying away, so I manned up and ate one foot! I told Martin if he’d eat one, I’d eat one, sure enough, he ate one….so I dug on in. I would never buy the feet on my own, but it wasn’t all that bad.

After dinner we sat around chatting. Martin played the guitar for us and Frank kept trying to talk me into getting my MBA at Taiwan’s University. Haha. As we were chatting, I realized how much I’m going to miss this family. They have been so good to me. They are always bringing me yummy treats (I got another papaya just last week), and they’ve helped me with so many things. It’s unreal how fast time is winding down. I’m going to miss my kids. I love them. I’ve felt a little disconnected lately because I’ve been preoccupied with plans for my traveling in January, but this week, as I realize I’m going to leave soon, I’ve relaxed a lot and just had fun with the kids….I wonder sometimes whether I would have stayed for a year if I wasn’t going on this trip throughout Asia in a few weeks….the answer….it would definitely be a tough call.

Saturday, December 19th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! I have the best mom ever. She is the greatest, and I love her so much! She has supported me 100 percent—with everything I do. I don’t know what I’d do without her. She’s such a babe and I’m glad we’re BEST FRIENDS! I LOVE YOU MOM!

I feel as though I’ve traveled all throughout Taiwan, but there was still one place I hadn’t been, and really wanted to go: Taroko Gorge. It’s near Hualien, on the East Side, so it’s a bit of a trek to get there, and a little expensive, but what the heck….when am I going to be in Taiwan again. Me, Hanna, Sarah, and Emily all decided to go. Emily is great. She’s our tour guide—she got us our train tickets, hostel….basically everything. I can definitely trust her with anything, she’s the best!

To maximize our time in Hualien, we left early on Saturday morning…Emily came to pick me up at 5:50 am for our 6:12 train…SO EARLY…the sun wasn’t even up yet. The trains are nice, but so uncomfortable. We had about a five hour train ride, and us girls were freezing the whole time. We tried to sleep on the train, but because it was FREEZING, we had a hard time. Hanna and I brought our neck pillows, so at least we had some comfort.

After arriving in Hualien, our hostel met us at the train station. They took us to the place and we checked into our room…Yeah, we were ready to tour the town…just then, the owner of the hostel came to our door. She said a better room was available for us whether we wanted it, but it wasn’t in the same building, it was about a one-minute scooter ride away. So, we packed back up, rented some scoots, and went to our new place. It was more of a home stay. We had the whole place to ourselves….it was so nice. Our room had two double beds with canopies—I’ve always wanted a canopy bed! Oh my gosh, the beds were so soft too…a little taste of home…fabulous. We were in heaven.

After dropping our bags, we went to lunch at a great little dumpling shop nearby; then Emily had us up and at ‘em for our tour around Hualien. We didn’t exactly know where we were going in Hualien, so we got lost along the way, but it was fun!

Hualien Day One:

First Stop: Japenese Art Museum. We went to this old Japanese building that has now been turned into an art museum. We had fun taking pictures and enjoying the coastal view surrounding us, but it was freezing. A cold front decided to come through. We found a little café at the Museum and bought some hot chocolate…most expensive hot coco I’ve ever had, US$3….I couldn’t believe it, but at the time, I’d do anything for warmth.

Second Stop: Beach, fish museum, and winery. Emily found out about this cool place where you can watch the sunrise, so we wanted to find it the day before, just in case we were to get lost. It was right near the beach….again, beautiful as always, but freezing! We then headed to a fish museum (weird)…the museum was about catching fish and eating them…not necessarily about all the beautiful fish in the sea. After that, we hit up the winery for who knows what for…but it was fun exploring!

Third Stop: Night Market. We went to about three different night markets trying to find some yummy food, but nothing was working out for us. We finally found a ‘famous’ place at our last night market: stuffed French toast. Stuffed French toast sounds yummy right, how about French toast stuffed with some sweet and sour chicken? Peppered beef? Seafood salad? …interesting, yeah? Well, Hanna and Em went with the French toast. I tried it, and liked it, but I was feeling a tuna crepe instead. Em also got some chicken blood and squid, which I tried….tasty!

Fourth Stop: Home. Because we were freezing, and it had started to rain, we decided to go back to our hostel where we could get warm. We got ready for bed and turned on a movie, Stardust. Just when the movie began, our canopy beds started shaking, then the door started rattling, the lights were swinging…..EARTHQUAKE! I looked at Hanna…Hanna looked at me. We just sat there trying to decide whether the quake was going to get worse or quickly die out….It just kept going. I jumped up out of my bed and told all the girls to get in a door frame or find a corner. Just then, Emily came screaming out of the bathroom, “EARTHQUAKE, EARTHQUAKE…” I just kept saying, “It’s ok, it’s ok.” At last, the quake ended….probably the longest 45 seconds ever! Hanna was just laughing…she wanted to stay in bed. It was crazy, but kind of fun too! We were all laughing. Luckily, we were only on the second story of our hostel. We turned on the news right after the quake….’Breaking News’ headlines were flashing across the screen. The epicenter of the quake was right in Hualien, where we were….it was a 6.8 on the Richter scale! That’s pretty darn big—luckily no one was hurt and there was no ‘real’ damage. Em tried to call her mom, but the phones were down…once she got through to her mom, all her mom could mutter was, “scooter, scooter!” making sure we weren’t out driving when the quake hit. We were blessed!

Sunday, December 20th

Day Two:

First Stop: Our hostel ran out of hot water, so we got free coupons for breakfast. We got up early, around 7:30 am, and went to breakfast before heading out to Taroko Gorge. Before leaving our hostel, we put on about every item of clothing we had brought for the trip…IT WAS STILL FREEZING. I wore my pajama pants underneath my regular pants. I had on about three shirts, a light jacket, and a raincoat. I was still cold.

Second Stop: Taroko Gorge—The Grand Canyon of Taiwan. We rode our scooters to the gorge, and then through the gorge; it was about an hour drive. We covered ourselves up in scarves, hats, and gloves, trying to stay warm, but somehow, the cold still got to us. When we arrived at Taroko, we took a ton of pictures. The gorge is huge and beautiful! We marked out some of the must-sees, but come to find out, most of them were closed because of the earthquake…rocks and debris had fallen to the ground all around us—it was crazy! We still had a fun time though. I drove the scooter and Emily took the pictures…at one point, Em was yelling, “SLOWER, SLOWER!” I guess I’m a bit more reckless than she’d like me to be. I mean, my driver’s ed instructor, Mr. Hiatt, did tell me I have a lead foot.

The girls and I enjoyed our time at Taroko Gorge. The large marble canyons were amazing; even though it was freezing, the trip was still worth it. After touring around the gorge, we drove back to Hualien, ate at the same dumpling shop, and then hopped on our train home. What another fun weekend trip….I’m so glad Emily could come with us, seeing as this was our LAST weekend trip in Taiwan!

Chapter 25

2009-12-25T19:14:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 7th

WOW! Only 3 ½ weeks left of teaching; the time has flown by—actually, I have two weeks of actual teaching, a week of review, and then finals!!!! Crazy, now I have to start thinking about packing and all that good stuff. I have no idea how I’ll get ALL my STUFF home—I don’t have Missy here to tell me, “Tanier, you don’t need that, or that….OR THAT!” She was such a big help before I came to Taiwan (helping me pack and all)….I just wish I wouldn’t have snuck in those extra items that she told me NOT to bring…now I don’t think I’ll get them home with all the stuff I’ve accumulated.

Last week I had a lot of ‘sick’ kids who missed school. They got the H1N1 vaccine a couple weeks ago, and now…they all have the ‘piggy’! I hate when kids miss school; it’s so much work to get them caught up with the rest of the class. Hank has to make up two tests…when I told him he needed to get to work and study for BOTH of them; he just looked at me with his somber face and said, “But Teacher, I’m GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE.” Oh, life is so hard when you’re 10-years-old. I have to admit, the way he said DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE was so dang funny!

At Maryland, we’re having an open house this week. We’re allowing the parents to come and sit in on the classes. I’m always a bit nervous when the parents come in, because the kids act soooo different. They either have the hardest time behaving because they get so hyper around visitors, or they do the exact opposite, they shut down and won’t say a word. No matter what end of the spectrum the pendulum falls, it’s never good. With a rowdy class, the parents will think the teacher has no control, and with a silent class, the parent will wonder whether their child is actually learning to speak English. I hope the parents understand one of these outcomes is bound to happen…we’ll see how it goes!

Tuesday, December 8th

Working with China can be so frustrating at times. Tabbi and I are planning on spending nearly two weeks in China. We plan to visit Guilin, Shanghai, Xi’an, and Beijing. We have some friends in Shanghai, who we’ll stay with, and they’ve helped us tremendously, so that’s nice…but we’re still getting a feel for everything else. Let’s see, the frustrating part: Tabbi and I can’t fly straight from Beijing to America; instead, we have to go back to Taiwan first, because that’s where our boss bought our initial flight last June…well, well, well,…has anyone tried to get a one-way flight out of Beijing to Taipei…RIDICULOUS! They are extremely overpriced for such a hop, skip, and a jump length of a distance, and it’s just all around difficult (government and political issues)…we’ve talked to so many people about the best way to purchase our flight, and apparently, people who live IN china, who have a CHINA card, have access to CHEAPER flights—Tabbi and I tried this option (with our friends in Shanghai)…we were going to all possible lengths to get the best deal. Turns out the good flights are only available to Chinese Nationals...go figure, $400 US dollars later, Tabbi and I will be departing Beijing on the 2nd of February, landing in Taipei where we’ll kick it for a few days, and then HOME SWEET HOME to America on February 4, 2010!

I read a story with my 2A kids today—Dinosaur Facts—they were in love. My boys trade Dinosaur cards everyday at break, so reading a story about Dinosaurs was right up their alley. Our story told us all about different types of dinosaurs, what they ate, where they lived, their size, yada, yada, yada. The only thing the story failed to mention was were Dinosaurs ‘came from’…I guess the author wanted the teacher to explain that one. After reading the story, Hank raised his hand, “Teacher, where did dinosaurs come from?” Oh dear, I thought…how on earth can I answer this one? “They came from eggs,” I explained. Apparently that answer wasn’t good enough, because he kept probing the issue. “Ugh, where did you come from Hank?” I asked, “…and where did your mom come from? …and her mom, and her mom after that…” I knew this discussion was getting a little deep, then Kevin shouted out, “GOD!” ….and then Kyle too, “MONKEYS!” WOW, I thought, we have a dilemma on our hands. Hank, this cute little soul, is just wondering about existence itself, as so many people do, and I just couldn’t find a good way to explain anything in our classroom setting. I told the class that everyone has different beliefs of where dinosaurs came from, and where people come from, which are God and Monkeys (evolution). Then I told them, they need to study it out to find out for themselves, which they thought was true. Ha, I’m not sure Hank was satisfied our ‘spiritual’ discussion because after the monkey talk, he piped up, “Teacher, can’t you just Google it.” Haha—Google, what a perfect source for a quick fix.

Wednesday, December 9th

We’ve had some parents come for the Open House this week—so far, so good. Some SPE parents showed up, as well as Frank (Martin and JoAnna’s dad in 7A’s)…I really enjoy talking with Frank, but he can be a bit intimidating. Luckily he came during our grammar lesson, so all went well. JoAnna came up to me before class, “Teacher, my dad’s coming today…” “..and,” I replied. “I didn’t do my homework…” Whoops! My kids have been having the hardest time turning in their homework lately. Chinese school really weighs them down, and frankly, I’m not the best stickler when it comes to homework! I don’t know how teachers keep track of it all—there’s got to be a good system, I’m just not using it, and with just a little over three weeks left, I’m not sure I’ll be implementing anything new.

Tabbi and I hit up the Tree House after work tonight—we feel like we’ve been cheating on Julie and her husband with Max and Viv’s because we haven’t been to the Tree House F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!! When we arrived, Julie acted so excited to see us. She had a bigger crowd than usual in her restaurant and more pictures of customers up on her wall—it looks like the place has been doing well (I’m so glad, before her restaurant was always empty). As we were talking to Julie, she told us how her patrons are always asking about the ‘American’s’ whose pictures are posted on the wall. Apparently we have quite a fan base at the Tree House, and there’s supposed people who want to meet us—supposed Taiwanese MEN, haha! Listening to Julie talk about this was so funny. We also asked her about some new Chinese writing she has hanging up…the words read, “Tree House”….she’s totally taken our name for the place and posted it up on the wall. Sweetness!

Thursday, December 10th

Sarah and I still have a couple of passes on our GoGo card, so we decided to take a break from travel plans and kids, and we went and unleashed our built up aggression in our Asian kickboxing class. Wow, I love that class. Our instructor is sweet. The workout routine is never the same—he constantly changes things up to make sure we’re on our toes, and yes, I was on my toes the whole time. After leaving class, I seriously felt as though I could defend myself against any predator. Unlike American Kickboxing, where you throw a couple of jabs, I was doing round house kicks. Let’s just say I’ll definitely be sore tomorrow. From kickboxing, Sarah and I kept with our tradition and went to the night market for some tasty dumplings! YUM!

Friday, December 11th

We went to the Tree House, AGAIN, for dinner tonight. Man, us girls have the most extreme eating habits…I swear we go on binges of eating at Max n’ Vivian’s every week to eating poor man’s food, tuna fish, from the supermarket. There’s no even balance. ….but yes, we went to the tree house, and it was great seeing Julie, the owner. She is just wonderful…probably the last time I’ll ever see her as well, but of course I didn’t tell her that because I absolutely hate goodbyes!

Tabbi, Hanna, and I went to Watson’s convenience store to grab some things for our 35 day backpacking trip across Asia. We’re packing light—one backpack…no checked luggage—3 oz. bottles? Why yes, I’ll take 10 empty ones please, ha. We plan to refill everything…shampoo, conditioner, soap, etc. We did find some nice wet wipes and bug spray. There’s no way I’m going to get Malaria in Cambodia.

Saturday, December 12th

I spent the day doing laundry, seriously, ‘the day’….why does laundry have to take so long. At least it’s something tangible that I can mark off my many ‘To Do’ lists. I also spent some time wrapping up different odds and ends—getting ready for my grand departure of Taiwan.

Tabbi and I are singing in church tomorrow. I know what you’re thinking, Tanier sings??? Ha, kind of funny, right….well, I love singing, but haven’t ever been given the opportunity to do so, I mean, I’m not the next Mariah Carrey or anything, but I can hold a tune (on a good day). Anyhow, Tabbi asked me to sing with her, yes…she asked ME…I even have a solo too! Crazy. I hope I don’t mess it up. To ensure that we can pull this off, we scheduled a little practice session with Sister Greene tonight at 5:00 pm in Taichung—Sister Greene’s going to accompany us.

Tabbi and I took off for Taichung around 4:00—an hour is usually sufficient time to make it to Taichung. We’ve been going to Taichung every week for church, so we’ve got our route down, or so we thought—WE TOOK THE WRONT TRAIN! I’ve lived in Taiwan for nearly six months now, and tonight was the very first time I’ve ever taken the wrong train! We both fell asleep on the train, when we woke up, we were in Shalu or Dadu….some place in Timbuktu it seemed. We had to backtrack for an hour and a half to reach our initial destination. Oh man, the one time we actually have to be somewhere ON TIME….we end up arriving an hour and a half late. Luckily, Hanna and Sarah were there to tell Sister Greene we were coming, but they didn’t know where we were either. Tabs and I were taking bets on who thought we stopped off to go shopping, or whether we’d gotten hit by bus or something. Where was my helpless card when I so desperately needed it? I still can’t believe it, even though we know how to get to Taichung, we always ask a conductor whether we’re on the right train or not—this was the first time we didn’t ask, oh the pride cycle at its finest….and can I just say….once we finally hopped off the train in Taichung, Tabbi and I tried to flag down a taxi to get to the church (thinking it would be faster than the bus), but the taxi drivers were totally rude to us….we must have been saying something wrong. When asking for a ride, one driver looked at us, said nothing, and then turned away…as we kept talking, he put his taxi in reverse and drove away…what? RUDE….in all my time in Taiwan the people have been nicer than nice, but tonight…I saw a different side. We ended up taking a bus to the church, which seemed to take forever…we found Sarah and Hanna, and then we found Sister Greene, we explained our incident, and were able to practice for a few minutes before going to the night market with Andre and Bush. We went to the Fengjia Night Market again—had our baby mangoes and frozen bananas….delish. I will miss these fun night markets.

Sunday, December 13th

Tabbi and I tried to make it to church a bit earlier today, so we could practice our song before church, of course, we didn’t make it early. We got there about ten minutes before sacrament started, ran through our song a couple times, and called it good. We sang ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’…oh my goodness that song is so high…I’m a soprano, but get me in front of a crowd doing something I’m not familiar with and my voice started to shake a bit on those high notes (my voice just isn’t as strong when the notes start going higher, and higher, and higher…) Overall we sounded good…Tabbi pulled it together for us….she’s a beautiful singer. Thanks Tip! …and thanks Mik for the few voice lessons….and for giving me the confidence to sing. I guess there’s no better time to get comfortable singing in church than when you’re a part of a branch with just 25 active members, ha!

After church I came home and went through my souvenirs….where did they all come from??? They were covering my entire bed. YIKES….luckily I’ll be sending some home as Christmas gifts. Everyone’s Christmas gift will depend on how much crap I can stuff in one little box. Good Luck to me!

Chapter 24 Pictures!!!

2009-12-11T20:30:00.000-08:00

Friday, December 4th
Bowling and BBQ for Sammy's birthday!

Emily and Penny took us to a great little BBQ place. We thought it may be a little sketch at first, but it was delish....especially the bean curd!
Yummy BBQ...grab a basket and fill 'er up! Ala Carte style.

Food vendors...what to choose? I got a pork roll, corn on the cob, green peppers, and of course, bean curd!

Em and me waiting for our food...who knows how they keep all those orders straight...it's not as if they gave me a number or anything.

We almost had to ride our bikes because we didn't have to enough scooters for transportation...I know, lazy right? Well, leave it up to my boss Sherry to lend us her scooter for the night--so nice!

Sarah, putting out the vibe at the alley! The Asian men love her...

This dude had the best hair...EVER! Pretty sure he was getting sick of us taking sneaky, stalker photos of him, so we finally just asked for a shot, and he complied.

Here's the group bowling for Sammy's birthday!

Saturday, December 5th

Tabbi, Lisa, and I took a bus to Puli to hang out with our friend, Shan Fen. This was one of the few trips we've taken without a Taiwanese friend, AKA guide...so Tabbi had Emily write down some key phrases for us.

Tabbi doesn't have much faith in us. I, on the other hand, think we could get around just fine, but I'm glad that Tabs takes the extra precaution...even if it does hurt my pride, ha! Thanks Tabbi...this will come in handy for China!

"Hi, I'm Tanier and I'm completely helpless! Can you help me?"

On our way to the Chung Tai Shan monastery...scootin' around!

Chung Tai Shan Monastery. The landscape around the monastery reminded me much of Temple Square...beautiful flowers and trees everywhere!

At the bridge outside the Monastery.
Shan Fen, Cynthia, me, Tabbi, Lisa

Being greeted by the jolly, gold Buddha, with lips of red!
Tabbi, Lisa, Me, Cynthia, Shan Fen

Inside the entrance hall were these huge statue columns of different gods, amazing!

Here's a first...RED DRAGONS?

Lisa and I at the entrance doors--gargantuan....

The monastery...so beautiful...this was the best picture I could get because we were so close. Our friend told us it cost over the price of 72 LDS temples combined. Fact or Fiction? It took just over 10 years to construct and is home to over 1,000 Buddhist monks and nuns.

I'll be riding on one of these in a month! Wahoo!

Buddhist nuns--they were cute!

Goofing around...Where's T?

Dumplings....we thought they were Shao lone Bao...ended up being mini steamed buns

Formosan Cultural Center....Aborigines? Or so we thought....Tabbi and I have been wanting to see the aborigine lifestyle. We went to what we thought would be a museum of some sort, it ended up that we landed ourselves in an amusement park. Good thing I like roller coasters!

Cable Car ride up the mountain...breathtaking!

Aborigine Show.

Beautiful Taiwanese dancers...Taiwanese dress...

A kid at heart...I don't even remember the last time I rode a carousel, but it was sure fun!

The Rose Garden's...got there just in time to snap a pic before the sun went down

Sunday, December 6th

Walking home from church, we ran into our good friend Charles on the crowded streets of Tai Chung. Happenstance? ...that was probably the last time I'll ever see him, so SAD. He's been such a good friend! Farewell Charles!

Chapter 24

2009-12-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 30th

Thanksgiving leftovers…YUMMY! I think this is the fullest our fridge has been yet. I never knew I’d enjoy leftovers so much. Back in America (haha, joke around the house), we’d always have leftovers growing up—I would get so sick of them. It’s amazing how your perspective changes after living in a foreign country. Thanks for all the leftovers mom! All us girls sat around the table munching on creamy mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie…the list goes on. I hope this lasts us all week!

Tuesday, December 1st ....is it really the 1st of December, where does the time go?

The Lady Business Tour is making headway….we just splurged on a day adventure to Cambodia…yes, 24 hours to see the great Angkor Wat. It was a tough call deciding whether we should go off course and purchase tickets to Cambodia (especially for such a short time), but we concluded that our decision was ‘all-or-nothing’…we couldn’t leave anyone behind, so we ALL had to be in for the excursion, or it was a no go. TA-DA…we’re in…The LBT is off of its original route, but very pleased with the new purchase. We are fast, and we are furious—we’re going to stretch those 24 hours for all their worth….we set up a tour that will pick us up from the airport, take us to our hotel, tour us around Siem Reap and the surrounding temples, provide us with lunch, and then take us back to the airport the very next day…WAHOO! I’m just hoping none of us get hit with Malaria or Dengue Fever in the meantime—the mission president’s wife got dengue fever when she was in Cambodia and she was ill for three months straight…luckily it didn’t hit her system until a month later…she still loved every minute of her stay in Cambodia!

Scott is no longer coming to Maryland Language School—so sad! None of us even had a chance to give him a real goodbye. He was here laughing with us just yesterday, and now he’s gone…I will miss that little fella’!

Wednesday, December 2nd

Poor Sammy—his bike got stolen this last weekend. Man, we’ve had some bad karma with our bikes lately; first my bike tire went flat…I was walking to school; a few days later, Sarah’s bike tire went flat…she was walking to school; and now, a week later, Sammy’s bike was stolen…he’s also been walking to school. Well, I felt bad for the poor guy, so tonight when we left work, we went home Taiwanese style. I ‘let him’ pump me all the way home while I sat over the back wheel well on my wired seat. It was so funny! I had nowhere to place my feet, so the ride made for a great hip flexor workout. Together, we made a great balancing act.

Thursday, December 3rd

I used to be surprised and disgusted at school, when I’d touch a wet door knob or grab a wet handrail….I never really knew what the mess was, I’m always hoping its water, but considering the fact the kids have a hard time actually washing their hands, with soap, or getting their fingers out of their noses, who really knows. I just try to block out what ‘it’ is I’m actually touching…it’s just water..water…… WATER, I tell myself, over and over, again. Well, over the past couple months, the wetness no longer phases me, or had no longer phased me, until today….there I was, teaching the children…just another average day…we were in gym playing games; I shouted to the children that it was time to go, so they all made a bee-line for the door. We were counting up our points for the day, Tim went through the line, Candy too…it was now Flora’s turn…as she looked up at me with her beautiful brown eyes, and started speaking with her sweet, little voice, her nose started to wrinkle, she cupped her hands to her mouth, and let out a big sneeze, A-CHOO! As her hands fell from her face, they were covered in slimy, green snot!!! It wasn’t until Kerry’s lovely description that I almost puked….“Oh Teacher, SPIDERMAN!” Haha, I believe that says it all, YUCKY! Moral of the story, never touch a wet handrail.

Friday, December 4th

Sammy’s birthday is on Sunday, but we decided to celebrate that great day tonight! Sammy’s not much into Karaoke, so we went bowling. As we were leaving work, we were trying to figure out transportation, AKA scooter rides. The bowling alley is a bit far for a bike ride….alright alright, we’re getting a little lazy, but scooters are sooooo fun! My boss overheard us hashing out our dilemma (who’s riding with who)…she piped in, “Tanier, do you know how to drive a scooter?” Heck yes. “I have my scooter here. You can take if you’d like.” What? Awesome! Sherry let Tabbi and I taker her scoot. Before taking off, Sherry had to ‘help’ us start her scooter, who knew the task could be so complicated, haha (I say that facetiously). We had to start our ride using the choke, yet, I couldn’t use my left leg to push down the choke, I had to use my right leg, ha…it was hilarious! Sherry was so nice to let us borrow her scooter—it made for a great evening.

