Chapter 15

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!