From work, Emily and Penny took us to a great little BBQ place near the train station. It seemed a little sketch at first, but it was definitely yummy! To order at this particular vendor, like many others, we just grabbed a red basket and went to town, grabbing everything and anything we wanted to BBQ—Ala cart style; our options: chicken heart, chicken skin, regular chicken (I think), beef roll, pork roll, bean curd, peppers, mushrooms, corn, etc. etc. I went with the pork roll, bean curd, peppers, and corn…bean curd is delish! After filling up our baskets, the ladies grabbed them from our hands…I never know how they keep my order straight, it’s not as if they gave me a number or anything. The red baskets just lay on the table near the BBQ, stacking up one right after the other….the orders were getting all mixed up in my mind, but I got what I came for, so apparently their ‘lack of system’ to me, is a ‘work of innovation’ to them…if it works, it works.

Bowling was a lot of fun! We met up with some of our expat friends and had a good time. Tabbi and I had to leave a little early, but we still got a good two games in. Tabbi had to make her scrumptious cookies, which I want to eat all the time, and I had to plan my relief society lesson for Sunday, Yea!

Saturday, December 5th

Tabbi and I left the apartment rather early this morning—7:00 am. We met Lisa at the train station, and then took a bus to Puli to visit our friend Shan Fen, who Tabbi met through another mutual friend. This was one of the few trips we’ve done alone (without a Taiwanese friend), so Tabbi had to pull out our helpless card to make sure we got off the bus at the right time….ha, Tabs had Emily write down some important phrases that we could show to our bus driver so we wouldn’t get lost—Can you tell me when to get off this bus? Where’s the bus station? Can you direct me to the KFC? Tabbi has little faith in our abilities to get around on our own, I, on the other hand, think we could suffice just fine without the ‘helpless card’, but I’m glad that Tabbi takes the extra precaution, even if it does step on my ‘Glauser Pride’—the card is much needed, and we’ll definitely have one for China!

We met Shan Fen at the KFC after getting off the bus. We hopped on some scooters and went touring around Puli—I even got my very own scooter to drive, what? Two days in a row? I was loving every minute of it, Shan Fen was so hospitable.

First Stop: Chung Tai Shan Monastery. It is the headquarters monastery and one of the largest in Taiwan. It is a beautiful monastery that is set up on the mountainside in Puli—to build the masterpiece, it took three years of planning and seven years of construction until it was complete in 2001. We were only able to visit one of three floors, but it was amazing. As we walked closer to the stone building, everything kept getting larger and larger…the entrance doors were nearly 25 feet tall, and upon walking into the great hall, there were huge statue columns of different Buddha’s. We were also greeted by a jolly gold Buddha statue with red lipstick, and two red dragons! The outside landscape reminded me of Temple Square with different flowers and trees lining the outskirts of the marvelous building. The monastery houses more than 1,000 Buddhist monks and nuns—we saw many of them wandering around nearby, as well as many tourists from China and Japan. We wanted to take a group photo in front of the monastery, so Shan Fen was nice enough to ask a young fellow for the favor. After exchanging some words in Chinese, there was a long pause. Then Shan Fen spoke up in English, “Do you speak English?” Ha. The man was Japanese and didn’t know a lick of Mandarin. Luckily there’s a ‘universal language’ between us all, English!

Second Stop: Formosan Cultural Center. Tabbi and I have wanted to go see some aborigines for quite some time, so far we’ve been unsuccessful. Well, Shan Fen pulled through for us….ugh, almost! We pulled up to what we thought was an aborigine village, oh wait, we were at an amusement park! Haha, good thing I LOVE amusement parks. We made the best of our time and rode on numerous roller coasters and other fun rides. Oh to be a kid again….I definitely made up for missing out on the Washington County Fair…three years in a row. We even hit up the carousel and Space Mountain….twice…nothing like a good day at a theme park! There were no lines, it was fabulous. We did find our way to an aborigine show up the mountain too! We rode a cable car to get there. The view was amazing! The show was great. We saw traditional dancing, dress, customs, etc.

Sunday, December 6th

I taught my Relief Society lesson today. I had ‘the opportunity’ to choose my own topic, a blessing and a curse. I’d been thinking of my topic forever, but nothing was coming to mind. Well, I found a great talk by President Monson in 2006, Treasured Gifts. If anyone is interested in a great Christmas talk, check it out!

Break the Fast! I love it when we have break the fast…Tabbi brought her yummy cookies, Sister Greene brought pumpkin bars, I was in heaven.

We walked to the train station from church today. On our way down one of the crowded streets in Tai Chung, we stopped off at a smoothie shop (I know, we broke the Sabbath…ey yi yi). Well, we were waiting in line, and all the sudden, we heard a man’s voice behind us…the voice was speaking English…the voice was calling out our names… we turned around to see our good friend, Charles! YAY! He was in town for an interview. Apparently, he was driving down the same street we were walking down, saw us, and just had to turn around to come and visit. We met Charles’ mom and sister too. They are just adorable. Charles’ sister, Christy, speaks English pretty well. His mother, on the other hand, didn’t even have an English name, so Tabbi and I named her….we started out with Ruth, then Janet, but both were a bit difficult to pronounce. We finally found a name that worked, Betty! It was so great to see Charles again—I’m so sad to say it, but that was probably the last time I’ll ever see Charles…I hate goodbyes!

Chapter 23 Pictures!!!

2009-11-29T09:55:00.000-08:00

Break Time! My kids have enjoyed drawing my portrait lately...they are all such wonderful artists--I think their depictions are quite accurate!

Can you see the resemblance?

Birthdays!
Friday, November 27th

Happy Birthday Grannie Goose!!! You're the BEST and I just love you! I don't know what I'd do without my cute, little Louie!

Thanksgiving in Taiwan
November 28, 2008

Because all of us teachers had to work on Thanksgiving Day, we decided to celebrate the holiday on Saturday. Our sister school, BerHan, invited us over for the Feast! There were nearly 25 of us. We had a great time eating, cooking, eating, playing Wii, eating, dancing, eating, and chatting.
{for more commentary, read below}

Thanksgiving Dress-up! So we didn't arrive as Pilgrims and Indians...we went in our Asian attire instead! {pictured: Hanna Postma, Sarah Lilly, Tabbi Perkins, Tanier Glauser}

The Changhua girls with Penny and Emily (our secretaries)...they've never been to a Thanksgiving feast before, so we brought them along to join in the fun!

Cooking time...and here you see our little Martha Stewart's and Betty Crocker's! Good work team!

Sunny preparing the Ham, among other things....he was slaving away all day! Thanks Sunny...you're the BEST! Everything tasted divine!

The Grandmas {Grandma T squared}...me and my little Tipster!

On top of the roof in Feng Yuan at BerHan Language School. Some of the group before dinner...talk about a beautiful sunset.

Set up...we had a lovely dinner outside. Notice the doors, which are holding our food! Haha, we make do here in the Orient.

Oh the delectable dessert table!

Dinner is served....it was a little dark at this point. We weren't exactly sure what we were picking up to eat, but all the food tasted great!

A Thanksgiving toast! {Hanna and I}

Lisa even made us name plates...so fun!

Laughs around the dinner table.

Tabbi feeding Penny pumpkin pie for the very first time....will she like it???

...and the answer is, a BIG FAT NO! Disgusting. Emily's description, "interesting." On the other hand, it's one of my favorites! YUMMY!

Sarah getting the 'after' party started.

Teaching Penny how to shimmy....now that was a knee slapper.

Teaching Penny the shimmy...1st attempt: seriously, I could not stop laughing...

and this is why...

2nd attempt: We finally got 'er done!!! Penny was so fun to dance with!

Chapter 23...Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-29T09:54:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 23rd

Five weeks and three days in counting until it’s backpacking time! Everyday I get more and more excited, but everyday, I get more and more stressed out…it’s crunch time and there’s a lot to do! I need to finish my December newsletters for my 2A and 7A classes (check), and then I need to write my January newsletters for the teacher who will be taking my place. I also have progress reports and student profiles….all of which needs to be completed on top of my regular work week of preparing lesson plans and teaching…YIKES. …and of course, I need to keep researching Asia to make sure I don’t land myself in an unwanted situation, as well as back my things and figure out where I’ll store them for the month I’ll be gone—long sigh. I can’t complain, but I have to admit that at this point, my focus has turned away from work and on to the ‘Lady Business Tour!’ Wahoo!

Well, I found out today that little SPE Scott will no longer be coming to Maryland. Apparently his grades in Chinese school have been slowly dropping…I guess he’s a little too interested in English. His mom said if he gets his grades up, he can have another stab at English school, but until then, he needs to focus on other things, like Chinese. Man, now I gotta find a new child to blog about…no more crop-dusting stories??? Dang. Well, there’s always Jimmy, but Scott’s his wing man, without Scott, I’m not sure he’s got anything, ha! I guess it’s a good thing I only have one month left of teaching.

Tuesday, November 24th

Another successful Lady Business meeting this evening; well, I can’t exactly track what we did for four hours around the kitchen table, but Tabbi and I can check one more thing off our list (we’re definitely list girls); we bought our flights to Hong Kong—we’re heading to China baby—SWEET!

Ah! The mosquitoes are out again! All of us were chilling in the kitchen this evening and I got bit seven times! Ouch; sweet blood? I don’t know what’s up. When I first arrived in Taiwan, the mosquitoes really loved me, then I didn’t notice them for awhile, now they’re back……we have one of those electric zappers, Hanna was swinging it around tonight, so I’m sure the little buggers just wanted revenge on us.

Wednesday, November 25th

We have three SPE groups of little ones, and it’s always interesting to me how different they are. Some kids are really driven by competition and rewards, while others are not; it’s the same with food. In kitchen today, we had oatmeal. Oh my goodness, it was as if I were pulling teeth trying to get group one and two to eat that oatmeal. I even enticed them with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, AND honey. They hated it. I love oatmeal, I totally don’t understand. I felt like a mom; I kept telling them, ‘Everyone needs to at least TRY the dish.” They weren’t having it…”three big bites,” I’d say. Not sure if that really works, but that’s what I remember from back in the day. I literally had to spoon feed Tim. He couldn’t bring himself to eat the mush. Group two, on the other hand, couldn’t get enough of the oats…..they absolutely loved it…maybe it was all in my approach? I tried to mix things and make a yummy concoction, but those kids know healthy when they see it.

Thursday, November 26th

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! My Thanksgiving Day was actually spent teaching at the school. We don’t get any American Holidays off work, SAD! Even though we aren’t supposed to have parties, my kids and I had a relaxing day. I taught them all about the first Thanksgiving and the holiday itself. It was really fun…we even made little Turkeys; they turned out cute. Some fun facts—I’m sure everyone knows these things, but I didn’t: Sarah Josepha Hale was an American writer who is known as the mother of Thanksgiving, she campaigned for 17 years to make Thanksgiving a National Holiday; Thomas Jefferson did not want Thanksgiving to become a National Holiday; FDR pushed Thanksgiving Holiday up one week to extend the Christmas shopping period. I learned lots more, but those were the most interesting. Oh, one more thing….the pilgrims did not have potatoes at the first Thanksgiving, because they thought they were poisonous! Interesting.

After work, the girls and I decided we needed to do something to celebrate Thanksgiving, so we went to our favorite Indian restaurant for dinner…it was the closest food we could find to the big feast in America—wrong Indian, but it worked (don’t worry, we’re celebrating our ‘real’ Thanksgiving on Saturday).
It’s official…the Lady Business Tour now has TWO body guards: Joel Weston Glauser and Tyson Eugene Hafen. They will both be joining the ladies on their tour throughout Asia. Congratulations boys, you both made the cut—now don’t let us down!

Friday, November 27th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA LOU…I LOVE YOU! Here’s to the BEST grandma, who means the world to me! I hope you have a FABULOUS day…love you and miss you! Missy T. p.s. you’re looking great!

Wow, things are really firing up over here with Swine Flu. I had two students gone this whole week with H1N1…everyone’s trying to keep it hush hush, even from me, because once word is out, the government will shut down the school for a few days and we’ll have to make it up on a weekend. Well, leave it to 11-year-olds to let the cat out of the bag. One of my students (whose brother is also in our class, and home, sick with the piggy) told another student, then that student told another, and that student told me…haha. Quite the chain reaction if you ask me. We were also missing quite a few SPE kids today, so us teachers decided to combine our three groups into two; the rugrats were a little crazy, but combining classes was nice because we got an hour break to do other work! YAY!

Our sister school in Feng Yuan has invited us to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We’ve divvied out assignments, so everyone is bringing a little of something. After work this evening, the Changhua group went to get their goodies! Tabbi made the trek all the way to Costco to find us some desserts for the big feast. We desperately wanted to get some pumpkin pies, but calling in advance only got us a, “Sorry, we don’t carry pies, but we do have cheesecake.” I guess it will have to do. Hanna and Sarah went to morning market to pick up some veggies, and Sammy got rolls and butter from the local Wal-Mart wannabe, Carrerfour. I, well….I just made sure all the assignments were fulfilled and that everything was distributed evenly.

So, we were all kind of bummed that we weren’t going to enjoy a slice of pumpkin pie on the one and only, Thanksgiving, but after looking in the fridge when Tabbi got back from Costco, to our surprise…..we had PUMPKIN PIES…two to be exact! THANK YOU TABBI. She sure endured a lot to get us those pies. After getting off the train, coming home from Costco, she had to carry two pies, a cheesecake, a big box of muffins (you know the ones I’m talking about), and some dressing…all on her little bike. Eh yi yi, talk about talent: Tabbi’s got talent! Don’t worry about the fact that she almost died twice, she made it home in one piece and so did the pies. Bless your soul Tip!

Saturday, November 28th

HAPPY THANKSGIVING…again! For real this time…well, for us teachers in Taiwan anyway. You know, it just hasn’t felt like the Holidays around here much; no family, no Christmas music, and no coats (I’m back to short sleeve shirts)…but today, today was the turning point.

We headed to Feng Yuan around 1:00 this afternoon to meet up with our dear friends who are teaching through ILP also. We brought Penny and Emily (our secretaries) along for the ride as well. They’ve never experienced Thanksgiving, so we wanted to introduce them to the funtivities and on-going feast. When we arrived, the cooking had already begun. The kitchen was full of Martha Stewart’s and Betty Crocker’s. I could smell the turkey cooking. People were chopping vegetables, boiling potatoes, and stirring graving…I was quickly reminded of home, as we were with our Taiwanese family. Tabbi jumped right on the tunes so we could start the day off right…we totally listened to Christmas music, YAY!

After the chopping, stirring, mixing, and tasting were complete, we rounded some folks up for a little Wii in the living room: tennis, baseball, bowling, boxing—it was a good time! Around 5:30, we started setting up our tables and chairs for the big feast that lay before us. To set the mood, we had Thanksgiving on the rooftop of FengYuan’s school and apartment. It was so cool! Sunny (Feng Yuan teacher) strung some Christmas lights, Sarah pulled out some speakers for music, Joseph grabbed some extra doors to make a table, yes...I said DOORS, to make a table (we laid the doors on storage boxes to make a big serving table), and then we used the, already, cement blocks on top of the roof as our dessert and drinks tables. We eventually had to resort to getting some lamps too, because the sun went down a little earlier than anticipated, or we ate a little later than anticipated…either way, lamps were in need because we couldn’t see.

Dinner was soooo yummy, and we had sooo much food. With nearly 25 people, we didn’t want to skimp on the feast, but I think we went a little overboard…leftovers for weeks….alright, maybe not that long, but we had a lot of yummy food: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls, soup, egg rolls (Sunny’s family tradition), green bean casserole, macaroni casserole, pies, cakes, cookies….we had everything! Most everything was made from scratch too because it’s often hard to find something like ‘Stove Top Stuffing’ in your regular ole’ Taiwanese super market. We had a wonderful feast, but don’t worry grandma, your cooking is still divine, I especially missed my Dixie Salad!

At the dinner table, Lisa gave a beautiful toast with some Shirley temples, and then we kept up with Wendy’s family tradition of going around the table, each of us saying something we we’re thankful for. As we were eating, we had Penny (our Taiwanese secretary) try some pumpkin pie, a Thanksgiving tradition, right…a must have…well, Penny did not enjoy it one bit. She thought it was horrible! The face she gave after biting into that pie was priceless. I couldn’t stop laughing. We then had Emily give it a whirl, her only word, “interesting.” It’s amazing to me how different cultures become accustomed to certain foods. After dinner, we were all about to explode, but Sarah Spencer got the party started with some tunes. We mingled and had a little dance party—I even taught Penny how to shimmy. Oh my goodness, Penny shimmying was the funniest thing ever. I can’t even describe to you…I have videos, watch and enjoy! Wow…after shaking off all our food, we cleaned up shop, and went in for the night. We had one unforgettable Thanksgiving!

Sunday, November 29th

Tabs and I rode the bus to church with Lisa today (we spent the night at Feng Yuan). After church, Elder and Sister Greene invited some of us teachers to their home for another Thanksgiving meal. Again, amazing food…Sister Greene had prepared a veggie tray, fruit tray, chicken, potatoes, rolls, pumpkin bars, the works—she went all out. We had fun chatting around the coffee table and enjoying one another’s company.
It was interesting because as we were chatting, Sister Greene mentioned the four stages of moving to a foreign country, depicted to her by President Hoer: (1) Honeymoon Stage (2) Hostility (3) It is what it is (4) I’m home! I think I’ve gone through all but one of these stages. When I first arrived to Taiwan I was in awe. I traveled everywhere wanting to see everything I could (hum…I basically still do that, but I have slowed down a bit). Then after awhile, I did go through a slight frustration of not being able to speak the language or get around easily; thus, hostility (not enough to voice however). Now, I’m at the point of, ‘It is what it is’…I really like Taiwan, but I don’t think six months is enough time to call it home. Maybe if the circumstances were different (like having a set of wheels, cell phone, no language barrier, etc. etc…) then Taiwan would feel more like home; but when someone moves to a foreign country for just six months, it’s quite easy just to tell yourself your only traveling, and never really settle in…for us girls, we like to say we’re camping!

Chapter 22 pictures!!!

2009-11-23T07:45:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 21st
Fengjia Night Market in Taichung.
We met our friends, Andre and Torry, in Taichung and rode to the market together. We had such a fun time shopping and spending money!

Me and the girls on the train to Taichung! A weekly occurrence....

Help! Lost scooter....When we were waiting for Andre, we found this young lady checking out the license plate numbers on the ground. Her scooter had possibly been impounded. Ha, that's how they do it here. If you park illegally, or something of the sort, the cops will confiscate your scooter and leave its license plate number on the ground so you know who took it and where to find it. Simple enough? What if it rains?

Night Market FUN!
People are EVERYWHERE!

Being herded like cattle!

I've mentioned the dogs haven't I??? The Asians love their dogs...you can tell that these little guys are spoiled by their owners.

So, we originally went to the market in search for some souvenirs, but the only souvenirs we found was a whole lot of food!

First: Baby Mangoes > covered in sugar...a real treat, but only an appetizer.

Second: Hamburger stuffed crust bread > I have no better way to describe this...hot and ready! Yum.

....oh there's more...
Third: Creamy Papaya Milk > Held us over for about two seconds.
Fourth: Chocolate covered bananas WITH PEANUTS > Frozen bananas might I add, tasted like ice cream!

...we're still going strong...
Fifth: MEXICAN BURRITOS; yes, we found a Mexican vendor. Not as good as we have back home, but after five months, we'd take anything.

Sixth: Icey ice cream > We needed a little something sweet after gobbling down the spicy.

Seventh: Last but not least, Dragon Soup Dumplings > They were stemmed just for us. We've been searching and searching for these, so we just had to stop in for some. The dumplings are filled with soup, which you have to suck out before eating the actual dumpling! Tasty!

...Hanna was having a hard time eating these treats in front of a crowd. Notice Andre holding up the divider.
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Alright, so it may not seem that we had time to shop for anything else, with the food and all, but no worries....we did. I just can't show any of my fun purchases, because they are possible Christmas presents!

Sunday, November 22rd

We met our friend Julia today after church to chat and visit. While we were waiting for her at the train station, we walked around and saw a little bit of this:

A usual sighting: Little old ladies pushing their carts of garbage. What happens when this generation passes on? I certainly don't see the younger generations spending their time rummaging.

Not sure how this guy is even balancing on his little cycle.

I used to find so many scooters such as these, AMAZING, now it's just so ordinary.

Translations never come out quite the same...

MARYLAND LANGUAGE SCHOOL STUDENTS!

Wish joined us at school today...she's only three. What a cute little thing. She has a broader vocabulary then some of our brightest SPE's...I sure hope she comes back.
Jimmy, Evance, me, Jimmy, and WISH!

Me and the Jimmy's....I adore them both. The boy I tell most of my stories about happens to be Mr. Slouch.

Mimi and Scott. She has to put up with all these boys by herself.

Sweet Flora...

Jimmy showing of his teeth, or lack there of...Hanna just pulled out his tooth last week!

MAX AND VIVIANS!
Of course I have to post some pictures of this place...I should be getting royalties or something for how much I promote these guys. We love eating at this place--can't go a week without it!

'Oh My Gosh' guy...

Currently our favorite restaurant.

Black-peppered Beef is so yummy....especially with some mushrooms on the side!

Chapter 22

2009-11-22T18:18:00.000-08:00

Monday, October 16th

The parkas are out; I guess you could say it’s officially winter. Well, for the Taiwanese the parkas are out. I’m surviving on a light jacket. I love seeing the Taiwanese transition between summer to winter though. It’s as if they skipped fall. They went from short sleeves to full on coats with the fur. I must be missing something; I don’t think it’s not too terribly cold; however, it has been windy lately, which makes it seem colder.

Well, I may have to take my last statement back…not everyone is wearing parkas, just the scooterists. My kids on the other hand, are layering it up. They all were their pajamas under their clothes. One of my 2A’s (second graders) came to school wearing a bright pink turtle neck, a few shirts over that, and then her school uniform on top of it all. To refrain from buying a new jacket, I’ll probably start layering myself—so funny!

I went hiking with the moms this morning. You know, when I was in elementary, I remember seeing the mom groups walking around my neighborhood as I walked to the bus stop. I always thought it would be cool to be apart of one, I just didn’t know it’d be this soon, haha! The ladies are great though, and I enjoy their company. My camera is actually broken, so tomorrow their going to help me fix it. Us moms have got to stick together. Anyone have a wonderful camera they want to tell me about? I’m thinking of getting a Cannon.

Tuesday, October 17th

You just can’t call it a good week without going to Max and Vivian’s. We eat at that restaurant at least once a week. I mean, we can’t let our servers down. They absolutely depend on us! The food is soooo yummy. I hope I can recreate it when I get home!

I got a new student last week, Sean…I don’t think I’ve mentioned him. Anyway, his mother has been teaching him English, so he was tested, and landed a seat in my class. Only problem, he can’t speak English—it must be the American Accent he’s not used to. I feel that my class may be too advanced for him. I’ve tried to help him in any way that I can, but he just gives me blank stares. I found that the only reason he’s in my class is because of his age, he’s a bit older. Apparently his mom doesn’t care what class he’s really in, so I’m going to try and move him down a few levels and see how he does—give him a chance to learn the basics and foundation of speaking.

Alright, its affirmative, Sean’s moving into Hanna’s class. I had to deal with my first parent-parent-student interaction…yes, there was me, there was Sean’s mom, and then there was Samuel’s mom. Ey yi yi. The last couple classes Sean has been bullying Samuel by taking his things. To stop the two from fighting, I moved Sean, so they both sit across the room from one another. I guess the move wasn’t enough, because during break, Sean came and stepped on Samuel’s dinosaur box….that threw Samuel over the edge. Oh the second grade drama. After class, I came downstairs to see the two mothers bickering back and forth. It was all in Chinese of course, so I had no idea what was being said between them. I tried to hide in the teachers area, but Emily soon found me….I went to talk to the two parents, but only interjected a few words here and there because they were going at it, and again, I had no clue what was being said. Were they fighting? Were they talking as civil adults? I had no idea. Every once in awhile, they’d stop and ask me a question in English; I was fearful to answer in the wrong manner, so I kept my stance as unbiased as I could. I don’t necessarily enjoy dealing with these types of situations, especially when I’m not sure what my contributions will spur. At least for the time being, these boys will be separated.

Wednesday, October 18th

I finally dragged myself to the track tonight. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve been running, and it has….I don’t know what my deal is; something about getting home around 9:15 pm and just wanting to relax. Heaven forbid I wake up early and go running; I can’t do that, haha! I do try to get up early, but so far, I’ve been very much unsuccessful.

Last week my older students (high school 7A’s) were complaining about this and that, so I gave them an assignment. Each day, throughout the following week, I asked them to write down three things they’re grateful for and why. ’21 Grateful Things’….sounds easy enough, right? JoAnna was the only one to hand in her assignment. Was the assignment really that hard? Oh come on….seeing how next week is the week of giving Thanks, I have decided to make my own list, and show my class that there are things to be grateful for in this life. Enough with the complaining! Three G’s a day, I will keep you posted!

Thursday, October 19th

Lately I’ve been doing some relay races in gym with the kids. I have all my students line up and touch the wall. I get them all pumped up and then I shout, ‘On your mark…get set...CHEESE’ or some absurd word, just to throw them off. The little ones start cracking up; they think it’s so funny. Well, I thought I was very clever when instead of saying ‘CHEESE,’ I said, ‘GGGGHHHHOOOOOST! ‘ Oh, I threw them all off. You should have heard their little giggles as I told them all to get back to the wall, I didn’t say GO! Scott has found this the funniest of all, so today, when we were doing races again, he comes up to me with his hands cupped around his mouth, ready to tell me some great secret, “Teacher, say GHOST!” “Okay,” I replied. He got so excited as he walked back to the wall to line up; his little eyes squinted up as he grinned and his dimples came out too. ‘On your mark, get set…..GGGGHHHHOOOOST!’ Scott just started rolling on the ground, and then he turned to me and said, “Thank you very much!” Kids, they get a kick out of the simplest things!

I almost hesitate to tell this, but I’m going to anyway. In my 2A class tonight, someone totally ripped one…it was awful! I couldn’t let this one stand by. We had to open the sliding door to the balcony, the other door to the stairs—it was just horrible! I turned to my class, gave them the look, but no one would fess up. We went on with class, but the smell was lingering….about five minutes later, Samuel asked to use the bathroom. Hum, ironic? Poor kid.

After work tonight, Sarah and I went and grabbed some dinner at the Waffle Shack and then headed to watch the new movie, 2012. The movie was great. We were probably the only ones scrunched in our chairs, covering our eyes when something horrible was going to happen, but both of us enjoyed it. The waffles on the other hand….well, they were a bit soggy, and covered…I mean COVERED with sweet mayonnaise and ketchup. I think we’ll stick with waffles and ice cream from here on out—no more salty waffles for us!

Friday, October 20th

We got a new SPE student today, and guess how old she is??? She’s three! Yes, just three years old. Just when I thought my other SPE chileans were little, she certainly threw out that notion. Her name is Wish and she is just the cutest thing ever! Tabbi, Sam, and I were all wondering how she’d do in our classes, being so young and all, but she definitely surprised us. She has a broader vocabulary them some of our brightest SPE students. In kitchen, I didn’t have to model any dialogue for her. We walked into class, she saw some bread and other goodies, and like any other small child, she looked at me and said, “I want some bread.” I was so taken back. No accent, nothing…I could understand her as though it were a clear, sunny day. WOW! Her mom says she watches lots of DVD’s. I hope she continues to come to school….I just don’t know about her joining my gym class…I’m deathly afraid she’s going to get taken out, and of course, because she is only three…if she sees any ball, she goes running after it like a wild woman.

I received an interesting journal entry from Alex, my 7A student, who might also happen to have ADD. Well, our relationship is getting better and I am enjoying having him in class. Alright, so I just have to share this entry. A little background, Alex hates his math class and he frequently tells me about his failed tests. Poor kid, he’s so smart, but he just can’t sit down to study. Anyhow, his journal entry is all about him getting help with his math from his father:
‘My dad is a drill sergeant. Every time my dad teaches me how to do a math problem, I end up asking, “why?” or “how?” Again, that’s why my butt is red and I stay up late every night, whimpering for mercy between my dad’s legs. This is also why I’m a wee bit short for a sixth grader my age. So I’ve learned something….’
I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. If you knew Alex, you’d probably do both, laugh….and then cry! Alex is such a descriptive writer that I enjoy reading his entries, but when I get entries such as these ones, I can’t help but feel bad for the little fella’.

Is it bad that this week I’ve been waiting for the weekend to come all too soon? Of course I love my kids, but I need a break, a weekend off!! What happens when I’m a mom and I need a break? Oh wait, there’s no such thing! What am I going to do? I sure hope it’s different with your own kids. Well, it is FRIDAY! Hanna wants some new glasses, so after work we strolled to a shop that can make eyeglasses, contacts, and the like. It’s fairly inexpensive, so Hanna’s getting the goods before we go back to America. I should do the same.

When we left the shop, we went and got some shrimp and curry dumplings. They were divine, but a bit unfilling, so after dumplings, we went and got some real food, ha. As we were walking down the street I heard this little voice yell, “Teacher Tanier!” I looked around for a moment, until I focused in on this little dude hanging out a car window; it was Jimmy! I ran over to him to give him a high five. He looked so different not being in his Chinese school uniform. He was decked out in some stylish clothing with a trendy little hat too—I love that little bugger. When we got back home, we plopped ourselves on Hanna’s bed, chatted for a bit, and watch ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic!’

Saturday, November 21st

Today was so nice and relaxing—I actually stayed home, unusual right? I slept in too; alright, that’s not very unusual, but I was also able to research some things for Lady Business and my Asian travels. I was glad to get some of that stuff out of the way. I then gave myself a facial, shaved my legs, and lounged a little more…it was wonderful.

Tonight the girls and I headed to Taichung to hit up the Fengjia Night Market with Torry and our other friend, Andre. Now, forgive me for telling this Tabbi, but it’s hilarious….As Tabbi and I were leaving our apartment, there were two guys chillin’ out by our bikes. We’ve seen them before, so they started talking to us with the little English they know—small chat really…where you going, what are you doing…the like. I started to walk my bike out of the enclosed bike area, and just outside of the gate, I stopped to say goodbye to the gents. In return, they told Tabbi and me to be careful.
Tabbi unfortunately, was pedaling right behind me and hadn’t noticed that I was at a stand still. When she turned around she had a split second to slam on her breaks. Thinking about it, I’m not sure whether she ran into me, but she sure went down, down to the ground. She completely fell over sideways. I couldn’t help myself from laughing. It was one of those moments when you’re watching, and you think the person will recover and catch themselves, but then they never do, and they keep falling and falling, until the only thing that catches them is the hard, cold concrete. The best part, right before she fell, the guys said, “Be careful!” They watched it all. I’m sure they were thinking how silly American’s can be. At least Tabbi didn’t get hurt—she was a very good sport…letting me laugh and all.

Back to the night market…we met Andre and Torry at the train station, and then we all drove to the market together. Andre is probably one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met; he sure keeps all of us laughing. On our ride to Fengjia, we told Andre that us girls were on a mission to shop….my money was definitely burning a hole in my pocket. Andre then looked at me and said, “Who’s going on a mission?” If you could hear his voice, you’d be laughing. Haha, we had to explain to him that we were looking to SPEND money, and assure him that none of us are planning to go on a mission anytime soon. We had our souvenirs in mind, and we wouldn’t be satisfied leaving the market until we had bought what we came for.

Well, it looks like our main souvenir was food! What? I know that’s not a souvenir, but that’s all we seemed to keep buying. Ha, it started with some baby mangoes…so yummy, and covered in sugar (the Asian’s were going sweet on us...weird?). The mangoes were great, but just an appetizer. We kept walking until we reached another great specialty, some hamburger treat (crusty, baked bread filled with meat and onions…fabulous). Well, you think that would have satisfied us, and while it was delicious, we were still on the hunt for more food. Hanna, Tabbi, Torry, and I invested in a little Papaya milk to hold us over—so creamy! …but again, our shopping did not end there. As we were walking, we saw some peeps with chocolate covered bananas and we just had to have one…they were frozen bananas, covered with your choice of peanuts or sprinkles, scrumptious! You’d think we’d be full by now, but then we spotted a food vendor selling Mexican Food—yes, he was for real. Oh my, none of us have had Mexican food for at least five months, so we all went crazy! We stopped in for some quesadillas and burritos. Once we gobbled down this spicy dish our mouths were left watering for something sweet, ice cream it was. Man, I’m making myself sick just writing about this…especially because that wasn’t the end of our food ‘shopping.’ Tabbi then saw some dragon soup dumplings that we couldn’t pass up, we’ve been searching for them. They’re dumplings filled with yummy soup, amazing! Before eating the dumpling, you have to suck all the soup out of it, they’re seriously delicious.

Alright, now I’m done….that was our extent of food for the evening. ***Side note: we didn’t eat all at once. We casually ate throughout the whole evening. Does that make it sound as though I’m less of a pig? Anyhow, doesn’t seem like we had time to shop for anything else right? Wrong. Fortunately we did have our eye on some other goods, and we found them too….all at good prices, but I can’t mention much more about the purchases because they are possible Christmas presents. Don’t let the anticipation kill you!

Sunday, November 22nd

Beautiful Sunday. We walked back to the train station from the church building again. Sunday walks are so fun, especially because we get to go through the park!

When we got back to Changhua we met our friend Julia who was in town for the weekend. She goes to school in Kaohsiung, so it’s not very often that we get to see her. She’s actually going to high school in Kaohsiung, but her family lives in Changhua. She’s lived on her own since she was 16 (she’s now 18). A lot of students do this alternate high school thing—leaving home at 16, scary! She’s such a good friend—she’s always helping us out with something or other. Seriously, what would I do without all my great Taiwanese friends, they’re wonderful!

Chapter 21 Pictures!

2009-11-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday, November 12th

Tabbi and I took a morning trip with our friends, Joseph and Fenny, to Siannyu Waterfall. It was beautiful. The waterfall is fed by a natural spring from the mountain--it probably houses the cleanest water you'll find in Taiwan. The cascading waterfall is surrounded by huge rock formations and green trees and vines....

Siannyu Waterfall

Tabbi and I ran into this little lady at the train station on our way to the waterfall. She kept spouting things off to us in Chinese. We had no idea what she was saying, but she sure kept us laughing!

You know you're a true expat when.....
You get into a scooter accident! {Dead Man's Curve}
Scootering to the waterfall, we came to a narrow dirt trail, which happened to be very rocky and bumpy. Fenny and I came to this hill. Upon our decent around the turn, Fenny's breaks failed us and we were thrown off the scooter as it went sliding to the ground....

No worries, nothing but a few minor scrapes and scratches, but lets be honest, any scooter accident will give you the shakes!
See more commentary under Chapter 21 text.

As we were walking down to the waterfall we saw this fellow catching his day's business...

Just enjoying the mountains on a Thursday morning.

Joseph and I looking at the big jump set before us....YIKES! At 35 feet, I couldn't think about it too much...

1...2...3...BONZAI! ...and away I went, can you see me, I'm there!

We all did it! What a feeling of accomplishment! Swimming in November? Only in Taiwan!

Climbing back up the fall! Now that was a slippery trek!

Saturday, November 14th
Day trip to LuKang! My time in Taiwan is winding down rather quickly, so naturally....a little souvenir shopping is in store, and LuKang is just the place!

{LuKang} is known for its...

Ancient Temples...

Traditional trinkets...

....such as Chinese lanterns....

...it's aged architecture....
This is an old water well that sits with one side catering to its rich, private residence and the other side giving itself to the public walking through the streets. Obviously its not used today, but at one time, it was. Can you imagine...

The old alley ways are sweet!

Tabbi and I in front of one of the doors...there are so many fun doorways.

...see, I told you so...

...and again, Sarah and I.

Lukang is also known for its food...
Marshmellows on a stick anyone?

Almond Tea (again, they use the word 'tea' in everything...I'd say, Almond Milk) Scrumptious, especially with a little sesame.

Not quite sure what this mystery food is....any guesses? Smelled fishy!

Fresh squeezed orange juice.

I love Asia! ...gotta be prepared for those heavy typhoon winds.

Sunday, November 15th
Elder and Sister Dowse's last time coming to the Wu Chen English Branch in Taichung, Taiwan! We will miss you Dowse's....but don't be surprised come three months when we show up on your doorstep in American Fork, spoons in hand, ready to make chocolate chip cookies!
Our branch! This isn't everyone, but a good portion. Small, isn't it? ...and yes, we are lacking some priesthood.

The Dowses with the Changhua group! Tabbi, Me, and Sarah.

A stroll through the park! After church on Sunday, we decided to walk to the train station from the church...we took a little jaunt through the park and took these fun pics!
Me and Tabs in front of this sweet tree and cool bridge! The trees are RAD here!

Tabbi posing for the camera! She's our photographer, so she doesn't get many shots of herself. I convinced her to get in this one and it turned out beautifully!

Chapter 21

2009-11-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

Monday, October 9th

You know, living thousands of miles away from home, away from face-to-face interaction, with those people who are closest to you, makes a person become somewhat dependent on alternate forms of communication. My roomies and I were discussing the fact that we are continuously wondering where the time goes…oh there’s never enough time, is there….well, we found the culprit…say hello to Mr. Computer, mainly google chat, skype, and of course, Facebook. We made a vow as of lunch today that none of us will check Facebook for one FULL week. If we cheat, we owe each roommate $2.00—cheap bet huh! Well, we’ll see how we do. Although we don’t feel as though we spend outrageous amounts of time on Facebook, it has become a constant time-filler in our lives.

Jimmy and Scott just get cuter everyday. Their new thing is waiting on me hand and foot, literally. Before entering the gym to play games, each child must politely ask to take off their shoes. Upon doing so, they take their shoes to the shoe rack where they are gently placed. Me on the other hand, I just slip my shoes off next to the door, leaving them at the entrance. Jimmy will have none of this. Today he stopped class to open the gym door and neatly place my shoes on the shoe rack with the others. It wasn’t until he came back into the gym that we could begin to play. Scott is also funny. I am always carrying around a bottle of water; today, Scott came up to me, grabbed my water and set it in the cupboard with all my other things. He then proceeded to close the cupboard door, making sure my water and other things were safe. Again, it wasn’t until he was finished that we could start playing. I can see these acts becoming another one of their daily rituals. Oh these boys.

Wait, there’s more…So, I reward my children using the point system. When they’re good, I give them points. When they get points, they get a prize…easy, right! Each day I write the kids’ names on the board and very cheesy-like, I say, “Who’s in Teacher Tanier’s class?” They reply, “Jimmy’s in Teacher Tanier’s class.” The kids also like to mention me, Teacher Tanier—“Teacher Tanier’s in Teacher Tanier’s class.” To be visual, I always mark points by their names. After the usual routine this afternoon, Scott and Jimmy ran up to me, they grabbed the marker out of my hand, and wrote one trillion points next to my name! They kept writing zero after zero after zero. Like I said, it’s a reward system…excuse my lack of humility, but I hope that means I’m a good teacher!!!

Tuesday, November 10th

Now that I don’t teach much on Tuesdays, I’m lacking in the ‘funny story’ area—not much here today.

When I walked out of my apartment this morning, I strolled over to the bike rack as usual to unlock my bike and ride to work. Unfortunately, my back tire was shot…yes, dead flat! There’s no way I was riding on that lumpy, bumpy, flat tire. I had to walk to work. Luckily, Tabbi walked out the door right about the same time; she was nice enough to walk with me! It’s nice people like her that make me smile! Sherry, my boss, said I need to bring my bike to school so Uncle Joe can fix it. That will be fun, walking my bike to school. Alright, I’m being very facetious, it shouldn’t be that bad. We just live about 15 minutes from the school—walking anyway.

Lady Business tonight! We did some very intense comparison analyses (not really, but sort of), and we’ve decided to cut out Penang and Langkawi. After consulting with our Malaysian travel agent, Tyson (he served a mission there), we realize that we won’t be missing out on much, and, so far, it’s just plain easier to fly using the inland Asian flight companies. We found a $35 flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket on Asia Air—it’s a done deal, flying it is! Saves time and hassle, maybe not the green backs…..but, time is money!

Wednesday, November 11th

Teeth! So, I don’t know what it is, but the kids’ teeth around these parts are NOT so hot! As much as I enjoy their smiling little grins, I try to refrain from looking at their dreaded teeth. I don’t think half of the little ones brush their teeth on a daily basis. Their pearly whites, aren’t very pearly, nor are they white; rather, stained, snaggled, and rotting! Hanna has one student, YoYo, who may not even own a toothbrush. His teeth are horrible…nearly everyday, Hanna has to hand him a tissue and ask him to do a rubdown. Poor Flora, she almost looks mal-nourished, and her fangs, well…they’re basically slivers. I guess the parents are thinking their children will lose their baby teeth, so it doesn’t matter? I’m not sure.

Well, today, Jimmy had a wiggly little bugger that was ready to be pulled out! He kept moving it around with his tongue; it was kind of grossing Tabbi and I out. We decided something needed to be done. We called for our former Dental Assistant, Hanna, to help with the operation, AKA, teeth pulling. She grabbed a tissue, and while I distracted Jimmy, she ripped the sucker out…the tooth popped out rather willingly and Jimmy was such a big boy. He didn’t even cry. After the pulling was done, his eyes became wide as if he were in shock or something, but he bit on a tissue for a moment and was fine. I think Scott was more grossed out than Jimmy. Jimmy kept running after the boys carrying his tooth in hand, Scott wasn’t enjoying it. All Jimmy wants for Christmas are his two front teeth!

Thursday, November 12th

The joys of working at a cram school, we seldom have to work in the wee morning hours; however, we hardly take advantage of our mornings. Instead, we stay up late and end up sleeping in. Ah man, I wish I was more of a morning person.

Today, Tabbi and I decided to use or morning doing something a little more worthwhile than the usual. Joseph, our friend who teaches English at Feng Yuan, has been telling us about this amazing waterfall for months. Yes, he’s been telling us since we arrived in Taiwan, but we just haven’t been able to get there yet. You can only get there by car or scooter—seeing how Tabbi and I have neither, it’s been a bit difficult accomplishing our ‘waterfall’ goal. Well, today was the day.

We woke up early and left the apartment around 7:00 am. We met Joseph and our other friend Fenny at the train station in Feng Yuan—both of them were waiting there for us on their scooters. Before jumping on the scoots and taking off, we saw an older Taiwanese woman in the distance. She had a big grin on her face, but NO front teeth. Again, what is it with the teeth! She could have very well been a transient. Well, we made eye-contact. She kept nodding as she walked closer and closer. I finally made a little gesture by waving my hand toward her. It was at that moment that she raised her arm straight in the air, waving it back and forth. There was no mistaking that she was coming for us. When she got closer, she started jabbering in Chinese. Tabbi and I both nodded in agreement with whatever she was saying, and here and there, we muttered the few phrases we know. Fenny, who is Taiwanese, helped us translate. The woman asked us whether we were American, and then she carried on about how American’s are soooo SMART, haha! This lady was hilarious. When I hopped on Fenny’s scooter, she kept motioning for me to hold on to Fenny around the waist. Heaven forbid I hold onto the back of the scooter….I guess that isn’t permitted.

The drive to the Siannyu waterfall was a long one, probably 40 minutes. We went from Feng Yuan, into the city of Taichung, and then onto Tai Ping, and up the mountain. You can always tell when you reach the mountains…the air is clean and brisk, very different from the polluted cities here. I could also tell we hit the mountains when the paved road turned to dirt and I suddenly felt as though I was riding on a four-wheeling trail; yet, I was not on a four-wheeler, just a little scooter. Joseph, who happens to be an OVER-aggressive driver, was hauling up and down the narrow trail on his scooter. Fenny and I were struggling to keep up. The road began to get bumpier, and less well-kept. Our path became muddy and rocky. As Fenny drove through the mud, her back tire slid out beneath us and our scooter began to slide. With her quick reflexes, she was able to regain control, but it was at this time that I began feeling a little uneasy about the path Joseph was taking us on.

After going through the mud, we came to a rather large, rocky hill for a little scooter to go DOWN….I asked Fenny whether I should hop off, but she insisted we were fine. We began our descent…slowly, but not slow enough because Fenny’s breaks weren’t exactly working. We came to dead-man’s curve and we were down for the count. Yes, it’s true…it’s official…you can now say I am a true expat…I’ve been in a scooter accident. Coming around the turn, Fenny’s scooter couldn’t manage to stay up and we both went flying as the scooter went sliding to the ground. Tabbi heard us scream, when she turned around to see what was up, all she could see was Fenny and I, scooter position, lying on the ground. I’m sure it was a site to see. Luckily we were going slow enough that there wasn’t too much damage, just a little scrape here and there. Fenny rubbed her knee pretty good, but she didn’t want to loose face, so she wouldn’t show us and we couldn’t help her. Basically, we picked up her scooter and kept on a movin’!

When we arrived to the waterfall, we had to climb down into the canyon a bit. It was really cool—great big rocks, green trees and vines, rushing water…I loved it! We even saw a fellow catching his business for the day. He was using fish nets and the like to catch some fish and crawdad’s…pretty sweet!

The waterfall was smaller than usual (according to Joseph), but it was still beautiful. At the bottom of the fall is a great big pool of water, probably the cleanest you’ll ever find in Taiwan, it is fed by a spring straight from the mountain. Tabbi and I walked up and down the canyon a bit, and then Jospeh showed us the good spots to go cliff jumping—oh yes, we went cliff jumping!!! There was a 20 footer and a 35 foot cliff to jump from, exhilarating! I made Joseph jump first, but I did it! I jumped from both the 20 and 35 foot cliffs—it was so FUN!!! …maybe it’s a little scary looking over the edge, but you can’t psyche yourself out, you just gotta do it! Unfortunately for Tabbi, she psyched herself out. She wanted to jump, so together we went over to the cliff. She made me jump first. After jumping, I stayed in the pool below trying to coach her through it all, but the moment she looked over the edge, she couldn’t muster enough courage to jump. I probably counted to three 5 times trying to get her to go, but she just couldn’t make herself do it. She still wanted to jump so we found a solution—we called Joseph over and the two of them jumped together. Yeah for us, we both did it! Good job Tip!

We had a good time going to the waterfall; however, we barely made it back in time for lunch at the school, but we did…after getting off the train, we went straight to the school for a little grub, THEN we headed home to shower and get ready for a day full of teaching!

Friday, November 13th

It’s Friday, it’s Friday, my favorite day of the week! Mr. Cluff used to sing that over the load intercom every Friday morning at Woodward in 6th grade…his words are ringing true right about now! Weekends are sooooo good!

Tonight after work, the girls and I were all eating in the kitchen. We went and got gratin for dinner—you know, the Chinese casserole. We started talking Lady Business and Hanna realized she’ll need a new backpack for the trip, so with no prior plans for the evening, we decided to hit up clothes street to see what it had to offer.

Three chicks on a scooter! Instead of debating who got to ride with Hanna on her scooter, we tried our luck with three girls on a scoot: me, Tabbi, and Hanna. It was hilarious. I wish we would have gotten a picture; we may have to reenact the whole thing for pictures sake. Tabbi was sandwiched in between Hanna and me, good thing too, because she was the only one without a coat, and it’s starting to get chilly…it was freezing! …let’s see, I had both arms clutched around Tabbi and Hanna just to hold on…classic.

Hanna did find a bag she likes, but no purchase yet. Tabbi and I looked at all the new shoes coming out for the season…boots, boots, and more boats! Only $12 too…I’ll be gettin’ me some of those before I go home!

When we got home, Hanna and I watched ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.’—one of my favorite chick flicks. Hanna’s room has become quite the hangout these days…there’s talk of moving a couch into her abode, but it hasn’t been executed yet!

Saturday, November 14th

Let’s face it, my time in Taiwan is quickly winding down, and now is the time to be thinking of souvenirs. Where to get souvenirs….LuKang’s the place. LuKang is known for its many ancient temples, yummy Taiwanese food-sea food, aged architecture, and of course, traditional souvenirs! It’s pretty easy to get to LuKang, you hope a bus and in less than 30 minutes, you’ve reached your destination. LuKang is so small you can do everything in just half a day.

We got to LuKang around 2:00 pm and strolled throughout the old alley ways picking up little traditional trinkets here and there. I found the shop where I enjoyed Almond milk with Evance’s family months ago. I introduced the treat to the girls, but they didn’t find it quite as yummy, neither did I actually, but we still drank it all up. Grinding our own sesame to sprinkle over the top of our beverage was fun though. We also tried cows tongue…I know what you’re thinking, YUCK! No worries, it’s only a pastry—called cows tongue because it looks like a cows tongue—sure doesn’t taste like one. Cows tongue: basically sweet, flavored bread, sometimes with a filling inside. You can get strawberry, taro, or regular…we tried all!

Oh my goodness, as we were peaking our heads into each store, we found ourselves in another little wood shop. The lady behind the counter greeted us with a warm hello, but then she suddenly burped right in our faces. Ugh! She didn’t say a word, but just kept smiling as if nothing had happened. I looked to the other girls, trying to tell whether they had heard what I had heard, without being rude. Sure enough, they were just as surprised as me. We kind of chuckled to ourselves, and then…there the store owner went again, another burp. When I looked back at the owner, she was just still smiling. Is this for real? I thought. Again and again, she kept burping; yet, every time we looked back, she was smiling—I feel as though she had burping turrets…maybe the hiccups, eh, it’s iffy. Manners here are just a bit different than those in America.

We all found some great souvenirs. We got ourselves some fans, lanterns, bags, and other trinkets I’m sure we don’t really need.

Sunday, November 15th

At church today we had the stake come and speak to us. It’s always interesting when the stake comes to speak because the messages have to be translated. Sometimes the translation comes across a little different than you would expect, so we always enjoy a good laugh. Oh dear, our branch keeps getting smaller and smaller. It’s basically just the teachers in the congregation now. Every time I walk into sacrament meeting, the place is barren. I kind of wonder whether they’ll keep the branch going or not. I mean, we hardly have any elders. The missionaries pass the sacrament each week. The senior missionaries help out tremendously. If it weren’t for us ILP English teachers, there wouldn’t be enough people to fill all the needed callings. Sad.

It was the Dowse’s last Sunday today. I already miss them, but Tabbi and I are planning our road trip to American Fork to visit them when we get home. We joke that we’ll be standing on their doorstep, spoons in hand, ready to lick the cookie bowl that Sister Dowse has prepared for us. The first time we had dinner with the Dowse’s, Sister Dowse was whipping up some chocolate chip cookies, she held up a spoon for each of us and said, “Are you these kind of people,” asking whether we were bowl lickers or not. Sister Dowse didn’t need a verbal answer because Tabbi and I were both licking the bowl before she had time to hand us a spoon. The Dowse’s are such a cute couple—they will be greatly missed!

After church Sarah, Tabbi, and I decided to walk to the train station instead of busing it. It took us about 30 minutes, but now that the weather has cooled down, it's a fun little walk.

Well, well, well….I think that’s enough journaling for the week….until we meet again!

Chapter 20 Pictures!!!

2009-11-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday night in Taichung!

Sarah and I took a train to Taichung to witness the Dan Jones Experience--Dan Jones was an amazing pioneer and missionary in the 1800's. Sister Dowse has been telling us all about the event, so we just had to come and see it. Basically, it's initiation for the new missionaries...poor guys, they have to stand up on this soap box and preach into the crowded streets--I know it sounds crazy, but it was really cool! First, all the missionaries gather around to sing hymns at the night market. Then one by one they make their way up to the Dan Jones box. After they speak their peace, they pair up with an older missionary and walk throughout the crowds talking to people.

Elder and Sister Greene: New senior missionaries taking over for the Dowse's

Friday at McDonald's with the Super Students!

Little Tim...yes, this is the one who's been ultra sensitive lately. He's just so smart. He knows everything. Tabbi and I always ask him, "Tim, where did you learn English?" "From you teacher," he says.....I don't remember teaching him any of the stuff he knows!

Scott, Me, and Jeremy. These boys really are Super Students!

Me, Flora, Ray, and Justin...getting them to smile was ridiculous...I think we took about 15 pictures...this was the best we got!

Saturday Trip to Ali Mountain!

We had a relaxing day going to the mountain. We took a free shuttle ride to the very top where we walked through the old alley's sampling yummy food and playing with little trinkets (the kind you find at a National Park...toy guns, cowboy hats, etc.). Unfortunately we weren't able to see the sunrise, which we hear is amazing, but we had a great time visiting the tea farms and making our way through the foggy streets.

Some pictures from our day!

Whoops! Who can say they posed like this in a tea farm....I can! It's not what you think.

Chapter 20

2009-11-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 2nd

It’s NOVEMBER…and the countdown is on! In two months my teaching contract is up and them I’m off to backpack throughout Asia…I’m so stoked! ….but yes, I’m going to miss my kids so so so so so much, and this probably isn’t the last time you’ll hear that.

Oh my goodness…New Jimmy (the little one I frequently talk about) has started this new thing—eating teacher! He is so crazy, ha. He came up to me today and said, “Oh teacher, papaya…um, um, um”…and then he proceeded to bite my stomach, playfully of course. He’s also the boy who told me today, “Teacher, you are so COOL!” ….and I didn’t even have to bribe him to say it—he did it all on his own.

I’m so surprised how fast the children are picking up English. I love when I hear the children say something that I haven’t necessarily taught them, but it’s something that they’ve heard me continually say. For example, the kids are always jumping up and down, wanting to play this, or eat that. Someone always has to go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, grab their coat, blow their nose….the list goes on and on. Usually I’m being pulled every which way, so I’m always saying, “Hold on,” or “Wait just a minute.” Well, we were getting ready to play in the gym today and Sarah blurted out, “Teacher, hold on…wait,” as she took off her socks. Just a few months ago, she couldn’t speak any English. I know this is such a small example to share, but I just love seeing the children improve—it makes me feel as though I’m doing something good.

Tuesday, November 3rd

Hanna, Tabbi, and I had our second official Lady Business Meeting tonight—the planning of our trip is coming along rather nicely! Our friend Manti came over to hang out for a little bit. We haven’t seen him forever; he got a new job and we’ve all gotten awfully busy. Anyhow, Manti brought us some black, goopy soup-like stuff that was filled with tapioca pearls, some beans, and other mystery junk. Man, my description of this not-so-tasty treat is horrible, but yes, it wasn’t that great! We tried not to make him feel bad, so we just kept eating and eating, but once he left, the spoons were down. YUCK!

After Lady Business, we watched My Sister’s Keeper. Man, talk about a tear jerker. Seeing how this was Hanna’s second time watching the movie, she wasn’t in as bad a shape as Sarah and I—we couldn’t stop blubbering, so sad!

Wednesday, November 4th

Once again, I can’t recall anything significant for today—must have been a blur. We did find out that one of our students will not be coming back to Maryland for awhile; New Andy. He was an SPE, so he was with all the younger kids. He had some emotional problems; frequently he would shut down or have fits in class. Some days he would start throwing things, or jerk his body this way and that crawling his way into a small corner and not coming out until the end of class. His mom doesn’t think he’s ready to learn—he just wants to play, and so discipline didn’t quite work for him. Poor kid, maybe he’ll be able to come back when he’s older.

Thursday, November 5th

Well, I made my first student cry today; as much as I didn’t want it to happen, I knew it was bound to happen sometime, and that time was today. We were in gym playing dodgeball. More often than not, the kids go wild and they start chucking the ball as hard as they can. Tim threw the ball across the gym at lightening speed, nearly taking off Flora’s head—my first reaction was to shout to him that he couldn’t throw the ball that hard, he might hurt someone. I wasn’t trying to hurt him or single him out, because all of the kids get playing and don’t realize how rough they’re getting. …Tim started crying (he’s been an emotional basket case these days)…I felt so bad. I went over to consol him and just as I did, I heard a gasp from Kerry. Sure enough, he decked Flora in the face with the ball. Ha, Tim was crying, Flora was crying, Kerry was scared, and Candy just sat there wandering what I, the teacher, was going to do. Oh the joy of being a ‘gym’ teacher. These events occur all too often.

Sarah and I headed to Taichung after work tonight. Sister Dowse had told me about this ‘Dan Jones’ Experience—it’s basically initiation for the new missionaries when they first arrive in Taiwan. I had never heard of Dan Jones before, but he was a great pioneer and missionary. He accompanied Joseph and Hyrum to Carthage Jail and fulfilled Joseph’s last prophesy that Jones would be a missionary in Wales. Sure enough, after Joseph and Hyrum were killed, Brigham Young called Jones to England to serve a mission, with little success, after one year, he was moved to Wales. When Jones arrived in Wales, there were just over 200 Ladder Day Saints. With Jones’ leadership, in just three years, 1845-1848, 3600 people had been baptized. By the time Jones left Wales, there were 4645 saints in Wales—can you say, amazing!

To help the missionaries get over there fear of preaching the gospel here in Taiwan, each new missionary gets to experience the spirit of Dan Jones. All the missionaries rally together in a busy street in downtown Taichung. The night markets are always happening so the streets are crowded with people and vendors. The missionaries gather around singing hymns, after which, they set out two small wooden stools that have the words, DAN JONES, printed across them. Each missionary takes a turn standing on a box, Book of Mormon in hand, preaching what they know to be true. It’s the sweetest thing ever. They all take turns, stepping up and down, shouting their favorite scriptures or bearing their testimonies. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it’s the coolest. After each newbie steps off a box, they pair up with a more experienced missionary and walk throughout the crowds talking to people—you should see their excitement.

As Sarah and I were watching the whole event, one sister stepped up to the box and started preaching, she looked scared and she was shaking. She began to cry as she was speaking, and within one second, she suddenly fell off the Dan Jones box and straight to the ground. The crowd all gasped—no one knew what had just happened, and no one knew what to do. President and Sister Hoer came running to her, seeing whether she was okay. Apparently she has heart problems and had a seizure. She blacked-out and was down for the count. I felt so bad, she hit the ground hard—it was the scariest thing ever. She got a couple skinned elbows, and knees, but she seemed to be fine. The new senior missionaries, who will be replacing the Dowse’s, also were at the Dan Jones experience; Elder and Sister Greene from Rexburg, ID. They seem like a sweet couple, and it’ll be fun to get to know them.

What is it like to be an islander? Well, you sure get used to natural disasters such as typhoons and earthquakes. I can officially say I’ve been in a typhoon and, as of today, a ‘real-deal’ earthquake. It was 5:30 p.m. and my kids were just coming back to our classroom from library….all of the sudden, I felt a little dizzy and then the ground started to shake beneath me. I stopped for a moment, we’re having an earthquake, the shaking was getting worse and worse….I quickly told my students to get under their desks (I wasn’t sure what to do, but that’s what I remember being taught in school years ago). Then, in the blink of an eye, it was over…the desks stopped rattling and the shaking had stopped.

All of my kids were a little shaken, but for the most part, they were fine…they’re used to this kind of thing. Actually, we had nearly 20 earthquakes today; another big one hit Changua around 7:30 p.m. but I didn’t feel a thing because Sarah and I were in Taichung. The biggest earthquake today was a 7 on the Richter scale; however, we just felt a 5 in Changhua (so I hear). The earthquake today has been the biggest since 921, which was the Jiji earthquake—recorded at a 7.6. Ten years ago, when it hit, it killed 2,416 people, leaving 11,000 seriously injured. Luckily, there was no severe damage from any of today’s quakes. However, pretty sure Tabbi was terrified. All day she kept checking the internet for new quake updates. To put her at ease, us girls made an evacuation plan: if anything happens, we’ve decided to run, run, run….we live in a tall, skinny apartment building (maybe 20 stories, maybe more), so we don’t want to be crushed seeing how we live on the first, second, and third floors. We’ve decided to use the buddy system, Hanna’s got Tabbi and I have Sarah; our meeting place, the fruit market. Tabbi got Sarah and I a little freaked out so we slept with a little extra water and money near our bed, just in case we had to grab-and-go in the night. Tabbi put her computer under her pillow, sandwiched between two pillows. Oh we are sooo dramatic! Better safe……

Friday, November 6th

I think I mentioned that Tabbi is teaching my Friday 2A class for November—she’s making up hours for her time in America….well, may I just say the break from class has been wonderful. I’ve been able to catch up on lots of work that’s needed to get done. Thank you Tabbi!

So, I was in the teachers area grading some homework when munchkin Scott propped his rear-end right through the entrance way. “Ha, what are you doing Scott?” I asked laughing. He didn’t say a word…but he didn’t have to; he just started waving his hand back and forth over his tush, and quickly left the area. The little ‘fart’ was totally crop dusting me. I couldn’t believe it. If they’re not crop-dusting, then their picking their noses….there’s always a story.

McDonald’s—every child’s dream; every other month we get to take the ‘super students’ to McDonald’s. We play games, eat some greasy food, and crawl around in the jungle gym. It’s always a good time. Tabbi and I were in charge of the little ones this trip. We played Uno and had a blast! When the food came to our table, everyone started chowing down, but for some reason, Scott totally shut down and wouldn’t eat for anyone—and just two seconds earlier, he was starving! Not being able to fully communicate with Scott, Tabbi and I started calling out for a Chinese speaker. Penny, our secretary, came over to help us out. After a few minutes, Scott came to and started eating his meal. I asked Penny what was wrong and she just commented that Scott’s grandma never eats at McDonald’s so he wasn’t allowed to eat there either. He was so hungry, but he wanted to be obedient to his grandmother also; what a good little boy!

Saturday, November 7th

Alishan Day Trip! With the time we have left in Taiwan, us roomies are trying to hit those last spots that everyone has told us are must-see’s and must-do’s around the island. Ali Mountain is one of those places, but because of the typhoon a couple months ago, the main road and train have been washed out. Well, we had just found out that the road was fixed so we decided to make a day of it: me, Hanna, Sarah, Tabbi, and of course, our friend and secretary, Emily.

The best part about going to Ali Mountain is watching the sunrise in the morning, smelling the fresh air, and looking out over the valley that is covered with fog below. Well, the only way to see the sunrise is to catch the train; unfortunately the train still isn’t working. The government has set up a free shuttle service to restore tourism to the area, so we took advantage of it, but we still weren’t able to see the sunrise.

We got to Chiayi around 9:00 am to catch the shuttle. Our trip to the top of the mountain probably took us a full hour—it was a long, windy road….weaving back and forth and back and forth. Our driver was a nice young man…but an insanely crazy driver, as most Taiwanese are. He was weaving in and out of traffic like no body’s business. He’d sneak up on someone’s rear bumper, then glide to the side of them, passing just near a corner—I think he got a couple of squeals out of me and Tabbi when we saw cars coming straight for us. We kept telling him he was crazy, but he just kept responding in his Chinglish, “No, me, professional!”

At the top of Ali Mountain, there’s a fun, little alley way that we walked our way through. It was full of shops and eateries—all the wonderful touristy things. We were just sampling anything we got our fingers on. I felt as though I was at Bryce Canyon or some National Park lodge with all the wooden carved guns and cowboy hats we came across. Along our path, we also found our way to many tea farms, train tracks, and the like. I couldn’t believe how foggy everything was—we could hardly see 30 feet in front of us. Overall, the day was very relaxing and tranquil, just what I needed.

I don’t know how we got on the subject, but on our train ride home we started talking about all the ‘first’ things we want to do upon arriving in America. I know it’s just November, but the weeks fly by here, and time is winding down. Well, I’m pretty sure Café Rio and Pizza Factory made the list, not to mention, a haircut, color, and style—I’m in dire need mom!

Sunday, November 8th

You know, going to a church branch that has less than 30 people who attend regularly is always an interesting experience. Today the Greene’s came to our branch; along with the mission president and his wife….I can only imagine what they were thinking. First of all, we get a lot of visitors who come to our branch just to learn English. A second-time visitor stopped by today. Now, I don’t think this young lady had any idea what was going on. In sacrament she just kept asking me, “How long until a break?” Then in Sunday school it was the same thing over—relief society, the same. I kept telling her, “Just ten minutes,” or “Not too long,” but I could tell she was antsy.

Then we got to relief society…oh the story gets better. There were probably 10 sisters all together. Arwyn was conducting and I was presiding and also leading the music…we usually sing acapella because Tabbi’s the only musician in the branch, but she serves in young women’s. Well, word got out that Sister Greene is a beautiful pianist, so we convinced her to play the piano for us. Little did Sister Greene know, our piano isn’t exactly a grand, it’s one of those types that you can plug into the wall. You know the kind....it has tons of little buttons so you can change the tune to saxophone or folk. Sister Greene started to play The Spirit of God (or something like it), and some drums started busting a beat in the background, a little symbol chiming in here and there. We didn’t know how to turn it off, so we just went with it. I was trying hard to keep my composure throughout the song, and just when I thought I had myself put together; our young visitor friend pulled out her camera and started taking pictures of me as I was leading the music. I couldn’t keep it together, my rhythm was all off. I just kept chuckling to myself, looking at the mission president’s wife hoping she thought the whole thing was as funny to her as it was to me.

Chapter 19 PICTURES!!!

2009-11-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, October 27th

We had our first official LADY BUSINESS meeting....we booked our flights to Singapore! YAY, we're going to travel SE Asia. I'm so excited!!! Buckee and a friend are going to come with us too! We'll start in Singapore, train up to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and then land ourselves on the beaches of Thailand....that's not the end of our travels either, just the beginning, but it's what we have for now. Wahoo!

Hanna Postma: Lady Business member. Getting down to business.

Thursday, October 29th

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Today we had our Halloween Party for all the kids at Maryland. Us teachers had a great time dressing up for the occasion and 'spooking' the children. We played Halloween bingo, made oreo spiders, told scary stories, and had a rockin' (very much makeshift) haunted house!

Me: Witchy T...I have the cackle to prove it!

Getting ready for the day...When we got to school Sarah and Hanna weren't as 'scary' as anticipated, so with limited resources, we scrapped some things together, and basically went as death for Halloween.

I had a pick + Sarah had hairspray + Maryland school had a blow dryer = deadly combination. Thank goodness for my professional hair-doing skills, a mom who is an expert stylist, and a childhood in southern Utah where I was able to learn all about the POOF!

It's the day of our Halloween party and Hanna still wasn't sure what she was going to be...Thanks Ray Ray for the inspiration (spider earrings). We turned Hanna into a black widow, well, sort of.

Before....

After...Like I said....she was sort of a black widow. Due to my novice skills, Black Widow met Kiss at approximately 12:00 noon.

Maryland teachers...Tabbi didn't get the memo we were going as DEATH...caught in a tornado.

SPE children...cute little things! They're teaching me patience, haha. I just love them.

Costume Contest.
Joe: Spookiest Costume
Karen: Cutest Costume
They really get into Halloween here, can't you tell??? ha.

...and here's another pic of Sara...she is so adorable! She's always bringing us teachers little treats!

Me and Tabbi's 2A classes!

The after party...we couldn't stand to just go home and not show off our fun costumes, so we hit up Max and Vivian's after work. Ha, we love eating at this place. You should have seen the stares we got, especially on the bike ride there. As if we don't get looked at enough. We definitely got the double takes.

Saturday, October 31st

Today all of us teachers went to Mingdao University with one of our students, Kitty, and her parents, George and Grace. George is a professor at Mingdao, and he needed a little help with an international event his department was throwing for their students.

Our job: Three minute presentation on our experience in Taiwan
The trade: We got to go paint balling, kayaking....and to dinner!

Mingdao Students + Maryland Teachers. Hardly any of the students spoke English, so it was a bit challenging to communicate, but nonetheless, we had a great time!

Paint Balling! I've always wanted to go, and I finally got the chance! Nervous? Maybe a little at first, but once the whistle blew, it was game time...all fear was brushed aside!

The battlefield...pregame.

Hanna and I...ready to hit the field...Bring it!

Hanna and I mappin' out our game plan!

War's tough..I got shot in the face. A little sting, no biggy.

Kayaking! Yet again, another sport I've always wanted to do, but have never had the chance.

Hanna and I getting ready to hit the water for the first time.

After a few go's, we finally got synchronized with our rowing. Champs!

Maryland Teachers.

George and Grace were so nice to take us out to dinner after the day's events. We went to a fun restaurant up the mountain near the high speed railway. We sat out on a patio watching the high speed train pass us by.

Great food + Great scenery + Great company = GREAT TIME!

Dinner at the high speed rail. We had a great view and a great sunset to watch as we ate and chatted.

Tabbi and I with our Fruit Tea! No worries, it's not 'real' tea...the Asians call every drink tea!

Bowling! It was our friend Emily's birthday (AKA...secretary at Maryland), so we had a girl's night out on the town. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EM!

Sunday, November 1st

...and this would be Mr. Furry Legs...RIP...we found him lurking on a plant shelf in our stairwell. I wish I could have gotten a picture of him when he was actually alive, but I couldn't bring myself close enough to the furry critter. Sarah and I kept screaming; really, if you had an eight-legged creature in your house, the size of your entire hand, I bet you'd be freaking out much like we were!

...the man who did it all! Thanks Sammy for bearing with us, taking one for the team, facing your fears, and smashing Mr. Furry Legs. Now I can sleep at night, sort of.

Chapter 19

2009-11-14T05:07:00.001-08:00

Monday, October 26th

Tabbi was supposed to arrive back in Taiwan last night, but there’s been some type of fluke with the plane….she’s stuck in Tokyo for another day….one more day of craziness, I can do this!!!

I went on my weekly hike with Peggy and her two friends this morning. We don’t go that early, about 8ish, but for some reason, I am still so tired. When I get home I always want to get back into bed! After hiking today, the girls wanted to go get some coffee. I told them I’m not much of a coffee drinker—they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. One of the other ladies is Christian, so she knows a little bit about Mormons, “It’s okay,” she said, “we will get you cocoa milk.” Who doesn’t love a little Ovaltine after a good workout? I love that I was just sippin’ my ‘cocoa milk’ and chatting with the ladies as they were drinking their coffee. The Christian sister turned to me, “You like cocoa milk; I give it to my kids—very healthy!” Yep, sure is.

Tuesday, October 27th

After four months of living together, us girls decided to have our very first Roommate Dinner. We eat together quite often, but never have we cooked a meal together—our kitchen just doesn’t suffice. Hanna’s mom sent her a Halloween package with some fish taco seasoning, so we decided to try our hands at fish tacos. There actually wasn’t much cooking involved; we bought pre-cooked fish, got Hit Cookie tortillas from our friend Jerry, and then picked up some cabbage and limes. However, we did mix up our own sauce. The tacos were amazing…so delicious! After stuffing our faces with one taco, we went in for a second. Our best decision all day was that first taco…but our worst decision, unfortunately, was the second. We all felt sick afterward. I guess we’ve adjusted to the Asian style of eating far too well—just a little bit at a time.

It’s official, I’m going backpacking throughout SE Asia. Hanna, Tabbi, and I held our first official Lady Business meeting this evening, and….we made our first big purchase….we booked our flights to Singapore! We’re going to start there, train up to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, and then land ourselves on the beautiful beaches of Thailand….that’s what we have planned so far anyway, there’s still more to come! I’m sooooo excited!

Wednesday, October 28th

Well, you’ll be surprised to know that today was just another average day. I don’t have a funny story about one of my stinky, sweaty kids; nor do I have an embarrassing moment about me walking into a boy’s bathroom again…just a normal day. However, tomorrow we are celebrating Halloween with our students! I’m so excited….ghosts, goblins, and witches….I can’t wait. We don’t have a lot of resources around these parts, so hopefully we teachers can be scrappy enough to put something together!

Thursday, October 29th

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! A little early I know, but that’s how we do it here in the Orient. The other teachers and I woke up early to get ourselves ready for the big day. I was a witch, Sarah was a skeleton, Hanna still wasn’t sure, Sammy was a pirate, and Tabbi was cute, little Minnie Mouse. With limited supplies, we tried to deck ourselves out: hair, make-up, dress, the works….Sarah was still struggling with her hair though, so when we got to school, I pulled out my professional hair-doing skills! I had a pick, Sarah had hair spray, and Maryland school had a blow dryer….the combination was deadly. Growing up in southern Utah, I know all about the poof, not to mention my mother is an expert stylist—she taught me well. Tabbi couldn’t believe the sight she saw when she arrived at work, she had no idea we were dressing up as Death….caught in a tornado! Ha, after Sarah’s coiffure was finished, I moved on to my next victim....Hanna! Since Hanna didn’t know what she wanted to be, we turned her into a black widow: credit must be given to her mother, Ray Ray, she was our inspiration because she sent Hanna some fun spider earrings. I used Tabbi’s flat iron to curl Hanna’s hair into some fun spirals, and then we ratted that head of hers to the high heavens! We also gave her some nice face makeup. Due to my novice abilities, Black Widow met Kiss at approximately 12:00 noon, haha….nonetheless, she looked great!

When the children arrived to school I pulled out my witch cackle and ran after them as if I were the wicked witch of the west! Little Tim didn’t know what to do, he practically tried to get back into the van he had just stepped out of, he could hardly get past me without having the gibes scared out of him. …and then there was Scott, I’m not sure whether it was Sarah or me, but one of us put the boy in tears—poor kid. Sarah just kept trying to consol him, but I think she forgot what she looked like; creatures from the grave don’t exactly put someone at rest.

The rest of the day we played Halloween Bingo, made Oreo Spiders, and had a costume contest. We also made a makeshift haunted house in our tiny gym. I was surprised by how scared some of the kids got in the haunted house—I practically had to push my three girls, Annie, Megan, and Vicky through the whole thing. What a spooky and crazy day!

After work, us girls couldn’t just go straight home to get in our pj’s. We wanted to show off our costumes, so we decided to go out to dinner, ha! We went to Max and Vivian’s, currently our new favorite place—everyone knows us there. As if we don’t get stared down enough, WOW…we got some major double takes on the bike ride to Viv’s, let’s see: (1) we’re Americans (2) with outrageous costumes (3) dressed up for no apparent reason….(remember, Halloween isn’t exactly celebrated here, and we did celebrate a little early too). One of the cooks at Max and Vivian’s just kept saying, “Oh My Gosh!!!” then he continued to tell Hanna, AKA Kiss, that she was sexy!!! We had a great time!

Friday, October 30th

Today it was confirmed to me that my little kids do understand what I am saying, and therefore, they are learning English. Maybe they aren’t exactly the best at speaking English, but they can definitely hear and understand English. In gym today, we were playing Ghost in the Graveyard, only fitting for the weekend. Basically, its freeze tag with the lights down low….the kids go crazy whenever we play this game, something about no lights, they love it. Well, Kerry was the Ghost and he accidently clocked Joe in the face when he was running around tagging people. Joe doesn’t do so well being hit, accident or not, he has a temper and he hasn’t yet figured out how to control it. I had to stop the game, turn on the lights, and try to explain to Joe that the whole thing was an accident. Joe was mad at Kerry for hitting him, and Joe was mad at me for not getting mad at Kerry…I tried to explain to Joe what an ‘accident’ meant, but he was having none of it. As I was talking to him and trying to calm him down, I kept saying, “Joe, it’s okay, listen to teacher….listen to teacher….listen to teacher…..” It was about at that moment that Joe decided to stick his fingers in his ears as if he wasn’t listening. Ooooh that boy! I couldn’t believe it, at least I know the kids understand me, maybe not in the way I’d wish, but they’re definitely catching on.

Another story from Jimmy and Scott: once again, the boys showed me to my seat in kitchen. They won’t sit down until I do, so respectful. I always ask for a hug after I sit down, and most of the time, I’ll get one. Today, Jimmy jumped on my lap for a BIG hug; Scott just started to walk away. As Scott was going to his seat, Jimmy blurted out, “SCOTT, hug teacher!” It was so funny….

Saturday, October 31st

All of us teachers spent the day at Mingdao University with one of our students, Kitty, and her parents, George and Grace. George and Grace are both professors and they are the nicest people ever; they are always making sure us teachers are taken care of. Well, George asked a favor of us. His department was putting together some international event for all their students, and they wanted The Americans to come talk about their experiences in a foreign land. So yes, we went and told all of our experiences. George assured us that the students would understand English as well as our students at Maryland, but judging by the blank stares we got, I don’t think they understood a lick of what we were saying. Oh well, it wasn’t like we prepared some great presentation.

For the rest of the day, we split into groups for some fun activities: paintballing and kayaking (two things I’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t had the chance yet). My group didn’t really have any English speakers….we sat in silence. I can’t believe how much Chinese I’ve lost since stopping language exchange, I mean, I never knew much, but what I did know is all out the window. There were two cute girls in my group, we just wanted to talk to each other, but the language barrier made it impossible. I decided to have them teach me some Chinese so we could at least exchange a few words.

Paintballing was a blast! Hanna and I were a little nervous at first because we didn’t know what to expect. We had to sit in on a half-hour orientation, which only built up our anxiousness. After we passed through all the ‘safety’ talk, we got geared up with some face masks and bullet-proof vests—that was our only protection. As we hit the battlefield, our hearts were pounding; we didn’t know what we were doing. “Three, Two, One…..FIRE,” yelled our instructor….war was on! I slid to a nearby barrel that acted as a shield, and then the shooting began. It was so fun, I really got into it. I was doing well, until the end, I got a little careless thinking I was invisible or something, and of course, I was shot….dead in the face. Whoops. No worries, it didn’t hurt, just a little sting.

After paintballing, Hanna and I were led by our groups to our next adventure: kayaking! We got together in a double-person kayak. It took us a minute to get our rowing synchronized, but once we did, we were the dream team out on that lake. What a fun time!

George and Grace took us teachers out to dinner after the day’s events. We went to a cool restaurant up the mountain near the high speed railway. We sat out on a balcony that was situated right beside the railway tracks. Every 15 minutes or so, the high speed train would zoom past us—it was pretty sweet. We got our fruit teas (not really tea), watched a gorgeous sunset, and enjoyed the company of friends.

Emily’s Birthday! When we got back from our excursion with George and Grace, the day was hardly over. We were home long enough to use the restroom and then we were off again. It was our secretary, Emily’s, birthday, so we went bowling! I haven’t been bowling forever!!!! None of us are expert bowlers, but we had so much fun. Best part, the bowling alley didn’t smell like smoke. After a little bowling, we went and had waffles and ice cream, so yummy! On our way home we saw one of our old summer students, Jamie, she’s adorable! She was riding front-saddle on her mom’s scooter. I miss having her at school.

Sunday, November 1st

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve hung out with JoAnna and Martin’s family (my high school students), so tonight we made dinner plans. Frank (the kids’ dad) was going to pick me up at the apartment around sixish. So there I was, getting ready for the evening, when all of the sudden, I heard Hanna yell from the stair well, “SPIDER!” I came out of my room to see what the fuss was about…..and oh my goodness, the sight I saw was horrific….there, perched on the plant shelf, was a huge, furry, eight-legged creature!!! I couldn’t help myself from screaming.

Hanna practically ran away (she also had dinner plans), so she just left me standing there, not knowing what to do. Thanks. When Sarah heard the commotion, she came out to see what was going on. We yelled for Sammy to come save us from the creature, but he himself was a little shocked at the size of IT….yes, the spider was about as big as my entire hand…..ewh, SO GROSS! At first, Mr. Furry Legs wasn’t moving, so we calmed down a bit, thinking, maybe he’s dead??? That thought was too good to be true. A moment later, he started to creep across the ledge. Pretty soon, Sarah and I couldn’t see Furry Legs anymore….we started freaking out again. We couldn’t go to bed with that THING crawling around our house. We had a hunch that he crawled behind a picture frame, the only one resting on the ledge. Sammy grabbed a broom, and with one stab, he pinned the picture upright against the wall, hopefully smashing Furry Legs with it….a little nervous to look behind the picture, I got the courage to take a peak. Sure enough, Furry Legs was there, poor thing was crumpled all up…I then sprayed him with some nasty bug killer to make sure he wouldn’t suddenly regain movement in his legs and jump on me! Ooooh, I hate spiders!

Well, soon after the Furry Legs episode, Frank came to pick me up for dinner. Wow, Martin and JoAnna’s family is so kind—they definitely wine and dine me. They took me to a very nice Japanese restaurant where we actually had an entire room to ourselves…I’m sure the restaurant was super expensive, but I never saw any prices.

The menu: First dish, Sashimi. No, I didn’t eat sushi; I ate sashimi, fresh RAW fish. It was the real deal, served on ice, with dipping sauce, wasabi, and ginger. I have no idea what kind of fish I ate, but it was good….I’m sure a little salmon and tuna was in the mix, but there were other selections as well. Second, apple salad served in an apple; we ate the whole dish. Third, Shrimp soup; I had to snap off the head of the shrimp and tear off the legs, so much work. Fourth, rice and caviar. Fifth, a couple legs of mutton; quite tasty might I add. I really liked it, not joking. Sixth, baked shrimp with a layer of melted cheese. Seventh, Fruit; guava and watermelon. This was probably one of the best seven course meals I’ve ever had!

After dinner I went back to Martin and JoAnna’s house. It was funny because Martin and JoAnna went right upstairs and I never saw them again…at dinner they hardly spoke two words too! It’s Taiwanese culture to keep quiet when you’re in the presence of your elders, and Frank and Helen are very traditional. So, back at the house I chatted with Frank and Helen. Their home is amazing! I felt like I was in a real American house. For American standards, it would still be considered a bit small, but it was beautiful….decorated, and not cluttered. They have soft couches, a nice flat screen TV, and beautiful tile floors….everything you don’t usually see in a regular home in Asia. Outside their home they have a small yard, too, with a courtyard, plants, and flowers. What? I really enjoyed my time with Frank and Helen. Frank wants me to come back and get my MBA at Taipei University….haha, we shall see!

Another great week in Taiwan!

Chapter 18 PICTURES

2009-11-08T09:15:00.000-08:00

Some of the little Rugrats running around the halls of Maryland Language School:

Crescent-mooned Jimmy...seriously, one of my favorite boys ever....

Oh there's the moons....how can you not just love that face. This picture captures Jimmy's love for life so well! He never has a bad day. I guess at the age of five, there's not much to whimper about!

Unfortunately, I don't teach this one, but she sure is cute...Princess Ella.

This little darling may be my new Ella....meet Sara, she is adorable!

Here's Old Man Kerry...his voice is deeper than grandpa's. I can't imagine what will happen when he goes through puberty.

I can't forget Reggae Ray...I have a hard time snappin' a shot of this kid...this was the best I could get. He's such a giggly lil' fella'

TEMPLE TRIP!

Here we are at the Flower and Jade market.

Jade, and jade, and jade....oh my!

Flowers anyone?

Hanna and I just taking it all in...

Chapter 18

2009-11-08T09:11:00.001-08:00

Monday, October 19th

Well, this is the first day without Tabbi (she’s back in America for a week—crazy to think about that); we’ll see how it goes. I feel as though with five teachers we’re already short-handed, and now just four teachers??? Oh dear, I hope the children behave themselves, or I’ll be getting out the wooden spoon! Sammy and I are dividing the little SPE’s into two groups instead of three….as if the kids aren’t rambunctious enough as it is…what am I going to do? I am also going to teach Tabbi’s 2A’s (my old second grade class). It’ll be fun to teach them again for a little bit…but yes, just for a little bit, ha!

SPE news:

Some kids are just so good natured. I know I always talk about little Scott, but he is the best little boy ever! He is always so happy! He’s a rule enforcer and keeps the other kids in line, he cleans up after himself without being asked, and he returns those things that don’t belong to him. Let me explain: so everyone knows I have long, thick, dark hair….and it sheds….that’s a fact. I can’t help that my shedding is rather noticeable due to my dark hair color, it happens. In gym today, Scott found one strand of my long, dark hair….it couldn’t have been the hair of another student because the class is full of boys and just one girl, who has rather short hair. Scott came running toward me holding out his hand, “Teacher, teacher, your hair!” Haha, he totally returned my piece of hair that he found lying on the floor. Haha, what a good boy!

Tuesday, October 20th

Movie Night…time to be reminded of home, the theaters always do it for us girls! After work, Hanna, Sarah, and I went to ‘$50 Pizza’ and grabbed some food on-the-go to take to the movies—I love that we can take food into the theaters here, well…legally anyway. We got our pizza, drinks, and popcorn just in time to see the start of the movie, Julie and Julia. It was a cute little flick. It really made me think about my passion in life. What is it? What do I really want to do? What do I really want? I’m still not sure, but I hope I figure it out soon, I can’t do this limbo thing forever, can I? For some reason, I just feel as though I’ll stumble upon something sometime…somewhere, but as much as I’m a planner, I don’t think I’ll be able to plan this one.

Wednesday, October 21st

I gave my 2A’s their midterm today (the test that I wrote)…thank goodness it’s over. They said the test was TOO EASY….and I thought I was challenging my students. They are just too smart. They must have a great teacher ;) haha! They really are a smart bunch. I’m always bragging to the other teachers about my kids’ sweet skills.

Thursday, October 22nd

Today I’ve been thinking: I’m not a perfect teacher. I hate to admit it, but I struggle sometimes. I don’t always have the patience I wish I had, thanks Mom and Dad! As much as I try not to yell at the children, sometimes it slips as a first reaction….I hate it, and I am trying hard to overcome it. I yelled at one of my students today, Anna, because she hit Engine on the head, HARD! “Anna...” I yelled. “Don’t you hit him, we don’t hit people.” My tone came off sharp and brisk. For some reason, I felt so bad afterward, I think it was Anna’s scared little face that made the guilt rush through me. I kept thinking of myself when I was a youngster…I remember my mom coming into my room, “TT, I’m sorry I yelled today. Can you forgive me?” Every time, I would reply, “You yelled?” I never seemed to remember. Kids are so sweet and innocent, and yes, soooo forgiving! I’m sure Anna won’t remember me yelling at her, but I still feel bad; however, maybe she was relieved that I only yelled at her after hitting Engine….in the Chinese schools, it is still very common for the teachers to hit the children. Even parents and grandparents are still known to get out the ole’ bamboo stick.

….Well, all in all, I guess it doesn’t help that I was teaching two classes at the same time. On Thursdays, both the 2A classes meet, but usually, Tabbi teaches one class and I teach the other. The kids are also on a different class schedule, so I had one class in the drama room next to my room, and the other class in my classroom. Going back and forth between the two was a joke…..it will be nice to have Tabbi back. I don’t know how teachers teach in America with those big class sizes—Thank you again to all my wonderful teachers who put up with me throughout the years!

Friday, October 23rd

No Teacher Tabbi, liquid milk, papaya, and a blender; what a deadly combination! It all equals, crazy SPE children. I don’t know what it is, but whenever I pull out the blender in kitchen, my kids go wild. We made papaya milk today in class. It was Friday, so I just let the kids go wild. Not only were they having fun playing with all the buttons on the blender, but also, they were having fun smashing my hand in the blender. Papaya juice and milk was everywhere and I just didn’t care. All the kids enjoyed their snack and we had a great time….can’t wait for Tabbi to be back next week!

Sarah, Hanna, and I went to our Indian restaurant tonight—pretty tasty. Only the second time I’ve had Indian food, both of which have been in Taiwan. I got a beef roll….the tortilla shell was yummy and the spices were great…it was actually a little too sweet, must have been the mayo….mayonnaise here tends to be a bit sweeter than what I’m used to back at home. I have never liked mayo much in the first place.

Hanna took me to CarreFour tonight….we went witch hunting!!! Halloween is vastly approaching, and I can’t wait for the day…I love Halloween. I found a fun witch hat, but really, the costume selection here in Taiwan is nothing compared to America. Of course, the Taiwanese don’t really celebrate Halloween, but they do have a few decorations and costumes because of all the English Cram Schools nearby that celebrate such holidays.

Saturday, October 24th

TEMPLE TRIP!

I remember one of my first Saturday’s in Taiwan; it was a trip to the temple with the English branch. Someone told me our branch only did the trip once every six months because the cost of renting a whole bus for the few of us was outrageous—understandable; well, I was greatly surprised when I found out our branch decided to ‘branch’ out for one more temple trip before all us teachers leave and go home! I’ve been to Taipei, and the temple, a couple times without the branch, but it’s always nice to get a comfy bus to yourself, half the price you pay on your own, and with great company too.

On the way to Taipei, President Baclayon put in a great flick, Johnny Lingo, the new edition….now, I’m pretty sure I watched the new movie in Seminary years ago, but I didn’t remember it at all, what a cheesy and fun show all at the same time—a great flick to get you ready for the temple!

Speaking of temples, my temple recommend expired back in September, and I’ve been trying to get in for an interview with President for the past little bit, but with General Conference and Stake Conference, I haven’t had much success. Without a temple recommend, I had decided to tour around Taipei with some of the teachers when everyone was doing baptisms. President remembered my recommend issue...on the bus ride, he came up to me and asked whether I’d still like to go and do baptisms; sure, I thought, so I had an interview on the bus and was ready to go. Oh the simple life in Taiwan, I love it. Just one problem, I was wearing shorts because I didn’t anticipate going inside the temple, “No problem…” President assured me…and in I went. I felt a little awkward, I must admit, but I’m assuming this kind of thing happens on occasion. Don’t worry, I wasn’t wearing jeans shorts, plaid ones, they were nice, very nice!

Our whole group did baptisms so we were in and out of the temple pretty quick. I stuck with Lisa—after the temple we toured around town, got some yummy mango and kiwi bing, and some scrumptious dumplings…curry ones too! …So delish. When we met up with the rest of the group we all went to the flower and jade market; both are connected together and they’re huge. I’ve never seen so much jade in my life…this color, that color, here a stone, there a stone….I was amazed, and yet…I still didn’t buy anything; jade must not be my thing. The flower market smelled lovely and the flowers were beautiful, but yet again, I didn’t buy anything…I mean, I don’t have anyone to give flowers to and they’d die within a week or so…I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The markets were fun to walk through though, and the Subway sandwich I had afterword hit the spot!

Sunday, October 25th

For some reason or another, Sister Dowse (senior missionary) came up to me a few weeks ago asking whether I could cut her hair….I don’t cut hair, I thought, but I actually do have some good hair scissors on me. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, so I told her the truth. “Ugh, Sister Dowse, I actually do have some scissors on me, and I’ve watched a lot of hair cuts in my day, but really cutting hair myself, I wouldn’t even call myself adequate in the slightest.” I’m not so sure Sister Dowse understood me…this is what I think she heard, “Oh yeah, I cut hair all the time…I’m basically a professional….” because her response was, “Great, well I just need a trim!” Ha, I mean, I wanted to help Sister Dowse, but I didn’t want to botch her hair either…on the other hand, I love making people feel pretty and Sister Dowse was in desperate need of a little cut. I thought, what the heck, I can do this…I’ve watched my mom cut hair for some twenty odd years, I trim my own bangs…how hard can it be?

Well, I gave my mom a call, got some tips, and took the blades to Sister Dowse’s hair this afternoon after church. I was afraid to cut too much hair, so I was very careful to just snip a little bit here and a little there (Sister Dowse does have a hair appointment back in Utah when she gets home in a few weeks, so only a little trim was needed)…well, well, well, after a little perspiring…the haircut was finished and it turned out GREAT, alright…I wouldn’t go as far to say GREAT, but for my first cut, without any ‘real’ direction, it came out decent. Sister Dowse was happy with it, and I guess that’s all that matters. I think doing hair brings out the perfectionist in me….I couldn’t stop looking at Sister Dowse’s hair when I was finished cutting. Every time she spoke to me, I just kept thinking….are those sideburns even?

After the salon festivities, Sister Dowse and I had a little vegetable soup and cheese bread…it was YUMMY! I love eating with the Dowse’s; they always have yummy American food on hand. In fact, Elder Dowse busted out some chips and salsa when I told him that was the one thing I missed from America. They definitely take care of me.

Chapter 17 PICTURES!

2009-11-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

Dog Pile Teacher Tanier! The little ones love playing 'Down by the Banks'....this one particular day, after singing and playing 'Down by the Banks,' the kids had a sudden urge to dog pile ME! Who knows where that came from...but it was sure funny!

Before the rugrats wrestled me to the ground....oh I feel it coming!

It's HERE!

....and it's gone!

Some of my cute little SPE's in their matching Chinese School Uniforms! All the kids have to wear uniforms to Chinese School, and a lot of the children just wear their uniforms to Maryland since they come straight from Chinese School to our cram school.

Andy, Reece, and Joe

Tim and Joe (AKA...The HELLIAN...the one I always used to talk about. This little rugrat is actually pretty good now).

TAITUNG ROAD TRIP!

Our sweet ride to the East Coast....a long six hour drive, but the trip was well worth every minute of it!

A little somethin' somethin' that we saw on our roadtrip....seriously, where do I live! SWEETNESS!

Amazing view of Taitung and the beach. Palm Trees, Mountains, blue ocean water....nothing gets better than this!

Sea Shell hunting along the beach of Taitung! We found the best shells! Oh to be a kid again.

Torry's hometown is beautiful.

Eight Arch Bridge and Sanxiantai Island

Eight Arch Bridge! One of the top tourist spots on the East coast....the bridge was built to connect Taiwan to Sanxiantai Island.

Me, Joseph, and Leongan walking across the dragon-like bridge....

On the dock walking to the island!

Some sweet pools of clear, clear water on the island....engulfed with colorful fish too!

Before entering the errie coral caves! Oooh, spooky! We were all holding hands through that dark mess. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face.

Climbing down from the highest peak on the island. Boy it sure was windy up there, what a view though!

Group Shot! Me, Joseph, Torry, and Leongan

BIKE RIDE THROUGHOUT TAITUNG

How often can you say you see a bright pink and green car? Check out that side mirror too, mid hood on the car....classic!

On our bike ride through the park we found this awesome lake...clear, blue water with little trees breaking through the surface...such a gorgeous day!

Coastal bike ride....this cool frame made a great pic! It was actually designed by one of the members of the ward in Taitung.

Outside Torry's grandparents house....what a humbling experience!

Torry's grandparents neighborhood in Taittung....short little houses...

Now, when do you see someone washing their clothes by hand? Probably one of the greatest sights ever!

Chapter 17

2009-11-07T23:49:00.001-08:00

Monday, October 12th

MIDTERMS!!! I hate midterms, but I have to give them, and it’s time! We’re reviewing all this week with the kids so they can be ready to take their tests next week. We’ll see how it goes…man, going to school in Asia is rough. The kids start school at 7:30 am or a little before, class ends around 4:00 pm (5:00 for junior high and high school kids), then they head to cram school (that would be English school or whatever else) until around 7:00 pm, and they’re expected to finish homework and take tests too! Ei yi yi, where’s recess? Don’t these kids ever get a chance to play? I need a break just thinking about it. My older kids get the shorter end of the stick too…they have more homework and more tests, and they’re much harder. Most junior high and high school students also have cram school on Saturday! They don’t get home until around 9:30 pm on weekdays and their only day off is Sunday…bummer! However, there is one upside; all Asian students do get nap time….all the way up into high school too!

My SPE Group Three with Jimmy and Scott just keeps getting better and better. Lately, Scott has been enjoying washing everyone’s dishes, including mine. He tells everyone to hurry along and eat so he can wash their plate (not exactly in those words, but that’s what happens). Then there’s Jimmy, he’s really into sweeping the kitchen floor right now. After he’s done eating he always goes to grab the broom. And Joe, I can’t forget him; he is a master at table washing. Each day, when class comes to an end, he asks, “Teacher, can I was the table please?” Ha, who asks to do chores? I love these boys, they are absolutely adorable! It’s so funny, if anyone tries to step in on their chores they get really upset, they are very territorial over their specific jobs.

Tuesday, October 13th

Minnie and Jimmy day…our only SPE’s for the day, I love it! There’s always a story….when I was in kitchen with the little munchkins we were going over texture…we were talking about how peanut butter is sticky. I had them repeat after me, “Peanut butter is tasty, peanut butter is sticky…” Jimmy turned to me pointing to his nose, “Teacher, boogers are sticky too!” Oh gross Jimmy, YUCKY! Hey, at least I know that he understands the concept! “Yes Jimmy, boogers are sticky; very good” Haha.

Tabbi met another foreigner at the track the other week, she traded contact info and all of us, along with some other expats, went to dinner tonight. Let’s see, at dinner there was me and my roomies, Zac (TN), Nick (CA), and Jeff (Canada)…they’re all English teachers too! It’s kind of fun to meet other foreigners. Only problem, I feel so socially awkward….when I get back to America I won’t know how to talk to people, my reasoning: many Taiwanese don’t speak much English, so I’ve become totally comfortable sitting in silence and not talking, I don’t know how that will fly back home. Also, I feel that my conversations are very, very simple here. Not only because I’m talking to people who use English as their second language, but I’m also teaching English to little children all day, everyday….the upside, I do have a group of good roomies here, who together, can keep each other somewhat normal.

Wednesday, October 14th

SPE News:
Like I said earlier, there’s always a story with these rugrats! So, I’ve noticed that the past couple weeks Little Jimmy has been sitting next to Mimi a lot. He always saves her a seat and beckons her to come and sit beside him when she walks into class. The other day Mimi cut her finger and had to leave school early, from behind the glass window, Jimmy kept waving and saying goodbye to Mimi, who was in her car driving away….hum, I thought, something’s up! I tried to ask Jimmy whether Mimi was his girlfriend, but his English isn’t up to par for that kind of conversation yet, I put our secretary, Emily, up to the task….I was standing there watching as she asked him the intense question, he started to blush and nod his head, YES! I knew it! They are totally going out…cutest seven-year-old couple I’ve ever met. In class I try to keep the two kids together so I can see them interact as ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend’…it’s pretty cute!

….continuation of SPE News:
We were all playing soccer in gym; the kids were having a great time. Usually I have to call time-out every few minutes to make sure we get some good dialogue going on between the children. Well, Scott took it upon himself to call time-out in class today. I was so confused, why? He came running up to me, holding his hands up in the ‘T’ position….”okay, okay,” I said….and I let him do his thing. He ran over to the mats that were situated on the floor as a divider between Team One and Team Two…a mat was out of place, he quickly put the mat back in its correct location, then he called out, “Time-In!” It’s so nice to have a rule enforcer in class. He keeps everything running quite smoothly.

….continuation of SPE News:
I was with another group of SPE’s in gym playing soccer when Jimmy shouted across the room, “Teacher, Teacher, Andy said S-H-I-T!” “What?” I said, confused on whether I heard little Jimmy correctly. He repeated, “Andy said S-H-I-T!” Was I hearing him right, I thought. I walked over to Jimmy just to confirm….sure enough, Jimmy repeated himself once more, whispering the word this time because I was now much closer, “Andy said S-H-I-T!” Haha, oh Andy….Andy really had no clue what he had said, and I didn’t hear it, but because jimmy’s been in school a little longer, he knows all about the no-no’s, and yes, bad words and gestures (the finger)! Never a dull moment with the children, they keep me laughing…..or yelling, either way, never a dull moment!

Thursday, October 15th

Tabbi and I planned to wake up early and go running this morning. It’s starting to cool down a bit outside, so we want to get up and moving because it’s not scorching hot anymore, thank goodness! Well, Tabbi came and woke me up early, but it wasn’t exactly the wake up call I was anticipating: Tabbi’s grandmother died last night. She had a stroke about a week or two before and just couldn’t hold on. I feel so bad for Tabbi—she was very close with her grandma—so we just sat on my bed for awhile, giving back scratches and chatting. Rest in Peace Gussie….Tabbi loves you! Well, we still ended up going running to get Tabbi’s mind off of things. It’s never good to get this kind of news when you’re so far away from family. Tabbi isn’t sure whether she’ll fly home or not for the funeral yet, we shall see.

After work, the girls and I took Tabbi to get a bing—an amazing ice dessert that is covered in different beans and fruit, then topped off with a little sweet and condensed milk….(I never thought I’d say, amazing)…lets see, we had some almond bean, taro, sweet potato, and tapioca pearls on ours, can you say tasty??? We then went and hung out at the bookstore for a bit, but I quickly got bored because none of the books were in English, bummer…it’s alright though, I’m currently working on reading three books right now (I’m horrible, I never finish the books I start).

p.s. Megan, my 2A (second grader), brought me some yummy brownie bites from Costco today, pure chocolate….love them. I am so thankful for thoughtful students who continue to give me the motivation to teach!

Friday, October 16th

The kids were so GOOD today, YAY!!! I gave Jimmy and Scott’s group some brownie bites, they were so excited to get some sweets—they don’t get candy and sweets all that often here. I then informed the little ones that the chocolate handouts were a secret and they couldn’t tell anyone…I was whispering all this information to them to show them just exactly what a secret was, and they started whispering back, holding their fingers up to the mouth in unison saying, “Teacher, we will not tell..” Can they get anymore adorable than that?

Tabbi decided to book a flight home to America for her grandma’s funeral and burial. Her family needs her and she needs her family. I’m glad she’s able to get home for everything—she leaves tomorrow and will be gone for the whole week. I get to cover her classes. Sammy and I will be splitting the afternoon SPE’s into two groups (we’ll see how that goes) and I will teach her 2A1’s…my old class, the ‘Angels’, YAY!

I booked it outta class again tonight…gotta another trip planned to the south, well….south east! I’m going home with Torry to Taitung—she says it’s beautiful there, better than Kenting. I don’t know if it gets any better than that, but we shall see!

Saturday, October 17th

I met Torry and Leongan (her nephew) at the train station last night. After picking me up, we went to get Joesph, our friend from Feng Yuan, and then hit the road for our six hour drive to Taitung. Luckily, I got to sit in the back with Leongan so I could fall asleep, too bad I couldn’t sleep a wink. The night was dark and it was hard to see anything beyond the window, but I could tell we were weaving through the mountainous countryside because of all the sharp turns and sudden jerks this way, and that. I could feel myself getting car sick, but I did my best to stay focused. I literally thought we were going to run into the mountain or one of the many logging trucks that continued to pass us….that’s how narrow and windy the road was.

We arrived to Torry’s family’s house around 3:00 am. Torry’s mom has been out of town for the last month with the new grandbaby and her dad isn’t much of a housekeeper, so…lets just say, I wish I could have waited to use the bathroom until morning, but there was no more holding it, I couldn’t stop myself from engaging in the potty dance. Home standards are very different here, and when you get farther away from the city, I feel that homes become less Americanized. Man, there was another dang cockroach in the bathroom…what’s up with these roaches. They love hanging out in the bathrooms and they love scaring the gibes out of me!

We woke up early so we could, once again, make the best of our short weekend outside of Changhua.

1. Beach: We went to a gorgeous beach. The beach was secluded and we were pretty much the only peeps out strollin’ on the sand. Torry walked with Joseph while Leongan and I ran from rock to rock, digging for cool sea shells. I felt like a little kid again, and yes, I found some SWEET shells! The ocean was beautiful and blue, surrounded by palm trees and flourishing mountains from every side.

2. Sanxiantai/Eight Arch Bridge: From the beach, we continued our journey along the coast down to the Eight Arch Bridge, which connects Taiwan to the small island, Sanxiantai. Sanxiantai is one of the most popular tourist attractions on the East coast, and for good reason…..it is BEAUTIFUL! To get to the island we walked across the Eight Arch Bridge that was just built in 1987—its design looks like a gigantic dragon swimming across the ocean waters to the island, pretty fun! After crossing the bridge to the island, we marveled at the beautiful scenery. We then walked around for a bit and we found ourselves three naturally formed, pools of water. The water in the pools was crystal clear and they were engulfed with all kinds of different fish. We then came upon some eerie coral caves, which we entered hesitantly because not one of us could see our own hand in front of our face…..and then we ended our little excursion with a short hike to the top peak on the island, which consisted of a small light house, the only man-made structure on the island besides some steps here and there.

3. Hot Springs: When I think of hot springs here in Taiwan I think of ‘natural’ springs, much like the ones I’m used to in Utah….I mean, I am on a tropical island, right? Well, hot springs here are nothing what you might think. They just remind me of enormous Jacuzzi’s—large heated swimming pools, some with water massagers too!

Last stop of the evening….the famous hot springs! Don’t get me wrong, I still loved going to the hot springs, but if you’re expecting to find some small pools of water that smell like sulfur and are enclosed by giant palm trees or some thick mountainous landscape….you won’t find them in Taiwan. Torry’s cousin came with us to the hot springs. We had a great time taking advantage of the water massagers and the different pools. There were some pools filled with tea or lavender that we just had to dip ourselves into, Torry told me they would make me ‘more beautiful’….oooh, just what I want….and need!

After the hot springs, we showered off and headed out for the one and the only, STINKY TOFU….I knew I’d have to try it one of these days….I just didn’t know that day was today! Taitung is known for its Stinky Tofu, so it was a must that I try it. We got the goods to eat and drove down to the ocean to hear the wave’s crash against the shore, so peaceful. Alright, Stinky Tofu, yes….it really stinks, BADLY too! Well, I tried it, and basically, it tastes just like it smells, STINKY. There’s no replacing that smell. So, it wasn’t that bad, but let’s just say I don’t think I’ll be craving that dish anytime soon.

Sunday, October 18th

We slept in a little bit today, but not much….we were out the door by about 8:30-9:00 a.m.

1. Bike Ride: We grabbed some fruit on-the-go for breakfast, and went for a lovely bike ride around Taitung. We strolled through a fun, little park that took us to a small lake and then eventually to the ocean. We got off our bikes and walked down to the beach where we witnessed 20 foot waves crashing to the shore…..AMAZING…..but wouldn’t want to get caught in those white caps! Along the beach were huge wooden logs that had been torn off the nearby mountain by the typhoon, washed away to sea, and then spit back out up onto the sand. I couldn’t believe all the typhoon damage we saw…the south east really got hit hard.

2. Grandma’s House: Well, I can now say I’ve seen how the other half lives, and not the half you’re thinking off. Taitung is much more rural than any of the other places I’ve visited. We went to visit Torry’s grandparents today and it was all very humbling. The small shack-like-house was standing with old, cracked concrete floors and walls and, what seemed like, a tin roof for cover. For ventilation, there were portable fans, for washing, I didn’t see a washer…I would assume a tub and a scrubber, clothes were hanging out to dry on the line. The family room and kitchen were combined into a small room with a sink here and a table there….nothing too fancy, but some family pictures tacked on the wall for decoration and memory. I am almost certain there was no indoor plumbing because the house smelled like pee, but what great people. Torry’s grandparents seemed as happy as can be…her grandma talked to me in Taiwanese, she kept telling me how smart her husband used to be….she offered me some special rice (fried rice with fish)….after eating a bowl of rice and continually nodding my head as if I understood what her grandmother was saying, we thanks the couple for their hospitality and were off to our next stop.

3. Pagoda and Swimming: We rode our bikes up to the temple and pagoda on the hillside….dare I say, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all? However, we did take the stairs to the top of the tower and looked out over Taitung. We then swung by the church to return our bikes to Torry’s neighbor. We also got a bite to eat from the members (peanut butter and jelly)….I’ve found that a lot of wards eat together after church here….I’m grateful…American food, YUM!

We found this little canal and the boys took a dip into it before we headed back home to Changhua. The water was freezing cold, there must have been a spring somewhere…it smelled so fresh that it reminded me of Pine Valley….heading up to the campground and playing around in the creek.

When we were at the canal, someone must have made a couple of phone calls and said that the Americans were in town, because all of the sudden the paparazzi showed up….everyone was there, watching us—it was funny! That’s one thing I may miss when I leave Taiwan…I feel so important here. I mean, people ask to take pictures of us all the time, now when do you get that kind of attention in American, NEVER!

So, the coolest thing EVER happened when we were swimming….some older Taiwanese ladies came down the walkway to the canal and did their wash right there, in front of us! They had their buckets, their soap, their scrubbers; they were just doing their laundry, scrubbin’ away. Greatest experience ever! I loved it!

Taitung was such a FUN trip! Now I can say I’ve been to all sides of Taiwan…north, east, south, and west!

P.S. Greatest purchase of the trip…$6.00 swimming suit, now I just need to rid myself of the unwelcomed rice-roll I have sitting around my waist!

Chapter 16 Pics

2009-10-29T09:32:00.001-07:00

Two of my favorite SPE's...Jimmy and Scott! Their new thing: helping teacher. They always get after the other kids, "Super Students fold their arms....5, 4, 3, 2....Be quiet...Don't touch." Haha, well, if they don't pick up anything else, they're at least learning how to behave, right? Man, I must be a nazi!

Helping me to my seat. I love going to kitchen with these two boys, because they always hold out their arms toward my seat as if I'm a queen. They won't sit down until I do--it's so cute!

Handstands! Go Team Go! I'm already training the little one's to be cheerleaders....these are just some of their warm-ups!

KENTING WEEKEND!

A great start to a great trip! Spending the night at Charles' house in Kaohsiung!

The group in Kenting! All decked out in our gear for snorkeling!

Tabbi and I, ready to hit the water.

You can never be too safe! This dog was ready to go with his goggles and life jacket...so funny!

Kenting Beach! We finally made it!

Kenting National Forest!

Cruisin' around on the scoots!

The most southern tip of Taiwan--Eluanbi Lighthouse

Beach Walk...pic taken off the wooden plank--so pretty!

Some of the group just hiking around!
Back Row (L-R): Charlene, me, Charles, Sunny, Lisa
Front Row (L-R): Tabbi, Kelly, and Wendy

Coral Caves....

No wonder people ask us if we're sisters...we don't plan this stuff, it just happens: cut-off's, black, curly hair, sunglasses....Love ya TIP!

On our hike, I stepped in a pile of gunk...YUCKY! Luckily there was a nearby stream to rinse off!

Lunch at Amy's Cucina! Yay for green salad...I ate it all! Notice the sign... "NO outside food, drink, pets, STINKY TOFU!" Haha, that stuff really stinks!

The squat! Nature vs. Nurture? It's up for debate.

Look at this little guy...he's got it down, heels to the floor and all....

...and then there's us, after months of practice, we still struggle to stay up!

Kenting=FUN!

Chapter 16

2009-10-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

Chapter 15 and 16 novels are both new this week! Enjoy...

Monday, October 5th

Where to start….I just don’t know.

Today I had to get after my 7A class a little bit because they are such TIME WASTERS. They love to get me off on tangents so we don’t get anything done or have any homework….especially ALEX…(now I understand what every high school teacher goes through...please forgive me PV faculty).I think Alex may have ADHD, seriously! Hanna and I have been trying to diagnose him…among other things, he is super hyper-active, he can’t sit still, he can hardly concentrate in class, he’s a bit socially awkward, he has no concept of time or organization (always late, never does his homework), and he continually touches the other students, yet he hates to be touched himself. I never realized until today that teaching is more than just teaching a certain subject, but rather, handling all the emotional and social needs that come with each and every student. Ai yi yi….

Well, boot camp is going rather smoothly, and us teachers are training the kids quite nicely….I say training because I really don’t know how much teaching I ever get done with the little SPE’s. I’m still working on building boundaries, but today in kitchen we were talking about what tastes good and what tastes bad. All the sudden, the kids started chanting, “Gooda, NO…Good, YES!” Haha, I asked the students who taught them that and they all replied, “Teacher Tabbi.” Ha, I just giggled to myself, if they don’t learn anything at all, at least they know not to add an ‘a’ to the end of every word that conveys whether something is good (that is very common here in Taiwan).

On the topic of ‘training’ the children….the kids figured out rather quickly that in order to do well in class and to get rewarded, they must mimic teacher, only problem is….they don’t know exactly what to mimic and what not to mimic. Whenever we line up at a door, they repeat, “Teacher may I sit down please. Yes you may.” Haha, at first I thought, how rude, they are mocking me, and then I realized they had no idea what they were doing, they were just following teacher’s commands. After two months of learning however, many of them quickly understand and some of them are actually mocking me, ha….it’s still cute though, I can’t help but smile. In fact, taking matters once step further, instead of mocking; many of the kids try to help teacher (that’s me) out. In class, when the kids get a little rowdy, Jimmy and Scott turn to the other students, “Be quiet, Don’t Touch, Fold Your Arms!” haha….and just when I thought they weren’t picking up any English—they always seem to surprise me!

Tuesday, October 6th

Today I learned a new Chinese word; ‘koo’! It means to cry. Jimmy, Minnie, and I were all in kitchen, making ourselves some yummy ‘koooolaid’ when the kids started shouting, “Teacher! You said Chinese…NO CHINESE!” No matter what I said to try and explain that Koolaid is a drink, it wasn’t working, so instead of making Koolaid, we made punch (BTW, it was rather disgusting….it was all crystallized and tasted about 100 years old )!

Us teachers went to Max and Vivian’s for dinner tonight (we like to name our favorite places here because really, we have no idea what the Chinese name is)….it’s a yummy Tepanyaki restaurant….black peppered beef, garlic cabbage, bean sprouts, and rice, prepared right before you, nothings better! You can’t get a $3 dollar meal like that back in the states….oh Samuri 21….I fear that upon my return home, I will be sorely disappointed.

Wednesday, October 7th

Why are kids so darn cute? Jimmy and Scott make me feel like a queen. Lately, whenever we enter kitchen, the two boys gather around my chair and hold out their hands, showing me to my seat as if I’m the greatest teacher ever….they make me feel so special! They won’t sit down until I sit down first! I tried to capture the moment on my camera, but it doesn’t do justice….we’ll see if I can get a good video.

Cheerleaders die hard! Today in gym I was doing handstands, cartwheels, round offs….all that good stuff. The kids just eat it up. I all taught them how to do handstands….against the wall of course, but handstands nonetheless; we’re off to a great start! Only one casualty…Tim got decked with Kerry’s foot as Kerry was flippin’ around doing cartwheels, I’m envisioning a black eye this upcoming week.

Thursday, October 8th

The kids went crazy in opening exercises today. They love playing ‘Down by the Banks,’ so when they’re good, Tabbi, Sam, and I will let them circle up to play the crazy game….it’s quite the event. At first, the kids hated getting ‘out’, but now they love it because they just play, play, and play! Well, today it was total chaos and all the kids decided to dog pile ME when they got out of the game. It was the dominoes effect all over again, but 10x better….child after child, piling up on Teacher Tanier. Oh the little ones….I feel we are really bonding now, wouldn’t you say?

Friday, October 9th

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM & DAD! I love you! Thanks for all the love and support you’ve showed me throughout the years! Because of you, I had the best childhood, the best adolescence, and so far, a great start to adulthood…..to the BEST parents in the world…..here’s to another 26 years (It is 26, right?)!

KENTING WEEKEND! Every since I arrived in Taiwan, everyone has raved about going to the south—going to Kenting really, Taiwan’s tropical paradise, I’m goin’ to the beach, YAY, Tabbi and I did it! Lisa, our friend from Feng Yuen, had a couple extra spots with her group who was heading down for the weekend, so she invited us to join in the fun!

After work, Tabbi and I booked it outta school and rode down to the train station to catch the train to Kaohsiung (our half-way point) where we would stay with our good friend Charles. The train to Kaohsiung is about a three hour ride. We met Lisa on the train and we met Charles when we reached our destination. He took us back to his place (again, just a small room with a little bathroom, and mini fridge) where he had clean towels neatly folded and sleeping mats prepared just for us, so nice! He kept saying, “This night is so special to me, I’ve never had so many foreigners stay with me before!” We just kept laughing.

Oh my, it was so funny, we were all chillin’ in Charles’ apartment, getting ready for bed and what not…Charles went to take a shower…when he came out, he was in nothing but his little whitey tighty boxers. Haha. Tabbi and I started busting up laughing….I could not help myself, I felt like a little school girl giggling so much. At first, I’m not quite sure whether he understood exactly what we were laughing at, but he quickly caught on and put on some shorts….haha, I’m laughing as I’m writing this it was so funny! I had to bury my head in my backpack at the moment—I was laughing because Tabbi was laughing, and Tabbi was laughing because I was laughing; we just couldn’t hold it in. I find it so interesting too, because within the Asian culture, most people are very conservative, and so I wonder what he was thinking….I think he’s been watching too much American TV and too many American movies! Well, after chit-chatting and laughing into the wee hours of the night, we finally went to bed…the mats on the tile floor were surprisingly….dare I say, comfortable!?!

Saturday, October 10th

10.10….Taiwan’s Birthday—Horary for Holidays! We woke up early, around 7:30 am to meet the other Feng Yuen girls who were taking the high speed rail to Kaohsiung. After meeting outside the train station, we found a rather cheap taxi service to drive us the rest of the way (about two hours) to Kenting. We had a group of 11 people, so we got a pretty good deal, but we had to split up into two different cars. Tabbi and I, along with our new friend Charlene, had to squeeze into a seat built for two (I know, not the safest…but then again, I’m in Taiwan…they ride with four people on a scooter, without helmets, thinking all is well, but heaven forbid you stand on a chair, you could fall)! Thank goodness for Asian’s and their petite little bodies….we made it work.

The ride to Kenting was beautiful. We drove along the shore line for quite some time before arriving to our hostel! My first hostel, I had no idea what to expect, but it wasn’t too bad. We basically had the whole building to ourselves. Tabbi and I had our own room, and some of the other peeps shared. We all had a communal bathroom. The place: The Surf Shack….very quaint and fitting for a beach trip! After dropping our bags and changing into our suits, our taxi drivers took us to a little local establishment were we could engage in some fine snorkeling and other beach activities (Did our taxi drivers seriously wait for us to drop our bags at the hostel and then drive us to the beach??? Yes. Would that happen in America? Most likely, NOT)!

1. Snorkeling: We arrived at the shop and got fitted for full-blown wet suits—I felt as though I were going scuba diving, oh I wish. We then got our goggles, snorkels, wet boots, and life jackets—the ones with the crouch strap might I add….childhood memories began to flood my mind, gotta love that strap! We all piled into the back of this truck/van and headed down to the beach. On our walk down to the beach, I saw the cutest little dog. He was decked out in his gear too….he was wearing pink goggles and a bright yellow jacket—the Asians love their dogs! Seriously, sometimes I think the dogs are treated better than the children. Alright, that’s a slight exaggeration, and joke, but….I mean, how often do you see dogs wearing life jackets in America? How about scooter helmets? Sunglasses? See where I’m going with this…

Well, we had a fun time snorkeling, but as much as I hate to admit it, snorkeling in Hawaii is better! There, I said it, but it’s true. In Hawaii, the fish are better…bigger and more colorful, brighter and prettier….that’s not to say there isn’t great scuba diving or snorkeling in Asia, but at our specific spot, it didn’t stand a chance to Turtle Bay. Nonetheless, it was still amazing. Our guides gave us some bread to feed to the fish…we had schools upon schools of fish swarming around us…it was sweet!

2. Water weenie: Included in our day adventure was a little water weenie excursion! Alright, so I have to admit, I’m a little afraid of the deep, dark ocean….not knowing what’s underneath me just seems to freak me out, but put some high adventure water weenie in the picture and I just can’t resist! I was all over the place! For some odd reason, I felt that my wet suit would protect me from any dangerous creature lurking beneath me in the ocean water. We had fun thrashing around, and no worries, we wore helmets!

3. Scooters: Well, well, well….who knew foreigners couldn’t rent scooters anymore (so I guess I need some international license or something?)….Kenting is such a small, beachfront getaway that there are no buses or transportation systems put in place….only scooter rentals. Luckily Charles, Kelly, and Charlene, our Taiwanese friends, saved the day. We were quite sneaky—instead of renting six scooters at one rental shop, which is what we needed, Charles, Kelly, and Charlene rented three scooters at one shop, and three more at another shop….we totally worked the system… bad? Eh! Only in Taiwan.

4. Beach: The day just kept getting better. We found a little beach, set down some towels, and enjoyed listening to the wave’s crash on the shore. It was a bit overcast, so not too hot. I’d say the weather was perfect for relaxing because I totally fell asleep! The beach was different then expected…it wasn’t exactly white sand, in fact, it was a little rocky, and the beaches, for the most part, seemed to span only a short distance (then again, we only visited one beach, but that was the impression I got).

At the beach, some peeps played in the water while others beached it on the sand. We did have a pretty sweet running long jump contest. I was sure to lose. I mean, I was competing against Charles, a boy—need I say more, Sarah, she’s probably six feet tall, and Lindsay, who is also a good three inches taller than me….well, well, well….I guess height isn’t the only factor that determines a good long jumper! I came in second! Guess who was first? Yes….Charles in Charge! What a fun new beach game!

5. Dinner/Night Market: So we heard about this great little Thai restaurant off the main street in Kenting. We went to eat, thinking we’d get in right away because the restaurant’s placed back in this little alley, but no, we waited for three hours!!!! Three hours for nothing! Tabbi and I shared the Singapore curry….it came out looking like boney Chicken stew….luckily we had some chips and salsa for an appetizer, which were divine (haven’t had those for four awaited months).

Alright, so during our three hour dinner wait we hit up the night market. It was so cool; at night the main street in Kenting turns into this market full of food vendors and cheap goods. The vendors really just came out of the woodwork. As we walked up and down the streets of the market, I think just about everyone grabbed a snack….we were all starving waiting for dinner—good thing since dinner wasn’t too impressive.

6. Nighty Night: After dinner we all jumped on our scoots and headed to our hostel about 15 minutes outside of Kenting. As I said before, it was cute and quaint. I only have one complaint….no cockroaches in the bathroom please…flying cockroaches that is!!!

Sunday, October 11th

Kenting continued…As much as we all wanted to sleep in from the day before, we woke up early to get a good start on the day….this weekend was the best for our long journey to Kenting because our branch was watching the conference broadcast this weekend—something that we can easily watch on the internet at home.

1. Eluanbi Lighthouse: We drove to the most southern tip of Taiwan and hiked up to this lighthouse that was built in the 1800’s. The lighthouse was pretty sweet because at the time, it was only one of the few fortified lighthouses in the world. The lighthouse was built with a moat, cannons, and soldiers to protect it from invading aborigines. After touring around the lighthouse, we took a walk down to the beach. We jumped off the wood plank and onto the big rocks that ran right into the ocean….sweet landscape=sweet pics.

2. Kenting National Forest: We took the scooters up through Kenting’s National Forest…I felt like I was coasting on a roadster winding back and forth through the mountains of Colorado or something (alright, so I’ve never done that, but I could only imagine). The wind was blowing through my hair and the weather was perfect….I loved being outside and enjoying all the beauty around me. When we got to the top of the mountain, we hopped off the scoots and went hiking through the forest. We hiked through some fun, old coral caves….I stepped in a puddle of gunk….munched on some pumpkin seeds….had a snake cross my path….and had a great ole’ time.

3. Lunch: We went to Amy’s Cucina for lunch and had some real American food. Tabbi and I shared a great green salad and some chicken pesto chicken. I ate it all up---even the raw onions (mom, I’m turning into you….and I love it!) While we were eating, our chairs started shaking, and then the tables…another earthquake! Me, Tabbi, and Lisa immediately dropped our food to our plate, we were a little panicked. Meanwhile, Charles was chomping on a bone from his fried chicken….the quake didn’t even phase him, nor anyone else in the restaurant. Everyone just kept working as usual.

So, as we were leaving the restaurant, Tabbi and I saw the cutest little boy, couldn’t have been over two years old. He was chowin’ down his food, in squat position—hilarious! Here us American’s practice the squat for months before we get it down, and this two year old boy assumes the position so naturally….nature or nuture? Hum, it’s up for debate!

4. On the road again: Kenting was a short trip, but a fun one nonetheless. We took a taxi back to Kaohsiung (ironically enough we had the same taxi drivers), and watched the movie Hairspray to pass by the time. I’d never see the flick, but it was light and hearty for the drive. Our driver was so nice to let us watch the musical, which was all in English….no Chinese subtitles! After arriving in Kaohsiung, Tabbi and l left the other teachers and Charles, we boarded a train back to Changhua and walked through our front door around 11:00 p.m. Being so tired from the busy weekend, I hopped in the shower and hit the sack….

Chapter 15 Pics!

2009-10-28T07:51:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Tabbi! 09/29/2009

Start the day with breakfast in bed and end the day with a little KTV (karaoke)....can't beat a birthday like that!

The group at KTV...seriously, best Karaoke EVER! We had our own room, special for us to sing with just our group and a whole buffet of food....it doesn't get any better than that!

Tabbi and I singin' our hearts out to 'Dancing Queen'!

Day Trip...Taipei ZOO! 10/03/2009
It was Wendy's birthday, so a bunch of us girls from both Feng Yuen and Changhua made the trek to the city. We hit up the zoo and had a blast!

Tabbi, Lisa, and Me at the Taipei ZOO!

Beautiful and green!

Me and Tabbi, the twins, or so people say!

Ride, ride, ride that pony!

Taipei Zoo=Jungle Safari ...SWEET...here are the top-picks for animals of the day!

African or Asian, can you tell the difference?
These guys were dancing and swaying together...it was so cool!

This little guy came right over and started chattin' with us. If it wasn't for the electric barrier fence, I'm sure we would have become quick friends!

Alright, poo or ice cream? ....hum....

Do you have your answer? I'm not sure what's up with all the poo in Asia, but everyone seems to be obsessed with it here....it's everywhere. You can even buy POO candy!

....and again, is this for real?

A little 'POOped' at the zoo! After a full day of walking and touring around, Sarah and I just needed a quick rest! We kept our smiles though!

Out and about in the big city!

Crusin' in the city....'We Go' or 'Wego'....not sure, but it made for a fun picture. Wendy's Birthday Group. We had a really fun trip!

Purchasing our tickets for the Ferris Wheel. Although Lisa may look perfectly calm in this picture, let me assure you that she was the one with the clammy hands clutched to the railing of our car....I was dancing around in the air when Lisa could barely handle looking out the window, but she did it! What a trooper!

Flying in Taipei's Eye...the view was amazing, but a bit cloudy!

We made it!

Moon Festival! BBQ's, mooncakes, and dumplings...YUMMY!

Torry, teaching me how to make dumplings!!!

The group, minus Tabbi, at Torry's house!

On our way back to the train station from Torry's, we saw this billboard. We're not quite sure what it means, but we found it somewhat amusing.

Chapter 15

2009-10-28T07:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I now I know I am really behind, but just bear with me!!!

Chapter 15 Novel:

Monday, September 28th

Today was Teacher’s Day in Taiwan! One of my older students brought me a card thanking me for my teaching—my kids are so thoughtful! They’re always bringing me little treats, I love it! One of the younger kids’ mom brought all the teachers fruit tea for the occasion as well….so yummy (don’t worry, its not real tea)!

Scott and Jimmy (two of my favorite SPE’s) have started this new thing….here it is….whenever they repeat English correctly after me, or behave as a ‘super student,’ I always try to reinforce their behavior with a very good…laudy daudy da…so they know what they’re doing is good and correct. They get so excited to know that they’re doing something right, they just can’t hold it in….Scott runs toward me, wraps his arms around my waist and tucks his legs through mine, clinging to me like a monkey to a tree…then Jimmy has to follow latching on behind. It’s the funniest thing. I have these two little munchkins clinging to me, front and back—they are soooo dang cute!

We had ice cream in kitchen today…the kids think vanilla ice cream is banana ice cream…just another little tongue twister for ‘em….one of these days they’ll get it!

Tuesday, September 29th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TABBI! It’s my roomie, Tabbi’s birthday today! I always love surprising people with breakfast in bed, so Sarah, Hanna, and I woke up a early today to cook a little French toast and eggs…..my first time cooking in our kitchen, for good reason too (yes…I’m still eating lots of cereal)! Our pans are so old and yucky that they create smoke off the stove terribly. If we had a fire alarm in our apartment, it would have gone off. We had to open the windows and bring out the fans…it was so bad. Nonetheless, our breakfast didn’t taste all the bad—fresh fruit, orange juice, scrambled eggs, and French toast with honey and peanut butter (great topping huh?….we couldn’t find any syrup at the corner store). Everything was very make shift, but hey, a surprising breakfast in bed is always good!

Cooking in the kitchen today actually made me realize just how badly it needed to be cleaned. I moved out all the furniture and got caught up in the moment, cleaning away. It’s amazing how much a clean house can start the day off right!

After work, a group of us went out to KTV (karaoke) for Tabbi’s birthday! Oh my….Karaoke in Taiwan is amazing…seriously, I had so much fun! I mean, who wouldn’t love dancing around, bouncing off the walls, singing to the top of your lungs with your roomies—good times! So this is how karaoke works here…you call in advance to reserve a room for your party. When you arrive at KTV, you are escorted to your parties own private Karaoke room—much like a hotel room, bathroom and all, just no beds. It’s just you and your friends who get to sing together. I thought it’d be a little intimidating at first, but it didn’t take me any time to jump into the groove. The atmosphere was great. We didn’t have to go to some smoky bar, or wait in line to sing one song….we were able to enjoy our friends’ company and sing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted…it was sweet! There was also a buffet of yummy food outside in the furor, which made the night that much better! We had such a fun time—Tabbi’s birthday=success!

Wednesday, September 30th

This weekend is Moon Festival here in Taiwan—who knew it was such a big holiday! Sam, JoAnna, Martin, Sara, Megan, and others have all brought me moon cakes! I’ve eaten so many moon cakes I think I could throw up! Some of the cakes are really good, filled with red bean, green bean, taro, or other yummy stuff (I never imagined I’d say red bean=yummy…never say never)! There are some filled with some crazy mystery meat though….not my favorite! Thank you to all my wonderful students who give me the drive to keep going!

Thursday, October 1st

So there’s a new Korean song out and about, ‘Sorry Sorry’ by Super Junior. The kids love this song…I am amazed by how many of my students not only know some of the words to the song, but who also know the dance moves as well….even my little SPE’s. Between each class we always sing a song…something like Popcorn Popping or Five Little Monkeys, but this week all the kids have refused to sing anything else but ‘Sorry Sorry!’ Haha…the little ones and myself really only know the chorus…’Sorry sorry sorry sorry, mickey mickey mickey mickey…’ and then we just move about humming the rest. Tabbi and I took a video of the little ones doing the dance in our opening exercises today….it’s adorable. I will have to share!

Friday, October 2nd

Alright, so with only five teachers at our school, and working hours to our max, there is little room for any flexibility. Luckily, Tabbi and I both teach 2A’s now, so if one us every needs a little switcharoo in the schedule, we can help each other out. Today I planned to go to Taipei with Torry, so Tabbi was so nice to switch the Wednesday/Friday class. Right after SPE’s, I flew out the door to catch the bus to Taipei (all by myself….I am so surprised how easy it is to get around here….especially when my Chinese is not so great)! My little kids kept waving goodbye to me as I rode away on my bike--bless their little hearts!

I met Torry at the train station in Taipei—with no phone to contact each other, we prearranged a meeting place so we could find one another. That’s always an experience….we never know if we’ll actually find one another, but we did!!!! How did the world ever survive before cell phones?

After meeting up with Torry, we went to meet up with Torry’s old mission buddy, Peter, who is actually from Brigham City. He was in town on business, so we all went out to dinner (Tepanyaki….one of my new favorites)! Torry took us to the biggest night market in Taiwan, so they say….really, once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Peter’s wife wanted some shoes from ‘The Orient’, so I got to be the shoe model….I love shopping for other people, it’s always more fun! Oh my word, we were walking down the crowded street and low and behold, THERE….hanging on the wall was a…University of Utah t-shirt! Crazy? My thoughts exactly….I just had to take a picture. The spelling was even correct, very fortunate because most English translations on shirts and other goods always comes out super jumbled.

From dinner, Torry and I went back to her brother’s place to spend the night. Because it was so late, we had to take a taxi….our driver couldn’t exactly find the address to the apartment, so Torry’s bro had to come pick us up on his scooter….yes, three people on a scooter. I mean, I see it all the time, but I never thought it would be me. I was obviously on the very back with my big backpack hanging out from the seat. I was holding on to dear life….I wish I had a video of the whole thing, it was so fun playing, ‘lets see who can stay on the scooter the longest’! When we arrived to the apartment, did I say apartment??? I meant, room with a bathroom, yup….housing is so expensive in Taipei and the other big cities that many of the apartments have just one big room, enough for a bed and a desk, with a bathroom. Anyhow, when we arrived to the apartment, Torry’s brother was very hospitably and he gave us girls the bed, thanks! Torry’s bro was soooo funny….whenever Torry would speak to me in English he would just look at her with his straight face and mutter, “You, NO ENGLISH! Me, no understand!” Haha, I just kept busting up laughing every time we started speaking English—he kept giving us THE LOOK! I made the whole ‘no speaking Chinese’ thing up to him by teaching him how to play the card game, Speed, he liked it! Surprising how I was able to teach a game to someone without actually speaking to them. I guess I’ve become really good at explaining every little detail since that’s what I do everyday.

Saturday, October 3rd

Torry and I slept in, it felt so nice. We laid in bed listening to the pouring rain outside for about an hour before we decided to get up and get ready for the day—it always seem to rain in Taipei, every time I’m there, without fail, it rains!

Torry took me to Hot Pot today for lunch (it’s a whole bunch of food dumped into a pot and boiled right in front of you to eat). I must be really getting used to the cuisine here because I didn’t even hesitate to stick anything in my mouth. Ha, “Torry, what’s this….” I’d say holding up my chop sticks, which were clamping some mystery food….“Oh, just octopus”….“Ok”….and in my mouth it’d go! Yummy!

After lunch, Torry and I split ways, and I took the metro to meet up with my roomies and some other teachers at the Taipei Zoo! The zoo was sooo fun! It was our friend Wendy’s birthday, so we had a good time playing around. The zoo closed a bit early, so we had to rush, but we saw all we wanted to: zebras, giraffes, rhinoceros’, hippos, tigers, elephants, orangutans, panda bears, black bears, monkeys, monkeys, and more monkeys! Side note* for some reason, Asia has this weird fascination with ‘poo’….really, I’m not kidding. I don’t understand it. At the zoo there was this whole wall of poo, and there was even a cartoon sculpture of poo to climb into for a picture. You can find poo candy just about anywhere too….I just haven’t figured out what the hype’s all about yet!

From the zoo, we took the metro to the ‘Taipei Eye’….a huge green ferris wheel that shows off all of Taipei. We all went on the ride, even Lisa, who is deathly afraid of heights. I made the mistake of getting into the wrong ferris wheel car (for lack of better words)…..Lisa wouldn’t let me rock the car. Just standing up out of my seat was a little too much for her. Haha, we made a deal, when we were ¾ of the way done with the ride, Lisa would allow all us girls to stand and dance around a bit…it was a fair trade considering her hands were clamming up due to her anxiety. The view at the top of the wheel was just gorgeous, but I must say, a bit cloudy. All of us girls had a fun day trip in Taipei…venturing into the big city for a day is well worth the 2 ½ hour drive.

Oh my goodness! Tonight, back at home in Changhua, I was just lying in my bed around 2:00 am….a common occurrence, these late nights…..all of the sudden my bed started shaking…not just a little, but a lot. Not knowing what was happening, I started to feel a little bit dizzy. I jumped out of bed realizing it was an earthquake. Just as I opened my door, I heard all my roommates doors swing open as well. The earthquake had woken us all. Sarah thought I was shaking her, trying to wake her up for church. Wow….we have earthquakes all the time here, but never too extreme. I always wonder how long the quake will last, so far we’ve been pretty lucky. Right after the quake I tried to go back to bed, but then another outburst happened, right outside of our apartment building….someone was shooting off fireworks for Moon Festival, and at 2:30 in the morning….no one ever sleeps during the holidays. Sarah and I watched a good show as we sat on our kitchen window seal, but after all the excitement I couldn’t get to bed until about 4:00 am…bummer!

Sunday, October 4th

Church was good! We were able to fellowship a young girl today….she just wandered into the chapel, not really knowing what she was doing. We told her a bit about the church, but she was more interested in learning English…we get a lot of newcomers that way, but hey, whatever works!

Torry came to pick Tabbi and I up from church today—we went back to her place to celebrate MOON FESTIVAL! We were going to barbeque, but the weather didn’t permit. It’s so funny, ask any Taiwanese what they’ll do for Moon Festival and they’ll say BARBEQUE, gotta love it! Anyhow, we ended up making dumplings, oh yes, I made my very own dumplings from scratch…they were delicious! After dinner, Torry’s mom made us some dessert, a real Taiwanese delicacy. It’s a wild fruit and it costs about $90 US for 1 kilogram….sooooo expensive! Anyhow, it looks like a little furry nut….you scrape off the fur and place the nut in water and it turns to jelly….I’m not crazy, this is true! After the jelly sets (about ten minutes)….you squeeze a little lemon over the dish and it tastes pretty good. Torry’s house was a lot of fun, but when invited to a Taiwanese home for food, you must realize the Taiwanese like to enjoy their eating….they eat little amounts at a time, and it usually takes hours, so be prepared to stay for the whole afternoon!

Chapter 14 Pics

2009-10-08T09:06:00.001-07:00

SUN MOON LAKE Day Trip! Saturday, September 26th

Sun Moon Lake at first glance! Biggest lake in Taiwan, located in the center of the island!

The Changhua group! Roommates and Secretary (L-R): Sarah Lilly, Emily Yeh, Tabbi Perkins, Hanna Postma, and Me!

Birthday Stairs....most fitting since it was Tabbi's Birthday weekend...18 years, once again! Happy Birthday Tip!

Birthday wishes...upclose peek!

Tabbi and I outside the Wunwu Temple....

Biggest Lions in Taiwan!

Real or Fake? or as the Chinese say....True or False? You be the judge!

Making a wish...this is my wishing stick that I pulled from the jar!
- Wish One: Play it cool and safe, be careful the double games. To be meticulous at every step can triumph in every battle.
- Wish Two: Life-long fame and wealth. Victory in litigation. Illness cured speedily. Ideal marriage. To have a newborn son (as you know, having sons was very prized traditionally). Travelers to return home soon.
Sounds like two great wished huh? Fake out! As I was reading my wishes to the girls, Sarah looked down at my paper and said, “Tanier, didn’t you pull out stick number 37, not 36?” Whoops, I grabbed the wrong wish! Silly me…alright, second time around, real wish
- Wish Two (for real): Litigation be compromised. Ailment be prayed for peace. Wealth begged only a few. Seeking fame be secured scarcely. Marriage may be matched. Travelers be sent back. To incline toward charity be assured as round as the full-moon.
Haha….so my ‘real’ second wish isn’t as great as the first I picked up….eh….it’s sixes. After reading our wishes, Christina directed us over to the ‘wish interpreter.’ He asked what I had wished for….a little reluctant to tell him, I did anyhow….”Ugh, will I ever get married?” Haha, what a wish eh! His reply, “Open your heart and don’t be sooo stubborn!!!” No the answer I was looking for!

Atop the temple!

The group at Shueishe Warf...lunch=dumplings=my favorite!

Pic with a native!

Tabbi and I in front of the beautiful lake!

Cihen Pagoda

Swinging on a vine....this didn't last long....Tarzan makes it look much easier!

Drum jumping!

Giant Bell!

Atop the Pagoda.

Peacocks Farm!

Boat ride around Sun Moon Lake!

Proof that everywhere I go, I must get my temperature taken!

Chapter 14

2009-10-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 21st

Last week was a bit trying for Tabbi and I, so today we decided to switch up the SPE schedule. Because we have a three hour block of SPE’s, we teachers have decided to teach the same half hour classes over and over, just with different children. Well, I was in charge of Drama/Art, and Tabbi was in charge of Gym/Kitchen….for some reason, it just wasn’t working out for us. Today I took over Gym/Kitchen and Tabbi took over Drama/Art—it was a glorious day. I think we made a good switch. I really like teaching Gym, even though the students go crazy when they hit the gym floor, and who wouldn’t want to teach Kitchen, I mean, come on…snack time is always good!

Little kids pick up the darndest things, who knows where they get it! For some reason, one of the cutest little SPE’s, Scott, who doesn’t know a lick of English, has been saying ‘Oh my GO…’ you know the rest. We aren’t sure where he picked it up, maybe TV or the movies, but it’s spreading like wild fire pretty quickly. We’re trying to break the kids of the phrase, but I accidently slipped and said “Oh my gosh” today. Scott got a surprised look on his face, covered his mouth with one hand, and pointed at me with the other, “NO teacher,” he said. Ha, it was so funny. Now we’re teaching him and everyone else to say “On my gosh” rather than the other….emphasis on the ‘gosh.’ We laugh about the whole thing because we know the teachers after us will just think….who taught you English, Mormons?

In my 7A class tonight, I had another student swear, Alex (my new student)….I totally called him out on it. He played dumb, it was sooooo funny! After class, I was telling Sherry that I had to have a talk with my students about profanity. She asked me what time it all happened, I was kind of confused why, then Sherry proceeded to tell me that Alex’s mom was watching my class outside the door, ha…a part of me kind of wishes his mom would have been there at the right moment to hear everything, but it’s probably for the best she wasn’t. Poor guy, he’s just a little socially off, but he wants to fit in so bad!

Moon Festival is coming up next weekend so Martin and JoAnna brought me some moon cakes and a giant green grapefruit with a thick, thick rind (supposedly more sweet than what we have back home). My students are just too good to me. I tried some of the moon cakes tonight, they were not really happening… I like the flaky floury bread on the outside, but the mystery meat/bean on the inside isn’t my favorite, ya know what I mean? The grapefruit was alright, but it almost tasted like perfume to me.

Tuesday, September 22nd

Once again, I love Tuesdays with just Minnie and Jimmy—they are adorable! I’ve almost forgotten what Minnie looks like because she’s been sick and wearing her facemask for about the last month in a half. I’m starting to get worried about her. Basically, on Tuesday, I just let Minnie and Jimmy teach me. Minnie likes to be the teacher. She bosses Jimmy and me around—she totally has attitude, and when Jimmy gets a taste of her attitude, he gets all worked up and starts to stutter, cutest thing ever!

More moon cakes—Joy and Kevin (2A students) brought me some yummy flaky moon cakes today: sweet potato, taro, and red bean. These flavors are very popular in Taiwan. I like all three too; however, I feel red bean is bit of an accustomed taste, especially those red bean popsicles.

Well, language exchange is officially over. I enjoyed going to class and learning, but us teachers all felt that once a week just wasn’t cutting it. I just wish six months was long enough to become fluent in Chinese, but when you teach English everyday, it’s just not going to happen. Oh well, I’ll still learn English—we learn a lot just by chatting with random people on the street.

With our extra time, Tabbi and I went to eat at the Tree House and then shopped around town. We found some cool little shops, but didn’t buy anything special. At the Tree House, we did meet another expat, he’s from Germany. We tried to talk to him, but I don’t think he was too fond of Americans. We told him if he needed any help he could call us, but what do we know, he thought, we’re just foreigners. His story is kind of interesting. He came to Taiwan to study Mechanical Engineering, yet he doesn’t speak a lick of Chinese. He has to speak in his second language wherever he goes, which is English (he has such a thick accent), and the Chinese have to do the same. He said he wants to challenge himself—boy is he doing so….his textbooks are in English, his professors speak Chinese, and his tongue hurts from speaking English too much. I wish him the best of luck!

Wednesday, September 23rd

For Kitchen today we were making pancakes. I wanted to set up before class started since making pancakes requires a little more prep than the usual utensils and napkins. I went to reach for the school’s little stove top burner and bugs started crawling out everywhere…..oh gag me! It was disgusting. I was hitting bugs left and right….ok, maybe there weren’t that many bugs, but I even had to take off my shoe and start squishing them because they were running all over. Well if that doesn’t make you want to cook, I don’t know what does. I was itchy the whole rest of the day. Well, I guess the bug scare was bound to happen sometime, I just wish it hadn’t been in the kitchen, around all the food….YUCK!

This new SPE class gets cuter everyday! We hardly have any girls, so the three SPE classes are a bit crazy at times, but I have a few rule enforcers who help me out a ton, Scott being one of them. He didn’t have any English background before coming to Maryland, but he is picking up the language so fast. Everyday in Kitchen he helps me clean up….I’ll watch him take all the dishes over to the sink and he just sings as he goes, shaken his little tush…so cute! After leaving class today, he latched onto my waist and wouldn’t let go….Sammy had to pry him off of me. I think I have another Asian crush, haha!

Hank and the older kids wanted to come and play soccer with my little SPE’s today. I told them they could play under one condition—if they made one of my SPE children cry, I would kick them out. The ‘big’ kids (their only ten) agreed and we had a fun time. Hank was so sweet with SPE Flora; she got shy with the other kids in class, and kind of shut down, so every few minutes Hank would get the ball and have Flora come kick it. He was so good with her, especially with his competitive spirit, I was so impressed with him sharing the field and all.

My 7A class just gets funnier and funnier, especially with Alex. The kids know I’m not married, but Alex must have been day dreaming when we had that discussion. He asked me about the topic again tonight. He was so surprised that I wasn’t married yet. “Aren’t you a little old?” he said. Totally taken back, I asked him how old he thought I was, bad mistake, he replied with, “like 30!” WHAT? Boy, you have another thing comin’! Ha, he’s a character! There’s never a dull moment with him in class.

Thursday, September 24th

Not much happened today, it was pretty low key. All I gotta say is that SPE Kerry has a bit of a belching problem. Everyday, without fail, he’ll burp in class…..and everyday, without fail, I’ll have him say, “excuse me,” but he just doesn’t get it yet. It’s so interesting here; manners are very different, especially table manners. When out to eat, people don’t usually wait for everyone to get their food before they start eating, they just dig in; however, most groups share their meals. Also, people talk with their mouths full all the time. I can handle little kids who do this, but the adults, come on….oh, and did I mention that picking your nose seems to be socially accepted here? Because we teach English, us teachers are also trying to incorporate some American manners…No talking with your mouth full and no picking your nose, ewh gross!

Friday, September 25th

This week my in my 2A class we were talking about clowns, the circus, and skills and talents, so I thought it most fitting to have a talent show. My kids were psyched! I was worried the show was going to turn into a regular ole’ show and tell, but I had a lot of kids actually participate. Hank told a joke, Kevin played the violin, and Samuel brought his lego monster. Joy, Megan, and Vicky all brought some artwork. We had a lot of fun! I popped some popcorn for the kids and Hank was just loving it because I had ‘two’ bags of popcorn instead of just ‘one.’ I was really impressed with my girls’ artwork. I feel like all the kids know how to draw pretty well here, but then again….writing in Chinese is practically an art itself.

Now that the SPE’s are starting to get a broader vocabulary, they enjoy picking out words that sound very similar. Whenever I say ‘cherry,’ they say ‘Sherry’ (she’s the boss). They just giggle because now they can actually tell the difference between the words. Whenever I say paper, they say pepper, mustard, monster….and a new one….vanilla seems to sound like banana…um, I’m not so sure.

People are being super careful about H1N1 here. I think I mentioned this once before, but everywhere we go, peeps are wearing facemasks. Did I mention that temperatures are being checked in every business as well? Just tonight, us girls went out to dinner and before entering the restaurant, we had to get our temperature checked to make sure we were in good shape. Our school checks all the students too. Go Go for Her? Check! Better safe than sorry!

Saturday, September 26th

It’s Tabbi’s Birthday weekend, so we took a day trip to Sun Moon Lake today. Everyone raves about it, so we figured we better get out there. Sun Moon Lake is the biggest lake in Taiwan and it’s located right in the center of the island. Tabbi has some friends of a friend who live near the lake, so we called them up and they came with us (they were great tour guides).
1. We woke up and headed to the train station around seven this morning. From the train, we made a quick switch to a bus for a two hour ride up the windy mountain to where Sun Moon Lake rests. After getting dropped off, we met up with Shawn Fen, Christina, and Melody, our new friends! They picked us up on their scoots and we were off. Thank goodness for scooters….there was no way we’d get around the whole lake without em!
2. There is so much to see and do at Sun Moon Lake. You have hiking and biking trails, old ruins and temples, shopping, etc. We had to pick and choose—we just let our good tour guide pick our route for the day. First stop, Wunwu Temple. It was originally built in 1938, but reconstructed in 1996 (not too old)….it was just gorgeous—one of the biggest temples I’ve seen. We toured the temple for a good hour and a half….we even found some stairs that took us to the top of the building so we could look out over the Moon and see the pretty landscape.

At the temple, we also got our fortunes…AKA ‘wishes.’ At each Buddhist Temple, there is a can of long skinny sticks, each with an engraved number. When you approach the sticks, you are supposed to shake the can the sticks are sitting in to see which stick stands the tallest. You pick up the tallest stick from the group, read the number, and then go find your wish on the wishing wall. We did this twice at two different shrines. My wishes:
- Wish One: Play it cool and safe, be careful the double games. To be meticulous at every step can triumph in every battle.
- Wish Two: Life-long fame and wealth. Victory in litigation. Illness cured speedily. Ideal marriage. To have a newborn son (as you know, having sons was very prized traditionally). Travelers to return home soon.
Sounds like two great wished huh? Fake out! As I was reading my wishes to the girls, Sarah looked down at my paper and said, “Tanier, didn’t you pull out stick number 37, not 36?” Whoops, I grabbed the wrong wish! Silly me…alright, second time around, real wish
- Wish Two (for real): Litigation be compromised. Ailment be prayed for peace. Wealth begged only a few. Seeking fame be secured scarcely. Marriage may be matched. Travelers be sent back. To incline toward charity be assured as round as the full-moon.
Haha….so my ‘real’ second wish isn’t as great as the first I picked up….eh….it’s sixes. After reading our wishes, Christina directed us over to the ‘wish interpreter.’ He asked what I had wished for….a little reluctant to tell him, I did anyhow….”Ugh, will I ever get married?” Haha, what a wish eh! His reply, “Open your heart and don’t be sooo stubborn!!!” No the answer I was looking for!
3. Passion Fruit popsicles, YUM….Easily my new favorite fruit since Mangoes are out of season. After the temple, our scooter brigade headed up and over the hills to a quaint little shopping area. We found some natives to the area, took some pictures, and had an enjoyable lunch—home made dumplings! After three months, you’d think I’d know how to eat the food here; I went to make my dumpling sauce, not knowing what anything was, I just mixed a whole bunch of stuff together—good idea? NO. I covered my first dumpling in sauce (I’m definitely a sauce girl), took one bite, and……ah, mouth on fire…red peppers! You live and you learn…
4. Cihen Pagoda. Chiang Kai-shek (first President to Taiwan) had the towering Pagoda built in memory of his mother. It is nine stories tall and is 1,000 meters above sea level. Much like the Buddhist temples, you can pretty much find pagodas anywhere. The hike to actually get to the pagoda was a hot one, as usual, but once we reached the tower, it was well worth it, even more so when we climbed to the top of the pagoda itself. We snapped tons of pictures of the towering, misty mountains and the blue, pristine lake. We even got the chance to ring the bell that echoes all the way down the mountain. On our way down from the pagoda we saw some kids swinging from tree vines… fun, I thought! Acting much like children, Tabbi and I decided to swing from the vines too…wow, so much harder than I thought! Must be all the rice—holdin’ up my body weight on those vines lasted for about two seconds!!!
5. Peacocks. Who would have thought, peacock farm at Sun Moon Lake. They were everywhere, and so beautiful too! I started tossing a bit of my half-eaten apple toward the birds and they all came swarming around. I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to do that, but hey…we got a good look at the pretty feathers!
6. Bringing our day trip to an end, we did a little shopping, ate passion fruit bing (ice cream slush with passion fruit, so yummy), and then took a ferry boat around to Shueishe Warf and Lalu island. We actually ate lunch at the Warf earlier in the day, and by the time we had gotten to Lalu island, it was too dark to see anything, but nonetheless, we had a fun boat ride—wind in the air, fresh air….we did see some fun things for pictures though…floating docks and floating hotels, COOL! We also passed the most expensive hotel in Taiwan, $400 U.S. a night….WOW, I can only imagine what the inside looks like!

Sunday, September 27th

Church was good, always is….afterward, Torry came and picked me up on the scooter and we went back to her place for Sunday dinner. Torry’s sister-in-law just had a baby boy so Torry’s mom has come to town for the month….yes, the month, to help out with cooking and cleaning! It’s so interesting….it’s Asian culture that the grandmother come take care of the mother if possible after a new baby is born. The grandmother basically cooks all day long and catered to the new mom. Torry’s mom has bought only the best food for her daughter-in-law. It’s so funny….after lunch/dinner, Torry and I took a good ole’ Sunday nap….when we woke up, Torry’s mom was cooking yet again, another meal for the new mom. Also, it’s in the culture not to let anyone, but family, see the baby for about a month, so the babe can be healthy and strong; therefore, I didn’t get to the new Asian baby, so sad!

Well, Torry and I had a good Sunday. We enjoyed momma’s home cooking… rice, battered and fried pork, some mushroom soup, black peppered beef, shrimp and vegetables, grilled fish (yes, the whole fish was on the plate….Torry’s nephew ate its eyes…sweet!) Lots and lots of meat, it was good! So, I found out after dinner that Torry’s mom isn’t too fond of foreigners…I think she’s had some unfortunate run-in’s, but luckily for me, I can eat Taiwanese food, so her mom likes me…thank goodness I’m not picky!

Another great week has gone and past!

Side note: I find the changing generations so fascinating here in Asia…globalization is really happening with the growth of the internet, TV, etc…and the cultural divide is looking less and less definite. Back in the day, the Taiwanese people only spoke Taiwanese….as time has gone on….people now speak mandarin….as time keeps pressing forward, all the young children are now learning English. Grandparents speak Taiwanese, parents speak Taiwanese and Mandarin, and children speak all of the above, plus English….amazing! I wish I was trilingual.

Chapter 13 pics

2009-10-01T06:31:00.001-07:00

Night Market!
Ice Cream with cilantro anyone....it didn't taste that bad! The cilantro isn't actually in this pic but it was there...what you see is two scoops of ice cream (mango and vanilla), covered in crumbly granola, just about ready to be wrapped up in a thin crepe.

Sushi! How long has it been sitting out? Who knows....do we eat it anyway? We sure do...this is like much of the food in Taiwan...we are always eating from street vendors. We don't know where the food came from or how long it's been sitting out. Heck...no one has a food license...we just eat! I haven't gotten sick yet...fingers crossed!

JiJi Day Trip!

Scootin' around on my electric bike....we rented these for our mode of transportation...best idea we had all day!

Happenings around JiJi

Just another ordinary day...going to work in the rice field. I love the hat.

A sweet cafe we found!

Kids riding the unis!

Fruit stand!

Bananas! Naner milk with tapioca pearls, another favorite!

Fun pics at the old Army base!

The group, minus Sammy.

Mingcin Academy...check out the detail on this temple.

Ecological Park....amazingly beautiful!

Earthquake Site. Earthquake 921 happened just over ten years ago--the deadliest earthquake to hit Taiwan...a 7.5 on the Richter scale.

This temple is being held up by heavy duty cables.

Wishes....you can find these at any temple. I always find them kind of fun....sometimes the wishes are written on just plain ole' paper or sometimes they're engraved in gold-plated plaques. I like the wood ones.

Praying for love at the LOVE temple.

Check out these wedding announcements......they are plastered all over the temple walls.

JiJi's beautiful countryside! There a huge mountains in Taiwan, but for some reason, the mist and fog like to cover them up!

Tabbi's wonderful photography skills!

Go Carts anyone?....a definite runner up for the best event of the day!

Sweet tunnel carved out of the mountain in JiJi. Our electric bikes barely made it up the mountain, but it was well worth the puttin'!

The not so itsy bitsy spider! Upon seeing these things, I don't really want to go hiking anymore.

Me and Tabbi in front of the smiling Buddha! He's huge!

...still at the Buddha! These lion statues are everywhere. They symbolize good luck! At some of the statues, a ball is carved inside of the lions mouth. I have yet to figure out what it means, but it's sweet because the ball cannot come free...it wasn't placed inside the lions mouth, but carved from the inside out.

Pic with Elder and Sister Dowse, I love this couple! They're from American Fork....Sister Dowse made us dinner after church, yummy American food! Thanks!

The unexpected Bai Bai Festival Tabbi and I rode up upon. I feel like Bai Bai festivals are happening ALL the time....but this one was a little more extravagant.

The landmine Tabbi and I walked into. Oh man, scariest thing ever! Just imagine all these fireworks going off at once, and running from a big, dark cloud of smoke that is chasing after you...haha, where the heck are we? Only in Taiwan!

A statue of one of the gods who was being worshiped for the evening.

Burning ghost money....when burned, the money believed to be sent to the gods.

Food prepared for the gods.

Chapter 13

2009-10-01T06:03:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 14th
Well, I’m getting used to the three hour block, SPE schedule—it can be a bit tiring, but good nonetheless. Man, can I just say, ‘boot camp’! It’s the beginning of a new semester, so we have to teach the new kids all the rules, they don’t like it much, and they just want to play. Can you blame them, their five? It’s especially hard when the kids don’t speak a lick of English. I have to continually remind myself that not always are the kids trying to be ‘bad,’ they just have no idea what’s going on.

No more games, activities only! Well, my 2A boys had a little melt down today. I made the mistake of telling the class that we would play a ‘game’. We were learning about adverbs so I made paper posters of adverbs and posted them all over my classroom. I divided the kids up into teams (they insisted on playing boys against girls). I would say a sentence with an adverb, and with these little hand slappers, the kids had to find the adverb that I said in the sentence. The first team to slap the adverb would get a point. Easy enough, right? Oh no….Hank had a come apart. The girls were up about 10 points, the bell rang to go, and the boys had no time to redeem them. My class is soooo competitive. As I was throwing Hank out of my class, he kept complaining that it wasn’t fair—he was making excuses that the girls had played the game before or that they saw me put the words up beforehand. He was nearly crying he was so mad. Honestly, it was somewhat funny! Kyle was pretty upset too. Looks like I know what gets my class motivated, a little competition….but, I’ll have to give a lesson on good sportsmanship. Thus, I can no longer play games in my class—just ‘activities.’

Tuesday, September 15th

If you remember, I had my students write a letter to Buck for his birthday….they all wanted an individual letter back…Buckee came through. He sent each child a letter, with pictures too! The letter came last Friday, but I just had the chance to pass them out today. The kids were in awe. Martin (my oldest student, 16) asked if Buck was a movie star…haha, (wahoo, point for Buckee). My little 2A’s want me to make copies of the pictures so they can have some pics of Americans. Ha, they loved it!

Us girls ditched out on language exchange tonight…we went and saw the movie, The Time Travelers Wife…it was a pretty good flick, kind of interesting. Going to the movies with the girls is always fun, because for a minute, we feel like we’re back in America…it must be the air conditioning or something (a moment out of the hot, humid heat).

Wednesday, September 16th

Alright, I know I’ve been super slow at blogging lately, but all for good reason. The roomies and I are wanting to travel after our contract is up in December. Since we’re already here in Asia, traveling to the different countries around is pretty cheap! We want to go to Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos (iffy), and Thailand. Then I hope to hit up Hong Kong and China with the parents! I’m soooo excited, but planning this trip has been a bit overwhelming. I found some good tours from STA travel and another great website that gives me all the do’s and don’ts: worldtravelguide.net. But hey, if anyone has any tips or suggestions, I could use any help! ….and thanks to those who have been helping me already!

I’ve been teaching my older students about major cities in America such as L.A., Vegas, DC, New York, etc. I brought my computer to show them some pics and they were lovin’ it—I always enjoy when they get excited to see and learn new things. They just start chatting away and we have a good conversation.

Thursday, September 17th

So I thought I was getting over my cold, but this week it came back, and ten times stronger. Waking up to a cough attack in the middle of the night is not fun! I wanted to go to kickboxing tonight, but I figured I should give my body a rest….I stayed home!

Ha, I have a new nickname with the children…Teacher Banana! Who knows where they came up with the name, but little SPE Ray is always coming up to me, ‘Hello Teacher Banana’….I think he has a crush….now, I like nicknames, but banana, really? Thanks to Buckee telling family secrets, my students also call me Teacher Annie.

Friday, September 18th

YAY for Friday! After work tonight, all of us teachers rode down to the night market—we were craving some Indian burritos; too bad for us, wrong night market for the burritos. We settled for a baked potato, you know, sometimes you just gotta go with the American food. For dessert we had a special Taiwanese treat, ICE CREAM, not just any ice cream though…..two scoops (one mango, one vanilla) wrapped in a thin crepe stuffed with granola and cilantro, yes cilantro….it actually made the dessert pretty sweet, you’ll have to try it.

Saturday, September 19th

JiJi trip! Alright, as you know, one of the goals I made in Taiwan was to do something fun every weekend, so far I’ve been successful….I don’t think I’ve stayed home one Saturday yet (I think I might start tighten the belt a bit, we’ll see). Anyhow, once again, we had a great Saturday excursion to JiJi, about an hour south of Changhua.

We got up early and met our secretaries (Emily and Penny) at the train station. Tabbi and I were so tired we lied down on the train to get a little shut eye….but for some odd reason, after about 15 minutes, I got a burst of energy, must have been the lack of sleep. Ha, one of the train’s men came and shushed me…haha, classic, tellin’ Tanier to be quiet, go figure. I’m sure all the Asian’s were thinking, obnoxious America, that’s what my roomies were thinking anyway! You see, we were going through a tunnel, so I was teaching Emily a game—who can hold their breath the longest….it called for a little enthusiasm. Emily was just laughing!

As soon as we got off the train, the cameras came out. JiJi is such a cute, little, quaint town. Fresh air, green, beautiful! We were definitely in the country and I loved it. We walked over to see about renting some bikes for transportation, we stepped it up a notch and got electric bicycles, SOOO FUN! We had a blast scootin’ around all day. A whole day’s bike rental just cost us $5.50—wahoo!

First stop: Military/airforce base. Cool tanks, pontoon boats, fighter jets, etc.

Second stop: Mingcin Academy. Once again, I am amazed by the intricate carvings on the temple and academy…so amazing!

Third stop: Ecological Conservatory. I could have spent a lot of time here. This place was gorgeous! Green, green, green! There were butterflies everywhere, dragonflies too. We also came upon a small pond covered with lilies and lily pads. Walking through the windy pathways we saw lots of birds and other fun creatures. The landscape was so serene!

Fourth stop: Earthquake memorial. We went to an old Buddhist temple that was barely standing due to the biggest earthquake that has ever hit Taiwan. The ten year commemoration is on September 21st. It left hundreds of people injured and many children parentless. So sad! At this stop we paid to go into an earthquake simulator that shook the ground up to a 7 on the Richter scale, the earthquake was a 7.5 I believe. I couldn’t imagine going through something like that, especially when many of the structures are so dense here in the cities of Taiwan.

Fifth stop: Go Carts! I don’t know what it is about competition, but I love it, and I’m totally motivated by it. Who would have guessed, go carts in this quaint little town. We got some discount coupons so we definitely took advantage of them. We had so much fun! I was a little nervous at first when I found out we didn’t need to wear a helmet or anything, no safety precautions were taken whatsoever….they just strapped us in and we were off. Once I was behind the wheel, however, any jitters I had were gone. I floored it through the course, around and around for at least 15 good minutes. ….if you’re wondering who came in first, wonder no more….drum roll please…hahaha, I’m a Glauser, what can I say…ME! I think all of us teachers passed the secretaries at least ten times. Emily was stuck on the side of the road just about every time I came around the corner, Penny was on a nice Sunday drive, and then there were the American’s with some unsettled road rage. Maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t driven for awhile, I’m not sure…but anyhow, we had fun! By the end of our race we were covered in black exhaust and lined with sweat straps from our seat belts, no biggy!

Sixth stop: Buddhist Temple of Love. We rode down a little dirt rode in the middle of no where to find the Love Temple. Emily was telling us that each Buddhist temple worships a different God, so if you want to find love, you come here! The temple walls are plastered with wedding announcements from people who found their true love after visiting the temple….ooh, how romantic!

Seventh stop: Mountain riding and spiders. After visiting all the major sites we had a little extra time to use the bikes, so we took them for a spin around the country a bit longer. We rode along the river, saw some farmers working in the rice fields, passed the fruit stands, took pics in front of a fun little café, and enjoyed the peaceful countryside.

At one point, we where following this little trail, which came to a dead end. I had taken the lead and as I was turning around I saw a Black Lab running toward me from the corn fields. I don’t know why I got the urge, but I yelled, “Rottweiler,” and all the girls starting freaking out! It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen five girls move so fast on electric bikes. The secretaries were screaming….everyone was pedaling their little hearts out….I was just laughing….and the Lab was having a jolly ole’ time as it ran right past us and down into another field. I’m so mean!

We then went up the mountain to see the view at sunset….we went through a sweet tunnel that blasted right through the mountain side. The tall bushy trees and dangling ivy covered our view of the town, but we did see some HUGE spiders…pictures can’t even begin to depict the size. Seriously, legs and all….these spiders were the size of my hand. We saw the first one hanging from its web off a telephone pole, pretty cool right…..then we say another from a tree…..and another from the ivy…..not so cool anymore. I started to get itchy as we spotted more and more spiders—all I wanted to do was get outta there. Yuck….I was just waiting for a spider to spin on down and land on my head!

Our night to JiJi ended with some fried bananas and mushrooms, a bit of shopping, and a casual run in with another English teacher from Europe. We had a great day and so far…..JiJi is one of my favorite places!

Sunday, September 20th

So Tabbi and I have decided that since we are traveling to Taichung every Sunday for church we might as well stay awhile in town to tour the sites before coming home after church. Sister Dowse (the senior missionary) has been telling us about the big smiling Buddha, so we decided to take a gander after church—it’s just down the street from our branch building, so Elder and Sister Dowse were so kind to walk us there.

This big Buddha is sweet! It’s a giant thing planted right in the middle of the city, I’m sure it was planted first, but still…..it’s gold too! We had fun taking MORE pictures! Afterward, Elder and Sister Dowse invited us over for dinner. They are the cutest couple, so funny! Sister Dowse made us some yummy American food….the meal reminded me of home. We had chicken over rice (of course) with the cream of mushroom soup and cream cheese….so yummy. She also whipped up some fresh veggies and…..AMERICAN COOKIES! They were delicious. She is a great cook with the little magic oven (yes, we don’t have real ovens here….we have to use the easy bake lookin’ things, you know, the toaster ovens; thus, I don’t cook much). Wow, I could have eaten that whole pan of cookies they were so yummy!

Tabbi and I talked to the Dowses for quite sometime….we even got looking at pictures of the grandchildren. I was looking at one family photo…..some peeps looked familiar, hum, I thought…after a few questions directed to Sister Dowse we made the connection. Her daughter and son-in-law were my landlords at my old house in Provo with Miki and the gang! What a small world….Wah Say! My old landlord is just like her mother….a sweet little chatterbox!

After arriving back into Changhua, Tabbi and I were making our regular trek home when we heard some fireworks. I swear the Asian’s are always lighting off fireworks. These ones sounded fairly close so I mentioned to Tabbi that we should go and see what was happening….we took a side street and found a a huge Bai Bai ceremony in front of us…fireworks, food, headdresses, parade, shrines, drums, flutes….the works! Tabbi and I tried to follow the marching parade that was leaving us—we began to follow the parade, not realizing we were leaving the crowd of people behind us. All the sudden, fire works went flying right in front of us….not the kind that shoot straight up in the air, but the kind that slither on the ground like a snake…..and not the kind you buy at Wal Mart, but the kind you can’t get because they’re illegal….Tabbi and I started running back toward the crowd of people like crazy American’s…it was awful. It felt like one of those Mission Impossible movies were Tom Cruise is running from the huge ball of smoke that is chasing after him, yup…that was us! The fireworks were so loud too….man, everything happened so fast I wasn’t sure what was going on….roadside bombing, landmine, it was all a blur! We then got caught in a crowd of people with a Buddha statue….they were rocking the statue back and forth, chanting some religious something or other in Chinese….we were almost trampled….WOW! This was the moment were we thought, where the heck are we? It was quite the experience….one that only happens in Asia!

Chapter 12 PICTURES!

2009-09-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

A bit of everything!

Hiking with Megan's mom, Peggy (one of my students parents)...yes, there were stairs as usual! We found this cool rope bridge, then took a rest on these 'stretching devices' at the top of the mountain, haha!

So I caught a bit of a cold....I'm actually surprised I've gone so long without getting sick, working around the kids and all. No worries, I got my meds and face mask....doctors orders!

I couldn't say I love Asia without mentioning the great shopping. Dress $3.00 Shoes $6.00....anyone want anything? Let me know!

Spent the weekend with Torry. On Saturday we decided to ride scooters to this sweet Wetland outside of Taichung. Tabbi and Hanna came with us. We had a fun time snappin' shots and running after the little crabs everywhere!

The group! Ma and Pa Li took us to the wetland and then to lunch afterward. They are the funnest couple ever--so laid back...we all had a fun time together!

Eating dinner at the Modern Toilet! Yes, our drinks were served in urinals, our food in toilets, and our dessert....squatters, ONLY IN TAIWAN! The Thai coconut curry was pretty tasty!